Talk:Edina, Minnesota

Objections to the article

Sundown town

Loewen has called this a sundown town. The article currently says that and cites his use of the term.

Others do not call it that, and some editors object to calling it that. The views of other writers should be added and cited, for balance. Jonathunder (talk) 18:33, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Including the term with attribution, as is done currently, seems to me like a good compromise -- for now at very least -- given the discussions above. For my part, I would prefer to wait to see what the edit-a-thon turns up rather than continue to debate an issue that will be specifically addressed there in just a couple weeks. (Unfortunately I am quite far away so cannot attend). --— Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 19:24, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Could we get something like "Controversial author" or "Controversial professor". The man was written up in news papers for how emotional/poorly researched his writing are. Juno (talk) 18:54, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

What newspapers? What citations do you have at hand? How do I know that his critics were not farther off base than he is? I suppose anyone who is subject to controversy is "controversial", but that's just a weasel word for article text unless we can better source what the controversy is about. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 19:07, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

If you're talking about the Washington Post piece, a newspaper book review is generally not considered a reliable source. Jonathunder (talk) 20:39, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

@Juno: I agree that providing some of the sources that characterize him this way would be helpful in figuring out what the best wording is. When I was researching, I found many sources citing, talking about, and even interviewing him, but I didn't notice any that were particularly critical let alone a trend indicating as much. That said, it wasn't something I was really looking for. If his work is widely disputed, we should say so, but if we're talking about a few critical reviews amid many that are neutral-to-positive then his name doesn't need to be qualified. The critical sources may be worth using at the article about the book or about him, but unless they're specifically critical of the way he talks about Edina, I don't see them being relevant enough here (unless, again, the criticism runs through a serious portion of the available sources). --— Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 22:39, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

There are a lot of reviews that bring up the shoddy nature of his research, but as a representative sample of the effect of that criticism has been that when Universities invite him to speak, they describe him as "controversial author James Loewen";http://www4.wittenberg.edu/news/2005/02_16.html 1], 2. On the second one, Loewen even shared the "controversial author" description of himself on his own facebook page. Juno (talk) 06:56, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Since he seems to be onboard with describing himself as "controversial", I'd like to add that descriptor. Juno (talk) 22:14, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

But what benefit to readers of this article on Wikipedia comes from describing him as "controversial"? By the way, a source that exists in several copies in the local public library system (I have one checked out, but there are other copies) is Frederick L. Johnson (2009). Suburban Dawn: The Emergence of Richfield, Edina and Bloomington. Richfield Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-578-03917-6. That book has a lot of good information in it, cited to good sources, for the history of Edina, not all of which was used up during yesterday's Edit-a-Thon. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 23:23, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

As a sort of thought experiment: what benefit is it to readers when he describes himself as controversial? The reader knows that the work is been controversial and is not widely accepted at face value. Juno (talk) 08:19, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

There you are asking Wikipedia's readers to make an inference that is not supported by the sources, so I would have to object to that description being in the article. How about actually reading and citing some reliable sources about the substance of the issue (Edina and its history) rather than engaging in name-calling about a living person? -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 14:49, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Is it really name-calling if it is a name that he calls himself? Juno (talk) 09:31, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Have you had a chance to read that book Frederick L. Johnson (2009). Suburban Dawn: The Emergence of Richfield, Edina and Bloomington. Richfield Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-578-03917-6. yet? It's really well researched and informative on the history of Edina, and it's just one of several good sources that are widely available in Twin Cities libraries that would help make this article better. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 12:38, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Other concerns

??? Please detail what those are so we can address them here. Jonathunder (talk) 18:33, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Edit-a-thon

In the area? You're invited to the
Edina edit-a-thon
	Date: Sunday, March 1, 2015
	Time: 2 to 5 PM
	Place: Ethel Berry Room Southdale Library 7001 York Avenue South 44.8755°N 93.3198°W / 44.8755; -93.3198

There are some helpful published, reliable sources on the history of Edina available at that library, which I use for research from time to time. I'll be delighted to see other Wikipedians at the Edit-a-thon. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 16:31, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks to the Wikpedians who joined in on the Edit-a-Thon. I was glad to see you there and to exchange tips about editing Wikipedia. I guess I'll see some of you at next week's meet-up. I'm always happy to look for books in advance and to bring them along to meet-ups, and I'm glad you helped identify which sources were newly useful for editing this article. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 23:27, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Merger with empty page?

Why would an editor, who I guess is @Gronk Oz:, propose merging this article with an empty page? What is the point of doing that? -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 17:26, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Don't know, but as the target is now a redlink I removed the mergeto tag. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 19:21, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Rhododendrites and WeijiBaikeBianji - That merge proposal is no longer relevant, and it was correct to remove it. The situation was that the other article was a new one which had a small amount of information about the six elementary schools in Edina. It did not have enough information to stand alone as an article, so I proposed merging it into this artile. Subsequently, overnight (my time) another editor proposed that new article for Speedy Deletion, since it adds nothing substantial to this existing article. So the merge proposal is now moot. Sorry that this has left a confusing merge tag on the Edina article. I hope that makes sense; please get in touch if you have any questions.--Gronk Oz (talk) 01:27, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. I was wondering if something like that was the back story. See you on the wiki. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 11:31, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Archive works, but I also fixed the dead link to the original. Mojoworker (talk) 20:06, 29 August 2015 (UTC)