Misplaced Pages

Talk:John Rainwater: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 10:55, 2 April 2012 editDavidWBrooks (talk | contribs)Administrators41,032 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit Revision as of 16:43, 2 April 2012 edit undoKiefer.Wolfowitz (talk | contribs)39,688 edits Clarification: Since you have so much to add to Misplaced Pages here, I suggest you render similarly sage advice as to whether "Yes album covers" should be recategorized as "Yes (band) album covers".Next edit →
Line 36: Line 36:
:::Math Reviews and wikipedia are different publications (using the term loosely) and have different standards. What is done by one doesn't necessarily weigh on what is done by the other. A similar debate, by the way happened at ], another article about a fictitious person who has done real work - albeit humerous rather than serious. IT once had an infobox and, after much discussion, no longer does. :::Math Reviews and wikipedia are different publications (using the term loosely) and have different standards. What is done by one doesn't necessarily weigh on what is done by the other. A similar debate, by the way happened at ], another article about a fictitious person who has done real work - albeit humerous rather than serious. IT once had an infobox and, after much discussion, no longer does.
:::Do you think ] should have an infobox with a "birth date" and the like? (I see that ] does have one, with the same silly, IMHO, "born" and "nationality" listings.) - ] (]) 10:55, 2 April 2012 (UTC) :::Do you think ] should have an infobox with a "birth date" and the like? (I see that ] does have one, with the same silly, IMHO, "born" and "nationality" listings.) - ] (]) 10:55, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
:::Phelps discusses his moment of creation, and life. I don't want to debate your OR or discuss whether you were confused by an infobox. Tough. Life is confusing if you have a brain.
:::Since you have so much to add to Misplaced Pages here, I suggest you render similarly sage advice as to whether "Yes album covers" should be recategorized as "Yes (band) album covers".
:::<small><span style="border:1px solid black;padding:1px;">].]</span></small> 16:43, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Revision as of 16:43, 2 April 2012

This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconBiography: Science and Academia
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Misplaced Pages's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
Taskforce icon
This article is supported by the science and academia work group (assessed as Low-importance).
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconMathematics Low‑priority
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mathematics on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics
LowThis article has been rated as Low-priority on the project's priority scale.
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconUnited States: Washington / Seattle
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
???This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
Taskforce icon
This article is supported by WikiProject Washington.
Taskforce icon
This article is supported by WikiProject Washington - Seattle (assessed as Low-importance).
A fact from John Rainwater appeared on Misplaced Pages's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 April 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
  • Did you know... that a University of Washington fake mathematician created as a student prank became the author of several well-received papers in research journals?
A record of the entry may be seen at Misplaced Pages:Recent additions/2012/April.
Misplaced Pages

John Rainwater is immortal

Rumors of Rainwater's demise are unfounded:

Where does John Rainwater go from here? It would be a shame if he were to die. It is to be hoped that someone will be able to help John Rainwater carry on, so that in the future people won't ask "Who killed J.R.?"

Quoting from Phelps (2002) ( Kiefer.Wolfowitz  (Discussion) 17:33, 2 April 2011 (UTC)). 17:03, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Coda

This very serious comment responds to the change in assessment status from "living=yes" to "living=no"!  Kiefer.Wolfowitz  (Discussion) 14:35, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

We don't really have a code to indicate a pseudonym of living or non-living people. Perhaps a note to Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Biography would help. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 15:32, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
Done!  Kiefer.Wolfowitz  (Discussion) 15:54, 3 April 2011 (UTC) 17:01, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Clarification

Currently the text is a bit confusing and it's hard to figure out whether he was fictional or not. The infobox and categories present him as a real prototype, yet the text suggests he is fictitious. Brandmeister 21:36, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

You're right. I have trimmed the infobox, removing birth date and nationality and residence, for that reason. I think the whole infobox should go, actually, unless it can be altered to show immediately that Rainwater is fictitious. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:31, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
You can learn by recognizing confusion, if you want to know the truth and can be honest about being confused.
Removing an information box is less drastic than an auto-lobotomy, but does suffice to remove the irritation about confusion.
Perhaps you can contact Math Reviews and ask them to remove the "confusing" entry about John Rainwater?
 Kiefer.Wolfowitz 10:05, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
Math Reviews and wikipedia are different publications (using the term loosely) and have different standards. What is done by one doesn't necessarily weigh on what is done by the other. A similar debate, by the way happened at P.D.Q. Bach, another article about a fictitious person who has done real work - albeit humerous rather than serious. IT once had an infobox and, after much discussion, no longer does.
Do you think Nicholas Bourbaki should have an infobox with a "birth date" and the like? (I see that Peter Orno does have one, with the same silly, IMHO, "born" and "nationality" listings.) - DavidWBrooks (talk) 10:55, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
Phelps discusses his moment of creation, and life. I don't want to debate your OR or discuss whether you were confused by an infobox. Tough. Life is confusing if you have a brain.
Since you have so much to add to Misplaced Pages here, I suggest you render similarly sage advice as to whether "Yes album covers" should be recategorized as "Yes (band) album covers".
 Kiefer.Wolfowitz 16:43, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
Categories: