Talk:Keith Burstein

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Multiple problems with this article

This article, especially with its most recent editions has multiple problems, which are outlined below:

:1. Wikipedia's articles are based on previously published information. They are not places for editors and/or the articles' subjects to publish their thoughts, personal opinions and original research. Relevant guidelines and policies (please read them in full): What Wikipedia is not, No original research and most importantly, Verifiability. I have removed the lengthy "Composers Comments" for that reason.

:2. The additions and deletions by the anonymous editor using IP addresses beginning with 80.225... give a very strong indication that the editor may be either the article's subject or someone closely associated with him. These include removal of negative information, the selective choice of reviews (the vast majority of quotes are positive, with only passing mentions of negative ones, and the use of peacockery like :

:::Burstein and the librettist Dic Edwards quickly found a way to use this backdrop to expound a poetic vision of the power of love over death and to weave a fateful and tragic tale of redemption and deliverance.

:To an outside, neutral observer, this article is now approaching a hagiography. Relevant guidelines and policies (please read them in full): Conflict of interest and Neutral point of view.

:3. This article contains numerous assertions and quotes without adequately citing sources apart from a vague reference to the name of the newspaper, if at all. It also contains over-long quotes from copyright sources in violation of Wikipedia's policy on fair-use quotations, as well as material obviously pasted and/or closely paraphrased from the subject's web site or programme notes. Relevant guidelines and policies (please read them in full): Citing sources, Non-free content, and Donating copyrighted materials

The subject of this article is notable as is his work, turning this article into an unencyclopedic piece of PR and a platform for his views actually does him a disservice and reduces the article's credibility. At the moment this looks like an alternative version of www.keithburstein.co.uk, albeit with higher internet visibility. The problems here are obvious to any outside reader, but in these cases they are rarely obvious to someone editing with a conflict of interest. In subsequent days this article may be further edited to remove the problems outlined above. This article is also the subject of a discussion at Wikiproject Opera [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Opera#Keith_Burstein_and_Manifest_Destiny_.28opera.29] and will be brought to the attention of WikiProject Composers. Voceditenore (talk) 07:23, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

  • Update, I have now copy-edited and referenced the article to remove the most egregious problems. What remain are several unreferenced assertions (presumably from the subject's web site) and snippets of quotes which appear to be highly favourable but do not have proper referencing, i.e. name of author, title of article, exact date of publication, as such they are currently unverifiable. Voceditenore (talk) 15:22, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

:I have continued the process by adding a few citations and removing some of the more questionable remaining content, replacing it where appropriate with reference to verifiable material from the subject's own website (verifiable in the sense that it consists of opinions formally voiced and published by the subject). Am looking up some of the professional media quotes which still require formal citation. - Dann Chinn (talk) 19:46, 8 December 2009 (UTC)