Lllmrpvk

Monty Roberts

If I have made an assumption that is inaccurate, then I apologize. However, I feel fairly certain that you are the same person who was editing in the past, with whom I exchanged a few e-mails. If not, again, I apologize. If you are, then you really need to read WP:COI#Editors who may have a conflict of interest for how you should be proceeding with this article. I posted the COI tag because it is the first step in avoiding issues related to family, friends, business associates, etc., of biography subjects from arising. The COI policy covers the rest of it. Wildhartlivie (talk) 09:07, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I added the tag of COI, not only based on questions I had about your edits, some of which appeared to recreate identical content that Roberts' daughter had added several months ago, but also because the same person, who admitted she was his daughter, has added content to the article. COI continues to be a concern on the page.

It does interest me, however, how you obtained the rights to release and license your image uploads under the Common Creative License to the public domain, including an official portrait and copy of his honorary doctorate if you aren't connected in any way to the Roberts family or their business. One indicates a copyright status with permission from Monty and Pat Roberts, Incorporated. These are all legitimate questions in terms of rights and policy on Wikipedia. Wildhartlivie (talk) 23:48, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

The bottom line, Llmrpvk, is that you are a little suspect because virtually the only edits you appear have been done are to the MR article, (smile) and while it is passing NPOV muster with me for now (and the gang at wikiproject Equine will tell you that I am real hardnosed about excess peacock words and such), MR is somewhat controversial and the article does skim awfully lightly over the controversies. I'd tag it for neutrality over COI, personally, but it really is overall an adequate biography that does a reasonably good job of not making a human being sound like the second coming, which is usually a problem with some of these. Wildhart is probably right that the images may have questionable copyright status under WP:IMAGES, but until the wikigods catch up with you, I'm not going to kick up a fuss. In short, I'm no fan of MR, but I also think you are doing a good job, just remember WP:NPOV and re-read it if need be. Montanabw^(talk) 00:43, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for removing the COI tag. The edits I've made are primarily related to the additional citations as requested/required by the editors. My edits to the article itself were limited, and they focused on toning down some of the prose that could be considered excessively flattering. Regarding the images, I was asked by MR's daughter to insert them. I received the files from her and published them with permission. But I am neither a member of the family, nor have I even met any of them apart from MR at one of his many public appearances. I have no financial interest of any kind in the MR organization. All my efforts have been intended to help make this article more balanced and objective. I will reread WP:NPOV as you recommend. Llmrpvk (talk) 16:37, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The images have to be published either as public domain or under the GDFL license --in other words, a license where people can copy them freely and redistribute them without needing prior permission. The "I gave permission to publish on wikipedia" thing doesn't work. If they are cool with that, then OK. But the devil is in the details. IF they aren't comfortable with that then you have to publish under fair use guidelines (see what I did with Khemosabi for an example, look in the hidden text on the article and on the image page itself). As for the rest, well, other than how it still sounds like he walks on water and cures the blind...LOL! Montanabw^(talk) 00:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I have heard recently that self-published books do not qualify as sources. The book "Horse Whisperers and Lies" is self-published. I'm therefore inquiring about the appropriacy of its appearance here and, if it turns out to be inadmissible, would like all references to it removed. Please advise. Lllmrpvk