User talk:Geoff Beck

KT

Geoff: Thanks for the note. I, too, look forward to collaborating with you. I think you will find that CZ is considerably more civilized than WP, and that we tend to operate more on a presumpotion of expertise and an abiding respect for that, rather than an ego-driven presumption that other editors are wrong. As it stands, your edits the TK article are AMAZING...thanks for that. I have had a fascintation with the Order for years, although I am no expert, and it has been rekindled of late. For my part, I'm all over the place, so, if you see anything I've contributed that needs help or critique...feel free!!! Blessings... --Michael J. Formica 20:23, 22 January 2008 (CST)

PS

Add the hyperlinks to all that stuff in your bio. --Michael J. Formica 20:25, 22 January 2008 (CST)

Hi Michael... yep good idea!

You're dead right about 'the other place'.

I think the biggest problems that Wiki has is that they:

a) don't practice or implement their own so-called rules and policies which leads to countless complaints of hypocrisy and unlevel playing fields (especially if you're not 'in' with the Foundation staff;

b) editors are allowed to stomp all over other people's accurate work (purely because you know more than they do on that particular subject and their egos can't handle it) and, what's more, are seen to be allowed to get away with it purely because they know someone, either indirectly (or carnally!), higher up the food chain in the Wiki Foundation;

c) So many so-called 'experts' are clearly nothing more than jack-of-all-trades whose sole mission in life (and sense of achievement), it seems, is to get on the all-time high score sheet with the number of edits they perform... despite the fact that the edits they actually perform are nonsensical, badly researched*, irrelevant and historically incorrect... then refer to point b) above for the follow-on action;

d) It is full of egotistical wannabees who have nothing in their lives, nor have they achieved anything notable, who think they will rise to some sort of celebrity status by being in the top 100 Wiki editors list. What's more there seems to be more articles on the biographies of Wiki 'saddo' contributors (i.e. the Double-Z-list of notable achievers) than biographies of famous contributors to World history. Any attempts to have such biographies removed for being so un-noteworthy wannabees results in a roundup of all their little sock-puppet friends pitching for a Strongly Keep vote. This is, again, despite their own policies ... see point a) above.

* re: bad research... I've even seen one so-called Knights Templar 'expert' (ho hum) dismiss one book reference about the origins of the cross pattee, even though she selectively chose to quote the same book in about 30 other places... as I said, total hypocrisy, especially when that particular book was written by an Oxford University professor!

All in all, it's a cesspit of chaos, egos and contradictory drivel, with (for example) more articles (and words!) devoted to porn star biographies than humanitarians in history, which just about says it all really.

Anyway, I am glad that someone has seen the sense to set up a more amenable facility, and I am sure that it will go from strength to strength.

Look forward to working with you on this series of articles. :)

Templars

Greetings...while I am by no means an expert on the history of Templars, I think that some of the contributions you've made on the topic could be misleading. Those without prior knowledge of the subject might believe that the current order is a direct successor of the medieval group, rather than a new establishment. Any thoughts.--David Boven 23:05, 17 May 2008 (CDT)

If there's no objection, I'm going to go ahead and try clearing things up a bit. Let me know if I do something wrong. Thanks.--David Boven 12:59, 21 May 2008 (CDT)

It would seem that there is an objection. :) I don't think we need to repeat the information from Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem in the Knights Templar article. Better to just include a link to the modern order on the medieval order's page. What say you?--David Boven 18:59, 22 May 2008 (CDT)

Don't agree on that one, I'm afraid. The links to Further Information, e.g. the BBC sites, are relevant to both the ancient order and the modern order... have you actually listened to the programmes? They feature both eras of the Knights Templar. To exclude thm from one page would indicate that you are relying on people finding both pages, which isn't always the case. Geoff Beck

Knights Templar Article

Hey Geoff--

I just wanted to give you and David a brief heads-up that reverting each others' edits on the Knights Templar article is emphatically not the way we do things on Citizendium. If you two are in disagreement about what should go in the main Knights Templar article and what shouldn't, you need to hash this out on the Talk page. Unexplained reverts are disrespectful, but also a potentially bannable offense.

Thanks, Brian P. Long 15:30, 24 May 2008 (CDT)