User talk:Jason Sanford
Please note that I'm traveling to a funeral for a few days and will not be able to respond until Monday, Nov. 6 to any comments.--Jason Sanford 15:08, 1 November 2006 (CST)
Moved reply to my talk page.Brian Sweeney 21:51, 1 November 2006 (CST)
- Jason, I appreciate your interest in my edits to the African American literature page, but I have to admit to being annoyed with the tone of your comments. My impression was that editors would vet content, not order authors around as though they were paid staff writers. As I see it, it is my prerogative to make the changes I think appropriate and then you can exercise editorial oversight as you see fit. I do not expect to be ordered around, however, or have to seek your approval in advance for edits. If this is the way relationships between editors and authors are going to work at CZ, well then, I have grave doubts about its success. Brian Sweeney 16:20, 6 November 2006 (CST)
Brian: I'm not ordering anyone or approving your edits. While I'm an editor, I also write articles and have a strong interest in African American literature. In case you didn't know it, I essentially wrote the original Wikipedia article on African American literature, which was selected as a featured article. That said, I make no claims about owning the article and I've long thought the article could be vastly improved. And, as I mentioned in my original comment to you, I agree and support most of your edits and suggested future improvements.
When I first saw your edits to the article, I was very concerned that you'd deleted parts of the article without stating why. Instead of merely reinserting these sections, I thought I'd ask you about it. Your reasoning, and your future plans for the article, sounded good and I said so. My comments to you were essentially saying I agreed with your changes and proposed changes and would support you on your approach to the article. That is what I meant when I said "go for it."
I hope this clears things up. To repeat, I have no intention of ordering you around or anything like that (and don't plan on doing this with authors on any article). However, even though I'm an editor, I also write article and, when doing so, have to seek consensus with fellow authors. What I'd like to do is work together with you to make this the best article it can be--and your recent changes and proposed changes appear to be doing just that. Best, --Jason Sanford 08:52, 7 November 2006 (CST)