Johnpacklambert Options

[Eva Destruction]

This exchange of views seems to have slipped under the WR radar. While I've never heard of Johnpacklambert (T-C-L-K-R-D) before despite his having 51,000 edits over four years, he looks like an interesting character, to judge by his talkpage (which seems to consist of 100+ different variations on "stop adding made-up facts to biographies on the grounds that something is better than nothing".) Oh, and this:

I have decided to dedicate time and effort to improving wikipedia. To do this effectively I need to devote time to this instead of money making pursuits. So, if you value good wikipedia articles please send your donations to me.

send checks to: John Pack Lambert
[address redacted, but he gives his full postal address on the talkpage]

[A Horse With No Name]

I don't quite understand the userbox that identifies him as being part of the "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints work group" -- why does that group have a jazz musician as its image?

[Eva Destruction]

I don't quite understand the userbox that identifies him as being part of the "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints work group" -- why does that group have a jazz musician as its image?

You say jazz musician, I say javelin-thrower rehearsing with a toilet plunger.

[A Horse With No Name]

I don't quite understand the userbox that identifies him as being part of the "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints work group" -- why does that group have a jazz musician as its image?

You say jazz musician, I say javelin-thrower rehearsing with a toilet plunger.

No, really, those LDS sons o' fun are using the silhouette of Dizzy Gillespie to spread their message to unsuspecting jazz aficionados. Next thing you know, they'll scrap the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in favor of Snoop Dogg.

[Ottava]

Jazz musician? Javelin thrower? It looks to me like it is their magical angel wearing the secret Mormon underwear while tooting his own horn.

[A Horse With No Name]

Jazz musician? Javelin thrower? It looks to me like it is their magical angel wearing the secret Mormon underwear while tooting his own horn.

Daddy's home! Daddy's home!

[Somey]

Moderator's note: Several posts regarding the meaning of the scapular within the context of Catholicism were moved to this thread (requires registration).

I'm not so sure about this one - he's either very clever, or he's innocently doing something that looks clever because we've seen it before in negative contexts. Mr. Lambert's general approach seems to be to add as many articles about Mormons, living and dead, to Wikipedia as possible, and to (deliberately or not) slip under the radar by burying those edits in the midst of literally thousands of largely-worthless category-adds.

The original versions of the biographical articles are almost uniformly terrible in terms of writing quality, "notability," and quality-of-sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=346313934
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=308895789
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=343377306
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=273345241
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=341551655

He also likes to throw in the occasional LDS factoid in the midst of all the category adds too - edits which could (if we "ABF") be seen as an attempt to enshrine the LDS "Encyclopedic History of the Church" as a "reliable source." In this one he adds that "Menan was the first settlement of Latter-day Saints in the Snake River Valley," which admittedly is a harmless claim, but it's one that can only be sourced to LDS documents.

He got in a little trouble with an article on W. John Walsh (T-H-L-K-D), whom he characterized as a "Latter Day Saint apologist" and even tried to create a new category for him. Walsh was quoted in defense of the Fundamentalist LDS church (FLDS) after the State of Texas removed 400 children from one of their temples, the YFZ Ranch (T-H-L-K-D). But he doesn't necessarily like Mr. Walsh, because he feels that Walsh's definition of the term "Mormon" ignores actual use - in other words, Walsh wants to include the FLDS and other Mormon sects in a broader definition of the term, and Mr. Lambert, who attends BYU and is almost certainly a member of the "regular" LDS, would prefer that people not hold that position.

In terms of general "notability," some of his non-biographical articles are practically inexplicable, too - here's an obscure Lutheran church in India whose only source is an "external link" to Wikimapia that says "link about the Church." (Someone did put a "source" tag on it, at least.)

He's definitely not good, but I've seen worse from Mormons on WP, though - much worse. (I've also seen much better, I should add.) The recent issue over Mark Paredes seems to have been something of an anomaly, at least as far as recent activity is concerned.

[Ottava]

Mr. Lambert's general approach seems to be to add as many articles about Mormons, living and dead, to Wikipedia as possible, and to (deliberately or not) slip under the radar by burying those edits in the midst of literally thousands of largely-worthless category-adds.

That is pretty common on Wikipedia. People love to get huggle to hide their edits among thousands of completely useless ones. Look at Aitias's early contribs for some of that. You can see some nasty edit warring and other fights buried under the thousands of huggle edits.

[BelovedFox]

I don't quite understand the userbox that identifies him as being part of the "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints work group" -- why does that group have a jazz musician as its image?

You say jazz musician, I say javelin-thrower rehearsing with a toilet plunger.

No, really, those LDS sons o' fun are using the silhouette of Dizzy Gillespie to spread their message to unsuspecting jazz aficionados. Next thing you know, they'll scrap the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in favor of Snoop Dogg.

I'm assuming it's supposed to be representation of trumpets, perhaps from Exodus (I haven't read the Book of Mormon, but I assume it's some allusion to that?)

[Somey]

I'm assuming it's supposed to be representation of trumpets, perhaps from Exodus (I haven't read the Book of Mormon, but I assume it's some allusion to that?)

It is, according to the Claremont Mormon Studies Student Association (that was just the first thing that showed up on Google).

However, to most non-Mormons, the notion that it's Dizzy Gillespie actually makes far more sense. Check out this Google Books page, for example - it seems clear that the Mormons are trying to punish the late Mr. Gillespie by expropriating his image, a clear "right of publicity" violation.