First, let me say that I really appreciate your getting involved in Mahalo and taking on this page.
However, I feel like there are some issues we need to discuss if you're going to continue claiming and working on Mahalo pages.
Most importantly, I want to discuss the notion of "bias" on Mahalo. We are, first and foremost, intended as a search engine and informational resource. In order to satisfy this mission, it is very important that our pages be free of personal opinion, anecdotes and anything else that would potentially diverge from an balanced, even-handed approach to information. When people want to read opinions and perspectives about different issues, they can visit blogs or personal websites...We strive to be something more akin to an encyclopedia.
Your Utah page includes a lot of personal opinion, and even what I would consider evangelizing, about the Mormon faith. This concerns me for two reasons. (1) Many people, in fact potentially the majority of people, will visit this page for basic information about Utah, not for information about Mormonism or the Book of Mormon. (2) This page really reflects your own personal views about Mormonism, and life in general. This is simply inappropriate for a Mahalo page, and has the potential to offend other Mahalo users who may not share all of your views. I feel that this sort of writing would be better suited to a personal blog or web page, or even a message board or comments section. It is not really an adequate substitute for a Guide Note about the state of Utah.
If you take a look at our page on Colorado, this reflects much more of what we're looking for in terms of a general "state" page:
Your page and this page have many similarities. They both have good guide notes that give a solid general overview of the state (though the top of your guide note is a list that would work better as its own subsection). They both have excellent fast facts and "official state" lists. They both have a variety of high-quality link sections.
I would ask you to revisit the portions of your page that don't match up as well to Colorado. In particular, I would urge you to do two things:
- Revise the Top 7 and remove links that are not centrally focused on visiting, traveling through or living in Utah. I do not feel that the links relating directly to LDS or Mormonism would fit this definition (though perhaps one about the history of Mormons in Utah would be appropriate).
- Remove a lot of the information in the Guide Note that relates exclusively to LDS, particularly anything that would indicate a personal opinion about the religion. Your "The LDS in Utah" section, for example, is perfectly okay, because it is based on factual, historical information about the religion. The sections on "Socializing" and "Prayer," on the other hand, are essentially you trying to teach other people about your faith. This is not appropriate for a Mahalo page.
Thank you for looking over this page and helping us out with some of these changes. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this process, because if I am not able to verify that some of these most important changes are made, I will have to take the page back from you and revise it myself according to Mahalo standards, and I would of course prefer to let you continue to work on it and maintain it.
Thanks again for your continued dedication to Mahalo. It is appreciated.
However, I feel like there are some issues we need to discuss if you're going to continue claiming and working on Mahalo pages.
Most importantly, I want to discuss the notion of "bias" on Mahalo. We are, first and foremost, intended as a search engine and informational resource. In order to satisfy this mission, it is very important that our pages be free of personal opinion, anecdotes and anything else that would potentially diverge from an balanced, even-handed approach to information. When people want to read opinions and perspectives about different issues, they can visit blogs or personal websites...We strive to be something more akin to an encyclopedia.
Your Utah page includes a lot of personal opinion, and even what I would consider evangelizing, about the Mormon faith. This concerns me for two reasons. (1) Many people, in fact potentially the majority of people, will visit this page for basic information about Utah, not for information about Mormonism or the Book of Mormon. (2) This page really reflects your own personal views about Mormonism, and life in general. This is simply inappropriate for a Mahalo page, and has the potential to offend other Mahalo users who may not share all of your views. I feel that this sort of writing would be better suited to a personal blog or web page, or even a message board or comments section. It is not really an adequate substitute for a Guide Note about the state of Utah.
If you take a look at our page on Colorado, this reflects much more of what we're looking for in terms of a general "state" page:
http://www.mahalo.com/colorado
Your page and this page have many similarities. They both have good guide notes that give a solid general overview of the state (though the top of your guide note is a list that would work better as its own subsection). They both have excellent fast facts and "official state" lists. They both have a variety of high-quality link sections.
I would ask you to revisit the portions of your page that don't match up as well to Colorado. In particular, I would urge you to do two things:
- Revise the Top 7 and remove links that are not centrally focused on visiting, traveling through or living in Utah. I do not feel that the links relating directly to LDS or Mormonism would fit this definition (though perhaps one about the history of Mormons in Utah would be appropriate).
- Remove a lot of the information in the Guide Note that relates exclusively to LDS, particularly anything that would indicate a personal opinion about the religion. Your "The LDS in Utah" section, for example, is perfectly okay, because it is based on factual, historical information about the religion. The sections on "Socializing" and "Prayer," on the other hand, are essentially you trying to teach other people about your faith. This is not appropriate for a Mahalo page.
Thank you for looking over this page and helping us out with some of these changes. Let me know if you have any concerns or questions about this process, because if I am not able to verify that some of these most important changes are made, I will have to take the page back from you and revise it myself according to Mahalo standards, and I would of course prefer to let you continue to work on it and maintain it.
Thanks again for your continued dedication to Mahalo. It is appreciated.