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Material from American Girl was split to List of American Girl characters on 5 May 2013. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted so long as the latter page exists. Please leave this template in place to link the article histories and preserve this attribution. |
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2022 and 10 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Aed94 ( article contribs).
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 January 2021 and 12 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Comp102umb2021.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 14:02, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
I've spent some time recently on heavy edits on this page to remove extraneous detail and unconfirmed information or stuff not properly sourced. As pointed out previously, there shouldn't be so much detail stretching out what is essentially an overview article. Private collecting sites and Wikis like the one Nethilia has added can expand on the basic information offered in this overview article.
I keep taking out fannish subjective comments that describe dolls a "beautiful" and so forth. Also added additional links to collection resources. --Heidilaura
Agreeing that this article is quite similar to the info that the manufacturer (Mattel) puts out. If you peruse their website, the general tone of the doll info imparted is similar. Am removing a few unnecessary adjectives...i.e. "a conservative reporter". Normally, the phrase "a reporter" would do unless there is a special reason to mention "conservative, liberal," etc. Lindisfarnelibrary ( talk) 11:12, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia is cost-free for you to edit, however this does not mean you can write anything you want. Wikipedia is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, and you must follow their rules to use it.
There are many problems with this article, and with recent edits. A major one seems to be that people who have a financial interest in American Girl are editing it. This is called a conflict of interest WP:CONFLICT.
Also, the article anticipates things that have not happened, without providing citation. Wikipedia is not a crystal ball for discussion. Stick with the facts. WP:CRYSTALBALL. One of the three core policies is that information must be verifiable, but editors in this article are adding all kinds of information and speculation that cannot easily be checked WP:SOURCE.
Wikipedia is also not a place to indulge in personal speculation about what is good, bad, influenced by what, for what purpose. This is called Original Research. You must provide citations in reliable, independent, third-party publications for many statements. That DOES NOT mean the Mattel company -- not without a reference that can be checked.
I suggest editors spend time reading:
Here is an example from the article of text that cannot be used without citing a reliable, independent source (i.e., NOT Mattel): "A focus on family unity and hope tempers the contrast between Addy's dreams of freedom and the harsh realities of on-going prejudice."
Understand that Wikipedia is not a free advertising platform, and that editors will enforce policy. Piano non troppo ( talk) 02:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
I have removed two edits to this page that were not a discussion of the article. Please note that Wikipedia is a project, not a messageboard; the discussion page is not to have casual discussion about American Girl products or characters, but to discuss improvements and edits to the American Girl article itself. -- Nethilia ( talk) 04:35, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Notably, the NY theatre Actors Equity action against an American Girl theatre seems to be handled like a corporate press release. If you read the link below (footnote # 28 in this article) the writer claims that the actors were receiving very low wages for their work and that the management was stifling the majority actor vote for union membership. This basic claim should be mentioned (along with the corporate response). The actual article's link is in the article and is also repeated below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/theater/04girl.html
Researchers need to get a fair summary of controversies...not the corporate view alone. Lindisfarnelibrary ( talk) 11:44, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
The article has been cleaned up and a significant amount of unreferenced material removed. There has been a lot of additions recently, particularly by our younger editors. While all are welcome to edit, remember to cite reliable sources. Also, the extensive information on individual dolls, unreferenced or only referenced with primary sources from the company itself, is not appropriate for Wikipedia. There is a link in the external links section with an entry for an external wiki devoted to the topic. Detailed analysis of each doll would be welcomed there I'm sure.-- RadioFan ( talk) 04:25, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
This website, while interesting, does not meet wikipedia guidelines for reliable sources as it is self published. While this may be an appropriate source for other wikis, it should not be used for Wikipedia. -- RadioFan ( talk) 04:54, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
To be more in line with WP:NPOV, the "Criticism" section would probably be better renamed to "Reception" or similar, and expanded to include both positive and negative commentary, see also WP:CRIT. At a quick glance, at least one of the sources in the section appear to be used in a POV manner, [1] spends two pages basically lauding the ethnical portrayal of one of the characters, with a few lines of negative commentary on earlier dolls. Only the negative commentary is included in the article here. Siawase ( talk) 18:51, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
OK, it's been renamed to "Reception", but no positive commentary has been added, which almost makes it even worse, because now it looks like all the reception to American Girl has been negative. Obviously, this isn't true, but I'm not a very experienced Wikipedian, so I don't feel adequate to add some. I hope this comes to someone else's attention, however... StoryMakerEchidna ( talk) 23:36, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
The article states that originally there were three dolls: Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly. - Felicity was also one of the original dolls and, early on, probably the most popular. There were even connections with and events at Colonial Williamsburg. - Shortly after, the article says when Felicity was discontinued - but she was definitely one of the originals, perhaps even before Molly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.42.32 ( talk) 12:30, 6 August 2011 (UTC)
Incorrect, there were only three dolls originally (1986). Felicity was launched at five years later in 1991. Joyfullkitten ( talk)
where's the new GOTY for 2013? All the AG fans are buzzing about her, yet, Wikipedia just dosent want to be involved in one of the greatest puzzles of the year for doll lovers everywhere! guess everyone will just have to endlessly search for a trusty blog. P.S. I have a pic of Saige on my blog that I copied from dolldiaries.com. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.248.164 ( talk) 23:12, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
Do I sound like I care? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.248.164 ( talk) 22:06, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
"American Girl is a line of dolls, books, and accessories." Yet you have nothing to say about the books. If I want to know what the characters associated with different historical periods are, do you have an article about that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.174.116.10 ( talk) 16:57, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
I don't understand why lists of AMerican Girl dolls can't be shown on wikipedia. I see nothing in WP:NOT to contradict this. In fact, there are many such lists for other collections such as " List of Beanie Babies". Are we going to strike that list from wikipedia too? Dr who1975 ( talk) 20:45, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
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Is anyone else noticing the lack of citations for the amount of details here? We should try to find sources that support all of this detail, or we should try removing some of it. BBFanToys ( talk) 13:05, 10 June 2021 (UTC)
Chat 37.111.215.159 ( talk) 13:43, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
Huh? LordApofisu ( talk) 04:50, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 12 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kquituisaca ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by VLSG262 ( talk) 00:05, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2023 and 11 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ENGL2730-YG ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by ENGL2730-YG ( talk) 19:59, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
I am planning to make changes to this article soon. My edits will primarily be focused on the American Girl doll books. I first plan on reorganizing the page to include a section about the books, as that is a product line not currently mentioned; there is no mention of the different types of books offered and different age ranges met. I also plan on making changes mostly in the reception section and utilizing peer reviewed articles to add in discussion about the reception of American Girl dolls, specifically about their stories and narratives. There are many critiques of each doll's story in terms of feminism, race, and class which are not discussed currently but are however notable. Please see my annotated bibliography in the bibliography sandbox on the Wikipedia dashboard. ENGL2730-YG ( talk) 23:06, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
American Girl article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1 |
This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Material from American Girl was split to List of American Girl characters on 5 May 2013. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted so long as the latter page exists. Please leave this template in place to link the article histories and preserve this attribution. |
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2022 and 10 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Aed94 ( article contribs).
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 January 2021 and 12 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Comp102umb2021.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 14:02, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
I've spent some time recently on heavy edits on this page to remove extraneous detail and unconfirmed information or stuff not properly sourced. As pointed out previously, there shouldn't be so much detail stretching out what is essentially an overview article. Private collecting sites and Wikis like the one Nethilia has added can expand on the basic information offered in this overview article.
I keep taking out fannish subjective comments that describe dolls a "beautiful" and so forth. Also added additional links to collection resources. --Heidilaura
Agreeing that this article is quite similar to the info that the manufacturer (Mattel) puts out. If you peruse their website, the general tone of the doll info imparted is similar. Am removing a few unnecessary adjectives...i.e. "a conservative reporter". Normally, the phrase "a reporter" would do unless there is a special reason to mention "conservative, liberal," etc. Lindisfarnelibrary ( talk) 11:12, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia is cost-free for you to edit, however this does not mean you can write anything you want. Wikipedia is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, and you must follow their rules to use it.
There are many problems with this article, and with recent edits. A major one seems to be that people who have a financial interest in American Girl are editing it. This is called a conflict of interest WP:CONFLICT.
Also, the article anticipates things that have not happened, without providing citation. Wikipedia is not a crystal ball for discussion. Stick with the facts. WP:CRYSTALBALL. One of the three core policies is that information must be verifiable, but editors in this article are adding all kinds of information and speculation that cannot easily be checked WP:SOURCE.
Wikipedia is also not a place to indulge in personal speculation about what is good, bad, influenced by what, for what purpose. This is called Original Research. You must provide citations in reliable, independent, third-party publications for many statements. That DOES NOT mean the Mattel company -- not without a reference that can be checked.
I suggest editors spend time reading:
Here is an example from the article of text that cannot be used without citing a reliable, independent source (i.e., NOT Mattel): "A focus on family unity and hope tempers the contrast between Addy's dreams of freedom and the harsh realities of on-going prejudice."
Understand that Wikipedia is not a free advertising platform, and that editors will enforce policy. Piano non troppo ( talk) 02:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
I have removed two edits to this page that were not a discussion of the article. Please note that Wikipedia is a project, not a messageboard; the discussion page is not to have casual discussion about American Girl products or characters, but to discuss improvements and edits to the American Girl article itself. -- Nethilia ( talk) 04:35, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Notably, the NY theatre Actors Equity action against an American Girl theatre seems to be handled like a corporate press release. If you read the link below (footnote # 28 in this article) the writer claims that the actors were receiving very low wages for their work and that the management was stifling the majority actor vote for union membership. This basic claim should be mentioned (along with the corporate response). The actual article's link is in the article and is also repeated below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/theater/04girl.html
Researchers need to get a fair summary of controversies...not the corporate view alone. Lindisfarnelibrary ( talk) 11:44, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
The article has been cleaned up and a significant amount of unreferenced material removed. There has been a lot of additions recently, particularly by our younger editors. While all are welcome to edit, remember to cite reliable sources. Also, the extensive information on individual dolls, unreferenced or only referenced with primary sources from the company itself, is not appropriate for Wikipedia. There is a link in the external links section with an entry for an external wiki devoted to the topic. Detailed analysis of each doll would be welcomed there I'm sure.-- RadioFan ( talk) 04:25, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
This website, while interesting, does not meet wikipedia guidelines for reliable sources as it is self published. While this may be an appropriate source for other wikis, it should not be used for Wikipedia. -- RadioFan ( talk) 04:54, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
To be more in line with WP:NPOV, the "Criticism" section would probably be better renamed to "Reception" or similar, and expanded to include both positive and negative commentary, see also WP:CRIT. At a quick glance, at least one of the sources in the section appear to be used in a POV manner, [1] spends two pages basically lauding the ethnical portrayal of one of the characters, with a few lines of negative commentary on earlier dolls. Only the negative commentary is included in the article here. Siawase ( talk) 18:51, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
OK, it's been renamed to "Reception", but no positive commentary has been added, which almost makes it even worse, because now it looks like all the reception to American Girl has been negative. Obviously, this isn't true, but I'm not a very experienced Wikipedian, so I don't feel adequate to add some. I hope this comes to someone else's attention, however... StoryMakerEchidna ( talk) 23:36, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
The article states that originally there were three dolls: Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly. - Felicity was also one of the original dolls and, early on, probably the most popular. There were even connections with and events at Colonial Williamsburg. - Shortly after, the article says when Felicity was discontinued - but she was definitely one of the originals, perhaps even before Molly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.42.32 ( talk) 12:30, 6 August 2011 (UTC)
Incorrect, there were only three dolls originally (1986). Felicity was launched at five years later in 1991. Joyfullkitten ( talk)
where's the new GOTY for 2013? All the AG fans are buzzing about her, yet, Wikipedia just dosent want to be involved in one of the greatest puzzles of the year for doll lovers everywhere! guess everyone will just have to endlessly search for a trusty blog. P.S. I have a pic of Saige on my blog that I copied from dolldiaries.com. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.248.164 ( talk) 23:12, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
Do I sound like I care? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.248.164 ( talk) 22:06, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
"American Girl is a line of dolls, books, and accessories." Yet you have nothing to say about the books. If I want to know what the characters associated with different historical periods are, do you have an article about that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.174.116.10 ( talk) 16:57, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
I don't understand why lists of AMerican Girl dolls can't be shown on wikipedia. I see nothing in WP:NOT to contradict this. In fact, there are many such lists for other collections such as " List of Beanie Babies". Are we going to strike that list from wikipedia too? Dr who1975 ( talk) 20:45, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 4 external links on American Girl. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 09:33, 11 October 2016 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on American Girl. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 01:52, 13 November 2016 (UTC)
Is anyone else noticing the lack of citations for the amount of details here? We should try to find sources that support all of this detail, or we should try removing some of it. BBFanToys ( talk) 13:05, 10 June 2021 (UTC)
Chat 37.111.215.159 ( talk) 13:43, 3 September 2022 (UTC)
Huh? LordApofisu ( talk) 04:50, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 12 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kquituisaca ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by VLSG262 ( talk) 00:05, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2023 and 11 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ENGL2730-YG ( article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by ENGL2730-YG ( talk) 19:59, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
I am planning to make changes to this article soon. My edits will primarily be focused on the American Girl doll books. I first plan on reorganizing the page to include a section about the books, as that is a product line not currently mentioned; there is no mention of the different types of books offered and different age ranges met. I also plan on making changes mostly in the reception section and utilizing peer reviewed articles to add in discussion about the reception of American Girl dolls, specifically about their stories and narratives. There are many critiques of each doll's story in terms of feminism, race, and class which are not discussed currently but are however notable. Please see my annotated bibliography in the bibliography sandbox on the Wikipedia dashboard. ENGL2730-YG ( talk) 23:06, 20 November 2023 (UTC)