Talk:Mel Baggs

message: The page so far is a summary of a citizen's's blogging topics and self-published videos, plus citation of a couple of interviews given by her to mainstream media, consisting of a rehash of the same self-published material with some added "puff".  Substantively the page remains at the level of a self-presentation or at best citation, but not biography: biographical information is notably sparse. Each referenced source ultimately cites Ms Baggs herself as its source & authority for information about Ms Baggs. As biography, so far it's uncorroborated autobiography: unverifiable as it stands.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jistaface (talk • contribs) 00:34, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sources? 

message: Within which organizations does Amanda Baggs hold influential or leading positions? Which organizations is she involved with? What online psuedonymns has she used in the past?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.169.65.5 (talk) 04:08, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: And this is relevant how? GetDumb 06:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

text: And that has been done. You're proposing unneccessary embelishment. GetDumb 07:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

text: Her main claim to notability is her appearances on CNN. That makes this pathetic organisation argument irrelevant. GetDumb 09:09, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Organizations?

message: there is a cleanup tag in the article - why ??  - I do not understand the reason - it is referenced and gives basic information. please remove or comment the tag.  Plehn (talk) 19:06, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleanup ? 

message: A few days ago in this series of edits, an anonymous user changed the article from singular they to sie/hir. While I understand that Amelia prefers the use of sie/hir, it's also my understanding that singular they is just as gender-neutral as sie/hir, with the added benefit of being widely understood, even by nonnative speakers. However, I'm not aware of any proscriptions specifically against the use of sie/hir in articles, so I didn't want to simply undo the edits. Should they be reversed, or are they okay? 「ディノ奴千？！」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 00:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Prove it with a reliable independent source. According to the note below - there isn't one. 101.182.3.153 (talk) 08:02, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronouns 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: There's no source given for Amanda identifying as genderqueer or anything similar, so I'm removing the category for now. - User:Brainy J ✿ (talk) 23:45, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Category:Genderqueer people" ? 

message: As her purported method of communication is not real. this article is going to need some reworking. --Wikiman2718 (talk) 22:17, 30 May 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you're right. Sorry about that. There are a bunch of articles misrepresenting facilitated communication users and this one got caught in the crossfire. --Wikiman2718 (talk) 18:10, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

text: Comment: I don't see anywhere in the text of this article that it says Baggs uses FC. The article cites one news story which mentions faciliated communication in its headline, but that article only says that "Sue Rubin, Larry Bissonnette, and Tracy Thresher[... 's] lives were transformed when they were introduced to Facilitated Communication (FC)"; the article mentions Baggs multiple times, but never suggests that she uses FC. Googling around, the only page I spot that says Baggs uses FC is a wikia page, not reliable, whereas e.g. James C. Wilson's Weather Reports from the Autism Front (2010, ), page 119, says "Like [Sue] Rubin, other autistic children have started with Facilitated Communication and then progressed to computer-assisted or independent typing. Two of the most prolific autistic writers, Cal Montgomery and Amanda Baggs, use a variety of computer-assisted technologies. [...] In one post, Baggs lists all the reasons why, when many people see her, they refuse to believe that she could have written the intellectually rigorous material on her blog. [...]", which also doesn't say Baggs has used FC (and implies that she does not use it). If the [Wikipedia] article already does not say Baggs uses FC, and these multiple sources do not either, then the tag has no purpose, as there is nothing to change or clean up. -sche (talk) 17:30, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

text: Comment: This is not suitable for the article, but as background my wife Kathleen and I have known Baggs personally for about 15 years. We've both spent time with them IRL, and my wife has traveled with them, shared hotel rooms and assisted them at conferences. Neither of us have ever known them to use FC. They are capable of typing and use a standard computer keyboard and also an electronic picture board. - DaveSeidel (talk) 11:48, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Facilitated communication 

message: Are there any reliable sources for this?--Malerooster (talk) 03:21, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cause of death? 

message: I received a warning from the editor because I just added links to blogs. I believe these links improve the quality of the article. The many different websites may be difficult to find for someone who hears of Mel Baggs for the first time. Wikipedia is a natural starting point for finding further ressources. --Lllang (talk) 08:58, 21 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  More blogs used by Mel Baggs 

message: I've noticed that the 'personal life' section of this article is lengthy and gives the impression of bias. The following claim is made: 'In addition to autism, Baggs had also claimed to have been diagnosed with and wrote about numerous other syndromes and disabilities, including bipolar disorder, dissociative disorder, psychotic disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, craniofacial abnormality, synesthesia, schizophrenia, bronchiectasis, hypermobility, Irlen syndrome, asthma, and gastroparesis.' This statement is unclear (is it saying that Baggs claimed all of these diagnoses, or that they claimed some of them but wrote about all of them?) and is supported with one source, which is about Baggs' gastroparesis and is from Baggs' personal blog. I could not find mention of Tourette syndrome or psychotic disorder in the source. The inclusion of the quoted sentence reads as supportive of the idea that Baggs was lying about the medical conditions they had. This does not seem impartial, considering the lack of substantiation for the assertion that Baggs actually said they were diagnosed with all those things. What's more, there's already plenty of material in the 'personal life' section that reads as critical of Baggs. Obviously, the article should not be a hagiography, but I do think undue weight is being given to information that isn't even well-supported by the one citation provided for it. Other opinions would be appreciated. Lemonpip (talk) 00:21, 24 November 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I completely agree, but I don't know what to do this issue. At the very least, I think :Category:People on the autism spectrum should be added back to the article. CNN and Wired say that Mel Baggs is autistic. Slate seems to question some things about Mel but doesn't explicitly say they are not autistic. Nine hundred ninety-nine (talk) 23:46, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

text: Also, I think :Category:People with factitious disorders should be removed. The idea that Mel has factitious disorders seems to be based on gossip. Nine hundred ninety-nine (talk) 23:47, 23 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Personal life section - unsourced claims