Talk:Patrick Volkerding

message: I believe we should mention that pat daughter was born not long ago...
:Yes, but what is the "Version 2.0" phrase a reference to? A geeky in-joke?
:I think the section title "Daughter" should be replaced to "Personal" and perhaps also encompass the information about his illness too. I agree with Ori Livneh that the information on his daughter should be summarized and a link added pointing to the original post. -Etienne 22:24, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Patrick has a daughter 

message: I believe we should remove the mention to Patrick's illness.  After all, such level of detail is probably irrelevant on the long run of an encyclopaedic article.  Maybe a small note perhaps?  Today it is roughly 50% of the entire article. In this same point, shouldn't all this progress report on his health be more relevant to a wikinews site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.20.164.3 (talk • contribs) 
Pat was on his way toward death <-- a major part of life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.177.0.78 (talk • contribs) 
:I agree, cleaned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Equinoxe (talk • contribs) 
Hi, I hope I didn't appear to be too snippy...  but if you'll check the history you'll see that the Three Revert Rule has been disregarded so this does become a matter for Wikipedia arbitration. I hope to convince you away from your current stance by referring you to HIPAA and libel as well as pointing out the lack of a substantitive source on which to defend this content. The only source is a Slashdot message. This is not a verifiable source, nor is it a citation of a reliable source. Whereas health information is temporal and continually updated within the confines of doctor-patient confidentiality (if such a diagnosis ever existed the diagnosis may be updated, changed or reverted at any moment without press releases or public announcements with which to update the article). US Federal Law prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of private medical information. Whereas there is NO PUBLIC RECORD of new or old diagnoses the matter should be viewed as utter heresay, although any lawyer with a penchant for libel law would could easily make a strong case for libel -- such a case would stand quite firmly on the privacy tenets of HIPAA. 
Whereas your re-addition lacked the scrutiny of a scan for current and verifiable sources as well as a misunderstanding of the legal prohibitions on this private information I respectfully request that you consider my points, the law and the ethical implications of such disclosure of private health information and stand-down on the matter rather than further escalate the issue to arbitration. 
Thanks!      Zosodada
:Hi Zosodad. I appreciate your level-headedness. Your concern is certainly warranted, given the nature of the claims. However, Volkerding's posting about his illness is preserved on many websites. AFAIK, it was removed from the official Slackware site because its urgency and plea for help are no longer relevant. Here's the particular information about Volkerding's self-diagnosis, in his own words:
I googled for "yellow lung granule" and maybe the third hit mentioned something called Actinomycosis.  There it was, a laundry list of the symptoms I'd been experiencing.  Furthermore, the disease is caused by the same bacteria that normally lives in the mouth and in dental plaque.  Infections are most common in the jaw, but sometimes occur in the lungs and spread elsewhere through the body.  The hallmark of the disease is the finding of small granules of sulfur.  Aha, I thought.  Now that I know what this is, I should be able to get some treatment. via
:The website is not an especially encyclopedic source, but the words are Volkerding's. He has not, to my knowledge, issued a retraction or disowned the post, which was (at one point) on the official Slackware FTP site. Unfortunately, neither WayBackMachine nor Google cache FTP sites, so the file is not possible to locate that way. However, if you google for PAT-NEEDS-YOUR-HELP.txt, you will find lots of references to the file as it existed on the official Slackware servers by many reputable sources.
:I agree that "During 2004, Volkerding struggled with some health issues, possibly related to a bacterial infection caused by Actinobacteria", might be a problematic phrasing. How about: "During 2004, Volkerding struggled with some health issues, which he suspected to be related to a bacterial infection."?
:Finally, I don't think Volkerding's announcement on the birth of his daughter merits his post being reproduced in full. I don't see what's problematic with my quick summary, "He has a daughter, Briah, born in 2005, with his wife, Andrea." What do you think?
:--Ori Livneh (talk) 22:04, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I know this is old and doesn't really matter that much.  However, Pat himself had made this (both his health issues and details about his wife and daughter) public record.  I don't think this would be a HIPAA or legal issue as I don't think either he or his family would object to this being covered. Centerone (talk) 17:13, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Uncitable Personal Health Info, Patrick Volkerding

message: Re.: "Unfortunately, due to lack of adequate funding (due to the sale of Walnut Creek to WindRiver software) these people had to be let go."  I think I've read this info but am tempted to remove this until the information can be cited. Is there a Slackware recap on these event? other source? Also needed for the "fundamentalist xn" claim since I believe he attracts derision from multiple factions. That can be surmised from the Usenet source, but I don't think it is necessairily verifiable, or is it? Perhaps I missed something. -- Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.166.61.232 (talk • contribs) 
:I had come here, because I don't even know why this bit is in this article.  I assume it might be because (And I'm guessing) the article on Pat himself _might_ have been spun off from the Slackware article.  If this article is about Pat, and not about Slackware, then shouldn't it just be enough to say his is the chief maintainer/founder/developer and that he manages the contributions of others? The fact that other people have been employed at or worked with Pat on a part time and/or ongoing basis with Slackware is irrelevant to the question of "who is Pat Volkerding and what does he do?" This does of course belong in the Slackware article and I believe it is already in there. Centerone (talk) 17:35, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: citation available?

message: I assume "Lord Volkermort" is just a nickname composed of the names Lord Voldemort and Volker. However, this should be explained, why he is compared to the Harry Potter character etc. The importance of this may seem rather funny, but it has a cynical notation, and it should be clearified here that this is not meant: Volkermort sounds like German "Völkermord", which means genocide. So, any German speaker who stumbles upon this redirect easily could come to the conclusion that this guy might be someone who thinks making jokes about Ausschwitz is funny. Just a coincidence, I guess, but maybe Volker doesn't want that.--JakobvS (talk) 17:09, 11 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  What's it with the redirect "Lord Volkermort"?