Talk:Ben Collins (racing driver)

message: I realised I had posted a clip of British F3 at Castle Coombe which kicks off with the crash BC enjoyed so you can see and hear him. Nice lad.
See:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v333151KPTxzK8c
Royzee (talk) 00:11, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ben Collins on Veoh 

message: Re-re-requested on 2008-07-28 because of the background IP vandalism.  It's been turned down again. *sigh*.  —Sladen (talk) 21:41, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protection 

message: The article states:
:Per AQA, Ben Collins is the Stig, replacing Perry McCarthy.
yet there's no proper citation and not even any indication of who/what AQA might be. Given the interest in the Stig's identity, that needs fixing ASAP (with a full inline citation), otherwise I don't think we can justify the line's inclusion in the article. Loganberry (Talk) 20:24, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: This is a biography of a living-person (see WP:BLP), best to use rollback/undo directly.  (Now done). —Sladen (talk) 21:07, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

text: Yes; and the article's references appear to concur (see Ben Collins (driver)#Regular role).  —Sladen (talk) 03:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who/what is/are AQA? 

message: nl:Ben Collins
Can anyone put this in the article? Thanks. 62.234.145.224 (talk) 09:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for the suggestion!  —Sladen (talk) 09:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia NL 

message: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_7842000/7842682.stm  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.103.164.24 (talk) 22:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think that BBC Newsbeat piece mentions anything that isn't already in the article; is there is a particular point you were wanted highlighted?  —Sladen (talk) 22:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  more gossip 

message: There is no such Formula Onea team called Ascari. Im not sure why it says he tested for the Ascari F1 team in 2006, Ascari is a small manufacturer and GT team that owns a 1996 Benetton, that they hire out for track days. Since he worked for Ascari perhaps he had a shot in it, but a track day in a 15 year old F1 car is not an F1 test. You can pay to drive this car at Ascari's facility. --Arrows98 (talk) 03:07, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Ascari Formula One?

message: Why the rename? Isn't Collins best known as a stunt driver rather than as a racing driver? --Falcadore (talk) 23:28, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rename 

message: Allegations is a really bad title choice for that section, it suggest some sense of 'wrongdoing'.  I'm not sure controversy is perfect, because much of it is for dramatic purposes but is much better.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.249.223.220 (talk) 11:08, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I think "Allegations" was chosen several years ago because it was indefinite. —Sladen (talk) 14:25, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: could someone with an understanding of the situation and the players rewrite the whole thing so that it's not so bloody ambiguous? it's a mess. and the date in the autobiography sentence at the end is not likely correct. 2008? -72.208.145.184 (talk) 14:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The "September 2008" date appears to match the reference in question ("to make the prints last September.") with that article itself dating from 6 January 2009.  —Sladen (talk) 00:31, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Allegations 

message: The headers in this article are utterly sub-standard. I've tried to correct this twice  and been reverted twice. I would like to know the rationale behind not making it clear in the headers that there is a substantial separate section about his appearances as himself on TG, why they are being made to be completely vague and uninformative by being restricted to one or two words only (compare for example just 'The Stig' to 'Stig identity speculation'), and why TG is not considered a top level header, making the whole article and TOC look ridiculously unbalanced, seeing as it is the biggest section overall. Frankly, if you have to have read the entire article before the header structure makes any sense, then they are useless. To quote WP:HEADER: "Headings help clarify articles...headings in themselves introduce information and let the reader know what subtopics will be presented". And it contains no set limit on number of words either, for obvious reasons. MickMacNee (talk) 13:08, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I thoroughly agree that the article needs comprehensively adjusting based on recent revelations, but to achieve that requires more than merely moving content around or re-changing sub-headings names.  It is correct that on two occasions you have done this, and I thank you for your enthusiasm.  Those are also the only two edits you have made in the entire history of the article.  Collins appearing on Top Gear is part of his work (as a contracting individual) and is introduced as such.  It is logical that the full explanation for his (former) role as a precision driver on Top Gear comes under the sub-heading introducing it.  Adding completely empty extraneous sub-headings does not help either; far from making the ToC look unbalanced, it keeps it logical, organised and uncluttered and those empty headings are against the WP:MOSang:Wikipedia:Manual of Style not en:WP:MOS..  If we moved every sub-heading with more than a single paragraph to the top-level we would have a very flat outline, perfectly balanced, but perfectly useless. Once again, thank you for your interest, please try to make some useful, constructive changes rather than rocking up and shuffling the deck chairs.  If you're not sure if a change is likely to be useful, why not open a discussion here on the Talk: page first?  —Sladen (talk) 22:09, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not interested thanks, and I don't need your thanks for bothering to try and fix this article. I'm a Wikipedia veteran of many years and many thousands of edits experience over many hundreds of articles, as I thought you were too, until I saw this post. Your explanations for these deficient headers still make absolutely no sense to me, and yes, I say that knowing exactly what the article says, I can read, and I'm not in the habit of shifting sections around without knowing what the fuck I'm moving. The article is still completely lacking and uninformative against WP:HEADER as far as I'm concerned, and the view of a newcomer to the article is far more valuable in that regard than someone who is displaying disturbing levels of ownership here, having apparently spent enough time patrolling it against interlopers to not need to use the TOC at all. Nope, I'm going to leave this one to rot for now, I'm not touching it with you acting like this, especially while you make vague waves to the MoS which I'm pretty sure are just made up. If the MoS bars straight L2>L3 progression, which you seem to think is an 'empty section', that's news to me frankly. Similarly for this supposed ban on top level sections of the size of the former section Other Work, even though most of it has nothing to do with Top Gear. If I do come back, I'll be ripping it up and starting again from the top. And no, I won't be asking for permission on the talk page. For the record, I'm pretty bloody sure my changes are usefull and valid, but that's rather irrelevent when they have to be approved by a single gate keeper isn't it? MickMacNee (talk) 23:47, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Headers 

message: Would there be any objection to getting the editnotice removed? It was added in September 2010, just after the news that Collins was The Stig broke and should be unnecessary now. January (talk) 10:42, 22 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Now removed. January (talk) 16:33, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Editnotice 

message: The personal life section states that as of 2010 Collins lives in Bristol with his wife and three children. The cited Telegraph article from 2010, however, only states he lives in Bristol. It doesn't mention anything about his wife or children. A correction would be much appreciated. 129.15.64.252 (talk) 16:14, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for raising it! —Sladen (talk) 19:05, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Personal Life 

message: Richard Hammond posted a video on his YouTube channel featuring Ben Collins. It appears to be a cut from Clarkson, Hammond and May live (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/top-gear/top-gear-team-reunite/), but it lead to speculation of Collins appearing in GT. They also say "back to the arena" at the end. I am removing the Grand Tour reference (copied below) until we have better sources. 
: ===The Grand Tour===
:Collins will appear in an episode of the upcoming Amazon series The Grand Tour, reprising his role as Clarkson, Hammond, and May's team racing driver.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYJZG5Og2yg&feature=youtu.be
TheGuyOfDoom (talk) 22:28, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grand Tour 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Ben Collins (racing driver). 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:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090114022636/http://www.systemst.com:80/case-studies/Ascari/A10/ to http://www.systemst.com/case-studies/Ascari/A10/
*Added  tag to http://theseasiders.webs.com/apps/blog/show/21999509-ben-collins-aka-the-stig-rumoured-for-btcc-drive
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080315003122/http://www.crash.net:80/motorsport/f1/news/96604-0/ to http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/96604-0/
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305162/Top-Gear-star-The-Stig-unmasked-company-accounts.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 15:29, 30 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Ben Collins (racing driver). 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:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100703122148/http://www.witneytv.co.uk/ to http://www.witneytv.co.uk/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:38, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Ben Collins (racing driver). 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:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100904071903/http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Top-Gears-Stig-Is-Free-To-Publish-Autobiography-After-BBC-Lose-Bid-To-Get-Injunction/Article/201009115710574?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15710574_Top_Gears_Stig_Is_Free_To_Publish_Autobiography_After_BBC_Lose_Bid_To_Get_Injunction to http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Top-Gears-Stig-Is-Free-To-Publish-Autobiography-After-BBC-Lose-Bid-To-Get-Injunction/Article/201009115710574?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15710574_Top_Gears_Stig_Is_Free_To_Publish_Autobiography_After_BBC_Lose_Bid_To_Get_Injunction
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100405223559/http://traitors.topgear.com/terms/ to http://traitors.topgear.com/terms/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090123030054/http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Gear-s-Stig-revealed-Bristol-firm/article-589703-detail/article.html to http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Gear-s-Stig-revealed-Bristol-firm/article-589703-detail/article.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 19:32, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 4 external links on Ben Collins (racing driver). 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:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090123062339/http://cityspeakersinternational.co.uk/speakers/speaker_ben_collins.php to http://www.cityspeakersinternational.co.uk/speakers/speaker_ben_collins.php
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100826072922/http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Stig-unmasked/article-2557405-detail/article.html to http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Stig-unmasked/article-2557405-detail/article.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160305034344/http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781488507571_sample_274554.pdf to http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781488507571_sample_274554.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090123030059/http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Gear-s-Stig-reveals-identity-Bristol-gallery-owners/article-589665-detail/article.html to http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Gear-s-Stig-reveals-identity-Bristol-gallery-owners/article-589665-detail/article.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:24, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified