I was this close to blanking the page altogether, but decided we could discuss it before doing so.
First of all, this looks like an advertisement posted by an anonymous user for Find-a-Grave which, according to one of our most prolific contributors, isn't a very good website to begin with.
Besides that, the advice given is flat-out wrong. You should NEVER touch a gravestone, especially if it's fragile. (Unless you know what you are doing, and none of us knows what we are doing - because we are not professionals.) As any geologist will tell you, caulk absorbs itself into the stone, depending on the stone and its porosity. Rainwater activates this process rather than rinses it. And in many climates, it doesn't rain enough to wash caulk away; it only rains enough to wet it. Aaarrrggghhh!!! This is terrible advice.
Don't touch the stone. Take a picture of it.
I'm the last person who should talk about this topic because I get fired-up, passionate, pedantic and I pontificate endlessly. Please consult other sources. Other good sources - NOT find-a-grave. Find-a-Grave isn't a good source because it spams other sites like Wikia.
Fervently,
Zephyrinus 01:58, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
>>>
Of all the wars and rumours of wars,
Of all the perils and pestilence,
The only thing I ponder as I lie awake ill and suffering
Is why, oh why, two months ago,
Did I, in the heat of passion,
Use the word "caulk" instead of "chalk".
Why it troubles my mind so, I do not know.
By going public,
By drawing even more attention
To an otherwise obfuscation - -
Oh, I don't know what good it will do.
And at this point
I can't even think of a rhyme.
My warmest to all,
Zeph
Zephyrinus 15:10, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
I'm familiar with the work of both the creator of this article, and with Zephyr's work. Zephyr has a particular viewpoint, one share by a number of other folks I've talked with on different occassions. It is different from the viewpoint of the page creator, one shared by a good many other genealogists.
Without making any personal observation concerning the appropriateness of the articles recommendations, or that of the foregoing comment, I would stongly advise against blanking a page simply because it contains a viewpoint different from one's own.
The approach on the wikia community, or at least those wiki's I'm familiar with, and on wikipedia, is to keep comments objective. Descrbing things in terms such as "a terrible idea", etc does not usually lead to constructive evolution of an article. I believe it would be appropriate to rewrite the foregoing comment simply stating the problems perceived with the article, and eliminating the use of "hot button" words. It might also be helpful to include a summary of problems associated with tombstone cleaning, etc. However, it would be sufficient to state the nature of the problems without stating that "this is a terrible idea." Bill 18:28, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
Dear Zephyrinus:
I (Margie) posted the info on tombstone cleaning ...
First, it was not an advertisement for find-a-grave ... and there is no place on find-a-grave that I know of that provides any tombstone cleaning information. (I did not get the information I posted from find-a-grave.)
Second, find-a-grave has been of great value to me as a genealogist ... the fact that people post pictures of tombstones and/or are willing to go take pictures of tombstones I've requested, has been of invaluable help. I've found birth/death dates and other info from those tombstone pictures that had been difficult to find by other sources. Thus, I support the find-a-grave effort. I especially support it as a tombstone preservation effort ... e.g., I took pictures of all the tombstones I could possibly find in a very small private family cemetery in Red Clay, GA where the tombstones had been knocked over and defecated on by the cows. I then posted the pictures on find-a-grave ... and am sure that had I not taken those pictures when I did that it would be impossible to find a single one of them today as they are probably buried several inches in cow dung by now.
In every instance where I have taken pictures of tombstones, I have either posted them to find-a-grave or am in the process of reducing the picture size (for a bunch of pictures) so that they will fit on find-a-grave.
Third, the information I posted was picked up from a professional tombstone preservationist in Huntsville, AL who is helping the city restore a number of old family cemeteries, etc...
He took me to a small family cemetery I was looking for and showed me his tips ...
I would not have posted the information if I thought I was harming a tombstone.
Fourth, I agree with Bill ... I don't think anyone should just "blank" a page because they disagree with the contents.
It is much more appropriate to have a dialog about the matter ...
--Cowantex 16:44, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
Headstone cleaning[]
Never use abrasives on grave markers[1] Natural Stone Maintenance Co.
Zephrynius ...