Talk:Gerry Armstrong (activist)

Neutrality is questionable

I am getting the impression that this article is not neutral. It appears that most of the article is detailing the legal deviations Gerry Armstrong may have committed, some which are unverified. I move that we add the questionable neutrality template to the page. Forgott3n (talk) 07:05, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Needs more info

It says that he is one of the "most vocal critics" of CoS yet gives no more information on how and where he is being vocal. Steve Dufour 01:21, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Not only "more info" but "any info". This is not a Wikipedia article but a pamphlet. COFS 22:05, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

No, it is a wikipedia article. Who told you to see it as a pamphlet?--Fahrenheit451 22:33, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

This article needs additional citations for verification

It's been a year since this notification was posted. There has got to been sources that will allow us to verify this. If no one can verify the sources for this article, or the editors who originally posted this information just don't care, then I think this article's credibiility and verifiability should be challengedJohn196920022001 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 08:25, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

No offense to anyone, but any un-cited paragraphs are going to be removed by me in 7 days if citations are not provided. Verifiability is one of the cornerstones for writing a Wikipedia article. So please provide some citations John196920022001 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 11:11, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Be my quest. The article is exceedingly subjective and seems to relate about the tale from the position and state of mind of Gerry Armstrong. Various claims made are in fact false and what-d'ya-know, uncited as well! The position of Omar Garrison in regards is unsupported. --Olberon (talk) 18:11, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Where is basic biographical information, like a year of birth? Is this person really notable? /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 23:10, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

External Links and Updates

Yes, I messed up by adding the latest external link in the wrong place, somebody reallyshould slap me, seriously. :) I plead exhaustion. Yet it brings up another issue which another Editor brought up in 2010 in this Talk: page. Specifically the Gerry Armstrong page is missing a great deal of information and is getting more and more obsolete.

As a biography of a notable Internet personal and, arguably, an Internet pioneer we really should attempt to acquire a suitable, serious, professional biography for Mr. Armstrong as well as get the Wikipedia article updated to encompass salient facts which have transpired over the past 5 years or so.

Gerry Armstrong's history of involvement in the downfall of the Scientology corporation has been offered in a number of books, some of which are currently being re-released with minor updates due to the advent of said decline of the corporation, and while a great deal of history, background, and current events revolving around Armstrong are out there in the mainstream news and teh Internetz the extant article here is rather woefully lacking.

... Not that Wikipedia needs to be complete and all-encompassing, it's just that the article deserves something of a major update in light of events over the past 5 years or so. I'd like to see Editors update the page, and if nobody else takes on the effort, I believe I will despite having abandoned the law enforcement arena (since I was so sick of the whole Scientology thing.) Yet Gerry Armstrong's history, biography, and (if I may say so) his legend deserves fair accounting where ever Armstrong's story is covered. Damotclese (talk) 15:50, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Gerry Armstrong (activist). 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:

• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.latimes.com/la-scientology062490%2C0%2C7104164%2Cfull.story
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110613195832/http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2008/mar/1/scientologys-defier/ to http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2008/mar/1/scientologys-defier/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:26, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

More data available

Though I made a big addition to this article just now, there is still so much more to the story. The MaisonNeuve article is an excellent writeup.

• There's the part about the [failed] illegal sting when Scientology tried to get Armstrong on recording discussing a Loyalist cabal, and then the 1984 settlement and confidentiality agreement and its unilateral nature, Scientology's continued Black PR against Armstrong, and Armstrong finally breaking his silence. There's the first appearances of the Affirmations read into the court record, and their reappearance in 2000. His flight to Canada, bankruptcy, and the toll on him. Then there's Scientology's enormous attempts to silence him through pressure lawsuits against everyone else related to him or his case(s).

• Apparently, Mike Rinder was personally involved in the 'sting' and he writes of it in his book, pages 107-108. He was the one who got 'wired' to record Armstrong.

• A 1988 SP Times article has content showing that Vicki Aznaran of CofS pulled (and saved or shredded) information from Armstrong's PC folders in 1984 after the court ordered CofS to turn over the folders.

• Also more from Time mag.

Grorp (talk) 01:11, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

References