*Don't add a category to an article if it doesn't exist.
*Don't add a category to an article if it doesn't exist.
*If you are categorizing by a person's location, don't put the article in both a category and one of its subcategories. If a person is from Rye, New York you don't categorize them both in 'People from Rye, New York' and its mother category 'People from Westchester County, New York'. A person can however be categorized in multiple subcategories of a category if they apply.
*If you are categorizing by a person's location, don't put the article in both a category and one of its subcategories. If a person is from Rye, New York you don't categorize them both in 'People from Rye, New York' and its mother category 'People from Westchester County, New York'. A person can however be categorized in multiple subcategories of a category if they apply.
*Also, I wouldn't categorize a person as being from somewhere if the only 'proof' is that they died there. From personal experience I know somebody's place of death isn't necessarily a place they are from and I therefore don't categorize by place of death unless there is further proof of that person being from that place.
*If a United States town, city, or village is in more than one counties and it has a notable person from it, make a 'People from' category for that location. Even the smallest places will survive a CFD if the place is in more than one county.
*If a United States town, city, or village is in more than one counties and it has a notable person from it, make a 'People from' category for that location. Even the smallest places will survive a CFD if the place is in more than one county.
Revision as of 14:57, 8 August 2013
The Cleanup Barnstar
For your great work correcting a major error in the PauknAir Flight 4101 article, and for your continuing work in nominating non-notable air crash articles for deletion, I hereby award you this Barnstar. YSSYguy (talk) 03:19, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
This user might or might not have an academic degree, and considers the distinction irrelevant on Wikipedia.
A fact from the article Swissair Flight 316, which this user created or significantly contributed to, has been featured in the Did you know... section on the Main Page.
I am 52 years old.
Have tried out twice unsuccessfully for Jeopardy!. Some people who know me will say I have a head full of useless trivia on a variety of subjects.
I am a cancer survivor.
During my life I have traveled to all 50 United States and have been to over a dozen countries.
I've been to Hel and back.
On two occasions I have received media credentials to blog LPGA Tour golf tournaments.
This user survived a pulmonary embolism
I'm related to Catello Manzi.
One of the userboxes on this page causes me to be categorized as a Wikipedian interested in Art history. No I am not.
At present I'm working on a novel that begins with an alien spacecraft crashing in the United States in the not too distant future. Later in the story, I make mention of the Chicago Cubs going to the World Series and women golfers playing Muirfield. Somebody might say the last two happenings are more improbable than the first.
One of my favorite quotes "What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left."- Oscar Levant
Another favorite quote- “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”- George Bernard Shaw
Another favorite quote- "Writing is painful, it`s lonely and you suffer and there`s no immediate feedback."- Robert Shaw
One more- "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."- Abraham Lincoln
My maternal grandfather used to say "The complaint department is on the roof."
At Wikipedia, among the over one hundred new articles I've written are-
International plane crash articles are some of the toughest to write. If the incident took place 20 or more years ago or took place in a 3rd world country, it can be extremely difficult to gather information. Take for instance Viasa Flight 742 which was the deadliest aviation disaster ever when it took place in 1969. There is very little written about the crash on the internet or even in print.
Most of my Wikipedia edits are in articles related to Golf, Baseball, NHL Hockey, Television shows, anything Florida, and Aviation incidents.
Google News Archive
I like finding news stories via Google News Archive searches and then make them inline citations in articles. Those articles I most often do this for concern politicians or actors.
A tip for writing or editing Wikipedia articles- Consult Google news search. Google has an extensive news article collection that can be used for referencing and checking facts. Some History gets distorted over time. For instance, Minnie Rojas, a former major league baseball pitcher who was tragically paralyzed in a auto accident.
Rojas played for the California Angels and his tragedy is often cited as one of bad things that happened in Angel history. In the wake of the death of Nick Adenhart, Rojas name was mentioned. The information about the accident that paralyzed Rojas was usually incorrect. Either who was killed in the accident was misreported or the year it happened. If there is the slightest bit of doubt about some fact, try a google news search for an article that was written around the time an event took place. They will usually be far more accurate than one written years later.
Another mistake involves Bill Kenney being labeled as Mr. Irrelevant. Both articles said he earned the title though he was the next to last NFL draft pick in 1978. It was stated he earned it because the last pick, Lee Washburn, never reported to camp. A check of Google News Archive shows that to be untrue. Mr. Washburn got the honor at the third annual 'Irrelevant week'. He even appeared on the Tonight Show because of it.
Factual mistakes and referencing
Wrong information on Wikipedia can have consequences. From the Summer of 2006 till February 2012, the article on Harlan F. Stone said that the former Chief Justice died of a cerebral hemorrhage while sitting on the bench as another Justice read his opinion in a case the United States Supreme Court was handing down. Stone dying on the bench is untrue. Newspaper articles written at the time say he died at home after becoming ill with indigestion earlier in the day while working at the Supreme Court.
Along comes a book titled 'Five Chiefs' written by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and published in 2011. In it Stevens recounted Stone dying on bench. Where did Stevens and the persons helping him write the book get that information? It has to be Wikipedia or the websites that mirror it.
Another mistaken edit that ended up in the mainstream involves former Congressman Walter B. Jones, Sr. Someone edited into the article that Jones got an electoral vote in the 1956 Presidential election. On the surface this sounds so wrong, Jones was an obscure state legislator at the time and not from the same state as the electoral voter, that it should have raised red flags with an editor. Instead this easily verifiable wrong information remains in the article for over 18 months and during that time CNN picks up it and includes the wrong information in a webpage on the 1956 Presidential election.
Mistakes on Wikipedia can be rectified. Books that use information that comes from this website and once they are printed, can't.
The article PauknAir Flight 4101 at one time stated that the one of the reasons for the crash was the pilot having a greater than allowable blood alcohol level. This in spite of the accident report that the article linked to saying no such thing. How would you feel if you were a friend or family member of the dead pilot?
User:Ahunt is right about the need for articles to be scrupulously referenced. Pay his page a visit to learn why.
Don't use IMDb as a source
The website can be used as an external link but not as a inline citation. Please read the essay WP:Citing IMDb. I just came across the article on Tatiana Capote, a Miss Venezuela World winner. From the time the article was created about her till almost five years later, the article made mention of her being disqualified at the 1979 Miss World. She was not disqualified. What was the source for this? IMDb. IMDb content is provided by users and is too often wrong to qualify as a Wikipedia reliable source.
See also sections
The use of See also links is a pet peeve of mine. For example
It's a red link. What's there to see also when no article exists?
External links in the See also section. Per WP:See also, this section isn't for External links.
Linking to the same similar type articles but ignoring other similar articles. Like microburst aviation caused crash articles. An editor putting in See also section will provide links to Pan Am Flight 759 and Delta Air Lines Flight 191 but rarely to Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 or other windshear accidents.
Linking to articles or lists when the connection between the two of them is very tertiary in nature. Like linking a Associate Supreme Court judge article to a list of Chief Justices in order of how long they served.
Many articles have See Also links to articles that are already in the body of the article. This goes against WP:See also
Proposed deletions
I think the policy for WP:Proposed deletion should be altered some. For one thing, why should the article's creator be allowed to take down a prod? Secondly, I think prods should be allowed again but after a certain amount of time has passed. I'm talking about a year or more. Thirdly, I don't think IP editors should have the right to take down prods.
Recently I saw an article that had a prod placed on it once. If an article is prodded and nobody takes it off after a week, it is normally deleted. The Prod on this article was up for over a month but it was never deleted before somebody took the PROD down. Now it can't be PRODed again even though the fist prod wasn't handled properly.
Administrator abuse
"anyone familiar with ANI and the Admin vs. editor dichotomy here in WP know that any attempt to bring up admin abuses are dismissed as hogwash. Time and time again these things are shot down even when the abuse is blatant and deliberate. I could list a dozen just in the last couple weeks."- Kumioko on a talk page 11:03, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
Funny I don't look like a foot covering
I have been accused of sockpuppetry and on another occasion, editing while not signed in order to escape scrutiny. The second instance was done by an administrator. As my profile says, I'm from Florida. All my edits have taken place from that location. If an IP editor is from Connecticut, it is definitely not me. Even clearer- I don't edit while not signed in.
Visual editor
The less said about this the better. What I most disliked most about VE was having my editor's preferences changed. That was done to my account so I could use WP:VE and it didn't improve my ability to edit at all. So I had to opt out, but I shouldn't have been opted in to start without being asked if I wanted to.
On August 2nd 2013, somebody not learning from their first mistakes reactivated VE for all editors. To say I wasn't happy with this action is an understatement. Furthermore my preferences now read 'Temporarily disable VisualEditor while it is in beta'. Temporarily? Does that mean WP plans on changing my preferences yet again? I hope not. Don't think I'm the only one mad at what has been done. Go read this page. There are many editors up in arms over what has been done.
Will I ever attempt a return to Visual Editor. The answer is- No.
Categorization
Most articles are categorized very well but I just have a couple of comments.
Don't add a category to an article if it doesn't exist.
If you are categorizing by a person's location, don't put the article in both a category and one of its subcategories. If a person is from Rye, New York you don't categorize them both in 'People from Rye, New York' and its mother category 'People from Westchester County, New York'. A person can however be categorized in multiple subcategories of a category if they apply.
Also, I wouldn't categorize a person as being from somewhere if the only 'proof' is that they died there. From personal experience I know somebody's place of death isn't necessarily a place they are from and I therefore don't categorize by place of death unless there is further proof of that person being from that place.
If a United States town, city, or village is in more than one counties and it has a notable person from it, make a 'People from' category for that location. Even the smallest places will survive a CFD if the place is in more than one county.
Lastly
A common organizational mistake I see in articles is the placement of the references section underneath the one for external links. Per WP:ORDER, references always come first. Think of it this way, the categories links at the bottom of an article are also in a way an external link. Wouldn't it seem obvious that the section for links outside wikipedia come on top of that?
There is a big white space after my closing words on this page. Another editor recently posted to my talk page asking how he could reduce the white space in a article. I didn't know how to help the editor.
At my User page, I just decided to write about it to lessen the 'problem'.
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