Wikipedia:New contributors' help page/questions

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Bad writing

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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I tried to make some improvements in the lede of the Charles Lindbergh article, but they were immediately reverted. When I checked the article's talk page I found a long history of other editors' concerns about the reverting editor's writing and reversions. Can't something be done about this? 70.235.84.144 (talk) 02:52, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Based on the nature and specific language used in the comment above as well as that in a similar virtually simultaneous posting in the Charles Lindbergh Talk page, that it has been posted from an anonymous IP which resolves to an AT&T server located in SW Connecticut in or near Wallingford, CT, and the poster "appears" to have never edited WP before, it is obvious to me that this posting is specious and is instead yet another periodic reappearance of the well known community banned LTA Techwriter2B who has a long history of engaging in this type of disruptive editing which always starts the same way: appearing to be just a concerned good faith new editor trying to help the project. As does the IP 70.235.84.144 used by the poster above, virtually all of the almost 300 sockpuppet anonymous IPs that have been positively identified as having been used by this abusive user to edit WP since 2005 also resolve to AT&T servers in SW Connecticut located in or near Willingford.

This LTA has "wikistalked" a fairly large number of WP editors (including myself) over a period of eight years (beginning in 2005) often beginning each such new attack with exactly this type "complaint" about "bad writing" in an article in which the particular editor he/she is stalking has been a major long time contributor. (It should also be pointed out that this is not even the first time that this LTA has attempted to disrupt the Charles Lindbergh article which he/she attacked before several years ago.) This posting has all the telltale hallmarks of yet another of his/her periodic attacks which virtually always include a posting in the article's talk page as well as the opening of a discussion in a new user's help forum (or other similar forum) and thus should be ignored.

The fact that the LTA posted his/her "complaint" in the Lindbergh talk page in which he/she claims to have in the interim researched my history of contributions to the article ("It looks like someone has tried to remedy the situation before me (See "I have tried..." above). It also looks like the same editor has interfered with efforts to improve the article, again. Sigh.") just 14 minutes after I reverted his/her deletions in the lede -- and then also opened this thread just 16 minutes after that -- is one of the LTA's known telltale practices and clearly shows once again that this is a preplanned wikistalking attack aimed in advance at me specifically as the major contributor to the article over the years as he/she clearly already expected that his/her deletions would be reverted and that I would be the editor to do so.

Once called out on each new attempted wikistalking attack as is being done again here the same way that I and many other of his/her wikistalking victims have had to do many times before after earlier such attacks, this LTA's first response will be to pretend that he/she is completely innocent, as a "newbie" (which he/she most certainly isn't) knows nothing of WP procedures, and is only acting in good faith. These denials will be completely false and disingenuous. All of his/her telltale practices and behaviors are very well documented and spelled out in great detail in the extensive and long standing LTA file on "Techwriter2B" (which was first opened when this user was finally community banned almost three years ago) for anyone who doubts this to see for themselves. Centpacrr (talk) 04:10, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Wow! I was going to ask a question here, but after having read the section above, I think I'll skip Wikipedia and keep working on another Wiki I'm involved with.

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]

29 edits on the same topic over the course of 7 hours. Did it keep him up all night? Rumination (psychology)? Obsessive–compulsive disorder? Paranoid personality disorder?

My day job keeps me busy with troubled people, I don't need more of it in my leisure activities. Breese Anderson (talk) 14:19, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

• ' Discussion at WP:ANI#Possible sockpuppet' --Ushau97 ^talk 15:52, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

• Ushua97 is "spot on" and has correctly identified exactly what has happened in the post immediately above. (See ' Discussion at WP:ANI#Possible sockpuppet'.) The post above by "Breese Anderson" even further proves the case that this is another Wikistalking attack by LTA Techwriter2B. Another of this long time abuser's telltale standard practices is to register a new sockpuppet account in order to comment in a thread in support of his/her own abusive behavior. (See ""Gang" posts using disguised multiple identities in the same thread" and "Confirmed registered and IP sock accounts (300+)".) This "account" was created this morning and the above posting was its first edit on WP made just 14 minutes later. Interestingly this account's second (and so far only other) posting was made two minutes later to an article on psychology, a subject area the LTA has often edited in the past. The LTA has in fact also pretended in the past to actually be a professional psychologist. (See here and here.)

A Google search for the name "Breese Anderson" also returns links to a person of that name who is a psychologist in North Carolina and whom the LTA appears to be impersonating here, another of his/her telltale behaviors. (He/she even once tried to impersonate me.) In addition, the chances that a new user would register on WP and then within just minutes make his/her first posting a ridiculous (but complicated) one like the one above in an obscure thread that had just been started without this new user being a sockpuppet of the IP who started the thread is absolutely zero. This is all additional proof positive that IP 70.235.84.144 and that IPs just registered sockpuppet "Breese Anderson" are in fact both the well known community banned LTA Techwriter2B.

A number of other editors and I have been dealing with Techwriter2B for years now and there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this is him/her. None at all. I am extremely familiar with this LTA's telltale practices and techniques and this current event fits every one of them. This LTA was permanently banned from WP by the community on July 18, 2010. Centpacrr (talk) 17:42, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

March 30

Creating a biography

Hello,

I'm new to Wikipedia and have a question about submitting a biography. I've read the help pages about conflict of interest and want to make sure that I follow the guidelines. I found this explanation:

"The proper way to get your own writing about yourself into Wikipedia if you really think that you can meet the inclusion criteria and are willing to accept having a neutral, non-promotional article, is to make a proposal at Articles for creation containing the text you want, instead of just putting it into the encyclopedia directly, and seek the consensus of the community through discussion. Not only does this provide independent viewpoints on it that can allow you to discover biases you were not aware of having, it also helps provide an indication of good faith and that you are willing to put the interests of Wikipedia first instead of standing in a conflict of interest." Wikipedia:Autobiography

How does one make a proposal at "articles for creation." I've looked on that page and don't see where to make a proposal. I have the article written; it is neutral, and non-promotional; and it includes verifiable sources. Is there a place where I can propose the article to get make sure that it meets the Wikipedia guidelines?

LEWoodford (talk) 16:35, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. The only edit you made with this account is the question above. So I don't know where your article is located. Can you please provide a link to where the article is. To propose an article at Articles for Creation, visit WP:AFC. If you provide a link to the article then things could be a little faster. Regards --Ushau97 ^talk 16:42, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

The article is located here: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Terry Marshall Thank you for your help. --LEWoodford (talk) 11:55, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

March 31

File upload

im trying to upload an image to Matt Flynn's pgae. (the footballl player). but i dont know how — Preceding unsigned comment added by PacoDaKing14 (talk • contribs) 16:31, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

• See Wikipedia:Files for upload -Aaron Booth (talk) 21:16, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Music chart problem?

I've already made a new article for Creative Disc and I want their chart to be added in every single songs. But everytime I edit the chart in every songs, it get edited and deleted. Can I ask why so I can edit it again? Ggdlmnt (talk) 23:37, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

The problem is that you haven't provided a citation to a single reliable source independent of the subject. Unless the article provides such citations, it will not establish that the site is notable, and the article is likely to be deleted. Until the site is shown to be notable, its ratings are not notable and should not be included in articles. --ColinFine (talk) 10:04, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

April 1

Editing and being part of Wikipedia

Hi! Can I ask, how can I be one of those who answers the questions that's asked in the reference desk? Do they get paid if they answer one question or so? 124.6.181.103 (talk) 02:42, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, you can answer questions there if you wish - just click the "Edit" links. But the only reward is the satisfaction of answering the questions; there's no money involved. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:00, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Newbie confused about markup

Hi, I'm a new contributor to Wiki, still trying to write my first article. I need help in using the Wiki markup language - it's so simple it's confusing!

For instance. I want a bulleted list, for which I should place asterisks in front of each item with a space before the word: "* First item" But my list looks like this:

List of items *First item * Second item

• Third item.

The last is surrounded by a box with a dashed outline!

What's happening? I admit that I started my page by writing it in MS Word and then copied that text across to my user page. Is that likely to carry over unseen editing commands that are confusing the Wiki markup?

Help, please! John TapkaJohnD (talk) PS Here is my draft page [[30]]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by TapkaJohnD (talk • contribs) 10:14, 1 April 2013 (UTC) 

Those boxes are caused by leading spaces.

• First item

 *Second item

To indent you use leading colons  :*First item

• First item
• Second item

GB fan 10:25, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, GB fan. That removes the box, but I still can't get a bulleted list

For instance :*first *second

gets you just that.

This mark-up is pretty obscure, or is a version of HTLM? Where is there a teach-youself page on Wiki? The quick guide is prety inadaquate.

John TapkaJohnD (talk) 21:45, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

See WP:WIKIMARKUP.--ukexpat (talk) 01:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Markup like * and # (for lists) and : (for indent) only have effect at the beginning of a line. You have put your *first *second on the same line as what preceded, so they are not interpreted as wikimarkup. --ColinFine (talk) 10:06, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Thnaks, Colin! No why didn't I think of that? Because I'm a newbie and I can't find an instruction manual. Surely there is one? John — Preceding unsigned comment added by TapkaJohnD (talk • contribs) 19:13, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Take a look at Help:The Missing Manual.--ukexpat (talk) 00:50, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

My contribution in association with a local community.

Quite adapt at html and writing on social media site pages, thought I would extend our community on to Wikipedia.

Its not outside of my user base as yet so hopefully it doesn't get deleted or changed without understanding why. Tried to start it under its own title or give it a reference but that was deleted within minutes. A link or mention back would be appreciated where users could be looking for just 'Richardson Road' at a future point.

I am at a loss on how to eventually move it from a user page to a full Wiki page article and maybe change the actual naming to not have it look out of place. Maybe like html, its just a copy paste after 'create an article'.

Richardson_Road.

Richardson_Road_Hove.

RichardsonRoad.

Looking to check it wasn't already there I found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_Road .

being a page all about Newcastle University and 'our' intended 'name' was used as a redirect.

I would prefer it not to have the Hove added, but its here for the time being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dinnages/RichardsonRoadHove

I look forward to advice. Dinnages (talk) 11:45, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Hello Dinnages. Your title User:Dinnages/Richardson Road (Hove) is fine, and would get moved ultimately to Richardson Road (Hove) (currently a redlink, because the article doesn't currently exist there. I would prefer Richardson Road, Hove, but either is acceptable.) If the article survives (see below), then there will be two Richardson Road articles, and unless it could be shown that one was overwhelmingly referred to by references in independent sources, then probably each should have a disambiguated name, and a hatnote to point to the other one.

However, at present, your article would not survive being moved to mainspace, because it does not have any references to reliable sources independent of the subject. Without these, it does not establish that the street is notable by Wikipedia's standards. Such sources could be local papers, but they would need to be more than just a directory or a mention of the street: it would need to be articles specifically about the street. Some editors argue that because there are so many streets in the world, individual streets need to meet some further criteria: see User:Grutness/One street per 50,000 people, which is not a Wikipedia policy, but has been quite influential. : One more point: the tone of the article is not as it stands appropriate to an encyclopaedia. The content of the article should be taken entirely from indpendent sources sources (rewritten, so as not to constitute a copyright infringement): personal observation and argument is not acceptable in Wikipedia articles. And addressing the reader directly (either with you or with instructions what to do or not to do) are almost always inappropriate. See WP:TONE and WP:NOT.

When you think the article might be ready, I strongly advise that you submit it to articles for creation, where it will get a comprehensive review before being moved to mainspace. --ColinFine (talk) 10:28, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

April 2

Anushka Shetty

Anuskha Shetty Nominated for International Tamil film awards for Vaanam .how to edit the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nicholas brain (talk • contribs) 11:45, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Take a look at Help:Editing.--ukexpat (talk) 13:37, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

April 3

Creating a new page (Travi$ Scott)

Me and a few others would like to create a page for Artist Travi$ Scott. However, according to Wikipedia, he already has an article. I click on his name, and it redirects the link straight to G.O.O.D. Music, meaning that he hasn't got a separate page. How do I resolve this issue?

Thank you.

Millyman77 (talk) 15:54, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

If you're convinced that the subject satisfied the notability requirements, and that you can provide sufficient references to reliable sources to demonstrate that notability, then this link will let you edit the page, and replace the current redirect. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:13, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

RE: article Common Sense (pamphlet)

Uh, it is said in this article Common Sense (pamphlet) that "...the average colonist was more educated than their European counterpart...". I want to ask - is there anthing that justifies this? And/or qualifies what is meant by "counterpart"? Does it mean people who have colonised Europe? (surely not, but then who in particular? People of a common social class? Economic class? The entire population? And what measurement was used to quantify 'education' when taking this average?) Should I check libraries for reference [11]? Or will [11] only justify that "Paine made political ideas tangible for a common audience. This brought average colonists into political debate, creating a whole new political language."? I have to say here that while I thought perhaps that this sort of question maybe belongs on the talk page, I found that the whole process was rather intimidating, I felt that I might somehow wreck the wikipedia I have come to adore, and that not understanding the <> bracket syntaxes and whatnot I might -sort of- wreck the talk page. Would you recommend that I read a lot of the beginner's guides and so forth? I have spent a long time reading wikipedia, and only now have I considered getting a login. Honestly, I would rather not. I'm not really an expert in anything I have studied, and I wouldn't want to, well, get in a textual (?) shouting match with a PHD. I just want to know if I need to get a membership at my former university library to verify this.

-Matt, In need of clarification. 143.238.230.81 (talk) 16:01, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Hi, Matt. First of all, you can't wreck Wikipedia by editing: even if you break an article, you or anybody can look at the article's history, and revert it to a state before you broke it.

Secondly, you might find Book:The Missing Manual helpful.

Thirdly, yes the article's talk page would be the normal place to pose such questions.

Fourthly, probably nobody here can answer your question, because it is a terrible article, full of unsourced statements and original research. Such a statement should be referenced to a source, which you can in principle look at to find out what they meant - but in any case, if the Wikipedia article is ambiguous, then it should be changed to be clear. In principle it is possible to go back through the history and find out who inserted that sentence, and ask them on their talk page (and there are tools such as WikiBlame which makes this easier); but there is no guarantee that the editor who inserted that is still active on Wikipedia, so you may or may not get an answer. I agree that it looks likely that reference 11 only supports the statement it is attached to, rather than the whole of what precedes; but without consulting the reference, we can't tell. If you want to read it, you may find somebody at WP:RX can help.

If you have the knowledge and interest to improve the article, that would be very welcome. Otherwise, I suggest you post your concerns about it on the talk page. (Note that the talk page is for discussion about improving the article, not about the topic in general; but since you are pointing out ambiguities in the article, I think that would be appropriate. --ColinFine (talk) 17:47, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

April 4

New article

I want to make an article on this really good youtuber/actor that i met through a channel called officially Linsay, How do i get it accepted through Wikipedia?

Linsaylover101 (talk) 00:19, 5 April 2013 (UTC)LinsayLover101

The starting point is to read the links that have been provided on your user talk page. If you have any specific questions after that, please ask. - David Biddulph (talk) 01:40, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

References

Hello,

I have a question regarding the Reference List of my article.

I have typed the following in the editor programme:

== References ==
{{reflist}}

However on the page it only lists the references like this: 1.^ Reference 1

2.^ Reference 2
3.^ Reference 3
4.^ Reference 4
5.^ Reference 5
6.^ Reference 2
7.^ Reference 6
8.^ Reference 2
9.^ Reference 7
10.^ Reference 8

How do I get the descriptions of the references to show?

Thank you!

Minipigs (talk) 09:02, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

The content of each reference goes between the <ref> and </ref> tags. So where you have typed "Reference 1" you actually need the book title, web address or whatever it is that backs up your statement. See Help:Footnotes for more. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:11, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Re-submitting a page

Hello, I am trying to re-submit a Wiki page having taken on the feedback. However, somehow I have managed to save the new edit over the old edit, so wiki thinks that the new edit is the original one I submitted but actually it is the one that I wouThejetsetters (talk) 16:15, 5 April 2013 (UTC)ld like to re-submit. Is there anyway to amend this? Thejetsetters (talk) 15:27, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I have undone the last two edits at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Steve Varsano, restoring a version with some of the promotional wording removed. Is that the version you want to resubmit? If it is, click the "When you are ready to resubmit" link halfway down the pink box at the top. If I've got it wrong, go to the history of the page and click on the date/time links to find the version that you prefer; if you can't see how to re-instate that version, post back here with its date/time, and someone will re-instate it for you. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:52, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, I am not sure if I am completely misunderstanding. But is it possible to delete everything from today (5th April). As it will not let me re-submit anything? It also doesn't let me delete these myself. Sorry this is the first time I have done this! Thanks so much Thejetsetters (talk) 16:15, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I suggest you click the "Edit" link at the top of the page, where it says "Read / Edit / View history", then select and delete the entire text except for the very top line, then paste in your preferred version and "Save". -- John of Reading (talk) 16:30, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I have tried this. And now it is telling me that this page might qualify for deletion? Would it be best to do that and start again? It is still telling me that the version I want to re-submit is the one that was rejected and this is not the case. Thanks for you help! Thejetsetters (talk) 17:09, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Please wait for sometime until the editor who requested deletion tells us why he requested deletion. I have removed the request until he responds. --Ushau97 ^talk 17:17, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks! Thejetsetters (talk) 17:28, 5 April 2013 (UTC)