User:NYCNoise
![]() | This user is a participant in WikiProject Musicians. |
i edit wikipedia ~elsewhere~; this is a new user page for teaching some pals to contribute to wikipedia!!!
before u start!
[edit]–– sign up! it's recommended that people not use their real names when editing wikipedia, in part cuz of the Many Feelings you may encounter 🙃 a few reasons to log in: build a record of your contributions; easily add pages to your watchlist (the little lines-&-star thing in upper right, or "watchlist" at top in old look); avoid having your IP address logged, as happens with "anonymous" edits (tho in rare cases the WP:CheckUser team can check IPs for registered users); if someone disagrees with (or is grateful for!) your edit, they can tag you in a given article's talk page.
–– open your preferences (under upper right person); poke around all you want, but i highly recommend that you go to the editing tab & click "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary (or the default undo summary)" & then "save."
–– create a user page like this one! convenient places to stash tasks, goals, links & resources, etc. (you can use the edit summary: "created user page.")
–– create a sandbox: go to the upper righthand corner, click the arrow next to the little person silhouette, click "sandbox" (or just "sandbox" at top in old look), & then click "publish" (with edit summary: "created sandbox").
–– skim through the least overwhelming intro i've seen: WP:Eight simple rules for editing our encyclopedia.
FIRST STEPS! cite sources + edit summaries
[edit]–– always provide a *source* to verify content. start to type an opening ref tag:
<ref>
& a citation generator will pop up for you. i mostly hate the new editor, but the "automatic" citation generator is admittedly cool af: you just enter a url, click "generate" & "insert" –– & you'll automatically get a nice little in-line citation, like this one to an article i want to read later.[1] (of course real citations should always immediately follow the fact for which you're giving a source!) some sources may require manual entry, which should still be straightforward in new editor. if you're using the same source for multiple sentences, you can either simply copy/paste it, or reopen the citation generator –– again, that's left angle bracket (<) followed by "ref" –– & click the "re-use" tab.
–– always provide an edit summary. (if you didn't already do so when reading it above, head to preferences & check that "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" to ensure you remember!) an edit summary should be short & succinct; common possibilities include: "+ refs," (if you've just added sources), "typo," "cleanup" (if you haven't actually changed / added / subtracted from the content or meaning, are just making fixes for grammar, cohesion & coherence, etc.; you can also specify "cleanup for [redundant language, tone, etc.]"), "added [xxx]" ...just convey what you changed –– & why, if the latter could reasonably be questioned. if your changes require further explanation, you can also include "see talk page" in your edit summary & add a longer note there.
you may choose to mark your edit as "minor," but only if you're sure: a minor edit "is one that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute" (per Help:Minor edit); examples are fixing typos, spelling corrections, & layout errors. while this is an option, you should err on the side of not marking edits "minor," because some users don't see minor edits on their watch page. (a lesson for me, too: i've often clicked "minor" when adding references, but apparently this is incorrect, whoops!)
sources
[edit]wikipedia's all about using WP:Reliable sources; these are some spots i check when looking for material. if you want to check a specific site for mentions of a given person or topic, you can google like this:
"thing you're searching" site:nytimes.com
with any one of a number of sites you might use instead of The New York Times, including:
All About Jazz • AllMusic.com • Bandcamp Daily • The Brooklyn Rail • The Chicago Reader • The Chicago Tribune • Decibel Magazine • DownBeat • FADER • The Free Jazz Collective • The Guardian • Impose Magazine • Jazz Journalists Association • JazzTimes • Jazzwise • Magnet • New Sounds • The New Yorker • The New York City Jazz Record • NPR Music • Observer • Pitchfork • PopMatters • Post-Trash • The Quietus • Revolver • Rolling Stone • SPIN • TimeOut • Tiny Mix Tapes • Vice • The Village Voice • The Wall Street Journal • The Wire • WQXR
start editing!!
[edit]–– glance around the WikiProject Jazz Cleanup List (bot-generated, compliments Bamyers99)
––––– a few articles tagged for lacking sources/citations, a great place to start (if there's no template at the top, search the page for "citation"): Susan Alcorn • Lotte Anker • Christine Correa • Dave Burrell • Sylvie Courvoisier • Melvin Gibbs • Robert Glasper • Henry Grimes • Joëlle Léandre • Eric Person • Kendrick Scott • Jamaaladeen Tacuma • James Blood Ulmer • Hisham Bharoocha
––––– quick priority fix (only needs 2 fixes to clear templates; search for "vague" & "citation"): Nina Simone
––––– a few articles that could be expanded: Daniel Carter (musician) • Gerald Cleaver (musician) • Fay Victor • Okkyung Lee
keep in mind
[edit]wiki's (3) core content policies:
[edit]• NEUTRAL POINT OF VIEW (WP:NPOV): don't use "peacock" or promotional language & don't editorialize. you show that an artist is notable & deserving of inclusion by using simple language & giving links to solid sources; if the page sounds like a press release, you're doing it wrong.
• VERIFIABILITY (WP:V): if an article is written correctly, there's a link to a reliable source confirming the information. nyc-noise.com would not be considered a reliable source––& that's TOTES FINE! sites serve different functions; a resource can be "reliable" enough for its community, but still not be appropriate for citation. relatedly...
• NO ORIGINAL RESEARCH (WP:NOR): no one cares if you ~know the guy~ or saw the thing or whatever if you can't "prove" it using a reliable source.
nyc noise's (3) core content policies:
[edit]• CONSIDER BIASES (NYCN:CB): who do you think to cover first, & why? do you need to add a section for Unnamed White Guy's effects pedals (THIS IS REAL!!! THIS IS A REAL THING ON A PAGE HERE!!!!!), or could your energy go toward improving other articles?
• AVOID HARM: this can be taken 12 million ways & i mean all of them; use yr imagination & act accordingly.
• APPRECIATE LABOR: every time you cite an article or review to establish notability, verify the existence or reception of a work, whatever, take a minute & be like, oh damn, i'm glad this exists!!! quiet thanks 2 person who wrote the thing, cuz they probably didn't get paid much!!
b*tch tips
[edit]• "CONTRIBUTE" BEFORE YOU "CREATE" // seriously so many Important People have total sh*tshow articles, go help
• ffs DO NOT write your own wiki article // they're clamping down on this (hurray!), & if you get caught it can get embarrassingggg
• no one cares about your ~deep thoughts~ // if you want to break out your own Brilliant Analysis or use Flowery Language, plz get a tumblr!!!
• "being great" ≠ notable; being known ~in the scene~ ≠ notable
"If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list." –– wikipedia general notability guideline
there are issues w/ notability guidelines when we live in a world where some people receive less substantive coverage than others & I GET IT, okay––but if very few reliable sources (again: not interviews! not blogs!) confirm facts about the artist, you're better off taking your time w/ research or trying to publish a review / feature yourself.
dweeby fun thing
[edit]–– give yr page a lil userbox or 5! type a couple curly brackets & the "template search" will pop up; then you can paste in template names like the following:
{{User Wikiproject Jazz}} {{User Copy Edit}} {{User Typo Team}} {{User WikiProject Women in Red}}{{User WikiProject Afro}} {{User WP Musicians}} {{User WikiProject Electronic music}} {{User WikiProject Record Labels}}
to get things like:
![]() | This user is a participant in WikiProject Jazz. |
(only showing 1 cuz i have no idea how to make these stack neatly using the visual editor lol, will work on it)
in some cases, adding the userbox will also automatically add you to a given project's list of participants (e.g., WikiProject Jazz participants).
creating new articles
[edit]remember, you'll work on new article drafts in your sandbox! that's a spot where you can mess around & "publish" whatever & no one's gonna fuss at you about it; ideally you should have someone who knows what they're doing look over your article before you try to move it to the main space, & you should definitely spend some time editing existing articles before creating a brand new one!
if you're ready (or at least want to start drafting), the easiest way to create a new article is to find an article that looks GREAT & strip it for parts!! :D ...no but seriously, in my Early Wiki Days i would just paste entire existing articles into my sandbox & then slowly delete & replace with relevant content; it's still not the worst!!
for biographies of musicians, there are also some handy...
article guidelines
[edit]following is condensed from WikiProject Musicians: Article guidelines (most artists won't need the sections following "career/history" & preceding "discography"):
- Lead – a summary of the article, as guided by WP:LEAD; infobox placed here (see: Template:Infobox musical artist)
- Early life/Origins – covering parents, birth, childhood and significant developments up to start of career – or the forming of the band if the article is on a band
- Career/History – events relevant to the musical career and/or events that sprung from it – for example movie cameos, modelling
- Subheadings that divide the career by era, album, musical changes, etc.
- ... some musicians have significant works that may be worth dealing with in a separate section, though usually significant works are dealt with as a sub-section of the Career/History section, so they remain in chronological order
- Influence – a summary of the impact and importance of the musician/band
- Musical style – a summary of the sort of music played/written/performed by the musician/band – if the music style was new, then it should be also mentioned in Legacy
- Death - if the artist's death is notable, and there is enough material, a separate section may be created and placed at the end of the career section(s); otherwise, the artist's death is dealt with in the final Career section, and may be mentioned in the title as in "Later life and death"
- Discography – see below
- Awards
- Award categorization (either by year, or by award – Grammy, MTV Music Award, Oscar)
- Notes – per WP:Inline Citations
- References – per WP:CITE
- External links – see below and WP:External links
articles to create
[edit]• for ideas, you can check out Chubbles' list of missing American music
–– these are people, labels, venues, etc. who only have articles in the german-language wiki; unfortunately it's rarely as easy as just translating what already exists, as many of these articles lack adequate citations, but it's a place to start! a few: Sarah Bernstein (musician) (de:Sarah Bernstein) • Michael Evans (musician) (de:Michael Evans (Musiker)) • Tomas Fujiwara (de:Tomas Fujiwara) • James Brandon Lewis (de:James Brandon Lewis) • Brandon Lopez (de:Brandon Lopez) • Aquiles Navarro (de:Aquiles Navarro) • Adam O’Farrill (de:Adam O’Farrill) • Mette Rasmussen (de:Mette Rasmussen) • Catherine Sikora (de:Catherine Sikora)
other article-writing references
[edit]• Wikipedia:Writing better articles
newbies!!
[edit]lemme know if you wanna help with "this" (???) &/or just otherwise be added here! maybe i will make us USERBOXES hmmm
references
[edit]- ^ Gertner, Jon (2023-07-18). "Wikipedia's Moment of Truth". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-25.