User talk:Gjdorner

AfD nomination of Samuel Kinkead

I have nominated Samuel Kinkead, an article you created, for deletion. I do not think that this article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Samuel Kinkead. Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time.  Ravenswing  20:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Your recent edits

Hi there. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. If you can't type the tilde character, you should click on the signature button located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your name and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. Thank you! --SineBot (talk) 23:58, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome!

Welcome to wikipedia. I'm sorry that your first experience with wikipedia happened to be such a negative one. While almost all of the oldest wikipedia articles started their life as mere stubs, it is a much harder feat for that to happen today. Part of this is hubris. People who contribute to wikipeida's inner workings every day assume that new users must obviously understand all of the ins and outs of this pretty massive encyclopedia. Part of it is a result of the size of wikipedia. As the encyclopedia has grown, vandalism and introduction of unrelated content has increased. Wikipedians have responded to this organically through something called the New Page Patrol. These volunteers check each and every new page created. Unfortunately in their zeal they often forget that people contribute in good faith. Your case was certainly one of those. The community (as you can see from the deletion discussion) will usually move to support a day old article on a subject which obviously has had some press coverage in the past.

There is plenty of room for new pages on World War II and World War I Aces. Wikipedia's inclusion guideline, notability, means that the community is interested in keeping articles whose subject has been covered by multiple secondary sources. For a British recipient of the DSO or a DFC, this may include the London Gazette article noting his award. It will also obviously include any books on the broader subject. Suggestions that some award threshold exists for inclusion of a subject aren't accurate. There are specific guidelines for inclusions of biographies, but those are not intended to be extra hurdles for article creation. You don't need to show that he has been covered in independent sources and that he won a "notable" award. If you show that the subject has been the subject of coverage, that is enough.

Ok. I hope you like at least part of what you see here and that you stay. If you are interested, there are a number of projects that editors have started which could use your help, most notably the Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history. They are a collection of volunteers interested in editing, reviewing and sorting Military History articles. You can find peer-reviewers there, resources and templates. You will also find a group of people who share your interests and some who share experiences similar to yours. It is a well run project and an active project. You may find that you like it.

If you have any questions about articles, how wikipedia works, editing, or anything else, please feel free to ask me on my talk page or to place the text {{Help me}} on your talk page and another user will stop by shortly. DGG is also very helpful and friendly (as are many people on wikipedia, even the editor who nominated your page for deletion!). Alternately, I will "watchlist" this talk page and so if you reply here I will answer any question you may have. Thanks for your time and again, welcome to Wikipedia. Protonk (talk) 00:30, 20 September 2008 (UTC)