User talk:JosephGJohnson

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Hello, JosephGJohnson, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! - Denimadept (talk) 18:11, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

May 2010[edit]

Your recent edit to the page Old Blenheim Bridge appears to have added incorrect information and has been reverted or removed. All information in this encyclopedia must be verifiable in a reliable, published source. If you believe the information that you added was correct, please cite the references or sources or before making the changes, discuss them on the article's talk page. Please use the sandbox for any tests that you wish to make. Do take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thank you. - Denimadept (talk) 18:11, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{helpme}} As a new wikipedian I recently attempted my first edit. I admittedly botched this ( I find the structural aspects of editing the wiki less than intuitive, onerous even, though this may have more to do with the way I process information than anything else. ) My attempt at this minor edit, was simply to correct a common error, one so common it is the root of the problem. The bridgewright who framed Blenhiem is often misidentified as Nicholas as an a is for some reason often added to his less than common first name of Nichols. I attempted to cite new material - though reference 6 already is correct and is there to cite - but am having trouble doing so. How do I add this journal to the reference list? http://commonground.cr.nps.gov/pdf/CG_Winter_04.pdf Thanks for your patience and for what you do. JosephGJohnson (talk) 22:15, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. I've revised the article with your new reference. It would have been difficult for someone new to WP to get that one. For details relating to {{cite book}} you can click the link I just included. In general, templates can be looked up using the search box with "template:whatever" for the "whatever" template.

In this particular case, we have conflicting references. Two references already present in the article say his name was "Nicholas Powers", and yours from HAER, says otherwise. This is strange, because the Jackson book was written by a guy who worked for HAER for several years, so I'd think he'd get it right. Yet I would expect a senator from Vermont would also get it right. Still, someone who worked at HAER for several years gets my vote on this kind of topic over a politician. The only proper way to handle this is to accept both names and cite all references, as I figure it. I would like to know where Hon. Jeffords found his name spelled "Nichols", since both Jackson, of HAER/HABS and Dillon, of NRHP, spelled it otherwise. Now that I look, there's a 3rd existing reference which spells it with the "a". gah. - Denimadept (talk) 14:17, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks much! If we wished to even up the citations to nullify this all too common error we could cite some of Joseph Conwill's works, or this paper in which he cites having read Mr Powers own papers http://www.uvm.edu/coveredbridges/papers/conwill.htm JosephGJohnson (talk) 15:45, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It gets worse. I did a search on "Nicholas Powers" and got Brown Covered Bridge. If he did many bridges, it might be worth writing an article about him, and referring to it in these bridge articles. - Denimadept (talk) 17:38, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It does get worse, the Brown is in the town Powers is buried in. I must travel across VT in the coming weeks and plan to photograph his headstone, and visit the Brown. It is my intent to write an article and could use a collaborator. His bridgewrighting career lasted forty three years, and a number of his spans survive. I believe he is pictured here (pointing with the cane - he is said to have broken his leg on this project) talking to Geo Parker, the project engineer - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PWB_Railroad_Susquehanna_Bridge_1866.jpg JosephGJohnson (talk) 20:10, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We really could use an article about this guy, with a decent picture of him as such. I'm "into" bridges, and have done a good deal with such articles, but biographies have specific standards and are not really my focus. I recommend checking out a biography of a bridge builder and using that as a template. - Denimadept (talk) 23:05, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Gilpin's Falls[edit]

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, your addition of one or more external links to the page Gilpin's Falls Covered Bridge has been reverted.
Your edit here was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline from Wikipedia. The external link you added or changed is on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. I removed the following link(s): http://cecilcounty.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/joseph-george-johnson-built-covered-bridge-that-stood-test-of-time/.
If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 11:44, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I can appreciate the reasoning in excluding external links, though in this instance it leaves a bit of a quandary. The builder of the Gilpin's and his name have almost been lost to history, overshadowed by the work of some the nineteenth centuries best known bridgewrights who built long span bridges over the Susquehanna with one portal there in Cecil County MD. I know of no other source material to cite for the history of the bridge or the name if its builder, but this local Cecil county historians blog. Why was the other added information also reverted, yet some recent self-aggrandizing edits were left unchallenged? JosephGJohnson (talk) 17:12, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's a problem. See the link provided by the bot to figure out how to work with WP on this. I'm sure there's a way.

A few minor issues. When replying to a comment, preface your reply with ":". If there's already one there before the comment you're replying to, use two. If there are two, use three, unless the indenting gets silly, in which case start over and add "(outdent)" at the beginning of your comment. Also, when adding to a list, such as with your external link, items are preceded with a "*". Just tryin' to bring you up to speed regarding WP conventions. :-D - Denimadept (talk) 23:05, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have reverted the bot, and given a more extensive answer on the its talkpage. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 08:38, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Covered Bridge[edit]

Thanks for your kind words - in some ways it is easier to write an article on one covered bridge than on the whole topic. I have been fortunate to have found many sources - I think there are several more covered bridge articles I can improve to GA or FA. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 14:14, 11 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]