User talk:Smbateman

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Smbateman, 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:

The five pillars of Wikipedia
Tutorial
How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
Manual of Style

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! Aboutmovies (talk) 07:42, 11 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

ISO/RTO

Hello Smbateman, welcome to Wikipedia, and thank you for the work you have been putting into the article on ISO/RTO. I see you have tagged this article as being a "work in progress page, not an article". Since this is so, it should really be edited in your own user space rather than in the main article space, and then moved out into main space when it is complete, so I am moving it to User:Smbateman/ISO/RTO for now. JamesBWatson (talk) 15:27, 15 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for correcting my newbie mistake! I admit, I get a bit confused even when trying to follow the wiki instructions. That being said, perhaps you can offer some assistance. This article is ready for public consumption I believe but I'm not sure what's proper to do next based, in part, on these points:

The ISO/RTO article, in my opinion, should replace both these articles: Independent System Operator and Regional Transmission Organization
The Independent System Operator article has a substantial edit history that should probably be maintained. In addition, those contributing authors should have some say in the matter.
The Regional Transmission Organization article has a few amboxes, one of them being my dispute.
As this is my first full contribution, I would like a "second set of eyes" to review my article in order to ensure I made proper use of template tags and such

I've read the page Wikipedia:Article_message_boxes but will admit, I'm still a bit confused and slightly intimidated that I'll do something stupid in the public forum. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Smbateman (talk) 20:47, 16 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have looked at the two other articles you have mentioned, and their talk pages. It is clear to me that something needs to be done: Regional Transmission Organization in particular seems to have a number of problems. I am not an expert on this, so my first thought was to stay away. However, sometimes it can actually help for an outsider to look at what is going on, so I shall try to find time over the next few days to examine all three articles and the talk pages, and see what I think. At present I see no serious problem with using your draft as the basis of a merged article.

You are quite right in thinking the edit history of the existing articles needs to be considered, but I shouldn't worry about letting contributing authors have a say in the matter: Wikipedia editors do not own their contributions, and an editor who has edited an article has no more rights over its future than any other editor. If they are watching the articles they will be aware of the discussion, and free to join in, while if they are not watching it, then they have left it. It is reasonable to think that recent editors of an article might like to have a say in any major change to it, but anyone who edited it years ago and has not returned to it does not need to be given special consideration.

I will let you know what I think when I have had time to consider it.

By the way, you mention being "confused and slightly intimidated that [you]'ll do something stupid in the public forum". We are all confused at first, and I would far rather have someone a little hesitant than someone who doesn't care, and just rides roughshod over anyone else. However, don't be too frightened: even if you do something wrong it can always be put right, so be willing to be bold. JamesBWatson (talk) 13:29, 17 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]