Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:35, 30 August 2006

see Misplaced Pages:Citation templates

Welcome!

Hello, Edison, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Misplaced Pages
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Misplaced Pages:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  _└/_talk 21:11, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Formatting

Hi there, Edison! I noticed that you left a question at Talk:List of years in television and apologized that your question showed up in a box. I have fixed the formatting. The "secret" is quite simple—if you insert a leading space before text, it will be enboxed. Remove the space—the box goes away too. Like this (see source for exact formatting):

This is in a box.

This is not.

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you need further assistance—I'll be only happy to provide it.—Ëzhiki (ërinacëus amurënsis) • (yo?); 12:09, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Your questions

We don't normally insert notes in the text (such as in your Smith example), although if you do so, it would be better than nothing and eventually someone will fix it for you. To do the things properly, you best starting point would be WP:CITE, which is a Misplaced Pages style guide that explains when and how to cite sources, and what kinds of sources are acceptable. The footnotes system is explained in detail at Misplaced Pages:Footnotes; you can use it if you like it, but there are also other acceptable citation methods. For an example of an article with footnotes (so you can see how the formatting works in practice) see Flag of Australia—it's as good of an article as any. All other featured articles are also extensively sourced, so you can use them as examples as well. And, of course, you can add the page numbers in the footnotes if you need to—that's perfectly acceptable.

If you are really unsure about how to add and/or format the sources you used, you can always dump your side file to the article's talk page or in the article's "References" section. This way you wouldn't have to keep them locally, and if someone has a question about sources used they can always see them on the talk page.

As for the copyrights, please see WP:COPY—it's an official policy that should answer your question. If it doesn't, you can ask a question on that policy's talk page, so people who are more knowledgeable in these matters could answer it.

All in all, as long as you provide references in some form (any form), it is better than having no references at all. Also, do try to format your contributions, but don't bother too much about fine formatting details while you are still new around here—it's the content that matters. There are plenty of volunteers who will fix formatting for you, and you will get it all after a while. Rome wasn't built in one day :)

Lastly, if you need a place to experiment, use the communal sandbox, or you can always create your own sandbox in your userspace (e.g., at User:Edison/Sandbox).

Hopefully I was able to help. Please don't hesitate to contact me again if something is still unclear. Happy editing!—Ëzhiki (ërinacëus amurënsis) • (yo?); 14:37, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Footnote EVERYTHING

We have both edited the Skull and Bones article recently, and now the AP article on the 1918 letter has a number with a link to Common Dreams, but another listing as a reference. I am very new to Wiki editing, but I wonder if you agree that there should be a reference to what work and what page a fact comes from. If I find something in an old book which lacks an index, the reader or subsequent editor can't be expected to read through 500 pages to see where the fact is. Even worse, most articles just have some clickable links at the end with no indication of which fact is backed up by which link, On top of that the links may go dead or may change over time. So far I have kept notes offline as to what backup I have for what assertion, but that would require that I actively monitor each article I edit to jump in and defend any disputed edit. In controversial topics, that makes it likely that the truth will be edited back out. Thoughts?Edison 14:26, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I am incredibly big into footnoting things, usually I would footnote the commondreams (acutally AP) article with the <ref> tags, but I was lazy. For examples of some of the articles which I have wrote or contributed heavily too, see Plan Colombia (43 footnotes), the Lodge committee(50 footnotes), or Business Plot (23 footnotes). I find that footnotes are the best way to avoid an edit war, especially since my views are very far left liberal and unpopular with most Americans. In an edit war I always win by out reference people.

I am very new to Wiki editing, but I wonder if you agree that there should be a reference to what work and what page a fact comes from. Absolutly, in fact on any edit, notice the verifiable in any edit you make. Everything that we write as wikipedians should be referenced.

Please see my user page. You are welcome to add this items to your page.

I always attempt first though to verify something myself. Through google print, amazon print,and my JSTOR/lexis nexis accout through my school.

If I can't find it there, I will add {{fact}} to the sentences which are unreferenced. {{unref}} for an entire section. If people object and attempt to erase the {{fact}} . I will remind them about verifiable.

I will then cut and paste the sentence/paragraph and explain on the talk page that if the sentence or paragraph is not referenced, I will erase it in one week. If no one verifies the information within a week, I erase it.

"On top of that the links may go dead or may change over time." The {{cite web}} found on my user page and Misplaced Pages:Template messages/Sources of articles allows a person to add an access date. If the link is dead, cut and paste the link and go to archives.org and paste the link. If the link is not on archive.org, delete the link and add a {{fact}}.

anyway, I could write more, but this is probably more than you asked for, any questions or comments, let me know. Most wikipedians--the majority are lazy and never add references. This should be required, and I am glad that you are doing this yourself.Travb 15:54, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey Edison, the converstaion at Business Plot has gone pretty cold, just to let you know if no one responds to you. Travb (talk) 01:51, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Citation needed

Just a note, instead of adding Citation needed to articles, add {{Citation needed}}. (using {{ }} calls upon a template) Thanks, AndyZ 01:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Henry and Lowe

Thank you very much for your note on Henry's article. This edit was done when I was first writing for wikipedia, and my exuberance did find me overwriting articles. There's obviously something more to Prof. Henry than his electrical work. He seemed to be a highly revered man of science with great influence around Washington. For the fact that he became very involved with Lowe prior to and during the war is of great significance, especially if he is an electrical scientist working with a gasman like Lowe. His letter to Cameron is of particular interest because he is a man of science and not just an "electrician." (I say with tongue in cheek.) He had a similar letter written to Capt Whipple of the Topographical Engineers, Lowe's first assignment, digging into the nuts and bolts of ballooning with the intent of influencing him to retain Lowe's services. He had the whole of the scientific community interested in Lowe's projects. But I am not so married to the article that I can't see the section edited. So feel free to truncate it.

By the way! Prof. Lowe was extremely proficient working around the volatile gas. Hydrogen has a rise rate of 400 feet per second, so with the envelope well over his head, he was not wafting around in a cloud of hydrogen gas where a telegraph spark might do a Hindenburg on him. He used to go up in the dark using his oxyhydrogen lamps to light his inflation procedures. That's alot of hydrogen gas, but Lowe's safety record was impeccable.

Thanks again! Magi Media 03:04, 13 June 2006 (UTC)Magi Media

Moses Gerrish Farmer

I want to somehow create links so that when one searches for "Moses Farmer" or "Moses G. Farmer" they will see this article, currently titled "Moses Gerrish Farmer." I would like to change the article title to "Moses G. Farmer" since I have seen many references to him where the middle name was not spelled out. He was not like Thomas Alva Edison or Franklin Delano Roosevelt in that sense. The man's middle name is in the title, and it was seldom used and little known, so searches for "Moses Farmer" just give articles mentioning "Moses" and/or "farmers". Likewise, a search for "Farmer, Moses" does not lead to the article. This is a general problem with article titles in Misplaced Pages.

Thanks! Edison 20:01, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I am in the process of making the changes that you requested. For future reference, if you wish to move a page, click Move at the top of the page that you wish to be moved. This will bring you to a screen where you woill enter the new name of the page and why you are omoving it. This will automatically create a redirect link on the old page to autpomatically bing you to the new page when you try to go to the old one. I am also removing the helpme from your page. Contact me if you have any more questions. --No1lakersfan 20:09, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Redirects. create a moses farmer page with the text #REDIRECT ]. Also, hit up the Moses (disambiguation) disambig and put in a reference too. -- ∞Wirelain 20:09, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Need assistance

I created a new article, Frederick De Cordova. But when doing TV he always used the name "Fred De Cordova". I need a search for either name to lead to the article "Frederick De Cordova" but I do not want to move or rename the article. How do I make the additional title lead to the article? ThanksEdison 18:57, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

You should always name the articles after the most common name that the person goes by. If he is creditted as "Frederick De Cordova" then the article should use that name. If he is creditted as "Fred De Cordova" then you can move the article to that name, and the old name will redirect to the new one. Ryūlóng 19:03, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

As you can see, IMDb uses Frederick De Cordova for his page, and you may want to link that name by using the {{imdb-name}} template. Ryūlóng 19:05, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

There's an easier way to avoid moving the article. Just go to Fred De Cordova and type #REDIRECT ]. That should fix it. Ryūlóng 19:35, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Listcruft

You can find info on listcruft here. It is a term employed quite often in the Articles for Deletion section of Misplaced Pages. In this particular case, I nominated the article because it was originally nothing more than a random list of songs. --cholmes75 15:15, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

One Finger Salute

Hey Edison, what would you think of moving that video to a separate section. It isnt a speech, and under the right section, I dont see any issue with the video itself. AuburnPilot 23:35, 30 August 2006 (UTC)