Bill Cole

Welcome, Bill Cole! Hello, Bill Cole, and welcome to Wikipedia! 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 How to write a great article Manual of Style You might also find these policies and guidelines useful: What do we mean if we say that you might have a Conflict of Interest? What do we mean by Neutral Point of View? What sources are counted as reliable? What makes the subject of an article notable? Why was my page deleted? An essay containing a List of bad article ideas I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Getting the articles just right can be tricky - but there are lots of people to ask! If you have any questions check out Wikipedia:Questions. There are several ways of getting help: Leave a message on this page. It is on my watchlist, which means that I can see when the page is changed! Leave a message on my talk page - just click on talk in my signature Go into IRC Channel #wikipedia-en-help Leave a message on this page starting with {{helpme}} followed by your question - someone in the IRC help room will be over as soon as possible Leave a question on the Help Desk or on the New Contributors' Help Page By the way, when you are writing on a discussion page (or someone's talk page), it is considered good manners to sign your comment... to do this, just add ~~~~ at the end of your comment. That will put your user name (Bill Cole) and the date/time at the end (or you can click on the icon when you are editing. Never sign on an article page - only on a discussion page. I am now going to sign below this box with my signature, by adding ~~~~ here:

-- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\21:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Your user name appears to be a real name. Our user name policy says here:

Use of a real name allows contributions to be more easily traced to an individual. This may make a contributor more vulnerable to issues such as harassment. You should consider the benefits and drawbacks of making substantial contributions under your real name before doing so, especially if you are interested in editing subjects which may be politically sensitive. While it is possible to rename accounts (see Changing your username), a record of the previous name will still exist.

Do not edit under the name of a well-known living person unless it is your real name, and you either are that well-known person or you make it clear that you are not. Such usernames may be blocked as a precaution.

If you have been blocked for using your real name, please don't take offense; we're trying to prevent somebody from impersonating you! You are welcome to use your real name, but in some cases, you will need to prove you are who you say you are. You can do this by sending an e-mail to info-en@wikimedia.org; be aware that the volunteer response team that handles e-mail is operated entirely by volunteers, and an immediate reply may not be possible.

If you are happy with using a real name for your account, then I hope you enjoy editing Wikipedia!

Regards, -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 21:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC)