Debra71

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Debra71, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions, especially what you did for Elmer Bernstein. 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! Omarcheeseboro (talk) 13:48, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Some help

Debra, I can see by some of your edits that you might be a little confused about Wikipedia, and that's ok - pretty normal in fact.

One of Wikipedia's key concepts is verifiability, which is even more important on any article about a living person. Any time you make what could be considered to be a substantial change to a biography, you need a reliable, third party source to back it up. For example, changing a birthdate is quite possibly substantial (you should see the longlasting fights at Nikki Minaj!). The Eddie Money article has had anonymous editors changing birthdates and other information quite randomly over the years, with no sources. When a brand-new account arrives and does the exact same thing, it looks a little fishy.

Drmies is an administrator on Wikipedia - chosen by the community due in part to his knowledge of policy. He, like the other 1000+ admins have to keep very close eyes on biographies. Unsourced substantial changes to biographies are dealt with a little more harshly than other issues, due to the possible repercussions. Yes, administrators (and only administrators) have been known to block for repeated edits to biographies that appear problematic. I personally do not think you were ever in any danger of getting blocked - the templated warnings on biographies always start out a little more "harsh" in tone.

In the case of the Eddie Money article, you were indeed likely acting in good faith - which would have been "stronger" if you had a) used a descriptive edit summary when you changed the birthdate, and b) made a citation to a reliable source (by the way, their own websites are not usually considered reliable - believe it or not!).

You have a few links to key policies at the top of this page ... free to review those, and also visit the Teahouse where you can ask questions and get help. Good luck in your editing! (✉→BWilkins←✎) 12:38, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Debra71. You have new messages at Drmies's talk page.
Message added 14:43, 22 February 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Drmies (talk) 14:43, 22 February 2013 (UTC)