User talk:EconomicsGuy/Noxia

Latest comment: 16 years ago by EconomicsGuy in topic Question

This page is for communication with my adoptee.

Hi EconomicsGuy. My interests in Wikipedia (for now) lie in the Wikify project and in copy editing. I have found that I need primary help in learning the wiki syntax; so if you could point me to a good page to start with, that would be terrific. Noxia (talk) 17:42, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hi! The best place to start is the cheatsheet and how to edit a page. Once you have read that you may want to take a look at The manual of style. The manual can be pretty heavy reading so you may want to take a look at what others are doing by simply looking at the source of some existing articles. That's how I learned it. Also, there is the guide to layout and Help:Editing. The last one is pretty much a summary of some of the longer ones. Table syntax can be quite difficult if you are new to editing webpages in general but take a look at Help:Table.
I'll try not to get in your way so you don't feel like I'm lecturing you but I do review your edits and report back to you if I see anything that we need to talk about. Other than that just consider me am easy way to get help! I see you joined a project already which is a great idea! If by mistake you should get into conflict with anyone feel free to refer them to me in case I don't notice it first. We do have strict policies about not biting the new editors here so there shouldn't be any problems but just to be sure I'll be there if anything should happen. The great thing is that as an editor you can't break anything so everything can be reverted but make sure you use the preview button and continue to use edit summaries like you do now. Cheers, EconomicsGuy (talk) 18:35, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

First undo edit

Take a look at Harold Long. It looks like the edit recently done by 76.214.54.116 is vandalism. I followed the undo link to replace the previous article. Did I do it right? Noxia (talk) 21:38, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

I would also like to wikify that same article, however, I will wait until you approve the undo just in case I did something wrong. Also, the article I am referring to is actually Harold G. Long. There is also an article on Harold Long. Yet, there is no disambiguation page for these two names (or a link on each page to the other). How do I do that and which option would be correct (a disambiguation page, or a link on each article pointing to the other)? Noxia (talk) 21:40, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hi! The undo was correct and I can't believe it wasn't corrected until now. Good job spotting that! It seems to need quite a lot of work so there is plenty for you to do on that article.
To create fix the ambiguation issue you move the Harold Long article to something like Harold Young (Politician). You do this by using the move tab next to the history tab above the article. Once you do that it creates a redirect from Harold Young to Harold Young (Politician). Now, to setup the disambiguation page you click the Harold Young link and let it redirect you to Harold Young (Politician). Once you have done this you will now notice a blue link back to Harold Young right beneath the article title at the top of the article. If you click that it takes you to the actual redirect page which you can then edit like any other article. Look at Scandinavian for an example of a disambiguation page. Click edit and look at the source code. You will notice the template {{disambig}} at the bottom of the article. Remember to put that at the bottom of your disambiguation page as well. If you do anything wrong it can all be reverted, including the move.
The disambiguation is the best idea as I would imagine that quite a lot of people could be named Harold Long. Cheers, EconomicsGuy (talk) 23:58, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
I created the disamig page for Harold Long and moved the first page. However, I did not name the disambig page Harold Long (disambiguation). But I did fix the otherpersons tags at the top of the two Harold Long articles. How did I do? Noxia (talk) 17:00, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
Perfect! I'm amazed you could follow my instructions - I just read it again and realized just how tired I must have been when I wrote that. EconomicsGuy (talk) 17:29, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Redirect edit

How do I create a redirect? For instance: If a user navigates to Harold Mitchum, Wikipedia should redirect them to Harold M. Mitchum. Thanks Noxia (talk) 21:44, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

To do that go to Harold Mitchum and choose to create the article. The only content should then be #REDIRECT [[Harold M. Mitchum]] This will create the redirect. Remember to use an edit summary to explain why you created the redirect and you should be fine! Cheers, EconomicsGuy (talk) 00:02, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
On second thought don't do that. The article was previously speedy deleted for not asserting the importance of the subject. You will have to either find some reliable sources that show non-trivial coverage or I'm afraid the article will get speedy deleted again. EconomicsGuy (talk) 10:09, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, I am working on that article now. Noxia (talk) 17:01, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Question edit

I became somewhat curious after reading the above. If you use Google to look this up there are at least some good sources to be found to establish importance of the two people whose bios you are interested in. Do you want us to work on those so that they will at the very least require a deletion debate before they can be deleted? I think that would be a good learning process and may possibly rescue these articles as well. Look at Shimabuku Tatsuo for something we could use as a skeleton for those two articles. EconomicsGuy (talk) 10:28, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is exactly what I am doing for now (creating my own article and such). I am learning the syntax of creating the page (with external links and footnotes, etc.). Slowly, but surely, I am working :) Noxia (talk) 17:02, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
Sounds good. Did you read the page on reliable sources? You should also read WP:BIO. They shouldn't be interpreted too literarily but the general idea is that there should be two references or more to non-trivial coverage by independent reliable sources. They can be anything - the web, books, magazines - as long as they are reliable and independent. My search on Google looked promising so I'm sure that can be done. EconomicsGuy (talk) 17:36, 21 January 2008 (UTC)Reply