Saborbie

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Welcome!

Hello, Saborbie, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:51, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Feedback from professor

Now that we've figured out our issues with the Wiki system, things are looking pretty good. I'd like you to revisit the exercises for this week, though, as you don't seem to have completed them. There are supposed to be a few things pertaining to choosing a single article to edit and adding citations, but I don't see that you've done these things. Review the module for this week to see what I'm talking about. I should see evidence in your user contributions that you've chosen a single article to edit (this should be the only thing assigned to you on the course page). Then I should see a list of potential sources you will consult listed somewhere in your sandbox. Finally, you are supposed to practice citations on Wikipedia by actually editing an article and adding a citation to your piece of additional information. Once you've done these things, you can get credit for this week's assignment. Abukun (talk) 20:12, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Mr. Abukun, thank you for telling me exactly what I was missing and how I could fix it. This clarity is appreciated as I've been a bit behind due to confusion. I've updated my sandbox, edited the Methodist Church Ghana article, and have added citations. Please check let me know what I'm missing if anything, thank you!

I see your reviews, and they look good. However, you still have three articles assigned to yourself and should only have one. What article have you decided to work on? I'd suggest either Presbyterian Church of Ghana or Methodist Church Ghana, as they will be a bit more manageable. By this point, you should be expanding your article of choice each week, so I think it's time you kicked things into high gear. Also see the "finding a template" exercise I added to next week's tasks. Let me know if you have any questions! Abukun (talk) 17:57, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Article template

I'm glad you've found Presbyterian Church of Ghana to use as a template for your own article. However, note that the assignment asked you to find a Featured or Good Article to use as a template, as these are the articles the Wikipedia community has identified as the best of the best. I'd like you to find one of these to use as a template, as well, to ensure that you've got the best model to work toward. Abukun (talk) 20:53, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Incomplete DYK nomination

Hello! Your submission of Template:Did you know nominations/Methodist Church Ghana at the Did You Know nominations page is not complete; if you would like to continue, please link the nomination to the nominations page as described in step 3 of the nomination procedure. If you do not want to continue with the nomination, tag the nomination page with {{db-g7}}, or ask a DYK admin. Thank you. DYKHousekeepingBot (talk) 04:55, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Methodist Church Ghana

Hello! Your submission of Methodist Church Ghana at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! BlueMoonset (talk) 14:50, 27 April 2019 (UTC)

Feedback from professor

I'm glad to see you've expanded things this week. It's time for you to really get into this and expand, expand, expand! For instance, I don't see any attention to the history of the Methodist Church in Ghana, so that's something you definitely need to attend to. As we mentioned, you should use your identified article as a guideline for the kinds of information you need to add. Also, I saw that you tried to add an image to the article but it got removed. I agree with the person who removed it, but I think you should consider the techniques the Wiki tutorial explains to find other, more pertinent images. Good luck! Let's get to work on this! Abukun (talk) 20:16, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Yes sir, thank you for the suggestions and guidance. I got you!

Non-free content use

Thank you for contributing to Wikipedia. We always appreciate when users upload files. However, it appears that one or more of the files you have uploaded or added to a page, specifically User:Saborbie/sandbox, may fail our non-free policy. Most often, this involves editors uploading or using a copyrighted file of a living person. For other possible reasons, please read up on our Non-free criteria. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. -- Marchjuly (talk) 01:33, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

I'm not stealing any files MarchJuly, I'm expanding on a Wikipedia article. I'd appreciate it if you'd put the content that I'm expanding on back in my sandbox. If the content removed was previously a violation of wiki rules then I completely understand but if it became a violation when I put it in my sandbox then I believe you're incorrect in your revision. Let me know what you think.— Preceding unsigned comment added by ‎ Saborbie (talk • contribs) 01:53, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Nobody is accusing you of "stealing" any files. There are ten non-free content use criteria which need to be satisfied each time a non-free file like File:Methodist Church Ghana Logo.JPG is used on any Wikipedia page. One of these criteria is non-free content use criterion #9, which says that non-free content can only be used in the article namespace. This means such files cannot be used anywhere else such as your user sandbox (see Wikipedia:User pages#Non-free files for further reference). I removed the file once before about a month ago with this edit and left an edit summary explaining why, but you subsequently re-added it here. It's OK if you didn't notice my previous edit summary or understand why the file was removed the first time, and that is why I added the above notification after removing the file a second time. Now, that you are aware of the reasons why the file was removed, please don't re-add it or any other non-free files to your sandbox again.

As for the expansion to Methodist Church Ghana you're working on in your sandbox, you might want to consider WP:CAUTIOUS here and propose the changes you're hoping to make at Talk:Methodist Church Ghana before making them just to see what other editors think; this is not required, but it can sometimes prevent changes from being undone by another editor who may disagree with them. Moreover, the fact that some other students in your class are listed as "peers" really hasn't nothing to do with Wikipedia per se, but more to do with your class. On Wikipedia, peer review has a completely different meaning and is a more formal type of Wikipedia review. Your course's Wiki-Ed advisors are Helaine (Wiki Ed) and Ian (Wiki Ed), who are both experienced editors, and asking for their feedback before adding anything directly to the article might be a good thing to do.

Now, if you're copying-and-pasting content from the actual article into your sandbox so that you can work on it, then you need to make sure to properly attribute the source of the content as explained in WP:RUU and WP:PATT; similarly, if you copy-and-paste content from your sandbox that includes content originally created by others, you also need provide proper attribution. Wikipedia's licensing allows textual content to be free re-used and modified, but it requires that proper attribution be given.

Finally, not really related to the above, but please try and remember to always WP:SIGN your talk page posts. There are a number of ways to do so, but the easiest is probably WP:4TILDES. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:50, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Basically, this boils down the fact that you can't use a copyrighted or trademarked image in your sandbox. So when you are ready to start moving your work to the main Methodist Church Ghana article, you should just remove the little symbols around the name of the file (Methodist_Church_Ghana_Logo.JPG) so that it will show up.

As for being cautious, Marcjuly's suggestion is well taken, but also remember WP:BOLD, a much older policy. As long as you have been following the requirement of Wikipedia, you should do so! Abukun (talk) 19:28, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

@Saborbie: The logo is already being used in the Wikipedia article about the church; so, there’s no need to re-add it to the article. In fact, whatever new content is being added to the article should be added as separate edits; everything old and new from this sandbox shouldn’t really be copied-and-pasted in one big edit into the current article because doing so might actually and unintentionally undo edits made directly to the article itself by others while you’ve been working on things here in this sandbox. Another reason for breaking edits up is that “big” edits containing lots of changes being made for different reasons can be harder for others to assess and often are flagged for review. In some cases, “big” edits may even be undone by a WP:BOT if the bot “thinks” the edit has caused problems.

So, if you want to add something completely new (e.g. a new subsection) to the article which you created from scratch, it’s fine to be BOLD and copy and paste said content from this sandbox into the article; just try to break the edits up (i.e. add one section at a time) and make sure you leave a clearly worded edit summary explaining why. Mentioning in your edit summary that the content has been moved from your user sandbox will also be helpful. Now, if you’re BOLD and another editor WP:REVERTS all or some of the changes you made, follow WP:BRD and discuss things on the article’s talk page.

On the other hand, if the improvements you want to make are to already existing article content (e.g. editorial corrections) or include content you didn’t fully write yourself (e.g. content found in other articles which was written by other editors), then make those changes directly to the article and make sure you properly attribute anything written by other editors. Just leave an edit summary explaining why you’re making the edit. Once again, if your changes are reverted or further revised by another editor, follow BRD and discuss on the article’s talk page if you want to know why. — Marchjuly (talk) 20:52, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Please stop adding File:Methodist Church Ghana Logo.JPG to User:Saborbie/sandbox. The file has been previously removed multiple times and messages have been left above explaining that non-free files cannot be used in your user sandbox. If there's something about this you don't understand, then feel free to ask below or at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. You can even ask your teacher Abukun or your Wiki Ed advisor Ian (Wiki Ed) for help as well. If you keep inappropriately adding non-free content to pages, not only will the content just end up removed from the page, but an administrator is eventually going to step in and take action to stop you from doing so again. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:41, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Please listen to this advice. It's important. It's also a correct statement of Wikipedia's policies. Please email me at ianwikiedu.org if you want to discuss this more. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:10, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Review of article

As you near the completion of your article, be sure that your lead section acts as a summary of the whole article body. Currently, your lead only includes historical information, but it should also cover the other subjects, like services, etc., just in overview form.

Your history section is shaping up nicely. I think it needs a line of context at the beginning, though. Was Gold Coast a British colony in 1835? Why was it so attractive to missionaries? You say it was the “perfect place to evangelize an African audience” — why? What made it perfect? You also say that after six months, “the Methodist Church Ghana arose.” What do you mean by “arose”? You mean, the first church was founded? Or something else? Be much more specific here.

In the next paragraph: What are circuits and districts? Define these terms as Methodism defines them. And was Freeman known as the Patriarch of Ghanaian Methodism at the time? If not, say that the name was given to him much later in life, not when he was chairman. Also, what’s the synod? Define this briefly. Was the district called “Gold Coast (Ghana) District” or just “Gold Coast District”? Remove the Ghanas until the country is officially called that so you don’t inadvertently introduce anachronisms.

Add a note in the next paragraph about when Ghana became independent. This was presumably when the name changed from Methodist Church Gold Coast to Methodist Church Ghana, which is important to note.

Your practices section is good, but I have to wonder how different are these practices from Methodism in general? I think you need to focus this section on what makes Methodist Church Ghana unique and different. Otherwise, you’re just retreading the main Methodist Church article. What you might do is perhaps say something like, “Methodist churches in Ghana follow the same general worship practices as Methodist churches in other parts of the world. Worship is on Sunday, and blah blah blah. But you don’t need to go into intimate detail about the services and hymns if they are just virtually identical to the services and hymns of other Methodist churches in the US and elsewhere.

Your hymns and liturgy paragraphs are great (they don’t need their own sections unless you beef them up a lot more). This is what I’m talking about; you say what’s unique about hymns and liturgy in Ghanaians Methodism versus other forms of Methodism. Do the same with church services.

Also watch the way you write things. Just write present tense. Don’t say “the Bible would be read”; say “the Bible is read.” Etc.

Your “Charismatic Movement” section is good, but I think it currently violates Wikipedia’s neutrality policies. For instance, “the Methodist Church saw the power and efficacy in the charismatic worship service” sounds like you’re touting charismatic Christianity over other forms. You should instead avoid this by adding an actor in there, someone who is doing the thing: “Some members of the Methodist Church suggested that chariasmatic worship services were more powerful and efficacious.” Even better, name specific people if you can!

This section also needs context. Why was the Charismatic Movement such a big deal in the 1980s and 1990s? You know the answer to this (via readings from class), but you need to bring this up and cite sources. This was a time when Pentecostal/charismatic churches were beckoning huge in Africa, so the mainline churches had to respond or lose their members.

The “Event advertising” section is not needed in its current form. Instead, you could just add a line somewhere that the Methodist Church Ghana advertises widely, as do most churches in Ghana. In other words, there’s nothing unique to the Methodist Church Ghana in this section. The description of the Wesleyan Revival Revisited” doesn’t seem notable for this overview article, and it even sounds kind of like a promotion.

What are the “monthly meetings” you mention regarding the Charismatic Movement?

“It is reported…” Who reported this? Avoid structures like “It is said” and “it is claimed” and instead tell us a specific person or organization that said that thing. “The numbers show…” What numbers? Whose numbers? Who provided these numbers? Likewise, when you talk about the miracles performed in the charismatic section, be careful to do this. Who says these things happened? Otherwise, people will reject the edit on Wikipedia.

When you talk about schools, you mention “the Methodist revival,” but I don’t think we know what this is. Be sure to rewrite this section to be neutral, as well. For instance, “This gave the more poor citizens chances at fair education” may be true, but it reads like an advertisement.

Be sure you cite sources for everything you say. Your final paragraph (about the notable alumni of the Mfantispim school) doesn’t cite sources.

Under References, Refs 1 and 2 need to give a correct title; I’m guessing that source is not called “Archived copy.”

Over all, you’re doing well. You’re in the C+ range right now. I think if you follow my suggestions here, you can get to a B. Getting to an A is totally possible, too, but I think you may need to expand the history section more. It’s a bit brisk as of right now, jumping across many years and not really saying much about the expansion of the church, etc..

Good luck with the final push! Abukun (talk) 20:12, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Methodist Church Ghana

Hello! Your submission of Methodist Church Ghana at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! BlueMoonset (talk) 01:56, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

You should respond before the class ends. Unfortunately, if you don't respond soon, the nomination will have to be closed. Hope to hear from you soon! BlueMoonset (talk) 01:56, 23 May 2019 (UTC)