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Please let me know your availability. Thanks. Amazingfaith Yes (talk) 01:54, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
@Amazingfaith Yes - availability in what sense? You can message me here at any time, email me at ianwikiedu.org, or use the Get Help button on the Dashboard. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:44, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
Introduction
Hi Ian, I think you're the Wiki expert for my Roman art course at Fordham this term. This is just to say hi, and thanks! Artever (talk) 19:30, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
A user was assigned to me as their mentor that is an instructor doing their first Wikipedia project with their class. I'm not sure if this is a Wikied sanctioned project but it at least appears it could be. They stated that one of their students was having an issue with the dashboard. Here is what they wrote. I thought of you immediately and wanted to see if there was any way you could assist them with this.
"Hello! I have a student that reported they can't log into the dashboard anymore. They continue to get an error message saying their confirmation code has expired. This student had successfully logged into Wikipedia dashboard last week but on Thursday began to receive error messages that prevented them from logging back in. Should I try to remove this student from my list of students and then manually add her back to see if this works?"
I need help with the publishing aspect - I published my work and for some reason the revisions were removed within seconds and I cannot recover them. They do not appear in the history or my sandbox anymore. Is there any place to find it?
I am going over the exercises that demonstrate how to contribute to wiki. The tutorial states that I need to look for "Visual Editing" but I can only find "Edit Source". The tutorial also shows a pencil and I cannot find that anywhere. Please advise.
Hi Ian, I know you're aware because you've been dealing with the problem, but I only just noticed that there still seem to be a few people going to Elysia's TP and leaving comments, despite the Talk page header notice there. I've come up with a possible solution involving a Page notice and an editintro file ({{WEP hre}}) to try to catch most of these cases and send them here instead. See it in action by going to Elysia's talk page, click edit, then click the blue button to see what happens. I pre-tested this in my sandbox, but had to adjust it just before release so it would work properly live, to meaning it needs one live test to verify it. A live test should create a section on your talk page entitled, "Help request from ....", for a user who starts off on Elysia's TP.
Verify that page notice appears at top of page; click the big, blue button
Verify that a new section opens for editing at User talk:Ian (Wiki Ed), with instructions at the top
Type a 'HellloHelp, World!' or other message, preview as needed, and hit Publish.
Verify that your message appears, under a "Help request from <YourName>" section header.
Since the "Help request" target is this page, it would be better if someone other than you ran the live test; Sage (Wiki Ed), can you do the honors? Please lmk what you both think about this. Needless to say, verbiage and look & feel can be easily modified, this is more an initial test of concept. The page notice is generic, and if this looks useful, the page notice text could be moved to a template, and then it could be transcluded as the page notice attached to Shalor's TP, or any place it might be needed. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 03:13, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Thank you so much @Mathglot! It worked perfectly (I used my personal account to test). Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:43, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Gender inclusiveness
Hey, could you give the students a friendly heads-up about the challenges of being gender-inclusive around pregnancy? AFAICT there are no solutions that meet all of these goals:
can't be accused of erasing cis women, like "pregnant individual" can;
can't be accused of excluding non-binary and trans men, like "pregnant women" can (the assumption here is that the term woman is understood as exclusively representing gender identity);
aren't wordy, like "pregnant women and other people" is; and
don't overemphasize biology at the expense of the substantial social aspects, like "pregnant female" does.
We have no rule on what to write/not write, but when editors change existing text to be more gender-inclusive, it may provoke a dispute that the students don't expect. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:15, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
@WhatamIdoing I wanted to acknowledge this and let you know I'm still thinking about the best way to apply this. I didn't want it to seem like I'm ignoring this message. I appreciate these suggestions - I remember the problem that came up in the Spring. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:26, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
I wish you lots of luck. 🍀
There might not be much you can do, beyond reminding them to let you know if they run into disputes. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:13, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
It's tricky, and there's not necessarily one best solution; "different strokes", and all that. While thinking about this, you might get some ideas if you have a look at Preferred gender pronoun, especially the § Cautions section. The PGP article is not, of course, about the same issue as the one raised by WhatamIdoing, but some of the varying approaches to dealing with PGP issues might parallel the kind of thinking one might do when thinking about wording surrounding pregnancy issues. Hope this helps, Mathglot (talk) 04:41, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
Wikipedia articles aren't customized per reader, so we kind of need to come up with one solution that (more or less) works for everyone. We can't have a gendered version for some readers and a de-gendered version for others and a gender-additive version for yet others. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:02, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
Accidental peer review
Hello, I accidentally started my peer review on the existing article for the "mitral annular disjunction" article on wiki instead of the student sandbox article. I was wondering if I could delete my "talk" topic under the existing article, or if i should leave it.
Thanks ! Faithhsu13 (talk) 16:05, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
@Faithhsu13 If you posted it in the wrong place, it's absolutely fine to delete it. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:24, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
@YSL123 it looks like you have already assigned yourself an article, so you should have something like the interface illustrated here on your class's main page on the Dashboard. This provides you with the links to the sandboxes you'll be working in. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:40, 21 September 2022 (UTC)
Hello,
I am having issues with my sandbox... When I click on it, it only shows "Request Help" button with no options to add text anywhere. I am sure I am doing everything wrong with this whole Wikipedia thing, and honestly, it feels like an entirely different language when I jump on. I did my article evaluation, but now I don't know where to access it? I have watched and read the tutorials many times, and I am still very lost. I need to start building my bibliography, and I think I finally created the actual subpage. Does everything I do need to be on a subpage, or what exactly are their purposes in this thing as a conglomerate? Am I supposed to post my entire evaluation on the talk page, and am I supposed to sign everything I do with the four tildes? Ugh! It's just sheer madness, and I don't understand how people have hours of time to spend on this site. I have a 9 month old baby, school full-time, and am a single mom, and occasionally like to shower and cook food. How do I streamline my time on here so that I can meet all the requirements of my course without getting stuck on the tiny details and idiosyncrasies of every little stupid thing on this site?
Thanks, 21RowRowRoYourBoat89 (talk) 17:20, 23 September 2022 (UTC)
You have already assigned yourself an article on the Dashboard, so when you go to your course page you should see something like what's shown on this training slide. If you don't, check to make sure you're logged in to the Dashboard. That's where you will access the sandbox to draft your work.
Your article evaluation is here: User:21RowRowRoYourBoat89/Evaluate an Article, but it looks like you also did it here Talk:Snakes_in_mythology, on the talk page of the Wikipedia article. You didn't need to do it there. You also don't need to worry about signing everything on talk pages, since this new interface that they've rolled out does the signing for you.
The idea behind the Bibliography exercise is to gather your sources and take a moment to make sure they meet Wikipedia's standards for reliable sources.
The best way to streamline your time here is to start from the Dashboard, because that has things structured in a step-by-step basis. And when you're not sure, the most efficient use of your time to ask me, either here or by emailing me at ianwikiedu.org. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:22, 23 September 2022 (UTC)
I need help with feedback. I have made a first draft of my contributions to my assigned article in my sandbox. I would like notes and suggestions on things to improve on.
Hi @SealSquared. It looks like you're working in your default sandbox instead of using the tools available on your course page on the Dashboard. I recommend that you rely on the structure available on the Dashboard.
As far as what you've drafted goes, you need to rely on reliable sources that are independent of the subject you're writing about. An organisation's own website is neither independent nor reliable. Try using scholarly sources, or news organisations that have an editorial board and a reputation for fact-checking. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:45, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
Professor whose article was created through Wiki Ed appears unhappy with it
Thanks for the heads-up @Sdkb! Not loving the fact that the professor passing the student's info to the subject of the article. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:57, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
I need help with my sandbox. It is saying that I am using another users sandbox but I have logged in and it is stating my username. I am not sure why this is happening.
Hi @Taylorjones423. I'm not sure what you mean. Can you quote the precise message you're getting, or email me a screenshot at ianwikiedu.org? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:21, 27 September 2022 (UTC)
Marine Molecular Sciences Adding Diagram
Hi Ian,
I'm trying to add an image to my assigned article on cutinase to show the chemical mechanism by which the enzyme cuts its substrate. I've adapted the image from a publicly available diagram that is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, but I'm running into various error messages such as;
We could not determine whether this file is suitable for Wikimedia Commons. Please only upload photos that you took yourself with your camera, or see what else is acceptable. See the guide to make sure the file is acceptable and learn how to upload it on Wikimedia Commons.
and
An automated filter has identified this edit as potentially unconstructive, and it has been disallowed. If this edit is constructive, please report this error.
Hi @Dinosome. Please use the Upload feature at Wikimedia Commons, and follow the guidelines at c:Special:UploadWizard. If it's a CC BY license, your additions are a c:Commons:Derivative work. So the final product should be licensed with a similar license. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:01, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
I need help with saving my sandbox. Are we supposed to publish it every time in order to save it? I am unable to see a button at the bottom that says "save." Does publishing our sandbox make it viewable to others? Also, when I went to edit my sandbox it said, "This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course" am I working in the right place?
Sorry for all the questions!
Callencamp (talk) 20:49, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
The "publish changes" button is the button you use to save. Your sandbox is visible to others, but it isn't indexed by Google or anything. It's unlikely anyone would see it unless they specifically look at your contributions.
If you go to your course page on the Dashboard you should see a section near the top of the page that looks something like the image on this training slide. That link will take you to the sandbox you should be using to draft your contribution.
Don't apologise for the questions, that's what I'm here to help with! Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:07, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
Hi, I want to choose the article Social media in the 2020 presidential election to edit for my course assignment but was wondering if it was too controversial of a topic. Please help. Jcham04 (talk) 19:46, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Jcham04. No, it doesn't look terribly controversial. Obviously you should be prepared for someone to disagree with you, and you should treat other Wikipedians with respect in disagreements, but I don't imagine that article should be too difficult to work on. By now there might even be useful scholarly publications on the topic. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:03, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Coconuttreee. What specific problems are you running into?
It looks like you've completed the Adding citations training module, but that you just spent 12 seconds on it. It also looks like you spend less than a minute on the How to edit training module, and didn't do the editing exercises in that training module. So my first suggestion would be to revisit those training modules. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:44, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Hey Ian! For my PJHC article, I am looking at the Homelessness in the United States article. It is already a B article and because of that, Professor Strassmann suggested that I look at getting the article to Good Article status. How would you suppose I go about that? EEmenike (talk) 03:41, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
Hi @EEmenike. Basically a Good Article should be fairly complete. That means you should cover all the major aspects of the topic and a well-written and well referenced. You should start by looking at the Good Article criteria, which spells out all the criteria and skim through the list of Good Articles to try to find a similar or related topic that you could use to help model your work. You might also want to read this essay: Wikipedia:Nominating good articles. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:35, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
Thank you for your help, Ian! EEmenike (talk) 18:21, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
Hello.
I have a list of citation for the article posted in the san box how do I properly insert them?
I also have 2 pictures to insert. I have citations for those as well.
I am working on the Community Health Engagement course.Dr. Vinita Agarwa Salisbury University. My group is the Incinerator Group. Nubia 77 (talk) 17:07, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
Thanks @Nubia 77. The references look like they're done properly now, and the images look right. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:28, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
Question about a journal article
Hi Ian, I have a question about a journal article that I want to use. Here is the link: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2010269117 This article does not have information about whether it is peer-reviewed or not, but it meets the criteria of a credible source, and I even consulted with my school's librarian. I was just wondering if in order to be used on Wikipedia, the journal article must be peer-reviewed? Katies01 (talk) 02:31, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
(talk page watcher)@Katies01: The article you linked is peer-reviewed (it's published in PNAS, a peer-reviewed journal, and has an explicit approval date). Non-peer reviewed journal articles (like preprints or whitepapers) generally aren't considered reliable sources, but peer-reviewed sources are almost always sufficiently reliable. Vahurzpu (talk) 10:04, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
Thank you! Katies01 (talk) 00:39, 16 October 2022 (UTC)
Question about contributing images and media files
Hello Ian, for my assigned article Racism on the Internet, I wanted to create a collage of popular gifs used on the internet for my sub-topic on Digital Blackface. Is this considered a conflict against Wikipedia's guidelines for images? If so, what would you suggest to use as an image? Thank you! Cratedigga (talk) 01:54, 16 October 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Cratedigga. Copyright around memes is messy, to say the least. There's a copyright associated with the underlying image, there's probably some rights related to the idea of using that image as a meme, and there's copyright associated with the specific content of the meme. Reaction gifs might be simpler in a copyright context (because there's no added text) but us of the original image is almost always a copyright infringement.
To use copyright content on Wikipedia, you need to follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria, and you can't use it in your sandbox draft. I think a collage would be more difficult to justify than a single image. One of the principles of fair use is commentary - if you discussed a particular reaction gif in the text, an image of it would directly help readers understanding. Making the same case for a collage is harder.
That said, I'm pretty much at the limits of my knowledge here. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:59, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
Edit made by a student
Hello Ian, I was doing a Recent Changes patrol and I noticed a new edit by one of your students Gabbymcgearyy, It was not a very encyclopedic entry, and I have warned the editor. You can find the edit [[1]]. Just wanted to let you know. :) Toast(talk) 17:46, 19 October 2022 (UTC)
Hey Ian! I noticed that 2 students created pages under someone elses username. I've speedied them under U5 since I don't think they should be doing that. Their usernames are "Bridgetfeld" and "Dmc715" if you need to tell them anything. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#6545 19:08, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
@Blaze Wolf for group work, the Dashboard designates the the first student's sandbox as the group sandbox. Sometimes the first student in a group to assign themselves an article isn't the first one to actually make an edit to the group sandbox, which is what happened here I think. @Sage (Wiki Ed) - pinging you so you're aware of this. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:34, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
Ah alright. I just saw that and I was like "Uh... they should not be creating sandboxes under another user's username". Maybe in the future it could be accompanied with the edit summary of "creating group sandbox" or something or a banner on the sandbox so that this confusion doesn't happen again. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#6545 14:43, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
Large edits in other people's userspace
Hi Ian. As a heads up, I carved out a rate limit, but your odd sandbox configuration has been tripping an edit filter. Nowhere else are non-EC users making more than 10k byte edits to other people's userspace. I would shrug about this, but it appears a large amount of the text I have seen has copying within Wikipedia issues. -- GuerilleroParlez Moi 21:17, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
Thanks for the heads-up @Guerillero. Let me talk to Sage about this. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:25, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
@Guerillero: thanks! Our instructions for student editors specify that they should only copy a small section they plan to start working on — rather than the an entire article — into their sandboxes, but that's a detail that's perhaps easy to overlook. We do plan on having some automated handling of that process at some point, which should help more.--ragesoss (talk) 23:06, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Cmh6798. On your course's Dashboard page you should see something like what's illustrated on this training slide. Follow the instructions on that training slide to get your draft started. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:02, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
Orphan Tag
How do I remove the Orphan tag off my article page? I think I have linked other articles to it already.
Hi @Nubia 77:! Thanks for the question. First, you'll need to add wikilinks from other articles to your article. Maybe you can add a sentence or two to the Salisbury, Maryland or Incineration#In_North_America articles about your topic? Then include a link to your article where you reference it in those articles. If you have other ideas of articles that may fit better, feel free to include links there. Once you have a couple of links to your article from other articles, you can edit your Salisbury Municipal Incinerator article and just delete the orphan box from it. Note in your edit summary that you've now added links to it from other articles, so it's no longer an orphan. Hope this helps! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:18, 28 October 2022 (UTC)
This is the page I feel as if I did add links to other articles in the body of the article. Does this look ok? Nubia 77 (talk) 16:35, 31 October 2022 (UTC)
@Nubia 77 The orphan tag is about incoming links from other Wikipedia articles. If you look at the "What links here" link on the right sidebar you can see all the incoming links.
I choose a topic "Labor Force in the United States". Now I will need to edit it. I understand that I need to edit in the sandbox, however, I do not understand that should I start writing everything at the beginning or how do I edit it? I saw on sandbox, it is plain.
Another question, I saw so many special characters such as { < ], etc I do not know how to use it? Is it some types of code?
This is my first time using Wiki to edit something so I am very nervous.
Hi @ChloeCuongNguyen. As far as the second question goes, it looks like you are editing in source mode. To switch back to the visual editor, follow the instructions on this training slide.
With regards to your first question, what prompted you to pick that article? What are the deficiencies in it that you have identified? Maybe there's a section that's missing, that you want to add. Just start writing that missing section in your sandbox. Maybe it's section that needs to be reworked. You can copy that section into your sandbox (don't forget to say where you copied it from in your edit summary) and make the changes there. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:08, 3 November 2022 (UTC)
Copyright violation incident
Hello. An edit by a student Special:Diff/1118978955 appears to be a copyright violation. Could you take care of this matter. Note that their sandbox history also contains similar text Special:Diff/1118452271. --Wotheina (talk) 05:39, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
Thanks for the heads-up @Wotheina. What's the source? Earwig's tool isn't turning up anything. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:57, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
Not being able to put information on the fuel crisis page
Hello. I have put information on the fuel crisis page and every time it has been removed. Every thing that I have added has been information that Ive found that is backed by other cites so I don't understand as to why it was removed. I also don't understand how to make a new page/article. Thank you. BRH266 (talk) 06:46, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi @BRH266. It looks like you are editing Fuel crisis, which is a disambiguation page - one that points to other articles with the same title or topic. Disambiguation pages like this should just have a list of other articles, not actual article content. Take a look at Help:Disambiguation for a more detailed explanation. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:06, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
How do I make a new page then? — Preceding unsigned comment added by BRH266 (talk • contribs) 20:35, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
I left feedback on your talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:27, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
Help on my article
Ian - I am working on revising this article. I notice that someone added a new section. I thought that there was a way that I could find out who added it and their reasoning. I just don't think it fits in the article at all and I want to delete it from the article - but that seems disrespectful without notify the person who added it. What are my next steps here? Can I delete and put in notes why and see if anyone responds to my changes? Here is the article Andragogy - Wikipedia -- the section is called: Optimal Learning. Thanks for your help. Pikelake6 (talk) 02:03, 6 November 2022 (UTC)
@Pikelake6 you absolutely can remove that section. If you remove something that was recently added, it's reasonable to leave the person an explanation, but in this case it was added a long time ago (2016) and has been tagged as "clarification needed", so you're not the first person to wonder why it is there.
It's fine to remove something if doing so improves the article. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:33, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
Clarification in moving my article to the mainspace
Hi Ian! I just moved my article from my WikiEdu Sandbox into the mainspace, and when I try to return to my sandbox through WikiEdu, I only see a redirect to the mainspace page. Is this normal? Or should I still be able to see the full draft in my sandbox? Madd2022 (talk) 18:36, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
@Madd2022 Once you move an article, what you're basically doing is changing the URL that points to the page. So your article, and all its history, now lives in mainspace. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:59, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
Fair Use images
Hi Ian, can you verify I correctly attributed a Fair use photo that is originally copyrighted by Apple TV+? I added a photo to the "Bimodal bilinguals" section of the Cognitive effects of multilingualism article. I used the "CODA poster" image, which is a movie poster. I added an attribution "Apple TV+." Ck320492 (talk) 22:19, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
@Ck320492 You need to add your justification to the File:Coda poster.jpeg page as outlined here. Each use of a non-free image needs to include a specific justification that's on the image page itself. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:04, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
And I've reverted. The image is insufficiently supported by sourced commentary in the article and hence fails WP:NFCC#8. The right approach is to find a source that makes the connection between the film itself and the topic of the article or section, not just stick down a non-free image with no commentary other than an unsourced plot summary. * Pppery *it has begun... 19:37, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
Thank you for the feedback and resources. I will continue brainstorming potential ways to show two modes of communication without a video or a movie reference. Ck320492 (talk) 20:58, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
Linking a wikidata sidebar to an article
Hello, I'm working on my draft about a painted shield found in Dura Europos. I was hoping to create one of those fact sheet rectangles, which I think are linked directly from an objects wikidata. I'm not sure how to do that within the sandbox. Is it just an automatic linking that happens upon article creation? PalmyranRealness (talk) 15:16, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
@PalmyranRealness Those boxes are Infoboxes - there are a lot of different ones, some of which are set up to use data from Wikidata automatically, while in other cases you have the enter the data yourself. Does the object you're working on have a Wikidata item yet? Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:10, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
To add it to your article, when you're in edit mode, click on "Insert" and then pick "template" from the drop-down. Then type Infobox artifact into the search box and select it from the dropdown menu.
It looks like you'll then have to pick the fields you want to include from the menu on the left. You can use Template:Infobox artifact as a guide to know what to include (it's fine if many of them are blank).
This isn't the most user-friendly template designs, unfortunately. Let me know if you run into problems or have any additional questions. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:28, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
Problem with a student editor
User:LPaul27 in the University_of_Dayton/Writing_Seminar_I_(Fall_2022) is trying to turn Rosemary Beach, Florida into a smarmy multi-color tourist brochure, and I'm sick and tired of having to revert them without biting the noob. Orange Mike | Talk 20:29, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
@Orangemike Thanks for the heads-up. I've left them a note, and asked the instructor to remind the class about encyclopaedic writing and to refrain from edit warring. This class's work isn't up to standard, and we're going to have to do something about that. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:30, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
Sandbox edits vanished
Hello.
Hello Ian, I just logged into my wiki account just not and saw that all the work I did in my sandbox in not there? any particular reason why this may have happened? also freaking out because that was all the research I was doing for my class.
I don't see that you have any sandbox edits or edits that were deleted. You probably didn't save your edits before logging off or moving to a new website in your browser. LizRead!Talk! 22:50, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
All the work I did was in my sandbox draft and I was saving everything often. I can see in out class section the word count that I added etc but none of the work is appearing now. Blombera (talk) 22:54, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
Yes that is all my work, wondering if I made a mistake and was writing everything in the wrong place. Either way can I copy and paste all that work? or would I have to retype everything?
Thank you. Blombera (talk) 23:07, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
You can move the page to User:Bombera/Lia Cook if that is where it should be, or I can do it for you. StarryGrandma (talk) 23:11, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
If you can do that for me that would be great, I don't want to mess anything up.
Thank you so much. Blombera (talk) 23:13, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
Or maybe not - will that confuse the dashboard? Keep working on it where it is, and wait for Ian.StarryGrandma (talk) 23:12, 12 November 2022 (UTC) The dashboard already thinks it should be there. StarryGrandma (talk) 23:14, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
I'll just wait until Ian sees the message hopefully he can figure it out. Thank you for helping. Blombera (talk) 23:17, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
Is this midterm time? I see lots of activity here. Any way, student editor LunaRavenrose moved her content page all around main space, creating unnecessary redirects and dumping in a lot of material that was all reverted. I know you guys go over the protocol here but we keep encountering students that think that content they write for a course is suitable for main space. My concern is that these students might not have a backup copy of what they have worked on over the semester when these additions get deleted. Any way, good luck with the rest of the semester! LizRead!Talk! 22:48, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Liz. It's actually the start of the end of term. Things get busy now, and stay busy until the week after Thanksgiving. I really appreciate when you move student work back to their sandbox, but don't worry too much if something ends up getting deleted. If they don't have a backup copy, I will usually get an email from the student or their instructor asking about it, and I can rescue the deleted content.
Figuring out how to stop these sequences of moves is another challenge. Better resources seem like the way to g, but then you see things like Completion time: 0 Min 37 Sec attached to some of their training modules. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:50, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
Tagging onto Liz's query, although I also tagged you in the AfD for one. I wonder if there's a way to get an exception to WP:DRAFTOBJECT for ones that do not have an applicable deletion criteria because they do not belong in mainspace. Translanguaging and the Use of Multiple Languages is the current inspiration, although there are many. We don't want to bite, but this is workload on an already burdened & broken AfD system. Cc too @Orangemike from his query above. StarMississippi 03:29, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
@Star Mississippi I've never really thought to modify policy pages (or in this case, an explanatory page) to deal specifically with student editors. But given that volume of student editing, that might be a really good idea. At the very least, documenting my workflows on-wiki as a set of suggestions might be helpful.
In this specific case, I missed the fact that an article on Translanguaging actually existed. I thought there was something that might be worth saving in the student draft as the basis of an article on that topic, which obviously isn't true. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:18, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
I only found the original article when I googled a phrase from the article since it didn't read like new editor speak, so no worries there. Draft Object ends up applied as policy in AfDs, so maybe workflow (if you have it somewhere-not meaning to make work for you) would be helpful in terms of "here's a reason where AfD due to draft object might not be the best course of action as it's unnecessarily bitey". Thanks again! StarMississippi 00:11, 17 November 2022 (UTC)
Micro-trends
Hi Ian, thank you for the excellent feedback on the students' article, I apologize for not catching more of that. Can I ask, is the norm to leave feedback on a users' talk page instead of the article's talk page? (It seems so, but then I don't easily see such feedback.) Reagle (talk) 15:50, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
@Reagle I tend to leave feedback for students on their talk page because there's a better chance they'll see it there, but I think either works. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:02, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
Do you know if there's an easy way to watch all the Talk pages of my students? I have to remember to do it manually presently and sometimes forget. - Reagle (talk) 18:02, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
If you do that, you can watchlist all your students from a single page, without having to navigate to lots of separate pages. Of course, that won't add late enrollees to your watchlist, but at least they're added to the bottom of the table, so they're easier to find.
I will let Sage know about this requested feature, but I doubt he will have a lot of time to work on something like this. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:53, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
Can a video be used as a reference?
Hello I was wondering if any one would know if a education video can be used as a reference? The video I want to use as a source is a PBS artist documentary. This is the different link to the video just so you know what type of video it is. https://www.pbs.org/video/craft-america-episode-viii-crossroads/
Best,
blombera Blombera (talk) 03:08, 15 November 2022 (UTC)
It's not the easiest reference to refer to, but video can be used. Ideally if you can link to a particular time stamp within the video.
When it comes to reliability, video is like any other source. It needs to come from a high quality source (preferably scholarly or journalistic) and you need to distinguish between claims made by people interviewed in the video and claims made in a scholarly or journalistic voice in the video. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:30, 15 November 2022 (UTC)
Thank you Ian. Blombera (talk) 04:11, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
question about the sandbox
I started my own sandbox but pressed the publishing button because I coud not find a save button. What does that do? Catihill (talk) 17:49, 15 November 2022 (UTC)
@Catihill That's the button you want to use. "Publish changes" is how you save. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:12, 15 November 2022 (UTC)
Creating a bibliography. Can I use a website? This exercise has been wholly computer based with little to no instruction on its use. I am having difficulty understanding what the objective is here. Any help or guidance you can offer would be greatly appreciated as when I click on the help button, it doesn't seem to actually provide any help.
@Rbovey The goal of the exercise is for you to gather sources that you will use in your assignment and to decide whether these sources meet the standards for reliable sources. The guiding questions in Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org bibliography (which is embedded in your bibliography sandbox) are meant to help you consider and assess your sources.
As for whether you can use a website - you certainly can use online sources (most journal articles are primarily accessed online, as are most newspapers). But if it's just a website, you need to figure out who the authors are, and why you would trust them. Like everything else, the first question is one of independence - a person writing about themselves, a company writing about their employee, a publisher writing about an author whose works they're selling - these all lack the independence to be considered reliable sources. Is it a website run by a government agency? You might accept them as the authoritative source for a new act or policy, but you'd take their claims about what a good job they're doing with a grain a salt (and if you ended up reporting it, you'd make sure to clearly attribute the claims.
Obviously if it's a random blog, or a website without an "About us" section or clear editorial policy, you'd skip it entirely. Similarly if it's a website that's selling some product or service. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:33, 15 November 2022 (UTC)
Nonexistent user
Hello, Ian,
I was going to delete User:Mackhaiden because it is a nonexistent user page but I noticed that you had edited the page. Do you know who the original editor is so we can move it back to a correct editor's name? Thanks. LizRead!Talk! 05:20, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi Ian. I came across User:Santillananyssa/Tejano music because one of the files used in it (File:Selena Quintanilla, Dreaming of You (album).png) is non-free and was flagged for a WP:NFCC#9 violation when you moved the page back to the user namespace. Even if this were still in the mainspace, a bot would've eventualy removed the file per WP:NFCC#10c since there's was no non-free use rationale provided for that particular use. Perhaps you could explain to Santillananyssa, who I think you're helping out, that Wikipedia's non-free content use policy is pretty restrictive and non-free album cover art like this is pretty much only allowed in article about albums per WP:NFC#cite_note-3; so, even there's really no way to justify any such use in a general article about a particular genre of music. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any free images of Selena uploaded to Commons that could be used instead of the album cover, which means probably no image could be used for that section. In addition, I noticed that the student was also adding citations to section headings. This too is contrary to MOS:HEAD and the citations probably should be moved inline. I'm coming to you first because you work with these students and they probably know you. So, I thought it would be easier for you to explain these things, the someone like myself showing up out of nowhere and posting on their user talk page. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:53, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
Oops, I just check the student's user talk page and saw you've already advised them about the citations in the section headings. My bad. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:55, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
@Marchjuly I missed the non-free file. Thanks for letting me know. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:03, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
Other Users Moving My Sandbox to a Different Page
Hi Ian! I recently posted my page to the mainspace, but it looks like other users are trying to move my sandbox to the Zora Neale Hurston page. Could you tell me why that is or help me with that? It is supposed to be its own page on Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick and I still have more edits to add to it. Thanks! Callencamp (talk) 00:57, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
(by talk reader)@Callencamp: Hi. Any content in the main namespace has to adhere to our many policies and guidelines like WP:N and WP:V. Your effort was insufficient. This why you should build in your user sandbox and not move it from there until you have Wikipedians approve you to do so. I understand this situation is unwelcome but Wikipedia is a bigger project than you are ready for. You can start a new sandbox entry and keep at it. Chris Troutman (talk) 01:31, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Callencamp. As @Chris troutman mentioned, your draft is by no means ready for mainspace. If you want to work on it further, I can move it back to your sandbox, but if I do that, please don't move it again without checking with me that it's ready.
Your draft has no independent sources and is full of empty sections. A Wikipedia article about a book is supposed to report on what reliable sources say about the book - things like themes, style, background, publication history, reception and impact matter much more than plot summaries. Have a look at Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Novels#Article_body for more detailed views of what should be in there.
@Callencamp I've returned your draft to your sandbox. Please don't move it without checking with me. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:38, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
Piper nigrum
Hello Ian! I was wondering if you could check whether or not my citations saved and when they'll show up in the WikiEd page for my class? DefinitelyNotIsaiah (talk) 18:52, 25 November 2022 (UTC)
I need help with...
finding reliable sources on finding retrofit Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. Most sources I found are often on YouTube or chat websites. What can I do? I'm doing this for a final project, and I'm stuck.
@Slomo321 Probably not much. We can only use things that have been released under a free license that's compatible with Wikipedia, and this is the kind of commercial product that's not going to be available under a free license. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:35, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
Military History of Native Americans
Hi Ian. Perhaps you, Helaine (Wiki Ed) or Brianda (Wiki Ed) could take a look at Military History of Native Americans? It was created by a student in Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Brigham Young University/The United States Since 1877 (Fall 2022) named Eschmidt18 and then moved to the mainspace by another student from the same class named Taylorfillmore88. I'm not sure how you advise students on moving drafts to the mainspace, but it seems like it might not be a good idea for one student to be moving another student's work to the mainspace. Anyway, I came across it from a Help Desk question asked by the student. I did some very rudimentary wikitext and formatting cleanup, but more is probably needed. The article also needs categories and a talk page. It's not a bad job for a first attempt at creating an article; so, Eschmidt18 should be commended for that. At the same time, though, the subject matter seems like it would be something already covered on Wikipedia so a stand-alone article might not be needed. It's also not clear whether some of the content was taken from other articles. If Eschmidt18 is being graded on their effort, then it might better for this to be draftified where they can work on it in peace. Being in the mainspace, it's fair game for anyone else to edit and try and improve. -- Marchjuly (talk) 09:17, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
@Marchjuly I was just looking at that, and I was wondering about the same question. But I do think fits the "military history of [x]" pattern pretty well; we tend to do these for countries, but I think is a nice challenge to our tendency (or at least my tendency) to think about these kinds of articles as only applying to Westphalian nation states. It needs work, of course, and thanks for all the cleanup you did. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:34, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
Thank you for looking at this Ian. As long as the the two students and their teacher now understand that it's no longer only "the students work" so to speak, things should be fine. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:35, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
@Marchjuly The instructor in this class has been doing the assignment for a while, so I'm hoping everything will be find. Famous last words... Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:02, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
Hope does spring eternal; so, perhaps there will be no issues moving forward. I don't know how Wiki Ed handles this kind of thing, but it might be a good idea for the students to at least notify their Wiki Ed advisor when they move a draft to the mainspace so that the advisor can give it a quick look over. In this case, the draft was fairly well-developed and for the most part in good shape; in other cases, like the above, the situation is vastly different. Some of the students might not realize what moving something to the mainspace means, and thus might be shocked when others not in their class start showing up and editing the article. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:14, 28 November 2022 (UTC)
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A barnstar for you!
The Barnstar of Diligence
Thanks for following up on all the Wiki Ed–related CopyPatrol reports! It's a huge help. DanCherek (talk) 20:36, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
Thanks so much DanCherek! I really appreciate it. (That said, I think it's the least we can do.) Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:39, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi @Jonathan.diamantstein. You can see the report here. You need to be logged into the Dashboard to be able to view the link. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:23, 30 November 2022 (UTC)
okay great! ive checked it out and made the necessary corrections Jonathan.diamantstein (talk) 20:00, 30 November 2022 (UTC)
wikiedu.org, or use the Get Help button on the Dashboard. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:44, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
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