User:Aranel/WelcomeME

This is a welcome message that I use for newcomers to editing Middle-earth articles. The top part is based on Template:Welcome. Anyone who wishes is welcome to use this text (although you should really change the link from my talk page to point to yours.)

Welcome
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this:. Four tildes ( ~ ) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page.
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

I noticed you working on Middle-earth articles. Great! Welcome! We always need more great editors. If you're looking for something to do, you might start by taking a look at Category:Tolkien stubs and see if there are articles you can expand and/or merge with existing articles. Probably the most helpful article for learning how to edit Tolkien articles is Middle-earth canon, which outlines the policy we try to use. This is, as far as I know, one of the only places to seriously attempt to incorporate corrections from History of Middle-earth into information from the Silmarillion, etc. My general rule of thumb is to do the best you can to be accurate, and be sure to read the relevant articles when you edit because there's a good chance that if there is a discrepancy, someone else has already noted it. However, none of us can possibly keep track of everything at the same time, so do the best you can, and be ready to document your sources.

You will get an idea of conventions as you go. There aren't a lot of absolute rules, but there are some things that we try to do consistently to make it easier for readers (and editors). One helpful thing is to use List of Middle-earth articles to keep track of edits to Middle-earth articles and talk pages. (Use the "related changes" link on that page.) Also, if you're not sure what to do (or why someone who seems to know what they are doing did something that seems odd to you), please ask questions! Again, welcome!

&mdash;[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 21:17, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)