User:Danger/Adoption/Russot1

Questions
If you have any questions, ask them here. That way you'll be able to find the answers easily later without looking through talk page archives. You can also ask questions on my talk page and I will move a copy of the discussion here.Danger (talk)
 * 1) I tried to edit my user page today and acted on wikipedia's recommendation of adding a 'Adopt me' logo. Ran into my first formatting problem, the 'adopt me' logo pushed my headings to the side no matter where I placed it in the editing page. The formatting looks horrible.  I can take the logo down now, thanks to you (yay!), but I'm worried that I will encounter the problem again if ever adding logos or images.  Can you show me the proper formatting technique to add such logos or image:--Russot1 (talk) 04:06, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Y'know, that's a good question, which is another way of saying that I don't know.. The "adopt me" box uses an object called a template; you can recognize them on a page by the curly brackets around them, like this: . This is the kind of thing that doesn't come up during article work, so the only time I've dealt with formatting issues with regards to templates  is on my own talk page and I just futzed with it until I got something that I liked. Images are much easier to deal with. I can find someone who can answer your question better if you like. --Danger (talk) 08:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the offer, but its not necessary. I don't feel quite "template-ready" yet. --Russot1 (talk) 04:22, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * 2. I noticed your userpage was vandalized? What does that mean? How does that happen?
 * Vandalism is when someone edits Wikipedia in a blatantly destructive way. Adding penis fifteen times to an article about economics is pretty typical. Since anyone can edit, anyone can vandalize. Usually when someone vandalizes my talk page it's because I reverted (Wikispeak for erased) their vandalism from another page and left them a warning message. --Danger (talk) 08:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Figured it was something like that. Do you normally leave warning message on their talk page, or the discussion page, or both? --Russot1 (talk) 04:22, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Just their user talk page. The article talk page is for discussing improvements to the article, which rarely include adding the word penis fifteen times. :-) --Danger (talk) 04:30, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * 3. If I take out an entire sentence, because it contains redundant information is it appropriate to leave a note on the talk page about it, or is it better left 'un-noted'?
 * See: note I left under subheading History on Talk:Pema Chodron--Russot1 (talk) 04:45, 18 October 2010

(UTC)
 * Oh gosh, I'm so sorry I didn't see this until now. Often there's no need to leave a note; your edit summary should say what you did anyway. Unless it's an extremely controversial page or a very large deletion, generally a descriptive edit summary is sufficient. --Danger (talk) 03:43, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Projects
If you have any projects that you'd like to tackle, tell me about them here and I'll see how I can help you.Danger (talk)
 * 1) Acting on a preproposed Merger of Eggplant and Solanum_ovigerum--Russot1 (talk) 04:24, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Before you start on this, two things:
 * Before you make a major edit to an article, it's a good idea to read the talk page, or at least the last few months of discussion if it's a long one. That way, you can see what other editors think the article needs; a lot of the time editors won't have the time or interest to do something, but will leave a note for someone else to do it. In this case, it seems like the consensus is that S. ovigerum is a different species from the eggplant covered in the main article and thus merging would be inappropriate. If you disagree, feel free to go ahead with the merge. It's also nice to leave a note there explaining what you're doing. You don't technically have to, but it's helpful.

Thanks for the reminder to read the talk pages.
 * Do you think in the present eggplant situation, it would be appropriate to remove the 'Merge Template' from both pages, because the Eggplant talk consensus was do not merge? Or would one just leave the Merge Templates on both pages until further information on the subject is discovered or published?--Russot1 (talk) 04:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * It's definitely appropriate to remove the tag since there really isn't a merge proposed right now. I'd encourage you, if you're interested, to try to find more information on S. ovigerum to expand that article. --Danger (talk) 04:52, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Let me know if you have any questions about the guidelines for merging.--Danger (talk) 08:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Watchdog
If someone is using a talk page as a dais or battlefield (against wikipedia rules) is there system for reporting that abuser or is the only appropriate response to leave them a Warning?--Russot1 (talk) 04:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * It depends on what the person is doing. If they are using the talk page to discuss things other than improving the article, like the subject of the article in general, that's inappropriate and, if they are a new user it might be helpful to leave them a warning. It's not a good idea to leave a warning template on the talk page of a regular editor though. If they're being very disruptive a polite note can sometimes be helpful.
 * If the user is just generally being belligerent, disruptive, or annoying, there are a couple of options. First is to try dealing with them on the talk page. After a while one becomes better at dealing with people like that. One can also take the issue to a variety of noticeboards for others to help out. If there's a content dispute involved, then we have a bunch of options for dispute resolution. But as I said, it really depends on what they're doing specifically. --Danger (talk) 05:00, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Gratitude
Thanks
 * My pleasure. --Danger (talk) 08:12, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Pointers
If I see something when I look over your edits that I think you should know about, I'll put it here.
 * When you add a message to a talk page, either add to the bottom of the conversation's section, immediately following the post you are replying to or, if you are adding a new topic all together like in this edit, to the bottom of the page. Make sure to put a heading above a new topic, even a perfunctory one. --Danger (talk) 02:46, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Do you have an answer for question 3 above?