User:Izzat Kutebar/help

Tips and useful advice

 * Whole basis of site is encapsulated in WP:PILLARS. Core content policy is at WP:CCPOL and these three are WP:NPOV (express a neutral point of view in all additions to content), WP:V (everything must be verifiable by attribution to a reliable, published secondary source) and WP:NOR (no original research).
 * All the above policies are especially important if the subject is a living person. That is stressed in a number of places. See WP:BLP.
 * Bad content must be removed immediately. If content is removed by mistake, it can be restored from page history so don't worry as removal is only hiding it. Administrators can destroy content in serious cases.
 * Whole articles can be deleted if inappropriate. See WP:DEL. This seems to be a discussion process with the decision resting on consensus and concentrated in WP:AFD which I need to investigate (I see there are similar forums for categories and templates). Looks like articles can be merged too if a standalone is too short and not likely to be expanded. Use Twinkle for deletion/renaming proposals of any kind, it is very easy.
 * A non-admin can close a discussion. See diffs in this example for how to do it.
 * WP:Notability isn't a core content policy but it seems to be the big discussion point at WP:AFD.
 * Editors are encouraged to be WP:BOLD but see WP:NOT because there are limits. Someone can always ask if too bold. The thing is to make sure any added content has a source.
 * Always close messages to forums and talk pages with four tildes to auto-generate a signature and timestamp. Like this:  ~  to generate Izzat Kutebar (talk) 06:07, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Use  ...   to display markup without generation.
 * If an expression includes a numeral, use instead of an ordinary space. For example, in 76 Trombones, June 2018, Boeing 747 or World War II. It prevents a line ending in the middle of the expression.
 * Template:Code is useful for displaying things like.

Dates
Usage and style appear to depend heavily on whether the article concerns a British or American subject. If British, use 3 June 2018 (dmy). If American, use June 3, 2018 (mdy, with comma). Date style must be consistent throughout the article. Looks like you can use numeric dates like 3/6/18 but I really do not like those and never ever use them, even when dating my signature.

If the subject is neither British nor American, it looks as if either style can be used as long as it's consistent throughout the article. WP:DATEVAR works like WP:CITEVAR (see below). If a date style has been established by the original editor, use that unless it's wrong because it's British in an American article or vice-versa.

Citation

 * See WP:REFB and WP:CITEVAR for advice on citation methods and forms.

Tags for use when there is a lack of citations (always date the tag)

 * whole article (place at top of article):


 * section only (place at top of section):


 * paragraph or sentence only (place at end of paragraph or sentence and after the full stop):


 * if there is a variety of citation styles in use (see WP:CITEVAR), place this at top of article:

Books, newspapers, websites and how to reference them
1. Assuming Harvard citation style, this is how to cite books which have more than one author (it's simple if only a single author):



2. Citing from a website is less straightforward and best to see Template:Cite web if in doubt but, basically, use one of these templates and complete the details: 3. Examples of both the above templates in use:
 * (author credit)  
 * (no author credit)  
 * (author credit)


 * (no author credit)

4. If the source is a newspaper or magazine, use because it accepts | issue= and | volume= parameters in addition to all the  and  ones. It also has | editor1-last= | editor1-first= | editor1-link= used exactly like | last1= | first1= | author1-link= as above (numbered up to 5).

Citation format examples

 * Use   to define citation of a specific page (in a book or on a website) and   for iterations of that page.
 * These are examples of one page only, multiple pages and iteration. They go at the end of a paragraph or sentence after the full stop:


 * Create a (list of references) in an independent section near the foot of the article above the category list. This one translates the above citation examples as follows:

CVU

 * Check new user accounts for suspicious names; also provides an opportunity to welcome good editors.