User:Morganbg/IRC

IRC chat 28 March 2009

[10:17]  Hi morganbg! Welcome to #wikipedia-en-help, the help channel for the English Wikipedia. Just ask your question, and one of our friendly helpers will answer as soon as possible. :-) [10:18] hmm? ohai [10:22] morganbg ? [10:22] * PeterSymonds is now known as PS|Away [10:23] This is my first time on Wikipedia, I've been reading "what to do" for about 1.5 hrs in an effort to find info about a particular topic "IDAM Integrated Damage Assessment Models". This is perhaps selfserving, as I have published in the International Assn of Assessing Officers Monthly Magazine "Fair & Equitable" on the topic.  However, Wikipedia has very little info available on property tax valuation and the disaster damage asse [10:25] ok - go fix it :-) [10:26] Be careful to maintain a neutral point of view - but, other than that, it sounds like you could make some valuable contributions to make WP even better. [10:27] If you need any help with it, there's lots of us here to give you a hand. [10:27] !link Trout tickling [10:28]  chzz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling [10:29] morganbg Is there any specific help we can give you? [10:31] Is an "article" a discussion of a new topic? Like "IDAM Integrated Damage Assessment Models? Or should the article discuss a more generic topic? Can the "article submission" area be used to referece an existing published article or is that done through "references?" Please keep in mind that, at this point, regarding sending in comments, stubs, articles, references, I'm pretty much an empty page with topical ideas that seem to be [10:31] Please have a look at these 2 links; [10:31] !link WP:ARTICLE [10:31]  chzz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:ARTICLE [10:32] !link WP:OR [10:32]  chzz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:OR [10:32] Thanks, I will. [10:32] Are you a new user? [10:32] Yes, the next time I sign on will be the 2nd time. [10:33] Ah - I see that I've put a welcome note on your talk page earlier - have you seen it yet? [10:34] yes [10:35] OK - it has a lot of good information. It suggests that, to start with, you try to edit some existing articles. In doing so, you will learn a lot about how WP works, and then when you do create articles, the whole process will be easier. [10:35] If you're looking for ideas of what you can do, go to the WP:Community portal, where there is a list of things that need work. [10:35] !link [10:35]  chzz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:Community_portal [10:36] I'll return there and give it another go. Thanks for your help, this is acutally pretty incredible. Before I leave this page, will I be able to come back here for the cites above or should I write them down? [10:37] From the information you typed before, I think you will need to be careful to avoid any "original research" - WP just presents facts, that are backed up with references to reliable sources. [10:37] I will put a copy of this conversation in your user area, and leave you a note on your talk page with a link to it. [10:37] I understand, but would, at least, like to provide references on a topic area I got no "hits" on. [10:38] Of course! It would be great to add the info - as long as you can find references from books, newspapers, etc. [10:38] Some of the things you mentioned could perhaps be added to existing articles, to make them better. [10:40] Also, as that 'welcome' explains, you can create pages in your user area, to experiement. So you could start to write your proposed articles, and nobody will object because they won't be "live". Then you could come back here and ask someone to take a look, and check it. [10:44] Thank you, I'll go back there an work on it. [10:45] great! If you get stuck, just shout for help. Good luck!