User talk:Ayovich

Just a thanks for your hard work on Competitive trail riding but also a heads up that I will be going in to do some assorted cleanup to keep it within Wikipedia style. Nothing personal at all, I'm just sort of the wordsmith of the horse articles around here, it seems. This is an encyclopedia, not a magazine, so there are some style standards that may be different from other writing you may have done. For example, don't say "you," write in the third person. I am also going to add a lot of wikilinks and fix some that are there--don't worry, some of the article names aren't obvious, when you've been around a while, you will get familiar with them. I may also put a few comments into hidden text that suggest additions or changes. If you use the "history" link at the top of the article page and compare my last version to your last version, you will easily see what I've been doing. Montanabw (talk) 02:19, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

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Hi, I hope I can explain what's going on.

Basically, you want to read Copyrights to get a better explanation, but essentially, Wikipedia is free content that can be edited by anyone and so no one can claim "ownership" or credit for authoring. Material has to be given the  (We don't allow original research, for example). You may also want to review Five pillars. Essentially:
 * "Wikipedia is free content that anyone may edit. All text is available under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) and may be distributed or linked accordingly. Recognize that articles can be changed by anyone and no individual controls any specific article; therefore, any writing you contribute can be mercilessly edited and redistributed at will by the community. Do not submit copyright infringements or works licensed in a way incompatible with the GFDL."

You may want to note the various comments in the history of the article. Another editor wanted to slap a copyright violation tag on the whole article, which would have locked it up completely. They felt it was "cribbed" wholesale from a NATRC site and didn't have a Neutral point of view. I went through it and did a ton of editing to bring it into line with wikipedia guidelines (which includes not creating wikibooks or articles that are too "how to.") I see some other editors have been at it over the weekend, and I haven't reviewed changes yet, but the goal is to create an encyclopedia article, one that is neutral in point of view, accurate, professional in tone (no use of "I" and "you", no original research) and readable.

So, I hope this information helps you understand what happens. When they say "mercilessly edited," that often is the case, though we try not to be horribly cruel. Thanks for you contributions, and hope you continue to learn more about the process and participate. Montanabw (talk) 20:01, 6 August 2007 (UTC)