User talk:Cynthisa


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A kitten for you!
Ping pong ball kittens are the best!

Cynthisa (talk) 19:36, 27 December 2011 (UTC) 

My newby screed
The tough thing about getting started in Wikipedia is that you must deal with two separate issues:

(1) The actual writing or editing of the article you've chosen. And,

(2) All of the webpage coding necessary for the online viewing and use of the article.

Further compounding the issue seems to be that many Wikipedians seem to have a programing or similar computer background that makes them comfortable with such coding. As such, I think they oft-times do not realize how much "programmer-speak" they use in their explanations. Though not deliberate, of course, this ends up creating unintentional barriers for non-programmer types like myself. I am an extremely experienced technical writer, but have zero programming/coding skills. (Well, discounting that BASIC class I took back in 1982 in seventh grade!) However, my ability to "just jump in" to contributing to Wikipedia has been greatly hindered by this "programmers' bias." When I look at pages of tasks needing to be done, it's hard to tell how to interact with them. (Example; I cleaned up an article on Uday Sahay from one of the old to-do lists, but then wasn't sure how - or where - to make note of that fact.) When I wind up on links to a (supposedly) "how-to" article, they again tend to be filled with coding assumptions that I am just too inexperienced to follow.

The end result is that half the time I end up clicking from link to link to link in the "Help" sections trying to find what I need to know (usually a stupid procedural question, like fixing citations or whatever). I waste a half hour doing that and then lose interest (or patience!) with the task I'd originally set out to do. Or my workbreak is over and I'm out of time. Or, I become so confused by all the help info that I lose the will to just go ahead and "boldly" make the edit anyways!

I'm writing this to share my perspective -- having just recently taken a Wikipedian poll trying to delve into the issue of declining Wikipedia participation. From my current vantage point, I'd have to say it seems a little like Wikipedia is turning into the IRS. Started off small and straight forward, but over time evolved into an impenetrable behemoth. At least, that's how it seems to me right now. But, hopefully my interest in contributing to Wikipedia will outlast my patience and I will eventually find my way into the flow of things. (I hope so 'cuz Wikipedia rocks!)

Sincerely, Cynthisa (talk) 07:59, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

GOCE drive
Hello Cynthisa. Thanks for helping out with the GOCE January drive. Unfortunately, Uday Sahay doesn't qualify for the drive, because your copy edit was done in December and only the removal of the tag was in January. Unfortunately, I have to remove this one and adjust your count. I'll be tagging Claudio Schifano for quick deletion, since it contains extensive copyright violation of Schifano's facebook page, but it won't be removed from your tally as you did do the copy edit. For future reference, the way to mark the need for a citation is not to place [Needs citation] directly in the article, but to use the Citation needed tag, thus:. This gets it automatically superscripted and also placed in a category of articles needing citations. Best wishes, Simon. --Stfg (talk) 10:22, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Just putting myself right about Schifano: I can't tag it for speedy deletion because the facebook page says it's a copy of the Wikipedia one. Talk about conflict of interest! Oh well. Also, I just read you screed above. If I can ever help with anything like that, please do visit my talk page and say so. Best, --Stfg (talk) 10:38, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Stfg, Oops! Sorry about the Uday miscount - I've been trying to do a "little something" each day, but got those around the start of the year mixed up a bit. Also, if I'm at home, I'm editing on an iPad2 (really NOT a good fit, but I can do it in bed w/o waking spouse!!!)

As to Schifano, that's cool. I find myself somehow drawn towards these foreign "vanity" pages...not sure why. Perhaps because I worked with (and copyedited for) so many non-native speakers during my medical research asst. days...! I'll try to avoid them from now on, however, since copyediting them is probably like polishing the rails on the Titanic....

I'm chuffed that someone actually read my "proto-screed"!!! I'm sloooowly getting the hang of markup, but find I inevitably type everything by hand b/c I don't (yet) understand templates, etc. But, thanks a bunch for the tip on the proper: Citation needed tag. I'm trying to tread carefully (I hate thinking I'm making more work for others - rather than fixing something!), but am definitely of the "just jump right in" mentality.

However, since you're the first (named) person to actually make contact me, perhaps you can help me with two (well, a few) questions (or pass me to someone with patience - lol!)? THANKS A MILLION!!! -- Cynthisa (talk) 20:06, 5 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi again. I love the "polishing the rails on the Titanic" comment -- it often does feel exactly like that. You definitely aren't "making more work for others" if you're wanting to jump in and help. We need people to do that, and we especially need people who know how to write English -- not everyone around here does. The usual advice is to be bold, as there will always be someone around to fix accidents. (If there isn't, it can't be a very interesting article anyway, eh? :)) By the way, in my younger days I actually was a computer programmer, and when I first came to WP, I was still horribly confused, especially by templates!


 * I've had a first try at your questions below and will look for something about citations for you tomorrow. Please don't hesitate to come back with more questions any time. I'll keep this page watchlisted for a while. Also, would you mind if I take a look at your future edits for a week or two to see if there are any other things like the Citation-needed trick that would be worth mentioning? I won't if you prefer me not to -- I know how irritating it can be to have someone breathing down your neck -- but if you're happy, I can. Best regards, Simon. --Stfg (talk) 22:08, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

A few newby questions

 * 1)  Is it ok to "merely" copyedit an article?  (By that I mean, fix grammar, syntax, formatting, etc. only).   And, if I do that to an article that is "bad" in other ways, would I call it "complete" my list of Guild work?  (Because I'm done with it?) Or, do I only mark as complete those articles that are completely fixed and free of all editing needs of any sort?
 * Yes, absolutely OK. Copy editing is all we promise to do. If we manage to check citations here or there, add wikilinks or remove unsuitable ones, etc, then that's a bonus, but it's not a duty. --Stfg (talk) 21:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1)  Am I correct in thinking that only work on articles marked as needing copyediting or other "help" should be included on/counted towards one's monthly Guild list?
 * Anything tagged for copy edit, either individually or as part of multiple issues, will count, but not things that are tagged for other reasons (e.g. missing references and others you often see). You also count any that you take on from our general requests page and/or our potential featured articles requests page, whether they are tagged inside the article or not. (I think it might be wise to delay taking on requests for articles aiming at GAN or FAC until you are more comfortable with templates and familiar with the key ones you're likely to need). --Stfg (talk) 21:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1)  Also, is there a subset (or way to search out) articles that "only" need grammatical copyediting, and not the more substantial rewrites (e.g., missing, new or better citations, notability decisions, link verifications, etc.)?  I'd love to be able to find "quickies" that I can knock out on my short breaks at work. It seems like the Guild's lists are mainly the "hard cases"!  ;-)
 * When you expand the lists to show a list of months, the oldest months, especially those that are down to single- or double-figure numbers, are likely to contain the vanity articles and the "hard cases", which we'd all prefer to avoid. The most recent months are likely to contain a higher proportion of articles that are destined for the waste paper basket / garbage can in the sky, so it's probably best to wait to those get weeded out before looking at these months. In the middle, you can usually manage to spot potentially interesting titles, and then use the page size utility to discover which ones are of the size you want. --Stfg (talk) 21:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1)  Should I be removing those "needs copyediting" (or whatever's applicable) comments from the article tops after I do/fix the item?  (I assume, yes.)  Should I also be removing the item from any Guild lists?  (I assume only if the article is completely finished and all editorial comments have been resolved).
 * Yes, please do remove any tags you've dealt with. By "Guild lists" do you mean the month-by-month lists you see when you click "show" on the box near the top of the drive page? If so, you don't need to (and actually cannot) remove articles from them manually. Removing the tag in the article automatically removes them. --Stfg (talk) 21:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1)  Lastly:  I'm still horrible at referencing/citing properly in Wiki markup.  Can you recommend some good Wiki articles for my futher edification?
 * Let me take notice of this one and see if I can find anything helpful. --Stfg (talk) 21:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The best introduction for how to do the markup may be Citing sources, especially section 3 on Inline Citations. There is also something called Help: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, which has a Chapter 2 called "Documenting your Sources", but it's a bit out of date and, I find, not so easy to follow. Finally, there are the Cite web, Cite book, Cite journal and Cite news templates, for which there's a quick reference guide. You can use these by writing them out longhand, or there are various tools which let you put the values into a form and generate the template call when you click a button. I use refToolbar 2.0 and fill in any extra values manually afterwards - usually none are needed. --Stfg (talk) 15:03, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

GOCE drive instructions clarified?
Hi Cynthisa, long time no see :) Did I manage to provide enough clarification in the drive instructions? It's difficult to provide an actual link because the relevant subsection in unique to each editor and each drive. Regards, Simon. --Stfg (talk) 09:57, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

THANK YOU!
Thank you for the message on my talk page. I really do like weapons, and I appreciate the message. thank you! DEIDRA C. (talk) 20:42, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

A kitten for you!
Thank you for the message on my talk page. I'll be sure to check that out. You seem very helpful. Thank you Cynthisa!

DEIDRA C. (talk) 17:29, 23 September 2012 (UTC) 

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Edit-a-thons at UC Riverside
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WikiProject Apple Inc.
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March GOCE newsletter
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Copyright problem on Air brake (road vehicle)
Content you added to the above article appears to have been copied from https://www.worktruckonline.com/148084/air-brakes-or-hydraulic-brakes-that-is-the-question, which is not released under a compatible license. Copying text directly from a source is a violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, the content had to be removed. Content you add to Wikipedia should be written in your own words. Please leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 14:59, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

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