User talk:Dcb1986

Week 1 Introductions
Hello! My name is Jennifer. What's your name? What are your hobbies? JenniferMGA (talk) 05:15, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Hey! I'm David. Nice to meet you. I like flying my drone and riding my motorcycle (when it works), and messing around with HAM radio. Dcb1986 (talk) 14:16, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Nice meeting you! Your hobbies are interesting! I really like that you referenced them and added links about them on your User Page. I'm definitely going to do that too! I'm also going to work on getting my photo up (maybe not tonight but by tomorrow night for sure.) If I run into trouble, I'll be sure to ask you how you did it! JenniferMGA (talk) 00:44, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah David, your hobbies are interesting. Are you still in Cochran? There are lots of good roads in Bleckley County for motorcycle riding for sure! And thanks for helping me with uploading my photo! Still trying to get it to work. --Kyle Tucker (talk) 04:34, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
 * No, I live in WR now. Spend plenty of time in Cochran, though, my folks still live there. Dcb1986 (talk) 04:45, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

How did you create your page?
Hi! I see how to create a page for myself but how did you create that block to the right with your picture and a summary of your information? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lizrileymga (talk • contribs) 02:30, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Hey, in reply to your question, I used the template info found here to set up my user page. It is fairly customize able and gives you a ton of options/categories to display on your profile.Dcb1986 (talk) 19:19, 10 January 2020 (UTC)

Posting on a talk page
Hi David. Glad to see that you are in another class with me as well. Seems like you got a pretty good understanding of this Wikipedia thing. I am still trying to figure out how to get to talk pages of those who have not posted on my page.Qtwinbush45 (talk) 01:05, 11 January 2020 (UTC)
 * You should be able to find the links to their talk pages (if they have made one) via the class list on the WikiEDU Class page. Dcb1986 (talk) 00:15, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Great start!
You're off to a smashing start—way to find the user infobox! I'm also a motorcyclist. I currently ride a 2018 Triumph Scrambler. —Grlucas (talk) 16:16, 11 January 2020 (UTC)
 * That looks like a fun bike. I'm really hoping it will stop raining every weekend, would be nice to get some riding time in while it isn't so cold... Dcb1986 (talk) 03:54, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Welcome!
Hello, Dcb1986, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Shalor and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:08, 13 January 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Dcb1986 (talk) 03:33, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Class #2
Hi David. I'm in your HCI class as well. The user info box is a nice addition. Hope I can get that far! Bamcclure18 (talk) 23:13, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I made some changes/updates to it in my Sandbox version, if you want to use that as a reference as well :) Dcb1986 (talk) 02:57, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Conflicts of Interest?
I've noticed several edits being made by class members to the Middle Georgia State University page. Reading the various Conflict of Interest Guides makes me curious as to whether it would be considered any type of a COI for us as students to be editing the page of our school. Would it fall under some type of academic exception? —Dcb1986 (talk) 22:27, 18 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I think this would only be an issue if they followed the guidelines listed on the page you link to. For example, I'm a member of the Norman Mailer Society, and I wrote that entry. However, I do state my affiliation on my user page. Do you see an issue? —Grlucas (talk) 12:43, 19 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying. I figured that would be the case but wanted to make sure, in case there was something I missed. I don't see any other issues. —Dcb1986 (talk) 15:58, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Question
@Dcb1986 I saw you answered my question on the Graffiti page but I could not find the answer for some reason.Benjamin Fincher (talk) 04:12, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Critiquing articles
Since beginning to learn to use this platform in earnest, I have been surprised at how much more I have been noticing random typos and errors on other Wikipedia articles. I had a little bit of experience editing articles prior to this date, but was unaware of the scope and complexity of all the different guidelines that have to be followed to make an article decent. I leaned heavily on the templates and guides that were available in the WikiEdu content to know what should/not be done. For the article I expanded, Macon Bacon, I looked at the pages of other teams in the same conference, some of which were quite detailed (and some not), and got ideas for sections and information to include.

Contributions
I spent some time updating my User Page to be slightly more interesting than it had been previously, including adding an infobox, my picture, other relevant material, and links to general information. I also added several subpages/sandbox pages for organizing various stuff I was working on. In the process of making my user page I learned how to use Wikimedia Commons to upload my own pictures under a Creative Commons license, in order to be able to link them in articles without having to worry about copyright issues.

For the The Faith of Graffiti, I made 41 total edits. My main contributions consisted of adding to the paragraph regarding Mailers 1969 Mayoral run, along with the appropriate sources. I also went to the library and located and cited several other sources throughout the material, broke the synopsis into multiple sections, did some copy-editing, removed duplicate wiki links, added/updated some of the infobox material, and made some other minor typographical edits.

The article I expanded, Macon Bacon, was a pre-existing article, but was a two sentence stub with an infobox. I expanded it to seven sections, with two tables and 25 total sources, and included over 20 other wiki links. I attempted to make the sources as diverse as possible, in order to meet the notability requirements as best I could. One area I wish I could expand upon better would be to add more pictures to the page. I was not able to locate any decent open source images. I wish I had taken some pictures while at games, they might have provided some good material. The article has since been edited and improved upon by other editors as well (for the better).

Peer review
I reviewed Lizrileymga's article about the Bibb Manufacturing Company, and reviewed Ereed23's article about the Battle of Ringgold Gap. They both had very well-written articles, and I only made a few minor suggestions for improvement.

I received a peer review for my article from Markerman76, but it appears he viewed the wrong article (the pre-expansion mainspace article, rather than the article located in the Sandbox/Draft space (I have since copied the article content from the sandbox to the mainspace). In hindsight, this could be partially my fault, in that I waited so long to copy the article over. I let him know about this, in case he wants to re-review it.

Feedback
I received some feedback from Shalor about my articles Notability and the need for sources. I made sure to incorporate that feedback and include plenty of sources in my article.

Shortly after copying my article's content over to the mainspace article, another Editor (User:Pemilligan) made some edits that that improved the article. He took out a couple of paragraphs that may not have been relevant, and condensed some of the sources into a single sentence. He also did some copy-editing, changed date formats, and changed headings to sentence case, which I now realize I should have probably done. He left good comments on his edits clarifying the reason for his actions, and I left him a thank you note on his talk page.

Wikipedia generally
Learning how to actually make use of all of Wikipedia's various features (like talk pages) was slightly daunting to begin with, but the instructional material was a good source of information. It was also fairly easy to find answers to questions, as there are a whole multitude of other reference material available as well.

I think the Wikicode side was fairly easy to pick up initially, but the sheer magnitude of different formatting options made it a somewhat slower learning process. I really like the ability to create sandboxes and sub pages, it was interesting leaning how to set up redirects and stuff like that. I also liked being able to add JSON code to show some extra options on my sidebar (I added a sub-page link). Additionally, with the amount of rules about sources, notability, content, and everything else, it makes me glad that there are more experienced editors who will take time to critique your material and provide useful feedback. I feel like there are many areas in which my knowledge and abilities are still lacking, and that I still have a lot of room for improvement (like remembering to use sentence case for headers ><).

I also enjoyed using Wikipedia/WikiEdu as a collaborative platform. My opinion was different when I began, but after spending time working through everything, I've come to appreciate the the more collaborative nature of work that the use of this platform requires. The ability to see and see and provide feedback on other individual's work, and the ability to receive the same on your own work makes for an interesting work environment that does a great job of fostering innovation and individual creativity.

Dcb1986 (talk) 00:57, 27 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Bold is not the same as using a correct subheader. Thanks for the thoughtful reflection, and good work on your project. I hope you continue to improve your editing skills and Wikipedia. —Grlucas (talk) 21:44, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Derp, fixed that. Dcb1986 (talk) 15:04, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Faith work
I very much appreciate your help with the revision of Faith. I've started working on it, too. I hope you're well during this unusual time. Cheers! —Grlucas (talk) 12:47, 9 May 2020 (UTC)