User talk:Dross33

Your Sandboxes
Hey folks. This is a broadcast message being sent to everyone on Prof Weil's course that have added themselves to his course page on Wikipedia. I'll be using this in order to communicate with you all. In this message I would like to request that you let me know the location of your sandbox. If you are working in a group please let me know whose sandbox you'll be using for your proto-articles so I can add them to my watchlist. If you have any questions please feel free to bug me either on Wikipedia or in the IRC help channel. Sincerely, EdwardsBot (talk) 02:10, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

How to contact Basket of Puppies
Due to a technical error the above message didn't appear to be coming from me. If you need to contact me please use the following:.

Introduction paragraphs in your articles
Dear Students, please a look at the introduction of your articles and have a read of WP:LEDE. I noticed some of the articles did not have the most well developed introduction paragraphs. Also, please remember to stick to a neutral point of view. This means no prescriptions and no suggestions. Have a look at WP:NPOV for more information. Thanks! BoP EdwardsBot (talk) 21:40, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

We're #1 !!!
Dear students- we're number 1 on the WikiProject_United_States_Public_Policy/Leaderboard. This is awesome and extremely impressive! Way to go!! --Basket of Puppies (talk) 15:40, 31 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Re. Public Policy Analysis: Public Roles in Private Markets (David Weil) · Implications of Marijuana Legalization, focusing on CA Proposition 19 ·

Online Ambassador
My username is Chzz, and I'll be your online mentor for the remainder of the course.

We have just a few weeks left, during which I would like to help you a) improve the article, and b) to get more from your Wikipedia experience.

Within the next few days, I will review the article, and provide suggestions and feedback. I'll do that on the article talk page, and I'll also let you know right here. I'll be very happy to directly assist in improving it, too.

If there is anything specific that you think I can do, to help you in any way, please let me know. Please leave a note on my talk page.

I look forward to working with you. Best,  Chzz  ► 03:10, 16 April 2011 (UTC)


 * P.S. Please keep an eye on Talk:California Proposition 19 (2010) - I will be asking for others to help us out, and to provide comments on that page. If you can fix issues raised - great, go for it. If you need help, ask; you could put right here with a question, or as on help desk, or contact me on my talk. There's lots of us here all wanting to make better Wikipedia articles, hence plenty of help is available - it's makes good sense to utilise these resources, to help each other. Be bold and fix what you can, but if you're stuck, ask. Thanks,  Chzz  ►  03:39, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Hello
I have been asked to review the article California Proposition 19 (2010) and provide feedback on ways to improve the article. First let me say your hard work and diligence is apparent. It is a rather nice example to have achieved and compares well to your peer group. Most of what I will outline is easy to fix and I would fix it myself, but it will better serve your efforts to consider fixing the shortfalls yourselves.
 * All wikilinks should go directly to the intended page without disambiguation. the following links need fixed: (District Council (redirect page), District council), (Jeffrey Schwartz), and (John Redman)
 * The following external links and/or references are shown as dead links: State Ballot Measures - Statewide Results, CA Secretary of State: Results for Proposition 19, Feinstein opposes pot legalization measure, Ex-Mexican president urges California to legalize pot, Alcohol Trade Comes Out Against Legal Marijuana, Proposition 19 Map Election Results, If California Legalizes Marijuana, Not Clear What Obama Would Do, Polls gone wild: Political gripes in Internet age, San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party Election 2010 Endorsements, Prop. 19 trailing badly, poll shows
 * Many of your section headings do not follow the manual of style for capitalization. See this guideline to bring this into conformance.
 * Internal consistency is important. In this example: ...enforcement resources to more dangerous crimes,[6] the reference comes after the comma. This example: ...found that despite having lower marijuana consumption rates than young whites[18], shows an inconsistency.
 * In the History section, the image should not be the first occurrence. Either move it to the right, or place it after the text if you want it at left.
 * All quotes are required to show a reference inline which contains the quote. This example: "production estimates derived from marijuana eradication efforts from 2003 to 2005 marijuana" fails that criteria.
 * The majority of you article shows positive use of the serial comma. This example: commercial cultivation, transportation and sale. does not. See this guideline for more information.
 * Other than that there are a few errant spaces which can be removed to maintain consistency. I will check back in a couple of days to monitor your progress. Very nice job on what you have done with this article. My76Strat (talk) 06:08, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

WOW! Nice Job!!!
Hey Dross33:

Your Wikimentor/Ambassador and my Wikifriend User:Chzz asked me to check in on you and offer help. LOL! After looking at YOUR work, I was seriously thinking about asking YOU to come help ME on some of MINE! Hey - you don't happen to like lung cancer-related stuff, do you?

Just kidding. Look, you seem to be doing GREAT. You have MORE than plenty of help, and probably better help than what I could give you. I *did* promise Chzz, though, so I'll just say a couple of quick things and get out of here ...

I'm an old man. I'm 50 (God help me - I'm almost dead)! One thing about us old dudes ... we can't HELP but give out advice all the time. And the best advice I can give anyone your age is DON'T YOU FREAKING QUIT! No matter WHAT it is ... school, Wikipedia, community service, working out, professionally, or in situations of adversity whether bad or worse. JUST KEEP FREAKIN' GOING!!!

Keep investing - in yourself, and in causes both smaller and larger than you. Your efforts may seem trivial at first, but over time, you will be damn glad you did, because things that get invested in over time grow like a snowball rolling downhill - EXPONENTIALLY! So BUILD THEM - skill sets, social/personal/professional relationships and networks, areas of personal and professional experience, knowledge, and expertise (and of course your Wikipedia contributions and edits).

OK, end of lecture. You need a decent copyeditor at the very end, leave me a message on my Talk Page. Good luck, and GREAT JOB!

Your Wikifriend: Cliff L. Knickerbocker, MS (talk) 22:18, 17 April 2011 (UTC)