User talk:FirstHandParticipant

I need help, how do I cite personal experience as a reference. I am contributing to the Battle of Baqubah article, and I was there and fought in that battle. I have made changes to a few incorrect facts based on my eye witnessa account of the events. Additionally I am curious how to upload and insert a picture into the article, and lastly when I am finished i would eventually like to have this article locked, what requirements have to be met in oreder to have the articl locked.


 * First of all, welcome to Wikipedia. I'll answer your questions one-by-one.


 * 1) It would be preferable to use published sources, as personal experience is not verifiable by other editors.
 * 2) To insert an image, see Images. If it's an image which you created or it's in the public domain, you can upload it to Wikimedia Commons with the appropriate licence.
 * 3) Why would you want the article locked? It's not currently subject to chronic vandalism or content disputes, which is usually why articles are locked. Lawrencema (talk) 23:49, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


 * To allow me a more detailed response:
 * Please read No original research. Your experience would be a primary source, of which it says (and I quote): Unsourced material obtained from a Wikipedian's personal experience, such as an unpublished eyewitness account, should not be added to articles. It would violate both this policy and Verifiability, and would cause Wikipedia to become a primary source for that material. (emphasis added)
 * Uploading images and Picture tutorial should explain all questions regarding images.
 * Please see Ownership of articles: Articles are only locked to deal with disruption, such as vandalism or content disputes and only if allowed by our protection policy. There will be no other reasons to lock an article, especially not to preserve the state in which you added it. This is a wiki, so all contributions are subject for others to "edit mercilessly or redistribute[d] for profit" as outlined in the GNU Free Documentation License.
 * Regards  So Why  00:08, 24 January 2009 (UTC)