User talk:Gertie1999

Hello from a fellow editor :)
Hey, Gertie, I'm cymru.lass and I've been editing Wikipedia for some time. I've noticed that you're having a little trouble getting used to editing Wikipedia, so I though I'd stop by and leave some links to help you out. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page anytime! --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 15:46, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The first is Wikipedia's Adopt-a-User program. Basically, the program gives new and/or experienced users a chance to have someone mentoring them until they get used to editing. There are two ways to find an "adopter." One is to stop by Adopt-a-User/Adoptee's Area/Adopters and browse the list until you find a user who seems like a good fit and leave a message on their talk page. The other way is to place {{subst:adopt me}} on your userpage and wait for someone to offer adoption.
 * Another place you can go is the New contributor's help page for one-time assistance.
 * There's also Tutorial, which will give you some help with formatting, etc.
 * You can reply to this message here or on my talk page. Also, If you reply to a message someone left you at your talk page, you can put on their talk page so they know they have messages on your talk page. --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 15:58, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello
Hi! I'm sorry to see you've had such a hard time so far, Gertie. You certainly received some warnings you shouldn't have. Sometimes people mean well, but misinterpret things.

You're making great progress and the userspace drafting is coming along nicely—you sure chose hard things to write about with those 2. If you want I'd be happy to look over the Springer one when you feel it's finished. By the way, if any potential sources you find require payment feel free to nudge me. I have access to lots of sources, so may be able to put it online for a short time, for download.

I saw you wrote that you “really want a page that will stay on Wikipedia for awhile”. Well, I thought your Stayman apple page was very nice. Some strong sources, too. I live across the ocean, in a faraway land, so hadn't heard of it before. I wasn't sure if it'd stay, although thought it should and did put in a word. Which brings me to ... Good news: the community agreed to Keep the article! Now a page that you breathed life into will stay for a very long time.

Y'know what it's missing though? Pics. :) There are so many rules about picture uploads here. Luckily, I'm familiar with them. How about one of these ? Also, if the amount of content is expanded by five times, you could even nominate it for 'Did you know' - so it goes on the Main Page and is seen by thousands. If going for that appeals to you, I'd be happy to help out. Let me know.

Nice to see the character page went live, too. Feel free to ask if you need help with any wiki stuff. --92.30.85.175 (talk) 22:41, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Aloha, I had a look over your Springer page. Meant to get back to you yesterday, but I had to go someplace!

The foundations are good. Straightaway readers know who she is, what she's done. What'd be great, and bring it closer to being ready to go public, is a little more on Kristina. Is there more about her out there, Gertie?

Another article I looked at for ideas tells you all about if the person went to college, wrote anything before her first book, if she's married, which state she lives in and how she likes to spend her free time. (Actually it doesn't mention that last bit at all, but it seems nice to have. :o) Because I haven't read the books, I liked how your page quickly explains their plots. Adding more on Kristina'd be a good balance with that I think. --92.30.85.175 (talk) 18:26, 8 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Hey again. On the subject of suggestions you didn't ask for ;-) …I saw you went to add one of the pics to the apple article (well chosen btw). But it didn't go through; the site only shows ones that're in certain places. Since those pics are free to use, they can go on the "Commons" sister site. When we're next both on at the same time, I'll walk you through it if you like? It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Best, 92.30.85.175 (talk) 21:19, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi. OK, you know I mentioned Wikipedia's sister site, "Commons"? Well, I found this tool Flinfo. It does all the work of filling out information for uploading pics from Flickr, to Commons.
 * You just put in the PhotoID&mdash;the numbers in the Flickr.com webpage links above, or the full webpage address, and it grabs the information. Here's a link to it ready with the one you were trying before. Then simply right-click on the 'Download largest available size' link it gives you, and save it to your computer. The only other thing you need to do is change the description line to something like Stayman, if the title isn't very good (one gets named ‘881 the perfect apple’), and make sure it only has 1 category at the bottom:  . Click “Open upload form”, and it opens a new page on Commons. On that, click browse to find the downloaded pic on your computer, give it a decent destination name like "Stayman" or "Staymans on a tree", press “Upload file” and …done! If I made that sound difficult, it really isn't! Nudge me if you need any help. :o) --92.30.85.175 (talk) 18:47, 10 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Hai, hate to spam you like this – only messaged you about something else a few mins ago! I noticed you created the Springer page as an article. Thing is, it still needs a lil' more work before it's ready. Partly my fault maybe, I should've been more clear. :\ It's not that there aren't things that're good about it, Gertie. It's just the bar's high, esp. for articles on living people. Wouldn't want it to be deleted just for being "not quite there yet". Please can you get back to me here or on my talkpage & I'll help sort it all out? Thanks. 92.30.85.175 (talk) 21:34, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Good job
I see your edits are improving. That's great! And I'm glad you took my suggestion on writing article drafts in userspace; that will definitely save you a ton of hassle. One thing I noticed, in your edits to Template:Disney Channel Movies, you had to edit the page several times to make sure your link worked out. There's something you can do so you don't have to save the page to make sure your link works. Check out Help:Show preview. There's a button you can click in the editing window that says "Show preview." When you click it, it shows you what your edit will look like when it's saved. Then you can right-click any links and select "Open in new tab" or "Open in new window." That will allow you to make sure you've linked to the right page without having to wait for the page to save. Hope this helps! As always, you can leave a message on my talk page if you need help! --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 00:54, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome
You're welcome! I'm glad to know that I've been able to help you. How's your editing coming? --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 01:59, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Infoboxes
I see you've moved your userspace draft to Michelle Tanner (Full House Character). That's great! I moved it to Michelle Tanner (Full House character) so it fits with Wikipedia's article capitalization guidelines (click on the link to read the guidelines, if you're interested). Congratulations on figuring out how to use tables! I'm gonna let you in on a secret—I still don't know how to use those things. I think it's time to introduce you to the wonderful world of infoboxes, which I actually know something about. Can you imagine me trying to teach you something I knew noting about? That'd be a nightmare...

So. Infoboxes. Basically, they're little blurbs about an article that tell you some key information at a glance. Almost like Sparknotes. They come in a bunch of different varieties; there are infoboxes for countries, TV shows, people, businesses, you name it. There's a list at Category:Infobox templates. I think your best bet for the Michelle Tanner article would be to use Template:Infobox character. To place an infobox on a page, you paste the code in at the top of the article and then fill it in. For example, you would put this at the top of the Michelle Tanner article:



Then you fill the information in. Each of the lines is called a parameter, and you place the information after the equals sign in the parameter. If you're unsure of what kind of information to put after a parameter, don't worry. Just go to the infoboxes page and look under the section called "Parameters". Not all of the parameters are necessary, like the "species" parameter. That parameter's for characters from series with many nonhumans.

Another thing you might find helpful to know is how to use piped links. I noticed when you edited the ABC Family page to fix the link to Sister, Sister, that you left it as. In cases like this, you can actually make a link that says one thing but points to a different page. For example,  links to the page Sister, Sister (TV series) but it actually says Sister, Sister. Hope this helps. As always, if you're confused, drop a line on my talk page. I'm on here pretty often --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 01:12, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Mini-tutorial on external links and references
Here is a little tutorial I just wrote on how to use external links (like to Google.com or other non-Wikipedia webpages) and reference lists in articles.
 * External links: To place an external link in an article (like you tried to do with Michelle Tanner (Full House character), you put the link in single brackets like this [link text you want to show]. For example  will display as Google. I noticed that the link you were trying to place in the Michelle Tanner article probably shouldn't go in the article itself. Might I suggest placing it in an "External links" section? Before creating an "External links" section, you should check out External links so you can learn Wikipedia policy on external links.
 * References: I noticed the Michelle Turner article has references, but no in-text citations. Most editors use in-text citations. You can check out Referencing for beginners or Referencing for beginners with citation templates for more info. Here are some basics:
 * How to format citations: Put all citations inside the tags . This allows them to be automatically included in a reference list. Try to include author, date and title of anything you cite. For books and magazines, you should also include page numbers and ISBNs Here is an example taken off the page Referencing for beginners:  It will show up in the article's "References" section as: Plunkett, John. "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying", The Guardian, London, 27 October 2005. Retrieved on 2005-10-27.
 * Where to place references: for more detailed information on when to include a reference, look at WP:CITE. When you want to cite a source, place the citation right after the information citing. If you're citing a sentence, place the reference after the period. It's prettier that way.
 * Using a reference more than once: If you're gonna use a reference more than once, the first time you use it, type the citation like this: . Then, when you want to cite that source again, simply type   where you want to cite it.
 * Reference lists: You can make sure all references put between are automatically put in the "References" section. This helps a ton, because the section automatically numbers them and everything. To do this, I usually put  in the "References" section. You can also put there if you want.
 * I've included some example citations (using the examples I just outlined) and a sample reference list below, except this time, they will display like they would in an article. If you look at the reference list, next to reference 1, it says a b. Click on one of those letters next to the citation. a will take you to the first place reference 1 is cited. Likewise, b will take you to the second place reference 1 is cited. Clicking on the ^ next to reference 2 will take you to where reference 2 is cited. I'll get into citation templates later.

Sample cited text
John Smith is forty-three.

John Plunkett said this, that, and then some in an article in the Guardian. John Smith agreed with what John Plunkett said.

Sample reference list
Hope this helps! --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 23:44, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

A note about Images
Hey, just letting you know that pictures can only be added to Wikipedia articles if they're hosted on Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Commons. For more information on how to use images, check out Images. Hope this helps with finding an image for the Michelle Tanner article! --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 20:35, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Edit summaries
Hi ! Thanks for your recent contributions. When editing an article on Wikipedia you probably noticed there is a small field labeled "Edit summary" under the main edit-box. It looks like this: The text written in the field will appear on the Recent changes page, in the page revision history, on the diff page, and in the watchlists of users who are watching that article. See m:Help:Edit summary for full information on this feature. Filling in the edit summary field greatly helps your fellow contributors in understanding what you changed, so please always fill in the edit summary field. Thank you. Kudpung (talk) 01:10, 19 September 2010 (UTC))

)

Hi, friend
I just wanted to let you know that comments at the List of child characters deletion debate are not to be taken personally. It does take a while to learn the ropes at Wikipedia and I completely understand that having your work washed away can be extremely frustrating. I know when I start a new article, I mentally put it through a deletion challenge — are there enough sources available that it could be defended? If I don't think a successful defense can be made, I don't even start the piece. Anyway, nothing personal and I hope that you keep after it... Carrite (talk) 19:57, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Just to reiterate Carrite, please don't take the deletion personally. It takes a while to discern what belongs on Wiki and what doesn't. It is still debated within the longest contributors. If you are unsure about if something belongs, don't be afraid to ask another user. Any information you put in an article is available to criticized by the editors at large, but if you develop something with a lot of reliable sources and backing/confirmation from other editors, it is a lot less likely for it to go up for deletion. And if something does get nominated, it doesn't hurt to ask either the nominator, or at the AfD discussion about how it can be improved so it won't be deleted. Your going to run into a lot of deletionists while editing, myself tends to be one aswell, but most of us just want to include the best information in the encyclopedia. So, don't take the deletion personally, and keep making great contributions like you have been. BOVINEBOY 2008 21:03, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey
Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it? I just wanted to let you know that it's generally not a good idea to remove template tags on articles, like citequote. They're not bad things to have on an article, the let people know where the article needs help, like citing a quote or copyediting an article.

By the way, you're doing great on here—it looks like you've got the hang of working on Wikipedia! --- cymru lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 13:55, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes!
Hello! I do, in fact, remember you. It's been a while. You coming back to editing? :) — Preceding signed comment added by Cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 23:05, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think it's more that I have a few years of Wikipedia experience under my belt :) And you are good at writing articles, something I've never been able to do! — Preceding signed comment added by Cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 23:57, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * One thing I've always loved doing is things for the WP:GOCE, which is Wikipedia's Guild of Copy Editors. They go around fixing grammar and other things, and every few months they have a copyediting drive, where they try to see how many articles they can clear out of Category:Wikipedia articles needing copy edit in a month :) You should really take a look at it! — Preceding signed comment added by Cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 00:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You're welcome! Let me know if there's ever anything you need!! :) — Preceding signed comment added by Cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 18:24, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Ramona Quimby merger proposal
Hello. There's a merger proposal relating to an article or articles you've contributed to, relating to the Ramona Quimby books. You are invited to read about and discuss it here: Talk:Ramona (novel series). Thank you. Tlqk56 (talk) 00:01, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:25, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Nomination of Roberta Quimby for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Roberta Quimby, to which you have significantly contributed, is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or if it should be deleted.

The discussion will take place at Articles for deletion/Roberta Quimby until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article.

To customise your preferences for automated AfD notifications for articles to which you've significantly contributed (or to opt-out entirely), please visit the configuration page. Delivered by SDZeroBot (talk) 01:01, 9 May 2023 (UTC)