User talk:Gilebabs

Welcome
Welcome!

Hello, Gilebabs, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! Muhandes (talk) 16:05, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
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Source?
I noticed you are adding population figures to articles. No doubt you are using a reliable source for that. Would you mind citing you source on all those articles? It's required for verifiability. If you need help let me know. Best regards and happy editing! --Muhandes (talk) 16:07, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank you
Hi Muhandes, thanks for the wonderful welcome! I have been quite interested in the results for the 2010 Malaysian National Population Census, and was a bit disappointed that the Wikipedia pages have not been updated accordingly. So I thought that I might just do it myself.

I managed to cite references to the figures on the States of Malaysia page fine, but I'm running into a bit of trouble whenever I try to make references for the figures in the little information boxes in the specific Malaysian states' pages. For example, in the Kuala Lumpur page, when I attached a reference holder next to the population figure, it comes out as 1,627,172UNIQ4e5ba7bb63f94,449-ref-000,000AB-QINU when published. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Gilebabs (talk) 16:50, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Because of the unspeakable things Infobox settlement does to its numerical input, you can't put anything in the  parameter except the number itself. Put footnotes in the   parameter. Algebraist 17:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Almost seems unfair, doesn't it? Someone urges you to cite sources when adding data, so you try to and it creates an error. Two observations - one is that it is known that there are issues with some infoboxes, and there are some who are starting the discussion of how to make infoboxes more consistent in structure. If that happens, it may solve the problem and allow a reference to be attached to a field. However, that change is a long way off, and may never happen. The other observation is that an infobox is generally supposed to be redundant—it is an easily accessible, way of presenting standardized information that also belongs in the article. (This is not always observed.) Because the population figure you are adding should also be in the main text, you can add the reference to the main text, and leave the reference off the infobox. This is actually the preferred approach—even if an infobox field allows a reference, it is better to add the reference in the main text, as some readers have trouble accessing infoboxes, and we always want the references available.--  SPhilbrick  T  18:07, 24 January 2011 (UTC)


 * You seem to be doing really well. I guess you got it figured. Happy editing! --Muhandes (talk) 18:18, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Indeed I have! Thanks very much for your help, Algebraist, Sphilbrick, and Muhandes, much appreciated by this noob! Gilebabs (talk) 18:31, 24 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Here's another tip, regarding this edit. Notice that the original reference had . This means it can be used again in the same article, see WP:CITE for some examples. In this specific case it was used, on the Geography and demographics section, and by removing it, you left that section unreferenced. If you remove a reference you need to make sure it isn't used elsewhere, and if it is, move the old reference from the infobox to the article body, like I did in this edit. Of course, you might want to correct the article text as well, it seems somewhat outdated. Best regards. --Muhandes (talk) 19:00, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Noted. And thanks for the fix, Muhandes!