User talk:Grlucas/Help/Archive 1

Project and Acticle
For "Finalize your contribution to Project Mailer", Is that specifically referring to the article we chose, even if we do not have permission yet?


 * Yes and no. You should continue to secure permissions for the article as it will become part of PM. However, your main project for the class should be something else you do for PM, like any of the to-do items on the letters or on AAD Expanded or really anything else you see that needs to be done on Project Mailer. I want to leave this up to you.

Looking ahead to week 5 and "everyone should have chosen a topic and begun writing and editing AAD Expanded"—do you have suggestions for topics?


 * See above. All of my suggestions are on the to-do lists, but that doesn't mean you can't come up with your own. Let me know! —Grlucas (talk) 16:45, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Please direct me as to how to post the essay onto the project. I downloaded the essay to my personal computer and have permission, just not sure where to upload it...thanks(Dmcgonagill (talk) 19:25, 25 March 2019 (UTC))


 * I would post it to your sandbox, first. Get it looking perfect, then we can move it to the main space. Make sense? As editor, I will help everyone on PM when the need it. You can post to my talk page there, too. —Grlucas (talk) 20:31, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Topic selection module is complete, but still questioning whether we are to pick 3 articles about PM not already in the drive or pick a topic of interest from a stub qualified article to collect resources and contribute to? Or something else? Please advise. Thanks. (Dmcgonagill (talk) 19:30, 26 March 2019 (UTC))
 * Sorry to be dense, but what are you referring to? If you are talking about your major project for the course, please begin with the to-do lists on AAD Expanded and AAD Letters. Do I have to explain this whole thing better? Here's what's on the syllabus: "This semester, we will be working on a project on Project Mailer centered around Norman Mailer’s 1965 novel An American Dream. I have a box of artifacts, including letters, reviews, essays, clippings, and other miscellany, that we will organize, digitize, and use to construct a logical and unified Digital Humanities project." Have a look at the shared drive and find something you might be interested in tackling. Does this help? —Grlucas (talk) 21:18, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
 * FYI, here are all the pages on PM that need work done. —Grlucas (talk) 21:53, 26 March 2019 (UTC)


 * Yes, please, that would be very helpful. And yes, that's what I am still having trouble with, choosing the major project. I know that there is a to-do list and I have looked through the list, but I think my problem with choosing is my limited knowledge of Norman Mailer and not knowing what the list actually means. I don't have any context for what the material is or what we would be doing with those artifacts, how we would choose from that list and how we would get the material itself. I wouldn't mind tackling those letters, for example, but is that just a matter of digitizing them, but not doing any analytical work on them beyond that? JVbird (talk) 22:55, 26 March 2019 (UTC) (talk)


 * Well, the first step for any of this would be to consider the digitized materials and where they might be put on PM. I thought it would be easiest if we concentrated on the letters this semester: there are over-70 to post. Just doing this will be a major contribution to the project. Often, writing and publishing in these environments is about analog to digital translation: i.e., finding the best medium and mode of presenting on the screen what used to be on paper. Once we have that figured out and sources posted, then we can decide if we need explanatory notes, an index, or other resources that help clarify what we've just posted. For example, research could be done on each of the people Mailer writes to; or on each of the events he mentions — so much can be done, even without much — or any — content knowledge. I’m open to any approach you’d like to take. Does this help a bit more? —Grlucas (talk) 10:49, 27 March 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Dr. Lucas. Yes, that does help. I'm all in with working on the letters then, for the major project. Just tell me how I can get started--do I need to come down to Macon to pick up copies, for example? I checked out other literary figures and their letters and collected papers, including Flannery O'Connor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009LRWWKE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) and Reynolds Price (https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/pricereynolds/). Most of what I have found so far is in book format, rather than online/digitized, but I'll keep looking for some sort of model to work from in the meantime. JVbird (talk) 13:29, 27 March 2019 (UTC) (talk)
 * No, all the letters are in our shared volume. That's a great idea, too: looking at how the letters of other authors are presented. I believe we have The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer in our library, too. —Grlucas (talk) 14:48, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

@Grlucas: Dr. Lucas, I think I have my article ready to post. However, I have one quick question: Are we supposed to edit the grammar in the essay we picked. I assumed we were not to make changes to another persons work, so I just made formatting changes to the post. Please take a look at my sandbox page and let me know if my article is ready or if I should make grammatical changes to the article first. Thank you.Dillbug (talk) 20:40, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Did I not reply to this on my talk page? —Grlucas (talk) 01:26, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

@Grlucas: Dr. Lucas, I think I have my article ready to post in the right sandbox. My only concern is with the heading and my author's name. She shows up in red instead of blue. Are we supposed to add information about our author on another page to refer to?Dillbug (talk) 00:33, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I think you answered my editing question that I replied to you about on my journal so you can ignore thatConfused.png. How did you post? I don't have access to a free PDF converter so I used Google Translate and copy pasted it all together. Cumbersome but it worked. From the modules I think red means there is no page of information (content gap) on that author on Wiki. Mine is like that too. Based on response below, I assume that addition, if it comes, comes later.(Dmcgonagill (talk) 11:58, 28 March 2019 (UTC))
 * One thing at a time. It does not have to be perfect when you post. Just get the initial essay up there, then we can edit. I appreciate your diligence. 👍🏼 —Grlucas (talk) 01:26, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Morning, Dr. Lucas. Two questions (despite my saying earlier that I'm going to try not to be so needy). 1. How do we lay claim to what we want to contribute as our major project on AAD? I have clicked at least a dozen links trying to find how to sign on to the to-do list, and I know I saw where you posted it just a couple of days ago, but I'm wasting time clicking. 2. If we have posted our transcribed article (the Andrew Gordon article) to our journal, do we then need to move it over to AAD or are you doing that? Thanks again for the help! JVbird (talk) 11:03, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Morning. Questions never bother me. Ask away! 1. I claimed the introduction (which I am working on now) on the AAD Letters To Do by putting my signature next to it. You all can so the same. 2. I am happy to help move it from your PM sandbox to the main space when ready. Just let me know. These will all be linked off of the AAD Expanded main page, so you could add the bibliographic entry for them that we could link. —Grlucas (talk) 11:27, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dr. Lucas. The Andrew Gordon is ready to be moved to the main space. It's in my sandbox and posted to my journal. I'd be glad to move it over, if you can help me out there, so I don't put it in the wrong place! :) JVbird (talk) 17:03, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I added a link for you on AAD Expanded under essays. Just click it and post away. Also, if you have any of Gordon]s essay posted here on Wikipedia, please delete it. Thanks! —Grlucas (talk) 19:56, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks-I posted it to the link. Do you mean to delete my draft in the sandbox and the Journal? JVbird (talk) 20:57, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
 * It's 🍸 hour, so I'll look at it in a bit. 😉 Yes, delete Gordon's essay from Wikipedia; no copyrighted materials should be here. Thanks. —Grlucas (talk) 21:04, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

NMC Entry
As far as the assignment to Rewrite / revise / edit Norris Church Mailer, are we all working on the one entry collaboratively? This goes back to my question about the Sourcing page we worked on. I assumed we were working on individual drafts and were then merging or revising together to create one document.


 * Yes, you are working collaboratively, but not together, necessarily. You do you own work and add to the article — just like you would any other article on Wikipedia. Everyone should do the same. Be bold!


 * Can we still use the essay, even if we were not able to get permission?
 * We should still be able to, but we need to try our best to secure the permissions — i.e., have a paper trail, so to speak. Just document your attempts. —Grlucas (talk) 12:52, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

Are we not supposed to edit directly on Norris Mailer Church essay? Thanks. (Dmcgonagill (talk) 13:27, 30 March 2019 (UTC))
 * You must directly edit the article, as that is the assignment this week. Just curious: what would make you ask that? —Grlucas (talk) 14:00, 30 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I ask because I see that others have posted the article with edits into their journals. This idea of editing existing work without copying into our own space I think is unfamiliar territory to most of us. It feels weird to alter ones work. I can only speak for myself directly though on there.🥂(Dmcgonagill (talk) 14:14, 30 March 2019 (UTC))
 * Indeed, the collaborative nature of Wikipedia can be off-putting at first, but you'll get used to it. Writing in digital environments is not a solitary or solely individual practice. Edit away, and remember to be bold! —Grlucas (talk) 15:05, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Citation Issue
I want to add a book as a reference but can't seem to get it to show up. Per the citation training, I can use an ISBN for the book. I tried that but it just shows the ISBN as a set of numbers when I view the post. Am I missing something? Ssimsjones (talk) 23:56, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Do you have an example? What's the book? Just use the book citation code:

Converting PDF files to JPG Single Files
Dr. Lucas, I'm trying to post the snippet/review work to NM but I'm having trouble converting PDF files to jPG files. I downloaded a free converter but the converter creates individual JPG pages rather than one file to upload to Wiki. Any suggestions? Thanks! Josef JVbird (talk) 11:44, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I use Photoshop. That said, I think I just need to install a PDF viewer on PM. Give me a day or so. Thanks. —Grlucas (talk) 22:35, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Will do! Thanks for your help on this. JVbird (talk) 23:57, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Update: I can't install the PDF handler on PM anytime soon. My host does not have a piece of software that's needed. Let's proceed without it, please. Sorry for the trouble. —Grlucas (talk) 20:48, 19 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the update. I'm going to see if a friend can't help me with what I'm doing using Photoshop (I have the mock up cover ready) and I know that Rian has a converter, so I may ask him to convert the files so I can update them. We had bad storms last night and this morning and we're still without internet and phone (I'm on a really weak hotspot that is really not letting me upload right now) so it will probably be tomorrow before I can get material posted. Comcast is supposed to be out here by 3 tomorrow. Fingers crossed. JVbird (talk) 23:10, 19 April 2019 (UTC)
 * No problem. I hope everything's OK. —Grlucas (talk) 11:59, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, yes all is ok. Lots of downed trees and power outages. No phone or internet for almost 2 days, so behind a bit. Making up for it today and tomorrow, though. Time to get in there and edit! JVbird (talk) 23:37, 20 April 2019 (UTC)