User talk:Jbenhill

First, the boilerplate:

Howdy, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for your contribution. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: &#126;&#126;&#126;. Four tildes (&#126;&#126;&#126;&#126;) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page (below).
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style
 * If you're ready for the complete list of Wikipedia documentation, there's also Topical index.

Thanks for your great contributions to griot and Tidjani. As you've probably noticed, Africa is sadly underrepresented on Wikipedia. If you're interested in continuing to work on these topics, I recommend checking out Wikiproject: Countering systemic bias and Wikiportal/Africa; there's also an Africa Collaboration of the Week that you can help out with if you like. But most of all, have fun, and happy editing! --Dvyost 13:43, 26 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the info. Hopefully I'll have time to make some more contributions based on my research alongside writing my dissertation.  (I guess you can empathize.)  Jbenhill 08:58, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Arabic transliteration
I certainly can empathize--grad school keeps me busy enough even when my state hasn't just been hit by a hurricane (I'm luckily clear, though, and in a fine position to help with relief efforts). As for your "draconian" edits, I'm happy to see them--I've actually been asking around on wikipedia on the transliteration issue for quite some time. I'd even encourage you to glance at my user page for a few more W Africa articles that could probably use a proper transliteration (Umar Tall and Seku Amadu spring immediately to mind, also the mansas of Mali); I'd just ask you to make sure you create proper redirects when necessary, because with so many possible transliterations, the West Africa articles often get duplicated or fail to link up. For that matter, you may want to create redirects based on the various transliteration systems you know, where I've missed them; I've just tried to look at a few sources and put in as many variant spellings as I could.

Anyway, I've never been more than an interested amateur filling a void here, so feel free to slash and burn as you see fit! I've no doubt you'll find some dubious claims and even, though I hate to say it, outright errors. I won't have much time to contribute until Christmas, but I'll look forward to seeing what else you may put up. Though you seem to already have the hang of things, check in again if you have any questions! All the best, Dave --Dvyost 21:49, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

West Africa
Hey Joseph, one area where a contribution would be much appreciated would be in West Africa's regional overview article. One of my pet projects this summer was to try to get the regional overviews fleshed out, since 1000s of articles link there, and many English-speaking readers are going to need an overview of the broad outlines of African history; unfortunately it never really got off the ground, but we did get a West Africa article partly in place. First, we're trying to decide if Cameroon, Gabon, and Rep. of Congo should be considered part of W. Af.--if you have any thoughts, could you add them to user talk in the few days? Second, and this is what I'm really curious about, do you have any interest in adding a few paragraphs on "Religion in West Africa"? It's a section that I think is conspicuously missing but that I didn't quite feel qualified to fill in. Anyway, if you're interested, your efforts would be much appreciated! Later, D --Dvyost 14:52, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Image source/licensing for Image:AhmaduBamba.jpg
This message notification has been automatically sent by NotificationBot managed and run by AllyUnion. Please leave comments regarding bot operations at AllyUnion's talk page. Please direct all comments regarding licensing information at Wikipedia talk:Images for deletion. --NotificationBot 12:26, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Unspecified source for Image:BaayNiass.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:BaayNiass.jpg. I notice the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this file yourself, then there needs to be a justification explaining why we have the right to use it on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you did not create the file yourself, then you need to specify where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the file also doesn't have a copyright tag, then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following [ this link]. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If the image is copyrighted under a non-free license (per Fair use) then the image will be deleted 48 hours after 02:16, 7 January 2007 (UTC). If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Nv8200p talk 02:16, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Unspecified source for Image:BaayNiass.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:BaayNiass.jpg. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, then you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, then a link to the website from which it was taken, together with a restatement of that website's terms of use of its content, is usually sufficient information. However, if the copyright holder is different from the website's publisher, then their copyright should also be acknowledged.

As well as adding the source, please add a proper copyright licensing tag if the file doesn't have one already. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following [ this link]. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If the image is copyrighted under a non-free license (per Fair use) then the image will be deleted 48 hours after 16:04, 1 January 2008 (UTC). If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Jusjih (talk) 16:04, 1 January 2008 (UTC)