User talk:Michael Jonathan Boyd

May 2019
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Thank you. Zingarese talk  ·  contribs  21:14, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Pteroplax
I apologize for reverting your helpful edits. I thought you were putting poor grammar and removing references. And somehow it got in into the abuse log. And I got a message saying about what happened about the edits of Pteroplax. Some were thought to be vandalism which is a serious issue. So I would like to stop reverting your edits as long as you don't vandalize. Thank you. Fire Blade 708 00:02, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

Pteroplax
Hello Michael. My name is Nick Moyes. I am an experienced Wikipedia editor here, and before my retirement I was Senior Keeper of Natural Sciences at Derby Museum. I saw from your Teahouse posts you'd been frustrated by your first editing attempts here. I think we've solved your concerns, and the editor who reverted you has appreciated they were a bit too hasty. I'm really sorry that happened and I hope this hasn't put you off editing. I got involved with Wikipedia back in 2011 when one of its administrators walked into my museum, seeking someone to trial a project linking QR codes placed beside museum objects to multilingual entries on Wikipedia. We trialled it in our geology gallery, and that got me hooked on Wikipedia. And I'm still here, some eight years and 40,000 edits later!

Although nobody needs to be an expert to edit Wikipedia (as it's simply a process of collating and presenting information from published sources in a structured encyclopaedic format), it's great when subject experts like you also want to share your knowledge. I'm really glad you sought help at the Teahouse, and I'd be happy to offer you any further help you need. It can take a while to understand the ways we work here, and I'm so sorry you got off to a bumpy start. You'll see that I did a bit of copy-editing to help you see the way we style our articles and to add inline citations. Our two editing tools both have a 'Cite' button from which a reference template can be called up. This is a great way to add and then to reuse a reference by giving each one a so-called 'refname' which can be used to call up that reference again without having to retype the whole thing.

In the hope that you haven't been put off from contributing, there are three things I'm going to suggest you do. The first is to take our interactive tour called The Wikipedia Adventure. It'll help you see how things work, though there are more straightforward help and guidance pages available if you prefer. Getting started is well worth a visit.

The second suggestion is that you take a look through Referencing for Beginners.

And the third thing I'd ask is that you create a Userpage for yourself by clicking on the red tab marked 'User', typing a few lines about your interests and aspirations in editing Wikipedia and, most importantly, to add the following text to that page:  What this does is make it clear that you are editing a Wikipedia page about a topic you're personally connected with through your research. It won't stop you editing that page, but it'll give clarity over your connection. You can read more about our 'conflict of interest' policy by going to this shortcut link: WP:COI.

If you'd like further help, feel free to ask again at the Teahouse (where I often help out), or you can pop over and leave a new topic post at the bottom of my own talk page by clicking the 'Add topic' tab. Alternatively, leave a reply below. I'll monitor this page for a while, but if you want to ensure I get an immediate notification of a message, just start your reply here with  and make sure you include those four keyboard tildes  at the end at the same time as you save your changes. That'll create that little red notification icon at the top of the page to show you've mentioned my username. I can then pop by and answer any questions you have.

I hope this all makes sense and that your experience today won't put you off from contributing. I notice Tony Tynan doesn't yet have a page here - he'd just about meet our notability criteria with his MBE and Guardian obituary last year, which I was sad to read. Fancy a go at drafting an article about him sometime? I'd be happy to guide you. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 00:47, 11 May 2019 (UTC)
 * PS: If you paste the codes I've provided above, it's important not to include the 'code' or 'nowiki' bits - just start and finish them with pairs of curly brackets. Nick.

Your work here is always retrievable
Hi, Michael Jonathan Boyd! Just to be clear, the work you've done has not been lost, nor the time wasted. Anything that is added to Wikipedia is kept in the article history; all it takes is to go back and retrieve it. I know editing Wikepedia can feel a little overwhelming at first, and it can feel like a huge shock when something you've worked on seems to disappear! But know that it's never gone for good. Most deletions can be retrieved by you or any other editor, and only a few kinds of things need help from an administrator to retrieve.

Welcome to Wikipedia, and I hope this frustrating first experience doesn't discourage you from continuing to contribute! Feel free to leave a message on my talk page here or at the Teahouse like you did before. There's always someone there who is happy to help a new contributor! --valereee (talk) 15:07, 12 May 2019 (UTC)