User talk:NGAN58

December 2016
Your recent edit to Lamar High School (Arlington, Texas) appears to have added the name of a non-notable entity to a list that normally includes only notable entries. In general, a person or organization added to a list should have a pre-existing article before being added to most lists. If you wish to create such an article, please first confirm that the subject qualifies for a separate, stand-alone article according to Wikipedia's notability guideline. That was cute what you did with the HTML markup. Disruptive, but cute. How about trying to expend as much effort showing this fella to be notable as you did to deceive the community? Write his bio! If you are able to successfully do that, you will not encounter resistance trying to add him to a notable list. Please be aware though that living people whose coverage in reliable sources is all in association with a single event are generally not deemed notable here per WP:BLP1E. Oh, and you can consider this your final warning for disruption if you ever pull that cute stuff again. Wikipedia is a collaborative project and outright deception like that is disruptive to collaboration in the extreme. Thanks. John from Idegon (talk) 19:10, 14 December 2016 (UTC)


 * To add to the above, you possibly thought that was how a red link becomes blue. Assume good faith is an important policy here and I didn't assume enough here. Sorry. Please use the link at the top of this page. Teahouse is a great resource. I'd have bombed out of here after a week if it weren't for them.


 * Editing Wikipedia is fun, educational and somewhat addicting. But it isn't easy to learn. You are obviously struggling. A wikilink will be red if it doesn't contain the exact title of an existing article. It will be blue if it does. Look at these messages I've left you in edit mode and you'll see many examples of how to use the markup for wikilinks. Many times, a red link will result from a typo. Here, you are trying to link to an article that doesn't exist.


 * The requirements for inclusion in a list of notable alumni are not really all that complicated. To be on such a list a person must either have a biography on Wikipedia already or unambiguously qualify to have one. There must be referenced content in their bio tying them to the school article you are adding them to. If there isn't, you must add references to show their attendance to their list entry. The "unambiguously" part is where the rub is here. As I said above, people known for just one event generally do not get to gave a biography on Wikipedia. The general qualifications for having an article can be found at WP:GNG, with further info for biographies at WP:ANYBIO. There are numerous (very numerous) exceptions for people in certain fields of endevour where having made a specific achievement automatically qualifies them for a bio. Some examples include: playing even one play in a top level professional sports league, being elected to a state or federal office, earning any country's highest military honor, being awarded certain awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, Pulitzer, Nobel). These are the people we include with a red link and references showing their notability and attendance. The notability can be shown with a single reference and an additional one if needed to show attendance.


 * I'll leave you some links to policies and guidelines and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I'll also leave you a short tutorial on how to properly add references. Use the Teahouse. I'm glad to help too. Just drop a message on my talk page. I specialize in school articles and articles on settlements (cities, towns, villages etc) in the US, but I can help explain policy and guidelines on any subject. Wikimedia markup shouldn't be too hard for you since you seem to know HTML, but I can give you some help there too. Tables somewhat baffle me, but I usually can muddle through them. Can't usually explain what I did, but I can make them work. Maybe YOU can help me with that. Good luck, and don't be shy. My dad told me something long ago that makes a lot of sense. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. John from Idegon (talk) 20:05, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

This is being posted on your talk page where you can receive messages from other Wikipedians and discuss issues and respond to questions. At the end of each message you will see a signature left by the editor posting. This is done by signing with four tildes ( ~ ) or by pressing or  in the editing interface toolbox, located just above the editing window (when editing). You won't need to sign your contributions to articles themselves; you only need to when using talk pages. If you have any questions or face any initial hurdles, feel free to contact me on my talk page and I will do what I can to assist or give you guidance.

Again, welcome! John from Idegon (talk) 20:09, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Adding references can be easy
Hello! Here's how to add references from reliable sources for the content you add to Wikipedia. This helps maintain the Wikipedia policy of verifiability.

Adding well formatted references is actually quite easy:
 * 1) While editing any article or a wikipage, on the top of the edit window you will see a toolbar which says "Cite". Click on it.
 * 2) Then click on "Templates".
 * 3) Choose the most appropriate template and fill in as many details as you can. This will add a well formatted reference that is helpful in case the web URL (or "website link") becomes inactive in the future.
 * 4) Click on Preview when you're done filling out the 'Cite (web/news/book/journal)' to make sure that the reference is correct.
 * 5) Click on Insert to insert the reference into your editing window content.
 * 6) Click on Show preview to Preview all your editing changes.
 * Before clicking on Save page, check that a References header  ==References==  is near the end of the article.
 * And check that    is directly underneath that header.
 * 7.Click on Save page. ...and you've just added a complete reference to a Wikipedia article.

You can read more about this on Help:Edit toolbar or see this video File:RefTools.ogv.

Hope this helps, --John from Idegon (talk) 20:10, 14 December 2016 (UTC)


 * To use this message, place  on User:talk pages when needed.

John from Idegon (talk) 20:10, 14 December 2016 (UTC)