User talk:Thealiaseditor

August 2012
Hello, I'm Gtwfan52. I noticed that you made a change to an article, Schenectady High School, but you didn't provide a reliable source. I’ve removed it for now, but if you’d like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so! If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks, Gtwfan52 (talk) 21:11, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Please do not add or change content without verifying it by citing reliable sources, as you did to Schenectady High School. Please review the guidelines at Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you. Gtwfan52 (talk) 21:21, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Please stop adding unsourced content, as you did to Schenectady High School. This contravenes Wikipedia's policy on verifiability. If you continue to do so, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Gtwfan52 (talk) 03:16, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Sources, citations and verifiability
Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia. I wanted to talk to you about why I have been reverting your edits at Schenectady High School. It isn't because I think your information is false, or even particularly trivial. It isn't because I have anything against you or Schenectady High School. The reason is really pretty simple. When you are writing for an encyclopedia, it isn't about what is true, or what you think you know is true. The only information you can add to the encyclopedia is stuff you can PROVE is true. That means having a reliable source and adding a citation to your information for that source. And yes, I know there is plenty of stuff on Wikipedia that doesn't have adequate sourcing. Part of the goal of the Wikipedia community as the encyclopedia moves forward is to improve it to the point where it can be used as a reliable source for information itself, just like Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book. This means that information added needs to be sourced.

Also, if you have ever looked at the above named paper encyclopedias you should have noticed that articles on the same class of subjects (in this case, schools) look pretty much the same. Only the details are different. This makes it easier for a reader to navigate through the article quickly to find the particular piece of information needed. That is something else that the Wikipedia community is trying to accomplish on the electronic encyclopedia. The guidelines for layout and what to include on a school article can be found here. Maybe more importantly, the guideline for what not to include are here.

So, in short, if you reference the information you were trying to insert, edit it down a bit and put it in the appropriate sections, it will be a welcome addition. Thanks, and please keep editing. Every editor here has gotten stuff redacted or reverted. It is just part of any cooperative group effort like the Wikipedia community. Gtwfan52 (talk) 07:08, 16 August 2012 (UTC)