User talk:Todc

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Rick McNair
Hi Todc, It is good that you are interested in Rick McNair and want to respect his memory and it certainly looks like he deserves a biography on Wikipedia. Unfortunately you can't just copy and paste copyrighted text to make an article: you will have to write the text yourself using the references you so kindly provided. Below is the full information about this. I hope you won't be discouraged that your article may be deleted: it is hard to know all the rules around here, but the copyright one is a very strict one!! You will be fine if you just rewrite things in your own words. Let me know if I can help in any way.--Slp1 00:40, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Please do not post copyrighted material to Wikipedia without permission from the copyright holder. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions will be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. Slp1 00:40, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Copyrighted material
Rick McNair has been deleted for the second time because you have once again inserted copyrighted material, text pasted from another website. If you do this again, I will have no choice but to block you from editing. If you create this article again, please do it with original material that you yourself have written. It's fine, and even encouraged to reference outside material, but the text cannot be cut from there.  AK Radecki  20:45, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

As I am a newbie at this, there is a certain amount of frustration involved in learning all of the formatting and style issues. In my first attempt I simply included the text from some sources so that I could invite other people to view the article and begin shaping it. This, apparently, is wrong - - - article deleted, fair enough. Following the advice of User slp1I rewrote this article trying to avoid "cutting and pasting". Now I am informed again that the article does not meet requirements and that I am verging on being blocked by user Akradecki. I admit to finding this a little heavy handed because I am clearly trying to do what is being suggested, but obviously something is amiss. Part of my confusion is that I don't know what part of the article is at issue (I rewrote the entire article in my own words, however small blocks of information may have been retained and I can rewrite them too, but I'm not sure what to rewrite!).

When the article is deleted, can I find it somewhere to fix it, or do I have to re-do it completely? If there is an issue regarding the material, how can I check what is at issue to fix it? Apparently if I don't get it right this time I will be "blocked" from editing.

Todc 22:24, 27 May 2007 (UTC)todc


 * Todc, unfortunately, we can not restore information which has been deleted due to copyright violation. Please take a look at WP:ATT for assistance in creating a properly referenced article. --After Midnight 0001 22:53, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Help
Hi there. The easiest thing, might be to create an article in your own userspace, for example at User:Todc/New article, where you can take your time to experiment, and get things right. Please do not submit any material directly copied from other sources however; but using the location above would ensure that administrators wont delete your article as long as it doesn't violate the copyright policy, and isn't used to attack other people. Please do not hesitate to ask me if you need any help, or if you prefer a live chat, you can use this tool to connect to Wikipedia's IRC helpchannel. Bjelleklang -  talk  Bug Me  23:00, 27 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Todc, I am feeling badly that you have had such a difficult start with your article. I wouldn't worry about being blocked, as it is obvious that you are trying very hard to get it right!  But it looks like you have taken the advice given above about starting the article in your own space.  I have taken the liberty of fixing it up a bit in wikipedia style including adding links etc. I even found some other references.  It would be very helpful if you could also add information about the obituaries in Winnipeg and Calgary papers: they don't need to be on the net but the usual sort of article name, date, publication etc would look good for the article's importance etc. Hope this helpful and let me know if I can help in any other way. Slp1 02:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

helpme Ok, I have reworked this page as user:todc/new article and I have had some help from Slp1 regarding style. Is it possible for an editor to review this to see if it passes muster? What is the most efficient way to post this page, just cut and paste it, or rename it?

Thanks for your help, this has been a very interesting exercise.

Tod


 * I would recommend moving it into the mainspace. See the move policy first, though. Once it's in the mainspace, link it to some articles so that other users find the article and improve it. Thanks for your help on creating a better encyclopedia, and thanks for changing your ways. Good luck!  *Cremepuff 222*  " As cool as grapes... "  00:15, 29 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Tod, I agree that you could move it into mainspace. I can help you if you need it, but it is probably more fun to do it yourself!  Before you do, a couple of things: generally only the first example of a word is "wikilinked" so you might want to delete some of the extra ones you added.  The Winnipeg Free Press obit is great. Cremepuff is suggesting you go to other articles (ie Theatre Calgary etc) and add a sentence about him with a wikilink to your new page.  Don't do it too much or if it seems grossly out of place in some way!   And it is customary that to sign  additions on the talkpages with two dashes and 4 tildes (or you can use the little blue signature button in the tool bar above.) I hope you are inspired to contribute more --Slp1 11:34, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I have corrected the surplus wikilinks on the page and once it is in the mainspace I will hunt out a couple of meaningful wikilinks. At this point I don't have "move" rights so I will just have to wait until that feature is active. I am looking forward to putting this article out to Rick's many friends because I am hoping that they will contribute some more details. Thanks slp1 for your suggestions and assistance.

--Todc 00:03, 30 May 2007 (UTC)todc


 * I just looked over the draft article, and it looks much, much better. I'm sorry I gave you the impression of being heavy handed. We daily get a flood of articles that are copyvios from people trying to use Wikipedia to promote their boss or their company or their agenda. You earlier expressed a bit of frustration as to not knowing which parts were copyvio. FWIW, the quick and dirty test is to copy a chunk of text - I usually pull it from the middle of an article - and drop it into the Google search box. If it comes up word-for-word from another website that's not a mirror of WP, then it's generally considered to be a copyvio. Anyway, what you've done is quite good, and worthy of being moved to the main space. I'd be happy to do the move for you, if you'd like.  AK Radecki   01:01, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Tod,


 * Well the deed is done and I hope you and Rick's friends enjoy it and are able to contribute more to it. I think you could have done the move yourself (with a tab at the top of the article page called Move) but anyway!!  You might just want to remind them that they need to have reliable sources for whatever they add and that Original Research is not allowed.  In other words, everything they add should have been published elsewhere first (in a newspaper or magazine or something).  Sadly their own memories are not allowed: annoying in some ways but ultimately a good plan for an encyclopedia!!.  Thanks a lot and I hope you will contribute more to other articles now that you have got the hang of things a bit!  Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way --Slp1 02:03, 30 May 2007 (UTC)