User talk:UMChemProfessor

Welcome!
Welcome!

Hello, UMChemProfessor, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! TN X Man 20:08, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
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Good luck
Looks like you have selected some intriguing topics. My main urging is to rely on non-primary literature (see WP:SECONDARY, i.e. Wikipedia articles are far more influential when reliant on reviews, books, and such digested sources. Students with Wiki-assignments tend to rely on primary references, which are more easily Googled and come up more readily on SciFinder.--Smokefoot (talk) 02:48, 29 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks! This year I have stressed that their references should come from a variety of sources. UMChemProfessor (talk) 16:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Diagram (re)use
While reading User:UMChemProfessor/Chem538W11Grp5 sandbox, I saw this table of structures. As part of helping your students "build the web" rather than writing a self-contained essay (and per MOS), might be useful for them to make tables as tables in WP rather than an image of a table. Advantages for them include: For this particular image, they definitely do need to change something, but I'll let them figure out their own mistake:) DMacks (talk) 02:40, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Learning to integrate with and build on others' existing uploaded works and how to find them
 * Being able to link directly to associated pages (for example, most of the monomers have articles)
 * Easy to be changed/expanded/rearranged without having to redo the whole graphics file
 * Images and especially text match existing styles


 * Thanks for the suggestion. I've talked to the students and they will revise the table. UMChemProfessor (talk) 16:17, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Chemical drawings and diagrams
Your students created several chemical drawings and uploaded them to wikicommons. Several of the compounds already exist as high quality svg while the uploaded drawings are low resolution png. For example Acetylene. To improve the drawings the wikiproject chemistry has a structure drawing working group WikiProject Chemistry/Image Request and has a nice page on how to create the best images this can be found here: Manual of Style (chemistry)/Structure drawing.

The schematics used in the sandbox article looks like a copy from somewhere. If this is the case the copyright should be made clear.

Another point is to encourage your students to use the talk pages of other users to get in contact.

Thanks--Stone (talk) 02:00, 13 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the suggestions. I have given the students image guidelines using the ACS template of Chemdraw. The link you provided will also be useful. The students have also been informed of the copyright issues and the need to make their own images. Re: Creating images for structures that already exist in Wikimedia Commons - I think it should be OK if the students want to make their own image of acetylene, for example, so that the consistency of format within the page is there (i.e., whether to show C or not). UMChemProfessor (talk) 16:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)


 * one point to make would be to add categories at wikicommons that the images can be found.--Stone (talk) 16:29, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Very serious image problem
User:JFSK538MM uploaded File:Plasma apparatus.png to commons, stating "Source: Own work" and "I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license." But actually the image appears to be scanned or somehow else extracted from doi:10.1021/bk-1979-0108.ch017 page 285, an article by some research chemists in a book published and copyrighted by ACS. The image will obviously be deleted as a copyright violation. Please make sure this plagiarism problem is addressed with the students promptly to make sure there is no further tainted work contributed to the 'pedia. How you handle the academic situation beyond that is up to you. DMacks (talk) 20:29, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
 * might be easier to find as full citation

--Stone (talk) 22:48, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

The image has been removed for now. We are in the process of trying to build up a page, so what is in the sandbox is not necessarily what will be in the final product. Please give us time to build up this page before having too much criticism. We understand that everything may not be as the community likes it right now, but hopefully after the next month or so a better judgement can be made. Thank You. JFSK538MM (talk) 01:34, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * At no time may you violate copyright laws and wikipedia site policies, even for a moment, even as a transient step on the way to something else. Wikipedia really isn't like other websites--it's immediately public/live, not a piece of scratch paper or a file on a private computer. You explicitly agreed to obey the policies regarding content licensing when you made an account and when you upload content. DMacks (talk) 01:42, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. The image has been removed and I will send an email to all students ASAP to make sure they are clear on the copyright issues. The students have just received their peer reviews on their outlines (see sandbox discussion pages) and will be working on their site for the next month or so. As always, we appreciate your interest and feedback. UMChemProfessor (talk) 16:04, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * And thank you for your prompt attention! If you become aware of any other problematic images, please let us know so that they can be removed from the wikipedia server promptly. I suspect there is at least one more (File:StepGrowthPlasma.jpg) but haven't had a chance to pull the likely original ref from my library. DMacks (talk) 06:46, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Polyfluorene
Before mentioning anything else, may i mention that i am very much impressed at the improvements you and your graduate group made to the Polyfluorene article? Chemistry has never been a specialism or specific interest for me, but i do admit that i really enjoyed reading the article. On a slightly different note, i performed the page move / Histmerge for the page itself, so the sandbox based article is now moved to the article space. I equally took the liberty of moving the talk page alongside it, since it may contain valuable reference material for future contributers.

This leaves me with two points i would like to mention - first and foremost you may wish to consider nominating the article for a WP:DYK, since it meet the criteria for this (the 5x expansion criteria). Just in case you are not familiar with it: The DYK page is the suggestion page for promoting new or heavily extended article's on the front page, in the "Did you know..." section there. To nominate an article it either has to be created in the last five days, and the article must be over 1500 characters long, or it must have been expanded fivefold in the same time period. The nominator submits a (sourced) hook that may be listed on the front page, and if it is accepted, it will be displayed on there for at least 6 hours, drawing attention to the page - see it as some recognition for the hard work invested in the page. You equally may wish to consider a WP:GA nomination, but i must admit that part of Wikipedia is entirely outside my regular field of experience, so i cannot offer much insights or guidance on that subject.

Last, i would like to give you and your students a small token of appreciation - a barnstar.


 * Thank you for your kind comments and suggestions. We are working on nominating this page for a DYK. UMChemProfessor (talk) 20:37, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi Excirial, I have nominated it, please feel free to comment and start the review. (there should now be a link to start the review on the talk page) Thank you! MichChemGSI (talk) 03:13, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Getting the most out of student projects
Hi! I wanted to point you to my addition to the WikiProject Chemistry discussion you posted to recently: here. It seems to me (despite the "strafing the infantry" idea, which no one was actually advocating) that everyone shares the same goal of improving Wikipedia's chemistry coverage, there's just a little tension around standards and what ideal chemical reaction articles ought to look like. It sounds like WikiProject Chemistry members are willing to help, we just need to get everyone on the same page about what the students are trying to accomplish and what kind of help from experienced Wikipedians would be most appropriate. Cheers--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 14:37, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your contributions!
I just want to make sure you see my reply at the bottom of this section! Thanks for being here. =) There is a ton of information Wikipedia would have to incorporate in order for all articles to reach featured status, which is the ideal, but unrealistic, goal around here. I'm glad you're taking the time to get your students to pitch in! I hope my reply gives you a bit more hope in the project. Thanks again. =) Shootbamboo (talk) 23:01, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

online ambassador for 2012
Hi I have volunteered to help out as an online ambassador for the organic chemistry class in 2012. It looks as if you know what to do, but I will help out where I can! Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:02, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Diffs
Hello there! In the future, I am thinking it would be more useful for people to analyze the impact of your student's work if you provided a WP:Diff, which compares the before and after, side by side. One can do this by selecting the appropriate "before" and "after" revisions after clicking the "View history" tab. Best! Biosthmors (talk) 07:55, 15 August 2013 (UTC)