User talk:Witchchester

Amet Khan Sultan
I notice you are somewhat new here. Like you I was unaware that English Wikipedia policy on ICONDECORATION was very different from Russian Wikipedia, and I also used to add them to every article. However, as I continued editing people really disliked this and Russian Wikipedia policies for formatting are annoyingly different from English Wikipedia policies. Ribbon racks in English are strongly discouraged and it started a huge editwar at Natalya Meklin. As a new user the policies are quite obnoxious, I have experienced that myself. I apologize for immediately reverting your edits without detailed explanation, I didn't realize you were a newbie and I apologize for biting. (When I was new I was bitten many times, especially by a user named Jetstreamer).--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 17:35, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
 * If you're looking for a good place to get started, may I invite you to write a few articles from this list? I pre-screened them to make sure they meet the toughest notability guidelines, so nobody can bug you on that. I never understood why rules from different langauge wikis are so different, but the thing about Sultan's ribbon rack is that some of the very high awards like Honoured Test Pilot of the USSR were not displayed in the infobox, and only the most important awards are supposed to be listed in the infobox per "any notable awards or decorations the person received; exhaustive lists should be worked into the prose. Separate multiple entries using Plainlist." as described at Template:Infobox military person. That ribbon rack had campaign medals but not some of his higher awards, so it should have been a simple list. It's hard to remember this all if you are a newcommer, and I don't expect you to learn it all in a day. If you want to familiarize yourself with more of this stuff, consider knocking out a few stubs from here (you may even get a barnstar or two for doing so)--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 17:51, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
 * I was about to say... :-) While I did not yet created an article, I have improved several; which were basically empty Pavel Plotnikov, Pyotr Pokryshev etc. I still don't get why Ribbon racks are not allowed in en.wiki. However, don't worries, were on the same side. However, the list looks like a good playgorund for me as a newbie. Thanks.Witchchester (talk) 17:55, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
 * I apologize again for my tone, I thought you were a more experienced user (name also ends in "chester"). I used to include ribbon racks but after adding one to Natalya Meklin in addition to adding multiple paragraphs (it was originally as stub), some joke by the name of Nikkimaria who has been here for over a decade but hardly ever writes a paragraph got mad, and I stopped wasting my time when it became a 5-1 argument. I find that a lot of people here are crazy about the ribbon racks to the point they seem to rather have a stub with no ribbon rack or list than a multi-paragraph article with one. I find it's best to stay off the radar of those people, and ever since then I just write articles and expand stubs. If you want help starting an article to do not hesitate to send me any questions.--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 18:48, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
 * You don't need to be sorry, really. You are the first editor being super honest with me, and taking time explaining how I should proceed. I have encountered another editor, now banned, which used mulitiple accounts to undone my edits, SMH. However, I try to work on those article you have recommended and even thought I have not seen a clear policy that prohibits the use ribbon racks and medals, (only editors against it) I will still add them in a night and fog operation. :-) Witchchester (talk) 19:22, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
 * While there is not an official policy against it, they are highly discouraged and usually end up deleted at one point or another...Plus consensus is that WP:Icondecoration prohibits them, and that has pretty much been the de-facto interpretation of it. Either way, I prefer to spend my time writing paragraphs of information translated and "introducing" the information to English rather than adding something that I know will be deleted in the future. Worse, if you expand an article in the same edit as making undisputably good edits like adding a few paragraphs or copyediting, there are people here that will actually hit "revert" knowing they will be deleting some good content with it rather than just removing ribbons. I genuinely feel that people like Nikkimaria spend their entire Wikipedia careers just deleting ribbon racks. If they go around deleting and we keep adding them, it will still not amount to much in the end. It takes less time to delete a ribbon rack by hitting revert than assembling one, and these people are annoyingly efficient.(By checking the ribbon template transclusion links they can see all the pages where the template is used) But if you do decide to add them anyway, don't say I encouraged you or anything - I don't want to get in trouble with them and I just try to avoid those people as much as possible.--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 20:00, 22 May 2018 (UTC)