User talk:Zportman

Welcome!
Hello, Zportman, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:
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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing 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, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! Blythwood (talk) 00:29, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

A page you started (Macrotera) has been reviewed!
Thanks for creating Macrotera, Zportman!

Wikipedia editor Blythwood just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

"Looks OK. We have a Wikimedia commons category and Wikispecies page on the genus already complete, so I've linked to that and tagged the talk page. Also added two sources from Google Books, but a lot of your material is not sourced from the links you added so I think you should add more soon. Hope that's OK."

To reply, leave a comment on Blythwood's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

Blythwood (talk) 00:30, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Reply
Hi Mr. Portman, I've seen your question now. A few thoughts. (First, I'm no specialist on bees, birds or anything else and I'm not in charge around here or anything like that - I just read through a lot of new articles.)

We welcome all content, the more the better, and species articles are always accepted on Wikipedia if the species is generally recognised, so that all sounds good. I've seen what I'm guessing is an interview with you and your work sounds really interesting. (Incidentally, if you're interested in getting your content onto the front page you might be interested in the "did you know" nominations process!) The one thing I'd say is that if we're dealing with a genus of six hundred rather obscure species about which there isn't much to say and not many up-to-date sources about each one, it may be a lot more user-friendly to improve the article on the genus so it can cover the whole genus thematically - that may be easier than lots of species articles that people have to look through one by one. You can also upload images here if there's something you want people to see.

The one really important thing with writing articles on topics in which you're an expert is that you cite every fact you write to published sources to ensure transparency. Wikipedia has a policy of not accepting any information that hasn't been published or opinion writing so that information on here can be tracked and its source understood - basically the aim is to make sure people know where information on Wikipedia comes from, so as to avoid circular reporting and mistakes or out-of-date information getting recycled. As a comment, I've found that sometimes subject-matter experts find this limit a little frustrating (for instance trying to edit an article to add information before there's a source for it and finding that they get reverted), so if you want to post absolutely cutting-edge content that hasn't gone through peer review yet, a blog might be the best place to put it (we can then cite that). This is a really informative guide to editing on topics you're recognised as an expert on.

Anyway, let me know if you ever have any questions about anything! I'll be keen to review any articles you write. Blythwood (talk) 11:04, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks on behalf of Wikiproject Insects Hymenoptera task force!
Hello! It is nice to see another entomologist specializing in bees on Wikipedia. Thank you for doing work on a few bee-related articles already, and creating a new genus page. Since there are so many species, even just within Apiformes, it's good to focus on higher-level taxonomy except for really interesting or common species (though a lot of species-level information can be included on genus pages). If you have any insights as to tasks that need to be done with bees or Hymenoptera at large, consider visiting the task force page. If you have any questions about how things are done or organized on Wikipedia, feel free to drop me a line on my talk page or reply below. Cheers! M. A. Broussard (talk) 23:11, 27 April 2017 (UTC)