Welcome

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Hello, Alsoaswell, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome!}} -- Psy guy (talk) 05:29, 8 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

in response to your query...

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Hi alsoaswell,

you ask if there's a way to sign your name in lowercase. Try copying and pasting this into an edit window... [[User:Alsoaswell|alsoaswell]]

I will try to take a look at those articles you mentioned on my talk page later today. Mamawrites 15:38, 8 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

Regarding the Cosmic ray deflection society and Valloween, I will not be able to weigh in on the AFD page; I make it a principle not to get wrapped up in those discussions. I can give you a few hints if you want to edit your article into a more acceptable format, though:

1) Read this: Wikipedia:How does one edit a page (especially the section on links and URLs)
2) The article's topic should appear in bold at the beginning of the first sentence in the article. (To make something bold, use three single quotes before it, and three single quotes after, like this:

The '''Cosmic Ray Deflection Society''' is a loosely knit organization of crazed, forward thinking environmentalists dedicated to the survival of the human race in general, and life on the planet in particular.


3) Do not use ... in encyclopedia articles.
4) Do not paste any text word-for-word from a web page.
5) Write shorter paragraphs (3-5 sentences at most) consisting mostly of shorter sentences.
6) Make a few links to other Wikipedia articles that you have not written (e.g., pseudoscience)
7) Write all sentences in the third person; don't use "we" anywhere in your article.
8) Include a separate references section at the bottom of the article which lists both webpages and books or articles in print which refer to this group.

You are fighting an uphill battle here, because I suspect that many voting in the AFD page will consider your articles very close to Wikipedia:Autobiography, but it is possible that if you clean your articles up quickly, they might be saved. If not, you can always come back and try again in a few weeks... after you have learned more about Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines. Good luck! Mamawrites 16:32, 8 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

a few more tips

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Try referring to these existing Wikipedia articles in yours:

The key issue seems to be the notability of the organization, so I would encourage you to track down Wikipedia links to issues you mentioned on the AFD page and incorporate them into the article. By this I mean things like "We have appeared in... Two movies, Wild Wheels by Harrod Blank and Life & Death at Barrister's; Newspapers and magazines... AP wire article picked up by 130 newspapers Omni Magazine Article in Raw Vision; Bands Plan Nine and Eugene Chadbourne have dedicated songs to the society." Try Plan 9 or (better, because this is a more fully developed article) Eugene Chadbourne.

Again, good luck, and remember -- you can always try again in a few weeks when you have more time! Mamawrites 16:59, 8 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

business plan

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Hi also,

unfortunately, I'm not the kind of business prof who knows much about business plans... I never really learned a lot about financial matters. My specialty is change management in large firms. I don't think I could be of much help. Perhaps the US government's small business administration might be able to offer an advisor? See this website. Good luck!

Mamawrites 10:26, 9 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

PS -- you asked a question over on the AFD page about why your user page is blank. Yes, you have to edit the red link and write something down about yourself in order to turn the link blue. Typical etiquette is that others will edit your talk page (this one) to leave you messages, but only you edit your user page. (Someone who edits someone else's user page is typically called a vandal.)