Bigwhakoo

Hello, Bigwhakoo, and Welcome to Wikipedia!

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Question

Hi there. I'm still a bit new to wikipedia publishing. I've written a lot of content for people in the past, but never published. I recently opened this account and took my sandbox (user) page and published it as an actual article. That said, I'm having trouble differentiating between a sandbox/user page and an actual article. Now when I click on my sandbox, it redirects to the one article I published on the band "Marchica". Just wondering how to have a sandbox to create more articles. Any explanation is appreciated. Many thanks - Randy Bigwhakoo (talk) 14:28, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Your sandbox page User:Bigwhakoo/sandbox redirects to Marchica (band) which then redirects to Marchica. We normally don't have redirects from user pages to mainspace articles. To make your sandbox usable again for other work I have just removed the redirect and blanked it - so go ahead and use it for mocking up your next article. You can also note that you can create any number of new sandboxes if you need more than one at a time, like User:Bigwhakoo/sandbox2 or User:Bigwhakoo/sandbox3 etc. Hope that helps! - Ahunt (talk) 14:52, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Aunt. Thanks so darn much. I see the Marchica page is still active too. Again, I'm good at the content, but still getting the hang of the wikipedia software itself. Many thanks :) - Randy Bigwhakoo (talk) 14:56, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

No problem. Wikipedia is a pretty mature project these days, so things here are often pretty complicated. It is a steep learning curve to dive into. There is tons of help though, so just ask anyone. You can get someone in particular's attention (like me for instance) on an issue by either leaving them a note on their personal talk page or on any other talk page and notifying them by using the template: {{ping|Put their user name here}}. We are actually trying to get and encourage new editors, so don't be afraid to ask for help! - Ahunt (talk) 15:04, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Ahunt. Thanks so much for the reply. I've been a bit apprehensive to publish anything on wikipedia (hence why I'm a new user) although I've helped many others with content in the past. The software/user interface has been what's always scared me. Also, there's a stigma associated with gatekeeping sometimes I think with Wikipedia and journalism in general, although based on my initial experience so far, this is not the case - everyone has been very cool. Kind of afraid of rejection, ya know? Either way, you and others have been super helpful. The two questions I have: 1) @CambridgeBayWeather: suggested a name change for the article I published for Marchica (band) to simply just Marchica. There's a couple of reasons why I put "(band)" in the title of the article, as there's a beach with the same name, a medical company, and a music festival in Spain (where the band whose article I published is based). The goal is to eliminate confusion, which is why I put (band) in the title. However, @CambridgeBayWeather: seems like a much more experienced editor than I am. That said, I'd love your input as well. The article is written in English, but the band is Spanish, and I hope to have a Spanish translation done soon as well, as most people seeking information on this band will be doing so from Spain. 2) Is this article yet searchable on platforms like Google and Bing yet? It doesn't look to be the case for now, and just curious as to how or when that typically happens. None of these are super imperative at the moment, but if you can offer any guidance on it at your convenience, I'd very much appreciate it. Either way, many thanks again for the help and the warm welcome. Looking forward to publishing more very soon. Bigwhakoo (talk) 16:24, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for your note here. I have been watching your discussion with CambridgeBayWeather over Marchica. CBW is an admin here (he has special powers) and I have worked along side him here for many years on Wikipedia. He is a very good editor and usually gets issues right, so when he moves an article or a similar decision he rarely makes a mistake on it. He is also very approachable and offers thoughtful explanations and help when asked.

Normally on Wikipedia we only use disambiguation terms in article titles (like adding "(band)") when there is another use of the term on Wikipedia that is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. We don't use disambiguators unless really needed. In the case of Marchica there is no other article with that name, so putting the article on the band at Marchica makes sense. Now if someone starts another article on another use for the term then a call will have to be made as to which is the primary use and the other article will be moved to another term. If neither is a "primary use" then Marchica could be made into a disambiguation article that will just list all the uses of it. We could also create Marchica (disambiguation) to list all uses, if one of the articles is the primary use and is at Marchica. I hope that makes some sense? There is some good guidance on all this at Wikipedia:Article titles and Wikipedia:Disambiguation that covers the whole subject in some detail. - Ahunt (talk) 19:50, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

It's probably not searchable yet. Unfortunately Marchica is close to mariachi and I get hits for that (on DuckDuckGo). I think that even if it was Marchica (band) it will take a few days to index. Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 00:17, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Hey @CambridgeBayWeather: and @Ahunt: thanks so much. I'm just here to learn, and really appreciate the feedback and guidance from you both. Explanation made perfect sense also. Cheers! Bigwhakoo (talk) 05:07, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Glad that was all helpful - drop either one of us a note any time. I should note that the article showed up in a DuckDuckGo search right away, but, as noted, Google may take some time to find it. DDG scrapes the Wikipedia list of new articles in real time, as they are created, and so it usually has them listed within a minute after creation, in my testing of it. - Ahunt (talk) 13:03, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Right on. Many thanks again, @Ahunt Again, I very much appreciate it. Bigwhakoo (talk) 13:19, 19 October 2022 (UTC)