In deciding to create my own Wikipedia article I chose to write about a swim league that I was apart of from 1st grade all the way to my freshmen year of high school. The Central Valley Recreational Swim League, or CVRSL, is a summer swim league for kids 18 and younger to improve their swimming skills. It was a huge part of my life and was ultimately the reason why I continued competitive swimming throughout high school. Writing a new article about the swim league seemed like the most obvious choice, because I knew a lot about the league, participated in it myself, and was confident that I could find a lot of resources on the league itself.

Once I had some general information for all of my headings and felt that I could make a decent article, I registered for a Wikipedia account. Once I was a user I just browsed the tools available to registered users. This was extremely confusing, or maybe Im just stupid. I had trouble understanding how to create a new article. After probably an unnecessary 30 minutes trying to figure out how to just start a new article I finally figured it out.

I made a list of headings that I wanted to include and just based my research on those. I chose to include History, Rules and Regulations, CVRSL Teams, Swim Meets, and Events. I figured these five headings would provide a lot of different information, and would be information users would look for on a page for such a league. These headings are the ones that were then added to the final draft of the article.

My primary reference was the CVRSL website. I was also able to find that CVRSL has their own bylaws, which I used as a resource, but they also use many of the rules from the Rule Book and Meet Directors Manual designated by USA Swimming. USA Swimming is a huge national organization for swimmers and I used their resources in creating my article, since CVRSL follows their guidelines.

When I started adding information to the article, I underestimated the amount of coding that I would have to do and how long it would actually take me. If that Wikipedia cheat sheet didn’t exist, I can guarantee that I would have been banging my head against my desk from the frustration that came with trying to code every little thing. I found myself coding, not liking the format of it; recoding again; making a mistake which changed the entire format; recoding again. I had to make sure the headings were correct, the bullet points were how I wanted them, and all the information that I added was understandable and presented professionally. After hours of just coding, and making sure every little detail was correct I was done. After a long battle with the Wikipedia rules of coding and my own desire for perfection, I was satisfied with the final product.

I hope that this article will be beneficial to those who seek it out, and maybe even prompt others to join swim leagues in their own area. Swimming was a huge part of my life and I feel that these kinds of leagues should be given some credit for their impact on those who choose to participate in them. Being apart of such a league was such a rewarding experience and I wanted to share information about such a great program.

Emilymcfaddenn (talk) 05:33, 22 August 2013 (UTC) Emily McFaddenReply

Your submission at AfC Central Valley Recreational Swim League (August 25)

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Thank you for your recent submission to Articles for Creation. Your article submission has been reviewed. Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. Please view your submission to see the comments left by the reviewer. You are welcome to edit the submission to address the issues raised, and resubmit if you feel they have been resolved.


 
Hello! Emilymcfaddenn, I noticed your article was declined at Articles for Creation, and that can be disappointing. If you are wondering or curious about why your article submission was declined please post a question at the Articles for creation help desk. If you have any other questions about your editing experience, we'd love to help you at the Teahouse, a friendly space on Wikipedia where experienced editors lend a hand to help new editors like yourself! See you there!

Your draft article, Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Central Valley Recreational Swim League

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Hello Emilymcfaddenn. It has been over six months since you last edited your WP:AFC draft article submission, entitled "Central Valley Recreational Swim League".

The page will shortly be deleted. If you plan on editing the page to address the issues raised when it was declined and resubmit it, simply edit the submission and remove the {{db-afc}} or {{db-g13}} code. Please note that Articles for Creation is not for indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you want to retrieve it, copy this code: {{subst:Refund/G13|Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Central Valley Recreational Swim League}}, paste it in the edit box at this link, click "Save page", and an administrator will in most cases undelete the submission.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. (tJosve05a (c) 13:35, 12 April 2014 (UTC)Reply