Hoplite54

Welcome!

Hello, Hoplite54! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! dougweller (talk) 06:58, 7 December 2008 (UTC) Getting started A tutorial • Our five pillars • Getting mentored How to: edit a page • upload and use images Getting help Frequently asked questions • Tips Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Policies and guidelines Neutral point of view • No original research Verifiability • Reliable sources • Citing sources What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Manual of Style • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The community Build consensus • Resolve disputes Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • No legal threats Community Portal • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Writing articles Be bold in editing • Develop an article The perfect article • Manual of style Stubs • Categories • Disambiguation Pages needing attention • Peer review Miscellaneous User name • User pages • Talk pages Clean up: General • Spam • Vandalism Join a WikiProject • Translation Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Original research

Hi - is this Scott? If not, I'm confused. Anyway, yes, your idea is a testable theory, very good.

However, people's theories are not acceptable on Wikipedia. Even a notable historian would have to give reliable sources (perhaps to their own books of course). Read WP:OR, and here is a bit form a page about what Wikipedia isn't (WP:ISNOT Wikipedia is not a place to publish your own thoughts and analyses or to publish new information not previously published. Per ourpolicy on original research, please do not use Wikipedia for any of the following:

1. Primary (original) research such as proposing theories and solutions, original ideas, defining terms, coining new words, et cetera. If you have done primary research on a topic, publish your results in other venues such as peer-reviewed journals, other printed forms, or respected online sites, and Wikipedia will report about your work once it becomes part of accepted knowledge. Citations of such reliable sources are needed to demonstrate that material isverifiable, and not merely the editor's opinion.
2. Original inventions. If you or a friend invented the word frindle, a drinking game, or a new type of dance move, it is not notable enough to be Wikipedia article material until multiple, independent, and reliable secondary sources report on it. Wikipedia is not for things made up one day.
3. Personal essays that state your particular feelings about a topic (rather than the consensus of experts). Wikipedia is supposed to compile human knowledge. It is not a vehicle to make personal opinions become part of human knowledge. In the unusual situation where the opinions of an individual are important enough to discuss, it is preferable to let other people write about them. Personal essays on topics relating to Wikipedia are welcome in your user namespace or on the Meta-wiki. There is a Wikipedia fork at Wikinfo that encourages personal opinions in articles.
4. Discussion forums. Please try to stay on the task of creating an encyclopedia. You can chat with folks about Wikipedia-related topics on their user talk pages, and should resolve problems with articles on the relevant talk pages, but please do not take discussion into articles. In addition, bear in mind that talk pages exist for the purpose of discussing how to improve articles; they are not mere general discussion pages about the subject of the article, nor are they a helpdesk for obtaining instructions or technical assistance. If you wish to ask a specific question on a topic, Wikipedia has aReference Desk, and questions should be asked there rather than on talk pages. Wikipedians who wish to hold casual discussions with fellow Wikipedians can use the IRC channels, such as#wikipedia. Note that this is an IRC channel, not a message board. There are also a number of early-stage projects that attempt to use a wiki for discussion and debate.
5. Journalism. Wikipedia should not offer first-hand news reports on breaking stories. Wikipedia is not a primary source. However, our sister project Wikinews does exactly that, and is intended to be a primary source. Wikipedia does have manyencyclopedia articles on topics of historical significance that are currently in the news, and can be updated with recentlyverified information.

You also need to learn how to cite your sources. See WP:CITE. And WP:VERIFY. There's a page on writing articles also.

If you want to write your own articles, the best thing to do is to write them on a subpage of this page. Read this: Wikipedia:Subpages. Make sure you have references. Then you can add it to what we call article space. We have an adoption scheme here also where you can ask for someone to mentor you, which is very useful. Are you interested in that? dougweller (talk) 07:05, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

History group

Hi Scott - I'm not sure what kind of history group you are looking for, if you tell me more I'll think about it. Small thing, put your new comments on the bottom of a talk page, not the top, as talk pages should run chronologically (at least the sections should I mean) from top to bottom. And of course I'm happy to help you. dougweller (talk) 22:59, 12 December 2008 (UTC)