IR393.sae211

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Wikipedia on Campus Facebook page

Hi IR393.sae211, Thanks for being part of the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative! I'm LiAnna Davis, the communications associate for the Initiative, and I wanted to let you know that we have a Facebook page, facebook.com/WikipediaOnCampus designed to keep students like you up to date on the latest news, events, photos, videos, and hints to help you edit. If you're on Facebook, please check it out!

Happy editing! Ldavis (Public Policy) (talk) 21:24, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Mentor

Hello! Thanks for the message. I would be happy to be your mentor. Feel free to send me any and all questions; I'm looking forward to working with you. By the way, someone has left you some excellent links for newcomers above, and I encourage you to scan through them. Please be sure to sign talk page messages with four tildes, like this: ~~~~ That will automatically generate your signature and time stamp. Best regards! -- Ssilvers (talk) 01:56, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

I suggested, on the course page, that you all make a few little edits to Wikipedia each day to gain fluency with the software. Once you get used to it, it will become much easier! A good way to start is by copyediting existing articles. The articles listed here have all requested copyediting/proofreading assistance: Category:All articles needing copy edit. Note that Wikipedia's style guide is here: WP:MOS. Happy editing! -- Ssilvers (talk) 01:56, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Always happy to help! -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:34, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Image permissions

Hi! Ssilvers pointed out to me that you uploaded a map to Wikimedia Commons, commons:File:Large_political_map.jpg, which has been marked for copyright concerns. From what I can tell, maps from Nations Online Project are not available under a Wikipedia-compatible free license, and so probably can't be used. However, if you have direct permission from the copyright holder to release the map under a free license, then you can email the relevant details to permissions-commons@wikimedia.org and the image won't be deleted.

If there's nothing particular to that specific map, and you're just looking for a decent map of Sierra Leone, I suggest using one of the ones here: commons:Category:Maps of Sierra Leone. If you need something special, you might put in a request at the map workshop; someone may be willing to create a map to meet your needs. Cheers--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 23:44, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Problem solved. Sross showed me this file. I will put this map in the article. -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:32, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the message. Unfortunately, images are not my strong suit. Perhaps if you post on your course page and ask for assistance, one of the other ambassadors would lend a hand. But I would say that the text is more important than the images: If you improve the text and get it fully referenced, then we can get a "peer review" of the article, and often peer reviewers are very good with images and will help out at that time. All the best! -- Ssilvers (talk) 06:15, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

In-line references missing

Although you have been adding lots of excellent content to the article, I would still consider it a poor quality article because it does not have adequate in-line references. You need to have at least one reference per paragraph to verify the information given. You must be using sources for all this information, so you need to cite those sources right in the text as you go. See WP:CITE for our guidelines on citation format. Basically, you need to say the name of the author (last, first), the name of the article or book, the page number or url, the name of the publisher, the date of publication and the access date, like this: <ref>Lincoln, Abraham. "How to Be a Good President", ''Journal of Politics'', vol. III, no. 5, pp. 67–69, February 22, 1865, accessed December 18, 2010</ref>. If the cite is to a book referenced under References at the bottom, you can give a short reference like this: <ref>Hirsch, pp. 67–69</ref>. The most important thing for the article now is that it needs many references. All the best! -- Ssilvers (talk) 06:29, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi. The citations should not go under "Further Information". They need to be in-line cites in the text itself, up in the body of the article. If you are referring to a book, the full citation for the book goes at the bottom under "Sources" (not "Further Information"), and then, in the text itself, you can just give the author name and page number that the information refers to, like this: <ref>Hirsch, pp. 28–32</ref>. Let me know if you understand. All the best, -- Ssilvers (talk) 22:06, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the message. I'm glad you understand, as sometimes it is hard online to know whether I am explaining myself clearly. Yes, certainly go ahead and put in the in-line cites where you can. Then for the ones where you need the books again to find the page numbers, please do that as soon as you can. Without the page numbers, people will not be able to tell whether what your wrote is from a Reliable source or whether it is prohibited WP:OR, and it is possible that they will eventually delete the unreferenced info. Of course, for the future, it is best to put your cites in as you go. All the best, -- Ssilvers (talk) 22:31, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi. I increased the assessment to C-class, although it might be higher once the remaining refs are added (for some reason, I can't fix the MILHIST banner). Please be careful, on the class page, not to give the impression that I already believe the article to be complete. It is still missing a bunch of refs, even though you have certainly added a lot. I understand that you will add the rest of the refs when you can get to the library to check page numbers. All the best, -- Ssilvers (talk) 02:06, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

WP:LEAD

Your new lead is much better. If you can slim it down just a little bit, that would be even better. Also, please add bluelinks to people's names, like the president, and define what you mean by all those abbreviations. Thanks! -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:25, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the message. You are very welcome. I hope you're enjoying the project and continue to edit WP articles after the class. You're learning a lot about editing, and it gets easier and easier. Of course, the research is always the same, but turning it into an article gets easier. By the way, if you want to see what I've been editing lately, check out Flower Drum Song, for example. All the best! -- Ssilvers (talk) 05:20, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Taking a look at the article, I can see that there is too much blue linking. See WP:OVERLINK. Basically, just link things once in the lead and then once more, the first time they come up in the body of the article. Then you don't need to link them again, unless it has been many screens since the thing has been mentioned, and you feel it's important to link it again. Hope that helps. -- Ssilvers (talk) 05:38, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Good work. The Lead is the right length now. -- Ssilvers (talk) 03:10, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

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