Welcome!

Hello, MBouchein! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. You may benefit from following some of the links below, which will help you get the most out of Wikipedia. If you have any questions you can 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 by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are already excited about Wikipedia, you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field when making edits to pages. Happy editing! I dream of horses If you reply here, please leave me a {{Talkback}} message on my talk page. @ 03:56, 25 September 2014 (UTC)Reply
Getting Started
Getting Help
Policies and Guidelines

The Community
Things to do
Miscellaneous

Teahouse Invitation

edit
 
Hello! MBouchein, you are invited to join other new editors and friendly hosts in the Teahouse. An awesome place to meet people, ask questions and learn more about Wikipedia. Please join us! Pharaoh of the Wizards (talk) 05:25, 3 October 2014 (UTC)Reply


The power of words

edit

Hello again MBouchein. Im the editor who contributed about 99% of the current content to our Hunger in the US article. Sorry for the delayed response, I was not checking my watch list in early Oct, so did not see your proposal for the article until just now. I have a few reservations on some of your suggestions for removing content, but overall I think your plan is excellent. I've just wrote in more detail on the article talk page. I also wanted to message you here on a more personal level.

The current article is the result of several weeks work reading and distilling what were at the time the best available books and studies on this topic. Im in my 40s and work mainly in the private sector, but I have several decades of experience in the hunger relief field, ranging from funding and working with small independent soup kitchens to the big multilaterals including the World Bank and the UN's WFP. So I like to think I've good experience for interpreting what the best secondary sources have to say on this issue.

I therefore dont really like to see unequivocal critical comments such as that the article has "minimal information and does not provide readers a comprehensive view" or that "the organization is not logical".

As well as being a little uncollegial, such one sided statements are not even true. Unlike in God's world, in this world good and bad are invariably mixed together. There is a logic in the organisation, just not your preferred logic. Even in pure math, there are many different and partly incompatible logics once you get to the advanced realms. This is far more true of social sciences.

I've been on Wikipedia for 6 years, have been the primary writer for 2 complex GA status article, and have a good feel for the general quality of our articles on hunger relief and dev related topics. Compared to most other articles in these topic classes, this one is in fact quite detailed and informative.

The critical comments would have been better taken if you'd sweetened the pill by saying things like: "While well written, the article could be much more comprehensive". And instead of saying the organisation is "not logical", you could have said "not optimal". Or perhaps better still, just said a different organisation might better serve our readers.

Im not saying you have to sugar coat your comments all the time. Sometimes its helpful to puncture an unduly inflated ego with sharp words. Sometimes overcoming opposition with aggression and main force is both the most effective way to solve problems, and (depending on who you are) deeply satisfying.

But 99% of the time, soft words not only turn away blows, they get folk on your side rather than create opposition, thus making life more pleasant and making it a lot easier to achieve good outcomes. From decades of experience in both spheres, I would say this approach is just as important if you want to achieve social good as if you wanted success in business. In theory, Wikipedia editors are altruists who donate their time and expertise as they want to make the world a better place with quality free knowledge. But we can be some of the most fussy and quick to take offense folk you'll ever meet, lol.

I hope you understand Im not giving you this feedback to be nasty, just want to share my experience with a young person who seems to have some of the same goals as myself. Its great to see someone arriving with promising ideas to improve our coverage of hunger related topics. For years, other than some help from my incomparable friend NorthAmerica1000, I've felt almost alone on these topics. Finally, please accept this wiki kitten to watch over your talk page! FeydHuxtable (talk) 13:57, 19 October 2014 (UTC)Reply

Congratulations!

edit
  The Excellent New Editor's Barnstar

A new editor on the right path
Excellent work on Hunger in the United States. Looking forward to further contributions from you! DStrassmann (talk) 02:18, 19 December 2014 (UTC)Reply

Sex Trafficking

edit

Hi. I've declined your speedy request, as while you created the content as an article, you didn't create the page. I've reverted you back to the redirect as this was a Keep at RfD and should only be deleted after a revisit to RfD. Isn't editing Wikipedia fun? Peridon (talk) 19:09, 17 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

Peridon, I understand but can it please be deleted? I removed the redirect for Sex trafficking in the search box to Human trafficking and started expanding the Sex trafficking page. Does this make sense?MBouchein (talk) 19:14, 17 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

Replied at my page. Peridon (talk) 20:17, 17 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

Reference Errors on 17 March

edit

  Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:18, 18 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

edit

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Sex trafficking, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page White slavery. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:25, 18 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

ArbCom elections are now open!

edit

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:09, 24 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

edit

Hello, MBouchein. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)Reply

2019 US Banknote Contest

edit
  US Banknote Contest  
November-December 2019

There are an estimated 30,000 different varieties of United States banknotes, yet only a fraction of these are represented on Wikimedia Commons in the form of 2D scans. Additionally, Colonial America, the Confederate States, the Republic of Texas, multiple states and territories, communities, and private companies have issued banknotes that are in the public domain today but are absent from Commons.

In the months of November and December, WikiProject Numismatics will be running a cross-wiki upload-a-thon, the 2019 US Banknote Contest. The goal of the contest is to increase the number of US banknote images available to content creators on all Wikimedia projects. Participants will claim points for uploading and importing 2D scans of US banknotes, and at the end of the contest all will receive awards. Whether you want to claim the Gold Wiki or you just want to have fun, all are invited to participate.


If you do not want to receive invitations to future US Banknote Contests, follow the instructions here

Sent by ZLEA at 23:30, 19 October 2019 (UTC) via MediaWiki message delivery (talk)Reply