Malaprop123
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Hello, Malaprop123, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
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Your contributions: a caution
editSo far, all of your contributions are adding the same book to the reference sections of various articles. That presents the appearance (accurate, or not) that your main goal is not improving the encyclopedia, but promoting a book. Wikipedia has a lot of trouble with editors who try to use the encyclopedia for promotion, so many editors respond very negatively to people who appear to be doing so. If you really do want to help the encyclopedia, I suggest you switch to improving the content of articles, citing the best available sources for your information. Thank you. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 11:58, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
August 2009
edit
Please do not add promotional material to Wikipedia, as you did to Roland Hayes. While objective prose about products or services is acceptable, Wikipedia is not intended to be a vehicle for advertising or promotion. Thank you. FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 12:03, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Please stop. If you continue to add promotional material to Wikipedia, as you did to Paul Robeson, you will be blocked from editing. FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 12:08, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Some advice...
editHello, Malaprop123. The book you've been adding (Elizabeth Nash, Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-Present, Edwin Mellen Press, 2007) is a potentially valuable resource for the Wikipedia articles on African-American classical singers. In cases like these, it's better to add it to the talk page of the articles, as a guide to editors wishing to expand or improve the articles. Or even better, if you have access to the book, add information from it to the articles themselves, and cite the book (with exact page numbes) in a footnote. The same applies to the other book you added to the Geraldine Farrar article (since removed). That too could be a big help in improving and expanding the article and in providing much needed references. Having said that, in articles with Further reading sections like Paul Robeson, I feel it would be appropriate to add the book. But it needs to be listed in alphabetical order by author's last name, with the exact page numbers or chapter title that pertain to that particular singer, and include the ISBN number so readers/editors can find it in a library. If you can provide that information, I'd be happy to add it to the article for you.
Meanwhile, here are some further pages that new editors often find helpful:
Be sure to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~). This will automatically produce your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there.
If you are interested in opera-related articles, do drop by WikiProject Opera. We are a group writing, editing, and maintaining Wikipedia articles on operas, opera terminology, opera composers and librettists, singers, designers, directors and managers, companies and houses, publications and recordings. On the project's talk page editors working in the area can exchange ideas and ask questions. New members are always welcome! Best wishes, Voceditenore (talk) 17:35, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Your recent edits
editI was glad to see your additions to the text of the articles on Geraldine Farrar, Grace Bumbry and Todd Duncan. However, the edits to the first two articles seriously damaged the formatting and had to be repaired. In the Farrar article you inadvertantly damaged the template linking to the music sample leaving garbled text. In all three, the citation footnotes were not properly formatted either. I've since fixed all of the above, but it was quite laborious. Please check what I did so you can see how to use Wikipedia mark-up properly in these cases: [1], [2], [3]. Until you are more experienced, I also suggest that you practice your edits in a personal sandbox before 'going live' with them. Unlike the main Wikipedia sandbox, it will not be automatically emptied. Your material will stay there until you personally change or delete it. I've made you one at User:Malaprop123/Sandbox. Best wishes, Voceditenore (talk) 07:19, 6 September 2009 (UTC)