Ryderailer
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editHi Ryderailer! I noticed your contributions and wanted to welcome you to the Wikipedia community. I hope you like it here and decide to stay.
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Happy editing! SuperMarioOdyssy101 (talk) 22:10, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
August 2024
editHello, I'm Redrose64. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Isle of Wight Steam Railway, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:52, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for reaching out to a newbie to Wikipedia - it seems I have not managed to follow some protocol ......
- I did indeed study the editing/referencing info more than twice but was unable grasp it fully. I used visual editing on the initial text, and source editing on the table - which would only allow me to change the incorrect mileage if "convert" was removed too (NOT an intentional deletion!)
- I have of course included a citation (which can be clearly read in the editing 'View history'); maybe some special method of uploading to Wikipedia is needed? I included it in the explanation box and submitted it, believing this was the process. Please read the very precise details of Miles & Chains which I have quoted from the Quail maps - if you don't know, this is the rail industry source document (used by contractors and Network Rail alike!) so is more than just 'reliable'.
- I expect to be able to trust Wikipedia so please will you now help me correct the blatant factual inaccuracy where a sub-5 mile railway is described as 5.5? Thanks in advance. Ryderailer (talk) 13:58, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
- We don't put references in the edit summary. They need to be in the article itself, above I supplied a link to several help pages including Help:Referencing for beginners.
- The convert template (see Template:Convert) is a commonly-used method for showing equivalent measurements without resorting to off-wiki calculations (which might go against WP:NOR). Source editor (SE) shouldn't prevent you from using it - SE is much less restrictive than visual editor (VE). I avoid using VE as I find that it's more difficult to get the desired end result.
- As for Quail, it shows mileages for both buffer stops and platforms at both Smallbrook Junction and Wootton, and we can plug the figures into
{{convert}}
as follows: - These can be sourced as:
<ref>{{cite book |last1=Padgett |first1=David |last2=Kelman |first2=Leanne |editor-last=Munsey |editor-first=Myles |title=Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL |edition=4th |date=November 2019 |orig-year=1994 |publisher=Trackmaps |location=Frome |isbn=978-1-9996271-2-6 |at=map 20A }}</ref>
- Now, Quail doesn't actually give the length of the line; if we carry out an off-wiki calculation, we get this length:
{{convert|4|mi|66|chain|km}}
→ 4 miles 66 chains (7.8 km) - This is somewhat less than five miles. But passengers don't travel from buffer stop to buffer stop, they travel from station to station. Quail has these figures too:
- which gives us a length of
{{convert|3|mi|74|chain|km}}
→ 3 miles 74 chains (6.3 km) - A lot less than five miles - in fact it's six chains under four miles. But which is the actual line length? What we need is a source that provides that figure explicitly. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:56, 2 September 2024 (UTC)