Txn2VA

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Hello, Txn2VA, 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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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! -- John of Reading (talk) 16:15, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Robert Hiram Meltzer

Your draft is at User:Txn2VA/Robert H. Meltzer. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:15, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Picture copyrights

I notice that you've uploaded those three pictures with the "own work" label and a note that you claim to be the copyright holder. On the face of it, that seems unlikely, so you'd better explain. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:24, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your note. I really appreciate you taking a look at the page. I'm not sure what to do about the copyright attribution. My Dad (the artist) is deceased and I own the paintings (and took the photographs). Is there a way I can spell out the situation regarding ownership - i.e., I own the works, I took the photographs, but I am not the artist? Thank you for your suggestions and guidance.

TXN2VATxn2VA (talk) 01:40, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't know the answer. I'll drop a note at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions so that an expert can comment here. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:54, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello, saw John's question at the noticeboard. As far as I can see, if you inherited the pictures from your father, you most likely also inherited the intellectual rights to them, so yes, there should be no problem about tagging them as "own work" and releasing them. It would be good if you clarified the entry in the "author" field though. You could say "Author=Robert Meltzer. I, User:Txn2VA, am the artist's son and have inherited the intellectual rights to this work" or something to that effect. I don't think there is a standardized tag for that kind of situation. Fut.Perf. ☼ 07:09, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Also saw the post! Please be aware that releasing images under a free licence means that anyone can use them for any purpose even commercial use. If you are happy with that we welcome your contributions but it may be more useful to upload the images directly to the Commons so they are available for all language wikis to use and even if you upload them here they may get transferred there anyway. Good luck. ww2censor (talk) 13:47, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Verifiability

One of the core policies at Wikipedia is verifiability, in the sense that when someone reads a Wikipedia article, they should be able to check for themselves that what the article says is reliable. Because you are writing about your father, you will need to be extra-careful about this. The article needs to stick to what has been written about the artist in reliable sources such as books and newspapers. You should omit anything that you know to be true, but can't be verified by anyone else because it has never been published. Please see Wikipedia:No original research. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:04, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Information on Copyright Attribution & Verifiability

Many thanks to both of you for the information on copyrights and verifiability. The verifiability aspect is obviously crucial. Since I am struggling to find on-line citations for even some basic things, such as graduation records, I've posed a question at large on this. But, perhaps you would know specifically - - how might one accurately site to records that are in private hands? (The questions I posed included the fact that the U.S. military provides service records only to a veteran and to next of kin. The National Archives does not provide service records on-line, nor does the U.S. Navy.) I'm not sure what to do because even though this information is contained in "Who's Who in American Art," I can't even find an on-line version of contents for the 1980 edition of that reference work. (Readers would have to buy the book to verify the contents).

TXN2VATxn2VA (talk) 11:33, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

If something hasn't been published at all, and is only available privately, then you can't include it in the article; that's the No original research rule. But books are fine, even if there is no online copy, because these are publicly available through libraries and so on. See Wikipedia:Offline sources. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:46, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the continued guidance

Thank you for the information distinguishing unpublished vs. published, but not on-line. That's very helpful. Someone suggested I check Ancestry.com because they might have references to publications (whether on-line or in print) that provide objectively verifiable biographical information. Thank you very much. Txn2VATxn2VA (talk) 21:42, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Links to other articles

It looked like you were having a little trouble doing links to other articles. (Wiki coding can be confusing.) If the phrase you use in the article happens to be the exact name of another Wikipedia article you just put [[ ]] on either side of the phrase like [[Charles M. Schulz]] which then shows up like Charles M. Schulz in the article.

However sometimes when you are writing you want to link a phrase to another article even though it's not the name of that other article. For example if you want to link to the weightlifter Peter George it's way too clunky to write the actual article title of "Peter George (weightlifter)" in your sentence. So then you can use an odd little symbol called a pipe that looks like a straight up and down line. The format is [[exact title of article you are linking to vertical line pipe symbol text you want to appear]] So typing [[Peter George (weightlifter)|Peter George]] shows up as Peter George.

Hope that helps. Cloveapple (talk) 17:03, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Wow, Thank You for All the Work!

I didn't realize you had actually gone through the trouble of cleaning up the links. When I went to the page to start linking to the "American Watercolor Society" Wikipedia page, it finally dawned on me that you had done all the hard work and put in all the links. Thank you very much. Wow. Txn2VATxn2VA (talk) 02:43, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. There's probably a few more terms that could be linked and you might want to fine tune the University of Hawaii link (I wasn't sure which specific school and just linked to the whole organization). It's shaping up to be an interesting bio. I hope you stay on and contribute other articles or photos when you've finished this one. Cloveapple (talk) 16:26, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank You Very Much!!

Thank you very much, both for looking at the page and for the helpful hints. You are absolutely correct to notice that I have been struggling with links and editing. The short-cut approach you've provided is so helpful. Much appreciated. Txn2VATxn2VA (talk) 21:39, 20 September 2011 (UTC)