Hello Vanhalenjump, and Welcome to Wikipedia!

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Happy editing! faithless (speak) 22:22, 26 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

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Bot help

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How can your talk page be "not working correctly"? It's just a page, it doesn't need to "work", it just needs to be readable. Which I assume it is, unless you've somehow badly mis-configured your browser.

At any rate, I can perhaps give you some help with bot development, but you'd have to give me a lot more information of what it is you wish to achieve, what your existing programming skills are, etc. Alai (talk) 18:35, 22 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

Let's start with what the bot's supposed to do. You've given me no information whatsoever. In the meantime, I'd suggest changing your account password; you'll be held responsible for whatever happens under your account, so best that it not be easily "hacked". Alai (talk) 00:40, 1 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Please keep all related discussion under the one section, please, rather than repeatedly creating new ones. Yes, you'll need a separate account if you wish to run a bot. As you've not given me any useful indication of what the bot is supposed to do, or how it's supposed to do it, I'm struggling to see how I can help. Alai (talk) 22:37, 7 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

You didn't previously mention anything about deletion at all. That's pretty much inherently not susceptible to automation, for a whole variety of reasons. I strongly suggest that get more experience in manual editing in the areas you're interested in, get at least a basic knowledge of programming, say in Python, PHP or C Sharp and attempt to get a much clearer and tighter conception of what it is you wish to try to accomplish. Alai (talk) 23:06, 7 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Thank you, that's extremely kind and generous. I wish I'd been able to be of more direct help, but hopefully as you get more experience of working in different areas of Wikipedia these things will become clearer over time. Alai (talk) 23:25, 7 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Speedy deletion of Figis

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A tag has been placed on Figis requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about a person or group of people, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is notable: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable, as well as our subject-specific notability guideline for biographies.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. ~~ [Jam][talk] 23:04, 31 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

Figis

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Did that help? Be sure that there are reliable secondary sources to establish its notability, however. Alai (talk) 21:21, 13 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

FYI, it's already been speedily deleted twice. Here's what it looked like prior to the first deletion. You'll have to do a better job of establishing why it's significant than that version did, though. Alai (talk) 21:27, 13 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Come on, PLEASE don't recreate the article until you can do something better than one or two sentences! I deleted it again as it was too short to be useful to anyone - shorter than the article in your sandbox. Please work on it in your sandbox and make a complete article before you create it again. I'd be happy to work with you on it - Just ask me! Royalbroil 01:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC) (a friendly admin from WikiProject Wisconsin)Reply
I have created hundreds of articles, and only one has been deleted. I've had over 50 articles appear on the main page in the Did You Know section for the best new articles. I'm an administrator. You have nothing to worry if I help you - I have the experience. I will only stop with an article when it is will certainly stay or I won't post the article if there isn't enough notability, so you'll have to help prove notability before it gets posted. I'm willing to help on behalf of WikiProject Wisconsin since they apparently are located in Wisconsin. I'm not familiar with them. Royalbroil 23:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
NO, it'll get deleted because you keep posting deleted material without working on it. We need to work on it in your sandbox and then post it when we're done. I always work on articles this way. It's already set up at User:Vanhalenjump/Figis. A sandbox is a temporary holding place that's not active where you can work on your copy of an article until you post it. Royalbroil 00:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
The first step is to find independent reliable sources that talk about the company. Things like the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, New York Times, etc. If you can't find any, then we're done because the article doesn't belong on Wikipedia. Royalbroil 00:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
I don't work on infoboxes until I am satisfied that there is enough content to create an article. They are the last thing to do. There needs to be numerous independent reliable sources (as in at least 3). Here's a potential one: http://www.schneider.com/news/Figis_Award_060704.html . Can you find any more? I usually google or use yahoo to find web links. Make sure that they are not at the official website. Royalbroil 00:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
I can't access your link. Would you repost the entire URL? I didn't see anything relevant at the NY Times. Here's an article in the local newspaper, which is better than nothing: http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/MNH0101/808270426/1980 . Royalbroil 00:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

(deindent) That search works [1]. I've been searching for a half hour and finding very little usable information. That NY Times article doesn't give much information for an article. The Marshfield newspaper says that the company has 200 permanent and 3000 season employees. 200 permanent employees is rather low to support a Wikipedia article, except if the company exists for a notable product. I'm almost convinced that this article is ill-advised. Royalbroil 00:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

I think we should let it go. If you agree, they leave a message on my talk page and I'll delete it, or add the following text before the period to the article: {{db-author}} . I'll delete the temporary article from your sandbox too. Wikipedia doesn't have to have articles on everything. Royalbroil 00:53, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
I'm sorry, you took me too literally. When I said that you should paste that code, I meant that you should paste the outcome of my printing (with the tl part). In other words "You should add {{db-author}}" (don't use the or parts if your reading the edit window. Or just let me know and I can delete the subpage. Royalbroil 01:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Speedy deletion of Figis

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A tag has been placed on Figis requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an article with no content whatsoever, or whose contents consist only of external links, "See also" section, book reference, category tag, template tag, interwiki link, rephrasing of the title, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Largo Plazo (talk) 00:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

See! Royalbroil 00:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, I just came here and see that you've been trying to reason with him. Vanhalenjump, you've got your own area to work in. There isn't any reason to post a live article until you've got enough material in it. I wish it were easier to explain to people that this is the way to go. When the article goes public, it should have at least some usefulness right from the start. Sure, once an article goes up, it gets worked on all the time. But it's the difference between going outside while still putting on your coat and gloves, and going outside while still putting on your underpants. —Largo Plazo (talk) 00:37, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Ways to help out

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There are so many diverse areas on Wikipedia, it depends very much on your personal tastes - some editors like to make minor fixes to articles, some write featured articles, others work 'behind the scenes' - checking new pages, deciding which articles to delete, and that sort of thing.

You might be interested in the cleanup campaign, requested articles, requests for feedback, or the huge backlog of tasks.

You could help out with peer reviews, look at the newest articles, or maybe just something random.

One of the best ways to get involved is to join some projects - you could browse them in projects.

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas.  Chzz  ►  02:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)Reply