User talk:Stasmaam

Welcome!

Hello, Stasmaam, 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:

The five pillars of Wikipedia
Contributing to Wikipedia
The Wikipedia Adventure (a fun game-like tour to help get you oriented within Wikipedia)
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How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk 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! We're so glad you're here! DocTree (ʞlɐʇ·ʇuoɔ) WER 20:43, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Norman Cazden

Talk:Norman Cazden I am currently refining citations and markup for a significantly expanded version of the existing wiki for Norman Cazden. This will constitute a major edit; that is, unless it would be better to replace the entire entry? In acknowledgment of the centennial of Cazden's birth, Cazden's estate has tasked me with creating a detailed, impartial entry, rife with citations, that does not infringe on any COI issues. I am nearing the end of this project.

I am also struggling with the disambiguation portion of the article. I have the information but no idea how to include it correctly, and every link I follow, hoping it will explain further, buries me in more mud. I am lost.

I would really appreciate advice about the best way to go about the next steps ahead of me. I am a long-time editor and writer (more than 30 years) but have never worked on a wiki before, and very much wish to do it right.

Appreciate any and all pointers. I have been reading as many editing and help pages on WikiPedia itself as I can digest. Stasmaam (talk) 00:13, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Stasmaam. Based on your experience level with wikicode, here is how I would proceed:

Right-click on Bradley Joseph and choose open in a new tab or window.
Click the 'Edit' tab at the top of the Bradley Joseph article to see the code and text that made the article, then copy everything (highlight -> left-click -> copy).
Open your sandbox in an new browser window (right-click on 'Sandbox' at the very top of the screen').
Paste code and text from the Bradley Joseph article into your sandbox page, then immediately remove most of the text and citations about Bradley Joseph (just so the new page patrol doesn't get the wrong idea about what's going on) and save it using the 'Save page' button at the bottom of the screen.
From your word processor or text editor, copy-and-paste a paragraph of text from the work you did into the appropriate section of the skeleton article in your sandbox. Click on the 'Show preview' button at the bottom to see how it looks and the save it with the 'Save page' button if it looks OK.
Right-click => WP:GOODREFS and open it in a new tab or page, then watch the five minute video about "Using refToolbar". Bingo, you know all that you need to know about formatting a reference in a Wikipedia article in an acceptable way. Now...
Go back to the browser tab or page showing your sandbox and add a citation to support the information in the paragraph that you inserted. If the reference will be used more than once in the article, give it a simple short name. After the first instance, you can use <ref name=ITSNAME /> to repeat the citation without having to type it all over again.

You will quickly be able to create an attractive article without having to learn wikicode... and you will learn a lot of wikicode at the same time, things like double-equals around text makes a section heading and two single quotation marks (apostrophes) on each side of a phrase makes it appear in italics. It takes years to learn ALL of the wikicode tricks but you can make a great article without learning them.

A photograph of the subject of a Wikipedia biography is always desired. Please obtain a snapshot from the family (the copyright of any portrait produced by a professional photographer usually remains with the photographer so s/he can charge again for printing another). When you have it converted to a suitable digital image, leave a note on my talk page and I will guide you through the process of uploading it.

If (when) you run into problems, either post your question at the Teahouse or leave a note on my talk page if you prefer one-on-one guidance.

I hope this is helpful. Take care, DocTree (ʞlɐʇ·ʇuoɔ) Join WER 19:41, 8 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Teahouse talkback: you've got messages!

Hello, Stasmaam. Your question has been answered at the Teahouse Q&A board. Feel free to reply there!
Please note that all old questions are archived after 2-3 days of inactivity. Message added by —teb728 t c 09:37, 8 November 2014 (UTC). (You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{teahouse talkback}} template.[reply]

Critique of your sandbox draft

Hi, again. Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Holidays, visitors and real life and such are keeping me busy. I also just noticed that you were never properly welcomed so I just added a belated welcome template up top. I'll start by answering your questions, then mutilate your draft somewhat brutally from an old Wikipedian's perspective.

It is possible to request a technical move per WP:RM#TR via requested moves (that is currently backlogged for over a month). If approved, an administrator would delete the current Norman Cazden article so that your draft can be moved to that space. Since others haven't edited your draft and there's nothing in the draft's talk page, I recommend that you cut updated and improved content from your draft and paste it over the less acceptable info in the existing article as edits to the existing article. If others edit your draft, then cut-and-paste becomes a technical and copyright problem due to the WP:CC BY-SA license making a technical move essential. See WP:CUTPASTE for more detail if you're interested. That's the main reason I didn't jump in and edit your draft.
There's no consensus on when or where to put a disclaimer about paid editing. As long as it isn't hidden, there should be no problem. Expect some extra scrutiny because paid editing is frowned upon by quite a few Wikipedians but it looks like you're doing things more than acceptably.
I watchlisted your pages and the article page and will watch as things progress. I'll handle disambiguation and either do or help you do needed redirects. If you need help, I'm still around and active although it may be a day or two before I get back to you.

You write well but not in the style required by an encyclopedia, gazetteer, almanac or similar tertiary publication. In other words, your lack of experience with Wikipedia norms shows. In the past, a {{Wikify}} template would decorate the top of your article; now it's worse with lots of more specific tags all over the place such as {{underlinked}}, {{lead rewrite}}, {{infobox requested}} and so on. You can see what's involved in more detail at WP:WIKIFY, the WikiProject. Some specific problems I see include:

Copyright: The first sentence and first phrase of the second sentence under the heading " Family Background & Personal Life" are cut-and-paste from http://www.normancazden.com/biography/. "© 2014 Joanna Cazden. All Rights Reserved." appears at the bottom of that webpage. I should delete it now and leave a notice template asking an administrator to permanently delete it and admonishing you about the copyright violation and tell you that further violations can result in you being blocked from editing Wikipedia. I suspect there's more cut-and-pasted copyrighted material. You may get such a notice and deletion when a new page patrol volunteer checks your draft (I noted that your draft hasn't been patrolled; I can't mark it patrolled because I'm WP:INVOLVED.). Short quotes followed immediately by an attribution can be used. Otherwise, all content has to be in your own words. Wikipedia won't (can't legally) accept your statements about the family giving you permission to use the material. The copyright holder has to provide that permission via WP:OTRS as explained at donating copyrighted material. Rewrite it in your own words quickly, please.
Lead paragraph: Please read WP:OPENPARAGRAPH for biographies and rewrite the first paragraph. Scan the lead paragraph of a few featured (gold star at top right) or good (green plus sign at top right) Wikipedia biographies to see what's usually acceptable.
Infobox: You can wait to add an infobox but it will better fit Wikipedia norms for biographies. You can add it to the existing article before you copy your updated/improved text there.
Peacock terms: Look through the WP:PEACOCK "words to avoid" to prevent your article from being decorated with tags sprinkled throughout. Rather than "...several prestigious musicology awards", state what awards and when they were awarded followed immediately by a citation to a reliable source in the body of the article. Also look at WP:WEASEL. "Those who knew him..." is a problem and likely to be removed by another Wikipedia editor reviewing the article.
Wikilink: Remember that the English Wikipedia is read by people worldwide, many whose native language isn't American English. Many who see Cazden's article won't know classical music so won't know names like Aaron Copland or Walter Piston or even the Juilliard School of Music. In the edit mode, just put double brackets [[wikipedia article]] around those and others that help provide context. Avoid linking obvious things like Bronx, New York, New York, USA that's known even in Australia and India and beyond (from watching US-originated TV and movies).

Fix those things and let me know when you're ready to paste new text into the article. I can stand by and we'll tag-team editing the article to get it right and pretty. 'til then, take care and wishing you a fantastic 2015, DocTree (ʞlɐʇ·ʇuoɔ) WER 00:49, 29 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]