Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:42, 17 October 2014

How to alert other editors

Hi Russel! Here is a text I usually send to newcomers here at the WP, but it might help you to better understand about notifications:

When someone is posting on your talk page you get an automatic notification. That notification is a red square followed by a long yellow box (for most browsers and settings). This is the only time that the notification is automatic. In all other cases you have to alert the other editor in some way, either by "ping" or by mentioning them in a link. This will result in a just the red box notification on that users pages. So even if you respond on your talk page you still have to alert the editor you are addressing. If you want to get hold of me you write {{ping|W.carter}} resulting in @W.carter: or ] resulting in W.carter. There are some more, such as talkback templates of different kinds, but these are the basics. Talkback templates such as "Your question has been answered at..." may look automatic but they are all posted by a human being. And when you ask something on someone's talk page, you also create a new section so your question don't get entangled in some other conversation. If you are having a conversation with another user on some page, it is also customary to add that page to your Watchlist in case someone in the discussion forgets to alert. Best, w.carter-Talk 12:44, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

@W.carter: I understand about the 'talk page' notification, the other cases, about the "Your question has been answered at..." part, the 'new section' creation part. 'Watchlist' is new to me, I'll check it out soon.

Can you please review Misplaced Pages:Teahouse/Questions#Fault_found_in_Wikipedia_website_application.21, I can't make them understand that until 5th of October, before my first message to PrimeHunter, I received notifications every time someone messaged me in my post based on the WP:Teahouse/Questions page, regardless of whether it was linked to my 'talk page' or not. Now I don't, thereafter receiving PrimeHunter's second message, until or unless someone mentions me. Even if they leave me a message on the WP:Teahouse/Questions page, I don't get a message. How do I make them understand this? They are telling me you have to use this and that code in the script and so on, and that what I am saying was never there... I can't make them understand. (Russell.mo (talk) 14:47, 8 October 2014 (UTC))

It was because of that discussion I left you this message. The reason that you stopped receiving notifications for the talkpage is because the editors answering your question was not giving you any notifications at the end of the discussion. They simply assumed you would be watching the page anyway and therefore there was no need to notify you. That is why the Watchlist is important, and why you should use it. During a long conversation it is eventually rather cumbersome to have to alert the other participants all the time and most users tend to skip the notifications after a while. You are responsible for checking if your questions have been answered yourself. At the top of your page there is the word "Watchlist" and under it is a small star. If you click in that star on a page, the star turns blue and then that page will be added to your Watchlist. The list appears when you click on the word Watchlist. Each time the page you are "watching" is altered this is marked on your watchlist. This is the way most editors keep track of if their questions have been answered, since this does not require any notifications. To remove a page from your Watchlist you just click again on the star and it turns white.

The "codes" that the other editors were talking about are just variations of the different kinds of pings, notifications, mentions and talkback templates. You do not have to worry about these yet. They were just trying to give you as many examples of different types of notifications as they could and hoped that this would make it easier for you to understand. :) What you need to understand though, is that almost nothing here is done automatically, it is all done by people, and people are faulty and sometimes lazy and don't give proper notifications. So you have to check pages you are interested in yourself. This site is not like Facebook or some other social media where everything is done for you. It is an imperfect world, welcome to it! Best, w.carter-Talk 16:22, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Also, the message you received here at your talk page by Primehunter, was not automatic. It was placed here by hand by Primehunter in exactly the same way as I am writing to you now. Since you are new here, Primehunter showed you a great curtsey in alerting you in this way that your question was answered. This will not be the case in the future, when you are expected to keep track of the pages yourself. And once again I must advice you to not delete text from your page, since it makes it harder to know what you mean when you are talking about earlier events. w.carter-Talk 16:30, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

@W.carter: Hello, sorry for delaying in getting back to you, I viewed my 'talk page' earlier today and yesterday but didn't possess much energy to read, write, reply, because I'm unwell.

Well, I guess I have to follow through the 'Watchlist' guidance you provided. I am aware of two/three 'codes' btw, I mostly use the 'ping' and the 'user' name code. I understand they are trying to help. I don't hold grudges. It's just, well firstly, I was expecting this to perform like 'Facebook' application, just like the way it notifies... Secondly, everyone tries to help each other here, I received a lot of help, and I do feel vulnerable because I am in a financial difficulty, I am not donating, and helping is the best thing I could do, however I thought was suitable (just like everyone else).

Regarding deletion, I guess I can delete sections off of my 'talk page' once the conversation been acknowledged and accomplished from both sides?

(Russell.mo (talk) 17:51, 10 October 2014 (UTC))

Hello Russell.mo, no need to apologize at all! :) We all edit when we feel like it and when we have the time. There is an appropriate saying here that "there is no deadline on the Misplaced Pages", which applies to answers as well. No-one is in a hurry here. Many newcomers often expect this site to perform in the same way as Facebook or other social communities. There is however hope, since a new way of communication is being developed right now, but it takes time since it is all done by volunteers. You just keep using the 'ping' and 'name', the rest will come to you in time.

Do not feel guilty in any way!! We all received a lot of help when we were new here, and most of us "pay it forward" in this way by helping others once we have learned enough to do so. As for money, I very much doubt that many editors here are rich, :), we all contribute with our time which is even more valuable than money.

Yes, you are of course free to delete any text from your user page or talk page at any time, BUT, most of us archive the conversation instead, by hand or by automatic device. This is so that we have easy access to old conversations if we want to go back and check things later or if something occur that we have to verify by a previous post. If you want an archiving devise set up on your talk page, I can help you with that. It can be programmed to archive at any speed you choose, each day, each week, each month. If you look at my talk page you can see how it looks. All the best! Please ping me if you have a question. w.carter-Talk 18:18, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

@W.carter: No thanks, I appreciate your helping hand though :]. I read through your 'user page' and 'talk page', interesting. I don't have anything to say about myself, that's why my 'user page' is blank. The same's for 'Facebook' and other applications...

Any idea why the 'archive' page https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives not retrieving 'error mitigation prefix:Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Humanities' statement? -- (Russell.mo (talk) 05:21, 11 October 2014 (UTC))

If you mean the archive page was not found when you made the search then Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2014 October 5 was created today. See Help:Searching#Delay in updating the search index. At Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures you can enable "New search" which is sometimes more up to date. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:48, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Hello Russell.mo, and thank you PrimeHunter for stepping in and answering the question. I was going to come by here and refer that question to someone else, since I am unfamiliar with that section. To Russel: The Misplaced Pages is a huge and complex place and it takes a long time to get to know all its nooks and crannies, much longer than I have spent here. :) And of course we respect your position about how you want to handle your pages, we just want to make sure you are settling in ok and don't accidentally do anything you may regret later. Happy editing! w.carter-Talk 08:27, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Nibiru

@PrimeHunter: @W.carter: Thanks guys. I apologise for earlier time Prime. I've activated some of the beta features from the 'Beta features' tab. I bookmarked the 'Searching' page for now. Any idea about Planet Nibiru and of its moons, and about its sequential orbital period and so on. The only, two thing I found so far Nibiru cataclysm and Nibiru (Babylonian astronomy). I'll go through the second one soon, hopefully today or tomorrow. -- (Russell.mo (talk) 16:13, 11 October 2014 (UTC))

Hello Russell. When you link to articles in the Misplaced Pages you do not add the WP. I took the liberty of removing that so that the links will work. The WP is just used for articles related to how things work here in the community, editing, etc. I also cropped of this question from previous post, since this is a new topic and the prev. section was becoming very long. I found these List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, Zecharia Sitchin, Nibiru Sociedad Astronomica where Nibiru is mentioned.

If you are thinking of editing an article, these are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

• Introduction and Getting started
• Contributing to Misplaced Pages
• The five pillars of Misplaced Pages
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article
• Simplified Manual of Style

Best, w.carter-Talk 16:25, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

@W.carter: That's fine, I was editing after rechecking, you sent a message by then.

I read a few already, I'm looking for a definite answer. Its gonna be a mission to go through all of them. I'll request the 'Reference desk' once again, see what they come up with...

In regards to editing, I don't have much knowledge of present, past or future, I'm only aware of my present, past and future. I am trying to gain knowledge though. Once I am or feel competent, I'll give it a go, I don't wish to go through a similar scenario as Prime's from now on... Thank you once again. -- (Russell.mo (talk) 17:04, 11 October 2014 (UTC))

Other things for your pages

I have no intention of stressing you, I am simply writing this now since I have the time, and you can read it at you leisure.

You mentioned your health. If you so wish there are standard messages that you can put on your page to alert other editors about this, or I can help you with it. You can find all these messages at Misplaced Pages:Wikibreak.

It is also helpful for others if you display some of your skills or interests on your user page, either as text or as "userboxes". I'm sure you have seen such at other pages. I'll be happy to help you with this if you feel so inclined. Best, w.carter-Talk 18:42, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Acknowledgement required:

I hope you are well W.carter.

Have you read the 'Da vinchi code' book? (Russell.mo (talk) 21:26, 16 October 2014 (UTC))

Hi Russell, I'm quite ok, thank you. Yes, I have read it, but it was a long time ago. Is there any specific reason why you want to know that? Right now it is getting very late where I live and this will be the last thing I write before turning in for the night. I'll check your page later tomorrow. Good night, w.carter-Talk 22:24, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

Goodnight! -- (Russell.mo (talk) 22:44, 16 October 2014 (UTC))

Just wanted to know about it's theme. Someone else mentioned it to me. He provided me a with a few other links. It was over 300 pages, I didn't bother reading the complete article. I only read the part where the writer was criticized.

I hope you have watched the movie '300'. Is this movie similar to 'Da vincihi code', e.g., in the movie '300', they assume that the viewer will have the basic understanding of the past histories, about the 'Gods' and 'oracles', they just go through with the primary story/topic through the 'Gods' and 'oracles'... I have not read the 'Da vinchi code' I just have the basic understanding... Q: Does the 'Da vinchi code' and '300' possess a similar layout?

How much can you lie in a fictional story?

(Russell.mo (talk) 22:49, 16 October 2014 (UTC))

Hi Russell. When I helped you find those links I assumed that you were going to work on or contribute to those articles in some way. I'm sorry to be blunt, but I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of joining the Misplaced Pages. The community exists only to build the encyclopedia and the talk pages and other non-article pages, are only there to discuss thing related to editing the articles. They are not a social forum for discussing films, books, religion, philosophy, etc.

I must ask you what your intentions here at the WP are. Are you here to help writing and editing any articles, or are you here just to further your own research in certain areas? While the WP as such is for anyone to use, I'm not sure you can use the time and effort of other editors just for your own research. w.carter-Talk 06:20, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

@W.carter: I'm planned to improve/gain/further my knowledge, English speaking and writing skills, seek helps from volunteer(s) who possess good english writing skills ('Old style' if possible), to rewrite/help/recheck my work/article(s), insert more information as desired and so on. I've received great helps so far. I wish to stay in touch and communicate with the Wikipedians because I like talking to them. If this is not facebook, I'm making it a facebook -- (Russell.mo (talk) 15:42, 17 October 2014 (UTC))