Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lowercase sigmabot III (talk | contribs) at 01:25, 13 August 2014 (Archiving 4 discussion(s) from User talk:Cullen328) (bot). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This is an archive of past discussions with User:Cullen328. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

New contributor introduction

Hello Jim,

My name is Jerry Cohen. I’m a new, aspiring contributor who is finding himself in need of a mentor. From what you have written about yourself, I can see my subject is most likely not part of your expertise however, I believe you still may be the perfect person to help me. You and I are about the same age and therefore have certain life experiences behind us the younger folk do not. Handling this definitely needs someone with a mature viewpoint. I’m totally open to criticism.

I’ve followed and deeply researched the subject of UFO’s for years. (Since 1967) I have a website that has been on-line since 1997. I never thought I’d be thinking of contributing to an encyclopedia.

The notion came about as I was referencing one of my cases to see what Misplaced Pages had to say about it. I was surprised to find that what was on the page was actually biased, poorly researched, and not accurate to the really thorough material I had gathered concerning same. I realized that from what I know as provable fact, I might be the perfect person in a position to possibly improve that particular page. Rjc1 (talk) 15:15, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Hello Rjc1. I can't be a formal mentor to you, as that is a very time-consuming process, and I am already mentoring another editor.

Rjc1. Of course, I understand. I realize I'm not doing this right yet. But I'm only writing this way for expedience at the moment . . .

Cullen328. I took a brief look at your website. What I will agree to do is try to answer any sincere question you have about editing Misplaced Pages.

Rjc1. Thank you, Jim

Cullen328. Although I claim no UFO expertise, I read several books on the topic in the 1970s and have a general understanding of the issues.

First of all, I highly recommend that you read WP:FRINGE. UFOs are considered a fringe topic, and you should be aware that we have many editors committed to ensuring that Misplaced Pages does not include any endorsement or advocacy of fringe views. This is not negotiable.

Rjc1. Nor do I expect it to be. I wouldn't ask this of you or myself.

Cullen328. Then, I recommend that you read WP:NPOV which restricts your ability to advance your specific point of view.

Rjc1. Yes, I've bookmarked this and am in the process of reading it. I am aware of the entire upper part of that page and have tailored my arguments with all of this in mind. I am now reading the parts I have not familiarized myself with as of yet. I have no intention of advancing _my_ specific point of view. This was an assumption on your part. The things I will be talking about are extremely specific . I can guarantee you will be surprised when you become aware of them.

Cullen328. Since you mention documents you have gathered, I recommend that you read WP:OR which explains that Misplaced Pages does not publish original research.

Rjc1. I am totally aware of that. What I am here to discuss is absolutely not my original research. Actually it is about someone else's "original research." I am here to defend status-quo. I will be able to address this when I am totally familiar with this medium. I have taken that completely into consideration before starting this conversation. I would not put any of us in that position.

Cullen328. What you claim to know as a "provable fact" has no place on Misplaced Pages,

Rjc1. First of all, it is not simply my "claim." I would think one must know what the fact is and where it is from before one can make a reasonable decision concerning same. If the dissenting fact(s) is (are) directly from the source the Misplaced Pages has referenced, that should be quite important and make a difference.

Cullen328. . . and will be removed on sight by other editors, including me. We summarize only what reliable sources say about a topic, and a self-published website such as yours is not a reliable source.

Rjc1. I believe I can prove beyond reasonable doubt any documented material at my site is totally reliable.

Cullen328. A good introduction to editing Misplaced Pages can be found at WP:PRIMER. You are welcome to edit in accordance with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines,

Rjc1. I had no intention of editing anything before my case is examined by respected administrators and most agree with me. I am hoping the administrators will at least be willing to look at what I have found and not simply exclude it on a technicality, before examining same. Again, it is _not_ MY original research I am asking them to look at.

Cullen328. but this is not a website where advocacy of fringe topics is accepted. As a matter of fact, many editors will be quite aggressive in opposing that.

Rjc1. I can certainly understand this. The only thing I advocate is what the majority agree is accepted fact.

Cullen328. You alluded to a specific article where you see problems. Please mention the name of that article, and describe your concerns in more detail. I will be happy to review that article and give you my opinion about how it can be improved.

Rjc1. I'll be able to get to this as soon as I come to grips with becoming comfortable in this new (for me) medium. Otherwise I am at an incredible disadvantage. My argument is ready but there are a number of questions I still have to ask and a little practice to do first. Thanks for listening Jim. Respectfully, Rjc1 (talk) 05:38, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Take care. Cullen Let's discuss it 01:35, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

- - -

Rjc1, we don't publish original research by anyone, whether it is by you or someone who won the Nobel Prize for physics. We summarize what reliable, independent sources say about a topic.

Rjc1. That is not exactly accurate, and I'm not here to publish "original research." I plan to address that and the issue of reliability and how it is determined. This is obviously necessary for me to eventually be considered as reliable. But I still need some answers to a few more questions regarding the how the text editor works and communication in general. I can't begin without them.

Your self-published website will never be accepted as a reliable source here on Misplaced Pages, other than as a source for your own personal opinions. Period. Full stop. Please understand that administrators have no special powers whatsoever regarding content here on Misplaced Pages.

Rjc1. Jim, I am not asking anyone, anywhere to give a blanket O.K. to my entire website. However, please don't take this the wrong way. With absolutely no disrespect to you, who would I talk to that does has some powers regarding content problems within Wiki?

Administrators deal with technical matters including enforcing behavioral norms, but my opinion as an experienced editor on content matters is equal to that of any administrator. Our core content policies are not "technicalities" but are instead the very things that have enabled us to create the sixth most popular website in the world,

Rjc1. That is excellent. If you'll permit me, I'll come back to this later. I really need to ask those questions. Rjc1 (talk) 18:14, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

far away the first when it comes to original content.

They are not negotiable. Cullen Let's discuss it 05:55, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Rjc1. Jim, here are those questions. (about 12 altogether - a few at a time)

1) Was what I have edited so far readable and in an acceptable form?

2) To properly explain the need for a change on that page and to, down the line, possibly verify myself as an accurate, reliable authority on the subject, it is essential that whatever medium I write in will allow me to use html’s. Do normal talk pages permit this?

3) I noticed the sandbox. Is that a place I can go that will allow me to practice using Wiki’s text editor and then be able to see the finalized text that would appear on that talk page? i.e. I would like to put the code onto the page (htmls, etc.) and then be able to see the finished product appear, as the person on the other end would see it on his page. Can this be done?

3a) Will the reader be able to click on a link and automatically go to it? (yes/no) This is extremely important for my presentation. Rjc1 (talk)

1) You are interspersing or mingling your comments in with mine. That is not good practice, but I understand what you are trying to do. It is best in most cases to add new content below an older comment.

2)We use wikicode, not HTML. You can link to an exterior site on a talk page. Since we rely on summarizing reliable sources, "reliable" is a word that we use to evaluate sources not editors. Editors are evaluated other editors based on their adherence to policies and guidelines, and their behavior, not on their expertise or "reliability". In other words, I know almost nothing about the history of Arkansas. But if I find a book in a used bookstore, published by a university press, with plenty of information about a 19th century Arkansas senator, I can write a biography of that person by summarizing the reliable source, and other such sources I might find. It is the authors of the original sources who are reliable. I am a summarizer.

3) Your sandbox is for any experimentation that is for the purpose of improving the encyclopedia.

3a) If you format a link properly, a reader will be able to click on it. The links you add must comply with policies and guidelines. Cullen Let's discuss it 19:12, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Rjc1

Jim,

Sorry, I didn’t realize the complication of simply talking to you as a new user. I apologize in advance for most-likely boring you with these most basic questions. Just trying to learn the medium here. I have created a Wiki account. I most likely need a specific order of things to do to set myself up here.

1) After I log-in and click “You have new messages” what am I supposed to see?

2) After I read what you have said, what exact steps to I take to talk to you?

3) I accidentally engaged “watch list" which I thought would help me follow our conversation. I seem to have other things on there I did not want. I simply wanted to follow our conversation. What should I do? Rjc1 (talk) 03:44, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

4) In "Editing User talk:Cullen328 (new section): What does clicking "Watch this page" accomplish?

Hello again Rjc1. I do not mind your questions. If you stick around, this will all become second nature very quickly.

Rjc1. Believe it or not, I've worked up to this point my entire life. I'm not going anywhere (except to break for family things like this A.M.) I'll stick around as long as you allow. If you'll permit . . I'll be continuing with my questions, but my son is coming over this morning with my autistic grandson. I'm not sure how much of this day is going to be absorbed by that. Going out to get food.

Cullen328 Let me try to help.

1) When you see "You have new messages", take a look at your own talk page. That is where messages of that type will appear.

2) The most common way to respond to a comment directed at you is to click.the "edit" option for that section, scroll to the bottom of the wikicode, and reply. Convention calls for progressively indenting each comment by starting with one colon ":" for the first reply, two "::" for the second, and so on. Never try to indent with blank spaces. That screws up the display.

3) Your watchlist is a list of pages you are monitoring. I wouldn't worry if the software has added your own pages to the list. That is normal.

4) Clicking "watch this page" simply adds any page that interests you to your watch list. You can click the icon again at any time to remove any page that doesn't interest you. The watch list displays the most recent changes to all those pages, and is a very useful tool for active editors. You can customize this tool in various ways, and edit it manually as well.

Hope this helps. Cullen Let's discuss it 04:01, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Jim. What you are saying is definitely helping.

5) What is the difference between Rjc1 User Talk (my user page) and Talk (my talk page)? How do I set them up? What is the function of each?

6) In using increasing colons, aren't we going to eventually run out of horizontal page space? (Going out with my family for the rest of the day.) Rjc1 (talk) 20:27, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

5) Your user page (now empty) is for describing yourself to other editors as a Misplaced Pages editor. If you write something on that page, your signature will change from red (which hints "newbie"), to blue. You can customize your signature like I do if you want. On your user page, you can mention how long you have been editing, your areas of interest, articles you've worked on, and the like. Some basic biographical information is OK if you want. But promotional material will probably be removed. Your talk page is for conversing with other editors. No "setup" is required for either, though some editors format their pages in a fancy fashion. That's optional.

6)Yes, if a conversation goes on long enough, the column gets narrow on the right side. At that point, you can reply with no colons and begin the numbering of the colons all over. Some editors insert an arrow to indicate that, but I don't even know the code for doing that. It is pretty clear in context.

Have a nice visit with your family. Cullen Let's discuss it 20:49, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) The code for that cute little arrow is {{od}} or {{outdent}}. --MelanieN (talk) 21:00, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Let's try it. MelanieN, you see, is a good talk page stalker, not a bad one. Cullen Let's discuss it 21:05, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

how to create personal biography

I thought to recreate my personal biography. I have an register account in wiki. i didnt find any options to create a biography. so am in need of full process of creating personal biography

Gary Anandasangaree (talk) 05:06, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Hello Gary Anandasangaree. Trying to write a Misplaced Pages biography of yourself is unwise, and will almost always lead to problems. If you truly believe that you are notable, then try the Articles for Creation process. You can write a brief profile of yourself on your own user page, talking about yourself as a Misplaced Pages editor. This should include no promotional material, and nothing that has been cut and pasted from any copyrighted source. Good luck. Cullen Let's discuss it 06:20, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Excuse me for butting in here. I am what we call a "talk page stalker", which means I read Cullen's talk page, and occasionally I chime in with a comment. Gary, I see that you did once create a "personal biography" here, on your userpage User:Gary Anandasangaree, but it got deleted. The reason it was deleted was that 1) it seemed to promote something, maybe a business or some such, and 2) it seemed to be copied from somewhere else. Those are both no-nos. If you want to start over, you can. Just click on the redlink User:Gary Anandasangaree, and start writing. But this time, don't copy from anywhere else, and don't promote anything. You could start slow by just typing "Hi, I'm Gary Anandasangaree" and click "save" just to see how it works. You can add to it as often as you like, just be careful to stay within Misplaced Pages's guidelines. Also, don't post any personal information like your address, phone number or email (but if you've been around the internet for a while, you probably already know that). --MelanieN (talk) 21:10, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Michael Thompson (Aryan Brotherhood)

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