Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MECU (talk | contribs) at 14:44, 11 March 2007 (Re: Blackmagick5.jpg). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Welcome!

Hello, The undertow, and welcome to Misplaced Pages! 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 Misplaced Pages
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Misplaced Pages:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  -Harmil 18:05, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Punctuation

Italics aren't quotes, and there's no particular reason to make other punctuation italic, so you don't need to change text like this:

the dog ''ate my homework''.

with this:

the dog ''ate my homework.''

In both cases, the wiki text may look like it is surrounded in quotes, and so you might be tempted to follow the same rules as for quotes (at least in the most common American English usage), but there is no need because it appears to the user pretty much exactly the same. So, if you come across text like this, you can safely leave it whatever way the author entered it, and no harm is done. Especially for popular articles, this removes the need for potentially dozens of editors to check to make sure that the edit was valid.

Thanks, and happy editing! -Harmil 18:05, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, you are incorrect, but your assertion that you had not used italics made me go back and check, and I noticed that what you did was obviously just a mistake, as you did not realize you were dealing with italics at all.

For example, you changed:

* '']'' is one of ]'s '']''.

which has no quotation marks at all, only italic wiki markup – which is denoted by two single-quotes directly next to each other – to:

* '']'' is one of ]'s '']."

which contains a single quotation mark. This is actually broken wiki markup, and not just a style problem, but it's an easy mistake to make, so I certainly understand.

Ok, now let's move on to scare quotes. When these are used in a section like this:

language as a synonym for "large".

the Misplaced Pages Manual of Style on quotes says that the punctuation is correctly left outside of the non-quotation use of quotation marks. You moved the period inside of the quotes, which is only correct for actual quotations. There are several schools (which diverge widely by country) on how quotation marks should be used. This is the particular school of thought that Misplaced Pages subscribes to for uniformity. Please, help us keep Misplaced Pages helpful and clear to its readers by not changing such usage. Thanks! -Harmil 04:33, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I think the problem that you will have with most style guides is that they tell you to avoid scare quotes, so it is difficult to assert a standard of usage for their punctuation. In general, the best thing to do with scare quotes is to either replace them with italics or simply remove them enitirely, rather than trying to force them into usage more suited to true quotations. -Harmil 05:14, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Re: 23 (numerology)

Nice catch! From the history, it looks like we're reverting similar stuff on that article. Nice to know I'm not alone. Thanks! -- weirdoactor 19:48, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree. As I do believe 23 is important in a certain 'weird' context, not every 23 is significant :) The LOST issue seems arbitrary, as it is one of five numbers. Cheers.The undertow 19:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Adoption Request

Hi. I see you have requested adoption and I am seeking to adopt. Please take a look at my userpage and see if I am a good fit to be your mentor. If you agree to be adopted by me, then let me know on my talk page by clicking the "+" symbol at the top of the page and letting me know. If not, I would still be glad to answer any questions you have at any time. Welcome to Misplaced Pages! --MECU≈talk 15:49, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Great! I've changed your userpage adoption request to show I've adopted you. Please feel free to leave any question, comment or concern on my talk page at any time, no matter how small you believe it is, or how much you feel you are bugging me. I'm here to help you with anything you need. Nothing is too small or too big for you to ask or tell me. My first question for you is: Is there anything specific you wanted me to help you with? Perhaps you want to get more involved with Misplaced Pages but don't know how? Anyways, again, please contact me at any time for any reason. I am also available on IRC on the #wikipedia and other channels. --MECU≈talk 15:14, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Yup, you can edit legal secretary even though you get redirected to Paralegal. The 'trick' is after you get redirected, underneath the article name (in this case, Paralegal) it will say and underneath that it says (Redirected from Legal secretary). The Legal secretary here is a link and if you click that, it will take you back to the legal secretary article, without being redirected! You can now edit the page just like any other. Be sure to remove the redirect code on your first edit though. Also be sure to cover the topic more than just a dictionary reference. You could "copy" the para legal article content and headers and provide the information that applies for a starter, or starting from scratch is fine too. This is a fairly common question from beginners too. As a side note, I don't mind an email from you at all, but it is generally more common to contact people here by using the talk function on their user pages, as it's easier to reply and such. No big deal though. Good luck with your new article! --MECU≈talk 14:51, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi. How are things going? Having any problems I could help you with? Be sure to always use an edit summary: A small, quick, short summary is better than no summary! --MECU≈talk 20:56, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Put it out there! There's no reason to think you have to write an entire featured article by yourself, and others may come along and help you! You can put whatever you want on your userpage, but "working" articles should go on a subpage, in your userspace. See Misplaced Pages:User page for how to create a subpage and what you can do and not do with your userpage. But, just put the article out there, many others can then come along and help you and you can still work on it as well. Good luck! --MECU≈talk 14:28, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

car salesman redirects to automobile salesman, so I hope you're actually thinking about editing that article. Anyways, I don't believe it would be possible to delete the article so you can rewrite it. But, you can just edit it mercilessly. That is, just click the edit button and select all the text and start writing away. Though I would think some of that content is useable so maybe not the best idea. And yes, I did say "beer+Misplaced Pages". I homebrew my own beer too. Though I often like to drink rum, scotch and whiskey too. Anyways, good luck with the article. I looked at legal secretary and it's a good start. --MECU≈talk 15:25, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

about {{Controversial}}

This template goes on the talk page of articles about popular or other articles with readers who may have polarized opinions on said article. MySpace is simultaneously loved and loathed by millions, so it is important for editors of this article who aren't familiar with it to know that it is controversial. Since the template is a self-reference, it goes on the talk page. -- Chris is me _{(u/c/t) 17:43, 7 January 2007 (UTC)}

I was coming from a completely cerebral POV. my thought was that how i can see that revisionist theories would be construed as controversial, being a former IT director, i see myspace as nothing more that software/webware. i felt that in a completely NPOV article, there could be no controversy. it is my understanding, with your help, that it's not the article which is controversial, but the attitudes about the website itself. thanks The undertow 06:28, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Deletion

First, see WP:BAND which describes the notability requirement for bands. Then, see WP:AFD which is the process we use to delete articles, or at least, nominate them for deletion. When you nominate, be sure to explain WHY you want to nominate for deletion. "Non-notable" alone is too short a reason. You also could try WP:PROD. --MECU≈talk 02:01, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Star Trek vandalism

You're right. I clicked the wrong thing. Sorry about that. Thanks for spotting it. Avt tor 03:38, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Nobody's perfect. I have a very thick skin and I almost never get offended when someone points out an obvious mistake I may have made. Avt tor 03:56, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

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Edit Summary

Yes, I did feel the irony when i wrote it. However, I found that someone who does not know how to discuss on the discussion page probably doesn't pay attention to it either. If he/she was an actual editor (and not an address), I would have messaged them directly and not on the article. Unfortunately, I had to take the brightest of the darkest paths- correcting someone incorrectly rather than not correcting them at all. You catch my drift. I find it funny that you did find the irony in it as well. :-P D-Hell-pers 01:32, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Barnstars, image linking

New barnstars have to be proposed. See Misplaced Pages:Barnstar and award proposals and you can see existing barnstars at WP:BARNSTAR. Also, to link to an image and not display it on a page, you just put a semi-colon (:) in front of the Image:, like this: ], which will look like: Image:Edit barnstar.png. Good luck with the barnstar award! --MECU≈talk 14:04, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I thought this was a uniqueness to your signing my talk page, but I saw you sign at the barnstar proposal page by putting it on it's own line after your text. While not totally wrong, it's not helpful or the standard way of doing things. Just put it after your last words with no new lines, like this (the dashes are optional): --MECU≈talk 14:18, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Re: Tense

Take a look at Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (biographies)#Tense. This is a tricky subject through, because if you're comparing things from the big bang to now, using language like "Even now..." would be appropriate. But, if you're talking about a current record someone has, like Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron, saying "Bonds is number 2 on the all time homerun list (as of end of 2006 season)." Citations are important for things like that. But I agree, generally try to avoid language like "He went to the store today!" (which has other problems though). Even in articles I work on about football seasons, and talking about games I'll use future tense for game summaries ("This meeting will be the second ever for the two teams.") before and afterwards change to past tense ("This was the second ever meeting for the two teams."), though I may not do it immediately (could be weeks even). In short, use common sense. If you have a specific instance you'd like me to look at just send it over. This is a good question. Also, you may want to peruse through the manual of style. Don't worry about trying to memorize the whole thing, but just try and get a few pickups. If you do violate it, someone else will likely point it out and fix it for you. The power of wiki. --MECU≈talk 13:58, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Re: Blackmagick5.jpg

See why it was deleted. My guess is they you selected "For Misplaced Pages use only" (or something of that phrasing) in the dropdown box on the upload page. We don't want images that only we can use, we want images that are so free, anyone can use them for any reason. Now, you said you got an email from the owner. What did the owner say as far as you being able to publish the image? We may still be able to reupload (or undelete) the image and get it saved through another method, depending on what the painter said. Lemme know, and that'll determine our next step. --MECU≈talk 14:44, 11 March 2007 (UTC)