From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome to my userpage. If you have something to say, please leave a message on my talk page.

I am a writer, editor, and musician living in the Northwestern United States. So far, I've been creating and updating articles for independent music artists, session musicians, bluegrass musicians, jazz musicians, and overlooked fiction authors.

I am a relative newcomer, and I have been known to exhibit WikiGnome behavior. I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions. Thank you.

Ongoing goals

A primary goal of mine is to help make information about music artists and fiction authors available in Wikipedia.

In particular, I am interested in collecting discographic and bibliographic material, and keeping this information current and accurate.

In the past, I have benefitted from Wikipedia articles, and I've been frustrated when information was not available or poorly-sourced.

Activity

Articles I've created

Articles I've improved in some way

Articles I am developing

Article possibilities

Articles that need review

Some opinions

I use this section as a soapbox for my Wikipedia ideas and opinions.

Eliminate glorious wonderful hyperbole

Avoid the temptation to praise the subject of your article, unless quoting from someone else (and even then, show restraint). If the subject of your article needs that kind of hype, perhaps there shouldn't be an article about your subject. Journalists and reviewers pad their text with descriptives, but let's remember that our audience wants clear information.

The curse of red links

Some have talked about how a sea of blue links distracts the reader, but certainly red links are even more distracting. It is better for the editor to maintain a list of pages that should be created than to link to an imaginary page.

How readers use Wikipedia

Though we author's write Wikipedia articles to make sense when read end-to-end, it is important to remember that much of the time, readers will consult articles to locate specific pieces of information.

We can assist them by employing subsections with meaningful titles, within larger sections, and further divide subsections into paragraphs. We can write sentences that make sense when read individually.

Overlinking

In content intended to be read beginning-to-end, I think it is only necessary to link the first occurrence of a word or phrase.

But in lists (such as discographies) in which readers are likely to search for and read one or several list items, I believe it is useful to provide links on the first occurrence of the word or phrase in each line item. This is a courtesy for the reader.

I mention this because I see "link wars on some pages, with editors removing and adding links to the same content.

New Pages

I will consider creating a new page for obvious reasons, such as a wealth of available material. But I also look for frequency of citations on other pages, even if there is relatively little material available on the subject. I think Wikipedia is just as much about linking content as it is about the content itself.

Editing Wikipedia using a mobile device

Being physically handicapped, I primarily edit Wikipedia pages using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone. This works well for me because I am content-focused and I am comfortable with the wiki markup language.

Here are some lessons I've learned when editing Wikipedia content using a mobile device:

Save frequently

Be observant as you enter, delete, or modify content, and save after making only a few changes. An undo function is often not available, so work should be thoroughly reviewed before saving.

Web content display differences

Display of content on a mobile device varies from its display on a computer monitor, especially layout of images. It is helpful (though not critical) to view your work on several different displays ( desktop and tablet), especially if creating a new page or linking to images.

Mobile device URLs

Some websites use separate URL addresses for mobile device display. Example: 

http//:something.com

might be automatically converted to: 

http//:m.something.com

Mobile URLs should be replaced with desktop URLs when citing sources or creating links. It may not be sufficient to remove the extra "m." from a mobile URL, so test the converted URL before saving an edit.

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) errors

When performing a Google search, Google may direct your browser to a copy stored on their servers in order to speed up display of the content on mobile devices.

The address of a Google AMP page encapsulates the URL in a wrapper that incorporates the /amp tag, such as in the following example: 

https://www.google.com/amp/www.domain.com/page.html/amp

But if this AMP address is copied and pasted into a Wikipedia link or citation, an error is generated when attempting to save.

Instead, tap the icon to the right of the URL displayed below the address bar to display the true site, and use that URL. Or, strip the "/amp" wrapper from the AMP URL before using it in a citation or link.

Useful links

For Statements 

{{Other uses|**name** (disambiguation)}}
{{for|**description**|**link**}}

Redirect notification 

{{redirect|**name**}}
{{redirect|**name**|**for**|**link**}}

TOC limit 

{{TOC limit|3}}

Citating and Referencing Sources

Help

How To Guides

Reference lists

Citations in references

Bluegrass resources

Style & Format

Templates

More online resources

Wikipedia:IRC/wikipedia-en-help

Music reference guides

  • British Hit Singles - 8th Edition - ISBN  0-85112-941-2
  • British Hit Singles - 14th Edition - ISBN  0-85156-156-X
  • British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN  085112-190-X
  • British Hit Singles & Albums - 19th Edition - ISBN  1-904994-10-5
  • The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 3rd Edition - ISBN  0-85112-888-2
  • The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN  0-85112-619-7
  • Guinness Rockopedia - ISBN  0-85112-072-5
  • The Book of Golden Discs - 2nd Edition - ISBN  0-214-20512-6
  • The Great Rock Discography - 5th Edition - ISBN  1-84195-017-3
  • The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray - ISBN  1-85868-255-X
  • The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits - ISBN  0-85112-250-7
  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music - ISBN  1-904041-96-5
  • NME Rock 'N' Roll Years - CN 5585
  • Perfecting Sound Forever : The Story of Recorded Music - Greg Milner - ISBN  978-1-84708-140-7

Music credits citations

  • As listed in liner notes. [1]

User boxes

End notes

Multi-licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0
I agree to multi-license my contributions, unless otherwise stated, under Wikipedia’s copyright terms and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 1.0, version 2.0, version 2.5, and version 3.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.
  1. ^ ____ (CD booklet). _____. ____. ____. 11476. {{ cite AV media notes}}: Check date values in: |year= ( help)CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) ( link)
  2. ^ "title - artist - Credits". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=User:Scberry&oldid=901571567"