Hello, Ynottry! Thank you for
your contributions. My name's
Brambleclawx and I just wanted to say hi and Welcome to Wikipedia! If you need help, try looking at some of the links below, which will help you get the most out of the world's largest encyclopædia. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on
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edit summary field every time you edit. Again, welcome, and happy editing! Brambleclawx16:00, 21 November 2010 (UTC)reply
{{helpme}} Where do you find a list or link to pages needing citations?
When you leave messages, please remember to "sign" your name, by putting ~~~~ (four
tilde signs) at the end. This will add your name, and the date and time. You can also do this by clicking the 'sign' button, pictured to the right.
Yes, it's often easy to find the references that an article needs, but it doesn't happen unless someone goes to the trouble of finding them and adding them. I appreciate your contributions to improving the quality of these articles. --
Orlady (
talk)
04:51, 30 November 2010 (UTC)reply
Signatures in Wikipedia are identifying information that you put after writing a comment on a talk page. They tell other editors who wrote the comment and when. This can be done by writing ~~~~.
Signatures can optionally be spruced up with colors. To add color to your signature, go to the
Preferences link at the top of the page. In the nickname box, enter [[User:MYUSERNAME|<font color="MYCOLOR">MYUSERNAME</font>]]. Replace "MYCOLOR" with a color you like, such as "red" or "green". Replace MYUSERNAME with your username. Finally, check the "raw signature" box, and save your preferences. Now, when you type four tildes ~~~~ in a talk page, your new signature will appear.
The color names that can be used in standard
HTML are given in the standards document
here. Using the hexadecimal RGB-style colors (such as #008000) you can choose any color you like from about sixteen million, not just the 140 colors that have names in standard HTML.
More complex signatures are possible; however, your signature as typed into the box above should not be unnecessarily long. Long signatures make pages larger and harder to edit, and are discouraged.
Deleting large chunks of text at one go can trigger the anti-vandal robot, Cluebot, to revert the edit which is what happened on Scotsboro Boys. I put back the work that you had done which the robot wrongly interpreted as vandalism. Please do not be detered.--
Charles (
talk)
21:32, 26 November 2010 (UTC)reply
Thanks Charles. Did you fix the orphaned refs as well?
What do you think about length now? Also, is the "Detailed summary" OK? Would it be better to replace the lead with the "Detailed summary?" Finally, how do I get the lead back above the table of contents? Thanks for your encouragement.
Ynottry (
talk)
01:41, 28 November 2010 (UTC)Ynottryreply
Taking the last point first I removed the level 1 header and bolded the subject title in the first line as per the Manual of Style which has sorted out the table of contents.
It was another robot that fixed up the references. When the same reference is used more than once the full template is used the first time but subsequently just the reference name can be used like this <ref name=(name)/> to keep the edit window less cluttered and for tidiness. If you open the page history you can see who did what. You have your watch list set up to see when things are changed?
The length of article looks ok from a brief look through. The present lead is much too short and it would be good to merge it into the overview section as the lead.
Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lead section) has all the detail. The featured article leads which are on the front page each day also show best practice and some of them are interesting too.--
Charles (
talk)
11:51, 28 November 2010 (UTC)reply
Thanks Charles for fixing things in the Scottsboro Boys article. I've merged the detailed summary into the lead per your suggestions. You're right--it is much better.
Ynottry (
talk)
05:11, 29 November 2010 (UTC)Ynottryreply