Hi Aaron, I've been working on my first attempt at a book page (in my sandbox). I'm hoping it isn't too essay-like, and I've tried to include citations where possible, but when you have time, I'd love to hear if you think I'm on the right track.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 16:21, 10 May 2024 (UTC)reply
It doesn't seem essay-like to me, at least not at a first glance. Congratulations on that!However, the first issue I've noticed is that the plot summary is wayy too long.
MOS:PLOTLENGTH summarizes guidance; novels are recommended to not exceed 700 words, and yours is probably quadruple that. You also don't need to cite the plot, unless part of it is up to great interpretation as to what actually happened.The "Structure" section is probably too short to stand alone; I'd say it should be merged into "Plot". Same goes for the pattern, which should probably be merged into "Themes". Yeah, it's not exactly the same kind of theme, but... hey. (Also, even if it were a separate section, I'd put it before the reception section to bunch the information about the book itself together.) Per
MOS:NOBACKREF, the Scent section should probably just be called "Scent". I also want to merge it but can't find a good place to, so let's leave it alone.I'd recommend you summarize the reception a bit (probably something like "praised for its prose and being 'evocative'" with certain quotes singled out (probably that of the Sunday and either Irish or Lancashire). I also wonder why you used a blockquote for the picture (‽) and used none of them for the reception.Speaking of the picture... on Wikipedia, media is usually added right before the start of the relevant paragraph, so that you can look at it while reading the relevant information.Now, let's talk about citation style. Not
Wikipedia:Citation style, but stuff like
WP:REFPUNCT. Citations should be put after everything they cover; don't put one before and call it a day; that makes the following part actually covered by the citation look unreferenced. The exception to this is blockquotes, where you put a citation after the colon. (Inline quotes still follow regular rules.)Finally, for the purposes of user CSS customizabillytee or something, hatnotes should be made using some derivative of the {{hatnote}} template: in this case, {{for}}.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 17:38, 10 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Thank you: this is all very helpful. I have to say I was concerned about the length of the plot description too, but I'd read somewhere that it had to be a full account, and not just a teaser - and this book has so much plot! I'll have another try. And thanks for clarifying about the citations - it makes a lot of sense.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 08:59, 11 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hi Aaron, I've pruned the Plot section of the Strawberry Thief page to bring it to about 600 words, added a hatnote and followed your advice about block quotes, citations and reviews, as well as amalgamating the Morris and Scent sections under "Themes." It feels tighter to me now, but I'd appreciate any further feedback you could give me whenever you have a moment to spare.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 16:15, 11 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hi Aaron, Thank you for doing this; it feels a lot clearer to me now, and I appreciate your time. I've been trying to find a non-primary source for the author testimonials, but apart from the fact that they are printed in the book itself, and on some retailers' pages, including Amazon, I can't find anything I can use. Would it be better to just take them out?
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 11:19, 12 May 2024 (UTC)reply
If we can't find sources, probably.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 13:41, 12 May 2024 (UTC)reply
I think I've found a couple that work, thanks: I have inserted them.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 15:10, 12 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Is it okay for me to transfer the article into mainspace now, please?
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 08:42, 14 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Bold the first occurrence of the title and we should be ready to go.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 10:54, 14 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Will do, thanks. And once more, I appreciate all your help on this.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 14:39, 14 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hi Aaron,
Sorry to bother you again, but I seem to have messed up my redirect - don't ask me how, I seem to have created a page called "The Strawberry" (novel) as well as the one I was meant to be moving into mainspace, and I don't seem to be able to revert it. Could you help, please? --
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 14:51, 14 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Thank you: I'll give it a try. Completely my fault - I overlooked the typo in the submission box!
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 15:10, 14 May 2024 (UTC)reply
One last thing
Hi Aaron, I'm aware that I've taken more than my fair share of your time, but I'm trying my hand at a different kind of page (in my sandbox) and I'd appreciate it if you could have a look whenever you can. After that I think I might have the confidence to go it alone!
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 13:04, 15 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Don't worry, as your mentor, nearly any requests are worth my time! Not sure why you're writing a flower article lol but I'll take a look
Aaron Liu (
talk) 13:10, 15 May 2024 (UTC)reply
As it stands, the article is maybe too technical and I can hardly understand it. Wikipedia articles are mostly written in prose. You also don't want to just copy text from a source.Maybe the better people to ask are at
Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 13:18, 15 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Thank you so much: I enjoy botany as well as books! I've been editing some of the other calendula pages, and I noticed this one didn't yet have an article. I'll take another look at the wording and simplify it (although the other calendula articles seem to be in much the same style). Thanks for the headsup about Wikiplants: I'll have a chat to them as well.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 13:40, 15 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hello I've been waiting for u --
Maphoka (
talk) 18:52, 16 May 2024 (UTC)reply
My beauty is my identity
Our skin is our priority
Maphoka (
talk) 18:54, 16 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Erm, what is all this? What publishing? Also, you should come to expect processes on Wikipedia to take some time (though not more than a day). We're not an instant messaging service.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 19:11, 16 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hello Aaron, I've still not completely understood how to move a page from mainspace without making a mistake: in this case, I think I've somehow created a user page for a nonexistent user named after a species of lilac.Is there a way to change this, please? And I'm still not sure what to do about the redirect links: should they be on the page, too, please? --
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 16:08, 17 May 2024 (UTC)reply
PS: I meant TO mainspace, of course. I think senility must be creeping in!
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 16:09, 17 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Just like before, you should move the thing to the correct location using the same button and ask
WP:RM/T if you can't. To delete redirects that would not be useful at all, you can use {{db-error}} or {{db-g7}}.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 20:51, 17 May 2024 (UTC)reply
I want to make Wikipedia information page for mr. Robby Roeplall so that people can consult his page for information. Can you please help me to initiate this? --
Robby Roeplall (
talk) 13:41, 19 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hi Aaron, Today I came across an "invisible comment" for the first time (on a page devoted to the mulberry plant). I can't work out why it's invisible - or what purpose it serves.Can you please clarify? --
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 15:46, 26 May 2024 (UTC)reply
In VisualEditor, you add one by selecting the option under "Insert". In source mode (which I vastly prefer, but you do you!), you add it like <!--this is a comment-->. These are usually for warning editors to not to make a certain change. On the
Morus (plant) page's citations, an empty |author= parameter is used to stop the citation templates from erroring, and a comment is inserted to inform the editors that this is not an error.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 01:36, 27 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hi Aaron, me again, I'm afraid. I've created a draft article
Draft:Dogs of War and I realize that I need a disambiguation hatnote, but there are so many other uses of that phrase, and I don't know how to include them all. Could you help, please?
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 18:58, 30 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Hello Aaron, I've had one of my additions to the
Joanne Harris page queried with several "failed verification" tags. I was trying to paraphrase the source, rather than quote it directly and risk plagiarism, but obviously I'm not getting the balance right. I'd really appreciate some advice on this if you have a moment to spare.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 06:42, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
The generally rule is basically that if the original source said it best and most concisely, quote it. Though also avoid quoting too much on the source. Looking at the individual tags:
It's difficult to source "widely well-received". To source it, you need a reliable source that actually says she's "widely well-received", or something like that. An easy fix to this is to just change it to "was praised".
I'd recommend replacing to originality part with something like "According to The Guardian, she has attracted 'admirers of Harris's astringent, highly original and often subtly fantastic mainstream novels.'"
I'd recommend replacing "portrayal of 'impending doom'" to "'foreshadowing impending doom'". I also don't see where you got the thing about darkness within communities from. If the source says something like that, I'd recommend adding a quote of the relevant content through the |quote= parameter of the citation templates.
Also, Belbury is correct that you shouldn't use sources connected to the publisher for reception, as these aren't independent.
Aaron Liu (
talk) 16:10, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Thank you: that’s really helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to look at it.
ArthurTheGardener (
talk) 18:18, 8 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Tech News: 2024-24
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
The software used to render SVG files has been updated to a new version, fixing many longstanding bugs in SVG rendering.
[1]
The HTML used to render all headings
is being changed to improve accessibility. It was changed last week in some skins (Vector legacy and Minerva). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and
report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in Vector-2022. The developers are still considering the introduction of a
Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.
The HTML markup used for citations by
Parsoid changed last week. In places where Parsoid previously added the mw-reference-text class, Parsoid now also adds the reference-text class for better compatibility with the legacy parser.
More details are available.
[2]
Problems
There was a bug with the Content Translation interface that caused the tools menus to appear in the wrong location. This has now been fixed.
[3]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 June. It will be on all wikis from 13 June (
calendar).
[4][5]
The new version of MediaWiki includes another change to the HTML markup used for citations:
Parsoid will now generate a <span class="mw-cite-backlink"> wrapper for both named and unnamed references for better compatibility with the legacy parser. Interface administrators should verify that gadgets that interact with citations are compatible with the new markup.
More details are available.
[6]
On multilingual wikis that use the <translate> system, there is a feature that shows potentially-outdated translations with a pink background until they are updated or confirmed. From this week, confirming translations will be logged, and there is a new user-right that can be required for confirming translations if the community
requests it.
[7]