User:Renoti/Adoptee page

There are many different things that can be done on Wikipedia, what you do do is entirely your choice. Article writing or adding new material to existing articles is the central activity and the purpose of Wikipedia but there are many other things to do. Do you have experience or knowledge of a particular area in which you could write articles? Or do you have the kind of personality to do meticulous research to find out enough about a subject to write about it? If you do not feel you are able to write articles but are capable of writing good English, there is a long list of articles that need Copyediting. There are more Wikignome maintenance activities as well such as Wikilinking and category sorting. Helping others is another activity, of course, you will need to find your way around before you could help anyone else use Wikipedia, but you might have knowledge that would let you answer questions at the reference desk. Then there are also new page patrol and anti-vandalism activities. If you give me some idea what you are interested in I can give you more specific guidance.

It's great that you have created a sandbox, but you may want to use your sandbox for other things. A better name for your adoptee page might be User:Renoti/Adoptee page or something like that. Of course, you could just go and create another page, but here is a more useful exercise. It is not an unusual problem that you create a page and later decide it is the wrong name (maybe it has a spelling mistake). You need to move it to a new location along with all its text and edit history. So lets make that an exercise, move this page to a new name: also try and work out what needs to be done about the redirect. SpinningSpark 17:20, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I am very sorry for not replying more quickly. I know this sounds like a lame excuse, but my computer was busted for the past few days and I have only been able to get it repaired recently. Plus, I was watching my talk page for a reply up until just before it broke, and not the sandbox. Again, I am sorry. Thank you for your response, and with regards to your two questions, I enjoy doing meticulous research before I start something in real life, so I imagine that might be my editing personality. I shall have to explore that. I've read all the other links you provided, and as yet I feel uncomfortable trying most of the things described, especially new page patrol and anti-vandal activities, but I will give them a go soon. I've moved my sandbox/adoptee page; have I done it all right? Renoti (talk) 21:52, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Really no need to apologise, you don't need to talk to me every day, in fact it's better for you if I don't watch over your shoulder all the time. If anti-vandalism work and similar doesn't appeal to you - don't do it. There are plenty of other things to do, anti-vandalism is mostly for people who are not able, or don't want, to contribute by writing, and I don't think that really applies to you. Although it is still not very clear to me what it is you do want to get into; perhaps it is not yet clear to you either. So here are a few suggestions;

1. Copyediting. This is taking an existing article and rewriting in better English. A list of articles that need this work is at Category:All articles needing copy edit. Guidance on what to do is at Wikipedia:How to copy-edit. There is also a project page for organising this work at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors.
2. Wikilinking. If you don't feel you are up to copyediting, this is a more mechanical task, mostly hyperlinking to other articles, but also things like putting headings into Wikipedia style. A list of articles needing this work is at Category:Articles that need to be wikified. Guidance is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikify.
3. Local places. I see from some of your edits that you are interested in local issues. All settlements that are listed in a census or other reliable source are automatically notable and qualify for inclusion in Wikipedia. There are likely to be many small towns and villages in your area which have no article or only a stub.
4. Local politicians are a different matter. Mayors of cities and MPs are automatically notable because of the level of government at which they serve. Local councillors need to meet WP:POLITICIAN before they can be included.
5. Translating. One of your edits gives the impression you are able to translate Russian. If you can, you might be interested in Wikipedia:Translation and you can find a list of work at Category:Articles needing translation from Russian Wikipedia.

Still not seen something you like? Don't worry, we have more lists of things to do than you can shake a stick at, we are bound to have something to suite you, just ask for more suggestions. One thing I forgot to mention - a lot of people mostly contribute with images, photographs and/or diagrams. If that's you I can find some lists in that area also.

SpinningSpark 10:31, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

By the way, are you using your watchlist? No need to keep returning to a page to see if you have a reply. You can add pages to your watchlist by clicking the "watch" tab on the page. Also, in "my preferences" you can set up your watchlist so pages are automatically added when you edit them. SpinningSpark 10:56, 28 June 2009 (UTC)