User talk:ARRust

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, ARRust, and welcome to Wikipedia! 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 Wikipedia
Tutorial
How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! John of Reading (talk) 19:23, 16 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Expertise

Thank you for telling us about yourself on your user page; your knowledge of Buddhism could be a great help here. However, there is a trap lying in wait for experts starting out at Wikipedia. Before you fall into it, may I point you at the first few paragraphs of "Wikipedia:No original research"? When you add your knowledge to Wikipedia articles, you must also add links to the reliable sources (books, journals, whatever) that back it up. This rule allows readers to verify the information for themselves, at least in theory. There's more on this in the essay "Wikipedia:Expert editors". Feel free to ask questions, either here or at my talk page, and I'll do my best to help. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:36, 16 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, John. I will continue playing with editing but will not click Save until I have learned the rules of the Wikipedia game. How long does it take most people to become confident editors? (ARRust (talk) 13:55, 17 May 2011 (UTC))[reply]

That's an interesting question, and I don't know the answer. It's going to be different for everyone. Personally, I started by fixing spelling mistakes, but gradually got interested in the policies and technical stuff behind the scenes. After about three months I found I was confident enough to start answering questions at the Help desk - I'm still not making many substantial edits to articles.

But a general rule here is "Be bold"! Try looking through Category:Buddhism stubs, a list of articles that have been marked as being too short to cover their subject adequately. Perhaps pick one and see what you can do to expand it? There's also a long "to do" list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Buddhism which might interest you. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:36, 17 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have been cruising Buddhism topics and ran into an article titled "Leonard Jacobson." It is pure guru advertising, trying to sell his self published books, his workshops,etc. Is this legitimate in Wikipedia, or did it just slip through? Who should take a look at the article? <ARRust (talk) 12:08, 19 May 2011 (UTC)>[reply]

Well spotted - and only an hour after you posted your comment about it, another editor tagged it for speedy deletion. Yes, there are rules - Wikipedia is not an advertising medium, and people can only have their own Wikipedia article if they have been written about by reliable sources. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:28, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again. To my surprise I may be working into a useful role in Wikipedia. Although not as blatant, the article on Zen Yoga seems to be an ad to sell books. If you would list for me, how to articles on how to get rid of advertising, articles not well enough written to even be worth editing, and perhaps, eventually, how to combine articles that are too short or too specific to be encyclopedia material. <ARRust (talk) 13:54, 20 May 2011 (UTC)>[reply]

I think I'd better point you at some of the help pages rather than trying to explain here.

Use the {{advertising}} tag to display an orange banner at the top of the article.
Deletion policy - that touches on many other Wikipedia policies.
Help:Merging describes how to merge articles together

-- John of Reading (talk) 16:29, 20 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wayne Shorter

Hello, and thanks for your comment. I responded here, to keep the thread together. I also moved the post to the bottom of the talk page, as that's the usual place for the latest comment. All the best, Walkerma (talk) 21:43, 25 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, ARRust. You have new messages at John of Reading's talk page.
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