User talk:Cmertz2642

Editing question

Hi Excirial,

This is the first time I've tried to edit anything on Wikipedia and I was hoping you could help me out. I tried to edit the page for Chcicago Children's Museum earlier and noticed you reverted the edits. After reading the rules about editing, I completely understand and I apologize for the hassle.

I would like to add some info about what CCM actually does vs. just a few lines about our history and several paragraphs about our location. Can I still do this or am I currently blocked?

Thank you for your assistance.

Chad — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cmertz2642 (talk • contribs) 21:14, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Hiyas Chad,

First and foremost, no, you aren't blocked as evident by your post on my talk page. Had you been blocked then you would have been unable to post anywhere except your own talk page (The page where the warnings were placed), and you would not have been able to register an account from that IP adress. I would say that is a good thing because i never really like blocking editors who aren't straight down vandals (Adding swear words to every article) or spammers (Buy this, buy that, here is the link!).

As for editing the page, well, first and foremost i would advice reading WP:NPOV, WP:COI, WP:W2W and WP:RS. Note that with "reading" i actually mean reading the "This page in a nutshell" section and skimming over the content in order to understand the idea behind the policies. Of course you are more then welcome to read them entirely, but i am aware that it is quite a bit of text with quite a bit of explanation and examples, which not everyone needs to understand the page itself (Nor does everyone have the time to read so much text at once).

As for editing, you may edit the page in question, but please be very wary of any kind of opinion or bias in the article, as articles are supposed to be neutral and encyclopedic. I would advice having a look at the Wikipedia:Good_articles/Arts page. The article's on this page are article's that have been recognized as good article's, and are therefor good examples to follow in case you wish to alter a page yourself. There is a section specifically for museums on the page, which may prove to be handy. If you have specific questions you may want to drop my on the Wikipedia-en-help IRC chat channel. Note that it is operated by volunteers (As is all of Wikipedia), and may thus not have people helping during all times of the day. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 23:14, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Question about reverted edits for Chicago Children's Museum

Hi Excirial,

I'm writing to ask why my recent changes to the Chicago Children's Museum page were removed. I changed incorrect information about the number of visitors served, added information about additional free admission to the public, and included information about what the museum actual does as an institution. Some of the language did come from the museum website, but I was careful to try and take out any bias/marketing-type language. Please let me know what issues you had with the changes, so that I can include this beneficial, factual information to Wikipedia users.

Much appreciated.

Chad

Hiyas there Chad,

This time you actually didn't run into me, but into another editor (([user:JeremyA|JeremyA]]) as you can see in the edit history of the page ([1]). The edit summary he provided states it is a copy and paste of the text found on this page which is correct as far as i can check.

The problem with copying and pasting text directly from other websites, is that this is not allowed under the copyright laws and Wikipedia's own policies on copyright. Par WP:COPYVIO only texts that are explicitly licensed under the CC-BY-SA or GDFL license are allowed to be placed without at least some alterations. The museum's page clearly states "© 2011 Chicago Children's Museum" which means that copyright is reserved, and text therefor cannot be directly copied. It may be used as an inspiration for your own text, but it must be sufficiently different from the original text not to fall under the copyright policy. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 19:29, 2 December 2011 (UTC)