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Xhosa edits

I'm aware of Wikipedia's rules regarding British vs. American English. However, when I read the article, it was a mishmash of both styles, and I was working toward uniformity. As an American editor, I naturally made them according to American guidelines (in the case of this article, there is no distinct preference for British English). I also recognize that my edits may not have been thorough enough to make the article uniform in style (which had been my goal from the start), for which I apologize. I truly have no dog in this fight; if you wish to revert the article to the "half-and-half" status it was in when I found it, be my guest. I'm not going to go back and change things.PacificBoy 19:02, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. No, I'm not going to revert it. It looks to me as if SA uses British spelling, but I don't know for sure. I really just wanted to make sure you were aware of the conventions. --ColinFine (talk) 23:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I would like to ask your opinion of a disagreement with another editor about some links I have added. In the past you have also deleted the links but I never contacted you to discuss the situation because I was very new at adding content to Wikipedia.

The discussion has been going on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mirfishe#adding_links_to_philipkdickfans_site and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rray#adding_links_to_philipkdickfans_site

I would like to know what you think about the site and adding links to it. The content linked to is from published works by scholars who teach or write or other secondary and primary sources like Wikipedia requires. I don't believe that the philipkdickfans site is a fan site as defined by Wikipedia. Thank you. Horselover Fat (talk) 20:58, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Replied at User talk:Rray. --ColinFine (talk) 09:08, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

3rr at History of London

Hi there I've noticed that there has been three reverts at History of London by the same anonymous ip. You had spoken to them before, and I'm not sure where to report it or anything, so I thought I'd tell you. G-13114 (talk) 17:28, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks· I've added the formal warning (template uw-3rr) to his talk page. If he carries on, the next stage is a report at WP:AN3. --ColinFine (talk) 18:01, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Re: Wikipedia:Help desk#Article rejection.2C no recourse

I added a statement there, but as an older discussion, felt you might not see my comment unaided. Cheers! Dru of Id (talk) 05:08, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Teahouse!

Hi Colin! So glad you are answering questions at the Teahouse! We do have specific methods and procedures when interacting on the Q&A page that makes us more unique than other help spaces. This includes simple methods such as saying "Hi!" when an editor asks a question (everyone likes to be welcomed when they visit a new place, right?) and keeping things as least jargony and linky as possible (i.e linking to policies and procedures). You might find some value in the Host tips page, which explains why we do what we do :) You also might have interest in becoming a Teahouse host! While we aren't tracking invites and requiring hourly volunteerism (that language will be updated soon!) anymore, that page will give you a good overview. Regardless, we're happy you are participating and I look forward to it further in any capacity! Sarah (talk) 16:44, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Professional Diving Instructors Corporation

Hi Colin, You put a ref-improve tag on PDIC. There is so little text there that I wonder why you didn't put an inline tag on the specific item you query. Could you specify which of the five short sentences you would like to see verified? Cheers, Peter (Southwood) (talk): 07:15, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

All of them? It has no independent sources whatever (the WRSTC link is nothing more than a listing), and therefore fails the general guideline on notability. On reflection {{ref-improve}} wasn't the most appropriate tag. I have replaced it with {{unreferenced}} and {{notability}}. --ColinFine (talk) 10:56, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
Do you dispute the WRSTC membership information?
I would agree that PDIC is not the most notable diver certification agency, but it seems to have been around a long time.
Primary sources are usually acceptable for what an organization does.
More information would be better. I will try to find a secondary source. Peter (Southwood) (talk): 15:26, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
I don't dispute the membership information. Nor am I saying that PDIC is not notable. I am saying that, because it has no independent sources, the article does not establish that the organisation is notable, and is therefore liable to deletion. Primary sources are acceptable for factual information about an organisation, once its notability has been established. --ColinFine (talk) 15:35, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
I will see what I can find. Peter (Southwood) (talk): 06:59, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
I have found some sources which seem to establish notability, please check and let me know if more are needed. The talk page has some details. Peter (Southwood) (talk): 12:52, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Ariel Fernandez

ColinFine, I don't know if you have kept Ariel Fernandez on your watchlist, but I reinstated your COI and BLP sources tags; and then, after an IP editor removed them, I reinstated them again. The user Arifer (an obvious contraction of Ariel Fernandez) has responded to our concerns with some edits, but still seems reluctant to deal with the issues properly. RockMagnetist (talk) 17:49, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Help Desk answer

I believe you meant to say here that properly referenced information "should not" be removed.

Should anyone read that, they might get the wrong idea.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:38, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Teahouse

Welcome to the Teahouse! Thanks for volunteering as a host. Please see the guidelines in the Host Lounge and let me know if you have any questions as I am the current Maitre d'. Go Phightins! 02:08, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

Edit summaries

Hi there, Can I ask you to use Edit summaries more often? - I, and many other editors, fild it useful to see what you are doing when your edits turn up. Thanks, Mdann52 (talk) 13:19, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Where are you talking about, precisely?. As far as I can remember, I always use edit summaries except on Help desk and reference desk posts, where it's never seemed worthwhile, since the default summary identifies the section, and any more information would usually repeat the content of the edit. And looking at the history of these pages, it appears that many other users do likewise. --ColinFine (talk) 15:43, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

WP:Help desk#Help for grammar

The English versus British English was simply based on the interference that he said his translations may sound German. Since we cannot hear an accent, I assume he was talking about German-styled-English-grammar-stlye (if there is such as word, lol)... But to my point, based on that, I just wanted to clarify that if we was going to edit, to not be worrying about the differences, or going about correcting things which might be grammar style issues instead of actual errors. Tiggerjay (talk) 17:23, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I agree with your point, as I did on the page. But I still do not understand why you introduced the (to me, wholly irrelevant and hence confusing) issue of varieties of English. If a non-English speaker is worried about how idiomatic their English is, there is no reason to suppose that they are even aware of regional varieties. --ColinFine (talk) 17:33, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
I supposed to me, because they are aware of their own idiomatic use of English, they are acutely aware that there will be a difference between his use of English and others. The purpose (although perhaps could have been conveyed better) was simply to say, be free to edit and contribute in your own style, but also that someone might see his changes as unnecessary or incorrect (ie changing date formats, or number formats 1,000.00 to the British 1.000,00 etc) and that it is part of the BRD cycle. Also that he should understand our MOS versus just editing gammar and style based on his own experiences; that there is an established style and format, and his contributions, ideally, should strive to conform with the MOS to begin with... If he is going to edit, lets try to equip him to do it right from the start... Admittedly I was probably trying to cram too much over information into a simple question... but I do believe those directions are ultimately helpful. Tiggerjay (talk) 17:42, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Tea house newbie and reverting help

Colin I would like your advice.

A user has started demanding an article layout be changed according to his desire against the vote of everyone else who has reverted the changes. It is really odd. I have no idea how to handle the situation. He thinks he owns the article? And is this type of thing a regular occurrence? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_people_who_have_been_called_a_polymath

I am also updating the page of Patrick M. Byrne which has extremely confusing Talk page requirements.Bhalluka (talk) 19:07, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Carahunge

I've just turned this duplicate (and dreadful) article back into a redirect to Zorats Karer. Let me know if there are any further problems. Dougweller (talk) 12:43, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

I removed the whole expeditions section. Bible and Spade isn't a reliable source, and the Stars and Stones stuff doesn't seem to be officially published yet so we should wait until it is and see what people say about it. Dougweller (talk) 13:01, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Congrats... You gave an awesome answer in the Teahouse!

I really appreciated your thoughtful and non-jargon explanation of notability to an editor at the Teahouse. I think it's all to easy to forget how opaque some of our concepts can be to newcomers and you went out of your way to state it in plain language. Thanks for doing that!

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The Tea Leaf - Issue Seven

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ColinFine, we moved your Teahouse host profile

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The Teahouse Turns One!

It's been an exciting year for the Teahouse and you were a part of it. Thanks so much for visiting, asking questions, sharing answers, being friendly and helpful, and just keeping Teahouse an awesome place. You can read more about the impact we're having and the reflections of other guests and hosts like you. Please come by the Teahouse to celebrate with us, and enjoy this sparkly cupcake badge as our way of saying thank you. And, Happy Birthday!


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Teahouse question (camp agawam)

In response to your answer to my question about videos and references...
"Interesting. Thanks for your informative answer. Most of the videos are pretty much straight adverts, but some information may be (such as the camp's activities) raw, factual information. How would I link the channel to the Wikipedia page? Just an external link? If so, where would I place the link?"
 Thanks for your help. Mfribbs (talk) 11:51, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Ping

See Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities#Thirteenth century clothing. Thanks.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 14:49, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

FreshBooks article editing

Hi ColinFine. I don't know how else to contact you other than here. Please read my reply to you in the FreshBooks article "Talk" area, and I'd much appreciate your further reply. I don't get notifications of any further "talk", so feel free to e-mail me too. Hartmut W Sager / hws-wiki@marityme.net / HWSager (talk) 09:00, 20 March 2013 (UTC)HWSager

Help Desk

wut. You apparently added over 74000 bytes to the page size... FrigidNinja 22:43, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I think it was a Wikipedia brain fart abetted by me: I got an edit conflict for no obvious reason, and thought I had transferred my additional text in again, but apparently copied the whole page in. I've undone it. --ColinFine (talk) 22:50, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
Hm. Not something you see every day on Wikipedia. FrigidNinja 23:12, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Dennis E. Fitch, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page The Telegraph (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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Re: Denny Fitch

I don't bear you any ill will. However, please understand that I was trying to help Rosafitch as well. My intent was to give her a quick summary of what the policy was, so that she wouldn't have to try slogging through several entire policy pages on her own, as most new editors find policy pages hard to read. (And for good reason; they tend to use five dollar words when fifty cents would do.) Sophus Bie (talk) 10:15, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Hosting at the Teahouse

Hello Colin and welcome to the Teahouse! I appreciate your recent contributions at the Teahouse, but feel that some of them may have been a little less than the normal host expectations.
I've noticed that a good number of the questions asked at the Teahouse have truly atrocious English, and have come to realize that this is often because the posters have no knowledge or grasp of the English language. I've had to work real hard from time to time just to try and decipher their questions.
Often, when that is the case, I'll ask them, "Is your question trying to ask ...?" or "When you said this did you mean it in this way?" Always trying to be as friendly as I can be (and I'll admit, I've gone back and seen some of my responses a little on the snappy side) as I'm sure not knowing how to express the question they want answered in a language that is foreign to them is more frustrating to them than having difficulty understanding the question is to me.
Anyways, in order to try and prevent this from becoming a tl;dr, if you need any help with answering questions, let me know and I'll try to help you make it a pleasant experience for everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day! Technical 13 (talk) 12:49, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

I'm curious as to how suitable you think an editor with "no knowledge or grasp of the English language" is as a collaborative writer of an English encyclopaedia? Jebus989✰ 14:24, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
I've seen editors with no personal knowledge of the English language get enough of the concept or content they are trying to add across with the use of machine translation and a good reference that someone else can figure out what they were trying to add and clean up the language. I've even seen some that intentionally tag most of the things they touch as a rough translation. So, it is possible to contribute to the English Wikipedia without knowing any English first-hand. I hope this satisfies your question. The next question that may be thought of is why not use the same methods to ask the questions on the Teahouse and Ref desk, and my answer to that is, they probably have which is why we see poorly formated hard to understand questions. Technical 13 (talk) 14:34, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
My question wasn't really "is it possible"… Regardless, apologies to ColinFine for the tangential discussion Jebus989✰ 22:33, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

A cup of tea for you!

For inserting a heading above the Egyptian post that may have been about a scam. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:13, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

P. Info and Teahouse

Hello Colin, sorry the bother here. I left a message for you here. And I would like to ask you a favour. Please... can you say if my user page shows a lot of personal info which you think isn't necessary in Wikpipedia. Let me know to remove it. Thanks. Ms.Bono(zootalk)☆ 15:16, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

It looks fine to me. --ColinFine (talk) 17:01, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
Thankx for your time ;) Ms.Bono(zootalk)☆ 17:13, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
Start Snuggle

IRC office hours for wiki-mentors and Snuggle users

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Primary vs secondary

Hi Colin,

I saw some of your comments at the Teahouse (thanks for helping out there) and wanted to suggest that you look over WP:Secondary does not mean independent. WP:USEPRIMARY goes into more detail, but generally speaking, a secondary source is one that provides transformative analysis, not one that is merely independent. A reporter who listens to a speech, and writes a newspaper story about the speech, is producing an independent primary source. But if he analyses the speech (or the contents of the speech), then he's producing an independent secondary source. If the same sort of serious analysis is done later by the speaker, then it's a non-independent (and therefore probably biased) secondary source. Notability requires both independent sources and secondary sources. Figuring out classification is fairly complicated in some cases, but independence alone is not sufficient. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:23, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Help desk#Article Feedback Tool

Hey, can you help on this? -- L o g X 20:26, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

No. I have no knowledge of it at all. Why on earth did you think I might? --ColinFine (talk) 08:05, 12 September 2013 (UTC)
Chill down man! -- L o g X 13:36, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

WT:Articles for creation/BOB.tv (2)

Heading added by ColinFine (talk) 12:17, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi Colin, Thank you very much for the solid advice! I got more of a thorough overview of Wikipedia in your thoughtful comments, than I could dig up in the wonky help sections and it was much more constructive that the previous comments of "uh...no." I completely agree that I'm too close to the topic, but would like to have someone else take a stab at this. How long will my article be available to edit?

Thanks again Rschingel BOB.tv 11:55, 11 October 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rschingel (talk • contribs)

Hello, Rachel. There is no deadline: the draft article will remain indefinitely. If you want to pursue this article, I'm not sure what you can do besides posting at WP:Requested articles, which I don't think has a very good hit rate. I was going to suggest finding a suitable WikiProject and asking there if there was anybody there that would like to have a go at it, but I can't find an appropriate project at WP:WikiProject Council/Directory. But your best course is to forget about this article and work on something else, either in Wikipedia or outside it. If the project is notable, somebody will write an article about it. --ColinFine (talk) 12:45, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse - infobox question

You have new message/s Hello. You have a new message at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions#How_to_fix_a_disambiguation_in_an_infobox.3F's talk page. DavidinNJ (talk) 17:25, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Great answer!

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Fabulous answer at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions#Trusting_Wikipedia. Keep up the good work!

Misinterpretation of a help desk question

Every now and then as I look at the archives of some of the various help desks, I see a question I could have answered since I realized something the person or persons who did answer did not. Someone couldn't edit Silverlock and you asked what happened when they tried. The person asked the question twice and I was trying to figure out why, and then I saw it. It wasn't the article. It was the concept.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:50, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, @Vchimpanzee:, I've no idea what you mean. I presume you're referring to Wikipedia:New_contributors'_help_page/Archive/2011/February#Can't edit, but what concept? --ColinFine (talk) 22:16, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Sorry. I meant to post a link and got distracted. WP:SILVERLOCK.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:46, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Ah! Never encountered the word in that context. No wonder I didn't understand. --ColinFine (talk) 23:46, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Question in Teahouse

Moved to the end

Hi, Collin. I have a question according my article. I asked it in Teahouse page but here is the copy of it. I have found one printing book for android users. Android for users Could it be as a reference, though it is written in Russian? Or it could just be for russian pages? Vasiliy.Zhukov (talk) 06:21, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Vasiliy. Sources in English are preferred if they are available, but a source in another language is acceptable, as long as it is a reliable source. Looking at the title page, one might guess that БХВ are a reputable publisher, but I don't know. There's also the question of how significant the citation is: it looks to me as if the reference in that book is just a one-line listing (but Google Books is showing me a restricted view, so I may be wrong). If it is just a mention in a list, then it is not a useful reference for anything very much, and certainly not for notability, which requires in-depth coverage in the reliable sources. I wasn't sure if references to Google Books were encouraged, but they're ok: see WP:BOOKLINKS for how to do it.
By the way, everywhere except in the Teahouse, it is customary to add new sections at the end rather than the beginning of a page. --ColinFine (talk) 22:26, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
Hi, Colin. Sorry, I didn't know. Should I move this question to the end? The book contains the complete article about Astro Player. This is a printing book, so I can make a ref to it as a paper source of information. According to publisher, BHV is the oldest publisher of IT literature. It publishes translations of such world publishing houses: Prentice Hall, John Wiley, O’Reilly, Springer, Elsevier, etc. And their books are sold in such countries as Germany, USA and Israel. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vasiliy.Zhukov (talk • contribs) 11:11, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
That sounds fine, then. Colin --ColinFine (talk) 11:33, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Dialogue

From another help desk question: I'm American but have never spelled "dialogue" as "dialog". I think that's correct, even though imdb, when I do reviews for them, wants to tell me "dialogue" is the wrong spelling.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:18, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, I have no idea what this relates to. "dialogue" is certainly usual in the UK, but I don't believe it is common in the US, and I would not be surprised to find people there who thought it was "wrong". --ColinFine (talk) 23:12, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
It's possible neither of these messages would benefit you, since the chances of the same thing happening again are small. I just mentioned this since you assumed someone to be from the UK because of using the spelling "dialogue".— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:51, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

off topic?

I'm curious. I was trying to be somewhat humorous, and don't really think that it's all black and white, but how was my response off-topic? They asked about how homosexuality is addressed, and I gave a tongue in cheek but truthful answer. --Onorem (talk) 16:44, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I didn't pick up any humour, and looked for an unconfrontational way to deal with what I thought was a disruptive rant. It's possible that the original question is a troll, in which case, your reply is fair enough; but on the AGF assumption that it is a person who is unfamiliar with Wikipedia and genuinely asking, I thought that your reply was unhelpful, and does not put the Help Desk in a good light. I'm not sure which parts of it you think are "truthful", but since the question was about what Wikipedia articles say, and that in turn is (supposed to be) based on what reliable sources separate from the subject say, I can't see the relevance to the question of "pointing out that you are" anything at all. --ColinFine (talk) 16:53, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks!

Dear colin, thank you very much for pointing out my mistake in the tea house discussion :). I will work so that mistake won't happen again. --Andrew EugeneDiscuss 13:22, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Reference Errors on 27 January

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Thanks, that was brilliant!

Hi, Colin. Thanks for the comprehensive help in the Teahouse. I believe I have resolved the issues raised in the discussion, and I have removed the tag. The cherryblossomclinic interview did download for me, but it took megaminutes (somebody's server is feeling overworked, and underloved) whereas the last time I navigated to that page it wasn't a problem. That section of the Annie Haslam article was written by another editor, and being a quote from an interview it can't be cited in any other way. Your comment about primary sources was noted. Would you be so kind as to have a quick look at the article again, please and let me know if the citations meet the guidelines? p.s. I'm not a nightowl, but I am an Aussie. Have a great day.CaesarsPalaceDude (talk) 02:53, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Choto Moulana

Hi! ColinFine, Thanks. You have recovered the missing part of the article Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Choto Moulana. Truely, it was the requirement. -- Sufidisciple (talk) 14:22, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you

Dear Colin, many thanks for the prompt reaction/explanation and for fixing the references tags in the protest article! Kind regards from Sofia! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.85.4.196 (talk) 10:51, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Re: how to use wikipedia

Hello, ColinFine. You have new messages at Demi lion's talk page.
Message added 13:38, 28 February 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Teahouse talkback: Replied

Told you something on the Teahouse. --Nahnah4 Any thoughts? Pen 'em down here! 10:40, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Help on citing references

Hi, looking to improve the Ujima Radio page to be more up to date and factual, are you able to advise or suggest how to do this? We know about conflict of interest and don't want to fall into this trap, but we don't know enough about wiki editing to do this, so we're asking for your help. We want to have relevant information for listeners or anyone researching the site, and have links to material but are not sure how to proceed. Longer term we would like to other community pages such as wikimedia commons and donate pictures and videos which may be useful for other users. I'm a complete newbie, and am not paid by Ujima. I'm simply a volunteer wanting to support my local community station.

Am working on page gradually so that more can be added as and when I have time to add in relevant references. But don't seem to understand how to cite references properly, as it brings these up as errors Girlinthegreydress (talk) 22:31, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Girlinthegreydress. The first thing to note is that the station needs to be notable in the special Wikipedia sense and the article has to demonstrate that notability. At present the article has not one single reference to substantial text about the station in a reliable published source independent of the station. You need to find, and reference, articles in major newspapers or sources of comparable solidity - not mere listings in directories or schedules, and not articles based on your own press releases. If these do not exist then the station is not at present notable, and there is nothing you can do in Wikipedia to make it so. As an aside, you say "for listeners of anyone researching the site". Obviously your listeners are people, and may wish to read about the station, but in my opinion pretty well any information you want to give your listeners as listeners does not belong in an encyclopaedia..
As for referencing, please have a look at Referencing for beginners. I like to use the referencing templates (such as {{cite web}}) to get the references formatted properly; but that is not the only way of doing it. In any case, they still need to be placed between <ref> and </ref>.
You mention links to material: Wikipedia is very choosy about what external links may go into articles: please see External links. A link to the station's own website is absolutely appropriate, and is in the right two places. Any other external links should be in the "External links" section, and be consistent with the policy in the link I gave above.
As for your conflict of interest: thank you for being clear about it. Have you read WP:COI? You should declare it on Talk:Ujima Radio, and possibly on your user page as well. If somebody proposes the article for deletion (which could happen, given the current state of the article) you should be clear about your COI if you contribute to the discussion.
I'm not sure quite what you mean about other community pages. Photos and videos that are suitable to be added to articles in Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects are welcome, but you need to donate them under a suitable licence, which will allow anybody to use them for any purpose: see Donating copyright materials.
I hope this is helpful - please ask further if you have more questions. --ColinFine (talk) 10:00, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

WP mentorship

Hi ColinFine, there is a proposal ongoing about a development of Wikipedia mentoring, to make it slicker and a better, more standerdised process. We would love to have you on board, and would appreciate your help, anything you can do, from reading the proposal and leaving comments to volunteering to be a part of the scheme is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Matty.007 16:23, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Teahouse question

This appears to be your work. Can you explain the Heldenfels reference so I can make sure it isn't something I did wrong at some point, seeing as how I have used this man's column as a source many times?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:24, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, Vchimpanzee, I'm not sure what you are asking. The only thing that is my work is inserting the {{reflist talk}} to display the reference KarinPower had put in that section. Since you added a reference to the section WP:Teahouse/Questions#How to have "stub" and "needs inline citations" tags removed from a page that has been improved further up the page, without adding your own {{reflist talk}}, your reference now gets displayed by my reflist. --ColinFine (talk) 22:17, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
In fact I've added {{reflist talk}} to that section, so your reference now appears in the same section as you cite it. But other than the reflist, it's nothing to do with me. --ColinFine (talk) 22:24, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
Oh, I see what's going on. I just added a random URL to illustrate to the person what to do. Thanks for adding that.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:45, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

Help desk

Sorry for appearing to overwrite your post to the help desk here. I did not do this deliberately, it's some kind of Wikimedia bug (which seems to be occuring much more frequently at the moment). SpinningSpark 10:53, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Congrats... You have joined a team of awesome helpers!

Teahouse Host Badge Teahouse Host Badge
Awarded to hosts at the Wikipedia Teahouse.

Experienced editors with this badge have committed to welcoming guests, helping new editors, and upholding the standards of the Teahouse by giving friendly and patient guidance—at least for a time.

Hosts illuminate the path for new Wikipedians, like Tōrō in a Teahouse garden.

Earn more badges at: Teahouse Badges
I noticed you didn't have this badge, so here you go!


Thank you!

Thank you for gracious 'correction' on the main Teahouse page. I might have been trying to be 'bold' or misinterpreted the question itself. I was viewing the validity of the references from a third-party viewpoint. I didn't stop to figure out that the teahouse guest was probably part of the organization that published the documents she was referring to. I will apologize on the Teahouse page and explain how I misinterpreted the question and thank for pointing out my error. Again, thank you. bpage (talk) 23:40, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, but that's not the point. See my further comment at the Teahouse. --ColinFine (talk) 12:25, 4 September 2014 (UTC)


Great Answer Badge Great Answer Badge
Awarded to those who have given a great answer on the Teahouse Question Forum.

A good answer is one that fits in with the Teahouse expectations of proper conduct: polite, patient, simple, relies on explanations not links, and leaves a talkback notification.

Earn more badges at: Teahouse Badges
Not only are you kind and gracious to guests, you are patient and tactful toward new hosts! I am now the president of your fan club.

Hi Colin,

Thank you for your response to LestorLloyd. I used the word vandalism based on the type of edits made by LestorLloyd because I noticed that LestorLloyd specifically replaced key words with his/her own, including words like 'gobbledygook' and exchanged words like 'Samadhi' with 'Narcolepsy' which is an obvious attempt to slander and discredit John de Ruiter. I don't believe this is a simple case of content dispute as the words used do not appear in the articles cited.

While the objective of Wikipedia is to be entirely neutral, I have been aware of a tendency by some editors to adopt a negative view within a pretext of neutrality. I suggest that words such as 'narcolepsy' and 'gobbledygook' reveal a negative bias. In addition, true, positive, and citable statements which could contribute to an accurate description of John de Ruiter, as do critical statements, so far have been disallowed in this article.

The article already slants toward the negative in my opinion and is not neutral by any means. Your response to LestorLloyd that 'While I know nothing of him, I have some sympathy with your position.' is surprising if you mean that you are sympathizing with his negative position regarding John de Ruiter. While the objective of Wikipedia is be neutral and balanced, I hope that we can recognize the possibility of an underlying tendency toward the negative with respect this article. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Planktonium (talk • contribs) 23:56, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


Dear Colin, hello and thank you very much for your help, on the Help Desk query I made earlier. Its quite comprehensive and I have read the links you gave. Best wishes and blessings, AsadUK200 (talk) 01:13, 26 September 2014 (UTC)AsadUK200

A barnstar

The Special Barnstar
Whoa! Has anyone else seen this guy's contribs?
Just letting you know, a contribs page where the word "Teahouse" appears every other second does not go unnoticed. Awesome work! Eman235/talk 05:54, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

Happy Lucia!

Happy Saint Lucia's day!

"Good Morning" ColinFine:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia!
13 December is the day when Swedes perplex the rest of the world by showing up way too early in the morning dressed in white tunics, candles in their hair, singing and bringing saffron buns and breakfast in bed to nice people. Hope you have a bright day!
    – w.carter-Talk 00:24, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
I have a feeling I've given you one of these before, but this was just such a perfect example of your kind, helpful and well-considered attitude with new users that I felt I had to show my approval. Yunshui 雲水 13:04, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Bu the way, I don't know whether you're aware of this project, but you might want to consider becoming part of it, it would fit your skillset nicely. Signups for the pilot are here. Yunshui 雲水 13:06, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Teamwork Barnstar
Thanks for your advices! It is funny that I wanted you to ping me but I accidentally added the word "don't"! Ikhtiar H (talk) 11:02, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Turd II

Hello ColinFine! As you may not know, you have been nominated as His Excellency's Most Honorable Certified Underturd of the Wikipedian Empire This is just a message of authentification so that you know that it is I, the real Official Turd, not some over-the-top wannabe, am actually awarding you this immense honor. For more information about the subject, click here. Thank you for your wonderful contributions to the Empire! You can see your award on your user page in the form of a little brown userbox. Thanks for all your hard work, DasPig talk 01:28, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

WP:Co-op

Hey Colin. Just to echo what Yunshui said above, I wanted to invite you to help us pilot our new mentorship space, the Co-op. We're looking for mentors who are willing to help out one or two editors during our month-long pilot starting in late January 2015. The idea is that mentors will be doing one-on-one teaching based on how an editor wants to contribute, and it's not some huge commitment to teach/learn comprehensively about Wikipedia. We also want to make to easier for new editors to find mentors as well. Your extensive experience at the Teahouse has been impressive, and we could really use something with your experience on board. If you're interested, please sign up here and feel free to peruse, make suggestions, or ask questions in our discussions about how the Co-op will work. Thanks a bunch (and Happy New Year!), I, JethroBT drop me a line 05:26, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Dear ColinFine,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! A new year has come! How times flies! 2015 will be a new year, and it is also a chance for you to start afresh! Thank you for your contributions!
From a fellow editor,
--Nahnah4 (talk | contribs | guestbook) 08:58, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

This message promotes WikiLove. Created by Nahnah4 (talk | contribs | guestbook). To use this template, leave {{subst:User:Nahnah4/Happy New Year}} on someone else's talk page.

A goldfish for you!

For helping someone with goldfish memory
Thank you for your help at the Teahouse! I got you a picture of a goldfish as a piece of my appreciation. Happy New Year! Bananasoldier (talk) 16:22, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for helping me on the teahouse

I'm new and it's cool that you helped me. I would also give you a goldfish but I'm not allowed to post pictures yet.GoethicTheurgy (talk) 00:33, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the thought, GoethicTheurgy. I don't think there's any restriction on adding pictures to pages, just to uploading them in the first place - and not even that if you upload free pictures to Wikimedia commons. Have a look at User:Yunshui/Images for beginners. --ColinFine (talk) 09:55, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Tea house

Thank you for your comment on the tea house. Just letting you know I replied. Edging (talk) 19:16, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Alevism

Since I know that you have glanced at the page already, would it be possible for you to leave a comment on the Alevism talk page on the dispute there? [[1]] It would be useful to have more input. Edging (talk) 21:45, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Barnstar of Diligence
Thank you, ColinFine. Your guidance is helpful, as I readjust my terminology for wikipedia. I am reading before I edit further. Thank you again. 
Pursuinginquiry (talk) 23:44, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Adjusting pilot start date - WP:Co-op

Hello ColinFine,

I'll be putting out a formal update sometime soon, but I wanted to inform you that I've decided to push our start date back to mid-February rather than in January. There are number of reasons for this, but the biggest factor is that we are now facing the hard work of implementing our designs on the Mediawiki interface. It's a limiting environment to work with from a web-building perspective, and the team that worked on the Teahouse can offer similar testimonials to these challenges. We also want to make sure there is time for us and for you to test the environment out, ask questions at our project's talk page, and give us a little time to make any last changes before we start inviting editors to the space. If some of you know you will be unavailable during this time, it's totally fine if you need to bow out for the pilot. But we do need all the mentors we can get, so even if you can take the time to mentor just one or two editors, that would be fantastic.
Thanks a bunch, I, JethroBT drop me a line on behalf of Wikipedia:Co-op.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:47, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

WP:Co-op news for December 2014 – Feburary 2015

Hey ColinFine, it's been a while. The Co-op team has been hard at work during over the winter, so let's get right into what's been happening:

Landing page draft. You know it's a draft when you need to squint at the logo, ha ha.
  • Graphic design work is nearing completion and development work is coming along slowly but surely. The main components of the space, profiles, the landing page, and the mentor landing page have all been built, and we're basically just putting the pieces together. We have close-to-final draft of the landing page, which is currently at User:Slalani/Landing_page, and in the thumbnail to the right. You can check out other components over at User:Slalani if you're curious. Soni, Slalani, and I are working together on some of the front page elements. We've also been doing some testing on test.wikipedia.org for profile building and matching. If you're curious about checking that out, let me know.
  • We've finished up a survey for newer editors to assess their experiences of using existing help spaces (e.g. Reference Desk, Teahouse, IRC, The Wikipedia Adventure) on en.wikipedia. Gabrielm199 is putting together a summary of that survey, and in the meantime, some findings from that survey of 45 newer editors include:
    • On average, editors found contributing to Wikipedia to be easier after using the help space compared to before.
      • However, after using one or more help spaces, only half of editors reported that editing, addressing social challenges, and resolving technical issues were easy or very easy. The other half of editors were either neutral, or reported that these matters were difficult or very difficult.
    • Just under 30% (11 of 38 editors) of newer editors said they probably would have stopped editing entirely had they not received support from the help space they used.
    • Editors frequently reported either 1) that they would not have been learn what they needed without the help space, or 2) That they could have found it, but admitted that it would have been difficult or taken much longer.
  • We will be making one final move of the pilot start date to March 4th, 2015. This is the last move (I promise), because we can't afford to run the pilot any later than that. So there it is: March 4th or bust! But we won't bust, because there are just a few things left on our plate before we can run our pilot successfully. I'll be alerting you about when you will be able to make mentor profiles soon, so when you get a message about that, please take a minute or two to create your profile here (otherwise, you won't get matched to any editors!).

Thanks to all of the new mentors who have joined over the past few months. Big thanks to Missvain to posting about our little project here to the gendergap-l mailing list. I, JethroBT drop me a line 00:47, 13 February 2015 (UTC) on behalf of Wikipedia:Co-op.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:36, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Dear ColinFine,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Best wishes to you, your family and relatives this holiday season! Take this opportunity to bond with your loved ones, whether or not you are celebrating Christmas. This is a special time for everybody, and spread the holiday spirit to everybody out there!
From a fellow editor,
--Nahnah4 (talk | contribs | guestbook)

This message promotes WikiLove. Created by Nahnah4 (talk | contribs | guestbook).

Sorry Colin I'm not sure what you mean?? WriteaboutArt (talk) 06:46, 23 February 2015 (UTC) Oh I see what you mean, from my response. I would not add new work until the article is accepted. Sorry I mislead you.

WP:Co-op: Presentation at Wikimania 2015

Hey ColinFine. I've put in a submission for a presentation at Wikimania 2015 called Is Two the Magic Number?: The Co-op and New Editor Engagement through Mentorship. I'll be talking about the state of finding help spaces on en.wiki and how our new mentorship space, The Co-op, factors into that picture. Reviewing will begin soon and I'll need your help to be able to present our work. Please review our proposal and give us feedback. If you would be interested in seeing this presentation, whether you are attending or not, please add your name to the signup at the bottom of the proposal (you do not need to attend Wikimania to express interest in presentations). I, JethroBT drop me a line on behalf of Wikipedia:Co-op.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:19, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Co-op: Mentor profiles and final pilot prep

Hey mentors, two announcements:

  1. You can now make your profile at The Co-op! Please set up your mentor profile here as soon as you are able, as the pilot begins on March 4th. It isn't very involved and should only take a minute. If you need more info about what the different skills mean (e.g. writing, communication), please refer to these descriptions.
  2. Profile creation, invitations, and automated matching of editors, profile creation, that will be coordinated through HostBot and a few gadgets may not be ready for our pilot, and will have to be done manually until they are ready. In preparation for the pilot, please read over these instructions on how we will be manually performing these tasks until the automated components are ready. I, JethroBT drop me a line on behalf of Wikipedia:Co-op.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:41, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

Hepworth edit-a-thon

Hi Colin, Sorry you can't join us on the day. It'd be great if an experienced editor such as yourself could participate remotely or look through some of the articles in advance/afterwards. Would you be interested in other subjects related to Yorkshire's museums and galleries? If there's anything such institutions might do to help your editing let me know! Cheers, PatHadley (talk) 16:57, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Thank you for your answer to my query re: a category for Salmagundi Club

Mitzi.humphrey (talk) 13:22, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you SO much

The Invisible Barnstar
Thank you for all your help in getting me started on Wikipedia, you totally deserve this, and I am surprised you don't have more of these cluttering up your talk space. You have done a ton on Wikipedia, and are so humble about it, which is really cool. Keep up the great work!😊BluJay (talk) 02:08, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks a lot Colin, very clear and straightforward. I think I can get an article underway and I understand that it will get some scrutiny, which I appreciate.Imamoca (talk) 14:17, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

David Fishelov

Dear Colin, I've tried to improve the article of David Fishelov Draft:David_Fishelov according to your comments and haven't got any reply from you.I'll appreciate your response to the updated version of the article. Davidgute (talk) 17:59, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Dear Colin, I've left a message for you but not sure if you got an alert. The message is in this page. Thanks! Davidgute (talk) 05:03, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

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