User talk:Davegillespie

Your submission at Articles for creation: William P. Kreml (February 2)

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LaMona (talk) 00:53, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Hello! Davegillespie, I noticed your article was declined at Articles for Creation, and that can be disappointing. If you are wondering why your article submission was declined, please post a question at the Articles for creation help desk. If you have any other questions about your editing experience, we'd love to help you at the Teahouse, a friendly space on Wikipedia where experienced editors lend a hand to help new editors like yourself! See you there! LaMona (talk) 00:53, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Canadian Great War Project

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Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. This is a notice to inform you that a tag has been placed on Canadian Great War Project requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an article with no content whatsoever, or whose contents consist only of external links, a "See also" section, book references, category tags, template tags, interwiki links, images, a rephrasing of the title, a question that should have been asked at the help or reference desks, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. I dream of horses ^{(Contribs) (Talk)} 22:44, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Template references

Hello! I saw your note over at Talk:Canadian Great War Project. For ease of reference, I have copied it below:

I am trying to add new information about your article on Frederick Howard Collins (commissioner), much of which I originally wrote. I found the information by googling Frederick Howard Collins and the data source that was forthcoming from my search is titled Canadian Great War Project Record Detail. The article is titled Corporal Frederick Howard Collins (that is referencing his WW 1 service; he ascended to Lt. Col in WW 2). I tried to create a template and to use it for revised reference number 1 in the Wikipedia article on Collins, but it is still marked in red. I would be grateful if you would see what I have done, fix the template problem, or tell me how to do it. Thanks in advance. David Gillespie Davegillespie (talk) 21:42, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

I believe what you were trying to do is create a named reference, which allows you to reuse a citation. We do not normally make templates for named references. Normally a citation looks something like this: <ref>citation</ref>. To make a named reference, you add a name like this: <ref name="example">citation</ref>. To reuse the citation, you type <ref name="example" />. Does that answer your question?
Finally, in the future, to request help you can explain the problem here on your talk page and then place a {{help me}} tag, and someone will come around and answer your question. You can also ask at the teahouse. Best, HouseBlaster^talk 22:48, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Just a note that I've deleted the above page as it didn't contain any content. HouseBlaster's advice is good - and nice work on the article. Spicy (talk) 22:50, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I really appreciate your serious attempt to help me toward establishing a template for new information I found for Frederick Howard Collins (commissioner). This morning (Saturday), using the symbols you indicate, I have put in three possibilities, one at a time. They are

Corporal Frederick Howard Collins

Canadian Great War Project

Corporal Frederick Howard Collins Canadian Great War Project

Unfortunately, each time I get this notice in red

The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

My failure to achieve a break-though on this leaves the Wikipedia article without the right sidebar bearing personal information on Collins. What am I doing wrong? Davegillespie (talk) 11:07, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Hello! You had typed <ref name="Canadian Great War Project"</ref>. You were so close! You were missing a closing ">" on the first ref. It should look like this: <ref name="Canadian Great War Project"></ref>. Then, the next step is to insert the reference itself. It goes between the two "tags". For example, you might type <ref name="example">Last name, first name. Title of book.</ref>. I have gone ahead and put in the missing ">" for you at Frederick Howard Collins (commissioner), but I have left this final step for you to do. Hope this helps, and let me know if you need any more assistance! HouseBlaster^talk 12:25, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks again, sincerely. I really appreciate your help. Still having problems with the template, this time the Wikipedia algorithms telling me that I have cited the Canadian Great War Project but have not defined it. I have added the CGWP website and even tried to "define" it by copying and pasting this purposive statement from that site.

"The Canadian Great War Project is intended to promote interest in Canada’s participation in World War 1 and to research the Canadians who participated in it. The site has become a collaborative effort among those interested in researching Canada and the Great War, and has collected the records of 648,441 people to date." When I tried that, I was told that there were too many names given. So I took that out, leaving only the address of the website. I am still in a quandary about how to finish this thing. Please don't give up on me. Davegillespie (talk) 19:34, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

I promise you that I will not give up on you, so long as you do not give up on yourself! Wikipedia is hard, and we were all new once. Typically, you don't name a reference after its address, because they are long and the purpose of using a named reference is to save space. Instead, you normally use a name that has something to do with the author or title. For example, a reference to https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/ might look something like this: <ref name="WarProject">https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/</ref>. Note that the name cannot have any spaces in it. Because of the way the software works, spaces are used to give a reference multiple names, which is why putting in the statement gave you an error.

I think I found an even easier way to do this. I was able to find a video tutorial that walks you through step-by-step how to use a tool to automatically insert a named reference. It is a little over five minutes, but I found it very helpful. You can see the video here. Again, let me know if you have further questions. You can do this! HouseBlaster^talk 22:36, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Well, blessings upon ya', Houseblaster!!!! Thanks for the video, which I watched and will watch more assiduously when next I undertake to post something on Wiki. Meanwhile, I copied and pasted what you produced and sent me, i.e., , for the template. Viola, it worked, although for some reason, Wiki itself removed the War Project part and accepted the Great War Project address alone as the template. That is fine with me, and I am pleased and grateful that Frederick Howard Collins (commissioner) is looking pretty good now on Wiki.

Let me tell you a bit about my interest in this topic. When I was a small boy many years ago the Yukon became my hobby, something of an obsession. It was because of an old TV series (it had previously been on radio) titled Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. I learned everything I could about the Yukon and even corresponded with several people there, some living in the most remote parts of the territory. One of my penpals was FH Collins, then the Commissioner of Yukon. He was always very gracious in responding to my questions when I posted them to him. Not being native to the territory, he even told me once that one of my questions (about an old defunct railroad that had in Klondike Gold Rush days linked Dawson City with the goldfields) had prompted him to go and do a good bit of research. I grew up and eventually lost touch with Collins and the Yukon (although early in the 21st. Century I did succeed in persuading three of my best friends to join me in flying to Canada and touring the length and breadth of the Yukon; great trip). But long ago I vowed that I would try to repay the by-then deceased Collins for his kindness by researching his life and expanding what was then identified by Wiki as a "stub" article on his life, especially his tenure as Yukon Commissioner. Most of the article on him is my work, and now you have valuably assisted me in adding several other information points as parts of his legacy as carried by Wiki. Thank you very much, Houseblaster. Davegillespie (talk) 11:07, 19 April 2023 (UTC)