User talk:Helianthvs
April 2024
[edit]Wikipedia is not a web host for holding personal web pages unrelated to work on building the encyclopaedia. You are, of course, very welcome to start making contributions to the encyclopaedia, in line with Wikipedia policies and guidelines if you are interested in doing so, but if you wish to have a web space for your personal use, then there are many web sites which provide that sort of service, but Wikipedia is not one of them. JBW (talk) 15:17, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
- @JBW This person put up their very first user page on Wikipedia because I asked them to do so. This is part of a University project. Please see my page for more information. It would be great if you could re-instate this page -- and the other ones too -- so that we can continue our work. Thanks! OberMegaTrans (talk) 15:21, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
- @OberMegaTrans: Would it not be better to tell your students to start out in ways which accord with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines? I don't see teaching students to edit Wikipedia in ways which violate those policies and guidelines as helpful, nor do I see any good reason to exempt editors from complying with Wikipedia's requirements just because they are participating in a university project. On the contrary, it would make sense for one of the aims of such a project to be educating the students how to edit in conformity with the requirements. JBW (talk) 15:31, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
- @JBW I'm sure there are better ways to start out but I've been using this form (more or less) since roughly 2006 with almost no problem. After the first week of introductions and hesitant editing of their own User Pages, students start the real work of translating on Wikipedia. I don't see this initial exercise as "teaching students to edit Wikipedia in ways which violate [] policies and guideline" but rather as a easy (and sometimes fun) way to simply get started. And once we start working on Wikipedia proper, we do indeed work on "edit[ing] in conformity" with the guidelines. As I type this, they are diving into looking for articles to work on. It would be great if we could get back to that.
- As far as better ways go, I would be happy to hear any suggestions you have on how to get started. Perhaps we can incorporate something of that.
- OberMegaTrans (talk) 15:43, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
- How about getting them to start out by creating a user page which says who they are and what they are planning to do on Wikipedia, rather than posting irrelevant which has nothing to do with contributions to the encyclopaedia? As for your belief that you are not teaching students to edit Wikipedia in ways which violate policies and guidelines, I can assure you that thousands of new editors who start off by creating user pages unrelated to work for the encyclopaedia see them speedily deleted because they do not conform to Wikipedia policy. JBW (talk) 16:07, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
- @OberMegaTrans: Would it not be better to tell your students to start out in ways which accord with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines? I don't see teaching students to edit Wikipedia in ways which violate those policies and guidelines as helpful, nor do I see any good reason to exempt editors from complying with Wikipedia's requirements just because they are participating in a university project. On the contrary, it would make sense for one of the aims of such a project to be educating the students how to edit in conformity with the requirements. JBW (talk) 15:31, 25 April 2024 (UTC)