User talk:WalterJF

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Hello Wference, and Welcome to Wikipedia!

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Wference, good luck, and have fun. --PamD 09:40, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Sedalia, Texas

Hallo

In answer to your question, I came across this while stub-sorting because someone else, on New Page Patrol had labelled it as a {{stub}}!

A couple of points:

• always look out for existing patterns and follow them - so the article title should be "Sedalia, Texas" as it now is, not "Sedalia texas" as you started it.
• far more important: Do not add material to Wikipedia by stealing other people's copyright material. Wikipedia is very strict about this. The TSHA website clearly says "Republishing or distributing any of these materials in electronic format is expressly prohibited unless written permission is obtained in advance from the Texas State Historical Association." (see the "Terms of use" link at bottom left). I've done my best to rewrite the information, though not perfectly. See Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright for more information.

And a question: Where does "Sedalia" as a name come from? I see there are several of them in the USA. Were they named for someone called "Sedal"?

There's a lot to learn about editing Wikipedia, but it's an interesting journey. Good luck and Happy Editing! PamD 09:48, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi again: a couple of little points about contributing to talk pages. Please indent your reply using ":", and please sign your messages by typing ~~~~. Thanks PamD 21:02, 16 March 2013 (UTC) (signed belatedly!)

Hmm. I thought I had mentioned that I wanted to change the title and WP doesn't allow new users to immediately make that change. My main use of WP is for finding information on places that I find in my genealogical research. Quite often there are small towns listed on census records that have been absorbed by larger communities or become extinct over time because of shifting populations and/or lack of commercial interests, etc. Since I'm not sure that there is any general interest in that sort of information, I may not continue adding these census designated/populated places to WP. It appears to be a major hassle to do so. I am a retired programming and network engineer and have done a lot of technical writing over the years but I realize that doesn't necessarily qualify me to write WP articles. All that said, I appreciate your critique and will try doing more on WP as I am very impressed with most of what has been documented here. Best regards, WalterWference (talk) 15:12, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

I have contacted TSHA and hopefully will get permission to use their material. I assume until there is a decision I need to remove the citation, correct? Their Policy Agreement states that "Any such content may be displayed solely for your personal, non-commercial use." I assume Wikipedia does not meet that venue criteria. I believe that Sedalia took it's name from the well know city of Sedalia, Missouri, US. There seems to be quite a few places in Texas that took their names from other more influential communities. There is an Athens, a Paris and a Detroit in Texas just to name a few examples. My main concern for creating info on WP is all about historical preservation. Every local person I have talked to about Sedalia has never heard of it and are surprised to learn it once existed as a community. I have quite a few more verifiable places that I would like to add on WP but before doing that I want to be certain it is done correctly so I'm using Sedalia as sort of a pilot. Having a technical background, I fully support conformity and uniformity in any reference material. I like what you did with my original page and will use that as a template for my additional locations. I would also like to use Infobox settlement info but would that be considered overkill for such nondescript places? It's not like I'm writing about the lost city of Atlantis or something else on that grand of a scale. Thanks again for all your input. WalterWference (talk) 19:50, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

We can use the facts provided in the TSHA site, but not their wording. So I've replaced the references, because they justify the content we've got. But, although it's difficult with such minimal and factual stuff, we need to rewrite the content in our own words and not just copy it straight from TSHA or anywhere else. Wikipedia cannot accept material with any restrictions like "personal non-commercial use", because it's part of the philosophy that everything in Wikipedia can be copied and reused by anyone for any purposes. But there is no copyright in facts, only in the expression of them.

I think if you've found a place mentioned in your genealogical research the odds are that someone else will find it too and will welcome a Wikipedia article about it. (I created the article for Emmaville, New South Wales a few years back after some of my husband's family turned out to have had their 2nd-4th children born there, while the parents and numbers 1 and 5 were born in Cornwall, England - and other hands have expanded it since then). So by all means carry on creating sourced articles on these places, with links from any alternative names (I added a link from Yakima (disambiguation) for you here - it's the retired librarian in me which delights in providing links and redirects and sorting out disambiguation pages!) If the settlement infobox seems useful then I'd say add it. Any populated place is considered "notable" enough to have a Wikipedia article, so there should be no questioning of the articles' right to exist, as long as you provide a source for each.

I see at Sedalia,_Missouri#Name that that place is probably named for its founder's daughter (similar name to Emmaville, come to think of it - though Emma was the state governor's wife). So you think the Texans just chose a placename they liked from elsewhere... I wouldn't have thought it was in the league of Paris or Athens, but what do I know about Texas?

Wikipedia is a great occupation and can take as much of your time as you're happy to give it - for me it has the fascination of an infinite jigsaw puzzle, with always something else to slot into place, or to tidy up, or to fix. Choose what you want to do here and enjoy it! PamD 21:02, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure why you removed the references again, and have replaced them. Please use edit summaries to explain your edits, as it's a great help to other editors - like comments in code - they can see why you're doing what you do. But here, the TSHA document is our source of the information in the article so we need to reference it. PamD 21:29, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I think we were briefly "stepping on each other" during our editing sessions. I will restore the reference.Wference (talk) 21:43, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Oops again! I noted that you've already fixed things. I am going to remain hands off of this for a spell. Thanks again!Wference (talk) 21:47, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Lavon Lake redirect to Lake Lavon

I undid your blanking of that redirect page since at least one other editor thinks it's useful and I can't figure out a strong reason to oppose that. Could you explain your thoughts? DMacks (talk) 05:35, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

And what's with Lavon Lake 2? If you're trying to rename the actual page to be at Lavon Lake (that is, to reverse the redirect), you'll need some admin help. Feel free to ask! DMacks (talk) 05:37, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

The official name is Lavon Lake and I would like the Article Title to show that. I would then redirect Lake Lavon to Lavon Lake.Walter J Ference 05:42, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

I thought it looked like I would have free up the Lavon Lake title by temporarily moving it to Lavon Lake_2.Walter J Ference 05:48, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

 Done. DMacks (talk) 05:50, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you very much!Walter J Ference 05:53, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

• For next time... if you can't move an article yourself to your preferred title (commonly because that one is already occupied by a redirect with a page history), the thing to do is to use WP:Requested moves. That page is not one of the encyclopedia's most editor-friendly, but in a nutshell:

• If you're sure no-one will object, it's a "non-controversial technical move", and you add it here using the simple {{RMassist}} template which appears there when you go to edit.
• If you think anyone might object, use the full WP:RM procedure. Simplest route is to go to the talk page of the article concerned and add {{subst:RMtalk|Proposed new name|Reason for move.}}

Then just sit back and wait and in time your page will be moved, leaving a redirect from its old title. Hope that helps. PamD 08:45, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

PDF Documents

This is not a big deal but can anyone tell me if it's possible use PDF documents on an external site as citations/references?Walter J Ference 16:04, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

No problem - why not? (As long as the website itself is a Reliable Source). You can use paper documents too, as long as you give a good reference for them so that another editor could trace the document and get hold of it, perhaps on inter-library-loan (quoting the ISBN is really useful, in the case of a book, as it turns into a link which leads to a page of library catalogues etc). (eg ISBN 0-7126-8454-9) PamD 18:40, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the info Pam. The PDFs I want to cite are all municipal and government documents. In my references would I have to indicate the page number(s) I'm citing or do I not need to be that specific?Walter J Ference 18:55, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Page nos are always useful, whether on paper or pdf - helps someone to find the exact place which you're citing. If it's a pdf of a printed doc, give the ref as if it was a paper doc but with the added bonus of a URL. (Same goes for books on Google books etc: treat it as a ref to a book which just happens to be available online. A lot of editors tend to treat Google books as a website in itself, rather than just a collection of online books.) PamD 19:28, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Email - that userbox

Editors can email you by using the "Email this user" link in the left-hand column, without your address being made visible to them: are you sure you want to splash your email all over the internet so it can be picked up by junk-mailers etc? Your choice, of course! PamD 19:08, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

You're probably right. Also, I think I should change my username because it is easily searchable and always reveals my email address(s). Thanks Walter J Ference 19:16, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Your recent edits

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. When you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, please be sure to sign your posts. There are two ways to do this. Either:

1. Add four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment; or
2. With the cursor positioned at the end of your comment, click on the signature button ( or ) located above the edit window.

This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is necessary to allow other editors to easily see who wrote what and when.

Thank you. --SineBot (talk) 21:00, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Rhea Mills, Texas

I checked the article. You did good. Nice job. — Maile (talk) 23:50, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. I am a tad embarrassed, though, to be informed there is a Handbook of Texas template. I should have searched for that. I didn't realize there were so many templates out there. --Walter 01:43, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

User boxes

In case you might be interested in user boxes for your user page, I'm attaching a navbox below that will show you what is available, and even tell you how to create your own. Good luck. — Maile (talk) 23:53, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject United States/The 50,000 Challenge

You are invited to participate in the 50,000 Challenge, aiming for 50,000 article improvements and creations for articles relating to the United States. This effort began on November 1, 2016 and to reach our goal, we will need editors like you to participate, expand, and create. See more here!

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:40, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, WalterJF. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page.

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, WalterJF. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)