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I have appreciated your efforts in writing the Civil War articles. I am fairly new to the study of the American Civil War and have been spending most of my reading time lately with books on the subject. I have no new insight of my own, but have some small skill in condensing and summarizing. I sometimes see articles in which I have additional information gleaned from my reading, but wonder if adding extraneous information, sited though it may be, would muddy the waters. I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter.

BB —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Babullock (talkcontribs) 20:02, 13 March 2007 (UTC).Reply

Welcome, and thanks. You are asking a question that is difficult to answer comprehensively. It all depends on context and judgment. For general guidance, check out WP:IA. I'd encourage you to start adding material and see if other editors push back. In the ACW space, you will find a lot of stubs and short articles in which your help will make an immediate impact. For longer articles, if you find one that has extensive footnotes--particularly one written by me, as identified by a box at the top of its Talk page--there will be a greater level of scrutiny applied to additions. That sort of article is usually very comprehensive and includes most of what an encyclopedia article should. But those articles make up a very small percentage of the ACW space. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me. The interface to do so is at the top of my talk page. Good luck. Hal Jespersen 20:38, 13 March 2007 (UTC)Reply