Sameemtak

April 2007

Welcome to Wikipedia and thank you for your contributions. An article you recently created, The Mass Debators, may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines for new articles, so it will shortly be removed (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests you may want to do and please read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. Coren 17:55, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

The Mass Debators

Hello! Welcome to Wikipedia, by the way. The problem with The Mass Debators is not that they are a band, but that they are a band that does not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for bands.

I think it's fair to say millions know of and have heard of The Who, so they are notable. Wikipedia has notability guidelines so that it does not become an online directory or collection of random facts. A good question to ask yourself when creating an article is, "Is it probable that I would read an article on this topic in a paper encyclopedia?". It's not an absolute criterion, but it will give you a good idea.

Happy editing! Coren 18:10, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

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Remember that even if the band is well known in their school, it may not warrant inclusion in the school's page either-- but that's more debatable, and discussion with the other editors of the school's page will probably lead to good results. Understand that this has nothing to do with who deserves or is "worth" being talked about in Wikipedia, but just about "what's an encyclopedia about" in general.

Don't take such rejection personally-- most editors, when starting out, will write about topics dear to them but not fully understand why general notability is so important to the quality of an encyclopedia. Keep editing, I'm sure you can make a good contribution to Wikipedia!  :-)

Oh, and when you make a comment on a talk page, remember to sign your comment to make things clearer. You can do this trivially by just adding ~~~~ (four tildes) at the end of your message. Coren 18:28, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Keep on editin'

Don't be disheartened by an initial rejection. Take a bit to read the notability guidelines and style guide. Those both contain lots of useful information that will allow you to avoid your original mistakes in your future edits. Everyone here was a first-time editor, you know!  :-) Coren 18:44, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Quite human

Last time I checked, I was still human. The fact that Firefox checks spelling as I type helps-- but if you took a look at my contribution history, you'd find a distressing amount of minor edits for correcting varous tyops. Coren 18:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, he's human--look at the last two words. From one bad speller to another (smile) DGG 19:16, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Response

Thanks for contacting me...I apologize if my edit summary came across as too harsh. I see from above & your edit history that you were acting in a good-faith attempt to create a Wikipedia article for this band and ran into our speedy deletion criteria and notability guidelines.

Hopefully you won't be discouraged from participating in the future. Regards, — Scientizzle 20:27, 29 April 2007 (UTC)