User:Olaniyan Olushola/adopt/moyosteady13

Lesson 1 - Five Pillars

One of the most important essays in Wikipedia is Wikipedia:Five pillars which is designed to eloquently sum up what we're here for.

Pillar one defines Wikipedia as an encyclopedia. It suggests some things that we are not. Thoughts about what we are not are covered in the deletion lesson.
Pillar two talks about neutrality, a concept that this lesson will be concentrating on.
Pillar three talks about free content. The Copyright lesson will go into this in more detail.
Pillar four talks about civility. Wikipedia is a collaborative working environment and nothing would ever get done if it wasn't. I'll go into civility more during the dispute resolution module.
Pillar five explains that Wikipedia does not have firm rules. This is a difficult concept and will be covered in the Policy and consensus lesson.

Once you get your head around these five pillars, you will be a Wikipedian and a good one at that. All 5 are covered in my adoption school, though at different lengths. Be aware that I don't know everything and I would doubt anyone who said they did.

How articles should be written

The articles in Wikipedia are designed to represent the sum of human knowledge. Each article should be written from a neutral point of view – personal opinions such as right and wrong should never appear, nor should an editors experience. Neutrality also means giving due weight to the different points of view. If the broad scientific community has one set of opinions – then the minority opinion should not be shown. An example is Goodluck Jonathan - if there was an article on say $2 billion arms deal, a neutral article will not include Goodluck Jonathan as the masterminder of the deal.

To ensure that the information in an article is correct, Wikipedia has adopted a policy of Verifiability. Anything written in Wikipedia should be available to confirm by looking at the associated reliable source. Wikipedia should not include anything not verifiable by seeing it is published elsewhere; in other words, it should not contain anything original.

Reliable sources

So what is a source? Wikipedia uses the word source for three interchangeable ideas – a piece of work, the work's creator or the work's publisher. In general, you would expect a reliable source to be published materials with a reliable publication process, authors who are regarded as authoritative in relation to the subject, or both. This doesn't mean that a source that is reliable on one topic is reliable on every topic, it must be regarded as authoritative in that topic – so whilst "Airfix monthly" may be a good source on the first model aeroplane, I would not expect it to be authoritative on their full size equivalent. A source that is self-published is in general considered unreliable, unless it is published by a recognized expert in the field. This is a very rare exception – so self publishing is generally considered a no-no. This means that anything in a forum or a blog and even most websites are considered unreliable by default. One interesting sidepoint is on self-published sources talking about themselves. Obviously, a source talking about itself is going to be authoritative, but be careful that the source is not too self-serving – the article really should not be totally based on a direct source like that. Mainstream news sources are generally considered reliable... but any single article should be assessed on a case by case basis. Some news organizations have been known to check their information on Wikipedia – so be careful not to get into a cyclic sourcing issue! There's a lot more about what makes a source reliable here. Questions?

Any questions or would you like to try the test?

Test

This test is going to be based on questions. One word "Yes" or "No" answers are unacceptable. I want to see some evidence of a thought process. There's no time limit - answer in your own words and we'll talk about your answers.

1). Q - A friend told you that Colonel Sambo Dasuki was arrested by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration? Can you add this to the Colonel Sambo Dasuki's article and why?

   A - no
   NO, because such information is not from a reliable source.Therefore it cannot be included in an article, it must be thoroughly checked and the source should be critically examined. ✓

2). Q - The Guardian Newspaper for example published a content that which you see as clearly defamatory to Lagos State Government. Can you include this content to the Lagos State Government article? Why?

   A - no ✓.
    Though, care must be taking when using defamatory statement on article related to living people. however, you can make use of it if it is clearly verifiable in notable source.

3). Q - Would you consider Premium Times a reliable source on Ibikunle Amosun?

   A - yes ✓.
   YES, Premium times is a reliable sources and information on it in respect to Ibikunle Amosun should be considered reliable.

4). Q - Would you consider Babatunde Fashola's official Facebook page a reliable source? Why?

   A - no
   ✓ No, because this may be handle by Fashola himself or his ally therefore such information from such site my contravene NPOV

5) Q - Would the official website of the Lagos State House of Assembly be a secondary source to establish the notability of Desmond Elliot?

   A - yes
   ✓. Yes, the official website is considered a secondary sources in the case of a member of the House of Assembly of a state.

6) Q - Would you have any issue with using the About Us page on Unilever as a source for the history section of the Unilever article.

   A - no✓
   No, it can be used with other reliable source while maintaining the principle of neutrality.

7) Q - Would you have any problem with a "Youtube" link being used in a music-related article?

   A - no ✓
    
    Yes, "Youtube" are not reliable sources.

8) Q - Everybody knows that the sky is blue, right? An editor doesn't agree - he says it is bronze, do you need a source?

   A - yes {{marked|completed}
    
   Yes, as a wikipedian, you need a source before you can add such a reference to your article.

9) Q - Everybody knows Muhammadu Buhari took over from Goodluck Jonathan, right? An editor doesn't agree - he says it was Olusegun Obasanjo. Do you need a source?

   A - yes ✓

   Yes, as a wikipedian, you need a source before you can add such a reference to your article.

10) Q - The Punch as a reliable source has many columnists. If a story was written in The punch about one of the columnists, can you consider such columnist to be notable because of the story?

   A - yes ✓
  No, because he works for the punch, we may have issue with NPOV of the contents because of the columnist connection with the newspaper.

Lesson 2

kindly read the lesson below and feel free to put your question below the lesson.

Wikiquette

WP:Wikiquette - or the etiquette of Wikipedia is something that you may already be familiar with, depending how much reading around the different wikipedia pages you've made.

I'm just going to highlight some of the important Wikiquette items that you should try and remember. It may help you out.

Assume good faith - This is fundamental and I'll be going over it again in dispute resolution. Editors here are trying to improve the encyclopedia. Every single member of the community. EVERY ONE. If you read a comment or look at an edit and it seems wrong in some way, don't just jump straight in. Try and see it from the other editors point of view, remembering that they are trying to improve the encyclopedia.
Sign your talk posts with four tildes ~~~~. The software will stick your signature and timestamp in, allowing the correct attribution to your comment. I have a script that reminds you to do this if you think you'll forget.
Try and keep to threading, replying to comments by adding an additional indentation, represented by a colon, :. I cover more about this in my basics of markup language lesson - let me know if you'd like to take it. Talk pages should something like this - Have a read of WP:THREAD to see how this works.

How's the soup? --[[User:John]]
:It's great!! --[[User:Jane]]
::I made it myself! --[[User:John]]
Let's move the discussion to [[Talk:Soup]]. --[[User:Jane]]
:I tend to disagree. --[[User:George]]

How's the soup? --John

It's great!! --Jane

I made it myself! --John

Let's move the discussion to Talk:Soup. --Jane

I tend to disagree. --George

Don't forget to assume good faith
There are a lot of policies and guidelines, which Wikipedians helpfully point you to with wikilinks. Their comments may seem brusque at first, but the linked document will explain their point much better than they may be able to.
Be polite, and treat others as you would want to be treated. For example, if someone nominated one of the articles you created for deletion, I'm sure you'd want to know about it, so if you are doing the nominating make sure you leave the article creator a notification.
Watch out for common mistakes.
Did I mention that you should assume good faith?
Comment on the edits. Not the editor. I'll cover this more in dispute resolution.

Questions

Any questions?