User:WormTT/Adopt/Antarctic-adventurer

Antarctic-adventurer (talk · contribs)

Hi Antarctic-adventurer, and welcome to your adoption center. I've substitute across the first lesson for you and I thought you'd like to know that you do now have your own official page. As you can see from User:Worm That Turned/Adopt, I've created an adoption HQ, where you can read ahead in the lessons. I haven't finished them all as yet - the red linked ones are likely to change, but feel free to read ahead - it might help. The tests might include a couple of extra unique questions if I see an area that you might need a little extra development - don't take it as a negative, it should help. Also we now have a talk area for us to use, away from the more public areas - if you would like to use it - it's at User Talk:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Antarctic-adventurer. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see. Worm^TT · (talk) 08:28, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.

User:Jimbo Wales

The Five Pillars

One of the most important essays in Wikipedia is WP:FIVEPILLARS 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 in medicine - if there was an article on say treatment of a broken leg, a neutral article would not include anything on Homeopathy.

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 notable... 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?

Hi WTT. I am back! I hope that all is well with you. Once again thank you very much for offering to mentor me, I am looking forward very much to working with you. I should now be around to work through your lessons again. Firstly, where is it appropriate to reply to you? You have this section here, and also the more private area that you set up for me. Which would you prefer?

I have read through the links and starting material that you provided me with. I have also followed link upon link of related reading so I am ready for the first test. (My goodness there is a lot of reading here at WP!) Fire away when you are ready. I do have one question though. Is it acceptable to use a photo to source a reported fact? For example, to illustrate that a ship that is fitted with certain weapons, or does that count as original research? I ask because I have seen some instances where a photo has been used to source a ship article, providing the information for the current weapons fit. (The photo is dated). Anyone who looks at the photo can certainly see that it is true, but it isn't actually written anywhere. What is WP's standard procedure here? OK, so ready for my first WTT test! Antarctic-adventurer (talk) 13:25, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi Antarctic-adventurer, and welcome back! Awfully good to see you. I really don't mind where you ask questions, though I should mention that I box up each lesson at the start of the next one, so if you want to refer back to anything, then perhaps the talk page might be more helpful. I've got both watchlisted anyway, so I should be able to find it.

As for you question, I actually don't know, and would have to review on a case by case basis. In this case does sound a bit like original research, but not excessively so. I would prefer to see a written source, as I wouldn't be able to see the difference between one gun and another. Do you have a link, so I can have a bit more of a look into it? Worm^TT · (talk) 13:43, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Five Pillars

This test is going to be based on questions. Some questions will have right or wrong answers, whereas others are just designed to see if you are thinking in the right way. There's not time limit - answer in your own words and we'll talk about your answers.

1) Q - You have just discovered from a friend that the new Ford Escort is only going to be available in blue. Can you add this to the Ford Escort article and why?

A -

2) Q - A mainstream newspaper has published a cartoon which you see is clearly racist as part of an article. Can you include this as an example of racism on the newspaper's article? What about on the racism article?

A -

3) Q - You find an article that shows that people in the state of Ohio eat more butternut squashes than anywhere in the world and ranks each of the United States by squashes per head. Interestingly you find another article that ranks baldness in the United States and they are almost identical! Can you include this information anywhere on Wikipedia? Perhaps the baldness article or the butternut squash article?

A-

4) Q - Would you consider BBC news a reliable source on The Troubles? What about on ITV?

A -

5) Q - Would you consider Ben and Jerry's official Facebook page a reliable source?

A-

6) Q - A "forum official" from the Daily Telegraph community forums comments on Daily Telegraph's stance on world hunger. Would this be a reliable source?

A-

7) Q - Would you have any problem with http://www.hopsandpips.com being used in a beer related article?

A -

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

A -

9) 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 -