Simpler language edit

 

For medical articles we work to write the WP:leads, if not the entire article, as simply as possible without introducing errors. English Wikipedia is a global encyclopedia used extensively by many who speak English as a second language. We therefore try to use common words as well as short sentences. See here for more details. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a note. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 21:36, 27 September 2017 (UTC)Reply

Welcome to Wikipedia from the Wikiproject Medicine! edit

Welcome to Wikipedia and Wikiproject Medicine

Welcome to Wikipedia from Wikiproject Medicine (also known as WPMED).

We're a group of editors who strive to improve the quality of content about health here on Wikipedia, pursuing the mission of Wikipedia to provide the public with articles that present accepted knowledge, created and maintained by a community of editors.

One of our members has noticed that you are interested in editing medical articles; it's great to have a new interested editor on board!

First, some basics about editing Wikipedia, which is a strange place behind the scenes; you may find some of the ways we operate to be surprising. Please take your time and understand how this place works. Here are some useful links, which have information to help editors get the most out of Wikipedia:

  • Everything starts with the mission - the mission of Wikipedia is to provide the public with articles that summarize accepted knowledge, working in a community of editors. (see WP:NOT)
  • We find "accepted knowledge" for biomedical information in sources defined by WP:MEDRS -- we generally use literature reviews published in good journals or statements by major medical or scientific bodies and we generally avoid using research papers, editorials, and popular media as sources for such content. We read MEDRS sources and summarize them, giving the most space and emphasis (what we call WP:WEIGHT) to the most prevalent views found in MEDRS sources.
  • Please see WPMED's "how to" guide for editing content about health
  • More generally please see The five pillars of Wikipedia and please be aware of the "policies and guidelines" that govern what we do here; these have been generated by the community itself over the last fifteen years, and you will need to learn them (which is not too hard, it just takes some time). Documents about Wikipedia - the "back office" - reside in "Wikipedia space" where document titles are preceded by "Wikipedia:" (often abbreviated "WP:"). WP space is separate from "article space" (also called "mainspace") - the document at WP:CONSENSUS is different from, and serves as a different purpose than, the document at Consensus.

Every article and page in Wikipedia has an associated talk page, and these pages are essential because we editors use them to collaborate and work out disagreements. (This is your Talk page, associated with your user page.) When you use a Talk page, you should sign your name by typing four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comment; the Wikipedia software will automatically convert that into links to your Userpage and this page and will add a datestamp. This is how we know who said what. We also "thread" comments in a way that you will learn with time. Please see the Talk Page Guidelines to learn how to use talk pages.

  • Thanks for coming aboard! We always appreciate a new editor. Feel free to leave us a message at any time on our talk page. If you are interested in joining the project yourself, there is a participant list where you can sign up. You can also just add our talk page to your watchlist and join in discussions that interest you. Please leave a message on the WPMED talk page if you have any problems, suggestions, would like review of an article, need suggestions for articles to edit, or would like some collaboration when editing!
  • The Wikipedia community includes a wide variety of editors with different interests, skills, and knowledge. We all manage to get along through a lot of discussion that happens under the scenes and through the bold, edit, discuss editing cycle. If you encounter any problems, you can discuss it on an article's talk page or post a message on the WPMED talk page.

Feel free to drop a note below if you have any questions or problems. I wish you all the best here in Wikipedia! --Jytdog (talk) 14:20, 12 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

Please do take the time to review the above, and the links in it. Very helpful stuff. Jytdog (talk) 14:21, 12 October 2017 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for the resources, certainly helpful. Did my failure to sign talk page posts expose my novice? :P
P.S. What's the community's consensus on cheeky emoticons? Don't want to breach any unspoken etiquette Afw35 (talk) 14:56, 12 October 2017 (UTC)Reply
Everybody can see each other's contributions ("contribs") -- at their user or talk page, there is a link in the left-side margin called "User contributions". But after you have been around a while, you can tell if somebody is new and trying to figure things out.
Emoticons are fine :) Jytdog (talk) 05:16, 13 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

Remember to sign your comments on talkpages edit

  Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. When you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion (but never when editing articles), 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. ☆ Bri (talk) 21:01, 12 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

Fair use images edit

Hi, I've had to undo your edit to the Escher article for several reasons; the most important is that Escher's work is all in copyright until 70 years after his death, so 1 January 2053, so his art can't go on Commons until then.

We can in limited circumstances use a small thumbnail image of copyrighted works under the fair use rules. These demand that we discuss the work in the article text, i.e. Escher's early work was according to Smith and Bloggs 1965 distinctive in being bla bla bla.[ref] --- where [ref] means a citation to a reliable source like an art history book, a major newspaper, an academic journal, or the website of a museum or public art gallery (not a commercial one). We can then put the small image on Wikipedia (not Commons) together with a justification for its fair use, i.e. we're illustrating the point made by Smith and Bloggs and it's only small and used only in this one article. Hope this is all clear. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 17:11, 17 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Bummer. I've just submitted a non-profit licensing request to the M.C. Escher Company, while I doubt they will grant the license I presume that it would allow the work to be posted? Afw35 (talk) 17:17, 17 April 2022 (UTC)Reply
I don't think so; the only license that would suffice would be a Creative Commons (CC-by-SA) license like everything else on Commons. Some organisations offer a CC-... non-commercial license, which Commons doesn't accept as it has restrictions on use. The fair-usage approach is the only option available. You'll see it has been used in a few cases in the article; studying those might be interesting and instructive if you're in the mood. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 17:36, 17 April 2022 (UTC)Reply