Joe Miller65

Welcome!

Hello, Joe Miller65! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by using four tildes (~~~~) or by clicking if shown; this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Footwarrior (talk) 05:12, 25 March 2011 (UTC) Getting started A tutorial • Our five pillars • Getting mentored How to: Edit a page • Upload and use images • Create your first article Intuitive guide to Wikipedia • Article Creation Wizard Getting help Frequently asked questions • Tips Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Help desk: A Wiki Styled page to ask questions on Help directory: A comprehensive list-style help contents page Policies and guidelines Neutral point of view • No original research Verifiability • Reliable sources • Citing sources What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons List of policies • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism • List of guidelines Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The community Build consensus • Resolve disputes Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • No legal threats Community portal • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Writing articles Be bold in editing • Develop an article The perfect article • Simplified manual of style Stubs • Categories • Disambiguation Peer review • Featured content Miscellaneous User pages • Talk pages Awards a registered contributor can achieve and award Clean up: General • Spam • Vandalism Join a WikiProject • Translation Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Editing tips

When you're editing, here's few tips:

First, at the end of your message (and only at the end), you can click the little signature pencil icon in the tool bar to put two dashes and 4 tildes. When you hit save, that will create your signature with a time stamp. You've been putting that at the start.

Second, it's customary to look at the number of ':' (which turns into an indentation when you save) of the previous person and then add 1. So like, if you respond to me here, I didn't use any ':' so you'll want to use one.

Third, Wikipedians quite rightly tend to be slightly skeptical of people we don't know anything about, so it'll be a good idea to fill in your User page with a little bit about yourself. This will turn it from a red link to blue, and provides you with an opportunity to become a "real person" to people. This makes life nicer all around! :-)

Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. Since you've joined into a contentious topic, things can be tense, but please don't get the idea that Wikipedia should be a battleground - the best Wikipedians try to trust each other, be neutral, and avoid a mentality of struggle.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 03:22, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia terminology

This is a reminder that Wikipedia users typically have some specific meanings applied to common words:

• The term "source" often means a book, magazine/journal, or webpage, rather than being a person.
• The term "blog" often means a whole website where users post their opinions, rather meaning one person's individual diary weblog. Most blogs are not allowed as sources to verify article text, except to prove that such a blog website does exist on the Internet.
• The term "personal attack" refers to any, even slightly negative remark aimed towards another user. I was once blocked 24 hours for the quip, "Anyone who doesn't know Knox met Sollecito because he looked like Harry Potter, needs to get out more (LOL)". Even though that comment did not directly attack a specific named user, it was seen as a veiled insult, rather than seen as a reminder how some people editing about Amanda Knox don't know the slightest details about her.

When working on Wikipedia, I have found it important to not get upset with editors who have no idea about the subjects being edited. Meanwhile, there are other editors who might try to goad you into getting angry, and posting a hateful reply, which could get you blocked for 1 day, 3 days, or a week. Hence, be extra careful to walk away from conversations which seem to be causing anger. Anyway, these are just my personal opinions, so feel free to form your own views about this. -Wikid77 (talk) 03:49, 26 March 2011 (UTC)