User talk:Vertilly
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Welcome!
Hello, Vertilly, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
- The five pillars of Wikipedia
- How to edit a page
- Help pages
- Tutorial
- How to write a great article
- Manual of Style
I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} after the question on your talk page. Again, welcome!
I'm also the one who's offered to adopt you. You may wish to have a look through my user page and my previous contributions in order to vet me, as obviously not every adopter and adoptee are going to be matched. I take nothing on this site personally, so if you'd rather seek another mentor my feelings won't be slighted. However, I've signed up to the adoption service mostly because I've been here for a year and I've become familiar with WP's various arcane procedures and protocol. So even if we share few common interests as far as the subjects we're editing, I think I could answer most questions you'd ask. If I can't, I'd be happy to help you find the answer.
Since you're busy right now I won't worry if you don't respond/react for a while. Also, I "watch" pages to which I contribute, so you can continue this discussion here and I'll notice it, or you can leave your comments at my talk page.
Regards, --DeLarge 00:28, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
Thanks!
I'm quite happy for you to adopt me if you don't mind me asking lots of questions! All those links are really useful, I'll definitely keep them to refer to.
My first question: I was looking at The five pillars of Wikipedia and was wondering how the Geological map page faired on the "neutral point of view" front, as it seems to only talk about the maps as they relate to the USA.
TTFN --Vertilly 12:46, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
- Oh, ask all you want - I'd be a pretty lousy adopter if I rationed your curiosity.
- Strictly speaking, geological map's not a neutrality problem. NPOV would be an expression of opinion or advocating a particular position. What it is, however -- and you'll unfortunately see this a lot -- is evidence of Wikipedia's systemic bias. Two thirds of English language speakers come from the USA, and there's no mechanism to prevent insular editing by those who think the whole world lies between Canada and Mexico. WP has acknowledged the problem, and is trying to make at least a token effort to counter this (e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias).
- The same problem is reflected in the fact that, as with most web pages, Wikipedia is edited more by young, white, computer-savvy Western males than any other demographic group. So despite the vast number of possible subjects, Wikipedia:Featured articles has 59 pages on "Computers and video games" (including six on Final Fantasy alone), and a "Media" section heavily filled with modern movies (including five of the six Star Wars films).
- So if you find that a topic is inadequately covered, or that it's too parochial, then "be bold" and dive right in. I'd certainly say that the page needs work; to show what I mean I've made a "test edit" where I shuffled the text and paragraphs into what I'd say was a more sensible order, before reverting back again. But I'll leave it up to you to improve it properly. --DeLarge 15:48, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
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- There's another article I may try and contribute constructively to when I get a chance then! (I have the grand list of... 2.. but that's enough for me right now, heh.)
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- Course you can. I'd do it myself, but a good adopter will throw the baby in at the deep end and let it swim for itself. I'll
- PS I started with just two pages as well, and after a year I'm watching 442. You have been warned... --DeLarge 20:55, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
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