User talk:Bacamat

Hello, Bacamat, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions so far. I am User:Ssilvers, one of the Online Ambassadors for your course. Here are a few important links for newcomers:

If you'd like some help with editing, you can ask me or any of the other ambassadors on our talk pages. If you need other help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, post a question at the Help Desk, or ask me or any of us.

Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. It is always wise to read the most recent entries at the bottom of the talk page of an existing article before making major changes to it. Before I make a major change to an article, I often make a proposal on the talk page to see if anyone minds.

Again, welcome! -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:19, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Adaptation to Global Warming[edit]

Hi, Bacamat. I saw your changes at this article so far. I recommend that you don't worry about changing the title yet. First, improve the article as much as it can be improved (especially by adding material from the highest quality scientific sources), then see if you can get a consensus of editors to change the title. This is a very contentious area in Wikipedia, so we must be careful to work with other editors to achieve a consensus on changes. Please remember to sign your posts using four tildes. Also, PLEASE always give edit summaries explaining what changes you are making and why, or else explain them on the article's talk page. I noticed that you deleted a reference in the article. Please especially explain any deletion of published sources. I also notice that you have been working on the introduction to the article. That's sort of the tail wagging the dog. First, work on the body of the article. Then the introduction should be modified to give an overview of the text of the article as revised. See WP:LEAD. Feel free to let me or your mentor know if you have any questions. Thanks! Happy editing! -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:10, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I just looked more carefully at what you did on Adaptation to global warming, and I'm very sorry to tell you that the citations you added or changed created formatting problems. Take a look at the citation list at the bottom of your last version, especially footnotes 1, 2, 3 and 7, by clicking here. Please review this guideline carefully to learn how to format citations: WP:CITE. Some editors like the citation templates, but I prefer not to use them, because I think it is easier for newcomers like you to simply add the bibliographic information between the ref tags just the way you would do in a paper: Author name (last, first), url (if available), title, publisher city/date, access date, and page number if it's a long article or book. After you read WP:CITE, let me know if you have any questions. Please be very careful before removing or replacing any existing citations. Only do so if they are wrong, and in that case, please give an explanation of what you did and why you did it on the talk page. Thanks! -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:46, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mentor[edit]

Hi -- I am one of the Wikipedia editors who has volunteered to work with students in the current semester and help them with the articles they work on -- we're called mentors. I've been assigned as your mentor: if you'd rather choose your own mentor or don't want one, just let me know; you can request a different mentor from this list of Online Ambassadors. I'll keep an eye on your edits as you work on Wikipedia for your class, and try to pitch in where I can. If you'd like any help or advice, please let me know. Mike Christie (talk) 23:00, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I took a look at Adaptation to global warming and I agree with Ssilvers above that it's probably best not to start with the lead; usually that's the last thing to work on. Your edits to the finance section look like a good start -- there's quite a lot of expansion possible there, perhaps into an entirely separate article. Is that your area of interest or was that just the place in the article that you happened to start at? Mike Christie (talk) 23:48, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Write the bill wiki[edit]

Got your note; I took a look at the website and it looks interesting -- good luck with it. You can certainly mention it on Wikipedia, but generally doing anything promotional or advertising-related is not permitted. For example, take a look at this page to see the rules on what you can have on your user page -- you could put a link and a short description, but couldn't promote it. There's no harm mentioning it to me, or to one or two other editors that you have some reason to think might be interested, but if you were to start leaving notices for people about it it would be regarded as promotional and would be frowned on. If Wikipedia were to permit the promotion of one idea or website it would really have to allow promotion of any idea or website, so the attitude is that all interactions here should be focused on building the encyclopedia. If the website starts to get coverage in reliable sources then there could be an article on it -- but even then you're better off letting someone else create the article, to avoid conflicts of interest. Not a very helpful answer, I'm afraid, but good luck with the website anyway. Mike Christie (talk) 02:32, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]