User talk:A.r.dobbs

Welcome! (We can't say that loudly enough!)

Here are a few links you might find helpful:

You can sign your name on talk pages and votes by typing ~~~~; our software automatically converts it to your username and the date.

If you have any questions or problems, no matter what they are, leave me a message on [[User talk:{{{1}}}|my talk page]]. Or, please come to the new contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions.

We're so glad you're here!

RSI & Tendonitis

G'day,

Best way to learn is through a brutal culling process that one should never take personally. So be bold but best is to add content rather than websites that try to sell stuff. If you've suffered from RSI or tendonitis, add info on it and sources from the 'net. Hit google and look for reliable sources that aren't selling anything, that back up what you know or have experienced. Then write the article based on them and what you've gone through (third person natch, no personal stories). External links are generally not the best thing to add unless they are really helpful. Rather than EL, add in content with EL as references, ideally linking the content directly to the EL you are adding (i.e. don't make people wade through several pages of links to get the info you want).

All this to say, I've removed the links you put in, but encourage you to go back to the articles and add info to them. Tendonitis is especially spare, it's just a sad collection of titles.

WLU 13:25, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

p.s. I probably qualify as one of the grumpy users. Meh.

My own rule of thumb when I'm trying to add reference links is references. If it's got references in scholarly journals (and a secodary 'ain't trying to sell nothin'), it's a good thing to add. Key thing to differentiate references and external links - references are what you read to write the article. They go in the references section, and if they are really key you can put them in as a footnote. That looks like this <ref></ref> with the weblink or paper reference in between. External links should be kept to a minimum - if it's info you are including in the article, put it in the references section. EL basically include information which is not in the article itself, or can not be included, but are still important. I've seen flash animations, company websites (when it's an article about a company), criticisms of the ideas included and what have you. Obviously the reason EL are supposed to be kept to a minimum is 'cause if you aren't putting the info in the article, why are you putting in the link?

But be bold, add to content - if it's bad content, eventually someone'll re-word, re-write or just plain erase it eventually. Jump in with both feet, if you've got questions then apparently the links from the welcome template are useful - I usually end up using the search feature to look for guidelines, but it's really the same thing. I found the 5 pillars of wikipedia a very helpful first read, almost everything else I check out on an as-needed basis. You'll probably find on many of the articles you edit the people aren't quite as rabid as I am - I've seen my own edits which I'm not particularly proud of stay for weeks to months. If you do a big re-write, you could ask old or regular contributors for their opinion. Asking for permission on the talk page generally isn't necessary, but if you find somehting you consider really impportant has been removed, you might try it then. But hey, it's wikipedia. Find something you like and have fun.

Oh, and userboxes are fun: Wikipedia:Userboxes

WLU 23:55, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]