Help talk:Introduction to Wikipedia

Building Deck

Need some tips and tricks for building the pro builds? Cody Pepper (talk) 19:38, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

@Cody Pepper: This talk page is for comments or discussion on how to improve the Help:Introduction to Wikipedia page. If you would like to ask further questions about the subject, please use the Help Desk. To ask a question not related to Help:Introduction to Wikipedia, click here for details of where to ask them. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:09, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

protect this page?

@ User:Oshwah should we semi protect this page?--Moxy (talk) 21:42, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

As an introduction guideline that's very highly referenced by new accounts and users needing help - yes, and I've done so. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 21:48, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Thank you!--Moxy (talk) 22:21, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Better heading?

"Introduction to contributing to Wikipedia" seems non-optimal, because it's redundant with the page title, creates some confusion with the menu page, and comes across as a bit dry/lacks enthusiasm. Any suggestions for improving? {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 08:52, 23 June 2020 (UTC)

Interwiki links

Previously there was three separate introduction pages. They are later merged, so the merged one does not equal to any of them. However, the interwikis were simply combined - they are actually unsuitable for this page, and currectly this contain multiple pages in one same language.--GZWDer (talk) 00:16, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

How to become a reviewers

I want to become a reviewers in wikipedia please help me. Thans Chikukiri (talk) 07:01, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Chikukiri, it's unclear what you mean by "reviewer". You can get further help at WP:TH. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 09:45, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Ok

Chikukiri (talk) 10:05, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Random subpages for IPs aren't random

We show IPs a link to a "random" subpage of Draft:Sample page/, but because of how the randomness is achieved (with {{Random number}}), multiple users see the same draft subpage until this page is purged or the server cache cleared. This seems non-optimal; it leads to multiple users editing the same sandbox, but as it's not cleared between edits, subsequent users don't see the preload message, and it leads to a proliferation mostly test pages that often have to be deleted multiple times. Is there a better solution? Should we just point them to the normal Wikipedia:Sandbox for test edits? Ping Sdkb. — The Earwig ^talk 22:14, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

The Earwig, ack, I had a feeling that might be happening. The IP randomizer was something I set up quickly as a way to allow IPs to have a personalized prefilled sandbox the same way registered users do, but it's caused a lot more grief than I anticipated (see also here). I'm not really willing to go to bat to get the perfect optimal experience for people who ignore the clear suggestion to create an account (which appears to IPs directly above the sandbox), so I think I'll just instead send IPs to a soft redirect to the create an account page/communal sandbox. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 00:03, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Thanks. — The Earwig ^talk 00:15, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

The Earwig, created at Help:Introduction/IP sandbox. Would you mind semi-protecting it? {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 00:36, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Done. — The Earwig ^talk 00:44, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks; the new flow is now implemented. The random subpages scheme will still be used for the summary pages at the end of individual modules, but those generate only a small fraction of the traffic this page does, so they should be much less of an issue. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 00:58, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Wait ... what?

"You can add content (preferably with references)"

Shouldn't new content (as opposed to copyediting) always have references? --Kent G. Budge (talk) 18:23, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

Kent G. Budge, it's always best practice, yes. And there are some situations in which it is required, such as contentious information on living people or restoration of material that has been challenged via reversion. You're also not going to get an article to featured status ignoring them. But policy isn't strict about other circumstances. In a situation where someone sees a missing piece of information that's been reported in the news but doesn't know how to add references and isn't willing to learn, I'd rather they add it and let someone else reference it than not do so.

All that said, I agree that "preferably" probably isn't quite strong enough encouragement about the importance of referencing. Do you have any thoughts about better language we could use instead? (Keeping in mind that conciseness here is absolutely key; we don't have room to explain all the nuances above.) {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 18:39, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

Changed to "using references to support your claims"  Nixinova   T   C   03:55, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Explained perfectly. Skiath (talk) 15:52, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

sandbox

I've partially altered the change made 16 June 2020 so that it once again creates "sandbox" instead of "Sample page". If we tell the user they're creating a sandbox, they ought to be creating a sandbox - especially when "sandbox" is linked by the software on every page you visit. Ping Sdkb

annoyed with myself that it took me 9 months to figure out where these Sample pages were coming from - Cabayi (talk) 16:19, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Cabayi, thanks for the ping and the comment. I am reverting to the status quo but happy to discuss. The story with the sample pages began with discussion here. Since then, it's been discussed multiple times at AN and a few other venues (not as dramatic as it sounds, but I can find the links if you/anyone else wants to peruse). The issue each time was the system for IPs, which created randomly numbered subpages of Draft:Sample page that admins were having to clean up at the end of six months. This affected only the fraction of users who ignored the explicit advice on this page to create an account, so we ultimately decided to just send them to the communal sandbox. When you write "annoyed with myself that it took me 9 months to figure out where these Sample pages were coming from", I'm guessing you've been cleaning up some of the remaining IP sandboxes, so just to emphasize, these are no longer being created and will no longer be an issue after the current crop is cleared out.

The part that does remain, the sample pages for registered users, is something that appears as a userspace subpage. You're the first editor who has expressed any concern with this part. I think it's useful for newcomers, as it provides them a playground with a bunch of markup examples, as opposed to just a blank slate. I'd argue that they are sandboxes in Wikipedia's sense of the word, just like template sandboxes are sandboxes even though they're also not blank. Still, I do take your point that there's a bit of potential confusion with the sandbox at Special:MyPage/sandbox, so if you'd prefer we change the wording on the buttons (there are many other pages creating the sample pages, not just this one) to refer instead to a sample page, that'd be alright. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 18:12, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Cabayi, oh wait, scratch most of what I said above, I didn't look at what specifically you changed closely enough. It looks like you want to keep the sample page system but have the preloading take place at a user's default sandbox instead. The reason we didn't go with that is because a user may have already made edits to their default sandbox precisely because it's linked elsewhere. Unfortunately, the limitations of the MediaWiki software preloading system mean that it's not possible to create a preload for a page that already has content, so we needed to send users to a blank page. Sending them to their default sandbox will therefore break the preloading for some percentage of users. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 18:19, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Sdkb for that explanation. I've been bumping into these "Sample page"s through handling spammers at WP:UAA and was starting to wonder if some UPE factory was training their spammers to create "Sample page"s

Would it be better to create it as a sub-page of sandbox, Special:MyPage/sandbox/Sample page, so that other users would know to treat it with the indulgence extended to sandboxes (WP:ABOUTSAND), rather than (possibly/probably) looking at it as a draft article? Just my 2¢, 9 months too late. Cabayi (talk) 12:21, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

That address for the pages would be fine, but like you alluded, we'd have to weigh it at this point against the disruption of changing the status quo. An easier thing that might help would be creating WP:SAMPLEPAGE with a quick explanation for experienced editors about what's going on with them. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 18:03, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

"What should I do"

I was told Wikipedia is not intended for someone creating a page about themselves or moreover that I should get off Wikipedia because I used a promotional article about me as a reference. What should I do and is there a chance I can still have a page on Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Williamjamesbestmi (talk • contribs) 08:26, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

Moved from the head to the foot; titled. -- Hoary (talk) 08:53, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

Williamjamesbestmi, it's always good to read instructions. Those at the top of this page say "This is not the page to ask for help or test edits. / This page is for discussion of the Introduction to Wikipedia page itself." You've also asked at the "teahouse"; responses can go there. -- Hoary (talk) 08:53, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

Button 'Return to the tutorial'

Hello. The blue button 'Return to the tutorial' in the Visual Editor sandbox leads nowhere. Should this be fixed? --TadejM ^{my talk} 14:46, 22 November 2022 (UTC)