User talk:68.25.213.51

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[edit] Welcome

Jason, welcome to Wikipedia! Before I give you the boilerplate welcome (below), I wanted to point out a few idiosyncrasies of WP that may help you understand what is going on with the Paulville, Texas article.

  • First, it only takes a moment to get a registered account, there is no liability, and there are some personal protection reasons for getting one as well (such as not continually exposing your IP). I believe you'll see a "register" link at the top of any given page. That'll help if you want to take an interest in the future.
  • Second, the Paulville article had to start out the way it did because WP is an encyclopedia of "reliable" information (meaning verified by a minimum of third-party processes). Many articles on new topics face an immediate onslaught of deletion attempts because the subject is said to have no notability, and a potentially contentious article requires quite a lot of legwork to prove its worthiness in its first weeks. We successfully beat the presumption of nonnotability by locating twenty mainstream media sources. Toward this end we were compelled to start the article based solely on what they said without making attempts to correct the first draft from the primary source; because correcting it from paulville.org would suggest that the topic was so nonnotable it had to be supported from its own website.
  • Now that the community has discussed the article through its formal "articles for deletion" process and found it suitable for retention, we can get to discussing the factual issues with the secondary sources (the mainstream media). However, since you're an interested editor, you'll want to read the conflict of interest guidelines carefully. Also look at the policy on living persons for information on dealing with articles about yourself.
  • Wikipedia encourages everyone to "edit this page", with the understanding that newcomers might not be aware of norms that have been established as guidelines and policy. The reason for this is that if someone makes a simple newcomer error, it can be easily undone (reverted); the newcomer's concerns remain in the record and can be addressed by other editors, or by the newcomer after learning the policies. In this case you properly raised your concerns and gave rationales, although anything not treated as part of the article text should appear at the talk page, called Talk:Paulville, Texas, instead of the article page. Again, this is just a common newbie mistake and not a cause for any concern.
  • When I have time I will go over your changes and comment on (my views about) which ones can pass easily according to WP norms for third-party sourcing; and which ones can pass as first-party sourcing because noncontentious (there is a much higher standard for use of self-published sources); and which ones can be finessed or handled in other ways. Keep an eye out on that talk page. If you register an account, you can click "watch" to put it on your watchlist.

Again, I'm glad you dropped by and I'll be happy to help with any questions you may have about WP ways of getting things done through consensus. JJB 17:23, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome!

Hello, 68.25.213.51, 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:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! JJB 17:23, 23 May 2008 (UTC)