User:Denaar

I joined Wikipedia in 2006 and understand what a huge hurdle it is for new users to learn to participate.

Now a days, I mainly make small changes to existing articles to improve their accuracy per the sources on the page. I appreciate those who can polish an article and really make it shine with better formatting, grammar, and spelling.

The difference between a discussion and a debate is that a debate has a "Winner". A discussion is different, because each person leaves the conversation with additional knowledge giving them a better informed opinion.

Advice to New Users

Unfortunately, a lot of new users with passion make reasonable points, but get dismissed because they don't know how to present the evidence that backs up their point.

Start by avoiding any topics you are passionate about, or know a lot about. If you see people involved in an edit war, step away from the article for now. Come back when you understand the guidelines and can use them to make your case (and hopefully, people will have time to cool down and approach the topic more calmly!). The best thing you can do is find articles that need a lot of improvement, because it improves the chances that editors will welcome your help.

Get Familiar with the Guidelines

Start with the Wikipedia Pillars (WP:PILLARS)

Any subject of a Wikipedia article needs is to be Notable. (WP:N) Different subjects have different guidelines - but a requirement is that we have Reliable Sources to prove Notability. For instance, Music (WP:Music), Organizations and Companies (WP:ORG), and People (WP:People) all have specific notability guidelines.

Next, check out Reliable Sources (WP:RS). You really need to read up on this one. This will come up a lot. Once you have a Source, you need to add it to the page. Use (WP:CITE)

Last - bookmark the master list of Guidelines, you'll need it: (WP:GUIDELINES). This has links to guidelines about behavior, and talk pages, and the Manual of Style.

Ask for Help

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Head over the Tea House - a friendly place for beginners to ask questions. (WP:TEA) There are also different noticeboards to invite other editors to join in on a discussion.

Other

Wikipedia Pages

• WP:FN - Explanation of how to add in-line citations
• WP:RSP - Reliable sources/Perennial sources: The following presents a non-exhaustive list of sources whose reliability and use on Wikipedia are frequently discussed.
• WP:BLPN - Biography of Living People Noticeboard
• Template:Infobox_musical_artist - Template for Infobox for Musical Artists
• MOS:JP - The manual of style for Japan-related articles
• WP:REFBOMB - Packing an article full of references to make the subject seem notable.

Online Sources for Japanese Music Related Articles:

• Oricon Style - You can search by artist to find their Albums and Singles that have charted on the Weekly charts. They also have articles about musicians. (Japanese)
• CD Journal (Japanese) - CD Reviews and Band Bios (Japanese)
• Barks - Band profiles and News Reports (Japanese)
• Yahoo! Japan Music (Japanese)
• Anime News Network - Sometimes carries news about bands (English)
• JAME - Good for interviews and news reports (English)
• Visuavi "Practical and readable country wide database covering visual kei artist's cds, videos, and goods". (Japanese)
• HMV's Top 100 Japanese pops Artists with Band Histories (Japanese)
• Good example of a compromise no one was happy with: [1]