User talk:Marctho

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Marctho, 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:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
• Manual of Style

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! Aboutmovies (talk) 21:54, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Online ambassador

Just a quick note to say that I have signed up as online ambassador for your class, and I look forward to helping your students with Wikipedia. Please contact me if I can help in any way. Thanks -- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:27, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Mike - thanks for your help. Most of the students have Wikipedia user IDs and have added a bio to their user page. Can you give us an idea of what your role as online ambassador is? Thanks. Marc Thomas 13:55, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi, Mr. Thomas! Just practicing, starting to get the hang of Wikipedia. Neitzs (talk) 18:28, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

hello teacher

testing the disscussion page

HI

You have to go to the user's page, click the discussion tab, click the new section tab, then write your message -Ian Mckay — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mckay11 (talk • contribs) 13:15, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Referendum and Initiative Team Checking In

Hello Professor Thomas, I created my user account for the class project. HurthC1 (talk) 13:20, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello Professor,

      Caseydud (talk) 13:26, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Message from me.... Marc Thomas 13:21, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Signed into Wikipedia

Richal13 (talk) 13:21, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Testing the Messaging

Thanks Ian for providing the information on how to send a message. Hello, I am just practicing, therefore sending this message. Have a nice day. Brenda Davis --B.Davis21 (talk) 13:44, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Hi, Mr. Thomas. Johnsc74 (talk) 13:23, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Message

Hello. Slocumm1 (talk) 13:24, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello!

Message from me. Leekse (talk) 13:25, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Hello Ryan DeWitt Dewittr3 (talk) 13:28, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Prof. Thomas' assignment- checking in.

Hello, I have successfully created a user account as well as signed into the class course page. My group will be covering the Presidency --Rianne Annis Annisr1 (talk) 13:35, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello Professor

I finally figured this out. Racel1 (talk) 13:38, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

First Assignment- Introduction

How long should our personal introduction paragraph be? --Annisr1 (talk) 13:42, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

A paragraph would be good. Marc Thomas 13:53, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Checking in

Proffessor I just checked into the course pageStebba (talk) 13:49, 19 September 2011 (UTC)Stebba

logging on

this is josh richter i am now currently logged on wikipedia to begin the project. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richterj22 (talk • contribs) 13:49, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

HERE I AM

I've logged on and it works. Mckay11 (talk) 13:51, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Reply from Online Ambassador

Marc, you asked me above what an online ambassador can do for you. Essentially I'm a native guide -- I know Wikipedia very well. Ambassadors answer an infinite variety of questions: one student might need me to explain why a blog shouldn't be used as a source for an article; for another I might copyedit a paragraph to show them the difference between an argumentative style and an encyclopedic style; for another I could help with the markup language, to get headings and fonts and image layout to look better; and for another I might work with them to decide on the best structure for the article. About the only thing I'm not going to be able to help with is the actual content of the course itself. I see Wikipedia as an opportunity for the students to learn by having to put the knowledge they gain from the class into a form that is truly useful to the rest of the world: my job is to make that process as simple and painless as I can.

Please let me know (here or on my talk page) if you have any questions that I can help with -- I look forward to working with your class. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:44, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

• Hi Mike--fancy meeting you here. Marctho, good luck with your assignment. Let me know if I can help. Drmies (talk) 16:45, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Jim Crow laws

Marc

I'm at work so this will be a quick note; I can add more detail later if needed. The Jim Crow laws article is locked because it's been subject to a lot of vandalism; so much so that I don't think we'd be successful if we were to ask for it to be unlocked. The options are:

• Edit it by requesting a change on the talk page. An administrator will then edit the article, but only if there is consensus from other editors for the change. This could work but would be slow, and I think frustrating, for your students.
• Work on a version of the article in a sandbox, and then ask for the updates to be made. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for a new contributor, because there will no doubt be discussion of the changes and it would be timeconsuming to go through all the differences and additions. However, it might be possible to do this in order to add a new section or paragraph that didn't modify the existing text significantly -- e.g. adding additional historical information independent of the existing material.
• Ask for the page protection to be reduced to "semi protection". This would allow users with accounts who have made a minimum number of edits to work on the article. This might work, but there is a risk that if it did not work full protection would be restored, which again would be frustrating for the student.

Working on controversial articles is quite challenging since one has to get consensus from other editors -- this is a useful skill for the student to learn but may not be an efficient use of their time in your class. Is there perhaps a subsidiary article, such as Civil Rights Act of 1875, that your student could work on which would not be subject to those constraints? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:45, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Student page nominated for deletion

Marc, I just noticed that one of your students has had their article nominated for deletion. I posted a note to the student [[ here. I'll help if the student responds but I thought you'd want to know. I've also left a note for the two campus ambassadors. I hope the comments I left for the student make sense, but please do ask if anything is unclear or if I can help in any way. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:45, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

I've added a couple of sentences to the article in question that may help avoid the article getting deleted. The article is Politics and Pop Culture In the United States‎; the first two sentences (sourced to Edsforth and Bennett) are my addition. Perhaps a useful distinction is between an outline and a stub: the student created an outline, which is certainly useful in drafting an article, but contains little or no actual content. On Wikipedia it makes more sense to create a stub -- sometimes only a single sentence, but a sentence which contains sourced content that makes it clear what the topic of the article is and why it's important. It might be helpful to explain to the students that when they create a new article it must contain more than just their intentions for the article. If they're not ready to add at least one sentence of content, it's best to keep it in a sandbox a little longer. I'll keep an eye on the deletion discussion (which is here, if you'd like to take a look) and will comment further there if it seems I can help. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:02, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Mike - thanks for alerting me to this. I need to work with my students to makes sure their articles are better developed before posting. Anna, one our ambassadors, helped out by moving the info to the sandbox. Marc Thomas 23:08, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

• Note that the page has since been moved in a more Wikipedia-appropriate way to User:Caseydud/Politics and Pop Culture In the United States. The version at User:Caseydud/Sandbox was "cut and pasted" which didn't preserve the edit history. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:33, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Checking in Pols 120

Hi, just making sure this thing is working. --Riverj3 (talk) 00:37, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello! Ramonts (talk) 21:01, 17 January 2012 (UTC) Hello Mr. Thomas! Turne40 (talk) 00:11, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Checking in ftw! Maxfielc (talk) 17:21, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi, this is Sam checking in. SamanthaBurl (talk) 19:02, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

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