User talk:Kstrauss
Welcome![edit]
Hello, Kstrauss, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions, especially what you did for Karl Strauss. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
- The five pillars of Wikipedia
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- How to edit a page and How to develop articles
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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk 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 {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! MelanieN (talk) 18:25, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
Further comments[edit]
Welcome to Wikipedia, and thanks for your additions to the article Karl Strauss. I am MelanieN, a Wikipedia volunteer who "watches" that article. I wanted to share with you a couple of concerns I have, or changes in your edits that I will be making.
- Wikipedia style is to refer to him as "Strauss", not "Karl," so I will be changing those references back.
- You added a great deal of information, but without citing any source. Can you tell me where this information comes from? I will add the citation for the source, if you aren't sure how to do that. Not only do we need to cite a source for the information, but I need to check and make sure that it was not copied verbatim from someplace else, which would be a copyright violation. Not to worry; we can still use the information if we put it into our own words.
- Finally, there may be a problem with conflict of interest. Your use of the name Kstrauss implies that you have a close or official connection with Karl (I know you are not ACTUALLY Karl since he died a few years ago) or with the Karl Strauss Brewing Company. If you actually do have such a connection, you need to read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest to see what kind of cautions you should observe in editing articles relating to the subject. Mainly, you need to avoid promotional material or non-neutral tone. Also you need to realize and accept that other people will be editing and making changes in what you have written.
So, welcome aboard, and if you have any questions or comments, you can reply here; I will see it (you don't need to add "helpme" as it says in the canned message above). --MelanieN (talk) 18:47, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
Response[edit]
- Thanks for your response. To be clear, I have a strong affection for Karl Strauss beer, and I too was privileged to meet the man.
- I realize that the company always talks about "Karl" (just look at any of the packaging). But Wikipedia has its style, and last names are the style. (Same as with any newspaper - you won't find a newspaper referring to someone by their first name, it's always full name at first mention, then last name for the rest of the article). This is an encyclopedia and it has to follow accepted standards. Take a look at any article, say Arnold Schwarzenegger - you won't find that article referring to him as "Arnold".
- As far as I can tell, everything you added is accurate and neutral, and it adds to the picture of the man given here. That's not the issue. I assume you got the information from somewhere. If you can tell me where the information came from , I can add it as a reference, and it will carry a lot more weight - as well as make it proof against the dreaded "uncited" tag. Or you can add it yourself if you know how. Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, all the information here is supposed to be based on independent reliable sources.
- Wikipedia's policy on conflict of interest is here: WP:COI. In my opinion it doesn't prevent you from editing this article, which is about a person, and it might even allow you to edit the article about the company. (It's good that you are being upfront about your connection with the company.) Any time you are in doubt about whether it would be proper for you to add something or not - for example, if you wanted to add info about a prize they won to the company's article, which could be considered as promotional - Wikipedia recommends that you put a note on the article's talk page saying "I have a conflict of interest but here is something I think should be added." Most of the time, a neutral editor will promptly add it. --MelanieN (talk) 22:00, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
- This is helpful information. Thank you!
- Regarding the name, I do see your point. Thank you for the explanation.
- I will do my best to review the information and look for things that need to be cited. I see that you already have helped in that area. Most of the information about his life we took from interviews we did with him here internally.
-Kstrauss (talk) 23:29, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
- I particularly wondered about sources because some of the things you added contained what looked like pre-existing footnotes. Example "He continued as vice-president until retiring from Pabst in 1983.[2]". That made me wonder if some of the material was being copy/pasted from some footnoted or published document. Not important as long as it is not a duplicate of some copyrighted document, and I couldn't find one in a Google search. --MelanieN (talk) 01:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
- LOL! I just found the source you were copying/pasting from: ironically, it must have been a download of the pre-existing Wikipedia article! That's where the "footnote 2" reference came from; it was a footnote in the original article. It was a reference to the brewing company's website, and I have restored it to the article. You can see here the old version, what the page looked like before you started editing it; notice the footnotes 1 and 2, which became [1] and [2] in the source you used. No problem here, and no copyright violation. And that solves the mystery for me, of where you were getting your information! ;-D --MelanieN (talk) 16:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
- I particularly wondered about sources because some of the things you added contained what looked like pre-existing footnotes. Example "He continued as vice-president until retiring from Pabst in 1983.[2]". That made me wonder if some of the material was being copy/pasted from some footnoted or published document. Not important as long as it is not a duplicate of some copyrighted document, and I couldn't find one in a Google search. --MelanieN (talk) 01:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
- Oh good, thank you! I had thought about that last night and was wondering if that is what had happened. Thank you again! -Kstrauss (talk) 16:51, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
- I'm so glad you got me restarted on this article! I just found another great reference [1]. It gave me the following wonderful line which I added to the article: "Once Pabst realized that it had a Bavarian brew master in its employ, Strauss quickly advanced." --MelanieN (talk) 17:15, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
- Oh good, thank you! I had thought about that last night and was wondering if that is what had happened. Thank you again! -Kstrauss (talk) 16:51, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
Continuing on Wikipedia[edit]
By the way: Now that you have started editing Wikipedia, I'd encourage you to continue to do so, and in other areas. Browse through the encyclopedia, read about things or people you are interested in. Once in a while you will find something that needs correcting or expanding, or a typo that needs fixing. Go ahead and make the edit when you see something that needs doing. I warn you, Wikipedia editing is habit forming! but also very rewarding. Basically you are improving a resource that is used by millions of people worldwide. The entire project is written and maintained by volunteers, and new volunteers are always needed. --MelanieN (talk) 17:00, 1 September 2012 (UTC)