User talk:Mx. Granger

Question from Hemanthtdpli (22:20, 24 June 2024)

Hi there! I drafted a page, but I cant publish it. Need some assistance! --Hemanthtdpli (talk) 22:20, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi Hemanthtdpli, thanks for the message. I can see that you've already gotten advice at Wikipedia:Help desk#Publishing a Page, which I endorse. Please let me know if you have any other questions. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 13:36, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Question from Mint Keyphase (05:58, 27 June 2024)

I mostly spend my time on wikipedia going through ANI and watch the drama there. I have noticed a lot of unclosed threads without activity for months or even years, am I allowed to close them? If so, how can I close a thread? --Mint Keyphase (talk) 05:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi Mint Keyphase, thanks for the message. I would suggest waiting until you have more experience editing Wikipedia before closing ANI discussions. At that noticeboard, people tend to be grouchy and less tolerant of mistakes than usual. Moreover, for threads old enough to be archived, there's often no need to close them – if the discussion came to a clear resolution, an official close may not be needed.

My suggestion would be to first spend some time editing articles, participate in discussions about article content, and when you feel confident, try closing some talk page discussions as non-admin closures (that page has some unofficial but useful advice about when non-admin closures are appropriate). Once you have some experience closing lower-profile discussions, it might be reasonable to try closing ANI discussions.

In terms of how to close a discussion, you can find instructions here: Wikipedia:Closing discussions. Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions! —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 13:49, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Question from Blepbob (18:33, 27 June 2024)

Hi Mx Granger! I was clicking "Random article" and I found an article that needs improvement, but I'm not sure what kind.

Thomas John Grainge is very short (a "stub"?) and doesn't explain why the subject is notable. It's just a list of his birth, death, place of education, and places of work. His "Compositions" section doesn't list anything specific or explain his influence on other composers.

There are some print sources cited for biographical information, but these sources aren't being cited to explain his importance. I can't find additional information on him online. So it seems like this article maybe doesn't pass the notability guideline for music? But I haven't checked the print sources.

This article seems like it needs either expansion or deletion, but I'm not sure what the next step is. --Blepbob (talk) 18:33, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi Blepbob, good question. I wonder whether the cited sources cover the subject in enough detail to meet the general notability guideline. Do you have any way to access them and check? I would also try searching on Google Books, Google News archive, and Google Scholar if you haven't already.

The key guideline here is WP:BEFORE – if you follow the steps there and can't find evidence of meeting either the general notability guideline or the notability guideline for music, then nominating it for deletion sounds reasonable. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 03:46, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply and the helpful guidelines.

I found the first reference, British Musical Biography, on Google Books, but confusingly it doesn't contain an entry for "Grainge, Thomas John". I guess there might be different editions, but the citation doesn't specify an edition or publication year.

I didn't find any instances of "Thomas John Grainge" in Google News or Google Scholar. There is one reference to a "Thomas John Grainge" from Google Books in the London Gazette where he's described as an "organist", but it's a brief snippet that doesn't say much else.

I can't find issues of the Gloucestershire Echo or Cheltenham Chronicle on Google News or Google Books, only brief mentions of them in other sources. Someone probably could try to find physical copies if they lived in the UK, but I don't.

I don't think I have time to research sources further right now. I'm also not really familiar with English organists from the 1800s, I just as a layperson think the article compares poorly to others in the composer category. Can I use an improvement template to flag this low-traffic article for editors with subject matter expertise? Would Category:Articles with topics of unclear notability be reasonable? Blepbob (talk) 16:48, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

@Blepbob: Yes, you can add Template:Notability to the article (which will automatically add the "unclear notability" category). You can also try posting at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Composers or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Gloucestershire to get input from people with more knowledge of the topic area. Or you can PROD the article or nominate it for deletion, given the lack of available sources. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 19:58, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

By the way, I found a website with an archive of the Gloucestershire Echo, and this search found a couple of obituaries from 1944 but nothing from 1935. Another search on the same website found the Cheltanham Chronicle source. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 20:05, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Mint Keyphase (23:49, 4 July 2024)

Hello, how do I change my signature? I know this isn't high on the priority list but I still wanted to try a custom signature anyways. --Mint Keyphase (talk) 23:49, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Mint Keyphase, thanks for the message. Go to Special:Preferences and scroll down to "Signature". Please let me know if that page is unclear or if you have any follow-up questions! —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 15:23, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

How can I add the required link to the userpage, talk, and contribs? Thanks in advance! Mint Keyphase (talk) 03:45, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

@Mint Keyphase: If you want a signature similar to mine, you could paste text like this in your preferences and check the box that says "Treat the above as wiki markup": —[[User:Mint Keyphase|Mint Keyphase]] ([[User talk:Mint Keyphase|talk]] '''·''' [[Special:Contributions/Mint Keyphase|contribs]]). The first part is the link to the user page, then the talk page, then contributions. Does that make sense? —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 15:26, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

Yes, thank you very much. Mint Keyphase (talk) 23:11, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from SirShaunIV (15:04, 16 July 2024)

I made an edit a while ago but forgot to log in first. Is there a way to attach that edit to my account retroactively? --SirShaunIV (talk) 15:04, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi SirShaunIV, thanks for the message. There isn't really a way to do this. What you can do, if you want, is add a note to your userpage (User:SirShaunIV) mentioning that you've edited anonymously from a particular IP address (see User:PlanetStar for an example of how that might look). Let me know if you have any other questions! —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 13:23, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Does that possibly create a security risk by linking me to a particular IP address? SirShaunIV (talk) 16:57, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

@SirShaunIV: Potentially. Your IP address can be used to identify your approximate location and ISP, so it's up to you if you'd like to keep it private. Some related guidance is here: Wikipedia:Personal security practices. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 17:02, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm proud of that edit, but I'll leave it. Thanks anyway. SirShaunIV (talk) 00:17, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from VurkashianPerson (15:15, 22 July 2024)

Greeting's Mx. Granger!

I'm a new member of the Wikipedia web-browser. And I would like to know about what I could write about in an article. Is it only limited to important real-life events or I could write like about a fictional country I just made up 5 minutes ago?

-Vurk --VurkashianPerson (talk) 15:15, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi VurkashianPerson, thanks for the message. You can't write a Wikipedia article about a fictional country you made up. Wikipedia is based on reliable sources, which means that original research is not allowed. The relevant guideline here is Wikipedia:Notability; in general, a subject should only have a Wikipedia article if it has gotten significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources. Please let me know if you have any other questions! —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 13:56, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from OulisFR (12:58, 23 July 2024)

Hello ! I'm new to contributing to Wikipedia and my main focus is to translate articles from French to English and English to French. My question is : Often, the Google Translate translation is already good enough, maybe even perfect as I couldn't make it better myself so is it bad if I leave it as is ? Because it tells me that I haven't modified it enough... Also do you have any general tips? Thank you! --OulisFR (talk) 12:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi OulisFR, thanks for the message. If you've checked the translation carefully to make sure it's accurate, then I think it's fine to leave it as-is. If it tells you you haven't modified it enough, does that prevent you from saving/publishing your work? If so, that might be a question to bring up at Wikipedia talk:Content translation tool or mw:Talk:Content translation. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 14:06, 23 July 2024 (UTC)