User talk:Avicennasis/Archive/1

Welcome!
Hello, and welcome to Wiktionary. I thank you for your contributions and hope you enjoy contributing here.

If you have edited Wikipedia, you probably already know some basics, but Wiktionary operates in a very different manner from Wikipedia and you will have a better experience if you do not assume the two are similar in culture. Please remember that despite your experience on Wikipedia, you are inexperienced here. While you do not need to be an expert, or anything close to one, to contribute, please be as respectful of local policies and community practices as you can: being bold is not encouraged where it goes against any of those practices. Be aware that well-meaning Wikipedians have unfortunately found themselves blocked in the past for their actions taken without forethought. (You can get more of a glimpse of the Wiktionary mindset at Help:Interacting with humans.)

Our two main policy documents are Entry layout explained ("ELE") and Criteria for inclusion ("CFI"). ELE describes our standard layout; unlike on Wikipedia, all entries must follow this layout, even if they are not yet complete. (You can get a feel for our standard layout by looking at existing entries.) CFI describes what is allowed in the dictionary, and disallows (for example) most names of specific persons. We generally follow ELE and CFI closely.

If you do create a couple of entries that are not properly formatted, someone will be glad to clean up after you. But if you do it repeatedly, you might get blocked as a temporary measure to give you a chance to read ELE.

Some other differences between us and English Wikipedia:
 * Entry titles are case-sensitive and do not have their first letters capitalized unless, like proper nouns, they are ordinarily capitalized. So we have mercury for the substance and Mercury for the planet and the god. (We do not use parentheses in titles: there's no Mercury (planet).)
 * We just want definitions of words, not long-winded explanations worthy of Wikipedia.
 * Wiktionary has very different user-space policies from Wikipedia's. We are here to build a dictionary, and userpages exist only to facilitate that. In particular, we have voted to explicitly ban all userboxes with the exception of ; please do not create or use them.
 * Other policies, including on bots, blocks, redirects, interwiki links, and original research, are very different from English Wikipedia's. And we have no counterpart to Wikipedia's three-revert rule.
 * Various templates and shortcuts that you're used to using do not exist here, or have different names. For example, don't try to use  to refer to a template! ( will do the trick.)
 * Don't add an edit summary when creating a new entry here: the software will fill a useful one in automatically. (Edit summaries are good for other edits, though.)

Also, a "citation" on Wiktionary is the same as a "quotation" and is evidence of a word being used; we use these to construct dictionary definitions. See WT:QUOTE. A "reference", on the other hand, which is called a "citation" on Wikipedia, references another secondary source, such as a dictionary, and is used predominantly for verifying etymologies and usage notes, not the definitions themselves. (That we don't use another dictionary as our source for the existence of a word is largely so that we don't fall into the trap of adding "list words", words that, while often defined, are never used in practice.)

I hope you enjoy editing Wiktionary! If you have any questions, then see the help pages, add a question to one of the discussion rooms or ask me on my talk page.

You don't need to add interwiki links. There's a bot that will get to them eventually. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 01:12, 7 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, thank you for the warm welcome! I figured there was a bot, but I wasn't sure, and it's quick and easy work, adding interwikis... :) I'll have to find something else that's useful and not too difficult for newbies such as myself. Avicennasis 01:18, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
 * There's lots of stuff that needs doing. One thing that won't require you to learn much of the formatting that goes into each entry is adding translations. You can do that without even clicking the 'edit' button: just go to the translations section of any entry and (assuming you have JavaScript enabled in your browser) you'll see a means of adding a new one. Of course, only add what you're sure is correct. There are lots of other things to do, though . Again, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a note on my talkpage. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 01:28, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I linked just above to [[Wiktionary:Todo]]. That's a list of cleanup jobs. A list of adding-information jobs, if you prefer them, is at [[Wiktionary:Things to do]]. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 19:37, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks again. I'm sure I'll find a good niche to fit into here somewhere. :) I appreciate the help and the info. Avicennasis 06:10, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Inflections
Hello. You are checking that these plurals and inflections actually exist before you create them, right? Equinox ◑ 01:52, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yep. The rare Dutch I am checking a few translation tools, the Scots with a dictionar. :) I have passed on a lot I am not sure of - leaving those to the more experienced. If I have made a mistake, I do hope someone will correct it and notify me, but I am trying to be careful. Avicennasis 01:56, 12 August 2010 (UTC)