User talk:ObserveOwl

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Question from Vela-el-zimo (17:17, 13 January 2025)

Hello I would like to know how to write and post my articles --Vela-el-zimo (talk) 17:17, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to Wikipedia, Vela-el-zimo! There are some ways to get an article published. I recommend looking for reliable sources about the subject you want to write about first. Then, follow the "Articles for Creation" process by vising the Wikipedia:Article wizard page. ObserveOwl (talk) 17:28, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If you want some guidance to write them, check Help:Your first article (and for more detailed guidance, see Wikipedia:Writing better articles). ObserveOwl (talk) 17:30, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Question from HutchJim (19:05, 15 January 2025)

I have registered to find out how I can clear up references on my own wiki page. The box above my name indicates that some information needs verification or clarity, but I don't know what needs to be verified or cleared up. In the meantime the entry for my name makes it appear that some of the information about me is incorrect. --HutchJim (talk) 19:05, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome, HutchJim! It is generally not recommended to directly edit an article about yourself, see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. You can perform an edit request on the talk page of that article by following Template:Edit COI/Instructions#For submitters.

From this guide I linked: "For details of how to cite sources, please see Help:Referencing for beginners and Help:Introduction to referencing/1. For a more complex treatment, see Wikipedia:Citing sources." If you have any question with sources that is more specific, feel free to reach me out! ObserveOwl (talk) 19:23, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Link to the talk page

Link to add a topic (might appear as "New section" or "Add topic") after accessing the talk page

@HutchJim: I forgot to say this - in order to go to the talk page of the article about you, click the "Talk" link right below the article title, on the right of "Article". Then, press "Add topic" (or "New section"), and proceed with the instructions at Template:Edit COI/Instructions#For submitters. ObserveOwl (talk) 19:38, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Question from HutchJim (20:02, 15 January 2025)

Thank you very much for responding to my query. What I'm having trouble with is identifying the citations that need sourcing or clarification. --HutchJim (talk) 20:02, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@HutchJim: Sorry, I don't understand. What is the article, and what sentence or source do you want to change, exactly? You can reply to me by pressing the "Reply" link after this comment ("20:08, 15 January 2025 (UTC) [reply]"). ObserveOwl (talk) 20:08, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

At the top of my Wiki page, this box appears:

"This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.

Find sources: "James B. Steele" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2010)(Learn how and when to remove this message)"

How do I find out which additional citations are needed. HutchJim (talk) 20:15, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@HutchJim: Ah, I see. It is a maintenance template, {{BLP sources}}, that highlights an issue present in the article.

Inline citations appear like this: ^[1], ^[2], and so on. Several paragraphs on the "Biography" section have no inline citations at all. For example, on the article's "Biography" section, the paragraphs that start with "Steele was born in..."; "Kansas City Times, where he covered politics,..."; and "At The Inquirer..." have no references indicated with ^[1]'s. Currently, there are nine paragraphs on the "Biography" section without any ^[1]'s. The "BLP sources" tag does not imply that there is any false information on the page; it is only saying that it is presently not following the standards outlined at Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons, according to the editor who added it.

In order to address that issue, the article should include citations to reliable sources after each piece of information. I recommend first searching for news articles, books or other sources that are editorially independent from you (haven't been written by you or anyone closely associated) and see what they say about you. Check the links at "Find sources: "James B. Steele" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR" to find potential sources. For some personal information, like date or place of birth, you can cite yourself, like your own social media posts.

If some information on the article cannot be found on any source, it should be removed, and maybe replaced with another cited fact.

So, to conclude from all of this, in order to fix that issue, you should create edit requests on the talk page (see above) that do one of the following three options:

Recommend adding an inline citation after a sentence or paragraph. You could say:
After the sentence 'Steele was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, and was raised in Kansas City, Missouri.', this citation should be added:
<ref>{{Cite web|first=[insert the first name of who wrote the source here]|last=[insert the last name here]|url=[url here]|title=[title of the source]|date=[date of the source]}}</ref>
Or, recommend changing a sentence with a source. You could say:
The sentence 'Steele was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, and was raised in Kansas City, Missouri.' should be changed to 'Steele was born in ...' with this citation:
<ref>{{Cite web|first=[insert the first name of who wrote the source here]|last=[insert the last name here]|url=[url here]|title=[title of the source]|date=[date of the source]}}</ref>
Or, recommend deleting a sentence, if there's no source for it:
The sentence 'Steele continues to report and write investigative articles on subjects such as profiteering from the student loan crisis and how tax cuts for the rich foster income inequality.' should be removed, as it is unreferenced.

I recommend doing multiple separate edit requests so that each one can be easily addressed. If the sources you provide are reliable and not written by you, there's a better chance your requests will be accepted. In this case, only after addressing this issue should the tag be removed, see Help:Maintenance template removal. I hope I was clear. ObserveOwl (talk) 21:35, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much for this. I'll have a go at this and seen if I can get the entry cleaned up. 73.165.70.4 (talk) 21:43, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]