User talk:Platecarpus.p

Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, Platecarpus.p, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions, especially what you did for Mereheadite. 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 {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Shirt58 (talk) 09:23, 22 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Adding "reliable sources"? Two questions at once: adding reliable sources; what are reliable sources

Hi Platecarpus.p, and again welcome to Wkipedia!
Apololgies for being so slow to reply. You asked, "how do you add "reliable sources?" That's actually two questions at once. Please be aware I'm no expert about this, just a fellow WP:Wikipedian like your good self.

To add references, you can click on the icon in the "toolbar" that appears above the preview of any change you make. For me, one of the toolbar icons looks like {{ }}. I click on that, and I am presented with menu of buttons that asks me whether I want to add a reference from an internet source, a book, a newspaper or a journal. Once I chose one of those options, a dialog box pops up asking me for the details of the reference - date, name, publisher and so on. The initial starting point might be different, depending on the Wikipedia skin you're using, but the net outcome should be pretty much the same. You can add references using manual templates... but that's even more outside my area of competence.
As for what makes a reliable reference, well that's a little bit more complicated.

Peer-reviewed scholarly journals are pretty much the gold standard for reliable references for Wikipedia articles about the sciences. (Here's here I need your help: can you locate the original journal article about Mereheadite, mentioned here?) As for everything else, please see Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources. Hope this helps! --Shirt58 (talk) 13:32, 25 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Use List of minerals M-O (complete) for a start. Make use of a Sandbox. Google scholar, RRUFF ref. search and the American Mineralogist help u too. ;) --Chris.urs-o (talk) 13:36, 30 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the barnstar, and a wikiproject you might be interested in participating in.

Hi Platecarpus.p, and thank you so much for the barnstar! You may be interested in working with the Rocks and minerals WikiProject. Thanks again. --Shirt58 (talk) 11:41, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]