User talk:Dolphin674
Wikicars, a place to share your automotive knowledge
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Welcome to Wikicars!
Hi there, Dolphin674, and welcome to Wikicars! I'm a regular moderator and contributor here, and when I notice on the recent changes log that a new editor has registered, I like to send them a welcome message - that's how I ended up on your talk page.
There are a few useful links that you might want to look at, designed to help newcomers to Wikicars learn the ropes:
Here are a few templates on Wikicars that I find particularly helpful when I start a new page:
Here are a few features of Wikicars that I find particularly helpful:
- If you leave a message on a talk page, you can sign it with four tildes (~), which will automatically produce your name and a date stamp when you save the page.
- The "Show preview" button allows you to look at what your post will look like before you save it - that way, you can proofread what you've written and not have to back and correct spelling mistakes, failed links, etc.
- You can create a watchlist for yourself that will keep a record of any changes made to a page that interests you.
There are plenty of other features and facets of Wikicars, many of which I probably haven't even discovered myself, so have fun looking around and finding them.
If you need help, ask me on my talk page.
Again, welcome and thanks for adding to our community!
p.s. If you wish to create a new page for a model of car or a car company, please type either of these down {{subst:model}} or {{subst:make}}. There are also various templates for different types of vehicles, such as {{subst:Concept Model}} for concept cars; {{subst:Racing Model}} for general racing vehicles and {{subst:Formula One Car}} for Formula One vehicles. Note that these codes are all case sensitive. I would advice you to first check out a number of our featured pages to get a feel and idea of the overall product we aim for. This is necessary for the sake of professionalism.
Also, please categorize images when you upload them. For instance, you upload an image of a Porsche 911 or anything related, for that matter with Porsche, on the "Summary" box located in the upload page itself, type [[Category:Porsche images]] and so on. All images must be categorized according to their respective marques.
If you have any further questions, simply contact me or any other one of the admins.
- Red marquis 22:43, 24 August 2008 (UTC)
Points of Contention
Hi, this is RM. I've been noticing the number of your contributions lately and while I certainly appreciate it and your enthusiasm, there are somethings that you've been doing that are frankly annoying. I mean no offense here. I just want to ensure that wikicars run smoothly and be enjoyed by all. There are alot of other things I'd rather be doing for wikicars than cleaning up after your mistakes.
So, first of all, you need to work on your grammar, spelling and capitalization. This is an online encyclopaedia. As far as car names are concerned the firs letter of each name has to be capitalized. Citroen C4 should be "Citroen C4" not "Citroen c4". These are names, for christ sake. This might not mean much to you but it does here. The software used to run wikis such as wikicars are designed to differentiate between the two. In other words, you just end up creating another, redundant article on a car that already has one. I know you are new to the site so I don't expect you to have mastery of how we like to run things here but at least, learn to check if a page already exists and then just work on that.
Secondly, [b]read the damn welcome note I wrote above this post![/b] It's not there for no reason, It's there to act as a crash-course user manual for new members. In creating pages, I told you to type down written shortcut codes. Instead, you still insist on copying and pasting direct from the source. Worse is that you use the page template on every single page. It may not matter to you if a page is written for a car model or a concept car model but it does to us. We are trying to maintain a sense of professionalism and so we like to streamline and organize our pages into the categories they belong. Please obey that.
Speaking of categories, learn to categorize the images you upload as well. I wrote a snippet on how to accomplish that in the post above so it's best you give it a good read. Seriously, read the damn thing.
On a side note, when uploading images I advise that you upload professionally-shot images, preferrably ones made and released by the car companies themselves rather than something someone took with a cameraphone and you pulled of the web. There are two reasons why this is more desirable. First, it just looks better and more professional. It makes us look good and secondly, I don't know if you know this but not all images on the internet are for free and available for you to do anything you like or please with it. There is such a thing as a intellectual copyright and we are trying to avoid any legal tangles here. The situation is much more ambiguous and complicated with pictures that have been snapped by anyone because you don't exactly know what their status are. With factory-made images, however, though the car companies that make them hold their copyrights, they are public domain and wouldn't mind you using said images so long as you don't start making money off of it.
Finally, the most recent thing that you've been doing that's been annoying me is placing this image, Image:S1050139.JPG in the Citroen C4 article. First of all, the car pictured is a C-Airscape concept and secondly, its styling previewed the styling of the C5 not the C4. So stop persisting on doing something wrong.
Regardless of these little irritations, I really appreciate what you've been doing so far. I especially commend your contributions in fleshing out the articles and pages for Indian cars. I must be honest I don't know much about them despite living in Southeast Asia. Again, If you have any questions, comments, opinions whatsoever please contact me through my user talk page.
-Red marquis 13:59, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
Vel Satis
Dolphin, the Vel Satis, as far as I know, is no longer produced. Red marquis 08:54, 9 October 2008 (PDT)
- I didn't know that. Anyway, you hit the edit page and then scroll down to the very bottom. There should be a listing of all templates used in a page. Select "Template:List of Renault Models" then edit away. Oh and when you are creating a new model page simply type {{subst:Model}}. You don't have to copy and paste the template page itself. In fact, if you want to create any new pages simply use the "subst:" (substitute) prefix like for example "subst:Make" to create a manufacturer's page or "subst:Concept Model" to create a page for Concept Cars and "subst:Racing Model" to create a page for racing cars and so on. Read the Welcome note at the top of this page. It's filled with lots of tips and shortcut tricks.
-Red marquis 19:53, 9 October 2008 (PDT)
- Here's the Link: Template:List of Renault Models
Red marquis 04:06, 10 October 2008 (PDT)
My last edit unless otherwise
Bye i am leaving
- Don't. I've just been very exasperated recently at Internet Brands' (Wikicars' parent company) administration for not caring much about the site. If you've noticed there's been some problems with images linking to the pages - they don't. I've asked them repeatedly to do something about it but they keep putting it off. Not to mention the updates that Wikicars desperately need so it can self-police itself allowing me not to have to worry about spammers (another source of annoyance) anymore and focus on crafting pages. Do you know that the latest Mediawiki software (which is free btw) is in version 1.13.2? Were still running on version 1.6.5.
I'm sorry if I overreacted to your error but sometimes its just those little things that push you over the edge.
-Red marquis 05:27, 11 October 2008 (PDT)
Alas I do not know much about software upgrading. Don't you need a server to be able to handle the file size. It's compressed, I know, but I don't think my laptop might be able to handle that much information.
Red marquis 09:55, 11 October 2008 (PDT)
The Future of Wikicars
Just so you know, I have given Internet Brands my final ultimatum to get this site fixed. They will let me know their answer in a day. As much as I love this site, if all of my pleas turn out to be futile, I will leave Wikicars for good. Now, you'll have two choices. You can either celebrate that I'll no longer badger you or you can leave as well because I guarantee you, once I'm gone, this site will be overrun by spammers faster than you can blink. Besides, not to toot my own horn but I am the only reason there is any activity or progress in this site. Of all the Administrators and Bureaucrats on this site (see here, Wikicars:Administrators) I am the only one left and the only one that keeps this site updated with fresh new info on the goings on of the auto industry. In other words, you contributions will simply be wasted. Thank the bigwigs of Internet Brands for that.
However, if you do decide to press on and deal with the crap I've had to deal with, I would like to pass on the torch and my powers to you. There'll be quite a bit of a learning curve since much has been done to this site before you joined. You will, for example, have to actually read the welcome note =) because it really is chockful of basic information that you would need to run and edit the site properly and so on. Let me know what your decision might be if the worst come to pass.
Red marquis 03:21, 15 October 2008 (PDT)
