Dear Wikipedia,
I love your encyclopedia and I use it a lot. One day when I looked at the quadratic formula page, it mentioned another quadratic formula I had never seen before:
x= 2c / b {+-}sqrt(b^2-4ac)
I tried it out and found out that it had a mistake. It needs a negative b (-b) in the denominator instead of a positive b. It should read:
x= 2c / -b {+-}sqrt(b^2-4ac)
If you would like me to send you the proof, just ask.
Please reply promptly.
Sincerely, a 13 year old
On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:20:10 -0400 (EDT), kartik@townisp.com kartik@townisp.com wrote:
One day when I looked at the quadratic formula page, it mentioned another quadratic formula I had never seen before:
<snip> On Wikipedia, I have a message I use for cases such as this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Sofixit
Without the links you'll get at the above page:
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome your contributions. Wikipedia is a wiki, and anyone- including you! - can edit nearly any article, at any time, by clicking the Edit tab at the top of the page, next to the tabs for Discussion and History. You don't even need to login, although there are several reasons why you might want to. So, feel free to be bold and make this correction yourself! If you are unsure about how to edit a page, try out the Sandbox to test your editing skills.
Fennec Foxen wrote:
On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:20:10 -0400 (EDT), kartik@townisp.com kartik@townisp.com wrote:
One day when I looked at the quadratic formula page, it mentioned another quadratic formula I had never seen before:
<snip> On Wikipedia, I have a message I use for cases such as this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Sofixit
Nice one ... but I think its use of links is a little dodgy and probably confusing to newbies:
So, feel free to _be bold_ and make this correction yourself!
Here, "be bold" is a link. Where is a newbie supposed to think it leads to? It seems to suggest that one should click it in order to be bold. I don't think that makes a lot of sense to people.
If you are unsure about _how to edit a page_, try out the _Sandbox_ to test your editing skills.
This sentence contains *one* suggestion, but *two* links. While the latter link seems to be what the suggestion is about, it leaves the visitor wondering in confusion about the former link.
I am posting this here not just because I want to discuss this particular thing, but because I think that quite in general, people tend to put these spurious links into text that is meant for newbies, thinking "the more links to introductory newbie explainy pages, the better!", but it's really confusing if the newbie has no idea where the links actually go.
So here is my suggestion for a change. Of course, it's a little bit longer-winded than Fennec's original:
Hello, [[Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers|welcome to Wikipedia]]! We welcome your contributions. Wikipedia is a [[wiki]], and anyone - including you! - can edit nearly any article, at any time, by clicking the '''Edit''' tab at the top of the page, next to the tabs for Discussion and History. You don't even need to [[Special:Userlogin|log in]], although there are several [[Wikipedia:Why create an account?|reasons why you might want to]]. Here at Wikipedia, [[Wikipedia:be bold|we ask people to be bold]] and not be afraid of making mistakes. So, feel free to make this correction yourself! If you are unsure about how editing works, have a look at [[Wikipedia:how to edit a page|''How to edit a page'']], or try out the [[Wikipedia:Sandbox|Sandbox]] to test your editing skills.
Greetings, Timwi
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 00:01:07 +0100, Timwi timwi@gmx.net wrote:
So here is my suggestion for a change. Of course, it's a little bit longer-winded than Fennec's original:
Timwi: {{subst:sofixit}}
:)
Fennec Foxen wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 00:01:07 +0100, Timwi timwi@gmx.net wrote:
So here is my suggestion for a change. Of course, it's a little bit longer-winded than Fennec's original:
Timwi: {{subst:sofixit}}
Fennec: {{subst:golookatitfirsttoseeifialreadyhavebeforetryingtobesmart}}
Also: {{subst:readtheentireemailbeforereplying}} :-) I did say that I'm posting it here to show people in general that I don't think "The more links the better" is always a good excuse for plastering everything with links.
;-)
Timwi
On Jun 8, 2004, at 10:56 AM, Fennec Foxen wrote:
On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:20:10 -0400 (EDT), kartik@townisp.com kartik@townisp.com wrote:
One day when I looked at the quadratic formula page, it mentioned another quadratic formula I had never seen before:
<snip> On Wikipedia, I have a message I use for cases such as this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Sofixit
Notice the date on the original. I think it's another one from the moderation backlog.
Don't worry, they trick the best of us...
Peter
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Peter Jaros wrote:
On Jun 8, 2004, at 10:56 AM, Fennec Foxen wrote:
On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:20:10 -0400 (EDT), kartik@townisp.com kartik@townisp.com wrote:
One day when I looked at the quadratic formula page, it mentioned another quadratic formula I had never seen before:
<snip> On Wikipedia, I have a message I use for cases such as this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Sofixit
Notice the date on the original. I think it's another one from the moderation backlog.
Fennec's message was nevertheless useful to the rest of us.
On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 05:15:05 +0100, Timwi timwi@gmx.net wrote:
Fennec's message was nevertheless useful to the rest of us.
As was Timwi's edit, I suppose. :)