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Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) - Printable Version

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+--- Forum: Messenger Plus! for Live Messenger (/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+---- Forum: WLM Plus! General (/forumdisplay.php?fid=23)
+----- Thread: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) (/showthread.php?tid=46207)

Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by KeyStorm on 06-13-2005 at 02:40 AM

Well, I found out that someone used Wikipedia, created a sub-stub of Messenger Plus! and added a contest-link to the download. Luckilly this was detected by someone who quickly flagged it as spam and deleted it. As I discovered it I thought it would be nice to have a comprehensive article on MP! with all the features described, some history, maybe the comunity too, who knows. :)

So I encourage anyone (in Wikipedia anyone can edit its pages) to help expand the article and mantain and protect it from vandalism and spamming.

Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_Plus%21
You should be used to wiki markup, it's simple, but can be certainly confusing at the beginning. You may want to take your time browsing the help files of Wikipedia before you start, 10 minutes will be enough to learn the basics. Actually myCode can be considered harder or less intuitive than wiki markup.

Btw, you can see the contest code of the person who put that up in the history log of the article and blame on him. :@

Oh, I started some of it, but it's very late at night and I'm sure it's full of mistakes, so be kind and correct them please, thanks :P


RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by fluffy_lobster on 06-13-2005 at 09:12 AM

Hey cool stuff :p i always use wikipedia but never thought to look if there was a msgplus article.

You ought to be careful though. Wikipedia is meant to be strictly NPOV (Neutral Point Of View) so we musn't use this article to promote messenger plus, merely state what it does.  In particular, coverage of the sponsor needs to show pros and cons.


RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by KeyStorm on 06-13-2005 at 01:18 PM

When you give a subjective opinion you must prove that it is accepted to be thins way by a wide part of the users, and that makes it neutral.

Maybe saying it is the best addon was a bit exaggerated for wikipedia, but I guess you know what I mean.

Also, don't try to promote your plugins and websites related to Messenger Plus! inside the article, those links should go to the external links section.


RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by paperless on 06-13-2005 at 02:45 PM

This is very nice ill try to contribute as well, this is the time to make a wikipedia account as i was wanting for some while now..


RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by KeyStorm on 06-13-2005 at 04:23 PM

First of all, I don't like correcting people, not only, but also for the reason that I might do things wrong, too.

Anyway I think it's important to know something about ecyclopaedic style. Not that I was the best at formal English around the place, but let me give some hints to achieve a more formal style in your Wikipedia articles:

Don't use personal sentences like
- Some people are used, when installing a program, to click next, next, next, '''without''' actually reading what they are accepting, what happens is that they think the sponsor is installed without they allowing but it is, as you can see in the screenshot on your right side, you can choose whether to install the sponsor or not.

If you need to use a personal sentence, use "one":
- Some people are used, when installing a program, to click next, next, next, '''without''' actually reading what they are accepting, what happens is that they think the sponsor is installed without they allowing but it is, as one can see in the screenshot on the right side, one can choose whether to install the sponsor or not.

But that isn't very good English either. It's better you try to change the sentece so that it's not needed to use personal forms:

- Some people are used, when installing a program, to click next, next, next, '''without''' actually reading what they are accepting, what happens is that they think the sponsor is installed without they allowing but it is, as shown in the screenshot to the right, there is the option to choose whether to install the sponsor or not.

Punctuation! Make the sentences have sense, don't try to enlarge sentences if you can clearly split ideas:

- Some people are used, when installing a program, to click next, next, next, '''without''' actually reading what they are accepting. What happens is that they think the sponsor is installed without they allowing, but it is, as shown in the screenshot to the right, there is the option to choose whether to install the sponsor or not.
(I'm not very good at punctuation, please correct any mistakes)

And avoid using infrormal expressions where possible and be as accurate as possible:
- Some people are used, when installing software, to disregardedly accept agreements without reading them. This mistakenly causes them to think the sponsor is installed without user's permission. However, as shown in the screenshot to the right, there is the option to choose whether to install the sponsor or not.

Please, correct/improve this text for it to be a style model for all wiki-volunteers who would like to help us in building up a nice MP! article while learning how to write other ones. Thanks :)


RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by RaceProUK on 06-13-2005 at 09:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by KeyStorm
- Some people are used, when installing software, to disregardedly accept agreements without reading them. This mistakenly causes them to think the sponsor is installed without user's permission. However, as shown in the screenshot to the right, there is the option to choose whether to install the sponsor or not.
Or maybe the following:
- When installing software, sometimes people disregardedly accept agreements without reading them. This mistakenly causes them to think the sponsor is installed without user's permission. However, as shown in the screenshot to the right, there is the option to choose whether to install the sponsor or not.
It's up to you to decide which is better worded.

NB: 'disregardedly' can be replaced by 'blindly' or 'automatically'.
RE: Messenger Plus! on Wikipedia.org (you can help!) by KeyStorm on 06-14-2005 at 12:14 AM

Thanks, you may want to edit yourself hat part and see if you find some more mistakes or inaccuracies of this kind in there. :)

I was also wondering if the author (GFD) or the permissions holder (Patchou) would allow to upload footage about Plus! like its logo and a series of screenshots that may illustrate things described in there. Paperless already did with the sponsor agreement, but did not specify any licence notice for the picture, can we count on your express written consent to user that material or should we stay constrained to the "fair use" of copyrighted media?
This would only mean that, although the work is copyrighted and stays copyrighted, its autors or rights holders would allow the specific use in Wikipedia and specially limited to refer to Messenger Plus!.