User_talk: XxVxX

Hi XxVxX,

Thanks for joining our community.

Since you're new, feel free to take the wikiHow tour to learn about how things work around here.

Please leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions about contributing to wikiHow!

Hey V!

Thanks so much for helping out with patrolling! I know it can be a bit tricky at first, but don't worry - it's normal to get feedback, ask questions, and skip the edits you're not positive about. Do you have any questions so far?

Have you checked out How to Patrol Recent Changes yet? It has some really good advice about what to do with different kinds of edits - I found it handy when I started! Here are the basics out of that article for you, so that you can read them over before you do more patrolling:

• Article edits: If they're accurate and helpful additions, keep them. If they're vandalism or involve unnecessary inclusions of brand names or external links, roll them back. If they are helpful but are not in wikiHow style, format, or the edit contains mistakes, do a Quick Edit to fix the edit.
• New articles: If there's a blank space on the lefthand side, instead of an old version of the article, it means it's a new article. If there are mistakes in it, you can use Quick Edit to fix them up, or if you're not sure what needs fixing, just go ahead and skip them for now. New articles can be especially tricky!
• User pages: Most edits here are okay. Only roll-back or question the edit if it's clearly vandalism or contains abusive content.
• Talk pages: Generally, messages between talk pages that aren't vandalism or abuse are fine, too. You can mark them as patrolled, most of the time.
• Discussion pages: Generally, most comments here are fine to patrol, but if you see obvious or repeat spamming, abusive or offensive content, you can remove it.

I hope you stick around and keep helping out. There are tons of ways to lend a hand! Have you checked out the other Community Dashboard tools yet, too? You might like Tips Patrol or the Spellchecker as well!

No prob, happy to help! How are you liking wikiHow so far?

Sweet - I'm glad! Well reach out any time if I can help, or if you have questions about our Writer's Guide or anything else :)

Hey hey,

I saw you marked Take Care of Abandoned Kittens as patrolled and I wanted to ask you a favor - since the new article backlog has been really long lately and is growing longer, we're trying to encourage patrollers to handle new articles a little differently: if you don't mind, can you either skip them, or do some editing/templating, rather than just marking them patrolled?

When you patrol a new article, you're the first person to ever see it, so it's a bit like you're quality control! It really helps the Boosters out if you can either fix up any formatting/copyediting mistakes on the spot, or add templates for future work, like {{stub}} (for very brief articles that need expansion), {{copyedit}}, {{format}}, or {{cleanup}}. Or, if you think they qualify for deletion under our Deletion Policy, you can go ahead and add a specific NFD template, with the appropriate three-letter code. Of course, it's always better to work on an article rather than delete it if possible, but sometimes there are some that really need to be marked for review and possible removal.

If you just mark them at that stage, they can sit unnoticed and unedited for a long time if they don't get seen in NAB right away - so if you don't want to edit on the spot, skipping the means that other editors can take a shot, instead :)

Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about it. Thanks so much!

Thank you for the thumbs up!

You're welcome. That was a great edit you made, so I thought it really fair to show you the same respect.

Thanks for your edits on User_talk:Krystle.

Heyhey -- is there a reason you rolled back this talk message here? I'm not sure - I might be missing something. Let me know :)

Okie doke, thanks for the reply! I didn't put it back, but I did let Krystle know about it, so it's a-okay. Just wanted to check in to make sure I wasn't missing anything about the message. Hope you're having a great Friday :)

PS If you know you've made a mistake, you can always check your contributions here, or by going to "My Profile" and then "My Contributions" (in the top green bar) -- then you can find it and fix it ;)

HI, thanks for the Thumbs Up on "See if You Have Misophonia" -- I appreciate it!

Hey V!

I just wanted to ask about this edit. I saw you marked it patrolled - it added some images, but they don't seem to have anything to do with the article? What do you think? I've removed them for now, but if there's a connection I'm missing, let me know and we can fix it :)

Okie doke, cool - thanks for taking a second look!

Sure -- I looked on the Discussion page here and it looks like it's been voted on once and kept. The reason was different, so that doesn't mean you can't nominate it again for a different reason, if you want to. Personally, I'd stay it's a stub but not an NFD (it's not *so* incomplete -- and that's the kind of case that stubs are made for). But if you feel strongly about it, I'll leave the template and others can chime in on the debate, too, to build consensus one way or another :)

Sorry, just saw your second message, which I'd missed before. Yeah, personally I'd say it's more stub than NFD. If you want to remove the NFD, feel free - if you feel strongly, that's okay, too.

You can remove one that you yourself placed - but if you want me to take it off for you, I can do that, too, to avoid anyone else thinking you're doing it in a different case (if they don't look at the history). Just let me know :)

Sure thing - done!

Thanks for your edits on House a Ferret.

Nice use of the template here - you're catching on to all the ins and outs of patrolling so fast. Big kudos! :)

Sure Ill have a look , thanks for the edit anyway :)

Hi there! You were featured in "Rockstar Newbies" this week...congrats :)

http://forums.wikihow.com/discussion/10911/community-achievements-of-the-week-6.17.14/

Hi again! I see that you've been trying out our new tool, Picture Patrol! What do you think of it so far?

I agree! That's another way of getting rid of unhelpful images.

Hi again! Congrats - your work was highlighted here: http://forums.wikihow.com/discussion/11059/some-awesome-contributions-id-like-to-highlight-

Nope, anyone can merge - Check out How to Merge a wikiHow Article and just make sure you focus on the ones you're really sure on the titles being the exact same thing :)

No prob!

Thanks for the TU!  :)

Thank you for the thumb up! =)

Hi XxVxX, I have 2 user id's -- Chris G and Xhohx, so I was editing my own work when I changed the cat on Paint Photos or Copy Masters Using XL Transparency -- so I rolled you back, I hope you don't mind but I think it's a much better cat than Digital Photography for it. We can discuss it though, here or on the Discussion Page of the article, if you like?

Thanks for being conscientious!

Hey V! Saw you around helping out with patrolling again and just wanted to say a big thanks! How've you been? Nice to see you around :)

Saw your note to Anna. I made a commitment to do 50 edits a day -- ones that count. That's how I got to 4000+ -- no big secret to it: make a plan and stick to it, every living day. Soon, you'll reach your goal, I can just about guarantee it -- unless The Plan was faulty. That's happened to me before (a whole lot) -- but I was still nearer my goal than when I started!!

Awesome - that's a great goal! Just keep truckin' and focusing on quality over quantity, and you'll get there in no time :)

Nice edits on Use the Foil Method on Your Nails. Very much appreciated.

Thanks for the kind message and the thumbs up! :)

Hey, Xx,

thanks for the thumb up! =)

Hi Xx, I don't administer the NAB test, so I am not across the timings. I'd ask Krystle as she's right across it. Good luck! Felicity

Yep, no worries - you can always just take the image tag, which will look something like [[Image:example.jpg|450px]] - and copy and paste it into your new version. I looked over the diff here, though and don't see any images having been removed, so I think it just didn't have a full set to begin with. I can put in an image request for you, if you'd like! :)

Thanks for your edits on Write an Essay About a Famous Person in History, by the way - nice expansion! :)

Your edits on Make Children's Birthday Invitations looked good! :)

No prob at all! How's all the patrolling going? I saw you were helping out a *ton* which is awesome! Slow and steady wins the race, so definitely keep in mind "quality over quantity", and keep skipping anything you're not sure of. It's awesome you're dedicated to helping out with it! :)

Hi! I just sent part 2 :)

Hi there,

Thanks for your help patrolling recent changes. I wanted to touch base with you because I noticed you are patrolling quite a few edits in a short amount of time. In reviewing the edits you approved, I noticed a few things and wanted to bring these to your attention.

• http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Identify-and-Care-for-Lionhead-Fish&oldid=16486504&diff=prev
  • This article is incomplete as-is, and should have been either added to, or marked as an NFD|inc. It's not good to patrol these low-quality, incomplete articles in. By patrolling them without adding a tag or performing an expansion, it is slipping through the cracks and may not be seen or edited for a while.
• http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Write-Essays-%28O-Level-Style%29&oldid=16486177&diff=prev
  • Likewise, here, this article is not in a how-to format and should have been marked as such before patrolling it.
• http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Draw-Discord-Whooves&oldid=16488253&diff=prev
  • This article needs formatting work. It is imperative to check the article text, including the formatting & placement of step numbers before clicking to patrol it. A {{format}} tag should have been added, or a quick edit performed to correct the step ordering problem.
• http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Discussion:Install-a-Reverse-Osmosis-Water-System&oldid=16488262&diff=prev
  • This discussion page message included a spam link, and should have been reverted, not approved. Also, if you check this user's contributions, you would notice that they spammed this link/message on many other discussion pages. It should have been rolled back, as well as all the others.

I want to emphasize that when patrolling, quality is more important than quantity. Rushing through hundreds of patrols and approving sub-standard edits is not particularly helpful, so I would urge you to consider taking a slower, more careful approach. If you are unsure what to do, or don't simply feel like taking the required action to fix an article, you are always more than welcome to Skip the edit and let another patroller handle it.

Please review the edits I mentioned above and get back to me so that I know you understand them.

Thanks again for your help, and please don't hesitate to reach out to me if I can be of any help.

Thanks,

Jeff

Thanks, I appreciate it! You might want to check out this tutorial on patrolling that I wrote. It centers on developing a process to ensure that each change patrolled somehow improves the page. I think it might be helpful, and please let me know if you have any feedback once you read it.

Thanks,

Jeff

Hello, XxVxX. I recently changed an article, http://www.wikihow.com/Turn-On-YouTube-Subtitles, and I noticed that my edits were reverted. I checked the edit history of the article and you were the last editor, so my guess is that you reverted it. Can you please explain why you reverted my edit (if you did)? Thanks a lot, and sorry if I'm mistaken! :)

Thanks for your edits on Sound Good Playing the Guitar. Cheers for switching that wording around to the "action verb" at the start - much more how-to friendly! :)

Thanks for your edits on Be a Bounty Hunter in Animal Jam.

Thanks for helping out with categorization!

You're very welcome! Thank YOU for all you do around here :)

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Thanks for the thumbs up. :)

Thank you :)

Thanks for the Thumbs Up! I just made that quick edit as I noticed that is was an advertisement to an outside link. Keep up the good work patrolling!

Hi I was not trying to make the page "entertaining" I have worked in retail for 59 years and have worked 20 different types of cash register and I know a lot about that. so I added the correct info about them.

Thanks for rolling back this spam....and for your help with patrolling in general today!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the edits.

Thanks so much for the advice, I will definitely look over and change the article :-)

Thanks for your edits on Solve Nabooti Island on Poptropica. Nice fix! I think your intro reads much more smoothly :)

Congrats on being featured in our Community Achievements this week! How are things going?

Wow, you did a nice job expanding How to Survive Common Core - thank you so much!

No worries; sorry to hear that. Feel better soon.

thanks man

Thanks for your edits on Get a Girl to Kiss You if You Are a Girl.

Just wanted to say thanks for the rockin' work you've been doing patrolling! RC is slipping a little high again in the last day or so, so it's great to have you helping out with the queue. Three cheers! :)

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Glad I helped:)

Thanks for the thumbs up! It is really appreciated!

Thanks for your edits on Keep Healthy. Icky vandalism - thanks for catching it! Hope you're having a stellar week so far :)

Honestly, I'd ignore it. I'll remove them from your page for you :)

hey i'm sorry i didn't get you...my problem is i published my article accidentally while i was still writing..help! how can i delete it?

Great edit of Install Apps on and iPad. Concise (and conforming to the how format.) That took a lot of work.

ok thanku!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ur welcome

You're welcome, I'm learning new things along the way by spell checking. :-)

hi

Hey, XxVxx! Thanks for helping out with the Community Quality Review! Since you've verified 5 Technology articles, you've been added to the Technology Review Team (see the list here).

Feel free to review other categories, though, you're not tied to your team, and you can join multiple teams!

If you have any questions about verifying, leave Krystle a message!

Thanks for the thumb up!

Thanks for your edits on Make Your Room Nice! You did a great job on it!

Hey V!

I just noticed that RC is creeping pretty high again - we had a great sunny weekend, but we're over 650 now, eek. I'm going to try and dive in to do some in a little while, but if you're around at all today, would you mind lending a hand? No biggie if you can't - we'll get it down sooner or later! But just thought it was worth asking a few of our pro patrollers in case you're around ;)

Either way, hope your week is off to a great start!

No problem! ^^

Sweet, V - thanks so much for helping!

I added a few thoughts to Get-Kids-to-Behave-in-the-Supermarket. I hope you like them! The article is off to a great start - thanks for writing on that request! :)

No prob - thanks for the great article!

Thanks for the contributions in categorization!

"Even though it's been a bit, can I still complete the booster test? I noticed the spreadsheet was updated."

Yes, but the test has changed a little bit since I sent it to you, I think. Can you email me again and I'll send you the updated version?

Hey! Not sure if you noticed, but you got a forum mention here: http://forums.wikihow.com/discussion/14904/congrats-to-new-quality-testers-and-project-assistants/p1

Congrats!

I looked my article you edited! I think it's better because of you, thanks!

Just wanted to stop by and say thanks for the edit you made to Make Your Room Nice! Congrats on being featured in our Community Achievements

Thanks for your edits on Limit Kids' Time on Internet. Big cheers for rolling this back... and helping out with those cloudy RC skies in general! So great to come online today and see it sunny again - thanks to the diligence of conscientious patrollers like you! Thank you :)

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing How to Meet an Essay Word Limit! What great advice :) I did notice that we have another great page on How to Avoid Going Over an Essay Word Limit. You might want to add your advice to that page! Just press Edit at the top and add your input in. It'll be read by more people that way, and your username will be on the list of authors, so you'll get credit for your wonderful work. Let me know what you think :)

So glad to hear it, V! I think that'd be great - there's a lot more we could internationalize around here, and seeing how everyone banded together to get it done was super inspiring. I'm glad you got a kick out of it! I'll definitely keep you posted with future projects like that - they'd be mentioned in the forums, but I'll try to let you know personally, too :)

Hey! I'm sorry, it appears that I made a mistake. The different topics are distinct: one is about not going over the limit, and the other is about meeting it when you're having trouble writing enough words.

Congrats on having your article promoted, though!

Thanks for letting me know how the titles are distinct :)

Thank you for your help with patrolling, too!

i was just trying to motivate people :)

Thank you, XxVxX, that you gave my edit on Be a Humble Christian a thumbs up. -- Gar

See what you think of my edit here to "Meet an Essay Word Limit". Maybe you can smooth it out a bit, if it seems choppy; I'm not sure.

Okay, good. Great article. I added a little more to the proofreading step: Meet an Essay Word Limit.

Nah, not me! Just regular ol' vandalism. Thanks for helping to fix them!

Thank you for the compliment, and the thumbs up! :)

Thank you for the thumbs up. I'm glad you saw something in that edit! Keep up the nice work!

Thanks for the work you did on Cope with Anxiety Disorder!