User talk:JoanB

The biography for Henry II of France had obscene language in it that I removed. How does someone prevent this?

eternal vigilance -- Tarquin 16:57 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

Hi, glad to see you're already taking up some of the gardening duties! Vandalism in Wikipedia is a little like graffiti; it's very hard to prevent totally, but you can discourage it by painting over it quickly, and in extreme cases users can be banned, either by name or IP address. (Personally I suspect that somebody we'll have to go to more formal system of editor registration.) Most people that have been here a while have a collection of articles that they habitually watch, both for vandalism and also for more subtle mistakes that might be introduced.

On the subject of copyrights, there is a definitely a gray area around fair use, and so most people will tend to gravitate towards photographic material that is clearly available. The US govt makes all of its many photos PD, and everything before 1923 is OK (I have a 1913 book of Athenian ruins with some interesting scanner fodder for instance). You'll see a number of articles, especially for plants, animals, airplanes, and cities, using photos taken by the article writers themselves, and you'll even see a few hand drawings done just for wikipedia. Some people also request permission directly, using Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission, so that there's no confusion about what's being agreed to. It's not ideal, but there are still far more GFDLable images online than are used in wikipedia, so we're not being starving for pictures yet. Stan 17:08 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

Can you enlighten us as to just what a biographer at a university does? -- Zoe