User talk:Optics guy07

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Welcome!

Hello, Optics guy07, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome!  Natalie 02:24, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Your questions

The questions you have asked are a little hard to answer, because these things are determined on a case by case basis. But I can give you some general guidelines. Our external links policy explains this in greater detail, but links are generally allowed if they are relevant, non-redundant, and reliable. So a link to apple.com is more than acceptable on the article Apple Inc. or OS X, but probably not okay on the articles personal computer or software. When in doubt, it's probably best to ask on the talk page of the article in question. References are different, because they are supposed to be supporting a specific fact. What's more important with a reference is that the source is reliable, which is explianed at our reliable source guideline. References don't have to be available online, since this would prohibit us from using most old books and newspapers, but if the reference is available online a link should be provided to it. Again, if you're not sure the relevant article's talk page is probably the best place to talk about it.

Any image may be used if it is free content (public domain or copyleft) or if it is considered fair use by US copyright law. A picture of a piece of equipment would be fine as long as the photographer released it into the public domain or published it under a copyleft license. So copying a photo of a product from a website is not allowed, but if you take the photo yourself and give it the appropriate license, that would be okay. I don't think the logo is very important, but it isn't disallowed, so it's kind of a gray area. My advice would be to compose the shot in a way that best illustrates the product and not worry about whether or not the logo is visible. More information is available at the image overview, the non-free content criteria, the image use policy, and the image help page.

If you want to add an image to an existing article, other editors of that article may have additional suggestions or requests, so you may wish to post something on the talk page. If you are making a new article, you may wish to first check that it complies with Wikipedia's general notability requirements and the specific requirements for companies and products. You may also want to look at the Business' FAQ. Natalie 23:29, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

No problem! If you're looking for other physics-minded editors you might want to check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Physics. There's also a list of related projects about 2/3rds of the way down the page, on the right. WikiProjects are also handy when you're trying to start discussion on an article page that doesn't get much traffic. Natalie 00:19, 17 August 2007 (UTC)