User talk:Timetraveler3 14

Welcome!
Welcome, !

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally.--Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 03:11, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

A Very warm welcome, and thanks!!!
I had been coming to wikibooks and editing content on inorganic chemistry since a few days To tell th truth, it was very difficult, given that I was alone and none of the work was of immediate use to anyone.

Your edits came in as a nice surprise. Your edits suggest me that you are a student, and if my unintelligent guess is somehow right - one pursuing an elementary course in Chemistry at the moment.

The two of us collaborating
Wikibooks is all about collaboration - (as are all other wikimedia projects) - I have my formal notes from two years back on chemical bonding and periodicity that might serve here well. I am quite willing to upload the scanned pages [they are not hasty jot downs or any other waste like that - they constitute a formal textbook ;)] of the notes - will you like to transcript those pages into text + diagarms?

I have already made up my Mind that I'll be uploading the scanned notes here on some wiki project, but if YOU are willing to collaborate, I will upload those notes NOW - so that wikification and editing by other contributors may start gaining momentum.

Waiting for your reply - and thanks for all the edits! I know you might not be able to get enough time for working on the project, because the same is here with me. But if you do, will you be able to collaborate? That's the question!

Reason for transcripting
The reason is very simple. How many people want to start writing a textbook from scratch? On the other hand - consider that you have a textbook with all the topics covered, but lacking in explanation, detail or has some minor flaws here and there. The latter will attract a lot more volunteers who are willing to make the book BETTER. I won't be surprised that if the textbooks uploaded here are helpful to the students, someone will be willing to re-format it, someone will be able to draw diagrams for us, somebody else will be willing to donate lab pphotographs for the book, thus making the book making process a LOT more simpler.

But for the rush of edits, we first need something that can be edited to be made better. If we have blank pages and scarce information like we have at the moment, how many people will be enthusiastic about the project? That's the sole reason of transcripting - providing an impetus to the project!

I hope i have conveyed all of my enthusiasm to you!

Reply
You can reply here iself, or if you wish you might come and chat on my talk page. --Thewinster (talk) 18:20, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks
Oh glad that you are willing to! Maybe we'll get to being somewhere. I have got my Entrance examination on the 13th of april - so i am afraid I wont be scanning/uploading my notes right now! Maybe ten-twenty pages before the month turns - but not the full set. :(

Contributing - what is needed?
As far as editing content goes - Well - It just depends on what sort of textbook we wish to create. Since you are a major in Physics, you'd be able to connect to the Physics textbook a little better.

The Physics textbook right now over there is more like an elaborate glossary - it doesnt really teach anything, but at the same time it is nearly comprehensive. Consider kinematics for example - you could emphasize the difference between distance and displacement; add a few problems on distinguishing them - like distance and displacement of a particle going round a semicircle, average speed and average velocity in such motions - then some graphs to analyze - and what not!

The possibilities are endless - but as students we would rather be confused about teaching a topic with a flow, nevertheless, we can always explain or elaborate what we have already understood. We could discuss this more, but for now - its just that not many textbooks here have any substantial self study content.

The chemistry text
I checked the Lewis Structures page - yeah thats perfect for the book right now. I'll upload a few pages right now for you to check out.

Proposed Editing Scheme
We cant concenterate on adding polished content at one go!! We just havent got the expertise or the proper guidance to. What we can do is


 * Add bare text on certain topics - which may or may not serve the purpose of selfstudying, but what people aquainted with the topic can understand.
 * While writing certain topics, we might explicitly assign some points for Ghost-Writing
 * As the text matures, we can add intext objective/descriptive questions which serve the purpose of teaching. Note that its always better for us to add such simple questions and explain each one of them rather than sit with a few textbooks and editing their content to create our own.
 * This doesnt complete the textbook - a textbook is more than just text; but we assume that further discussion on this topic is not needed unless we have a skeleton ready!

As time passes - I'm sure we can develop a modus operandi useful not only for Inorganic Chemistry but for every textbook over here.

I know you might not be able to contribute if you leave Chemistry as a subject of study, but lets just hope you'll contribute to Physics otherwise! ;) Cheers!

--Thewinster (talk) 17:50, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Link To The Pages
Before we get any enthusiastic about our collabo - I'd like to confess that the scanning was very inferior. Also blame my sick handwriting some years back! You might not like the order of topics/type of discussion in the pages. In such a case - you might want to Tag the text with instructions or add some notes for future contributors and me on the discussion page. We cant expect to have the best text rightaway! Expect full support from me in any editing help required.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inorganic_Chemistry/Chemical_Bonding/Ionic_Bond http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inorganic_Chemistry/Chemical_Bonding/Fajan%27s_Rule

Second thoughts on wikipedia
And some major topics like Lewis Structures, the VSEPR theory etc. - We are better off copying the wikipedia text and reformatting it. Reformatting is necessary BECAUSE the text is toooooo lengthy on wikipedia - we are here to create a free textbook that can create interest in the topic! Too much black space (text) can freak readers! :D Discussions are welcome in this regard - but we'll copy the text first - you recommend which topics go up for copying from wikipedia - we can then request the admins here for transwkiying those articles here.

Presently, I am really excited about the book, because even if we fail in wikifying the scanned pages - somebody or the other will be able to reap benefits from the uploaded pages, lets just hope the admins dont have anyproblems with the scanned pages. I know the notes are not comprehensive, but then again - its the beginning! --Thewinster (talk) 20:19, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Transwikied pages
Thanks!! And that will be one step more towards the text. I have some more days to go before i finish wid my entrance examinations. After that - i will transcribe the scanned pages myself and add a set target of 50-100 illustrations.

My only aim with chemical bonding is to make it into an ideal chapter which can be used as a template for writing other chapters, so that more contributors can put in their efforts.

Looking back at my chemical bonding notes - i do not think i should have scanned some of them, although some edits here and there will be just perfect!

Hope to have some news from your side...--Thewinster (talk) 16:53, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

To-Do List
I'm glad that you are taking so much interest in the project.

You can use http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Inorganic_Chemistry/Chemical_Bonding&action=edit for making a public To-Do list that everyone can view. You can use it for almost any kind of open discussion you want.

I can understand your confusion with regards to wikipedia. :)

For the moment - you can grab some textbook on Chemical bonding - check the order of topics and construct a module here on wikibooks using the same topics order, albeit using text from wikipedia.

Once everything is in place, you can edit as you want.

I'm really sorry I wont be able to contribute for a few more days, but if there's anything we can discuss - feel free to!!! --Thewinster (talk) 19:08, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Re: Content from additional places
Well if you think the idea is useful you can surely carry on with it. I would modestly want to point out that getting in too much of reference material can be very confusing and more so if you are doing it to WRITE articles - the reason is you'll be confused how to differentiate our text from others.

Here's a little pathway I would suggest:
 * Prepare a list of topics to be written
 * Start with some text on wikipedia or bare skeleton text dealing with JUST the basics.
 * See which sections need editing and which need elaboration
 * After the book is nearly complete and we have an idea of what we want to create, we can mess around with all the other freely available content!

The purpose of this project is not just to present text - it is also to teach. I guess, apart from plain text (which is basically the SAME in every textbook) we also need illustrations and objective exercises placed at appropriate places.

I am really sorry i can not contribute for some tim. The reason being that the examinations I would be answering will require a 97 percentile for success!

Are you still around?
...and active on wikibooks? Remember we did a little collaboration on Inorganic Chemistry?

Would be glad to collaborate again! - Thewinster (talk) 05:27, 13 September 2010 (UTC)