User talk:SarahSmithLay

Welcome!

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Hello, SarahSmithLay!

I noticed your contributions and wanted to welcome you to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Sparta

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I've restored your edit to Sparta. I can understand another editor's wariness of the edit summary "spelling" when nothing was clearly a spelling correction, and their nervousness about inappropriate use of "would" - there are some painful examples at WP:WOULDCHUCK - but once seen in the whole paragraph, your use was appropriate and constructive; thank you. NebY (talk) 14:34, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@NebY thank you for your comment! I see how a better edit summary would have avoided the (understandable) wariness.
Additionally, I thought i might ask an editing related question.
I was considering adding some more critical scholarship on the Sparta page. Would edits that contest earlier claims be something that would be helpful to do in (my personal) sandbox instead of directly on the live page? I havent used the sandbox before, but as many of my edits have reverted, I think it might improve my edit quality.
Looking forward to hear from you! Kind regards. SarahSmithLay (talk) 20:06, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Glad that wariness makes sense to you now. I'll be interested to see more work on the Sparta article, which I've never tried to review though I've enjoyed reading some comparatively recent scholarship. I find my sandbox useful for testing my citations and other template use, and occasionally for multi-stage transformations of tables that would have looked awful mid-change, but by and large editors don't invite other editors to review sandbox drafts; it's largely a private space as long as you don't violate copyright or whatever.
Instead, most editing starts with WP:BOLD and often follows WP:BRD too; once you're happy, make the edit, then if reverted, discuss it on the article talk page. Sparta's not an article that requires discussion beforehand.
One tip, maybe; I've occasionally seen new editors take a copy of the article into their sandbox, edit many parts, then paste the whole changed result back in one edit. If another editor finds some problems have been introduced, they're liable to revert the whole thing. Better, I think, to make multiple edits so that some can be kept. NebY (talk) 18:24, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]