and some would be appropriate and some not. Some general considerations about how other Wikipedia editors - I've been volunteering there since late 2004 - can make their articles a bit more helpful (adding categories, learning the manual of style- ok, I need that too... clarity! clarity! location!... ... right. When I'm thinking of writing an article about Wiener Artenschnitzel the pioneering composer of bon-bons for kazoo orchestra (names changed to protect the innocent. Oh, ok. Yes, this is just an example. Fine.), it is good to know that someone's already done so, so I can add to theirs, not start a new one. So I look up 1808 - his birth year, natch -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1808_births -
hrm, nothing there under A. Or under W, either... just to be sure that there isn't an article under a slightly different spelling (happens often... Carl Reinecke, Karl Reinecke, Carl Heinrich Carstens Reinecke... variants, inclusion of middle names, Frantisek Kramar vs. Franz Krommer (Czech/German), DiaCritics vs. Live for the Cri.. hush.)
I created-- well, translated, mostly- a page about a rival of Mozart's, a composer of substantial music named Leopold Kozeluch (using the name he has in the Czech republic, since he was born in Velvary- Leopold Anton Kozeluh) - and then found someone else had created a page about him with a name commonly used on his publications in, if I remember, the UK (Kotzeluch, I think...) Ah, confusion. I merged the two articles, used Kozeluch (a much more common spelling and one he used towards the end of his life I think- he was born Jan Antonin Kozeluh but changed his name because a relative of that name was also a famous composer in his time (and his teacher, too).
So I could mull over some advice to other editors, if there are some here, and to readers also; for all that two years' use of the site isn't that much, it's something, and I've never had a low opinion of the value of my advice of course ;^).
Or I could describe my brush with, erm, Wikifame... but anyone can find that out, and it hurts to think about it.
Eh. Other possibilities, of course.
(Wikipedia allows you to create a "redirect" page from a variant spelling/name/ to the article under the name that was actually used, but someone actually has to create that redirect page, no guessing games take place.)
