Talk:Timbuktu

Error in Leo Africanus section

The Leo Africanus states that Timbuktu was rich in corn production during medieval times, however corn evolved in North America and the lack of contact between these regions renders this nearly impossible. While I have not read the book cited, it is likely that the more accurate term would be 'grain' 64.113.96.112 (talk) 05:21, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

What we call Corn in North America, is called Maize in several other English-speaking parts of the world. In these regions, the world 'corn' is used how we in use 'grain' in North America. I suspect that is what is happening in this quote.

I am also 65% sure that the North Americans derived the specific use of the word 'corn' to mean Maize, from the more general meaning of the pre-existing word, but a linguist may correct me on this.

--AEIJ 206.188.225.204 (talk) 14:05, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Makes sense, and aligns with what I'm seeing elsewhere--I'll make that change. Alyo (chat·edits) 14:51, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Popular culture

What about the aristocats 2A00:23EE:14C0:91B:B2F:405A:2C82:9002 (talk) 03:06, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Seek editor permission to add to Further Reading as COI, I'm book's author

• Antonson, Rick (2013), To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa, Skyhorse Press, New York, ISBN 978-1-62087-567-4

Inkroads (talk) 19:38, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Inkroads, it's unlikely that this book rises to the level of being added to the further reading section, but could it be used as an inline source? Is there material in there that we don't cover, or stories/information currently in the article that you could reference to the book? Alyo (chat·edits) 19:47, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

This is very helpful to know Alyo. I am new to the edit process and have benefitted from advice given by your fellow Wikipedia Editor Doug Weller who has guided me on COI postings and ensuring I created a User Page for @inkroads, and so forth. Several of my original offered edits -- like this one -- benefitted from resulting adjustments or removal to place in respective Talk forums to seek posting approval. As to this book, I am the author. In hindsight (lesson learned) perhaps it would have been better to post on Talk with that COI.

My purpose, in addition to adding a worthy book + another (not mine) which I'd thought to add, is that I'd like eventually to draft a page for consideration for use of the Timbuktu related term 'ink road' (yes, that's the handle I use here as editor) as this book and other sources make reference of the days when scholars of the 14th century in the vicinity of Timbuktu were said to "travel the ink road" given their ability to read and write. My intention in the draft is referencing conferences using that header, theme. I have only partially prepared that page for eventual consideration and among the sources I wish to cite where the term has been referenced is the book To Timbuktu for a Haircut. There in I reference efforts to protect the manuscripts. I am in regular contact with Abdoul Wahid Haidara, and pondered adding an update on his work.

Perhaps I got out in front of my own headlights with this suggested edit adding it to the Timbuktu page, but it seems somewhat obvious to this new editor. A mistake?

I'm mindful of your time, but would welcome any advice you have and will adhere to that as I move forward with the aim of contributing welcome and helpful and relevant edits. Inkroads (talk) 19:47, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

@Inkroads Ahh, I see, helpful to know! So one thing that might be useful to you is a draft page in your own userspace. You've already found and created your userpage at User:Inkroads. But you can add a forward slash to create subpages, and then work on projects in your own time. For example, I have User:Alyo/sandbox which I use to mess around with various templates, and then I've even added another forward slash after that for specific projects. So eventually I plan to finish User:Alyo/sandbox/Wah Luck House and move that to Wah Luck House. You could do the same at User:Inkroads/sandbox or User:Inkroads/Ink roads. This would give you a space to work on the draft as you have time, and then eventually submit it for wider review. Any questions on that? Alyo (chat·edits) 15:50, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

That's really helpful advice Alyo, and I sure appreciate it. I will do that with my working draft for "ink road" terminology as I prepare the validating quotes and uses I've found. I'm also drafting a similar approach for the term "Cathedral Thinking" which gets lots of valid uses from prominent sources/individuals and yet does not appear on Wikipedia. In addition, I take it I can continue to add some book references I know of and feel are relevant (for example, Prison Doctor, a book from years ago, was influential in the debate about Capital Punishment, and there are some existing pages where it feels to me relevant for the reader to have this additional reference source), and there are some others that would perhaps make good contributions to readers' knowledge and enhance the pieces. But I don't want to misstep so will do them periodically and monitor if the page master/editor allows or seeks more information. You have been instructive for this new editor, and I have learned from you. Thank you Alyo. Inkroads (talk) 21:30, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

I take it I can continue to add some book references I know of and feel are relevant -- yes, absolutely. Regardless of your declared COI, adding citations to other author's work in other areas will be fine, although as you start on Wikipedia it's never a bad idea to leave a note on the talk page explaining your addition. (If for no other reason than Wikipedia's sourcing/writing rules can seem very arcane at first, and it's helpful to start discussions like this one where people can point out if your edits are impermissible for some reason.) However, if you're comfortable having some of your edits occasionally undone, one of Wikipedia's core values is for you to WP:Be bold! Pages don't have any individual editor assigned to them. I know nothing about Timbuktu, and the only reason I'm answering your questions now is that I cleaned up one small section of this article back in 2022, and this article has been on my "watchlist" ever since. While other editors may know more about Wikipedia policies, there's no "approval" mechanism by which you need to get each of your edits accepted before adding. Is the content sourced (or "verifiable") and does it avoid being one of the things that Wikipedia is WP:NOT? Then add it! The only policy that you should be aware of regarding all of this is WP:SELFCITE, which says that if you are an author, you should not spam your own book as a source--but that adding it in moderation, where relevant, is totally fine. Alyo (chat·edits) 00:41, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Pinging @Inkroads just in case. Alyo (chat·edits) 00:41, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

This is truly helpful, and gives both context and perspective for how I can best move forward with editing contributions as well as drafting potential page(s) for consideration. Thank you very much Alyo. Inkroads (talk) 17:02, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

@Inkroads no problem. If you have further questions, feel free to leave them on my talk page: User talk:Alyo. Alyo (chat·edits) 17:56, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

Possible AI-generated content

Hi -- I have tagged the section added by User:Vallee as potentially AI-generated. Several edits of theirs have raised flags as to potential LLM use (not to mention their userpage which gives it away) and this particular edit is largely unsourced puffery anyway. Gnomingstuff (talk) 04:33, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gnomingstuff should we just remove it then? Alyo (chat·edits) 05:36, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

Your call, I am going through dozens of contributions on various topics so I'm erring on the side of not deleting to be safe. Spot-checking this user's edits I have not found any obviously fictitious sources -- I would guess based on the contribution patterns that they are using a LLM for translation and/or summarization, but they're not around anymore so I can't ask. Gnomingstuff (talk) 12:28, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

Ahh gotcha, thanks for the heads-up then. Alyo (chat·edits) 00:02, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi,

I was offline for some time.

Yes, indeed, I used AI for translations, proofing, and for wiki-formatting.

However, I did it on the basis of serious scientific articles (mostly sciencedirect, JSTOR, or books), which I always referenced correctly. Before hitting the post button, I always checked if the data is accurate.

It was in a phase during which I made a lot of QGIS maps, and was frustrated by the emptyness of the corresponding pages, which I wanted to populate with accurate, retracable information.

I hope this explains the approach.

Till Vallee (talk) 10:45, 21 December 2025 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Africa is Not a Country

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2026 and 9 April 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): SeriousGoose (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Woahhey.

— Assignment last updated by Clcutright (talk) 15:09, 3 March 2026 (UTC)