I am a new user. Yesterday, 02/18/12, I really messed things up. I tried to update information titled "Reformed Church in America." There was mention of the coetus and conferentie with a notation that ref and cite was needed. I was researching the old town of Schraalenbergh when I came across the above information. Recently I stumbled upon an old book titled: "Annals of the Classis of Bergen of the Reformed Dutch Church, and the Churches Under Its Care: Including, the Civil History of the Ancient Township of Bergen, in New Jersey" by Benjamin C. Taylor, Hosford & Co., NY, third edition, 1857. The information on the coetus and conferentie was right in front of me and only a few pages away from my research on Schraalenbergh.

So, I tried to be helpful. This is what I wrote: One source indicates that defections may have occurred as early as 1737. 'Desolation pervaded many of the churches, whereas prior to 1737 good order was maintained in the churches, and peace and a good degree of prosperity were enjoyed. ...But in 1754, the Coetus of the previous year, having recommended the changing of the Coetus into a Classis with full powers, the opposition became violent, and the opponents were known as the Conferentie.'

I then entered the above information citing the above book, pages 18-24. I tried for two hours to add my info. and cite, but kept getting 'Cite error' messages. I went in again today and tried to correct the error, but got totally lost. The error message is still there. In, addition the last couple of sentences of the paragraph as it appeared before yesterday are now missing. I did not delete them.

For anyone out there that would like to successfully update the information based upon the above cite, I would appreciate your help. For anyone connected to the Reform Church, please accept my humble apology. I was only trying to make the information a little more thorough. If you would rather return the information to what it looked like prior to yesterday and disregard my update, I have no objection. I am not an authority on this subject. Old camper (talk) 18:44, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

No worries. We encourage users to be bold when editing. Adding references is a particularly difficult action on Wikipedia - even old hands often mess it up. While there are other places to get help, I think Wikipedia:Help desk is best for problems using the software. Rmhermen (talk) 00:09, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello, Old camper, 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:

• Introduction to Wikipedia
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article
• Simplified Manual of Style

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Rmhermen (talk) 00:09, 20 February 2012 (UTC)