- Why can't I edit Wikipedia?
Your account's edits and/or username indicate that it is being used on behalf of a company, group, website or organization for purposes of promotion and/or publicity. The edits may have violated one or more of our rules on spamming, which include: adding inappropriate external links, posting advertisements and using Wikipedia for promotion. Wikipedia has many articles on companies, groups, and organizations, but such groups are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia to write about themselves. In addition, usernames like yours are disallowed under our username policy.
- Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?
Probably not, although if you can demonstrate a pattern of future editing in strict accordance with our neutral point of view policy, you may be granted this right. See Wikipedia's FAQ for Organizations for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, organization, or clients. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit Wikipedia again.
- What can I do now?
If you have no interest in writing about some other topic than your organization, group, company, or product, you may consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.
If you do intend to make useful contributions here about some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:
- Add the text
{{ unblock-spamun|Your proposed new username|Your reason here}}on your user talk page. - Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
- Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
- Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
- Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.
{{
unblock|Your reason here}} below, but you should read the
guide to appealing blocks first.
A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (
talk)
18:49, 10 December 2014 (UTC)can i get my account unblocked and change my user name. i got your message and will go back and write only original entries. Murray State College ( talk)jwarren74820
Murray State College ( block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser ( log))
Requested username:
Request reason:
Decline reason:
to be honest i do work for Murray State and didnt realize there were so many restriction with wikipedia. This is my first time having a user account or even writing on wikipedia. I should of read more on the policies. MY BAD. My goal was to correct the information that was out there already and to provide more information about the College. All of the photos were either taken by myself or i was given direct permission to use them. The writing that i "cut and pasted" was from Murray State's website that I wrote myself.
With that information I am not sure where to go from here. Can you please advise what is our next step. I would like to continue to work with wikipedia with in the policies that you guys have set up Murray State College ( talk)
- I'm sorry, I forgot to note in my original notice to you that you were also copyright violations to Wikipedia. We cannot accept text that is copyrighted to another entity (in this case, to Murray State) unless that text is released to the public domain, for anyone to use any way they wish, for all time. I assume that Murray State is not interested in doing that, so if you're unblocked, you're going to have to write new, original prose from scratch rather than copy-pasting from the school's website. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! ( talk) 19:15, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
can i get my account unblocked and change my user name. i got your message and will go back and write only original entries. Murray State College ( talk)jwarren74820
Murray State College ( block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser ( log))
Requested username:
Request reason:
Decline reason:
Don't worry: it's unfortunate that we give so little advice before sign-up time that many users, like you, arrive thinking that this is another site like Facebook where people and institutions tell the world about themselves. In fact, that is not at all what an encyclopedia is for; in particular, we have a very austere view of what is or is not promotional, which is a major reason why editing with a conflict of interest is discouraged. (Within the last few days I was told "It was certainly NOT meant as advertising" about a text which included "By providing excellent service and quality care from highly trained and energetic associates, <redacted> is committed to creating vibrant senior living communities".)
Read these for background:
- WP:Conflict of interest
- WP:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide
- WP:College and university article guidelines
- WP:Avoid academic boosterism
- User:JohnCD/Not a noticeboard
Would you be happy to edit within those guidelines?
There are further complications about copyright, which I do not have time to explain tonight. JohnCD ( talk) 23:00, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
- I think i can edit along those guidelines. if you have any questions about copyrights on the pictures i posted please let me know. I have only posted pics that i took and/or i spoke to the photographer in person. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Murray State College ( talk • contribs) 15:43, 5 January 2015
Very well, I have unblocked you. Please make a request at WP:Changing username as soon as possible - read down to the bottom of that page, click on "Simple" and follow the instructions.
As far as the photographs go, any that you took yourself should be fine. They should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a media file repository which holds images for all the Wikimedia projects. The starting place is Commons:Upload.
For those taken by someone else, unless s/he has assigned the copyright to you and you can show proof of that, I'm afraid the actual photographer will have to make a formal copyright release, as described in Commons:OTRS. More background in WP:Donating copyrighted materials. An important point the photographer needs to understand is that release under a free license implies permission to readers to copy, modify and re-use for any purpose including commercial, and the actual copyright owner needs to understand and agree to that. "Wikipedia only" or "educational and non-commercial purposes only" are not acceptable restrictions.
For the text copied from the website, see WP:Donating copyrighted materials for how you could make a release (just saying that you wrote it is not enough), but it will almost certainly be better to write from scratch in your own words what you want to add to Wikipedia. An organization's own website is designed to promote it and tell the story it wants to tell the world, but an encyclopedia article is quite different - see User:JohnCD/Not a noticeboard, which I wrote because I have to explain this so often. In any case, for all but the most uncontroversial factual changes, your WP:COI|]] means that you should not edit the College's page directly, but suggest changes on the talk page for uninvolved users to consider.
Regards, JohnCD ( talk) 21:54, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
- Why can't I edit Wikipedia?
Your account's edits and/or username indicate that it is being used on behalf of a company, group, website or organization for purposes of promotion and/or publicity. The edits may have violated one or more of our rules on spamming, which include: adding inappropriate external links, posting advertisements and using Wikipedia for promotion. Wikipedia has many articles on companies, groups, and organizations, but such groups are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia to write about themselves. In addition, usernames like yours are disallowed under our username policy.
- Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?
Probably not, although if you can demonstrate a pattern of future editing in strict accordance with our neutral point of view policy, you may be granted this right. See Wikipedia's FAQ for Organizations for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, organization, or clients. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit Wikipedia again.
- What can I do now?
If you have no interest in writing about some other topic than your organization, group, company, or product, you may consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.
If you do intend to make useful contributions here about some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:
- Add the text
{{ unblock-spamun|Your proposed new username|Your reason here}}on your user talk page. - Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
- Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
- Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
- Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.
{{
unblock|Your reason here}} below, but you should read the
guide to appealing blocks first.
A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (
talk)
18:49, 10 December 2014 (UTC)can i get my account unblocked and change my user name. i got your message and will go back and write only original entries. Murray State College ( talk)jwarren74820
Murray State College ( block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser ( log))
Requested username:
Request reason:
Decline reason:
to be honest i do work for Murray State and didnt realize there were so many restriction with wikipedia. This is my first time having a user account or even writing on wikipedia. I should of read more on the policies. MY BAD. My goal was to correct the information that was out there already and to provide more information about the College. All of the photos were either taken by myself or i was given direct permission to use them. The writing that i "cut and pasted" was from Murray State's website that I wrote myself.
With that information I am not sure where to go from here. Can you please advise what is our next step. I would like to continue to work with wikipedia with in the policies that you guys have set up Murray State College ( talk)
- I'm sorry, I forgot to note in my original notice to you that you were also copyright violations to Wikipedia. We cannot accept text that is copyrighted to another entity (in this case, to Murray State) unless that text is released to the public domain, for anyone to use any way they wish, for all time. I assume that Murray State is not interested in doing that, so if you're unblocked, you're going to have to write new, original prose from scratch rather than copy-pasting from the school's website. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! ( talk) 19:15, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
can i get my account unblocked and change my user name. i got your message and will go back and write only original entries. Murray State College ( talk)jwarren74820
Murray State College ( block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser ( log))
Requested username:
Request reason:
Decline reason:
Don't worry: it's unfortunate that we give so little advice before sign-up time that many users, like you, arrive thinking that this is another site like Facebook where people and institutions tell the world about themselves. In fact, that is not at all what an encyclopedia is for; in particular, we have a very austere view of what is or is not promotional, which is a major reason why editing with a conflict of interest is discouraged. (Within the last few days I was told "It was certainly NOT meant as advertising" about a text which included "By providing excellent service and quality care from highly trained and energetic associates, <redacted> is committed to creating vibrant senior living communities".)
Read these for background:
- WP:Conflict of interest
- WP:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide
- WP:College and university article guidelines
- WP:Avoid academic boosterism
- User:JohnCD/Not a noticeboard
Would you be happy to edit within those guidelines?
There are further complications about copyright, which I do not have time to explain tonight. JohnCD ( talk) 23:00, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
- I think i can edit along those guidelines. if you have any questions about copyrights on the pictures i posted please let me know. I have only posted pics that i took and/or i spoke to the photographer in person. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Murray State College ( talk • contribs) 15:43, 5 January 2015
Very well, I have unblocked you. Please make a request at WP:Changing username as soon as possible - read down to the bottom of that page, click on "Simple" and follow the instructions.
As far as the photographs go, any that you took yourself should be fine. They should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a media file repository which holds images for all the Wikimedia projects. The starting place is Commons:Upload.
For those taken by someone else, unless s/he has assigned the copyright to you and you can show proof of that, I'm afraid the actual photographer will have to make a formal copyright release, as described in Commons:OTRS. More background in WP:Donating copyrighted materials. An important point the photographer needs to understand is that release under a free license implies permission to readers to copy, modify and re-use for any purpose including commercial, and the actual copyright owner needs to understand and agree to that. "Wikipedia only" or "educational and non-commercial purposes only" are not acceptable restrictions.
For the text copied from the website, see WP:Donating copyrighted materials for how you could make a release (just saying that you wrote it is not enough), but it will almost certainly be better to write from scratch in your own words what you want to add to Wikipedia. An organization's own website is designed to promote it and tell the story it wants to tell the world, but an encyclopedia article is quite different - see User:JohnCD/Not a noticeboard, which I wrote because I have to explain this so often. In any case, for all but the most uncontroversial factual changes, your WP:COI|]] means that you should not edit the College's page directly, but suggest changes on the talk page for uninvolved users to consider.
Regards, JohnCD ( talk) 21:54, 8 January 2015 (UTC)