User talk:Bradjordan
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Hello! Bradjordan,
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Welcome![edit]
Hello, Bradjordan, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:
- Getting started
- 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!
Do you work for Waggener?[edit]
Hi Brad -
Do you work for Waggener? If so, were you aware of the fact that Waggener had agreed not to edit articles on Wikipedia directly? I ask in part because your username and editing style both make me think that you either work for Waggener, or are trying to make them look less than excellent by looking like you work for Waggener. Kevin Gorman (talk) 20:09, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
- Hi - Until recently yes I was working for WE on a project basis (not to edit Wiki articles I might add) which is how I became aware of the company name change and rebrand which took place yesterday - hence the updated logo and name. I appreciate this can be seen as a conflict of interest in editing, and am more than happy to switch back or have the content verified elsewhere. I had contacted WE for further details about the company history to add to the article to clarify the section.
- I wasn't aware at all of the discussions between the firm and Wikipedia at all, despite conversations with both the London and US office - so for integrity's sake, perhaps it's best I back track my edits for now.
- With regards to the name change and logo, this was in several leading industry publications this week, and the website address has changed - should the first changes made stand for now?
- Appreciate your feedback Kevin - many thanks in advance. Bradjordan (talk) 21:00, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
- Hi Brad -
- Thank you for admitting the connection, and not rolling back as soon as anyone notices as many PR people try to do. To anyone passing by: I've confirmed with User:Lisakoetz (the signatory for Waggener on the Donovan House guidelines,) through an official email address, that Brad is indeed a contractor for WE, was previously unaware WE/Waggener signing on to the Donovan House guidelines, and intends to abide to by them in the future. I'll also say that having over looked his edits, they are more or less fine - they're mostly factual changes, many of them of the kind that Wikipedians are loathe to perform ourselves because, frankly, when you aren't getting paid for it or at least have a close personal connection to it, they're pretty boring. I don't think you need to rollback the changes you've made yourself so far - I've looked over most of them already, will finish looking over them, and will touch up anything I see as iffy and then take responsibility for the changes. Since they were good faith changes, I doubt that anyone will have an issue with them, though sticking to drafts and having other Wikipedians move them live in the future will stick closer to the Wikimedia ToU and the Donovan House agreement.
- While you're working for WE, you should avoid directly contributing to WE's page, as well as the pages of any clients of WE. However, you can draft content that other Wikipedians can then look over, edit, and put in to place. The types of changes that PR folks make are often different than the types of changes that most Wikipedians make - for instance, I generally have no interest in whether WE has 9 offices or 12 (although I see it's encyclopedic value.) You should see a button labelled sandbox up in the upper right hand corner of your screen - you can use it to draft content that other Wikipedians can look at and later post. If you are working on multiple drafts at once, you can literally just add numbers to the end of your sandbox url - sandbox1, sandbox2, etc. You can post these sandboxes on the talkpages of articles for other Wikipedians to integrate in to the article as a whole. When writing them, it's good to remember where Wikipedia is coming from - and remember that given how bad many of our corporate articles are, it's possible for you to write an article that completely meets our standards that is still a huge improvement from the previous version. There are a bunch of templates you can use to ask for help posting a draft, but for now if you just ask me directly I'd be happy to help (I say this partly because I don't feel like listing off all the ways you can ask for help in this way.) I'd ask that you still post on talk-pages, but somewhere in your message type {{ping|Kevin Gorman}} (without the nowiki tags, obviously,) to alert me to it. (I'll also be going to DC for a conference for six days or so soon, so I might be partially out of touch for a while.) When posting on article talk pages, it is a good idea (read:requirement) to note that you work for WE, and if the company is a client of WE. If you want to edit Wikipedia purely for the fun of it, I would suggest having two separate accounts, and not touching anything related to WE while on this one.
- There are actually two different, overlapping sets of guidelines in play here - the Donovan House agreement and the recently revised Wikimedia ToU. In general, it's good practice to disclose both on your userpage and any talkpage you post to that you are a paid consultant. It would be a good idea to post who you are on your user page, along with what Both the Donovan House agreement (which forbids direct article editing,) and the Wikimedia ToU apply to you regarding anything connected to WE. If you ever do any freelance work not for WE, then editing articles directly isn't forbidden but still frowned upon - and the ToU still require that you disclose that you are paid and who your client is. Unlike the Donovan House agreement which is more a gentlemen's agreement, the revised Wikimedia ToU are things that we can and do ban people over.
- As briefly mentioned above: please do create a userpage (you can do so by hitting the red username in the top right of your screen) providing as many details about yourself as you feel like, but at a bare minimum the fact that you're a contractor for WE. Best wishes Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:10, 30 September 2015 (UTC)