User:Mz7/sandbox/COI


 * Hello, welcome to the Teahouse. Wikipedia is a collaborative project to build an encyclopedia whose content is built on three fundamental principles we call the "core content policies". They are that Wikipedia articles:
 * must be verifiable (meaning that readers should be able to check that what is being written is true),
 * written from a neutral point of view (meaning that all opinions and viewpoints on a topic are represented fairly and without bias ), and
 * must not contain original research (meaning we only write about what reliable sources have written about).
 * Jointly interpreted, these three policies form the backbone for almost every other content policy or guideline we have here.


 * Writing an autobiography, or an article about yourself, is strongly discouraged, because the topic deals with something you would be too closely connected with. With regards to yourself, you have what we call a conflict of interest ("COI"). Editors with a conflict of interest in a topic area often have an unintentionally distorted view of that topic area, and this conflict of interest has a significant potential to go against some of our core content policies. For example, you might unconsciously over-embellish yourself, or perhaps omit verifiable facts that may be negative or controversial—this would violate neutral point of view. Alternatively, you might inadvertently add details that haven't been published in reliable sources—a violation of verifiability and no original research. Because of this potential, the Wikipedia community strongly discourages editing in areas you have a conflict of interest in, and that includes creating autobiographies. If you believe that your accomplishments are notable as per our notability guidelines, then someone else may eventually write an article about you in due time.


 * Although we discourage it, we don't outright prohibit editing with a COI either. To do so successfully, you must have an especially solid understanding and strong command of our expectations. (Consider editing other topics for a while to gain experience.) Carefully read our guideline on writing an autobiography, as well as our guideline on conflict of interest editing. The page Your first article has great advice on successfully creating new articles in general. Then, carefully read our notability guidelines, particularly the specific notability guideline for people. To briefly sum up our guidelines: articles generally require significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. This goes along with the core content policies in that as an encyclopedia, we should only include topics which reliable sources have significantly covered. Reliable sources include news, magazines, published academic studies, etc. Article topics found not satisfying our notability guidelines are typically deleted. If you need help with anything, just let us here at the Teahouse know. Best of luck,

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 * Hello, welcome to the Teahouse. Writing an article about your own company is strongly discouraged on Wikipedia because the topic deals with something you would be too closely connected with. With regards to your company, you have a conflict of interest ("COI"). Editors with a conflict of interest in a topic area often unintentionally edit against some of our core content policies through no fault of their own. For example, you might unconsciously over-embellish your company, or perhaps omit verifiable facts that may be negative or controversial—this would violate our neutral point of view policy. Alternatively, you might inadvertently add details that haven't been published in reliable sources—a violation of verifiability and no original research.
 * Because of this potential, the Wikipedia community strongly discourages editing in areas in which you have a conflict of interest. If you believe that your company is notable as per our notability guidelines, then someone else may eventually write an article about it in due time. Although we discourage it, we don't outright prohibit editing with a conflict of interest either. To do so successfully, you must have an especially solid understanding and strong command of our expectations. Consider editing other topics for a while to gain experience, and carefully read our guideline on conflict of interest editing. The page Your first article has some advice on successfully creating new articles in general. Best of luck,