User:Waggie/sandbox/COI for beginners

You may have been directed to read this page because you have a potential Conflict of Interest (COI). This page is intended to explain, in simple terms, what COI editing is and what special policies and guidelines you may need to follow in the case that you meet these criteria. It is also intended to help you avoid common mistakes and pitfalls that many COI editors face when editing Wikipedia for the first time.

What is a Conflict of Interest?
On Wikipedia, a conflict of interest is where someone may have a reason to bias content, regardless of whether that bias is negative or positive.

Do I have a COI?
If your answer is yes to any of the following questions, then you will need to declare your conflict of interest in order to meet the Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use. You should not attempt to make any further edits without addressing this.


 * Are you employed by someone to create or edit an article about them?
 * Are you an intern for the subject of an article and have been asked to create or edit an article about that subject?
 * Has a close friend or associate asked you to create or edit an article?
 * Are you being paid to create or edit an article?
 * Are you wanting to create or edit an article about yourself?

I have a COI, what do I do now?
The first thing is to disclose your COI. There are many ways to do this, but the easiest way is to make a simple statement on your userpage that states who you are working for or are associated with and that you are creating or editing articles for them.

Declaration Examples:
 * "Hi! I'm Alice and I work with Neato Computers, Inc. I'm the marketing manager and wish to create a Wikipedia page for our company."
 * "I am an intern for Sunna Carpets in Leeds and I've been asked to update our company article with current information."
 * "I'm Grant and my friend is Jerry Carmichael, I noticed some incorrect information on his article and I'd like to correct it."
 * "I am Esmerelda Gonzales and I would like to create an article about myself."

Basic Wikipedia principles
Because of the many types of articles that Wikipedia has, we have seemingly complex requirements for the contents of articles that can often difficult to navigate. The most important of which are verifiability, notability, reliable sourcing, and neutrality.

Reliable sources
The keys to identifying what a "reliable" source is:
 * The publisher of a source have a reputation for fact-checking and editorial control and the specific source be subject to that editorial control. Most blogs, social media, press releases, etc. do not meet this standard.
 * The source must be independent of the subject, so information from a company website, a press release from that company, or someone's own statements are not acceptable sources.
 * Note: Exceptions to this are made for trivial content. For example:
 * A company website or press release citing the location of a company or it's basic corporate structure, but not for a listing of it's products/services, any awards it may have received, it's customers, or other information that might be considered promotional.
 * A person stating where they were born, or what their birth date is or other non-promotional or non-controversial facts about themselves.
 * Quoting a statement made by a company or person, in a brief and neutral manner.

Some examples of what would make a reliable source is:
 * A major media outlet (New York Times, Times of India, Yomiuri Shimbun, etc.)
 * A peer-reviewed journal (The American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Economic Literature, etc.)

Verifiability
Verifibility is one of Wikipedia's core principles. Wikipedia needs independent and journalistic sourcing to verify article contents, especially in the case of biographies of living persons.

Notability
Wikipedia has guidelines for inclusion that all articles must meet. You may find articles that do not meet these guidelines, but arguing that these exist is not a valid reason for your own article to be included if it does not meet these guidelines. There is a lot of poor quality articles on Wikipedia and we do all we can to try and either improve the quality of articles or remove them as we are able.

The simplest to understand criteria for inclusion are what we call the "General Notability Guidelines". They specify that a subject must be the subject of comprehensive discussion in multiple reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

Neutrality
Neutrality is a core principle of Wikipedia, and many editors defend this principle with zeal. Edits to articles must be neutrally written. Statements that either promote or denigrate a subject in Wikipedia's "voice" are not allowed. Such statements, if appropriate at all, should be carefully and correctly summarized from and cited to a reliable source.

Promotional edits
Wikipedia is purpose is not to give you a place for you to tell your company's story, or to get the word out about your services or products. It's also not a place for you to improve your Google search rankings or to get on the Google Knowledge Graph. If these are your intentions, then you are starting with a mindset that will make your experience on Wikipedia extremely difficult. Wikipedians are here to contribute to the encyclopedia and give useful and neutral information to the readers. If readers want to read about your products and services, they can go to your website or your social media outlets, you should not consider Wikipedia an extension of your marketing efforts.

Copyright violations
Copyright law is extremely complex and Wikipedia must be very careful about not violating copyright laws. When someone creates content (text or image) they have certain legal rights to control how that content can be used. This section is not intended to be a discussion of copyright law, only some general non-legal advice about copyrighted content.

Text copyright
It's almost never useful to copy text from another website. Aside from almost certainly being a copyright violation, content should be summarized from the sources, not copied. Brief quotes are allowed, but should be used sparingly, and always placed within quotation marks.

Image copyright
Images uploaded to Wikipedia need to be correctly released by the copyright holder with a license that is compatible with use on Wikipedia. We require that the image be released to be used for any purpose, including commercial, as long as the creator is attributed. Someone writing you an email or telling you on phone or in person that it's OK is not sufficient. The bottom line is that if you didn't create it yourself, you probably shouldn't upload it.

I've been blocked!
If an administrator has blocked you for promotion, spamming, a problematic username, or other issues, it's time to stop and assess the situation in full. On your talk page will be a notice that explains what you were blocked for, and what your next steps are for appealing your block. If you do not understand what you were blocked for, ask for clarification.

When you appeal your block, you must demonstrate that you understand what you were blocked for and how you intend to not violate those guidelines or policies again. If your appeal is unsuccessful, then you should read why your appeal is declined, ask more questions and read very carefully what the responses are. You may be linked to various policy and guideline pages that will be difficult to understand, read them very carefully and ask specific questions about what you do not understand.

Do not attempt to create another account, this is an explicit violation of Wikipedia policy and will result in blocking of the new account and almost guarantee that the blocks will not be lifted. Please understand that Wikipedians are very experienced at detecting "block evasion".

Attitude on Wikipedia towards COI editing and COI editors
Many Wikipedians have strong opinions regarding COI editing. You will likely experience some extra scrutiny from some editors, and some editors will probably have less patience with you. If you are not prepared to deal with some pushback, then Wikipedia is probably not the place for you.