User talk:130.17.198.217

Editing about California State University, Stanislaus
There have been very many edits of the article California State University, Stanislaus by people at that university, editing anonymously using IP addresses in a range allocated to that ‎university. This has happened intensively over the last seven months, but there have also been other cases of the same thing at least since 2015. (I have not checked further back than that.) Many of the edits have been routine factual updates and the like, but unfortunately a significant number of them have been unambiguous attempts to use Wikipedia for promotional purposes, which is not permitted. There have also been other problems, such as some edits by one or more people who use the article to speak to its readers from the university's point of view, using words such as "we" and "our". There have been some cases of vandalism, both from within the IP range in question and from other IP addresses.

One of the problems with editing anonymously, as opposed to using a Wikipedia account, is that it makes it difficult for other editors to communicate with the person doing that anonymous editing. However, I am posting this message on the talk pages of all the IP addresses in the range which have edited the article recently, in the hope that it will be seen by the relevant people. If you are connected to the university then please read the following paragraph before doing any editing connected in any way with that university.

Wikipedia policy requires an article about an organisation to be written from a neutral and independent point of view. If you are connected to the university, whether as an employee, a student, a contractor, or in any other capacity, you should not be editing the article. If you believe you have legitimate changes that should be made to the article then you may suggest those changes so that they can be reviewed by an independent uninvolved editor, who can make an impartial assessment as to whether the changes should be made. Please read Wikipedia's guideline on conflict of interest for further information. Also, if you receive pay from the university, either directly (for example as an employee or an individual contractor) or indirectly (as for example if you work for a company which is paid for contract work by the university) then you are required to make certain disclosures concerning your relationship to the university: again, the guideline on conflict of interest provides details.

I have no reason to doubt that almost all the editing in question has been done in good faith, by one or more people unaware of the relevant requirements, but unfortunately, no doubt inadvertently, there has been a substantial amount of editing in violation of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines on promotional editing and conflict of interest and the Wikimedia Foundation's legal terms of use. Now that I have posted this message I hope it will be read by the person or people involved, and that the problems will not continue. JBW (talk) Formerly known as JamesBWatson 10:03, 24 September 2019 (UTC)