User talk:Abadir M. Ibrahim

Citing yourself, speculation and possible conflict of interest
First of all, welcome to Wikipedia. As a new contributor, you may not yet be familiar with the policies and guidelines of Wikipedia. You are invited to take a look at them here.

I noticed that most of your edits so far, such as your edit of the article on the Nile Basin Initiative, were built around a reference to a work of your own. While citing oneself is allowed on Wikipedia, it is not encouraged since it may constitute a conflict of interest if an outside interest (promoting your own publications) is more important than advancing the aims of Wikipedia (promoting free knowledge). Your own publication that you quote, | The Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement: The Beginning of the End of Egyptian Hydro-Political Hegemony, indicates that you are a J.S.D. Candidate. This makes you well qualified to contribute to the substance of this and related articles, or to write new articles on this and related subjects. It is thus highly welcome if you contribute in good faith to Wikipedia articles, and I do assume good faith on your behalf, which is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia.

Another problem with your contribution is that it is speculative: "If the upper riparian states, Egypt and Sudan, do not sign the agreement it will bring more controversy and may end up not affecting Nile basin relations, therefore, keeping the status quo." (emphasis added by me) Wikipedia is not a place for speculation: It is not a crystal ball.

Because of this speculation and the possible conflict of interest I deleted your contribution, giving the above reasons. You have now reinserted the contribution without responding to what I had written. I thus invite you to provide on this page the reasons why you believe your contribution should be maintained, or to modify your contribution. Please note that replacing "will" with "may" in your contribution takes care of the concern about speculation. If you make more contributions to this and related articles without quoting yourself this is one way of showing that your concern for Wikipedia is greater than other motives. This would - at least in my view - address to some extent the concern about a conflict of interest.

If you have any questions on how you can contribute further to this and other article on Wikipedia, I would be happy to help you.--Mschiffler (talk) 17:04, 3 December 2011 (UTC)