User talk:Anderson7575

August 2014
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, your addition of one or more external links to the page Park Center Senior High School has been reverted. Your edit here to Park Center Senior High School was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline. The external link(s) you added or changed (https://www.facebook.com/ParkCenterSeniorHigh) is/are on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 02:44, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

School articles
Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia! I notice that you just got started today as an editor and Park Center Senior High School is the only article you have worked on. I am glad that there are people that want to help with school articles, even if it is just one school that may have special importance for you.

However, please keep in mind that Wikipedia is a reference work, and as such, we try to keep similar articles (like school articles), styled somewhat the same. To that end there are guidelines as to what can and cannot be in a school article. They are kinda confusing, but you will find them at WP:SCH/AG. I will be glad to help you with any questions you may have. Just drop me a note on my talk page.

There are a couple things which new editors to school articles almost always add that does not belong. One is the school songs. We never include those due mainly to the fact that there are copyright issues, but also because a school song is something every school has, and what we are trying to do is emphasize what is different about each individual school. That has got to go. Another thing that seems to always come up is excessive detail that is primarily of interest to only the local population. Things like the titles of plays the drama department has produced, the names of the marching band shows, etc, would fall into that category. Same with season by season descriptions of athletics.

Wikipedia article are written to inform the entire English speaking world. When you are adding something, it may help to ask yourself the following question: "Would Mary in Mobile or Sam in San Diego or Kumar in Bhopal care about this?" If the answer is no, leave it out. John from Idegon (talk) 03:29, 9 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Ok, you are at the mall and strike up a conversation with some other kids. "Hey!". "What's up?" blah blah blah...I go to "Park Center Senior High an International Baccalaureate World School".  Do you actually ever say that?  Of course not.  That is what is known as "corporatespeak", its sole purpose is to promote, and we do not write the encyclopedia in a promotional tone.  Putting it back.  If you want it in the article, you will need to follow the editing model found at WP:BRD and start a discussion on the article's talk page.  If the consensus there is to have that as the name in the infobox, then that is what it will be.  If not....


 * I will also be removing the info you re-added about the boys basketball team. We ONLY discuss state championship teams, per the above referenced WP:SCH/AG.  Not 2nd or 4th or 25th, just the champions. If you want to improve the article, it would be great if you could find a reference to the state champs we are talking about.  Either the state sanctioning body or a newspaper story about the the tournament final would be great!    John from Idegon (talk) 17:02, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Reply
Hi! Thanks for your thoughtful note. I appreciate it a lot that you are concerned with doing it right. Working on school articles as much as I do, I get kinda jaded from dealing with the usual students that edit the articles and their inability to discern the difference of an encyclopedia article about their school and a webpage for their school. Thank you.

I think the comment I made above about corperatespeak is still the salient point in the name question. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad's article here, and the name shown in its infobox, is under BNSF Railway, altho its advertising all style the company as BNSF, a Berkshire-Hathaway company. We call things by the words people use here. Official names and PR stylings are not important.

It is very appropriate to include copy on IB programs. They, along with AP programs, should be discussed in an "Academics" section. Also there should be test scores with independent references, and info on the newsweek and US world news & Report rankings. Another thing you can discuss in an academics section is any highly unique course offerings (such as Norwegian as a foreign language for example--you are in Minnesota!)

The band would never qualify for an article of their own. High schools automatically qualify for an article. Bands have to meet the pertinent notability requirement--WP:ORG. It is very doubtful they would.

However there should be copy in the article about the band. It should be balanced in size (with variation in size by importance of each individual program in the school) to the other performing arts. Stuff to include would be brief details on each program, any state or national championships won with independent references, and anything of exceptional interest about each program. Use your discretion on the last part. Only include the most important parades, etc and the ones you have the best references for.Stuff not to include would be student or faculty names and a bunch of trivial details like play titles or show titles. the same holds true for academic competition teams. Keep in mind that all achievements must have independent references and we do not discuss individual achievements at all.

I have not yet as of this writing reviewed your edits for today. I will change what I think needs changing. Please bring any discussion you have about it to the article's talk page.

Also, whenever you post on a talk page you must sign it by typing four tildes ( ~ ). This will add your signature and a timestamp. thanks. John from Idegon (talk) 05:47, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Managing a conflict of interest
Hello, Anderson7575. We welcome your contributions to Wikipedia, but if you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about in the article Park Center Senior High School, you may have a conflict of interest.

All editors are required to comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view content policy. People who are very close to a subject often have a distorted view of it, which may cause them to inadvertently edit in ways that make the article either too flattering or too disparaging. People with a close connection to a subject are not absolutely prohibited from editing about that subject, but they need to be especially careful about ensuring their edits are verified by reliable sources and writing with as little bias as possible.

If you are very close to a subject, here are some ways you can reduce the risk of problems:


 * Avoid or exercise great caution when editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with.
 * Avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Spam).
 * Exercise great caution so that you do not accidentally breach Wikipedia's content policies.

Please familiarize yourself with relevant content policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, verifiability of information, and autobiographies.

For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have a conflict of interest, please see our frequently asked questions for organizations. ''You have stated on my talk page you are an employee of the school. the changes made today were largely promotionally toned. Please read the links in this template and bring your edit requests to the article talk page'' John from Idegon (talk) 06:14, 12 August 2014 (UTC)