User talk:Folkstreams1

Welcome
Hello, Folkstreams1, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I notice that one of the first articles you edited appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article. Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or any other editor to proofread it. To start creating a draft article, just click your user name at the top of the screen when you are logged in, and edit that page as you would any other. If the page you created has already been deleted from Wikipedia, but you want to save the content from it to use for that draft, don't hesitate to ask anyone from this list and they will copy it to your user page.

The one firm rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. It is also worth noting that Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which specifically link them to one company or corporation. If your username does have such a name, it would be advisable for you to request a change of username.

If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! You can also just type   on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few other good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you have any questions, check out Where to ask a question or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Pharaoh of the Wizards (talk) 22:43, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
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February 2012
Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended for publicity and/or promotional purposes. Please read the following carefully.

Why can't I edit Wikipedia?

Your account's edits and/or username indicate that it is being used on behalf of a company, group, celebrity or other well-known individual, or organization for purposes of promotion and/or publicity. The edits may have violated one or more of our rules on spamming, which include: adding inappropriate external links, posting advertisements, and using Wikipedia for promotion. Wikipedia has many articles on companies, groups, and organizations, but such groups are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia to write about themselves. In addition, usernames like yours are disallowed under our username policy.

Probably not. See WP:FAQ/Organizations for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, organization, or clients. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit again. Consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.
 * Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?

You are still welcome to write about something other than your company, organization, or clients. If you do intend to make useful contributions on some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:
 * What can I do now?


 * Add the text on your user talk page.
 * Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
 * Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
 * Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
 * Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.

If you believe this block was made in error, you may appeal this block by adding the text below but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. Drmies (talk) 22:43, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm looking for an explanation as to why this account was blocked under the pretense that it is spam. It's not spam.

I'm not an administrator, so I have no say in unblocking your account. But I want to point out that the username is the beginning of the issue. Before unblocking your account and changing your username, an administrator will want to know that you have read and reviewed Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline. Singularity42 (talk) 16:10, 15 February 2012 (UTC)


 * @Folkstreams1 - Then probably what you should do is create a Help:Userspace draft. That would be more protected from newpages patrollers as they realize it is a work in progress.  You can work on the page at your leisure and then when you feel it is ready to go "live" you can request a move or move it yourself into the article-space.  The changing the username isn't symbolic - you have a COI regardless of the username.  While it isn't a big deal in your case, we forbid names that match organizations to prevent obvious commercial interests from editing the encyclopedia and garnering free advertising by virtue of that (for example, if many of the edits to Alexander Graham Bell were by User:MicrosoftWin7).  Renaming your account will remove the above concern, and also possibly make you feel like you can improve the encyclopedia in other areas other than just the article that your account is "attached" to.  I'm probably explaining it badly. :/  Does that sound reasonable? Syrthiss (talk) 16:15, 15 February 2012 (UTC)


 * We can do it two ways: I can either modify your block in such a way that you can log out of this account and register a new account, or I can unblock you and you can file a WP:CHU rename request. I recommend the first choice there as it is quicker.  We understand that your org is not for profit, but that doesn't mean that you wouldn't garner additional press by simply having an article here.  Let me know which of the above (if any) you want to do, and you can do that by just replying under these comments.  You don't need to place another  template.  Cheers, Syrthiss (talk) 17:54, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

I will take your advice then and ask that you modify the block so I can log out of this account and register a new one. And then, when trying to create the page, you suggest that I use the Help:Userspace draft to create the page at my leisure? I apologize if this has been frustrating for you, I'm new to using Wikipedia in this manner. Thank you for all your help though. Folkstreams1 (talk) 18:03, 15 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Yep, essentially you will end up editing a page with a name like User:Mynewusername/folkstreams draft. My apologies to you as well.  I realize it can be kind of rough when you first try to edit.  If you need help in the future, you can always leave a message at User talk:Syrthiss.  I've modified the block and removed the autoblock, so please let me know here if you still are unable to edit or unable to create a new account.  Cheers, Syrthiss (talk) 18:11, 15 February 2012 (UTC)