User talk:Gems175

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Hello,

First let me introduce myself, I am Jeff Waldrep... Deputy EMS Chief with Gaston County EMS.

I posted content from our departmental website in your system to replace inaccurate and potentiallly harmful content about our organization that is currently listed there. When our agency first appeared in Wikipedia, we were pleased that someone took the time to honestly and obnjectively provide information about the capabilities of our EMS organization. However, recently the article content citing agency problems lends itself to opinion and an inaccruate portrayal of our agency that is potentially harmful. I have made two attempts to revise this listing... the first was replaced by the same content by a user named "Mean as Custard" and my latest revision was apparently removed by Wikipedia management for policy issues.

I would like to formally request assistance in clearing this content issue up or ask that any content on Gaston County EMS be removed from your system. I find it unsettling that anyone can modify any content without verfication or authorization. Please feel free to email me at Jeff.Waldrep@co.gaston.nc.us or contact me at (704)866-3204.

Sincerest regards,

Jeff Waldrep, NREMT-P, BBA Deputy EMS Chief Gaston County EMS Office (704) 866-3204

Copyright Issues
Thank you for clarifying the source of the material you contributed and who the owner is for the content at Gaston County EMS (GEMS) ‎. Unfortunately we can't leave it at that if we're going to use the material. We need you to verify with the Foundation that you are the real copyright holder and understand the legal implications of putting your copyrighted work on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation has established specific licensing guidelines that we need to follow.

If you still wish to grant Wikipedia the rights to this material, follow the instructions here. It has all the info you need. Be sure you understand the rights to the text that you will be giving up. Then, you'll be granted what's called "an OTRS ticket" that shows Wikipedia has been granted the rights to the text and then you can post the material verbatim (provided the subject meets the other qualifications for articles on Wikipedia such as notability).

We don't accept copyrighted work outside of that process in order to protect the holders of copyright, both from others posting their words on Wikipedia, and from unknowingly signing away their rights.

I hope you understand that refusing all copyrighted work until we have real evidence that it's been released into the GDFL is the best way to make sure we aren't violating anyone's rights.

Either way, please do not restore that material until this issue is resolved.

I hope this helps. Toddst1 (talk) 16:50, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Reply to Waldrep
Thank you for taking the time to discuss this on the talk page. Simply revising the article yourself could open the door for conflict of interest editing. Wikipedia tries to avoid one-sided puffery as well as hyper-critical articles, but it can happen. I agree with you that taking out the section about service problems was correct since it was completely uncited. On another note, it is best to not use simply the organization's website as the only/primary source since it could contain bias/promotional info. Newspaper/TV articles and books are much better sources. See page on reliable sources. However, if that section had been cited with a reliable source, that would bring up conflict of interest editing and would have been inappropriate. As it stands now, the article doesn't have a lot of info on it that shows notability and it is uncited, so it could be nominated for deletion for that. If you don't mind, I will see if I can flesh out the article some this weekend. If not, I'll nominate it for deletion. Thank you. -- JoannaSerah (talk) 18:36, 2 February 2012 (UTC)