User talk:Jmwalsh3

February 2016
Hello, I'm James Allison. I wanted to let you know that I undid one or more of your recent contributions to hoverboard because they appeared to be promotional. Advertising and using Wikipedia as a "soapbox" are against Wikipedia policy and not permitted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. Regards, James(talk/contribs) 17:50, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

ANI
There is currently a discussion at Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Regards, James(talk/contribs) 00:42, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

February 2016
You have been blocked indefinitely from editing for making legal threats or taking legal action. If you think there are good reasons why you should be unblocked, you may appeal this block by first reading the guide to appealing blocks, then adding the following text to the bottom of your talk page:. You are not allowed to edit Wikipedia while the threats stand or the legal action is unresolved. ··· 日本穣 ·  投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe ·  Join WP Japan ! 00:49, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

5/6/2016 Dear James Allison and Nihonjoe, I am responding to a block placed on February 18, 2016 for GoPed, Ltd. First, I would like to apologize for previous communications between Wikipedia and GoPed, Ltd. Since then responsibility for communication with Wikipedia has been assigned to me, Colleen Lennox. I take care of public relations for GoPed, Ltd. When I read what happened, I understood right away why there was an issue. The previous communications were poorly handled and I assure you that communications will be handled differently in the future. I think they didn’t properly understand “soapboxing” or how to appropriately edit Wikipedia. The legal threats were inappropriate to the situation and will not happen again. All threats from legal action relating to this block on February 18, 2016 are rescinded with our sincere apology. This block is no longer necessary because I understand what GoPed was blocked for, we will not do it again and we will make productive contributions in the future. I have read the terms and conditions of use for Wikipedia and the literature provided on requesting that our account/editing contributions be unblocked. I will abide by the terms and conditions and ask for help through Teahouse and administrators as appropriate in future editing. I am requesting that the block be removed. I would like to explain the background for the editing GoPed did regarding hoverboard. For GoPed, there is a lot of emotion tied to the Wikipedia entry regarding hoverboard. GoPed invented, patented and trademarked the first two-wheeled electric scooter called Hoverboard® in 1999. GoPed’s Hoverboard® was the first two wheeled electric scooter with suspension technology. GoPed still holds the word trademark on Hoverboard® in the United States and Europe as well as a patent for the CIDLI suspension which gave the first Hoverboard® the feeling of “floating on air”. This feeling the rider experienced inspired its inventor, Steve Patmont, to call it Hoverboard®. As a result of the explosion of Hoverboard® copycats in 2015, GoPed has defended its trademark vigorously in court. In this we have been victorious and have licensed only one other manufacturer in the US who may use the Hoverboard® name on their product. The most common argument we encounter is that the word Hoverboard® is generic. The article in Wikipedia regarding the history of hoverboard was cited as a reason why this term should be considered generic because GoPed was not in the article. When we read the article for ourselves we realized that GoPed’s Hoverboard® was historically important in the timeline of the two wheeled Hoverboard® scooter. We wish to record GoPed’s contributions to hoverboard in Wikipedia to accurately and factually reflect GoPed’s contributions in the timeline. For these reasons, the previous editing to Wikipedia had a lot of emotion connected to the editing contributions. I understand why the previous editing was inappropriate and all future editing will be appropriate. Thank you for taking the time to consider my request to remove the block so that we may contribute to the hoverboard timeline. Please direct all responses to the below email if possible. Sincerely yours, Colleen LennoxJmwalsh3 (talk) 21:30, 6 May 2016 (UTC) lennoxc@goped.com

This is a response to the points you bring up above. First, let me get some bookkeeping out of the way. We don't allow shared accounts here. It sounds like this account used to belong to someone else and now belongs to you. I'm unsure (literally, unsure) whether that's acceptable or not. If it isn't acceptable, it certainly would be fine for you to create a new account.

I understand the concerns that your company has, and have personally been following the course of your complaints via write-ups on sites such as ArsTechnica. Note, though, that it is probably inappropriate for you to edit the article directly, as you have a conflict of interest. I understand your strong emotions. What you really want to do, though, is bring up your points on the article's talk page. Note that you are a representative of your company and indicate the changes you think are appropriate. Note that you have to convince the other editors to make the change, though. Wikipedia follows a neutral point of view which can make it particularly difficult to strike the right balance here. That means some of the changes you want to see may not happen; that's the nature of a collaboratively edited encyclopedia. Of course, there may be some edits that aren't really open to discussion. For example, if someone falsely claimed the Hoverboard only worked in the northern hemisphere, that's... not really something open to discussion. But even then, I'd urge you to talk the matter to the article's talk page. If nobody's willing to change that self-evident fact, you can ask for additional help.

Anyway, I hope this proves useful. Remember, I'm speaking on behalf of myself, explaining my understanding of Wikipedia policies and guidelines. I'm not speaking as an official representative of Wikipedia itself. --Yamla (talk) 22:06, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I have no problem with the unblock per the same reasoning as the unblocking admin. However, Colleen Lennox will need to create a new account that belongs solely to her. Transferring accounts is not allowed (as it involves sharing the password), per WP:NOSHARE. This account will need to be either used by Mr. Walsh (guessing the name based on the username) and the password will need to be changed by Mr. Walsh, or the accounts needs to be blocked since it has been compromised by the password being shared. Colleen needs to log out of this account, then go to this page and follow the directions to create a new account. ··· 日本穣 ·  投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe ·  Join WP Japan ! 22:36, 6 May 2016 (UTC)