User talk:Mberger200

Conflicts of interest
Hello Mberger200. If you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred, are strongly discouraged. If you have a conflict of interest, you should avoid or exercise great caution when:
 * 1) editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with;
 * 2) participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors; and
 * 3) linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Spam).

Please familiarize yourself with relevant 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. Thank you. --CliffC (talk) 19:54, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Dear Cliff,

To date, I have done nothing more than add my books to reference lists that deal with topics I address. is this a conflict of interest, according to Wiki guidelines?

Thanks, Martin Mberger200 (talk) 17:16, 4 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello Martin - yes, that would be a conflict of interest, please follow that link for help on handling conflicts. A report was filed here, and the additions were subsequently removed.


 * Contributions to the encyclopedia citing your books would be most welcome, but please review item #2 in the guidelines here, which encourages contributors to improve the encyclopedia by adding cited text, not just links. Welcome to Wikipedia.  --CliffC (talk) 21:38, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Dear Cliff,

I've read the guidelines now, but remain confused. For example, I added my recent book on civil right photography to several civil rights-related entries. According to what you've written, and what I've read on the COI page, it's OK for me to write on material that's within my area of expertise, but the issue is that I added references without changing the entry itself? I don't get how it's a conflict of interest for authors to make readers aware of their recent books that directly address the topic, but not for them to alter the information provided on the various pages (and then cite their own work). If I understand you correctly, I can legitimately add back the now-deleted citations, if the additions come with modifications to the entries themselves. Is that correct?

Thanks for he clarifications. 71.139.161.133 (talk) 23:21, 4 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi, take a look at Suggestions for COI compliance. It's best not to make such changes yourself, but to suggest changes or additions on article talk pages to get consensus, "the best method to establish and ensure neutrality and verifiability".  --CliffC (talk) 12:10, 5 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll try to clear up the confusion: You are correct that the main problem is that you were only adding mentions of your book and no content. It may not have been your intention, but your editing pattern could appear to others to be spamming your books across articles. If you wish to add information from your books to articles, you are welcome, but I would encourage you to also add citations to other people's work, and to ensure that your additions do not make your work appear overly significant. I hope that helps, and sorry for all the guidelines you have to read! SmartSE (talk) 14:54, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks to Cliff and Smartse for the clarifications. It was not my intent to break wiki rules. (I would not have used my own email address if that was the goal). Martin Mberger200 (talk) 15:53, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Dear Cliff,

I just expanded the entry on "Jonathan Walker" and added current bibliographic citations to the "further reading" section of the "civil rights" entry. I hope that these additions are acceptable. Mberger200 (talk) 23:53, 9 July 2011 (UTC)