User talk:Michaelstrauss

Conflict of interest
Welcome to Wikipedia. If you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about, 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. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  01:56, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Reply from Orange Mike
Hi, I have received a reply with regards to my request for a link to my transport maps quoting conflict of interest issues. Having read the guidelines I cannot detect a conflict of interest. Can you clarify?

Thanks

Michael Strauss 12:09, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * If you insert links to your website(s), it can be considered what we call "link spam", intended to drive up traffic to your site. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  16:01, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

response to reply from Orange Mike
Thanks for the reply. I can see your point, but having checked a few Wiki pages I found that some external links will inevitably increase traffic to those sites, some of which are commercial and use the site for sales (as in the Business Design Centre site). My maps are not for sale, but for information only, and as such offer the best and most comprehensive information on public transport available (you can check with any other map, including Transport for London),and are also the best designed.

But if your previous reply is meant to be understood as a definite "no", please say so.

Thanks and best regards

Michael Strauss 00:09, 6 May 2010 (UTC)
 * 1. If such links exist, then feel free to remove them as linkspam.
 * 2. I'd be inclined to say, definitely "no." -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  03:18, 6 May 2010 (UTC)