User talk:PTatSMC

July 2023
Hello SMC-WSM. The nature of your edits gives the impression you have an undisclosed financial stake in promoting a topic, but you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. Paid advocacy is a category of conflict of interest (COI) editing that involves being compensated by a person, group, company or organization to use Wikipedia to promote their interests. Undisclosed paid advocacy is prohibited by our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, and is an especially serious type of COI; the Wikimedia Foundation regards it as a "black hat" practice akin to black-hat search-engine optimization.

Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question if an article exists. If the article does not exist, paid advocates are extremely strongly discouraged from attempting to write an article at all. At best, any proposed article creation should be submitted through the articles for creation process, rather than directly.

Regardless, if you are receiving or expect to receive compensation for your edits, broadly construed, you are  required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use to disclose your employer, client and affiliation. You can post such a mandatory disclosure to your user page at User:SMC-WSM. The template Paid can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form:. If I am mistaken – you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits – please state that in response to this message. Otherwise, please provide the required disclosure. In either case, do not edit further until you answer this message. ElKevbo (talk) 00:00, 11 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Hello ElKevbo,
 * Thanks for the message - we are learning on this end, and I appreciate the information. I have created and added the template to a user page here:
 * User:SMC-WSM
 * Please let me know if this is both correct and sufficient.
 * Since we are learning and you helped point out the policy violations, I hope you don't mind if I ask you a few questions:
 * The edits I made were to include our newest campus and to make sure the article was accurate in the locations we operate. Should I add a citation pointing towards our website where we list our campuses? You mention in your note that it's best to avoid editing the article directly. I'd like to know more about how the "talk" section works. Would you suggest asking someone (anyone) to include the citation there? I just want to clarify the process, and frankly, I'm happy to have other people contribute, I don't need the extra work.
 * I was asked to look into Wikipedia by one of our "satellite" functions. A semi-annual publication that is sponsored by SMC. Since I am now a "contributor" should the editor of the publication submit the article using the process mapped out on the Articles for creation page instead of me? He came to us because we are the "web" people and maintain his online presence on the SMC website. How do you suggest we proceed with this?
 * I'm sure he wants the page to help him give the publication visibility, but the publication has been around for 35 years, and I think that would qualify it as "notable" - but I would also think that's not up to me as an employee of the institute that sponsors the publication. Who makes those determinations?
 * This last question is personal as well as professional. My uncle has a wikipedia page, and my father does not. Both were notable people in their professions, and my father is even listed in other articles but has no page of his own - even though other people who were on the same bullet list of people in the same position do have their own pages. How would you suggest I start a new article, or request a new article? This would be for both the Publication I mentioned above, and for my father as well. Would I need to provide the content as a starting point for someone who would not have the personal/professional connection to build the page? That seems like a lot of work from uninterested parties. (after re-reading this, it's basically the same question I asked in #2, but I'll leave it in case you have a different answer for both articles.)
 * Thanks again for your help. We appreciate Wikipedia for it's scope of work, and want to make sure we are doing things correctly. SMC-WSM (talk) 16:40, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
 * You shouldn't be involved in creating any pages about yourself or family. This isn't linked in. If things are notable someone unconnected will have written about it. Notability.
 * However you cannot keep your username as it's clearly a department - you need to have an account that represents you as an individual. Secretlondon (talk) 17:34, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The restrictions on creating new pages makes sense. And I have put in a request to change my username.
 * Thanks. SMC-WSM (talk) 18:01, 11 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I'll tackle your questions in the order in which you asked them:
 * Explicit citations are always helpful! And it would be perfectly fine to post a polite note in the article's Talk page to explain that you have a connection to the college but would appreciate another editor considering adding the reference (or making other edits and updates to the article). Here is a good guide on how you can use a Talk page to request an edit or make a suggestion. If you make a request or suggestion and don't get a timely response, you could also drop a line at WT:UNI or on my User Talk page.
 * I disagree with Secretlondon's advice above that you "shouldn't be involved in creating any pages [with which you have a conflict of interest]." You should be very cautious in those situations (and note that some editors believe that you shouldn't have any involvement at all). But as long as you're transparent about your connection(s) you are welcome to create a draft of an article and then request that other editors review it and consider making it a live article.
 * Wikipedia editors decide what is and is not notable. Like anything else in this project run by (mostly anonymous and amateur) volunteers, that process can be messy, frustrating, and sometimes contradictory and unsatisfactory. But in general editors are pretty good about giving others the benefit of the doubt and faithfully adhering to the relavent guideline. In general, we look for evidence that there are multiple, substantive reliable sources that meaningfully cover a subject. That is both a check on whether others have considered the subject to be important and whether there is enough available material for someone to write an article. You might also benefit from looking through our advice for articles about colleges and universities.
 * In general, the advice above about how to handle articles related to your employer is similar to advice I could provide about potential articles about your family members - the same policies and practices apply e.g., declare your conflict of interest and be very cautious, strongly consider asking other editors for advice and reviews of article drafts or edits to articles, ensure that potential article subjects meet our notability guidelines.
 * You and your colleagues may also want to take a look at our Wikipedia:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide - it's a helpful document written expressly to answer some of your questions and provide other good, helpful advice for situations like yours! ElKevbo (talk) 00:42, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

July 2023
Welcome to Wikipedia. Because we have a policy against usernames which give the impression that the account represents a group, club, organization, company, or website, I have blocked this account from editing. You are welcome to continue editing after you have chosen a new username that complies with Wikipedia's username policy.

You should also read our conflict of interest guideline and be aware that promotional editing is not acceptable, regardless of the username that you choose. Additionally, if your contributions to Wikipedia form all or part of work for which you are, or expect to be, paid or compensated in any way, you must disclose who is paying you to edit here. Please take a moment to either create a new account, or request a username change of your current account here. The new username that you choose must represent you as an individual person, and it must comply with Wikipedia's username policy.
 * To create a new account with a different username, simply log out of this account and then click here to make a new one.
 * If you prefer to change the username on this account, you may do so by adding the following text to the bottom of your talk page:.

Please note that the new username you choose cannot already be taken or in use by another account. You can go here to search and see if the username you'd like to choose is available. If the search returns that no global account with that username exists, that means it is available to be taken.

Please also note that you are permitted to use a username that contains the name of a company or organization if it also identifies you individually, such as "Sara Smith at XYZ Company", "Mark at WidgetsUSA", or "FoobarFan87", but not "SEO Manager at XYZ Company".

Appeals: If your username does not represent a group, organization, website, or other entity described above, and if you believe that this block was incorrect or made in error, you may appeal this block by adding the following text to the bottom of your talk page:.

Thank you.
 * Please be aware that a Wikipedia account is for only one person, and cannot be used for promotion. When you switch back and forth from "I" to "we", it implies shared usage. You will have to select another username. Cullen328 (talk) 17:33, 11 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Noted - I used the form to request a username change - it is listed as "pending" at the moment. SMC-WSM (talk) 18:39, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Please Unblock
I took the liberty of fixing your disclosure; we don't need the whole url when linking to another article or page on Wikipedia, simply place the target page's title in double brackets, so Joe Biden renders as Joe Biden. 331dot (talk) 08:36, 18 July 2023 (UTC)}}


 * Thank you for your help. PTatSMC (talk) 15:54, 19 July 2023 (UTC)