User talk:Papersofgwashington

Editing here, and possible COI
Hi Papersofgwashington, I've reverted your recent edits, because you removed all referenced material and sources and replaced it with unsourced content. This isn't to dispute the veracity of the revisions, but rather, seeks to conform to encyclopedic guidelines. All content must not only be properly sourced (all the more vital when dealing with biographies of living people), but be neutral in tone. If conflict of interest is relevant, that must be divulged, per WP:COI. Thank you very much, 2601:188:0:ABE6:B095:6CD9:12FD:9C11 (talk) 21:35, 5 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I do have a follow-up question re: past edits, as at The Washington Papers. Can you confirm which content came first, that which you added to the article, or that which is copyrighted at sites such as here ? If content you added to Wikipedia has been copied from other sites, there may be a problem. Thank you, 2601:188:0:ABE6:B095:6CD9:12FD:9C11 (talk) 21:41, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Notice of Conflict of interest noticeboard discussion
This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Conflict of interest/Noticeboard regarding a possible conflict of interest incident in which you may be involved. Thank you. 2601:188:0:ABE6:B095:6CD9:12FD:9C11 (talk) 21:53, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Your username
Welcome to Wikipedia. I noticed that your username, "Papersofgwashington", may not comply with our username policy. Please note that you may not use a username that represents the name of a company, group, organization, product, or website. Examples of usernames that are not allowed include "XYZ Company", "MyWidgetsUSA.com", and "Trammel Museum of Art". However, you are invited to use a username that contains such a name if it identifies you personally, such as "Mark at WidgetsUSA", "Jack Smith at the XY Foundation", and "WidgetFan87".

Please also note that Wikipedia does not allow accounts to be shared by multiple people, and that you may not advocate for or promote any company, group, organization, product, or website, regardless of your username. Moreover, I recommend that you read our conflict of interest guideline. If you are a single individual and are willing to contribute to Wikipedia in an unbiased manner, please create a new account or request a change of username, by completing this form, that complies with our username policy. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. Thank you. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  07:58, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I would also like to recommend that you not make substantial direct edits to an article with which you have a direct conflict of interest. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  07:59, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Managing a conflict of interest
Hello, Papersofgwashington. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a COI may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. In particular, please:


 * avoid editing or creating articles related to you and your circle, your organization, its competitors, projects or products;
 * instead propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (see the request edit template);
 * when discussing affected articles, disclose your COI (see WP:DISCLOSE);
 * avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see WP:SPAM);
 * exercise great caution so that you do not violate Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation (see WP:PAID).

Please familiarize yourself with relevant policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, sourcing and autobiographies. Thank you. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  07:59, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Conflict of interest
I've had a look at the edits and so far, here's what I'm seeing:

You are likely a student at the University of Virginia that has been asked to edit Wikipedia. While there's nothing wrong with this specifically, you need to be very, very careful about making direct edits to the article because you have a direct conflict of interest in this case, as it's well within your best interests to represent UVA in a positive light. It's also within your best interests to edit in a way that makes your superiors happy, as this means that they're more likely to do things for you in the future that would help you out, like recommendation letters and the like. I'm not saying this to be accusatory, just to explain how the idea of COI works on Wikipedia and why your edits would be seen as a conflict of interest.

Now here's the other issue: you're adding a lot of information that is fairly promotional in tone and also run the risk of putting undue weight on specific aspects of the project. This is likely because you are copying and closely paraphrasing promotional material for the project. As someone who is involved in the project and wants to see it succeed, you likely don't pick up on this wording - this is one of the reasons why we tend to discourage direct editing to articles if you're not familiar with editing with a WP:NPOV. Also, copying and closely paraphrasing content from elsewhere is seen as a copyright violation, which is one of Wikipedia's strongest policies. You can file a ticket at WP:OTRS that gives Wikipedia permission to use content from the UVA website, but some editing for tone may become necessary.

It is possible for you to make direct edits, but for right now I think that it'd be a good idea to seek out a mentor that can work with you on making the edits, especially since you've raised a bit of concern. I would highly, highly recommend that you contact Maggie Nunley, who works with the Brown Library at UVA. She's helped with Wikipedia to some degree (at least with helping to host an edit-a-thon, so I'm not sure exactly how much she knows about Wikipedia) and may be helpful with some face-to-face interactions. I can also help you out with editing, although my time right now is limited due to school. I live about an hour or so away so I can't drive there easily to work one-on-one, which is why I'm recommending Nunley. At the very least she can help you figure out how to start the process of giving Wikipedia permission to use the content, which should be your next step. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  08:22, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

I will only make two short comments here. a. You really need to change your username, because it is not acceptable according to our policies; had Tokyogirl79 not already engaged in conversation with you I would have blocked you already, possibly a block that also cites promotional editing. b. Your edits are indeed promotional, as far as I'm concerned (and it doesn't matter whether the organization is non-profit or not). Even if that content is deemed acceptable in terms of copyright status, it's still not acceptable according to our policies, since it's excessively detailed, lacks secondary sourcing, and serves to promote the organization. Please start by requesting a new username. Thank you, Drmies (talk) 20:01, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Hey! I'll help out here - I just haven't been on a whole lot the past few weeks due to school amping up for the last portion of the semester. One of the first things I would like to do is have you file a ticket through OTRS that would give Wikipedia permission to use the material. Some of it would still need to be re-written, but it would give us a lot more wiggle room because then we'd be able to closely paraphrase without it being a copyright violation. If all else fails, I'll take the page into my userspace for the time being. As far as the e-mails go, I do remember getting an email a bit ago and I'd gotten Maggie to help, but then got a little wrapped up with classes. I really don't think that a block is necessary here because any missteps here are really, really unintentional and it's kind of turned into a perfect storm. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  03:31, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I see on my talk page where you said that you'd put a ticket in to OTRS. I'll go ask and see what the progress is - I know that sometimes things can take a while to clear through there. While we wait I'll try to start re-adding in what I can. Offhand what I'm mostly worried about here is just making sure that I don't paraphrase something too closely before the OTRS ticket clears. I'm finding enough to where notability should be asserted (although I don't entirely think that was ever really an issue), a lot of it via the publications that were released as part of the project. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  04:22, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I do need to note, however, that I had only received one e-mail from the project asking about the article. The tone was mentioned, but I did have Maggie on the issue and I mostly assumed that the main correspondence on this would happen via Wikipedia. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  05:14, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I got in touch with OTRS and they said that they needed a PDF file of what would be included in the copyright. I can help you make this file if you want. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)  07:26, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

July 2017
Welcome to Wikipedia. Because we have a policy against usernames which give the impression that the account represents a group, organization or website, I have blocked this account; please take a moment to create a new account with a username that represents only yourself as an individual and which complies with our username policy or request a change of username. It also appears that your account is intended to be used for the purpose of telling the world about an organization, person or cause that you consider worthwhile. Unfortunately, many good causes are not sufficiently notable for their own Wikipedia article, and all users are discouraged from editing in any area where they have an inherent conflict of interest. You may wish to consider one of these alternative outlets. If your username does not represent a group, organization or website, you may appeal this username block by adding the text at the bottom of your talk page. You may simply create a new account, but you may prefer to change your username to one that complies with our username policy, so that your past contributions are associated with your new username. If you would prefer to change your username, you may appeal this username block by adding the text at the bottom of your talk page. Thank you. ··· 日本穣 ·  投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe ·  Join WP Japan ! 17:19, 21 July 2017 (UTC)