User talk:Pebdon

Welcome!
Hello, Pebdon, and welcome to Wikipedia!&#32;Thank you for your contributions.

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited was Open Location Code, which appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article.&#32;Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or another editor to proofread it. See our help page on userspace drafts for more details. If the page you created has already been deleted from Wikipedia, but you want to save the content from it to use for that draft, don't hesitate to ask anyone from this list and they will copy it to your user page.

One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

In addition, if you receive, or expect to receive, compensation for any contribution you make, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation to comply with our terms of use and our policy on paid editing.

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
 * The plain and simple conflict of interest guide
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * Contributing to Wikipedia
 * Tutorial
 * How to edit a page and How to develop articles
 * How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
 * Simplified Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! Girth Summit  (blether) 12:06, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Further to the above...
Hi - a personal note, in addition to the templated message above. Thank you for disclosing your connection to Post Code Star on your userpage. You do need to read our COI and PAID guidelines quite carefully, and ensure that you comply with them, since it would appear that you have a financial interest in this subject. Thanks and regards Girth Summit  (blether)  12:08, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks - please could you have a look at the content in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pebdon/sandbox and let me know if this is OK? You say there is a conflict of interest but if so, how do the initial articles for items like what3words get published initially? Pebdon (talk) 12:19, 30 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Peter. A couple of things to discuss...
 * So, the stuff in your sandbox isn't referenced at all, so it's hard for me to comment on it. It isn't hopelessly promotional or anything (you're not saying 'This is the best system' or 'This allows users to do X, Y and Z that competing systems don't allow), but without citations to reliable, independent and secondary sources, it's hard for me to assess whether this subject is notable. Your article will need to comply with the notability guidelines set out at WP:NCORP in order to be accepted.
 * As for how the what3words article got written - looking back at the article's history, I see that it was originally written by a paid contributor. The draft was reviewed by other editors via the Articles for Creation process, and accepted because the author provided enough independent sources to demonstrate that the subject was notable. The author also disclosed their relationship with the subject on their user page. Note that, now the article has been published, the original author is no longer permitted to edit it directly - they need to restrict themselves to making edit requests on the article's talk page, and allowing independent editors to evaluate their changes. If you write this article, once the draft has been accepted by AfC, the same restriction will apply to you.
 * By the way, you can notify editors that you have responded to them by using the WP:PING functionality. The easiest way is to type, so for example  would issue a notification to me to tell me that you have responded - but you need to make sure you sign your post, or the ping won't be issued.
 * Please do read through the links I gave you carefully. If you have a financial stake in this subject, PAID does apply to you, and failure to comply with it is a breach of WMF's terms of use, which will see your account blocked from editing. Cheers Girth Summit  (blether)  13:03, 30 December 2019 (UTC)