User talk:ProfAV

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Hello, ProfAV, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful: Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing 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 and a volunteer will visit you here shortly. Again, welcome! Woodroar (talk) 16:56, 12 September 2014 (UTC)
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September 2014
Hello, I'm Woodroar. I wanted to let you know that I undid one or more of your recent contributions to Video wall because it appeared to be promotional. Advertising and using Wikipedia as a "soapbox" are against Wikipedia policy and not permitted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. Woodroar (talk) 16:56, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Dear Woodroar, thank you for your comment and I'm sorry if I violated some of Wikipedia rules. However, my intention is solely to share my knowledge on the subject. I guess the reason for claiming my edit as promotion was that I mentioned brand names and added links to corporate websites. The problem is that building video walls is highly professional thing and the primary (or even the only) sources of the information are corporate websites of software and hardware manufacturers. Understanding this equipment and software is essential to understanding video walls. I have tried to pay equal and unbiased attention to different hardware and software options. Please give me your recommendation for improving my edits as I believe they are of big value for readers and AV professional community. ProfAV (talk) 09:12, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

P.S. In my opinion, the "Latest advancements" section is much more promotional than my edits despite its academic style. It describes the story and the technology of one single commercial product for video wall management - Hiperwall software (http://www.hiperwall.com). This story and technology is very specific to this product and has little to do with general video wall technologies.ProfAV (talk) 09:19, 13 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Ideally, everything should be referenced to a reliable, third-party published source, meaning academic journals or books or magazines. For something like video walls, the best we're likely to find are tech magazines like Wired and such. And since we're not here to serve as a directory or as promotion, reliable sources tell us what to write about. To put it another way: if nobody is writing about these companies or their products, are they really important? At first glance, the Hiperwall section appeared to be sourced to a tech magazine, but the more I looked into it, the more that appeared to be a (re)publisher of press releases and promotional content. We consider that a self-published source which is rarely acceptable as a source, so I just removed it. There are a few other quasi-promotional mentions in the article, but they appear to be of open-source or non-commercial products so I left them. Of course, that doesn't mean they're immune to our referencing requirements, so they could be removed as well if anyone objects. I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Cheers! Woodroar (talk) 18:20, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

Dear Woodroar, I have completely reworked the reference base for the "Video wall controllers" section. Now there are links to prominent AV periodicals only. Please check and let me know if it is ok. If it is good then I will rework "Video wall management software" in a similar way. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ProfAV (talk • contribs) 10:26, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I'll take a good look when I've got the time. At first glance, I'm not sure how many of the sources we'd consider reliable. Statements directly from the manufacturer, including YouTube videos, press releases, technical specs, and often interviews, are considered self-published sources even if those statements are hosted on another site. A reliable source can pull from this information, of course, but will comment on it and give additional background material. Even detailed product and company information from reliable sources is rarely acceptable in an overview article such as this, unless they truly are critical to understanding video walls as a whole, and the sources should tell us that. Like I said, I'll try to find some time soon to look through the sources. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Cheers! Woodroar (talk) 19:23, 15 September 2014 (UTC)