User talk:PutmanWebEditor

Conflict of interest policy
Welcome to Wikipedia. If you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, 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. Thank you. --Ronz (talk) 16:33, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

May 2011
Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a collection of links, nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam guideline for further explanations. Because Wikipedia uses the nofollow attribute value, its external links are disregarded by most search engines. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. Thank you. Please read WP:EL and stop adding links to your own website.  Neil N   talk to me  19:51, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia and thank you for your contributions. However, I noticed that your username (PutmanWebEditor) may not meet Wikipedia's username policy because Please consider changing your user name as it seems to be closely tied to your organization.. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. As an alternative, you may ask for a change of username, or you may simply create a new account and use that for editing. Thank you.  Neil N   talk to me  19:52, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Courtesy notice
Your editing is being discussed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam, and is under consideration for blocking at WP:UAA --Ronz (talk) 21:10, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

You have been blocked indefinitely from editing for spamming or advertising. From your contributions, this seems to be your only purpose. If you would like to be unblocked, you may appeal this block by adding the text, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  21:12, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

My apologies for any instances I've posted that could be considered spam or advertising. I am an expert in the food industry and news of food companies and was trying to provide information that could be useful to people interested in learning more about the food industry.

I can understand how certain references might have been construed as spam.

I sincerely apologize for any wrong doing I may have done. If unblocked, I promise I will not add basic links (such as just including the website and its URL) to the website I contribute to and instead provide only specific information such as information that can only be found on the site.

For example, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_industry, Under Prominent Food Companies I had include a link to the top 100 food companies http://www.foodprocessing.com/top100/index.html which is a project I work on all year long and which falls under Wikipedia's list of acceptable links (A well-chosen link to a directory of websites or organizations). This list is the only one of its kind and is very useful to members of the food industry. I believe its removal might have been done in error.

For what it's worth, I am familiar -- through the website I contribute to -- How SPAM became spam http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2008/457.html) I would be happy to help the editors of Wikipedia edit or vet any food industry related information if needed.

Also, as noted in my MyTalk notes, I do need to update my username to something more in line with what I do/am -- a food industry expert. My current username was ill advised and I intend to change it should my account be unblocked.

Thank you for your time. Please let me know how I can help out in the future.

Regards, Erin Erickson/PutmanWebEditorPutmanWebEditor (talk) 14:26, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Per User:Jpgordon's note about Putman website and promoting clients, I believe I have been incorrectly included in the ban. I write about food companies -- which are not Putman clients. Putman's clients include organizations like Honeywell, AtlasCopco, and other manufacturers of machinery and equipment.

My knowledge base -- and contributions -- appeal to food companies like Nestle, PepsiCo, GrupoBimbo, MARS, ConAgra, Coca-Cola etc. not equipment manufacturers that buy advertising on Putman websites. I've not ever contributed to or posted in any of Putman's clients. I do consider that an ethical violation and would not be party to it. Rather, I have referenced something written about how Hormel's SPAM and e-mail spam became intertwined. Similarly, I work on a yearly list of the top 100 food companies which, according to what I read on the acceptable guidelines, fits Wikipedia's criteria. It's my understanding that is the sort of information Wikipedia is interested in.

It is not my intention to argue and if Wikipedia's editors do not agree with my contributions as being helpful then I will refrain from posting any longer and will accept the decline.

Thank you for your time PutmanWebEditorPutmanWebEditor (talk) 15:16, 3 June 2011 (UTC)
 * You're also missing the point from the username policy that your username cannot appear to represent a company or organization. ( talk→  BWilkins   ←track ) 16:08, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

name change in progress; awaiting word on being unblocked
Thank you PutmanWebEditor (talk)Bwilkins

The Wikipedia username that was created two years ago was done under bad advice from editorial industry peers. I wish to change it to FoodIndustryErin or something similar. I am awaiting word on whether or not my account will remain blocked.

I'm unsure as to if I can change my username while my account is in question. If this is possible, please let me know and I will gladly do it.

Thank you, PutmanWebEditor (talk) 16:22, 3 June 2011 (UTC)PutmanWebEditor

Conflict of interest you don't seem to understand

 * You posted, "Under Prominent Food Companies I had include a link to the top 100 food companies http://www.foodprocessing.com/top100/index.html which is a project I work on all year long". If it's a project you work on all year long, then you have a massive conflict of interest in publicizing it, and have no business adding a link to it in any article anywhere in Wikipedia. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  21:42, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

conflict of interest understood
I understand how the conflict of interest can be interpreted. I accept that this presents a conflict of interest. I receive hundreds of emails throughout the year on the helpfulness of the list of food companies -- from food industry executives -- which is why I thought it might be an informative addition for the Wikipedia readers. Again, I do understand the conflict of interest.

Throughout my work I come across numerous statistics, trend reporting, etc. that are in no way written by myself or anyone I work with. If reinstated, would I be able to add such information? For instance, yesterday the USDA introduced a new MyPlate icon that replaced the the food pyramid. I assume including information about the icon and a link to MyPlate.org is not a conflict of interest.

Please realize I'm sincerely trying to help inform people and not trying to land on your radar as a spammer or someone difficult to deal with. The food industry is under a lot of fire and as someone who does research and writes about the industry, I'm trying to help inform people that use Wikipedia as a major source of information.

Thank you. PutmanWebEditor (talk) 22:05, 3 June 2011 (UTC)PutmanWebEditor