User talk:Reed Foster

Welcome!
Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:36, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

April 2023
Hello, I'm CodeTalker. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Dale Snodgrass, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. CodeTalker (talk) 03:13, 3 April 2023 (UTC)


 * I’m his nephew, blood relative. That’s not something I can cite with a link.  I’d like to make these changes though. 213.126.106.204 (talk) 08:03, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

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


 * avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization, clients, or competitors;
 * propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (you can use the request edit template);
 * disclose your conflict of interest when discussing affected articles (see Conflict of interest);
 * avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see Spam);
 * do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution which forms all or part of work for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. See Paid-contribution disclosure.

Also, editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:11, 3 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Jauerback, I'm trying to update the information on wikipedia so it presents accurate information. Why did you delete his daughters names?  It's not private information.  I am Dale's newphew and this website needs to reflect the facts. Reed Foster (talk) 14:28, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Try reading what I put above. You have a clear COI, so you should not be editing the article directly. Also, as it's been pointed out to you twice, there's no need for any names to be included per WP:BLPNAME. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:34, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Jauerback, the wiki site contained misleading information about his family and I corrected it. I don't know why you are so hostile. Reed Foster (talk) 14:36, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry if you feel like I'm being hostile, but I'm trying to help you and at the same time ensure that this article doesn't violate any of Wikipedia policies, including WP:BLPNAME, WP:OR, and WP:RS. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:42, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * CodeTalker, above, took my updates down because I didn't provide citations. I just updated the changes with citations by referencing a speech Dale gave at the Smithsonian, his obituary, and my statement as a relative. Reed Foster (talk) 14:31, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Sorry, your "statement as a relative" means nothing in regards to a reliable source. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:35, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Hence the citation and the disclosure of my relationship. Reed Foster (talk) 14:37, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * If I'm not supposed to edit this page, how do I add information? Reed Foster (talk) 14:42, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Did you read the COI statement above? Jauerbackdude?/dude. 14:43, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, I just ask you speak to me in a respectful tone. I'm trying to help correct this page for his legacy. Reed Foster (talk) 15:03, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

COI
Hi @Reed Foster, I see that you are getting frustrated and I want to try to help explain what's going on. Many newcomers to Wikipedia get tripped up by the somewhat counterintuitive fact that people who have personal knowledge of a topic are not allowed to make changes based on that knowledge. All information on Wikipedia must be verifiable; that is, must be taken from a published, reliable source (see WP:V for more information). You cannot add information based solely on your personal knowledge, because no one else would have any way to verify that information.

Secondly, people with close ties to a topic, as you have to Snodgrass, should not edit an article about that topic directly. Such people are considered to have a conflict of interest which makes it difficult for them to write about the topic neutrally. Instead, it is best for you to write an edit request on the article's talk page, and allow another editor, without a COI, to make the edit for you. See WP:ER for instructions on how to make an edit request.

Finally, with regard to the specific edits you are trying to make, we generally discourage adding names of non-notable people who are merely related to the topic of the article, partly for privacy reasons. We don't want to publish private information that might impact the lives of these people. See WP:BLPNAME for more detail. We include such names only when it helps the reader to understand the subject of the article, and only if there are good sources that have previously published these names. Unfortunately, the source you used, legacy.com, is what we call user-generated content; that is, anyone in the world can write anything they want in legacy.com and no one checks it for accuracy. So that site is not an acceptable source. See WP:UGC for more about this.

I hope this helps. At this point I would recommend that you drop the idea of adding Snodgrass's children's names to the article, because I don't see how those names help the reader to understand Snodgrass. But if you really feel that the information is in compliance with Wikipedia's guidelines, then rather than editing the article, you should add an edit request to the article's talk page, along with reliable sources that support the information. See WP:RS for information on how to identify reliable sources. Thanks for your desire to improve Wikipedia! CodeTalker (talk) 15:34, 3 April 2023 (UTC)


 * I appreciate you taking the time to lay this out. This was my first time editing a Wikipedia page. I’m happy to see that the number of children was accepted from 4 to 2, and a more detailed sentence in his personal life that describes the prior marriage and mother of his children was accepted. Seeing a reference to four children, two adult stepchildren he knew for a couple years at the end of his life, was misleading. I’m fine with the privacy policy if names need to left off. Thank you again for the reply. Best, Reed 213.126.106.204 (talk) 17:46, 3 April 2023 (UTC)