User talk:SC811

October 2021
 Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing because of the following problems: the account has been used for advertising or promotion, which is contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia, and your username indicates that the account represents a business, organisation, group, or web site, which is against the username policy.

You may request a change of name and unblock if you intend to make useful contributions other than promoting your business or organization. To do this, first search Special:CentralAuth for available usernames that comply with the username policy. Once you have found an acceptable username, post the text at the bottom of your talk page. Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with your new username and replace the text "Your reason here" with your reasons to be unblocked. In your reasons, you must:
 * Disclose any compensation you may receive for your contributions in accordance with the Paid-contribution disclosure requirement.
 * Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the kind of edits for which you were blocked.
 * Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.

Appeals: If, after reviewing the guide to appealing blocks, you believe this block was made in error, you may appeal it by adding the text at the bottom of your talk page. Replace the text "Your reason here" with the reasons you believe the block was an error, and publish the page. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 16:54, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Please see WP:USERNAME, per WP:COI, WP:PAID and WP:PROMO you will not be unblocked to edit about your company. Lavalizard101 (talk) 14:16, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
 * SC811, to clarify a bit: you haven't requested a new username. Once that's out of the way, to be unblocked you will need to address the three bullet-points (Disclose ..., Convince ... , Describe ...) in the top dirty yellow template above. Please see the pertinent comment left above by , and also see WP:NOSHARING – you may not share a user account. Each one of you will need to create a separate user account and – as you are presumably employees(?) – each one of you must make an appropriate paid-editor disclosure (you can do that on this page for now). Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 14:39, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

I appreciate the clarification Lavalizard101. SC811 (talk) 15:02, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

331dot Please clarify. We have not made any edits and did not give any specific directions. I read the linked pages provided by Lavalizard101 (WP:USERNAME, per WP:COI, WP:PAID and WP:PROMO) and my understanding from that was that representatives acting on behalf of organizations (even those doing it for profit, which we are not) are permitted to post on Wikipedia as long as they disclose/convince/describe their affiliation. We are happy to do this, but I was instructed by Lavalizard101 to first request the name change:
 * Disclose: We are a non-profit emergency response and public safety management group established in accordance with state law. I am a Public Awareness liaison who has been tasked by our director to create a Wikipedia page containing basic information about the organization (timeline, background, mission statement, etc.). We do not sell anything. Spreading public safety awareness to reduce utility damages in the state is part of my standard job responsibility, and as such I am not receiving any additional compensation for this.
 * Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the kind of edits for which you were blocked: We have not made any edits as we were blocked immediately for the inappropriate username. After reviewing the WP pages linked I understand the error and have requested an appropriate name change.
 * Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked: See above. We are similar to 911 or other N11 services in that we are a free public service and intend only to provide basic information about the organization. Other N11 services (including the general US 811 service) have Wikipedia pages and are undoubtedly edited by those with firsthand knowledge. Since 811 rules vary by state, this is intended to be a helpful resource benefiting the public good.


 * You obviously didn't read the policies or what has been said. you will not be unblocked to edit about your company, articles on companies/organisations are written by editors not affiliated with the organisation that summarise what independent reliable sources say about that organisation. Lavalizard101 (talk) 17:08, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Also that article is about a phone number code, not an organisation. Lavalizard101 (talk) 17:10, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Lavalizard101 Thank you for clearing that up. If Wikipedia policy forbids public emergency services from submitting information about themselves, we would appreciate it if you would explain what steps we could take to simply delete this account.


 * I'm sorry to say that your director has given you a task that may be next to impossible to fulfill. Organizations are not entitled to have a Wikipedia article just because they exist. We require organizations to meet Wikipedia's notability criteria for organizations to be considered worthy of inclusion. The organization must have already received significant, in-depth coverage from multiple reliable, third-party sources to be considered notable enough. Please note that even non-profit organizations that may be worthy causes aren't allowed to bypass these requirements, even if you believe the information is valuable.
 * The existence of other, similar articles about the same topic is not a valid argument for the retention of your own. Each article must stand on its own merit, and the examples you cite might be equally unsuitable and should be deleted. With over 6 million articles, and an entirely volunteer-based community of editors, bad articles sometimes slip in unnoticed.
 * You do not have to be selling any products or services for your writing to be considered promotional. Simply publicizing the organization's existence to the world is enough to be considered promotional, if the organization is not notable per the aforementioned criteria.
 * Writing about your own organization is an inherent conflict of interest, a practice which is highly discouraged here. You will find it difficult to be an objective judge of your organization's notability, write from the required neutral point of view, and rely on information taken only from outside your organization. Also, writing about your employer is enough to invoke the mandatory paid editing disclosure policy and the necessary disclosures it demands, whether or not you are paid specifically for your editing here.
 * --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 17:52, 13 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Drm310 Thank you for responding. I think you'll find that SC811 and other one-call centers in the US and around the world are fairly notable and ubiquitous among members of infrastructure, utility, first responder, and construction industries. However, I see how this could be covered by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-1-1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_location pages. I do want to point out for what it's worth that New York's 811 service handles a much smaller volume of requests than South Carolina yet has their own page at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DigNet, and is very similar to what we had planned to publish, but I also see that the original author did not declare any affiliation with the group when they first created the page.
 * Regardless, I would still like to request how we can delete this account since it has been rendered unusable and is affecting other IPs at this address.
 * SC811, actually you have made an edit other than those to this page – you created this, which I deleted as "unambiguous advertising or promotion". Just to refresh your memory, it started "SC811 is the premiere communication resource for homeowners, utility locators, and underground". Do you not see how that is a problem? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 19:12, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Justlettersandnumbers Thank you for that refresher. That was actually a sentence fragment copied from our webpage mission statement as a text placeholder on the Edit page while I reviewed the Wikipedia help articles about proper article formatting. It was not my intention for that to ever be published. Before I could return to change it, this account had already been compromised. For context: The point of the 811 service in all states is to efficiently facilitate communication between homeowners, utility locators, and underground excavators. If we were claiming we provided a service superior to competitors I could see how that would have been problematic if published, but that is not the case (the only alternative would be to individually-- and likely incorrectly-- research what companies have utilities in your digging area, then pay for separate individual private locators to mark them). So yes, in each area where an 811 service operates, including South Carolina for whose residents that article was intended, it is the premiere (i.e., most efficient and ideal) option. I hope that helps clear that up.


 * I have nominated DigNet for deletion, as it clearly does not merit a standalone article. I'm not sure if the article creator had any affiliation with the subject or not, but they've been inactive for ten years so it's a moot point.


 * It's not possible to delete accounts on Wikipedia. Every edit made here has to be assigned to an account or IP address. If you don't intend to edit Wikipedia anymore, simply abandon your account by never logging in again. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 19:55, 13 October 2021 (UTC)