User talk:SDP248

October 2015
Hello, I'm John from Idegon. I noticed that you made a change to an article, Birmingham, Michigan, 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! If you need guidance on referencing, please see the referencing for beginners tutorial, or if you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. John from Idegon (talk) 17:56, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you John! I cited it.

Alexandra Silber
Hello there. I saw that you've been having some trouble with the various photos you tried to upload for this article. The key thing to remember is that the copyright owner of a photo is the photographer of the original photo. So, unless you are the photographer, you cannot claim ownership of the image (or a copy of it, or a modification of it) as your own work and release the image under a free license. Even if you are the photographer, if the image has been previously published it cannot be uploaded to Commons unless it is currently published under a free license.

If you are the photographer of any of the images you wish to upload, Donating copyrighted materials explains the procedure for doing so. If you want to request the copyright owner to donate one of their photos, there is a guide at Requesting copyright permission. Both can be fairly complex processes. So, after you've read through the guides carefully, if you still have any questions don't hesitate to ask me. You can leave a note on my talk page. Or post your question here. I'll keep your talk page on watch.

On another note, if you have any affiliation with Ms. Silber, either personal or professional, you need to read this page for guidance when editing under those circumstances. Best wishes, Voceditenore (talk) 06:54, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi there Voceditenore!
 * Thank you so much for being so helpful to a newbie. My goodness this is overwhelming! I went to college with Alexandra (and truthfully haven't spoken to her directly since graduation so I can't say my connection really is THAT personal, though I'm very proud of her)! As it is our 10 year reunion/anniversary coming up we (the school--which I am on the alumni panel for) wanted to get some of our accomplished alums on Wikipedia and I volunteered to cover her because she was actually the only one missing from our list. Thank you for your help but I think I am going to just leave the picture thing for more accomplished Wiki editors but I appreciate your support! My intention was never to upset anyone or do anything "bad!" Also, thank you for being so friendly about it. Colleagues warned me that editing Wiki can be a really negative and bullying experience and your post was in such a spirit of collaboration and support! I really appreciate that! - SDP
 * Hi SDP. Yes, uploading someone else's copyright images with permission and getting that permission, is very daunting. I never even attempt it, although I have helped others who were very determined and persevered. I'm sorry to hear that your colleagues had such negative experiences. I've been editing for almost 10 years and can honestly say that my experience here has been very positive and rewarding. I think one of the things that has perhaps changed in recent years is the flood of companies trying to place advertorials masquerading as encyclopedia articles on Wikipedia, either via their employees, their PR agents, or by hiring paid editors SMirC-sad.svg. Dealing with the huge amount of this stuff which floods Wikipedia every day makes some editors quite short-tempered, and some new editors who don't have a conflict of interest get caught in the crossfire. I wouldn't classify you as having a conflict of interest just because you are acquainted with the subject. But even so, it's best to be familiar with the CoI guidelines so as to avoid common pitfalls. Every year I help students at music conservatory in Boston who edit Wikipedia as an assignment. Some of them do sometimes get into a tangle. This is some of the advice I give them (point 3 is particularly relevant). Anyhow, if you ever need any help or have any questions about editing, just give me a shout. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 08:38, 12 November 2015 (UTC)