User talk:Sapphireguy

Re Specialized Bicycle Components
Concerning Specialized Bicycle Components, it is usually highly discouraged for companies and representatives of companies to edit articles about their own company for reasons stated at WP:AUTO, such that is often a conflict of interest involved between the editor and attempts to make an article that conforms to a Neutral point of view. I mean no offense to you by reverting your edits, but there are many parts of the content that could be viewed as advertising the subject of the article.

One such phrase would be this:Never happy with just good enough, the company continually revises its bicycles, components, apparel and everything else it does with this philosophy in mind. and ''New technologies, new concepts, new riding styles, and women riders everywhere help Specialized to create the best line of women's specific products. The result? More women on more bikes more often, all having more fun and riding with more confidence and greater ease than ever before.'' seem to be something that someone would read in an advertisement for a company (once again, I mean no offense by this, but from an editor's standpoint, Wikipedia is specifically meant to differ from advertisements in such that it provides a neutral, factual representation of its subjects through sourced statements instead of 'fluffing up' articles, to put things in simple terms).

Honestly, the majority of the edits to the article read as though they were meant to be sold through Wikipedia, and as such I must ask that you try to refrain from editing in the interest of not walking into a conflict of interests of a subconscious bias towards the company you work for that you can't help. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, though. Most people would just revert back, so I'm glad that we can open up a discussion on this instead of fighting over it. :) Cowman109 Talk 18:49, 6 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi - Just thought I'd add my comments here as well. Another common issue with self-written articles is verifiability, please see Verifiability.  To be included in Wikipedia any facts and figures you add must be from a verifiable source (preferably cited - for revenue numbers the investor relations portion of your company's website [assuming this exists] would likely be an excellent reference).  Featured articles has a list of articles that conform to all of Wikipedia's standards and are meant to be representative of the "best articles in Wikipedia".  I didn't exhaustively search this list of articles, but there is at least one that is about a company (Microsoft, which has some issues that would not apply to your company like how to fairly represent the view that they engage in illegal monopolistic business practices).  Updating facts and figures is very welcome.  Any kind of "spin" is not (see WP:NOT).  I hope this helps. -- Rick Block (talk) 22:01, 7 October 2006 (UTC)