User talk:Searshouse

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-- 16:36, Monday, June 22, 2020 (UTC)

June 2020
Hmm. I will take some steps back. I probably should have assumed a little more good faith, though it is going to be problematic with your username and what appears to be your conflict of interest editing. — billinghurst  sDrewth  22:54, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Having a username that represents a website and adding that website is just going to get your edits flagged for conflict of interest. Having a username and linking to a website and one that looks to be commercial in nature, is just going to be a red flag. I can understand a passion for a subject, and wishing to edit at the Wikipedias about your passion. At the same time we need to be aware of our biases, and our associations, and be alert to the fact of NPOV and that we are editing a shared encyclopaedia. The Teahouse, and the help pages linked will give you guidance on how best to proceed. — billinghurst  sDrewth  23:01, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
 * adding external links — billinghurst  sDrewth  23:07, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Admin Billinghurst, I understand why you would be concerned, on first glance, but I assure you that my interest in Sears Houses is completely non commercial. There is no profit or money or any kind of personal benefit, in any way. I have no books to sell, no services to offer, and I make no money in any way off of the website that I have created -- I am just an avid researcher on this topic, and I have a strong interest in sharing what I have learned, to educate the public. I am a high school French teacher who is just passionate about researching kit houses, because my mom grew up in a Sears house. I interact with a few other researchers who also have zero commercial interest. We look for Sears houses around the country, and do research to try to authenticate the houses, for historic purposes. Zero personal gain is involved. I noticed that the informational websites of SearsHomes.org and Sears-Homes.com are allowed to be listed, and know my website to be offering similar information, carefully researched, for no personal gain. The websites that I linked to bring additional information to readers, because they offer more robust exploration and educational information about the process behind looking for and documenting kit houses, as well as additional historic and data-driven information. I hope this will not be considered a conflict of interest. I'm just sharing research. Searshouse (talk) 23:16, 24 June 2020 (UTC)searshouse

May I add, for your consideration, that the websites that I added as external links, fall under the category of: Sites that contain neutral and accurate material that is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject and cannot be integrated into the Wikipedia article due to ... amount of detail. The three websites that I added offer carefully researched material for the purpose of helping others recognize and appreciate kit houses around the U.S. All three offer many pages of images of real Sears (or other company) kit houses, and images of elements that help identify these historic homes. Searshouse (talk) 23:25, 24 June 2020 (UTC)Searshouse


 * You've already been unblocked. MER-C 19:25, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Welcome!
Hi Searshouse! I noticed your contributions and wanted to welcome you to the Wikipedia community. I hope you like it here and decide to stay.

As you get started, you may find this short tutorial helpful:

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Happy editing! — billinghurst  sDrewth  22:55, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Notable alumni
Hello Searshouse,

The often recommended path to add a person to a list of notables is to first write their biography article and then add them to the list, in this case with a citation to a reliable source that shows they attended the school. (See: WP:WTAF for a related essay) That a biography article exists in this Wikipedia is considered a strong indicator of notability because those who are not are generally deleted. Linking to an existing article is not quite the same as using it as a 'reliable source'. Citing a Wikipedia article would likely be challenged as circular.

It is not a requirement to have a biography article before adding a name but when there isn't one other editors will likely push back if citations supplied don't clearly show the person is notable. Some categories of people are presumed to notable, for example members of state legislatures, various professional athletes. For people not in one of those categories I expect to see sources cited that have significant coverage by independant reliable sources. The general notability requirement is multiple independent reliable sources with significant coverage. Things the subject has written are not helpful to notability. (see WP:GNG and WP:BIO) In the case of Nia Ray you've cited a source with brief coverage and another that is not independent. I hope the notability guidelines I've linked are helpful. By the way, changing the section from 'Notable alumni' to 'Notable and Accomplished alumni' has a few problems/issues: The Manual of Style says we use sentence case for section headings. So only the first word is capitalized in this case. It's also a significant change to the criteria for inclusion - one that conflicts with the consensus other editors go by for high school articles. So it would be appropriate to propose a change like that on the article talk page or perhaps at the school article project talk page. If your intention is to open the list to any alumnus who has accomplished something... that seems to lead to an unmanageable and very long list. Gab4gab (talk) 22:39, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Hello again, Gab4Gab. Thanks for your guidance. Can you direct me to a written guideline for adding content to high school articles? Also, I'm interested in understanding the role of listing a source or reference in a citation -- I am using links to published resources that are widely known and respected, such as a major newspaper, or the department of revenue website, and my thinking is that what I need these citations for, is simply to verify the information via a recognized, reliable source -- accurate? Searshouse (talk) 00:09, 10 July 2020 (UTC)Searshouse
 * For school article advice WP:WPSCH/AG, a similar essay for universities: WP:UNI/AG. Yes, the purpose of citations is to allow the reader to verify article content. A couple of related links you might find interesting: WP:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard, WP:Reliable sources/Perennial sources Gab4gab (talk) 11:45, 10 July 2020 (UTC)