User talk:Spikesmag

Welcome
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Conflict of interest
It appears you may have a conflict of interest given your name and you external link edits. Please either declare your interests or cease adding the links. You may discuss their addition at the talk pages. Sillyfolkboy (talk) 10:57, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Spikes mag. Some of the site's athlete biographies are quite useful. However, given your username, and the fact that your contributions are limited to adding the profile links, other editors may remove the links and classify them as spam. I have a couple of questions for you:


 * 1) Are you employed by, or involved in the publication of, Spikes magazine?
 * 2) If the site is funded by the IAAF then why is this not stated in the "about us" section of the website? Such important information should be mentioned here.
 * 3) How are the biographies' information and interviews compiled? How do they verify that the information is correct?

Why not have a quick read of Conflict of interest to get an idea of how things work. I'd be very interested to hear your responses. All the best! Sillyfolkboy (talk) 11:13, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

RE: Conflict of Interest
Hi. In response to your questions:

1. Are you employed by, or involved in the publication of, Spikes magazine? Yes, I'm the editor of the magazine and the website.

2. If the site is funded by the IAAF then why is this not stated in the "about us" section of the website? Such important information should be mentioned here. The "About us" section of the website is about SPIKES as a standalone brand rather than the people who fund the project. Their mention comes in the top navigation bar under the button marked "IAAF / UKA". You can see the content of that page by going here: http://www.spikesmag.com/general/iaaf.aspx.

3. How are the biographies' information and interviews compiled? How do they verify that the information is correct? The site is compiled by trained journalists. Our interview are firsthand as we get a lot of good access to athletes. The majority of our biogs are compiled by one writer who has several years experience in athletics. The information included is either from the horse's mouth (as is the case with athlete interview) or checked against existing trusted publications like the athletics annuals put together by Peter Matthews.

The links I have inserted on Wikipedia have been purely to promote the content we have to people who are interested track and field. Up until the end of 2008, I had links on six athletes who blogged for spikesmag.com. Unfortunately, we no longer have bloggers, but that was another example of how we were trying to bring something extra to the Wikipedia experience by giving people further information should they choose to move out of Wikipedia.

I've read the Conflict of Interest link you listed. Can you direct me to the specific areas of it which you feel I'm breaching?

Thanks.

Spikesmag (talk) 15:04, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It's much appreciated.


 * It seems like your links can add something to the Wikipedia entries. As a rule of hand, I would recommend that you add the bio/interview links to articles where your article is adding something that the current Wikipedia article doesn't have. Say Tyson Gay, for example, probably covers everything your article does. However, Allyson Felix could be improved with your link because it contains additional information and an interview. I would add links based upon judgements such as these. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be a detrimental effect through your edits. Quite the opposite, I would say that some articles could benefit from your edits and thus your "Conflict of Interest" would be largely unimportant.


 * By the way – It might be a good idea to note who you are on your talk page. That way people will not think that you are trying to do something with underhanded tactics. Any problems, feel free to leave me a message! Happy editing! Sillyfolkboy (talk) 21:07, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Copyright problems with File:Spikeslogonewheroes.jpg
Hello. Concerning your contribution, File:Spikeslogonewheroes.jpg, please note that Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images obtained from other web sites or printed material, without the permission of the author(s). As a copyright violation, File:Spikeslogonewheroes.jpg appears to qualify for deletion under the speedy deletion criteria. File:Spikeslogonewheroes.jpg has been tagged for deletion, and may have been deleted by the time you see this message.

If you believe that the article or image is not a copyright violation, or if you have permission from the copyright holder to release the content freely under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) then you should do one of the following:


 * If you have permission from the author, leave a message explaining the details at and send an email with the message to "permissions-en (at) wikimedia (dot) org". See Requesting copyright permission for instructions.
 * If a note on the original website states that re-use is permitted under the GFDL or released into the public domain leave a note at with a link to where we can find that note.
 * If you hold the copyright to the material: send an e-mail from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en(at)wikimedia(dot)org or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation permitting re-use under the GFDL, and note that you have done so on.

However, for textual content, you may simply consider rewriting the content in your own words. Thank you. (ESkog)(Talk) 16:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for releasing this image! I have restored the image along with a note indicating the permission. You can feel free to re-insert it into any articles you may need it for. (ESkog)(Talk) 11:15, 26 March 2009 (UTC)