User talk:Splitthisrock

Welcome!

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June 2013
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, your addition of one or more external links to the page Split This Rock has been reverted. Your edit here to Split This Rock was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline. The external link(s) you added or changed (http://www.flickr.com/photos/splitthisrock/sets/72157633608874993/) is/are on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. If the external link you inserted or changed was to a media file (e.g. an image file) on an external server, then note that linking to such files may be subject to Wikipedia's copyright policy and therefore probably should not be linked to. Please consider using our upload facility to upload a suitable media file. If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 19:18, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Hello, I'm Dusty777. I wanted to let you know that I undid one or more of your recent contributions to Split This Rock because it appeared to be promotional. Advertising and using Wikipedia as a "soapbox" are against Wikipedia policy and not permitted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. Dusty 777 19:22, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Hello, I'm XLinkBot. I wanted to let you know that I removed an external link you added to the page Split This Rock, because it seemed to be inappropriate for an encyclopedia. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page, or take a look at our guidelines about links. Your edit here to Split This Rock was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline. The external link(s) you added or changed (http://www.flickr.com/photos/splitthisrock/sets/72157633608874993/) is/are on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. If the external link you inserted or changed was to a media file (e.g. an image file) on an external server, then note that linking to such files may be subject to Wikipedia's copyright policy and therefore probably should not be linked to. Please consider using our upload facility to upload a suitable media file. If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 15:02, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did to Split This Rock with this edit. Wikipedia is not a collection of links, nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links may include, but are not limited to, links to personal websites, links to websites with which you are affiliated, and links that attract visitors to a website or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam guideline for further explanations. Because Wikipedia uses the nofollow attribute value, its external links are disregarded by most search engines. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. Thank you. Amaury (talk) 15:39, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended for publicity and/or promotional purposes. If you intend to edit constructively in other topic areas, you may be granted the right to continue under a change of username. Please read the following carefully.

Your account's edits and/or username indicate that it is being used on behalf of a company, group, website or organization for purposes of promotion and/or publicity. The edits may have violated one or more of our rules on spamming, which include: adding inappropriate external links, posting advertisements and using Wikipedia for promotion. Wikipedia has many articles on companies, groups, and organizations, but such groups are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia to write about themselves. In addition, usernames like yours are disallowed under our username policy.
 * Why can't I edit Wikipedia?

Probably not, although if you can demonstrate a pattern of future editing in strict accordance with our neutral point of view policy, you may be granted this right. See Wikipedia's FAQ for Organizations for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, organization, or clients. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit Wikipedia again.
 * Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?


 * What can I do now?

If you have no interest in writing about some other topic than your organization, group, company, or product, you may consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead. If you do intend to make useful contributions here about some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:


 * Add the text on your user talk page.
 * Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
 * Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
 * Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
 * Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.

If you believe this block was made in error, you may appeal this block by adding the text below, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. Alexf(talk) 15:43, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Splitthisrock (talk) 17:47, 4 June 2013 (UTC) Here are a few key questions:
 * Do you understand that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and not a business directory?
 * Do you understand conflict of interest?
 * Do you understand that to be considered for an encyclopedia article, the subject must be notable?

You are currently blocked because your username appears directly related to a company, group or product that you have been promoting, contrary to the username policy. Changing the username will not allow you to violate the 3 important principles above. Daniel Case (talk) 15:39, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, thank you. I believe I understand all of these principles. Please correct me if I am wrong in the following:

1. Listing the partipants and events in a national poetry festival which occurred in 2012 does not seem to constitute using Wikipedia as a business directory. These poets and activists are not members of the organization but rather featured performers in an event which already occurred--this information is verifiable by multiple independent sources. I understand now that linking any of these poets' names to personal websites is not acceptable under Wikipedia rules. STR's 5th Anniversary Gala Brunch also occurred in the past and is verifiable by multiple sources, including the Library of Congress. Listing this event as having occurred does not seem to violate any of Wikipedia's principles provided the language used to report the information remains neutral, which I recognize that I failed to do in my previous edits. In addition, I understand why linking to the organization's Flickr page is unacceptable.

2. I do understand conflict of interest and that as an employee of Split This Rock I may be in violation of this principle. However, the information that I intend to update will, as stated above, be facts which are verifiable through a number of outside sources.

3. As to whether or not this article is notable, Split This Rock's events and festivals have been covered by numerous independent publications. The festivals are well-attended events and are unique in their focus on the intersection of poetry and activism. I can provide these resources.

Please let me know if I am mistaken in any of the above statements. I appreciate your help. Splitthisrock (talk) 18:29, 5 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Listing a bunch of non-notable poets and events is indeed improper - if any of them had Wikipedia articles, it might be slightly valid. Each individual year's festival is not notable in the least - the existence of the festival is barely on the notability scale.  Even the founder of Wikipedia has stated that people with COI should never edit the article directly, but should propose sourced changes on the article talkpage (✉→ BWilkins ←✎) 11:29, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Here is a small sample of the poets featured at our 2012 festival:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Mattawa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_G%C3%B3mez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Kearney http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwin_Bitsui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homero_Aridjis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_McKibbens

Here is an article in The Atlantic on Pulitzer Prize-winning author, activist, and poet Alice Walker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_walker) which twice mentions Walker's up-coming performance in the 2012 Split This Rock poetry festival: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/this-is-the-time-for-poetry-a-conversation-with-alice-walker/254744/.

If you look at the existing Wikipedia article on Split This Rock you will notice that the vast majority of the poets who participated in our first two festivals have Wikipedia pages dedicated to them. There were just a few poets featured in our last three festivals that do not have Wikipedia pages--those were the poets to whom I improperly attempted to link outside sources.

Split This Rock and its festivals have been covered by such publications as The Washington Post and Al Jazeera.

I would consider suggesting edits on this talk page--it simply seemed, at the time, quicker and simpler for me to make those changes. Splitthisrock (talk) 19:10, 11 June 2013 (UTC)