User talk:Stevenmhall

Speedy deletion of "Dallas Summer Musicals"
A page you created, Dallas Summer Musicals, has been tagged for deletion, as it meets one or more of the criteria for speedy deletion; specifically, it is a blatant copyright infringement.

You are welcome to contribute content which complies with our content policies and any applicable inclusion guidelines. However, please do not simply re-create the page with the same content. You may also wish to read our introduction to editing and guide to writing your first article.

Thank you. — Jeff G. (talk&#124;contribs) 00:39, 14 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Hey Jeff, I'm the webmaster at Dallas Summer Musicals. We have a very long history for entertainment in the Dallas metroplex. How do I go about adding our content on Wiki? The content I'm posting is actually from our history pages on the site--I just wanted to extend our reach. Is there a better way to do this?


 * Steve shall@dallassummermusicals.org (stevenmhall@gmail.com) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stevenmhall (talk • contribs) 00:49, 14 November 2008

Some tips
Hi Steve,

You have to approach this rather differently. A Wikipedia article isn't a place to get your web site's content to wider audience and extend Dallas Summer Musicals' "reach". It is a notable organization and probably deserves an article on Wikipedia. But... that article has to:
 * 1) establish the organization's notability by referencing it with reliable, verifiable sources that are independent of the organization such as newpaper and magazine articles, and/or references from books.
 * 2) be written in a neutral, encyclopedic style. Much of the History page at DSM is written in a tone that is fine for their own web site, but which would be considered overly promotional and 'peacocky' for an encylopedia.

If you upload it 'as is', even if you did own the copyright, it would be unsuitable as an article and would be heavily edited at best and at worst deleted as blatant advertising, especially if it has no independent sources to establish its notability. Even the Timeline would have to be 'neutralized'.

As for the copyright issue, you may be the web master, but you don't personally own the copyright. The History page is clearly marked:

Copyright © 1998-2008 Dallas Summer Musicals ™

The permission would have to come from the actual copyright holder. Read Donating copyrighted materials for guidance on this. You also have to be careful since you work for the organization that you want to write the article about and therefore have a conflict of interest. See WP:COI for guidance on editing in these circumstances.

Your best bet is to write a draft of the article on your user page, neutrally worded, not a direct copy of what's on the web site, and properly referenced. When it's finished you can then publish it to Wikipedia. I'd be happy to look over your draft and give you some guidance if you want to take that route. Just leave a note on my talk page. I'll also add a welcome message below with some links designed to help new editors on Wikipedia. All the best, Voceditenore (talk) 15:35, 15 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks Jeff, would it be better for me to create an account in DSM's name, for the copyright issue? And if not, how do I go about getting rid of what's public on this account so I can work on this on the user page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stevenmhall (talk • contribs) 23:20, 16 November 2008

More tips
Hi, if you're referring to the above message, it was from me, Voceditenore, not Jeff G. Anyhow, it's probably better not edit under a company name. See User_account_policy. In any case a company name won't solve the copyright issue, you'd still have to go through the formal procedures for copyright permission outlined in the links above. You can edit this page to remove anything you want, but it will remain in the history of the page. If you want to change your name to something else, perhaps not using your real name, you can file a request. See User_account_policy for more. But that will result in this page and its history being moved to the new name unless you also ask for the user pages to be deleted so you can start again. See User_page for more about that.

If you want to have a dedicated page just to work on your article draft click on User:Stevenmhall/Article draft, add something to the page and click save. It's a good idea to add this to the top of the new page:

Also, when you are writing on talk pages, either an article talk page or on User talk pages like this one, you need to always sign your message. You do that by adding 4 tildes - ~ - at the end of your message. This will automatically add your user name and the date and time of the message when you click save. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 05:42, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Welcome...

Hello, Stevenmhall, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: Introduction The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Help How to write a great article Manual of Style

Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and ask your question there.