User talk:Zacharymia

Advice
Thank you for your note on my talk page. I would like to repeat my thanks for your taking the time to find out how Wikipedia works and how to request changes when you have a conflict of interest.

You said on my talk page that "a copywriter" is preparing new material. That word causes me a twinge of alarm, because Wikipedia is extremely sensitive about anything that looks like promotion. The sort of material appropriate for a company's website is not suitable for an encyclopedia article. Two of our fundamental principles are WP:Verifiability, which requires that "any material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable, published source" and WP:Neutral point of view. When writing for Wikipedia one should be drily factual, and the reader should not be left with any idea of whether the author approves or disapproves of the subject. When about to write any glowing adjective, imagine a hostile critic looking over your shoulder saying "Who says so? Can you prove it?" See WP:PEACOCK.

Experience shows that people from a PR/Marketing background find this extraordinarily hard to grasp. I have recently had a user who wrote an article that included "friendly and knowledgeable staff... dedicated Customer Service team... unique refurbishing process... Benefits of Shopping with XYZ ... Earn XYZ Bucks with every purchase..." and protested when it was deleted that it was "not meant to be a form of advertisement by any means. I just took the information off of our About Us section of our website."

Material of that kind inserted directly is immediately deleted. If proposed on a talk page, it will at best be heavily edited before being posted, more likely rejected. To save trouble, it is important that your copywriter understands that s/he is not writing a statement from the company, but a neutral statement about the company, and should lay aside any trace of promotional intent.

You may find User:JohnCD/Not a noticeboard helpful.

Regards, JohnCD (talk) 10:06, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Stiefel Laboratories
Please see Talk:Stiefel Laboratories. Best,  Chzz  ► 23:58, 22 November 2011 (UTC)