Welcome!

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Hello, Helston Flora Day, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome!  I dream of horses  If you reply here, please ping me by adding {{U|I dream of horses}} to your message  (talk to me) (My edits) @ 12:14, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Your username

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  Welcome to Wikipedia and thank you for your contributions. This is a message to let you know that your username, "Helston Flora Day", may not comply with Wikipedia's username policy. Please note that the following types of usernames are prohibited:

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Please also note that Wikipedia does not allow accounts to be shared by multiple people, and that you may not advocate for or promote any company, group, organization, product, website, person or other entity, nor do we tolerate any other 'bad faith' editing such as trolling or other disruptive behavior, regardless of your username. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. If you do not understand which part of the policy your username may be violating, please don't hesitate to ask. As an alternative, you may ask for a change of username by completing this form, or you may simply create a new account for editing. Thank you. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 12:26, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Minor edits

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All your edits have been marked as "Minor". These are not minor edits. Minor edits are simple spelling corrections or inserting missing full-stops. Anything more complex that than, and adding any words is not a minor edit. I note also that your edit summaries are lacking in any useful information - "additional information" is of little value to anyone, especially as most (all?) of the information provided is wholly unsourced. May I suggest that you change your user name, change your editing habits by using proper edit summaries and avoiding minor edits and by providing reliable and independent references to the text that you add. Thank you.  Velella  Velella Talk   09:26, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for your response, I organise this festival as Honorary Secretary of the Flora Day Association and all information I have added is factual and correct, this page is not relevant and the information is outdated an incorrect. I would appreciate you reinstated the changes I have made, as the original information does not reflect our ancient custom which we hold very dear. Many Thanks Helston Flora Day (talk) 09:38, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

I would be happy to reinstate many of the changes that you have made when you can confirm that you have carefully read and understood WP:COI and I can see the relevant declarations on your user page. You will also need to find wholly independednt and reliable sources to support the text that you wish to be added. This may be from a reputable newspaper or from an approriate academic source - it doesn't have to be on-line. Regretably oral history is not acceptable on Wikipedia as a source. Regards  Velella  Velella Talk   09:40, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply
Unfortunately, there are not any academic sources or historical newspaper articles to call on, as the Flora Day Association, we are the leading and independent authority on the custom and have been for over 100 years. I have read the WP:COIand will change the name of my account to reflect a more independent user Helston Flora Day (talk) 09:48, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply
Without independent sources, your only recourse is to post on the article talk page (such as Talk:Furry_Dance) your suggested changes and additions and leave it to others to decide whether to add the material or not. My guess is that much of it will be found to be acceptable as it is generally non-contentious. Even after a name change you still need to post a COI declaration on your user page as you will still have a conflict of interest in this topic. FYI phrases such as "....and add another link to the history of this magnificent spectacle" or "It is little wonder they are so highly praised for their contribution to this unique day." will not be acceptable under any circumstances as they are opinions (see WP:NPOV). Please also be aware that I am editing from New Zealand in the middle of a storm and towards the end of the evening and I will probably only resume editing tomorrow (your day after tomorrow) if we still have power, a dry floor and the internet. Regards  Velella  Velella Talk   10:00, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply
If you follow this approach you should definitely give sources, even if they don't meet strict standards for reliability and independence. For example the Helston Flora Day Official Guide [1], while not a great source, is better than nothing. You should also find as many independent sources as you can: for example [2] and [3] might be usable. But the key thing to remember is that Wikipedia is about Verifiability not about Truth. Regards, Jonathan A Jones (talk) 10:44, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

User page

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I have also had to remove the text from your user page as it was a direct copy from http://www.helstonfloraday.org.uk/. Now I do understand that you both control this website and undoubtedly wrote the text yourself, but on Wikipedia everything on the web is assumed to be copyright until explicitly released into the public domain with a licence compatible with Wikipedia's own licence. This probably seems arbitary and petty but Wikipedia does take copyright violation very seriously. The easisest answer would be to simply licece your web-site content with the same licence as Wikipedia - but that would also allow the photographs to be used freely. I will leave the issue with you. Regards  Velella  Velella Talk   22:32, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply