LAndersonERS

Welcome!

Hello, LAndersonERS, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article. Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or any other editor to proofread it. See our help page on userspace drafts for more details. If the page you created has already been deleted from Wikipedia, but you want to save the content from it to use for that draft, don't hesitate to ask anyone from this list and they will copy it to your user page.

One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The plain and simple conflict of interest guide
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Contributing to Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
• Simplified Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using 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 your question on this page and then place {{Help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! Theroadislong (talk) 11:10, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Theroadislong

Thanks for the welcome. I have checked the page and I don't think the notifications were undone on this occasion. I do work for the ERS but I have an individual account and the purpose of the account is to make sure content on the page is up to date, relevant and useful for people searching for information on the Society. I respect the aims of Wikipedia and have therefore declared this COI on my user page. Could you advise the best way to edit content without breaking the rules of the site? Should I always save as a draft and wait for an editor to approve?

Many thanks (LAndersonERS (talk) 13:15, 17 September 2014 (UTC))

Thank you for declaring your interest. For all but absolutely uncontroversial edits, the best thing to do is to propose a change on the article talk page, and let uninvolved users decide. You can put {{requested edit}} above your proposal, to draw the attention of other users.

For more detail, read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and the Wikipedia:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 14:10, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

I agree with JohnCD, the {{requested edit}} template is your best source for all but the most uncontroversial edits (i.e. spelling, grammar, etc.). In addition I copied a portion of the standard "warning" that we use for potential COI because it has some good guidelines:

All editors are required to comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view content policy. People who are very close to a subject often have a distorted view of it, which may cause them to inadvertently edit in ways that make the article either too flattering or too disparaging. People with a close connection to a subject are not absolutely prohibited from editing about that subject, but they need to be especially careful about ensuring their edits are verified by reliable sources and writing with as little bias as possible.

If you are very close to a subject, here are some ways you can reduce the risk of problems:

• Avoid or exercise great caution when editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with.
• Be cautious about deletion discussions. Everyone is welcome to provide information about independent sources in deletion discussions, but avoid advocating for deletion of articles about your competitors.
• Avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam).
• Exercise great caution so that you do not accidentally breach Wikipedia's content policies.

Please familiarize yourself with relevant content policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, [and] verifiability of information....

For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have a conflict of interest, please see our frequently asked questions for organizations.

I hope that helps. Please post here if you have additional questions. —    Bill W.    (Talk)  (Contrib)  (User:Wtwilson3)  — 14:42, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

September 2014

Hi, and thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. Your recent talk page comments on User talk:LAndersonERS were not added to the bottom of the page. New discussion page messages and topics should always be added to the bottom. Your message may have been moved by another user. In the future you can use the "New section" link in top right. For more details see talk page guidelines. Thank you. —    Bill W.    (Talk)  (Contrib)  (User:Wtwilson3)  — 14:05, 17 September 2014 (UTC)