Travels with Friends

Disclosure

I am a partner for Travels with Friends LLC, a tour agency providing private tours in Europe.

I am aware of, and have read Wikipedia's Conflict of Interest behavioural guidelines and the Suggestions for COI compliance - and understand how these are particularly relevant to me. I will do my best to adhere to these guidelines in the following ways:

• I will not post, or edit articles about past and current clients, their products or services

• I will not post, or edit articles about my clients' competitors, their products or services

• I will restrict requests for factual amendments to such pages to the relevant Talk pages where I will disclose my interest, and reference WP:SCOIC

• In those cases where I make such Talk page requests, I will endeavour to supply references to reliable sources

Well, thanks for stating that all. Just make sure you stick to it. :) Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP! :D} 23:48, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

RE: How to Post

Hello MOP,

My name is Ken Diaz and I am a partner for Travels with Friends LLC, a European Tour agency based in California. You had left a message for me on my new Wiki Page - thank you for doing so. I would like to post a company bio about our business but have read that it can only be posted by 2nd party Wikipedia writers to ensure that I do not breach conflict of interest rules. Do you know this to be true? I am new to Wikipedia so I would like to make sure I follow the rules of the land. If you have any tips on how to properly post information to gain good rankings on popular search engines, I would appreciate it very much. Thanks! Ken Diaz ((Redacted)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Travels with Friends (talk • contribs) 21:13, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, you could post it yourself, but as you said, we discourage people who are related to the subject from writing about it as they are often biased. If you'd like, you could create the page on a sandbox (say, User:Travels with Friends/Sandbox), I could approve it, and then it could be put up. Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP! :D} 01:55, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

This account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because your username, Travels with Friends, does not meet our username policy.

Your username is the only reason for this block. You are welcome to choose a new username (see below) and continue editing.

A username should not be promotional, related to a "real-world" group or organization, misleading, offensive or disruptive. Also, usernames may not end in the word "bot" unless the account is an approved bot account. 

You are encouraged to choose a new account name that meets our policy guidelines and create the account yourself. Alternatively, if you have already made edits and you wish to keep your existing contributions under a new name, then you may request a change in username by:

1. Adding {{unblock-un|your new username here}} on your user talk page. You should be able to do this even though you are blocked, as you can usually still edit your own talk page. If not, you may wish to contact the blocking administrator by clicking on "E-mail this user" on their talk page.
2. At an administrator's discretion, you may be unblocked for 24 hours to file a request.
3. Please note that you may only request a name that is not already in use, so please check here for a listing of already taken names. The account is created upon acceptance, thus do not try to create the new account before making the request for a name change. For more information, please see Wikipedia:Changing username.

If you feel that you were blocked in error, you may appeal this block by adding below this notice the text {{unblock|Your reason here}}, but you should read our guide to appealing blocks first. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:41, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

This user's request to be unblocked to request a change in username has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without a good reason (see the blocking policy). Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.

Travels with Friends (block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

---

Requested username:

TWF-PST (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Decline reason:

Not sufficiently different. Kuru (talk) 22:03, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Since I blocked this account, I won't formally respond to the unblock request. I just note that the suggested new user name is basically an abbreviation of the old Jimfbleak - talk to me? 18:38, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

This user's request to be unblocked to request a change in username has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without a good reason (see the blocking policy). Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.

Travels with Friends (block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

---

Requested username:

riviera463 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Decline reason:

I have reviewed the discussion below, and it doesn't sound as if you are interested in helping to create an encyclopedia in any way that doesn't directly relate to your own business. Since that would be a violation of the conflict of interest guidelines, you don't seem to need an account at this time. If you ever become interested in writing an encyclopedia - it really is a very engaging hobby- feel free to ask again. FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 20:43, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

A username change will not absolve you of a conflict of interest. Which pages would you edit if unblocked? —Jeremy v^_^v ^Bori! 21:08, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Hello. I would only like to post a bio on our company and owners. We would not edit any other Wiki articles and would simply like our company to be represented on Wikipedia as other companies are. Is this possible? Thank you very much.

Again, I will leave it to someone uninvolved to decide, but I blocked you because your choice of username and your honest statement about your conflict of interest made it seem likely that you would post articles related to the company for which you work. Your request is almost exactly the opposite of what we need, editors who will improve articles in which they do not have a commercial interest Jimfbleak - talk to me? 19:02, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

I guess I was confused as Wiki editor Master of Puppets (see above) mentioned that he could approve my own article prior to posting. At this point, how do you recommend that I proceed on this? Is there someone at Wiki that would prepare a bio on my company or is there a 3rd party I can approach to post a bio? I would like to meet all of your requirements but find it difficult to move ahead. You input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Master of Puppets was quite right to say that although autobiographies and other COI articles are discouraged, they are not actually banned, and I've often worked with COI editors to get there articles to an acceptable form. What MoP overlooked is that your username was itself an infringement of our policies, and one which almost always leads to an immediate indefinite block. Personally, I think it is unlikely that an admin will unblock so that you can change your username unless you agree not to edit on topics related to your company

The way forward is tricky, if you can't get yourself unblocked. I could post a request for you at WP:Requested articles, but it's permanently backlogged and I doubt that your company would attract any interest. You could get someone you know to write the article from a different ISP, but if it is clear that they are posting the text that you created initially, sockpuppetry will get them blocked too. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 05:55, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

I've now posted a message on Master of Puppets' talk page, since he might not be watching this page, so at least you could get a second opinion Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:05, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey there!

Before I go on, thank you for being so understanding and reasonable about this, Ken. It's very-much appreciated.

While I'm not exactly uninvolved, what Jimfbleak has said is true, and I should have raised the username issue four years ago - at the time, I guess I just didn't think of it.

I don't see anything wrong with allowing a name change, as you don't strike me as someone who will cause disruption over this issue. You've been briefed on the implications of editing with a COI, and you're aware of the consequences. I also stand by my earlier offer of reviewing any material you'd like to publish.

That being said - I'd take some time to read over our notability guidelines, reliable sourcing policy, and what Wikipedia is not. While we appreciate your intention to contribute to the encyclopedia - even if it's something you may be involved in - I wouldn't want you spending time on something that will get rejected for being unnotable. Keep in mind that we aim to host articles on entities that stand out in their fields; entities that have been in the news or have been the subject of verifiable public interest. While proving that your organization exists is one thing, proving that it's notable is another. If you're not sure you can prove this, it may be best to leave the article until you can do so - though, if you'd like, you're still welcome to edit in areas that are not related to your company.

That's about all I can say! Let us know if you have any questions. Best, m.o.p 06:57, 15 October 2013 (UTC)