User talk:MacPraughan

Your submission at Articles for creation: sandbox (March 25)

Your recent article submission to Articles for Creation has been reviewed! Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. The reason left by Onel5969 was: Please check the submission for any additional comments left by the reviewer. You are encouraged to edit the submission to address the issues raised and resubmit when they have been resolved.

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Onel5969 (talk) 14:20, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello! Teahouse, I noticed your article was declined at Articles for Creation, and that can be disappointing. If you are wondering or curious about why your article submission was declined please post a question at the Articles for creation help desk. If you have any other questions about your editing experience, we'd love to help you at the Teahouse, a friendly space on Wikipedia where experienced editors lend a hand to help new editors like yourself! See you there! Onel5969 (talk) 14:20, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Your submission at Articles for creation: Barry Kerzin has been accepted

Barry Kerzin, which you submitted to Articles for creation, has been created.
The article has been assessed as C-Class, which is recorded on the article's talk page. You may like to take a look at the grading scheme to see how you can improve the article.

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Onel5969 (talk) 19:58, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

File permission problem with File:Barry Kerzin wearing electrodes on his cranium.jpg

Thanks for uploading File:Barry Kerzin wearing electrodes on his cranium.jpg. I noticed that while you provided a valid copyright licensing tag, there is no proof that the creator of the file has agreed to release it under the given license.

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If you did not create it entirely yourself, please ask the person who created the file to take one of the two steps listed above, or if the owner of the file has already given their permission to you via email, please forward that email to permissions-en@wikimedia.org.

If you believe the media meets the criteria at Wikipedia:Non-free content, use a tag such as {{non-free fair use}} or one of the other tags listed at Wikipedia:File copyright tags#Fair use, and add a rationale justifying the file's use on the article or articles where it is included. See Wikipedia:File copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have provided evidence that their copyright owners have agreed to license their works under the tags you supplied, too. You can find a list of files you have created in your upload log. Files lacking evidence of permission may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. You may wish to read the Wikipedia's image use policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Eeekster (talk) 18:07, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi there, Eekster. Eek! I have been scrabbling to get to the source/copyright holder of this portrait and the subject informs me it would probably be the Waisman Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at Wisconsin Uni. He has therefore sent his contact there a note asking them to kindly email you the requisite permission to publish it. I sent all the necessary details and there is no reason why they should say no (I suppose). I hope you receive this permission before your deadline runs out (on Easter Monday!!!) - but if not, considering it is a long holiday weekend I hope you will extend the deadline by another week perhaps? Many thanks, Sean M Jones (talk) 15:46, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

I made a new talk section

Um so because you expressed an interest in moving on in our discussion on Talk:Dalai Lama, I created a new section. I intend no disrespect, so if you object, please feel free to remove the new section head. However, I created it in order to make the comments easier to read: in fact, I'd like to change the indent structure as well. Feel free to do it yourself; I'll wait to make sure you're okay with the new section though. It was already kind of "comments everywhere" and it'd be better to keep things easy to read chronologically.

I also appreciate your apology; if I seemed cross it was because there is endless disrespect on this encyclopedia from editors who are here only to troll or to push some frustrating goal of making everything accord to their personal vision of the universe. I found your anger unexpected in what was, I thought, simply two people discussing a topic in order to figure out how to edit a page, but I gather you saw my long-winded discussions as somehow dismissive of you. I really was just chewing the fat; you'll note I often corrected myself when you observed I was wrong. I'm not an angry mastodon, I assure you. If I was abrupt, it was because I was just stating facts as I understood them - it is easier to just say what I am thinking in response directly. So when I say "no but X", if you have information challenging that, I figure you'll just say, "yeah but no, y", which is in fact mostly what you were already doing. Ogress _smash! 20:32, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

I hope we can improve this article Ogress, which is all I want to do. I’d like to see a fair portrait of the Dalai Lama(s) here, both individually and collectively. I have no problem with valid criticism to get a well rounded picture and appreciate the Wikipedia habit of giving space to include controversy and negative criticism of the subject. #14 has certain detractors who aim to disparage and malign, the shugdenites and the CCP for two. I have no problem to apologise if I happen to annoy people. My interest in Buddhism goes back 50 years when I started reading Buddhist books and it’s 40 years since I took refuge. So here I try to maintain a healthy scepticism. I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding, on the basis of which I hope we can collaborate to improve this article and who knows, maybe others. I don’t mind your opening a new section at all, I appreciate it and if you want to improve the indent system on the comments that is great, go ahead. I am here to learn, to improve and to help and I think this DL History section is important and the talk discussion about it should be accessible on the record.MacPraughan (talk) 20:33, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Reference errors on 12 June

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Disambiguation link notification for July 19

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Speedy deletion nomination of Draft:Altruism in Medicine Institute

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A tag has been placed on Draft:Altruism in Medicine Institute, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page seems to be unambiguous advertising which only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become encyclopedic. Please read the guidelines on spam and Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations for more information.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. DGG ( talk ) 08:20, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks talk for your attention to my Draft 'Altruism in Medicine Institute' and for so speedily deleting it for the good reasons you have given! However I wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement; the organisation is already in the course of growing and becoming more notable and acceptable. Would you please therefore be so kind as to make the work I have done available to me again to be saved for eventual improvement and resubmission at a future date. Sorry if I have made a mistake, I am new to Wikipedia and very much on a learning curve. MacPraughan (talk) 16:14, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Hello, MacPraughan. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Speedy deletion nomination of File:Professor_Barry_Michael_Kerzin,_2013.gif

A tag has been placed on File:Professor_Barry_Michael_Kerzin,_2013.gif requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F9 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the image appears to be a blatant copyright infringement. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted images or text borrowed from other web sites or printed material, and as a consequence, your addition will most likely be deleted. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously and persistent violators will be blocked from editing.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Jytdog (talk) 14:49, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Conflict of interest in Wikipedia

Hi MacPraughan. I am a member of WP:MED and also work on conflict of interest issues here in Wikipedia. Your account is what we call a WP:SPA - pretty much all your edits to date are about Barry Kerzin and are somewhat promotional. I'm giving you notice of our Conflict of Interest guideline and Terms of Use, and will have some comments and questions for you below.

Hello, MacPraughan. We welcome your contributions to Wikipedia, but if you have an external relationship with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest or close connection to the subject.

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.
• 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, verifiability of information, and autobiographies. Note that Wikipedia's terms of use require disclosure of your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation.

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

Comments and question

Wikipedia is a widely-used reference work and managing conflict of interest is essential for ensuring the integrity of Wikipedia and retaining the public's trust in it. As in academia, COI is managed here in two steps - disclosure and a form of peer review. Please note that there is no bar to being part of the Wikipedia community if you have a conflict of interest; there are just some things we ask you to do (and if you are paid, some things you need to do).

Disclosure is the most important, and first, step. While I am not asking you to disclose your identity (anonymity is strictly protecting by out WP:OUTING policy) would you please disclose if you have some connection with Kerzin or any of the institutes with which he is associated? You can answer how ever you wish (giving personally identifying information or not), but if there is a connection, with please disclose it. After you respond (and you can just reply below), perhaps we can talk a bit about editing Wikipedia, to give you some more orientation to how this place works. Thanks!

You can reply here - I am watching this page. Once you do, we can take it from there. Thanks in advance for talking! Jytdog (talk) 15:01, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Responses and explanations

Thanks for your notice, I am glad to see you are on the case of hunting down inappropriate conflicts of interest in Wikipedia contributors. My relationship with Barry Kerzin is in a way professional, he is a kind of distant colleague in that he is currently one of the medical doctors of the 14th Dalai Lama and I have known the same Dalai Lama for many years since I was his personal chauffeur in the UK from 1982 to 1993. Therefore I am an acquaintance of the subject, I got to know him attending and organising events around the Dalai Lama and his activities and I have seen what he has done and felt inspired to write about him on Wikipedia since it seems notable to me and I feel people who are interested in him and there are many should have the chance to learn more about his background if they wished (he has some 25,000 "followers" on Facebook).

Is this a conflict of interest? I have no financial or other interest in promoting his work, I am simply a retired professional who is working on Wikipedia which has become my new hobby this year. My interests cover Buddhism and Tibet and the history of Tibet; I have not only worked on Barry Kerzin's BLP (as you appear to be suggesting!) but I've also done a lot of work (a lot for me - hundreds of edits) on the pages of the Dalai Lama, especially the 'History' section, and the 14th Dalai Lama along with associated subjects such ar the Ganden Tripa, Mind and Life Institute amongst others and so forth. I am also preparing a BLP for the main founder of Mind and Life Institute, Adam Engle, and I am preparing to revise the entire article on Mind and Life Institute since I consider it way out of date, uninformative and badly designed as it stands.

Another connection with Kerzin and Engle is that we are all of us to some extent in principle friends and students of the 14th Dalai Lama (of which there must be millions around the world) as regards his Buddhist and philosophical teachings. So I hope this does not represent conflict of interest either. It is one of the few things I know anything about to the extent of being able to research or write about these subjects in Wikipedia - I have a scores if not hundreds of text and history books on Buddhism, Tibet, the History of Tibet, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan - a region where I have lived, travelled and worked in various occupations for many years of my career. My profession is accountant and administrator, my main business has been that of specialist travel agent in London from the 1970s to the 1990s and my regional speciality is in the history and culture of central and south Asia. I speak Pashto (the language of the Taliban and eastern/southern Afghanistan), Urdu (Pakistani), Hindustani (Indian), a little Tibetan and Nepali, plus French and Italian, I am married to a Swiss and I live retired in the south France since 2001; my mother Irish, my father Welsh, myself English by birth.

I am certainly not being paid for any of these efforts in Wikipedia! Neither do I have any position whatsoever in any of the institutes and foundations I have mentioned. I am, however, still on the Board of Advisors of the Tibet Foundation, London, an unpaid position, and I wonder whether that would preclude me from writing an article eventually on that foundation, which I am considering doing in future? As a supporter of the Foundation as well as longterm personal friend of the founder and director there, a Tibetan, would that also preclude me from writing a BLP about his extraordinary life? Please let me know and feel free to throw any further questions at me as I fully believe in transparency and accountability and am more than willing to be examined over my motivation for anything I have ever written on Wikipedia or elsewhere. Looking forward to hearing from you and learning more. As this is all quite new to me I feel very much a newcomer and sadly ignorant as regards expertise, just learning how to do things bit by bit from scratch since I'm not very tech-savvy and don't even have a mobile phone. Any advice you can give me to improve my work and gain approval would be very much appreciated. How about you? Feel free to tell me about yourself and your work. Do you come up against a lot of tricky people? MacPraughan (talk) 15:55, 9 August 2015 (UTC)