User talk:Lawinfo

October 2010

Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended or used for publicity and/or promotional purposes. Please read the following carefully.

Why can't I edit Wikipedia?

Your account's edits and/or username indicate that it is being used on behalf of a company, group, celebrity or other well-known individual, or organization for purposes of promotion and/or publicity. The edits may have violated one or more of our rules on spamming, which include: adding inappropriate external links, posting advertisements, and using Wikipedia for promotion. Wikipedia has many articles on companies, groups, and organizations, but it is considered inappropriate for such groups to use Wikipedia to write about themselves. In addition, usernames like yours are disallowed under our username policy.

Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?

Probably not. See WP:FAQ/Organization for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, or organization. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit again. Consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.

What can I do now?

You are still welcome to write about something other than your company or organization. If you do intend to make useful contributions on some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:

Add the text {{unblock-spamun|Your proposed new username|Your reason here}} on your user talk page.
Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:

Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.

If you believe this block was made in error, please see how to appeal a block. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 14:47, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 2010

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.

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

Requested username:

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

Decline reason:

Firstly, we need you to change your username, so you'll need to enter a different username you'd like to use in order to be unblocked. Secondly, we do not allow users to advertise their own companies on Wikipedia, and your deleted userpage (User:Lawinfo) was an advertisement. Thirdly, is this account being controlled by more than one person? Your use of the word "we" above confuses me; according to policy, "role" accounts controlled by more than one person are forbidden due to copyright reasons. — Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 16:23, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have deleted your user page under Speedy deletion criteria G11 ("Unambiguous promotion").

Wikipedia's user pages are not a place for promoting a group, organisation or company (whether directly or indirectly).

Regards, -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 14:47, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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.

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

Requested username:

Lawinfo.com (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Decline reason:

Wikipedia accounts must be for individuals only, who are personally responsible for them. A username which is that of a company or organization is not permitted. Even if you set up an individual account, our conflict of interest rules mean that you would not be allowed to edit about your company. Wikipedia is not a business listing directory. Do you have any other reason for wishing to edit Wikipedia? — JohnCD (talk) 17:19, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This username is worse - please read our username policy. Your new username needs to be entirely unrelated to your company. You also haven't answered my questions above. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 17:00, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{unblock-spamun reviewed|Lawinfo|How does a company like ours: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findlaw get listed into your database}. LawInfo is a free legal portal as well. The owner of the company is Gunter Enz and fully responsible for this listing. Once our listing is approved, there is no reason for anyone to edit the company information. When I entered this information 3 years ago, I am not sure how or who edited the company information. Again, thank your time - as I am the confused one right now}}

I will leave another administrator to consider your request, but meanwhile please read the WP:FAQ/Organizations which will answer some of your questions. Also, please add anything new to the bottom of this page, or the conversation gets hard to follow. JohnCD (talk) 17:50, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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.

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

Requested username:

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

Request reason:

Thank you. For the next administrator, the following information I would like to be considered for Lawinfo is the following:

LawInfo.com, Inc. is a closely held California corporation located in San Marcos, CA. The company has been providing targeted Internet solutions and free online legal sources since October of 1994. It was the forward thinking of our founder and President, Gunter Enz, that lead to the concept of taking legal solutions to the Internet at a time when the world was still questioning the usefulness and longevity of the World Wide Web. LawInfo's signature service, the Lead Counsel Program*, was designed to provide a simple and reliable way for anyone on the Web to find a pre-qualified, pre-screened attorney quickly and easily. Lead Counsel Members must earn the right to use the Lead Counsel designation by passing our challenging certification process, which mandates peer recommendations, bar checks, and minimum practice area experience.

What information is accepted should remain permanent. Again thank you for everyones time on this subject

Decline reason:

You do seem confused about Wikipedia when you say What information is accepted should remain permanent. As it says when you try to edit a page, If you do not want your writing to be edited, used, and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here. Wikipedia is not a marketing platform. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 18:34, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{unblock-spamun|Lawinfo|Hi. My goal is add our information like other companies -as we did when I created an account in 2007. What do I need to do b/c I have submitted information that is very similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findlaw and other businesses. To make it clear it was suggested my information was changed 3 times in the past. I am unclear why that happened since I am the owner of this account. If other administrators changed the listing, that would be on your teams recommendations. If someone logged into my account, I am not aware of this and any changes. Does that make sense? Again I apologize - I would like to have the same opportunity to have an entry as other businesses. Any suggestions would be appreciated}}

Response to email received

Hi. This email was very useful. I will talk to our team and get back to "my talk" Thank you again!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawinfo
Sent: 11 October 2010 16:53
To: Phantomsteve
Subject: Wikipedia e-mail

{{unblock-spamun|LawInfo|I added information from our About Us page: http://www.lawinfo.com/about.html. If you feel something should be removed, I am more than willing to make the changes. I reviewed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FindLaw and felt they were similar. Thank you in advanced for your assistance.}}

Firstly, you should keep any unblock requests on this page, unless you have your access revoked.

The first problem here is your user name, which (as you have been told several times already) goes against the user name policy. Please re-read that (here) before asking for a new name.

You also have the problem that it is obvious that your only purpose here is to edit about your company. For an article to be created, the company needs to be notable, which at a minimum normally requires significant coverage at reliable independent sources. All the sources I could find were press releases - which are from your company - and so are not independent. I could not find any evidence that you meet the inclusion criteria (see here and here). Articles existing about other similar companies in no way means that your company should have an article - it could be that there is sufficient coverage at independent reliable sources, or that the other article should also be considered for deletion - indeed, I have proposed that FindLaw be deleted for precisely that reason.

Incidentally, no editor can request that information "remain permanent" - all articles are editable by anyone, as long as the information added/altered is adequately sourced, and sourced information is not removed.

I see no evidence that you intend on editing about other subjects, and your proposed editing is not in line with Wikipedia's conflict of interest policy. As the blocking admin, I will not be dealing with your unblock request (unless I am convinced by your arguments, and agree to unblock you for renaming, in which case I can be involved again!) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 18:53, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]