User talk:Paulgerrard

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Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended 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 such groups are generally discouraged from using 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/Organizations 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, organization, or clients. 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, organization, or clients. 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, you may appeal this block by adding the text {{unblock|Your reason here}} below but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first.

--Hu12 (talk) 13:28, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This user's request to be unblocked to request a change in username has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

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

Requested username:

Smart Tester (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Request reason:

Hi. I understand the reason I was blocked - fair enough. At the time i was experimenting only and did not take the restrictions seriously. I appreciate the reasons for them of course and will act with due care and attention in future. I am prominent in the Software Testing/QA domain, have written several books, won awards, chaired conferences etc. etc. There are quite a few WP pages in this field that need attention and I'd like to contribute better content. Hence my request.

Accept reason:

Per your agreement below. As Max Semenik said, changing your username away from your real name will not be required, though you are welcome, of course, to request a name change to get your last name capitalized if you like. Huon (talk) 18:50, 26 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Do you agree to not add any links to your consulting site? OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 14:23, 21 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that changing usernameis needed if it's your real name. You must, however, promise to abstain from writing about yourself, using your works as references and linking to your sites. If you agree to comply, I'm happy to unblock. Max Semenik (talk) 18:15, 21 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

User:Paulgerrard Is it OK to change capitalise surname (i.e. PaulGerrard rather than Paulgerrard)? Happy not to promote myself directly. But having written books, papers etc - can they not be used to substantiate statements made? Can I only reference other peoples work? I'll abide by rules.

Referencing your own consulting site would be a conflict of interest in this case. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 19:44, 23 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

User:Paulgerrard OK - I read the conflict of interest page - I'm happy to abide by the rules. Thanks for your patience.

See Special:GlobalRenameRequest on how to request a username change. On an unrelated note, please sign talk page messages (as opposed to edits to articles) with four tildes (~~~~). That will add links to your user page and user talk page as well as a timestamp and thus make it much easier for other editors to tell who contributed to a discussion. Huon (talk) 18:52, 26 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]