User talk:Apmeggison

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16:03, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

February 2019

There have been two problems with this account: the account has been used for advertising or promotion, which is contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia, and your username indicates that the account represents a business or other organisation or group or a web site, which is also against policy, as an account must be for just one person. Because of those problems, the account has been blocked indefinitely from editing.

If you intend to make useful contributions about some topic other than your business or organisation, you may request an unblock. To do so, post the text {{unblock-spamun|Your proposed new username|Your reason here}} at the bottom of your talk page. Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:CentralAuth 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 that reason, you must:

Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the kind of 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}} at the bottom of your talk page, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. ~~Sw arm~~ 00:01, 1 February 2019 (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.

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

Requested username:

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

Request reason:

Thank you for the opportunity to try and make this right. Prior to updating the Maine Windjammers article I did a lot of research and saw that other business associations have pages on Wikipedia. In the spirit of awareness I tried very hard not to be promotional in our listing, but rather informational and offer a history of the boats, who we are as an association, and share sailing events with the community. I used a Diving Association as my example. Some of our boats have Wikipedia pages that are not promotional in nature. I am certainly willing to change wording and language if in places it feels too promotional. This was my first attempt at editing an article, and though I did read the guidelines, I thought I was within them. For example, at no place in the article do we promote or push sailing vacations, amenities, cruise packages, or the like. I would welcome one-on-one guidance to highlight the offending areas and become aware of the specific language that seemed too promotional, and I would certainly take care not to do that again. Really just trying to state who we are and what we present. Hope that makes sense. It would never be my intention to purposely violate Wikipedia's guidelines. Sailmaine (talk) 13:28, 1 February 2019 (UTC)Alisa P. Meggison

Decline reason:

I am closing this only because you seem to indicate that you are taking some time to reflect on this matter and consider what has been said. If you want to edit about something unrelated to Maine Windjammers or the association, you are welcome to make another unblock request. 331dot (talk) 14:43, 4 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Some things:

"I just want(ed) to provide information" is a distinction without a difference as far as promotional editing goes.
Notability (as Wikipedia defines it) isn't inheritable. It doesn't matter that individual boats associated with the organisation are notable; what matters is if the organisation itself is, as determined by multiple third-party news articles.
If you are working or volunteering for the organisation then you must disclose it per Wikipedia's Terms of Use and (in some jurisdictions) covert advertising laws.
It is possible to be promotional without trying to push a list of services. Word choice and over-detail are among the more common ways an article turns from neutral to a promotional mess.
As a condition of unblock an administrator may require you not to edit about the organisation, and a username change doesn't absolve you of having a conflict of interest with regards to such topics. What articles and topic areas would you edit, knowing this?

Hope this helps. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^Bori! 20:03, 1 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I do represent/work for the association, so I will include that specific note. I can certainly provide links for 3rd party news articles, videos, and television interviews about the association. I included a username change request because I was told to do so in the first communication. I will read Wikipedia's guidelines more closely and specifically pursue those references you mentioned to avoid unintentionally sounding promotional. The single article I would like to edit is "Maine Windjammers". This article currently lists a basketball team which no longer exists and hasn't for 33 years. Maine Windjammers is generally known today as the primary Maine Windjammer Fleet, which is represented by the Maine Windjammer Association. Sailmaine (talk) 20:28, 1 February 2019 (UTC)Alisa P. Meggison[reply]

In my search of sources, I can only find mentions advertising vacations or press release type mentions with basic announcements, which are not acceptable for establishing notability as called out at WP:ORG, the notability guidelines for organizations. Independent sources need to discuss your organization in depth in order for it to merit an article here. As its representative, you are too close to the organization to be able to write about it in the manner required by Wikipedia. To be successful, you would essentially need to forget everything you know about the organization and only write based on what independent sources state. While not impossible, this is usually very difficult for people in your position to do, at least in my Wikipedia experience. I have yet to see it happen successfully. This is why users blocked for promotional editing aren't usually permitted to edit about their own organization, and why unless you describe what else you want to edit about outside of your conflict of interest, you probably won't be unblocked. If you just want to tell about the history of the organization and its aspects, you should do that on a website controlled by the organization. Wikipedia is not interested in what an organization wants to say about itself. Is there anything outside of your conflict of interest that you want to edit about? 331dot (talk) 12:03, 2 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the insight and feedback. I considered this over the weekend and did some research my self, and though I can find books and news articles that mention the MWA, you are correct, they tend to be promotional in nature, and not factual.

I will consult with the captains to let them know the challenges presented here and writing the article from a perspective other than mine.
I am grateful for the guidance and your time. I will leave this rest here for the time being. Apmeggison (talk) 14:35, 4 February 2019 (UTC)Alisa Meggison[reply]

globally renamed Sailmaine to Apmeggison

globally renamed Sailmaine to Apmeggison-- Dlohcierekim (talk) 20:59, 1 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]