Asaladinozi
Welcome!
editHello, Asaladinozi, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
- Introduction to Wikipedia
- The five pillars of Wikipedia
- How to edit a page and How to develop articles
- How to create your first article
- Simplified Manual of Style
Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}}
before the question. Again, welcome! JohnCD (talk) 12:02, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
Conflict of interest - advice
editThank you for the declaration on your user page. Paid editing is viewed with deep suspicion in Wikipedia, and you must expect your contributions to be closely scrutinized, but being open about it is an important first step.
Please read:
- Wikipedia:Conflict of interest
- Wikipedia:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide
- Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations
- Wikipedia:Search engine optimization
One reason why COI editing is strongly discouraged is that experience shows that, with the best of intentions, people writing on behalf of themselves or an employer or client find it extremely hard not to write promotional PR-speak, full of "puffery" and glowing adjectives. It is important to put out of your mind any idea that you are writing for the client: you are writing for Wikipedia about the client, from outside: no opinions, only facts neutrally stated and cited to reliable sources. Wikipedia is not a platform for the company to tell the world about itself; for that reason, an article should not contain material copied from the company web-site (so it is not worth making the formal copyright release which would be required).
One important point: Wikipedia is selective. It is an encyclopedia, not a business listing directory. It does not expect or want to have an article about every company or every organization that exists. The inclusion criterion is called Wikipedia:Notability and is not a matter of saying so but has to be demonstrated by references showing "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject." Significant means more than just listing-type mentions; reliable excludes Myspace, Facebook, blogs, places where anyone can post anything; independent excludes the subject's own website, affiliated ones and anything based on press releases. The test is, have people not connected with the subject thought it significant enough to write substantial comment about? See WP:Notability (summary).
That is quite a demanding test, and many worthy organizations cannot pass it, which is not to their discredit but means that they are not suitable subjects for a global encyclopedia. The notability requirement applies also to non-profit organizations and worthy causes - see Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause.
If you want to create a new article on behalf of a client, please start by clicking Help:Userspace draft and filling in the title. That will create a draft page for you, with a link to helpful advice and a "Submit the page" button which will send it, when it is ready, to WP:Articles for creation where an experienced user will check it and either accept it or give you feedback.
Regards, JohnCD (talk) 12:02, 12 May 2013 (UTC)