Bob at USA Marketing and Communications

Your username

Welcome to Wikipedia. I saw that you edited or created University of South Alabama, and I noticed that your username, "USA Public Relations", may not comply with our username policy. Please note that you may not use a username that represents the name of a company, group, organization, product, or website. Examples of usernames that are not allowed include "XYZ Company", "MyWidgetsUSA.com", and "Trammel Museum of Art". However, you are invited to use a username that contains such a name if it identifies you personally, such as "Mark at WidgetsUSA", "Jack Smith at the XY Foundation", and "WidgetFan87".

Please also note that Wikipedia does not allow accounts to be shared by multiple people, and that you may not advocate for or promote any company, group, organization, product, or website, regardless of your username. Moreover, I recommend that you read our conflict of interest guideline. If you are a single individual and are willing to contribute to Wikipedia in an unbiased manner, please create a new account or request a change of username, by completing this form, that complies with our username policy. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. Thank you. Corkythehornetfan 20:50, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

February 2017

Hello, I'm Quasar G.. I noticed that you recently removed some content from University of South Alabama without adequately explaining why. In the future, it would be helpful to others if you described your changes to Wikipedia with an accurate edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the removed content has been restored. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. Quasar G. (talk) 20:32, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

March 2017

Hello, I'm BigDwiki. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions have been undone because they appeared to be promotional. Advertising and using Wikipedia as a "soapbox" are against Wikipedia policy and not permitted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. BigDwiki (talk) 19:47, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Your username

Welcome to Wikipedia. I noticed that your username, "Bob at USA Marketing and Communications", may not comply with our username policy. Please note that you may not use a username that represents the name of a company, group, organization, product, or website. Examples of usernames that are not allowed include "XYZ Company", "MyWidgetsUSA.com", and "Foobar Museum of Art". However, you are invited to use a username that contains such a name if it identifies you personally, such as "Jack Smith at XYZ Company", "Mark at WidgetsUSA", or "FoobarFan87".

Please also note that Wikipedia does not allow accounts to be shared by multiple people, and that you may not advocate for or promote any company, group, organization, product, or website, regardless of your username. Moreover, I recommend that you read our conflict of interest guideline. If you are a single individual and are willing to contribute to Wikipedia in an unbiased manner, please create a new account or request a change of username, by completing this form, choosing a username that complies with our username policy. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. Thank you. BigDwiki (talk) 19:47, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Last warning

Re previous section: no, the username is compliant, BigDwiki. I'm surprised you suggest it's not, since that type of username is specifically recommended in the very policy quote you have given the user! But, Bob, all your contributions seem to be promotional, mainly in the form of removing negative (though well-sourced) information. This is your last warning: if you do that again, you will be blocked. Also, since you represent a marketing company, I presume you're being paid for your editing. Please read WP:PAID and comply with its instructions. Bishonen | talk 19:55, 10 March 2017 (UTC).

I do not represent a "marketing company." I work for the Marketing and Communications Department at the University of South Alabama, hence the name Bob at USA Marketing and Communications. I have previously attempted to remove data that is no longer accurate. Specifically, this information in the first paragraph: "The university has come under great criticism; as of 2014 the university maintains a 14% graduation rate, and was named the 8th most dangerous college in the country by Business Insider." The graduation rate cited is three years old and the "dangerous college" article was written five years ago. The assumption is that these statistics are currently representative of the University of South Alabama and they are not. For Wikipedia to continue to provide a forum for misleading information is extremely disappointing.69.85.217.245 (talk) 20:23, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Bob, please make the recommended declaration of your employment on your userpage User:Bob at USA Marketing and Communications. You can use the template {{paid}}, which will save you a bit of typing. Please also do this while logged in. The last comment was made by a user who was not logged in; I'm pretty sure it was you, but there is no way to be certain that it was. Thanks.

You must appreciate the other editors' concerns that with the University of South Alabama article, you are not a disinterested third party. By the nature of your position, you have an interest in portraying the institution in a positive light, which rightly calls into question your ability to edit this article from the required neutral point of view. Even the most well-meaning editors can be subject to unconscious biases when editing topics where they have a personal or professional connection. The waters are particularly muddied when their is a financial motivation to do so.

The recommended course of action for someone in your position is to suggest changes on the article talk page, Talk:University of South Alabama. Using the template {{Request edit}} will alert other uninvolved editors to the review and discuss the changes you want to make. The resulting consensus will ensure that the content changes are reliably sourced and neutrally worded. --Drm310 (talk) 20:58, 10 March 2017 (UTC)