IdahoBlueLine

Welcome!

Hello, IdahoBlueLine, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Unfortunately, one or more of your recent edits to the page Idaho State Police did not conform to Wikipedia's verifiability policy, and may have been removed. Wikipedia articles should refer only to facts and interpretations verified in reliable, reputable print or online sources or in other reliable media. Always provide a reliable source for quotations and for any material that is likely to be challenged, or it may be removed. Wikipedia also has a related policy against including original research in articles.

If you are stuck and looking for help, please see the guide for citing sources or come to The Teahouse, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Again, welcome!  SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (my edits)} 17:28, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Good afternoon - I'm super new to this and appreciate your help.

Our agency wanted to ensure that all information provided was correct. As the Communications Director for ISP, I'm unsure how anyone else could better verify facts about our organization. All content can be found on our website, and nothing provided should be disputable. ISP owns any/all copywritten material(s) provided and they are, by law, available for public use.

I’ll review the resources but am uncertain why publicly published information/content is not being accepted. (I can work on citing sources, but the denied content shouldn't need sources...) I appreciate your guidance, help, and time. IdahoBlueLine (talk) 19:35, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

@IdahoBlueLine As an administrator here, may I first welcome you to Wikipedia, but also dispel a few misunderstandings you may have about how we operate?

Firstly, you said I'm unsure how anyone else could better verify facts about our organization. In fact, you are one of the least suitable persons to verify facts about your organisation on Wikipedia! As a paid employee of ISP, we regard you as having a strong CONFLICT OF INTEREST which you do need to declare on your Userpage. Indeed, you should not be editing this article at all, using instead our EDIT REQUEST process to recommend specifically worded changes to the article, supported by links or citations. So, please follow the guidance at WP:COI to see how to make that declaration for transparency.

Secondly, you say All content can be found on our website, and nothing provided should be disputable. For that reason, all we need, then, in that regard from you is an up-to-date EXTERNAL LINK to your website for users to find relevant content for themselves. We are not here to allow any organisation to PROMOTE itself by simply copy/pasting text from its website. We are, however, interested in what others say and have written about any organisation, person or thing, so we welcome content based upon mainstream media, books and academic articles. Employees of an organisation; wives or husbands of notable people, or investors in tech companies are each, in their own way, the worst people to write on that topic because, whether intentionally or otherwise, they are liable to introduce a biased perspective. That's not to say you personally will, but our principle applies across all our articles and to all editors.

Finally, I assume you were operating User:ISPCommunications before I 'soft-blocked' you. The reason I did that was because we don't permit multiple people to access or edit under one account name. We operate a one person-one account policy. Because I think you may still be operating an account for your police force which you could well be asking other colleagues to access and edit from, please would you simply declare on your userpage who you work for, and the fact (if true) that only you are operating it. We're happy to have usernames which identify an individual person (something like, for example, AaronatISP, because this can be seen to be a single person.

I hope this helps clarify things a bit. Feel free to ask further questions by using the 'Reply' button after this post. I will be 'pinged' automatically if you do it that way, and so respond quicker. Alternatively, please ask further questions at the TEAHOUSE, which is open 24/7. Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 20:18, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for your detailed response. I appreciate the clarification on Wikipedia's policies.

It seems I misunderstood the processes and Wikipedia’s role in handling information updates. My goal was simply to provide clear and accurate information about our agency. Given your response, I now understand the concern about potential conflicts of interest and am rethinking my approach.

I’m still unclear on one point: If I’m considered the “least suitable” person to verify or provide facts, should I change my username or just use the "Edit Request" for changes? As I have no desire to make suggestions or changes to other articles, I’m prepared to delete any/all usernames to avoid potential violations.

Also, I wonder if there might be a way to handle responses more positively. Constructive feedback is often more effective than being overly critical, and improved communication with those less familiar with your world could be more helpful.

Thank you again for your guidance. I’ll follow up with any further questions through the appropriate channels.

Cheers from the USA IdahoBlueLine (talk) 22:43, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Changing your username does not change who you are. You have already told us that you are the Communications Director for the ISP. So, no, don't bother changing your username again. Take all of the other suggestions that Nick Moyes gave you about declaring your conflict of interest and using the edit request system to correct any incorrect or out-of-date information at the Idaho State Police article. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 19:01, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Adding to this, I want to see you editing your userpage to clearly state who you are, whether you are one person or a department, and your aspirations for being an editor here on Wikipedia. Then, please use the WP:EDITREQUEST process to ask for changes to the article about your employer. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:59, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Copyrights

Your edit to Idaho State Police has been removed in whole or in part, as it appears to have added copyrighted material to Wikipedia without evidence of permission from the copyright holder. If you are the copyright holder, please read Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for information on how to contribute your work appropriately. For legal reasons, Wikipedia strictly cannot host copyrighted text or images from print media or digital platforms without an appropriate and verifiable license. Contributions infringing on copyright will be removed. You may use external websites or publications as a source of information, but not as a source of content, such as sentences or images—you must write using your own words. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously, and persistent violators of our copyright policy will be blocked from editing. See Wikipedia:Copying text from other sources for more information. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 17:29, 15 August 2024 (UTC)