User talk:MarkSB2024

Welcome!

Hello, MarkSB2024, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited was Shutts & Bowen, which appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article. Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or another editor to proofread it. See our help page on userspace drafts for more details. If the page you created has already been deleted from Wikipedia, but you want to save the content from it to use for that draft, don't hesitate to ask anyone from this list and they will copy it to your user page.

One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

In addition, if you receive, or expect to receive, compensation for any contribution you make, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation to comply with our terms of use and our policy on paid editing.

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

Best practices for editors with close associations
The five pillars of Wikipedia
Contributing to Wikipedia
Tutorial
How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
Simplified Manual of Style
The Teahouse, our help forum for new editors

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, visit the Teahouse, 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! GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 19:13, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I understand the concern with a conflict of interest. I am just trying to add a little history about the firm, and had even linked out to credible news sources. How can I receive a copy of the edits made so they are not lost while we figure this out? MarkSB2024 (talk) 19:29, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You copy-pasted a very large chunk of text from the lawfirm's website. That's not a credible news source- that's both a copyright violation, and it's inappropriate for a Wikipedia article. And as for the material you took from news articles- which, now that I'm looking more closely, it appears you took some prose from as well - phrases such as "particularly outpaced" are not particularly encyclopaedic. Seeing as you still have access to most if not all of the original text, viewable at the law firm's own website, it will not be restored here.

And while you said you understand about the conflict of interest, allow me to ask in plainer terms: do you or do you not have a conflict of interest with the firm? If you do, then I'm sure that you can ask them about the Federal Trade Commission's opinion on native advertising. You'll also need to make appropriate disclosures before you edit the article or make edit requests. And if you don't have a conflict of interest, then I strongly advise reading up on Wikipedia's copyright policies and how to write from a neutral point of view. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 20:22, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Managing a conflict of interest

Hello, MarkSB2024. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on the page Shutts & Bowen, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for article subjects for more information. We ask that you:

avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization, clients, or competitors;
propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (you can use the {{edit COI}} template)—don't forget to give details of reliable sources supporting your suggestions;
disclose your conflict of interest when discussing affected articles (see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § How to disclose a COI);
avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam § External link spamming);
do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution which forms all or part of work for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. See Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure.

Also, editing for the purpose of advertising, publicizing, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 07:21, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]