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August 2009[edit]

Your account has been blocked from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended or used for promotional purposes. Please read the following carefully.


Why can't I edit Wikipedia?

Because your account was used for promotion of a company, group, product or organization with a username that violated username policy as it promotes (or implies affiliation with) the aforementioned. This includes, but is not limited to: adding spam links, creating promotional pages (this includes user pages), adding advertisements to existing articles, and adding promotional/favorable content about something you are affiliated with.

Use of Wikipedia for promotion of people, products, companies or other groups (even non-commercial or charitable ones) is considered spam and is forbidden. Such actions will result in the blocking of the account involved. Please read Wikipedia:FAQ/Organization and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest for our policies about this.

In addition, user accounts are for individuals only, not for companies or groups or other collective editing. Your username should reflect this. Usernames that appear to be promotional (such as those that make reference to a company or product) violate our username policy and are typically blocked to enforce that policy.

What can I do now?

If you have no interest in writing about some other topic than your organization, group, company, or product, you will not be allowed to edit Wikipedia again. Consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.

If you do intend to make useful contributions about some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:

  • Add the text {{unblock|Your reason here}} below this message box.
  • Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
  • Tell us what new username you want to use. Please make sure that your new username does not violate our username policy and check that it has not already been taken (click here to search).
  • Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
  • Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.
If instead you believe that you have been blocked by mistake (i.e., you have not in fact been using Wikipedia for promotional purposes), please write {{unblock|Your reason here}} below this message box and replace the text "Your reason here" with the reason why. See also Wikipedia:Appealing a block for more information. Mfield (Oi!) 18:48, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{unblock|1=I would like to appeal my block for promotion of an organization. I have reviewed the latest differential edit on the article I contributed to and it appears that my username, combined with the links I added, made my edits look promotional. This was definitely not my intention--I was trying to provide references for the information I was adding but, after carefully reviewing the Wikipedia: Conflict of Interest, I understand why linking to official websites violates Wikipedia's neutral policy. My aim was to contribute to and discuss the National Museum of Natural History article's contents so it may become as thorough and accurate as the one for the American Museum of Natural History. Thank you for considering this appeal.}} NMNHweb (talk) 14:47, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Promotional usernames[edit]

A username which is also the name of an organisation, whether profit-making or not, is intrinsically and by definition promotional. To be unblocked you will need to use the template {{unblock-un}} to change to a non-promotional username. To avoid conflict of interest we will also ask that you not edit articles about your own organisation. --Anthony.bradbury"talk" 17:39, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]


Thank you for your attention. I have one last question. The Conflict of Interest policy states:


"Editors who may have a conflict of interest are allowed to make certain kinds of non-controversial edits, such as: Removing spam and reverting vandalism. Deleting content that violates Wikipedia's biography of living persons policy. Fixing spelling and grammar errors. Reverting or removing their own COI edits. Cleaning up your own mess is allowed and encouraged. Making edits that have been agreed to on the talk page. Adding citations, especially when another editor has requested them."

Is it appropriate if I continue to edit in this manner, according to these specific guidelines? NMNHweb (talk) 18:25, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]


{{unblock-un|Spring1910}}

Your request to be unblocked has been granted for the following reason(s):

Allowing username change to Spring1910 (talk · contribs). Please put this request in at Wikipedia:Changing username before resuming editing. As for editing under a conflict of interest, please see WP:BESTCOI -- that guideline is on the conservative side but if you follow it you should be able to avoid all entanglements in the future.

Request handled by: Mangojuicetalk 19:10, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unblocking administrator: Please check for active autoblocks on this user after accepting the unblock request.

Edit summaries[edit]

Hey, in your future editing, be sure to always fill in the Edit Summary below the edit box with every edit so that other editors can follow article histories and track changes. The summary should be a concise description of what you changed and why. If you click on the History tab of any article you will see how other editors use this in the comments that consequently appear to the right of each change. Thanks. Mfield (Oi!) 23:38, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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