BuildingScientist

February 2020

Welcome to Wikipedia. Because we have a policy against usernames which give the impression that the account represents a group, organization or website, I have blocked this account; please take a moment to create a new account with a username that represents only yourself as an individual and which complies with our username policy or request a change of username.

You should also read our conflict of interest guideline and be aware that promotional editing is not acceptable regardless of the username you choose. Additionally, if your contributions to Wikipedia form all or part of work for which you are, or expect to be, paid, you must disclose who is paying you to edit.

If your username does not represent a group, organization or website, you may appeal this username block by adding the text {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}} at the bottom of your talk page.

You may simply create a new account, but you may prefer to change your username to one that complies with our username policy, so that your past contributions are associated with your new username. If you would prefer to change your username, you may appeal this username block by adding the text

{{unblock-un|new username|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}

at the bottom of your talk page. Please note that you may only request a name that is not already in use, so please check here for a listing of already taken names.

 Thank you. — Diannaa (talk) 00:14, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

BuildingScientist (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

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Request reason:

Building Scientist is a description of what I do. Eg. Farmer, Engineer, Surgeon, Taxi Driver are all profesisons/jobs. There is no website implied nor an organization. Do you know what a Building Scientist is? For what reason could my chosen specialization be considered "represent a group, organization or website"

Accept reason:

Per the discussion below, the block was probably incorrect, but concerns remain about copyright policy violations. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:19, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Diannaa I would tend to agree with the user, but I'm happy to hear anything you have to say about this. 331dot (talk) 19:08, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

BuildingScientist, I removed copyright content that was a match for material at https://buildingscienceeducation.net/. Do you have any affiliation with that website ? If not, it's okay to carry on with your current username.— Diannaa (talk) 22:13, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Diannaa: Sam Taylor operates the free educational website: buildingscienceeducation.net and asked me to provide a while bunch of information to it. There are pdf documents and text all over so I am pretty sure thats what you found. You have not told me what "copyright material" you removed, so I can be sure if it is my work. If you had asked me before removing it, I could have easily responded. You might find a lot of other places on the internet that either quote me, for whom I have written, or who have reproduced my images and words. As one of the few professors of building science in North America, an author of two textbooks on the topic, author of over 100 published papers, and constant educator on the topic, a lot of my words are on the internet.

Since you are a representative of that website, you need to change your username. Also, you cannot post copyright material on Wikipedia even if you are the copyright holder or the copyright holder has given you permission, unless special licensing permissions are in place. That is because Wikipedia aims to be freely distributable and copyable by anyone, and all content must have the appropriate documentation in place before that can happen.

Please see Wikipedia:donating copyrighted materials which explains how it works.

The second problem is conflict of interest. Editing Wikipedia on behalf of someone else (even if you are not being paid do do so) is strongly discouraged, as it is difficult to maintain the required neutral point of view. According to our terms of use, paid editors and people editing on behalf of their employer are required to disclose their conflict of interest by posting a notice on their user page or talk page. — Diannaa (talk) 16:36, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

1. I am not a "representive of the website". How did you read that into what I said? As I said above I was asked if someone could use what I had written and I, as the author, gave them approval. I strongly object to your incorrect characterization of my relationship to that website. There is one person responsible for that website, a retired US DOE employee, and he has collected and aggregated information of his choice from around the US and Canada.

2. Why do you claim that I am "Editing Wikipedia on behalf of someone else". Where did you come up with this spurious and offensive claim. I edited an article about which I am a domain expert, NOT on behalf of someone else

I totally do not understand how you are saying 1. and 2. There is literally zero evidence for your claims.

So what approval, or license, do I need to use phrases or as much as a sentence that I previously created and own the rights to? I routinely deal with copyright in my work and have not had to resolve this type of issue before. Is the intent of Wikipedia to reduce input from people with experience and competence in the field on which they comment? I suppose I can stick to editing things about which I know nothing, and then you would not have a concern.

Sorry, I misinterpreted your remarks to mean that the owner of the website had asked you to add material to Wikipedia. If he asked you to donate material to his website, that is also evidence of a connection with that website, which means you should request a new username. The site is marked as copyright, so the copyright holder's permission is required before you can add the content here. It doesn't matter that you were the original author. The copyright holder is now the person who owns the website. Wikipedia has procedures in place for this purpose. Please see WP:Donating copyrighted materials for an explanation of how to do it. There's a sample permission email at WP:Consent.— Diannaa (talk) 23:46, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi Diannaa, I think I can understand what led to this block, and any warnings about original research, a possible conflict of interest and the copyright policy are appropriate in my opinion. However, the name itself, which is the only reason for the block, does not appear to be a violation of WP:PROMONAME, since it neither unambiguously represents the website name, nor is used by someone who has used Wikipedia for promotion. If you don't mind, I recommend unblocking, or would do so myself if agreed to. Thanks for all your work and best regards, ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:01, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

I have no serious objection to an unblock as long as you are prepared to monitor the user for further violations of the copyright policy.— Diannaa (talk) 23:09, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, Diannaa – feel free to re-block if further violations occur. The warning(s) have been clear enough now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:22, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia and copyright

Hello BuildingScientist, and welcome to Wikipedia. Your additions to Building envelope have been removed in whole or in part, as they appear to have added copyrighted content without evidence that the source material is in the public domain or has been released by its owner or legal agent under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. (To request such a release, see Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission.) While we appreciate your contributions to Wikipedia, there are certain things you must keep in mind about using information from sources to avoid copyright and plagiarism issues.

• You can only copy/translate a small amount of a source, and you must mark what you take as a direct quotation with double quotation marks (") and cite the source using an inline citation. You can read about this at Wikipedia:Non-free content in the sections on "text". See also Help:Referencing for beginners, for how to cite sources here.
• Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing. (There is a college-level introduction to paraphrase, with examples, hosted by the Online Writing Lab of Purdue.) Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify the information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.
• Our primary policy on using copyrighted content is Wikipedia:Copyrights. You may also want to review Wikipedia:Copy-paste.
• If you own the copyright to the source you want to copy or are a legally designated agent, you may be able to license that text so that we can publish it here. Understand, though, that unlike many other sites, where a person can license their content for use there and retain non-free ownership, that is not possible at Wikipedia. Rather, the release of content must be irrevocable, to the world, into the public domain (PD) or under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. Such a release must be done in a verifiable manner, so that the authority of the person purporting to release the copyright is evidenced. See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials.
• In very rare cases (that is, for sources that are PD or compatibly licensed) it may be possible to include greater portions of a source text. However, please seek help at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions, the help desk or the Teahouse before adding such content to the article. 99.9% of sources may not be added in this way, so it is necessary to seek confirmation first. If you do confirm that a source is public domain or compatibly licensed, you will still need to provide full attribution; see Wikipedia:Plagiarism for the steps you need to follow.
• Also note that Wikipedia articles may not be copied or translated without attribution. If you want to copy or translate from another Wikipedia project or article, you must follow the copyright attribution steps in Wikipedia:Translation#How to translate. See also Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia.

It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices, as policy requires that people who persistently do not must be blocked from editing. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. — Diannaa (talk) 00:15, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

A belated welcome!

The welcome may be belated, but the cookies are still warm!

Here's wishing you a belated welcome to Wikipedia, BuildingScientist. I see that you've already been around a while and wanted to thank you for your contributions. Though you seem to have been successful in finding your way around, you may still benefit from following some of the links below, which help editors get the most out of Wikipedia:

• Introductory tutorial
• Contributing to Wikipedia
• Writing an article
• Five pillars of Wikipedia
• Community portal
• Task Center
• Help pages
• Newcomer help desk
• Main help desk

If you don't already know, you should sign your posts on talk pages by using four tildes (~~~~) to insert your username and the date.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Again, welcome! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:21, 2 April 2020 (UTC)