Sam Lisker at Coltautos.com

Welcome to Wikipedia. I noticed that your username, "Coltautos", 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 permitted to use a username that contains such a name if it identifies you individually, such as "Sara 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. Please also read our paid editing policy and our conflict of interest guideline. If you are a single individual and are willing to contribute to Wikipedia in an unbiased manner, please 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. Melcous (talk) 23:15, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

December 2017

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a collection of links, nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include, but are not limited to, links to personal websites, links to websites with which you are affiliated (whether as a link in article text, or a citation in an article), and links that attract visitors to a website or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam guideline for further explanations. Because Wikipedia uses the nofollow attribute value, its external links are disregarded by most search engines. If you feel the link should be added to the page, please discuss it on the associated talk page rather than re-adding it. Thank you. Melcous (talk) 23:15, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Today, I noticed that in external references for a number of Colt firearms models, the link to my site was to a 10 year old version of my page visible through the WayBackMachine. I attempted to correct these links to point to a current version of these pages. Instead of asking for clarification, you reverted the changes and then told me that the username that I've had for years was in violation of Wikipedia's terms of use.

So I clicked the link and completed the form to change my name. I'm still not sure how the focus on an administrative procedure ended up making the content related to the Colt firearms pages better, but I complied with the request.

May I ask why you feel that outdated links to the WayBackMachine are better than current links that provide the reader with accurate and up to date information?

Sincerely,

Coltautos (talk) 03:07, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Reply

Hi and thanks for your message on my talk page and for taking these requests seriously. I'm sure it can feel like a burden, but unfortunately there are plenty of people seeking to use wikipedia for promotional purposes, which is why the conflict of interest guidelines are reasonably strict. I am not at all suggesting the previous links were better than the ones you added (or vice versa), the issue is with you adding them, given your clear conflict of interest. As the note above says, if you think there are better links, please do go to the talk page of the articles and suggest them there (you can use the Template:Request edit which will flag it for other people's attention), and then a neutral editor can make the changes. Appreciate you taking the time to comply with these guidelines even though it can take a bit longer. Cheers, Melcous (talk) 07:41, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Reply

Thanks for the reply and in a word, yes, the process you've described is a burden. Painting every contributor with Wikipedia with a broad brush will also limit the quality of the content that is posted to Wikipedia.

Since the links I provided on my site are to the specific pages related to the Colt Models covered on the Wikipedia pages and I offer nothing for sale on those pages, I'm having a hard time seeing why fixing an outdated link on an external resource is now dependent upon the person who shares it. Using this logic, an expert who is well versed in a topic and created online material about that topic would never be allowed to link it to Wikipedia, but instead, Wikipedia is hoping that a neutral editor who is most likely less knowledgeable will stumble upon the expert reference and then be permitted to post the link to the site. I'm sorry, but this is completely illogical. I could understand if the page in question was about a product I was selling, but this is clearly not the case -- it's historical information.

I've already spent more time on this than it warrants and I'm not planning to redo the updates that I've already corrected and you reversed. We'll just have to wait for a neutral party to come along and hope they know enough about the subject matter to make the change. Cheers,

Sam Lisker at Coltautos.com (talk) 20:55, 30 December 2017 (UTC)