Giantoct

November 2018

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.

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. Longhair\^talk 05:34, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

This user's request to be unblocked to request a change in username has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

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

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Requested username:

giantoct (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Request reason:

Remove impression that I represent a group or organisation Efrontdigital (talk) 06:15, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Accept reason:

As the block was only for your username, and Longhair addressed my question, I will lift the block. 331dot (talk) 11:09, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Hello Efrontdigital. The nature of your edits gives the impression you have an undisclosed financial stake in promoting a topic, such as the edit you made to St. Collins Lane, and that you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. Paid advocacy is a category of conflict of interest (COI) editing that involves being compensated by a person, group, company or organization to use Wikipedia to promote their interests. Undisclosed paid advocacy is prohibited by our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, and is an especially egregious type of COI; the Wikimedia Foundation regards it as a "black hat" practice akin to Black hat SEO.

Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question if an article exists, and if it does not, from attempting to write an article at all. At best, any proposed article creation should be submitted through the articles for creation process, rather than directly.

Regardless, if you are receiving or expect to receive compensation for your edits, broadly construed, you are required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use to disclose your employer, client and affiliation. You can post such a mandatory disclosure to your user page at User:Efrontdigital. The template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=Efrontdigital|employer=InsertName|client=InsertName}}. If I am mistaken – you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits – please state that in response to this message. Otherwise, please provide the required disclosure. In either case, please do not edit further until you answer this message. Longhair\^talk 06:20, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

• I have globally renamed Efrontdigital to Giantoct, and someone else will review your unblock request. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 08:51, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

• While the block is only for your username, I see that it was the name of a company and you have edited about a shopping center. Is the shopping center your client? 331dot (talk) 10:57, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

@331dot: The paid disclosure was mentioned after I'd soft blocked once I made mention of paid contributions above... they've been quite honest and done their best to be compliant here since. -- Longhair\^talk 11:06, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh, thanks. I missed that. I will unblock. 331dot (talk) 11:08, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

@331dot: FWIW, "Efrontdigital, in accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, discloses that they have been paid by Efront on behalf of St. Collins Lane for their contributions to Wikipedia."

@Giantoct:, I suggest adding the conflict of interest information (details above just under the block notice) to your userpage for proper compliance with Wikipedia's Terms of Use. If you have any questions feel free to ask. -- Longhair\^talk 11:13, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

@331dot:, @Longhair: - Apologies and thank you for your patience with me - I've updated my userpage as requested. Giantoct (talk) 21:52, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

• @Longhair: - Apologies to ask but how so I submit the page I made changes to for cleanup to remove the COI banner. I currently don't have permission to do so. Giantoct (talk) 00:42, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

@Giantoct: The article is sorted into a cleanup related category so that other editors may review any content that may seem to violate the neutral point of view policy (which is one reason why editors with a conflict of interest are asked not to edit articles they have a connection to). You may request edits on the article talk page if you wish to suggest edits be made to help the article along. I don't have the time at the moment to review the article with the attention it deserves but that's one suggestion to bring the article to a standard where the maintenance template may be removed. -- Longhair\^talk 13:34, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

@Longhair: Great thanks for all your help - I realise I went backwards in going forwards with these page updates, in future I'll suggest edits instead in the talk section. As far as I'm aware I did only update with current stats and information which were missing from the original article so there shouldn't really be any overly fluffy content. It's already had 1 update to the language by another member since going up. I'll keep an eye on it and start a discussion on the article page after a few more edits have occurred. Giantoct (talk) 23:29, 22 November 2018 (UTC)

Most administrators don't enjoy being hard to deal with, but I think we've reached common ground here. While paid editing does occur, it often throws the balance of articles away from the neutral point of view policy that Wikipedia enforces. The Wikimedia Foundation has specifically included this type of situation in their Terms of Use so in order to use the website it's best to follow their wishes and request edits where a clear conflict of interest exists. When edits are requested others are notified and often you'll find it's a workable system which sure beats being blocked amidst cries of "they're editing with a conflict of interest". Sorry we had to meet this way... I hope your experience here is much better now the website policies are clear. -- Longhair\^talk 00:36, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Welcome!

Hello, Giantoct, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

• Introduction and Getting started
• Contributing to Wikipedia
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article
• Simplified Manual of Style

You may also want to complete the Wikipedia Adventure, an interactive tour that will help you learn the basics of editing Wikipedia. You can visit the Teahouse to ask questions or seek help.

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or , and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! Longhair\^talk 11:23, 20 November 2018 (UTC)