Welcome edit

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

I notice that one of the first articles you edited 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 reverted for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of deletion, you might like to draft your article before submission, then ask me or any other editor to proofread it. To start creating a draft article, just click your user name at the top of the screen when you are logged in, and edit that page as you would any other. 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.

The one firm 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. It is also worth noting that Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which specifically link them to one company or corporation. If your username does have such a name, it would be advisable for you to request a change of username.

If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! You can also just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few other good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Drmies (talk) 15:59, 14 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

AfD notification edit

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jeremy Robinson. Thank you. Drmies (talk) 16:00, 14 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hlep request edit

I've just spent some time reading through helpme info, FAQ, and COI info. Not very helpful in telling me how to reply to this accusation. I am not the author, I am not employed by the author, and I do not represent the author. I am a freelance editor and I have done some paid editing work for the author in the past. My edits to this article were not paid and they were not substantive changes--they were cleaning up typos and punctuation issues. I see that there's a dispute going on about whether this author even deserves to have a Wiki entry. Had I joined that debate, I could see a COI issue. I didn't (although honestly, if the offended editors can't find any sources about the author, they aren't looking very hard). What I did do however, was fix some semi-colons.

Yes I'm a newbie. Yes, this is the first time I'm editing here and I haven't yet figured out the byzantine communication system and protocols. But honestly, the welcome to the community could be better.

KaneGilmour (talk) 12:00, 17 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

Welcome, again, to Wikipedia. I am sorry that you have found us unwelcoming: please look on the above not as an accusation but as a warning. One of the problems with an anyone-can-edit encyclopedia is that many people do see Wikipedia as a free advertising/promotion platform and we have to spend a good deal of time and energy fending them off; another is that, because we do not want to erect barriers to starting to edit, there is no way to make sure that people understand, before they start to edit, what Wikipedia is NOT for. When your username makes clear that you are Kane Gilmour editing services and you edit an author's article with an edit summary that says you are doing it at the author's request, you can understand why it was thought that the particular welcome note that carries a warning about conflict of interest was appropriate.
Looking at your edits, I agree that they are quite unobjectionable. The principles to follow if you wish to edit about a subject where you have a connection are explained at WP:Best practices for editors with conflicts of interest - in brief, do not post articles yourself but propose them at WP:Articles for creation declaring your interest, do not make edits yourself unless they are clearly uncontroversial (which I agree yours were) but propose them on the article talk page, again declaring your interest.
You were notified of the deletion debate because you have edited the article. If you wish to comment in the debate, please do, declaring any connection you have with the author. You will understand that the debate is not about whether he is a good or bad, popular or unpopular author, but about whether he meets the notability criteria explained at WP:notability and WP:Notability (people), particularly the section WP:AUTHOR. You might like to readWP:Arguments to avoid in deletion debates.
I am afraid Wikipedia can indeed appear Byzantine to the newcomer, but we try to provide guides through the maze, both human and written: you might find Wikipedia:A Primer for newcomers helpful, and as it is newly-written any comments you like to make on its talk page will be welcome.
Regards, JohnCD (talk) 17:15, 17 August 2011 (UTC)Reply