Help me! edit

Hello,

On May 2nd, I contributed edits to the Artists Space wikipedia page and they were subsequently removed because of copyright violations. I mistakenly excluded quotations when paraphrasing the sources I cited. I do not believe that I copy/pasted any material, but it seems I was flagged for this. Further, I cited all of the sources I consulted, but I am wondering if I did this incorrectly?

Please advise me on how to fix my edits. I really want to help contribute to this page, as it is missing a lot of crucial information and is a noteworthy institution.

Thank you so much for your help!


Scilman (talk) 15:21, 7 May 2019 (UTC)ScilmanReply

Hi, this is about https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Artists_Space&action=history
I have replaced "help me" by "admin help" above to let an administrator have a closer look at the exact deleted content. All I personally saw is Justlettersandnumbers' edit summary, and that the copied material seemed to have been re-added. I believe that the issue was copying, not just close paraphrasing, because I would else have mentioned "closed paraphrasing" somewhere. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:29, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

Hi @ToBeFree, can you point me to the exact section that was copied? I still do not believe I copy/pasted any text. Would it be ok to attempt to edit again carefully using quotations for any text that is being directly cited and also being more careful about paraphrasing correctly?

Thank you!

Scilman (talk) 15:42, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

Hi, I'll write a more detailled response when an administrator has answered this question; specifically, I can not point to the exact section because I can not view the deleted content. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:45, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply
Scilman, I'm afraid the answer here is a very simple one: you have never edited Artists Space. The initial version of the page, created in 2013, contained copyright violation of this and this, which I removed. An IP (you?) then added back some of that text together with some other stuff, and was (rightly) reverted by ToBeFree. So that you can see why that was a good call, I've temporarily undeleted that revision of the page. Please see here, here and here. If you'd kindly let me know once you've had a chance to see those, I'll then hide that version again. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 18:04, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply
This is very kind, Justlettersandnumbers, thank you very much. Scilman, Wikipedia's "revision history" system has one weakness in regards to copyright violations. If half of the new text is a copyright violation, and the other half is not, then the whole revision needs to be deleted. It is, however, possible to rescue the original content by making a new edit that does not contain these copyright violations. You'll know better than me which parts have been copied, and which have been written by you in your own words. You are free to save a backup copy of your self-written text on your computer, inform Justlettersandnumbers that you have created a backup of your self-written text, and then try again without copying content.   ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:45, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply


Thank you both for your thoughtful explanations. I want to continue to edit the page, but I'm worried the content will be removed once more. Is it possible to submit a draft to you for your approval before posting? I want to make sure that there contains no copyright violations before publishing, and that I don't get blocked due to another violation.

Please let me know if this is possible.

Thank you!

Scilman (talk) 20:42, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

Hi Scilman, I saw your message on my talk page first, so I have answered it there. Hope this helps as far as possible. :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:16, 8 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

Welcome! edit

 
Some cookies to welcome you!  

Welcome to Wikipedia, Scilman! Thank you for your contributions. I am ToBeFree and I have been editing Wikipedia for some time, so if you have any questions, feel free to leave me a message on my talk page. You can also check out Wikipedia:Questions or type {{help me}} at the bottom of this page. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:31, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply