User talk:AvaGuru

Welcome!

Hello, AvaGuru, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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 need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! Tiggerjay 23:50, 5 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Image tagging for Image:Avalara tag.jpg[edit]

Thanks for uploading Image:Avalara tag.jpg. The image has been identified as not specifying the source and creator of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. If you don't indicate the source and creator of the image on the image's description page, it may be deleted some time in the next seven days. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided source information for them as well.

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This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 19:05, 5 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Avalara[edit]

A tag has been placed on Avalara, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article seems to be blatant advertising which only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become an encyclopedia article. Please read the general criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item 11, as well as the guidelines on spam.

If you can indicate why the subject of this article is not blatant advertising, you may contest the tagging. To do this, please add {{hangon}} on the top of the page and leave a note on the article's talk page explaining your position. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would help make it encyclopedic, as well as adding any citations from reliable sources to ensure that the article will be verifiable. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Tiggerjay 23:47, 5 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Avalara follow-up[edit]

I speedily deleted the article because it was written in the promotional style of an advertisement. I could not find any non-promotional material to salvage. You may recreate the article, provided the new version is written in a way that is compatible with our neutral point of view policy and meets our notability guideline. --Ginkgo100^talk 00:40, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Avalara[edit]

A tag has been placed on Avalara, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article seems to be blatant advertising which only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become an encyclopedia article. Please read the general criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item 11, as well as the guidelines on spam.

If you can indicate why the subject of this article is not blatant advertising, you may contest the tagging. To do this, please add {{hangon}} on the top of the page and leave a note on the article's talk page explaining your position. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would help make it encyclopedic, as well as adding any citations from reliable sources to ensure that the article will be verifiable. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Kevin 04:33, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Avalara[edit]

Regarding this article, I posted the following on the article talk page, however should it be deleted by the administrators, I wanted to be sure that you could read the following:

I would suggest that you re-create this article in your personal sandbox and write to write an appropriate article, and have it peer reviewed before attempting to repost this to the mainspace. If this article is deleted by an administrator again, and then you subsequently re-create the article, you may be blocked from editing in the future by an administrator. While you are well intentioned, to continue to assert the value by going around a speedy deletion by an administrator is the wrong way to go. (FYI, if the article is deleted, it was not my decision, nor within my ability as I am not an administrator.) Tiggerjay 04:47, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I feel that this article reads more like advertising, however there still needs to be an assertion of notability to show that the subject is suitable for Wikipedia. There need to be reliable secondary sources i.e a newspaper or journal article written about the company. A Google News search shows only press releases issues by the company. Cheers Kevin 04:51, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please remember to sign your posts[edit]

Hi, there. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. On many keyboards, the tilde is entered by holding the Shift key, and pressing the key with the tilde pictured. You may also click on the signature button located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your name and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. Thank you! Tiggerjay 04:52, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing Avalara[edit]

I have included a link to a CPA publication and can certainly add more. I will do so immediatley. (AvaGuru 04:59, 6 July 2007 (UTC)AvaGuruAvaGuru)[reply]

In addition to what Tiggerjay said above, there are a few improvements I would suggest. First, you will need to supply reliable independent secondary sources about the company (for example newspaper articles) as any company's own material/website is inherently biased. These sources should be the basis of the article - rather than the information that the company might like to convey. Secondly, lets look at the opening paragraph:

Avalara develops sales tax management services solutions in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Targeting small to medium-sized businesses, the privately held company, was founded by a team of tax and software industry veterans to fulfill a vision of delivering an affordable, scalable sales tax solution. The company is headquartered on Bainbridge Island, WA -- a short ferry ride from Seattle.

This is written in marketing-speak and reads like an advert or promotional excerpt. For example, "sales tax management services solutions" - nobody outside the corporate world uses 'solutions' in this sense - it is a deliberately nebulous word and sets off an immediate alarm bell that this is marketing. There are other such marketing phrases in the paragraph e.g. "veterans", "fulfill a vision", "affordable sales tax solution" - these are all PR obfuscation - what are "veterans"? - what is "affordable"?

I would suggest looking at other companies' articles to see how they are phrased. You should also consult the policy pages on notability and reliable sources. Hope this is helpful. CIreland 05:01, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your suggestion. I have looked at others for guidance. Please tell me the difference between what I have written about and what is featured here. What is "leading": "Sage is a leading UK based supplier of accounting, payroll, CRM and business management software (including manufacturing and construction-specific ranges) as well as related services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)." (The Sage Group) (AvaGuru 05:05, 6 July 2007 (UTC)AVAGURUAvaGuru 05:05, 6 July 2007 (UTC))[reply]

AvaGuru, as you can see it has been deleted for the third time. Please refrain from recreating the article in the mainspace. Instead, create it as a subpage, such as User:AvaGuru/Avalara, and then post the information in there. I am sure that CIreland, Kevin and I would be happy to help you develop this further. But again, you risk your ability to edit if you try to reinstate this article the way it currently is. Tiggerjay 05:11, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Avalara[edit]

Hello. I've yet again deleted the page. Please recreate it at User:AvaGuru/Avalara if you want for now but there are serious concerns of conflicts of interest if you are both the author of the article and working for this company. Please note that material on Wikipedia should be attributable to reliable, published, third-party sources. The versions you submitted are written without the critical distance necessary to make them acceptable for Wikipedia and provide no sources beyond those of the company itself. Of course, you might retort that there are articles for competing companies which are no better but that does not make it any more acceptable and I'll be more than happy to deal with these articles as well. Best, Pascal.Tesson 05:11, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've recreated the article in your userspace for your convenience. I will keep an eye on the page and you can of course ask the advice of the various editors who have already given you some pointers. Cheers, Pascal.Tesson 05:14, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Re: The Sage Group[edit]

Thanks for the heads up on that article; I removed 'leading' from the opening sentence. CIreland 05:15, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright[edit]

I don't like to pile any more problems on, but some of the material you added to Streamlined Sales Tax Project was a copyright violation of this site. Anything copied from other sources needs to be re-written in your own words. Cheers Kevin 07:19, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image (Image:Avalara_logo.gif)[edit]

Thanks for uploading Image:Avalara_logo.gif. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. MER-C 09:28, 6 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image (Image:Avalara logo.gif)[edit]

Thanks for uploading Image:Avalara logo.gif. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BetacommandBot 21:40, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]