Hello, STRatDIAL! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 16:06, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you have a close connection to some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred from the tone of the edit and the proximity of the editor to the subject, are strongly discouraged. If you have a conflict of interest, you should avoid or exercise great caution when:
editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with;
participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors;
linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam); and,
Your account has been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia because it appears to be mainly intended for publicity and/or promotional purposes. If you intend to edit constructively in other topic areas, you may be granted the right to continue under a change of username. Please read the following carefully.
Am I allowed to make these edits if I change my username?
Probably not, although if you can demonstrate a pattern of future editing in strict accordance with our neutral point of view policy, you may be granted this right. See Wikipedia's FAQ for Organizations for a helpful list of frequently asked questions by people in your position. Also, review the conflict of interest guidance to see the kinds of limitations you would have to obey if you did want to continue editing about your company, group, organization, or clients. If this does not fit in with your goals, then you will not be allowed to edit again.
What can I do now?
If you have no interest in writing about some other topic than your organization, group, company, or product, you will probably not be allowed to edit Wikipedia again. Consider using one of the many websites that allow this instead.
If you do intend to make useful contributions about some other topic, you must convince a Wikipedia administrator that you mean it. To that end, please do the following:
Replace the text "Your proposed new username" with a new username you are willing to use. See Special:Listusers to search for available usernames. Your new username will need to meet our username policy.
Replace the text "Your reason here" with your reason to be unblocked. In this reason, you must:
Convince us that you understand the reason for your block and that you will not repeat the edits for which you were blocked.
Describe in general terms the contributions that you intend to make if you are unblocked.
This user's request to be unblocked to request a change in username has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without a good reason (see the blocking policy). Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.
I would like to petition for an unblock of my account. I am the Senior Web Developer for DialAmerica; the subject of the Wikki article. It is my task to periodically review this page and perform updates to existing information that may be incorrect or out of date. I did updates on Friday: Delete Bob Fischer from officers - he is no longer with the company; The other two updates were to references that were already part of the article, but the external links were incorrect. I can see how this may have been costrued as personal interest and/or promotional although this was not my intent. I do understand the Conflict of Interest concept and in observance of this golden Wikki rule, I do not post or add to the DialAmerica article. Based on this, I would request that the block on my account be lifted. I would also think that the removal of Bob Fischer from key people should not pose a problem. Additionally, if you feel that the reference links are inappropriate, I would have no problem removing them entirely. Thank you for your consideration, and please let me know if there is any other information you may need from me
Decline reason:
I fully accept what you say, and I see no problem with your edits. However, your username is in conflict with Wikipedia policy, and so I can't unblock your account. (My personal view is that this is an unhelpful poicy, because if someone is editing on behalf of a business, then it is much better for that fact to be clearly visible than to be hidden, but my task is to administer Wikipedia policy as it is, not as I would prefer it to be.) I suggest that you resubmit the unblock request, but this time instead of just "{{unblock" use "{{unblock-spamun|Your proposed new username" ( but replace "Your proposed new username" by a suggested new username). JamesBWatson (talk) 14:37, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I was unaware of the uername restriction and I have had WikiDial since 2008. In recognition of your policy, please change my username to DialSTR , as stated above, and I am reposting my petition for unblock of my account:I would like to petition for an unblock of my account. I am the Senior Web Developer for DialAmerica; the subject of the Wikki article. It is my task to periodically review this page and perform updates to existing information that may be incorrect or out of date. I did updates on Friday: Delete Bob Fischer from officers - he is no longer with the company; The other two updates were to references that were already part of the article, but the external links were incorrect. I can see how this may have been costrued as personal interest and/or promotional although this was not my intent. I do understand the Conflict of Interest concept and in observance of this golden Wikki rule, I do not post or add to the DialAmerica article. Based on this, I would request that the block on my account be lifted. I would also think that the removal of Bob Fischer from key people should not pose a problem. Additionally, if you feel that the reference links are inappropriate, I would have no problem removing them entirely. Thank you for your consideration, and please let me know if there is any other information you may need from me
Accept reason:
Allowing username change. Please put this request in at Wikipedia:Changing username as soon as possible to avoid re-blocking. However, the section of the username policy headed Usernames implying shared use says "usernames are acceptable if they contain a company or group name but are clearly intended to denote an individual person". I guess that STR is probably your initials, but someone might possibly object on the grounds that the username is not "clearly intended to denote an individual person", so you may like to consider making it more unambiguous to be safe. However, that is up to you. JamesBWatson (talk) 19:32, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If you have a close connection to some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred from the tone of the edit and the proximity of the editor to the subject, are strongly discouraged. If you have a conflict of interest, you should avoid or exercise great caution when:
