User talk:45.24.139.194

Your help desk post

Hello,

I saw your help desk post about God's Closet. I have replied there, but I'm copying my reply here in case you don't see it there. It is below. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:44, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

• "I paid a website to help me get a page about a ministry that I founded posted on Wikipedia." - That is almost always a mistake.
• "I paid the website that I found online the money they asked for" - That money is gone.
• "I don't understand how to get the page on Wikipedia" - Unfortunately, if you are trying to get a page about yourself or your organization on Wikipedia, you've already made a mistake.
• "Their website is called wikisysops.com." - Thank you. That information will help us in the never ending fight against abusive editing practices. When I looked at their website they provided Kendare Blake as an example of what they claim is "30,000+ profiles" they created (this number is doubtful). People visiting that page now will be greeted with a banner informing them that "This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use." Hopefully that will help dissuade some future "customers" of theirs from falling into their trap.
• "I have waited for a while now for the page to be listed on Wikipedia. I've called wikisysops and no one answers." - Because they have your money.
• "They say they will check with Wikipedia and get back to me" - There is no one for them to check with, and they won't get back with you.
• "I am now very concerned if this was a legitimate transaction" - it wasn't. "or if I got taken for my money and it was a scam." - You have been scammed. You are not the first, and you won't be the last.
• "I'd like to know if the page's information was at all submitted to you by wikisysops.com." - You have come to the right place. I can tell you that Draft:God's Closet has never existed, nor has God's Closet. There is no deletion log indicating they have ever been deleted. I do not believe a draft was ever submitted.
• Wikipedia is not intended to be an advertising platform. The thousands of volunteers who have dedicated hours of their free time to building this resource get annoyed at people trying to use it as such. They get annoyed at scammers exploiting the success of their efforts.
• In order for an article about something to continue exist, the article needs to demonstrate that the topic meets a requirement that we call Notability. The key to notability is "A topic is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list when it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject." In most cases, if a topic reaches the level of notability we are looking for, eventually a volunteer editor will take interest and write an article without having to be asked.
• I did a quick Google search, and so far as I can tell, there appear to be several things with that name, and none of them appear to reach the threshold of notability required at this time. Now, I could be wrong, I didn't do a through search, but odds are that no article can be created that would survive an deletion discussion at this time.
• I suggest you use this as a learning experience. Stop trying to get God's Closet on Wikipedia. Do not give money to scammers that could be put to better use doing the work of your ministry. Let your ministry produce good fruit, and by your fruit you will be known.

~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:41, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Hello,

I can see that in your reply you were trying to be helpful and offer details for me to understand how Wikipedia works. However, at times your reply and the way you assumed a few things if viewed a certain way can be seen as harsh. Not intended to tell you how to reply but I'd suggest that when you do reply to someone like me, if you are a volunteer that you please try to offer responses that use words that are kind. That is always more welcoming. Words like 'Stop trying to get God's Closet on Wikipedia' were -in my opinion- open to be able to be said an expressed in such different manner. Most of what you wrote I felt like not reading because of the way you express yourself.

Knowledge is power. I have no need to place God's Closet on Wikipedia for purposes of exposure or marketing. In my absence of understanding it was intended only for history. I have learned differently since I received a phone call from Wikimedia. The lady that called me was very kind and answered all my questions and offered clarification in a way that was nice and in the way it should have been expressed when one is trying to help.

FYI

I received my money back. The bank went after it and was able to repay me. So again, this is an example that you might take as a learning experience for yourself, be careful when making certain statements when you are ignorant of many details. I believe that an observation too could be shared about calling people as references to verify that you are in fact dealing with a genuine organization because references could easily be made up and be fake since there seems to be a legion of people who are fake and making money off of setting up a page on Wikipedia.

I do want to say, again, thank you for taking the time to reply to my post, I do appreciate that after all you took time to share.

Merryl 2600:1700:5F90:EFA0:29E4:A0B7:5513:B587 (talk) 17:18, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Sorry

Hello, Merryl,

I saw your query on the Help Desk. I'm not sure whether or not you know you have a talk page but I thought I'd leave you a message just in case. Believe it or not, except for the engineers who keep the servers running, a legal department and a few community organizers, each Wikipedia project (there are over 400 right now) is run by tens of thousands of volunteers who contribute their time and talent to write articles for this encyclopedia about notable people, events and organizations. ONUnicorn has done an excellent job (above) explaining how Wikipedia judges "notability". We are working to build an encyclopedia, not a business directory, and even worthwhile non-profits will not have an article unless they have mainstream coverage (in newspapers, books, journals, documentaries, media websites) that testifies to their importance and significance, what we consider to be "notability". It is unlikely that a brand new ministry would have this notability, even global ministries that have existed for decades, by and large, do not have Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is not a site to come to to publicize your organization, you need to acquire notability first in order to have a Wikipedia article.

I'm sorry that you trusted this company to help you but the way they describe Wikipedia is not how things work here. Volunteer editors draft articles, there is no oversight by the organization of WikiMedia, Wikipedia's parent organization. There is no one you can call, no experts that engage in "customer service". Drafts are submitted for review by a reviewer from what we call Articles for Creation, which are just veteran volunteer editors who are experienced with content creation who critique drafts and give the creators advice on what they need to do to get it in acceptable shape. But no paid organization can guarantee you that an article they create will be accepted or that it won't be tagged for deletion. Those decisions are made by, again, our volunteer editors.

I'm sorry that you invested any money with this company. If you can, I'd report them to any agency that you can find (like the BBB) and report them for fraud as not only did they not provide services that you paid for but there is no way they could have. I can see that their website looks professional but in the future, I'd ask for several referrals from satisfied customers before handing over any of your money to a service provider like this. I agree that this money is better spent providing assistance to those who rely on your organization. Good luck with your ministry. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:47, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

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