User talk:Publicaffairs38

Welcome!

Hello, Publicaffairs38, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I notice that one of the first articles you edited was Special Operations Command Korea, which 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 undone for this very reason.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or any other editor to proofread it. See our help page on userspace drafts for more details. 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.

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. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The plain and simple conflict of interest guide
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
• Simplified Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! – S. Rich (talk) 03:09, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Also, your username suggests you are PAO. There may be problems in this regard. I will put this user talk page on my watch list, so please feel free to ask questions. Thanks. – S. Rich (talk) 03:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

November 2013

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. In the future, it is recommended that you use the preview button before you save; this helps you find any errors you have made, reduces edit conflicts, and prevents clogging up recent changes and the page history. Thank you. Also, I suggest you go through the WP:Tutorial to learn more about WP editing. Thanks. – S. Rich (talk) 04:03, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your feedback, I will check out the tutorial. I understand your concern regarding a potential conflict of interest, so no issues with you watchlist action. At this point in time, only factual information is posted to include: an update the reflect SOCKOR's recent change to a sub-unified command per Title 10 U.S. Code, the mission statement which is the perogative of the current commander, headquarters and leadership to reflect the current commander. Additionally, the history was reorganized and streamlined to aptly reflect SOCKOR's history. Publicaffairs38 (talk) 04:20, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. I noticed your recent edit to Special Operations Command Korea does not have an edit summary. Please provide one before saving your changes to an article, as the summaries are quite helpful to people browsing an article's history.

The edit summary appears in:

• User contributions
• Recent changes
• Watchlists
• Revision differences
• IRC channels
• Related changes
• New pages list and
• Article editing history

Please use the edit summary to explain your reasoning for the edit, or a summary of what the edit changes. Thanks! Also, you are disrupting the normal layout of Wikipedia articles. If you are SOF, you should follow the SOF Imperatives and "understand the operational environment." Thanks. – S. Rich (talk) 05:09, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

PAO

Are you Public Affairs (8th Army, USFK, or otherwise)? – S. Rich (talk) 05:17, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

I think that's a fair assumption to make S. Rich. The number of DOD PA accounts has been on the rise as of late. A couple others i've found were CJIATF 435 Public Affairs (talk · contribs) and 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs (talk · contribs)... —  dainomite   10:01, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I am public affairs, so I understand the concern from the community that there is potential for a conflict of interest or that content loses neutrality when someone from within the organization makes edits. However, I would respectfully submit that after the content of the edit is reviewed, that the big label is removed. As a PAO, I will be able to add some of the most relevant, historical and updated content on the page - and certainly some great pictures. I am not making a case that all PAO are disinterested, but I don't want to put the page in jeopardy I will work with the community to keep the edits and content in compliance. thanks! Publicaffairs38 (talk) 07:39, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply PA. The tags at the top of the page would still be there because it indicates that a page can be improved or cautions users. Historically speaking pages editted by PA accounts are often skewed towards their respective point of view and shy away from controversies or critisisms related to the topic at hand. Also, one firm rule on Wikipedia in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation, which a public affairs office would qualify for. If you want to continue editting as a personal account I suggest requesting ausername change or create a new account. Also, a username that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK. Regards, —  dainomite   07:51, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

Dainomite, understand the tag. However,the rules seem inconsistent. If my username was 'SOCKOR38', things would be ok, because I am identifying myself as within the organization, but because my username is 'Publicaffairs38' this is not ok? Why is that? It's an unfair assumption my username implies the account belongs to a company, as there is no reference or association to a corporation, company, any federal or state organization or department, or that I'm the employee of any of such company. Interesting, but it seems that you are suggesting that Wikipedia believes that it's a better practice to hide behind an anonymous identity to make edits than to be upfront and identify oneself. There is only one person registered to my username and it's only used by me. I am think Wikipedia has a lot to offer and I think, regardless of my username, I can contribute within my areas of knowledge and expertise.Publicaffairs38 (talk) 08:34, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

SOCKOR still indicates SOCKOR though. A clear indicator to me that you were/are editting for your organization was your second edit summary on the SOCKOR article, "Revised all content to align with Title 10 U.S. Codes Sections 164 and 167 and current mission/vision statements". Now, you might be wondering "why would that matter, this is wikipedia" but I mentioned before the general POV issues that have happened previously with "PA accounts". There have been other PAO accounts (I linked a few at the top in response to S. Rich) and all of them edit in a similar manner which doesn't generally conform with Wikipedia's Neutral Point-of-View guideline amongst other guidelines. All I was saying previously was your username appears(ed) to be used by a PAO office from the username you chose when you registered. If you wanted to change your username that's up to you, I would recommend it especially if it is your personal account, which I assume it is. Both of us being military, we know that appearances are everything; and if you keep Publicaffairs38 as a username and you continue to edit in the areas you have been then people will most likely scrutinize your contributions more than normal because they may appear initially as they are not written from a neutral point of view and/or are a possible conflict of interest. I'm just trying to help, not chase you out of town so to speak. —  dainomite   20:37, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

If you would, please add the following to the talk pages of those SOCKOR articles you edit. {{Connected contributor|Publicaffairs38|declared=yes|editedhere=yes}} Thanks. – S. Rich (talk) 18:16, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

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January 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to 82nd Airborne Division may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "()"s and 2 "{}"s and 1 "<>"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 02:47, 9 January 2014 (UTC)