User talk:Poopalstoopal

Wikipedia and copyright[edit]

Hello Poopalstoopal! While we appreciate your contributions to Wikipedia, there are certain things you must keep in mind about using information from sources to avoid copyright and plagiarism issues.

You can only copy/translate a small amount of a source, and you must mark what you take as a direct quotation with double quotation marks (") and cite the source using an inline citation. You can read about this at Wikipedia:Non-free content in the sections on "text". See also Help:Referencing for beginners, for how to cite sources here.
Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing. Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify the information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.
We have strict guidelines on the usage of copyrighted images. Fair use images must meet all ten of the non-free content criteria in order to be used in articles, or they will be deleted. To be used on Wikipedia, all other images must be made available under a free and open copyright license that allows commercial and derivative reuse.
If you own the copyright to the source you want to copy or are a legally designated agent, you may be able to license that text so that we can publish it here. Understand, though, that unlike many other sites, where a person can license their content for use there and retain non-free ownership, that is not possible at Wikipedia. Rather, the release of content must be irrevocable, to the world, into either the public domain (PD) or under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. Please see Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials.
Also note that Wikipedia articles may not be copied or translated without attribution. If you want to copy or translate from another Wikipedia project or article, you must follow the copyright attribution steps described at Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. See also Help:Translation#License requirements.

It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices, as policy requires that people who persistently do not must be blocked from editing. If you have any questions about this, please ask them here on this page, or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you. Tollens (talk) 23:33, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings Tollens,

I guess I'm still not quite sure as to what I did incorrectly on my second edit. I used my own wording to convey what the article contained, but left the quotations intact because quotations cannot be copyrighted (from previous messaging). Is it because I followed the structure of the articles too closely? Do I instead need to summarize them to be safe?

Also, I'm not sure if this is relevant, by I am the subject of these articles (Gary Vos Smith).

Thank you in advance, Gary (Poopalstoopal) Poopalstoopal (talk) 05:22, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I assume your second edit was reverted as it seems that you simply changed some words and phrases from your first edit to synonyms for those chunks of text, while retaining almost all of the actual source content, which is classified as close paraphrasing. Rather than starting with the source material and changing it, one good strategy to avoid this is to take notes on the source, writing a summary of those notes afterwards. Other strategies are available here.

In regards to your other question about being the subject of the content you added - this is indeed very relevant. Wikipedia strongly advises against contributing to topics where you may have a conflict of interest - instead, please create an edit request when this is the case. This can be done using the edit request wizard, and an editor unrelated to the topic will review your suggested changes and implement them if they appear appropriate. Tollens (talk) 06:19, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again!

I was worried about the conflict of interest issue. I'll do the "request edit" route.

Also regarding your comment on what I did in my second edit - you're absolutely correct!!

Thanks so much,

Poopalstoopal Poopalstoopal (talk) 04:42, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]