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Whoops! This is Jim Coan, the actual subject of this page. I am new to editing Wikipedia pages and beg forgiveness for violating the rules right out of the gate. I saw that this page exists, and that I'm mentioned in numerous other pages, and thought I'd add one of these scientist "infoboxes" as that seems to be pretty standard. Can anyone advise me as to the protocol for making this ok? Should I take out the infobox? Help! Thanks to Jmertel23 and Biogeographist! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimcoan (talk • contribs) 17:16, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Jimcoan: Instead of editing the article directly, make edit requests here on the talk page as explained at Wikipedia:Edit requests § Planning a request. Click on the "New section" button at the top of this talk page, then give the section a title that succinctly describes your edit request, then put {{request edit}} in the body of the section, then create a new line and describe your edit request in detail as shown at Template:Request edit § How to use, then sign your comment with four tildes (~~~~) and publish. If it appears to be an appropriate request, some other editor will edit the article for you. Biogeographist (talk) 17:41, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Biogeographist: Holy cow--thank you very much. Would you recommend I remove what I added, pending the proper procedure? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimcoan (talk • contribs) 18:25, 20 January 2020(UTC)
@Jimcoan: The big question is how you are related to Macannihilator. You started editing the page about 12 hours after Macannihilator created it, which gives the appearance of some connection. Knowing whether there is some connection between the two of you would give more information about what to do. Don't forget to sign (terminate) your comments here with four tildes (~~~~). Biogeographist (talk) 18:49, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Biogeographist:. Of course! Macannihilator and I were indeed social 30 years ago as undergraduates at the University of Washington, but we haven't had much association since then--mainly just through social media, where he's one among hundreds of professional contacts & social media "friends" I occasionally interact with. I definitely was not aware that he was writing the article until he alerted me on social media. When he did alert me, I was of course curious and looked at the page right away. I compared it to other scientist's pages, found the "scientist infobox template," and applied it myself before looking into any of the wikipedia policies or customs. Jimcoan (talk) 19:44, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I left the following feedback for the creator/future reviewers while reviewing this article: Thank you for this new article, but note that other editors have pointed out a possible conflict of interest. This has an impact on the viability of the article as a reading experience for the layperson. Remove all text that may appear promotional or self-referential to the reasonable person. For pointers, follow the links in the notice at the top of the article.