User talk:Ghadasal

January 2017

Hello, I'm David.moreno72. I noticed that you made a change to an article, Al-Azhar University – Gaza, but you didn't provide a source. I’ve removed it for now, but if you’d like to include a citation to a reliable source and re-add it, please do so! If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. David.moreno72 12:22, 30 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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16:04, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Al-Azhar University – Gaza

Hi, I'm Verbcatcher. I am sorry that another editor has found it necessary to remove your improvements to Al-Azhar University – Gaza, I expect that you find this frustrating. Please do not be discouraged from contributing to Wikipedia, particularly to this article which needs to be expanded. I suspect that much of your new material is based on the University's website; if so, you need to cite the webpages that you have used, ideally using the {{cite web}} template.

However, I suspect that some of the text you added may be too close the the website's text. For example, this link to a copyvio detection tool compares your text with one of the university's webpages:

https://tools.wmflabs.org/copyvios/?lang=en&project=wikipedia&title=&oldid=762730568&use_engine=0&use_links=0&turnitin=0&action=compare&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alazhar.edu.ps%2Feng%2FAbout%2FHistory-Future.html

You need to write new material based on reliable sources, copy-and-paste from other websites is not acceptable.

If you are familiar with this university you may be able to clarify its relationship, if any, with the Al-Azhar University in Cairo. If so, then please reply to my question at Talk:Al-Azhar University – Gaza#Relationship with Al-Azhar University Cairo.

Please also see your User Talk page at Commons: c:User talk:Ghadasal. I have nominated several of your images for deletion for copyright issues. Verbcatcher (talk) 00:06, 31 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This is in response to your comments on my talk page and at User talk:David.moreno72. It is probably best to keep this discussion in one place, and this seems to be the most natural place.

There are three issues that I am concerned about:

You need to cite the sources you have used, in this case pages from the university's website.
It is not acceptable to copy-and-paste text from another website. Even if you wrote this text as part of your work, the copyright probably belongs to the university and not to you personally. You need to rewrite the facts in new words.
As you say that you are working for the university you have a conflict of interest. Please see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide. You should declare your connection with the university on your user page (User:Ghadasal). There is not be an absolute ban on you editing the article on the university, but Wikipedia:Conflict of interest says that "COI editors are generally advised not to edit affected articles directly, and to propose changes on talk pages instead."

As far as the Al-Azhar University – Gaza article is concerned, it is probably best for you to propose changes to the article in its talk page, and not edit the article directly. Please identify anything in the article that is incorrect, misleading or out of date, identify a source that confirms this, and rely on another editor to make the necessary changes. You could also suggest where the article could usufuly be expanded, and give the necessary sources. You can mark your requests with {{request edit}} to alert other editors.

If you have access to a camera, another useful contribution would be to take some photographs of the university and post them to Wikimedia Commons. Put links to the photos on the article's talk page and let an independent editor decide whether and how to use them in the article. Do not copy photographs from websites.

Thank you for your note about Al Azhar University in Cairo, by which I think you mean that there is no connection between the these universities. I will edit the article on the university in Cairo.

Please continue to contribute to Wikipedia. You could start by looking at the articles listed in Category:Gaza City and Category:Gaza Strip and identifying some that you could improve. Please remember to cite your sources and not to copy or closely rephrase content from elsewhere. You can use sources in Arabic, but you should not give a direct translation from them.

Ping @David.moreno72:

Regards, Verbcatcher (talk) 18:00, 31 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]