User talk:Gulliver1swift

re: encyclopedia vs website

Hello!

I'll do my best to answer your question without my usual wall of text. But first, the biggest problem with the edits that had existed in the Southern Connecticut State University is that a lot of it was a copyright violation (WP:COPYVIO). Wikipedia takes copyright issues very seriously and even though I'm sure SCSU would be totally fine with us using their copy, we at Wikipedia are not. Now if SCSU licenses all of its contents using some kind of open license that allows anyone to copy the content for any reason (like a permissive CC license) then that would be different. What this means is that while we can use the official website as a source we must write it in our own words.

As for my "not an official website" argument, read WP:What Wikipedia is not. Here's one good bit:

Information should not be included in this encyclopedia solely because it is true or useful. A Wikipedia article should not be a complete exposition of all possible details, but a summary of accepted knowledge regarding its subject.

It's not important for a general understanding of SCSU how its Nursing program works, its requirements for graduation. That's the sort of thing people go to the school's website for. Instead it's enough for a general understanding of the school to know that it has a nursing program.

Wikipedia also has a strict policy against conflicts of interest. If you, for example, work for the school then there's definitely the possibility for a conflict of interest even if it's just that you want to put more information into the article than there needs to be.

Check out the University of Texas's article. Yeah, it's a much bigger school but you can see how it gives a nice general overview of the various important aspects of the school without going into as much detail. Or check out another school I attended (for some reason) Carson-Newman University. A much smaller school but again it just hits the highlights.

Oops, wall of text. If you have any more questions don't hesitate to contact me via my talk page. SQGibbon (talk) 02:13, 5 August 2016 (UTC)