User talk:Mpfouts

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

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited was Randolph Township Schools, 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.

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I am the Director of Communications for Randolph Township Schools. I am making changes to the district's public page which have not been updated in a few years.Am I doing this correctly so the edits will be approved. Mpfouts (talk) 18:00, 25 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am the Director of Communications for Randolph Township Schools. I am making changes to the district's public page which have not been updated in a few years.Am I doing this correctly so the edits will be approved. Mpfouts (talk) 17:41, 25 April 2022 (UTC) Matt Pfouts[reply]

Please read WP:COI and make changes by requesting them on the talk page. PRAXIDICAE💕 18:34, 25 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This help request has been answered. If you need more help, you can ask another question on your talk page, contact the responding user(s) directly on their user talk page, or consider visiting the Teahouse.

I would like to speak with an administrator who can help in the deletion of the Randolph Township Schools page. I am a direct representative of the district, and this page is impossible to maintain. There are numerous inaccuracies, including several employees who no longer work for our public school district, and this page we are finding it incredibly difficult to maintain and update the page on your platform.

You may request changes on the talk page as indicated above. Administrators are not the sole arbiters of deletion. If you feel it meets deletion criteria, you'll need to send it to AFD. PRAXIDICAE💕 16:51, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am really not understanding what we need to do. I am representing a public school district, and this page contains false information which we cannot edit. If we cannot edit the page, it needs to be deleted. Am I speaking with an actual person? The source code is incredibly confusing and there are hundreds of pages of information that makes it incredibly difficult to decipher how we need to proceed with either having ownership over our page to make correct edits or delete the page entirely because this page has been published with false information that cannot be updated. Mpfouts (talk) 16:56, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am indeed a living person. If it has false information click the top of the page where it says "talk" then click edit and make your request there. You do not get to dictate content because you represent them - but if something is demonstrably false, it can be corrected by you requesting the changes. PRAXIDICAE💕 16:58, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have requested the changes on the page. As an example, the Business Administrator of Randolph Township Schools is Stephen Frost not Gerald Eckert. I requested the change, and it has not been approved. The Business Administrator is one of many individuals who are no longer under the employment of the Randolph Township School district. I have made many of the edits that are needed to correct the page, they are simply not being updated to the page which is disingenuous to the public who relies on information from the internet. Mpfouts (talk) 17:01, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You have never requested edits on the talk page. Go here, click edit. Make your request. Editing the article directly isn't really an option since you have a direct conflict of interest. Those are your options. PRAXIDICAE💕 17:03, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just requested an edit. Was it done correctly? Mpfouts (talk) 17:08, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) You have no edits to Talk:Randolph Township Schools. When someone with a conflict of interest (such as you - because you work for them) wants to suggest changes to an article, they are asked to use our edit request process.

Go to Talk:Randolph Township Schools
Copy and paste the following: {{request edit}}
Ask for changes in the following format: "Change X to Y because of Z (cite a reliable source supporting the change)."

So, for example, you might type the following after the request edit template: "In the infobox, change Stephen Frost to Gerald Eckert, based on [1].

I will note that your website is acceptible to cite non-controversial information such as who is the Business Adminstrator, but most of the article should be sourced to publications that are independant - not controlled by the schools. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:14, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I would add, to be frank, that it is not up to your school district whether there is a Wikipedia article about it or not. It won't be deleted because you want it to be; it only would be if it does not meet Wikipedia guidelines regarding notability and sourcing.

The article is not intended as a source of up to the minute current information about your district. Your district website is the place for your district to provide such information, and you are free to encourage the public to seek information there. You are also free to, as part of your job duties, monitor the article and make suggestions as you have been advised, on the talk page, in the form of an edit request. 331dot (talk) 17:11, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have done that and I am asking if the edit request was done correctly? I am trying to follow your processes, to ensure this page is accurate. I don't really understand the point of Wikipedia if the information is outdated. It makes no sense. I am simply requesting to update basic staffing information. Mpfouts (talk) 17:14, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you used the talk page correctly. I have marked your post as a formal edit request so it gets attention. 331dot (talk) 17:15, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you 331dot. Should I wait for each individual request to be completed before making a new request? Mpfouts (talk) 17:19, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That depends on how much you want to change. If there is other staffing updates that must be made, you could just add to your current request, but if you want to propose other changes, I might wait until the first request is fulfilled. 331dot (talk) 17:22, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There are other staffing requests. There is another Wikipedia representative saying I haven't done anything correctly, so I am just very confused. We are just trying to make sure the page is updated, and this is very basic information. I understand that Wikipedia has millions of pages. However, this is why Wikipedia gets so much negativity about not being reliable. We're just trying to update factually accurate information and it's almost a battle to get anything accomplished. I have been trying to make a few simple updates for about 24 hours now. Mpfouts (talk) 17:25, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We know Wikipedia is not reliable, please read Wikipedia is not a reliable source. There's nothing negative about it, it just is. Articles can be vandalized and go unnoticed, or do not have someone regularly monitoring them. I understand the difficulty you are having, but these hoops you must jump through are necessary to preserve a neutral point of view. 331dot (talk) 17:32, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As long as we have the freedom to make updates based on real information, that's all I care about. I can give you information that's up to date and make sure you have everything you need so it IS a reliable source (at least for our district). I know most people don't monitor this stuff, and I am willing to do the work. I just want to make sure I am doing it correctly so it will get approved. Mpfouts (talk) 17:35, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've marked both requests as done as the changes the user is requesting have already been made to the page. Before I go ahead and add them, would the source they provided be appropriate to reference the staff member in the position? ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 17:28, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your help. I did want to ask if I needed to ask for something specific for the social media facing side of wikipedia and what's the appropriate way to ask so it's clear to the editor? Gerald Eckert is still listed when googled in the google pop up screen for wikipedia, but when clicked on to go to the wikipedia page, Stephen Frost has been updated correctly. Mpfouts (talk) 17:44, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Google Knowledge graph will update whenever their bot next crawls the page. We have no control over them. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:19, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Mpfouts (talk) 18:20, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The main purpose of Wikipedia is to summarize independent reliable sources say, with a more historical overview rather than focused on up to the minute information. As noted above, certain specific information like staffing can be sourced to your district itself, but it will only be current if an editor chooses to monitor it. 331dot (talk) 17:18, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]