User talk:Ragrella

Welcome!

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

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited was Marty Meehan, 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.

To reduce the chances of your contributions being undone, you might like to draft your revised article before submission, and then ask me or another editor to proofread it. See our help page on userspace drafts for more details. If the page you created has already been deleted from Wikipedia, but you want to save the content from it to use for that draft, don't hesitate to ask anyone from this list and they will copy it to your user page.

One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

In addition, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation (see WP:PAID).

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The plain and simple conflict of interest guide
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Contributing to Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
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• Simplified Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{Help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! LibraryGurl (talk) 19:12, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

UMasswebteam (talk) 19:35, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Help Dear Librarygurl,

Thanks for your note. I'm happy to discuss it with you. My name is Ron Agrella and I work with the communications department at the University of Massachusetts. We realized much of the information was incomplete and wanted to remedy it. You'll find that I included links to official sources and news releases throughout so you could confirm the information is accurate and properly cited. We were careful to only insert objective content.

UMasswebteam (talk) 19:35, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Marty's entry has people particularly sensitive to COI issues as this entry has been the subject of a problem before. It would be better for you to put suggested changes on the talk pages of UMass related entries with requests that they be added by editors without a conflict of interest. You run the risk of your edits being reverted and your account being banned. LibraryGurl (talk) 19:46, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Help Dear Librarygurl,

We've done some additional research to add to Marty Meehan's homepage here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Meehan. So as to adhere to your policies, I'm sending it to you to review in advance. All items are credited to the news publications that wrote them.

Let me know if it's permissible to post (or if you would do it).

I'd ask that we add this at the end of his "Political career" section:

Meehan was widely praised when he decided to leave the U.S. House in 2007 to pursue a new career in higher education, with colleagues and observers in the media noting his commitment to ethics and campaign-finance reform, his quest to force the tobacco industry to be more candid about the health risks associated with smoking and his fierce determination to improve economic conditions in the Merrimack Valley and throughout his congressional district.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, then the dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, was quoted in The New York Times saying: “Marty has been a true champion for Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, and our loss in the congressional delegation will certainly be UMass Lowell’s gain.” New York Times Op-Ed columnist Francis X. Clines gave Meehan high marks for his work to tighten ethical standards in the House, and took particular note of his effort to lengthen the amount of time departing representatives would have to wait before they could become lobbyists. “He labored as one of the House’s most aggressive fighters for ethics reform, taking aim at alumni lobbyists, among others,” Clines wrote. Political commentator Mark Shields credited Meehan with having the courage and ethical focus needed to take on the big-money interests, writing: “Marty Meehan has made a majority of his colleagues uncomfortable, and he has also made a major difference in the banning of unreported and unregulated million-dollar contributions from our politics. He deserves our gratitude. His courage and his ethical compass will both be missed.” Closer to home, the Boston Globe, in an editorial, noted: “… he took on the tobacco companies, campaign finance reform, and aspects of the Iraq war, and became a leader in each cause.”

Username

Welcome to Wikipedia. I noticed that your username, "UMasswebteam", may not meet Wikipedia's username policy because it, and the above conversation, suggests that the account represents a group, and may be used by multiple editors. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. As an alternative, you may ask for a change of username by completing this form, or you may simply create a new account for editing. Thank you. 2601:188:1:AEA0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 20:29, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

COI

Hello, UMasswebteam. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places, or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a COI may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic, and it is important when editing Wikipedia articles that such connections be completely transparent. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. In particular, we ask that you please:

• avoid editing or creating articles related to you and your family, friends, school, company, club, or organization, as well as any competing companies' projects or products;
• instead, you are encouraged to propose changes on the Talk pages of affected article(s) (see the {{request edit}} template);
• when discussing affected articles, disclose your COI (see WP:DISCLOSE);
• avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or to the website of your organization in other articles (see WP:SPAM);
• exercise great caution so that you do not violate Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation (see WP:PAID).

Please take a few moments to read and review Wikipedia's policies regarding conflicts of interest, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, sourcing and autobiographies. Thank you. 2601:188:1:AEA0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 20:36, 25 October 2016 (UTC)