User talk:MonteShaffer

Organicgirl

A tag has been placed on Organicgirl, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article seems to be blatant advertising which only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become an encyclopedia article. Please read the general criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item 11, as well as the guidelines on spam.

If you can indicate why the subject of this article is not blatant advertising, you may contest the tagging. To do this, please add {{hangon}} on the top of the article and leave a note on the article's talk page explaining your position. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would help make it encyclopedic, as well as adding any citations from reliable sources to ensure that the article will be verifiable. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. WhaleyTim 16:54, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Monte

The thing that troubles me about the article is that the text reads more like a press release for the company rather than disinterested, encyclopeadic material. For example, I refer to the free use of company slogans within the text, the logo-ised text whenever the company name is written, the use of generic information and references in conjunction with company specific information, the use of such constructs as 'OrganicGirl gives' and 'OrganicGirl feels' et al. It may be a fine work of marketing for a fine company with a great product but I believe that it does not stand as being encyclopedia entry about that company. You are, of course, free to disagree.

Cheers

WhaleyTim 18:26, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Your Organicgirl article

On Talk:Organicgirl you said:

I am a PhD student in marketing at WSU (see http://www.cb.wsu.edu/directory/profile.cfm?emp=Shaffer_Monte) -- as a project, I wanted to 'fairly' write an article for a company, meeting the Wikipedia guidelines.

I attempted in every way to follow the guidelines to present the information about this company clearly and objectively. Please let me know what and how it needs to be rewritten. I have read the SPAM guidelines and guideline 11 as you have suggested.

WhaleyTim, please take a moment to read the content and provide me with the appropriate feedback. I have used Wikipedia for many years, contributing occasionally and donating as I can. I have attended an Open Education Conference presentation made by Wikipedia, and like the concept. As my expertise increases, I plan on continuing to contribute.

I modeled my copy strategy from similar pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Foods_Market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Food_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Sword

I do understand that the content needs to be informational, not promotional. For that reason, I tried to clearly state them as "Promotional Claims" rather than stating them as facts. I followed patterns I saw in similar pages, as mentioned above. I even verified sources as possible.

My intention is to accurately provide the information about the company in an objective way. As a marketing student, I understand that promotional claims are not necessarily reality. This is a real company, and really is in the stores mentioned in the concise first paragraph.

There are a few problems with the article you wrote which is why I deleted it. I was fairly sure it could not be salvaged from these faults, and existed only as a form of advertising, whether you intended it to be or not.

1) The sources and footnotes were insufficient to support the article. YouTube is not considered a reliable source. Out of all the footnotes you supplied, none of them was about the company itself. Wikipedia requires independent secondary sources to substantiate the information in the article and they should be verifiable. The sources you supplied talked about organic food, not the company Organicgirl.

2) The tone of the article was not encyclopedic. Your use of the phrase "copy strategy" above indicates you don't quite understand the goals of Wikipedia or the writing style needed for a neutral point of view. Your basic text was full of promotional phrasing and positive spin.

3) While looking to other articles as examples can be helpful, before that you need to learn the core policies of Wikipedia. The most important are:

1. Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not summarizes what Wikipedia is, and what it is not.
2. Wikipedia:Neutral point of view Wikipedia's core approach, neutral unbiased article writing.
3. Wikipedia:No original research what is, and is not, valid information.
4. Wikipedia:Verifiability what counts as a verifiable source and how a source can be verified.
5. Wikipedia:Citing sources sources should be cited, and the manner of doing so.

Just because other similar articles exist on Wikipedia, this doesn't mean they are good examples of Wikipedia policy in action. What I (and others) are judging is how in line this particular article is with WP policy.

While your contributions are welcome, I strongly suggest you read the policies I linked above. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them on my talk page. Cheers, Pigman^what?/trail 19:35, 13 November 2007 (UTC)