User talk:Net2ride/Perfect Networker

A few points:

1. This reads like an advert for PerfectNetworker.com! A Wikipedia article needs to be written in a neutral point of view (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view for more about this).
2. The only references are from the company itself! The notability guidelines (see Wikipedia:Notability, Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) and Wikipedia:Notability (web)) have this to say:

   If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to satisfy the inclusion criteria for a stand-alone article.

   • Guidelines for reliable sources can be found at Wikipedia:Reliable sources
   • Guidelines for independent sources can be found at Wikipedia:Independent sources
   • "Independent of the subject" excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject including (but not limited to): self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject, autobiographies, press releases, etc.

The perfect sources are things like national or international newspapers or magazines (for example, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the London Times, the Guardian, etc.

Sources do not need to be available online - obviously, it is useful if they are, as then they can be verified pretty much straight away - but printed editions of newspapers, etc, can be used as references. Although not everyone can necessarily access them, there will be enough editors who could (those who live in the area where the newspaper was published can just go to their local library or similar) that it can be verified. Incidently, sometimes the sources online require a subscription to see the article - this does not prevent it being used as a reference, as their are plenty of editors who do have subscriptions for things like that, so they can verify the content. Verification doesn't mean that everyone can verify the content, but that some people (other than those directly connected with the subject) can verify it.

As an example, I created an article about William Stanley (Victorian inventor). It is not a perfect article - it still needs tidying up - but you will see that I used a lot of references. One of the sources of information for that was a book, which you probably couldn't find if you lived in America, or even in a lot of parts of the UK! However, it is available at libraries (and I think possibly still in print), so it can be verified. Another source of information I used was the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (here) - as a UK library ticket holder, I get free access - anyone without a UK library ticket can only see it if they pay a subscription - but it is verifiable, as other UK library ticket holders can freely check it, and other editors (especially those who do a lot of work on biographical articles) will have a subscription.

The point is: any sources of information must be verifiable. You can't name in-house magazines as sources of information, you can't name a book which was privately printed. Any sources of information must be able to be found (albeit for a fee) by a member of the public in the area in which it was published.

Anyway, those are just some quick notes - If you can improve the article so that it conforms to those guidelines (assuming that Perfect Networker meets our notability criteria!), then contact me and I will happily look at it, and either give more guidance, or tell you how to move it to the main encyclopedia!

Regards, -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:13, 18 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]