User talk:Gypzee

Shawn Z.

This is an automated message from CorenSearchBot. I have performed a web search with the contents of Shawn Z., and it appears to include a substantial copy of http://www.shawn-z.com/biography.htm. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions will be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. See our copyright policy for further details.

This message was placed automatically, and it is possible that the bot is confused and found similarity where none actually exists. If that is the case, you can remove the tag from the article and it would be appreciated if you could drop a note on the maintainer's talk page. CorenSearchBot (talk) 23:49, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Shawn Z.

A tag has been placed on Shawn Z. requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G12 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be a blatant copyright infringement. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material, and as a consequence, your addition will most likely be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. This part is crucial: say it in your own words.

If the external website belongs to you, and you want to allow Wikipedia to use the text — which means allowing other people to modify it — then you must verify that externally by one of the processes explained at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. If you are not the owner of the external website but have permission from that owner, see Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission. You might want to look at Wikipedia's policies and guidelines for more details, or ask a question here.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Victor Lopes (talk) 23:56, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

February 2009

Welcome to Wikipedia. It might not have been your intention, but you removed a speedy deletion tag from Shawn Z., a page you have created yourself. If you do not believe the page should be deleted, you can place a {{hangon}} tag on the page, under the existing speedy deletion tag (please do not remove the speedy deletion tag), and make your case on the page's talk page. Administrators will look at your reasoning before deciding what to do with the page. Thank you. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:05, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Shawn Z.

A tag has been placed on Shawn Z., requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page 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 guidelines on spam as well as Wikipedia:FAQ/Business for more information.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that they userfy the article or have a copy emailed to you. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:21, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Please do not remove speedy deletion notices from pages you have created yourself, as you did with Shawn Z.. Please use the {{hangon}} template on the page instead if you disagree with the deletion. Thank you. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:33, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Please stop removing speedy deletion notices from pages that you have created yourself, as you did with Shawn Z.. If you continue, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Don't take it personally, but what part of do not remove speedy deletion tags did you not understand? Rewrite the article, keeping both tags (db-spam and hangon), and then we can see if the speedy request can be declined. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:52, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Please refrain from introducing inappropriate pages, such as Shawn Z., to Wikipedia. Doing so is not in accordance with our policies. For more information about creating articles, you may want to read Your first article. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. NawlinWiki (talk) 02:14, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

After seeing so many other pages referring to the biography of others, why is the page i created not in accordance and considered "inappropriate" ?? I wasn't promoting anything. I was writing about MY life and MY story. None of it was in any way copyright infringement, nor was in inappropriate.

• Because (1) you don't appear to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines, see WP:N and WP:MUSIC, and (2) you're using Wikipedia to promote yourself, see WP:SPAM. NawlinWiki (talk) 02:22, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, again, in no way was i promoting myself. and as for notability, I had the #11 Americana record in 2005 for 14 weeks on the charts. And, to this day am played worldwide on Americana and NPR radio for both records. As well as the band I'm with who were formerly "The Badlees". However, again, this was not promoting my music. This was the definition and bio of my life. Both good and bad. And described when and where I was brought into the music industry.

Do you have any reference for this charting? I mean, of course no one knows you better than yourself, but we really need reliable sources for that. And don't forget to keep that neutral point of view I told you about. It is very difficult to write about yourself in a NPOV, that's why we disencourage autobiographies. Victor Lopes (talk) 02:39, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, You can check the websites www.shawn-z.com www.myspace.com/shawnz www.sonicbids.com/shawnz .. since sirius and xm merged, the charts are no longer available on their site from 2005, however, you can still search Shawn Z. on the main page, and channel 12 will appear as the channel that plays my records on Sirius XM Satellite. I'm also a member of the Americana Music Association .. which wasn't mentioned in the page i was making. Sorry i kept trying to revise it and such .. but i was trying, as you said, to make it nuetral. there was alot on that page that is not included in any public bio's that have been released. and i did not try to promote any sales of records. just telling how it all came about. is it possible to undelete the page? As for reference on The Badlees, whom are the band i play with... they had two top 40 national hits in the 90's "Angeline is coming home" and "Fear of falling". signed with A&M records until A&M went under. You can look under any 90's compilations, and find one of those two songs. As well as the winter Olympics used "Fear of Falling" in the late 90's.

Hi, I was just told that my current press release has a picture of some of the charts. However, that's all I have. Since, like I said, 2005 charts aren't accessible anymore.

MySpaces aren't considered reliable. The second source, however, seems ok. I know you tried to be neutral, but sometimes the bio sounded somewhat dramatic, like the lines about your father not succeeding as a musician. You can rewrite the page, but you better not do this, because this can bring more problems to you, I mean, other editors can consider it vandalism. If you want to work on your page, you can create it here: User:Gypzee/Shawn Z.. This kind of page is yours, you can work on an article freely here, and no one will delete it. However, few people (if any) will see it as well, because it is not considered an article, but an user subpage. If the page seems ok for inclusion, then you can recreate the article later. I myself kept a speedy deleted article as a subpage of mine for a couple of years, until I realized it would never be able to become a Wiki article and I asked it to be deleted. Victor Lopes (talk) 03:10, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

So if i make another page stating the same .. and even after you have seen for yourself that it is not promoting anything and i am, indeed, a charting Americana singer/songwriter. How would that be vandalising?? I have seen many pages referring to many other musicians lifes and stories. And, yet, they are not deleted nor flagged at all .. as mine has been in the last couple hours.

I saw it all, but not other editors. They may just see that you have already created the page once, and then they'll warn you for recreating it. It's cold, I know, but most of users don't have time to analyse each issue so carefully...remember there are more than 2,700,000 articles here. If you want to work on the page, recreate it at the link I gave you above. Try to make it as neutral as possible. Take a look at the manual of style of biographies, to see what a biography should contain, how should it be divided into sections, etc. Also, take a look at the biographies of very famous musicians (e.g. Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Bono Vox) to get inspired. I suggested very famous musicians because as their pages are frequently visited, they tend to be well-written and to be in total (or near-total) accordance with the Wiki policies. Victor Lopes (talk) 03:42, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

hi, ok .. how do i create a page like my friend Todd Snider has? he was the one who told me to get a wikipedia page. i know he had his web guy write it up and make it for him. however, looking at his page, and even the pages you mentioned .. they all seem to promote the artist. nothing but. very little background info is given. however, if i can create a page just like todd's .. that would work for me. could i do that? and how would i go about it?

Hehe, asserting notability is different from promoting the subject. And man, how can you say there's little background information on Paul MCCartney? The article says more than everything we need to know about him. And well, he is one of the richest and most successful musicians of all time, so it's quite obvious that he will have quite a lot of info on his achievements and his musical life. Look, I'm going off the computer to get some sleep, I see you have created the User:Gypzee/Shawn Z. page. Tomorrow I can try to edit it so it looks like Todd's article. Good night. Victor Lopes (talk) 04:09, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

thanks. well, so far in my music journey, i've prided myself in not having "people" to do this or that for me. if i can do it, by all my means, i'm going to give it my all to do it. so, i guess i went and made my own path for asserting notability and not promote myself. (although the two are actually close to doing the same thing). as for Sir Paul, man oh man, that's why i didn't mention his name. his history is just that .. actual history. it's a golden one, for sure. but other artists that are on Wiki, and there are many, don't give much of their life background except for the "music" scene. and that's where i thought to myself that i could lend a little more of myself and "dare to be different". i actually thought there was a specific template that i just had to fill in after Todd told me about it. i was wrong. although, i could swear, those music pages all seem to be the same layout and i'm sure not everyone did it that way .. it just ended up like that magically. now, i know i'm not as famous on the Americana scene as Todd. Yet. but in the few short years of being on the scene, i've accomplished quite a bit for not being signed to a major label or have a pr firm. an unknown indie artist getting worldwide airplay and charting for 14 weeks is pretty much unthinkable. and i did it all myself. that, i'm proud of. i've had offers but so far i'm staying on the path i'm on. giving me more "hands on" and "control" over my music. at the same time, i'm being interview about this or that show, records, you name it. even in languages that i don't understand. (i still haven't figured out a way around that part, yet.) but i'm blessed to have this good fortune in music as i do. and i thought it was a nice thing to explain on that page to people that i was a working stiff like many of them until i was told that i couldn't anymore. the years in radio helped me feed that music craving and also helped me understand the music business from the other side. at the same time, i made alot of friends on the musician/artist side. i appreciate your going back and forth with me on this and pointing me the right way. as i said, i'm doing this all on my own and don't know the in's and out's of certain things like designing correctly, etc... and i guess, that's where i actually do need help. but just have been too damned stuck in my ways to ask for the help.

Take a look at: "X is a great Irish musician. He is very famous for his nice music and the four albums he has released through Sony Music, which were all well received by the critics." and "X is an Irish musician. He has released four albums through Sony Music, all of which received positive reviews from the critics."

You see? Theese are two different ways of saying the same thing. That's the differenct between promoting and asserting notability. The guidelines for music biographies request that every artist is described on a certain way, but not everyone do this, and some articles may be out-of-layout for months and even years, because there are aprox. 161,000 regular editors to take care of more than 2,700,000 articles. I'm going to take a took at your subpage now. Oh, and imthink you should create a User page. I mean, just create it, even if the content is just "hello". Then your user subpage will be linked to it, with a link direclty below the subpage's title. Victor Lopes (talk) 18:32, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

ok, i've worked on the page more. do you think it's near ready to publish as an article on Wiki? I'm still missing the photo that other artist pages have. but have added the discography and singles section. as well as cleaned up the radio and music sections. not sure if i should have the health issues as a seperate section or not..

Actually, some important information is still missing, like your date of birth, and the exact city where you were born. Your birth name could also be added. Apart from this, the article is ok, I'm going to do some minor cleanup on it in the next minutes. However, if you want this article to be accepted by Wiki guidelines, you'd better add some references (I know nobody knows you better than yourself, but Wikipedia needs sources for verifiability, see autobiographies in Wikipedia.), and some media coverage on you, to satisfy the musician biographies guidelines. Victor Lopes (talk) 17:38, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

ok .. i added my birthdate. really aint comfortable with the full name included as of yet. also .. the references.. i added some that can be found online. other magazine articles and radio stations can be added, if needed. but some aren't online.... only in print.

Nice, but be aware that if your full name is discovered in a reliable source, then you won't be able to remove it again. I mean, nothing prevents you from just going to the article and erasing it, but soon another editor will add it back. Your birthtown would also be interesting. As for the references, you need to be specific. No one is gonna search all magazines until he/she finds the specific words to prove what is true in the article. For example, instead of just saying Rolling Stone Magazine, try providing the exact link where the info may be found. In case of a book/magazine/newspaper, then add the page, the issue, the author, etc. Victor Lopes (talk) 23:26, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

ok, i added hyperlinks to some of the online sources that i've found. as i said, there's many that are not online and only in print. the reviews from the 2005 record are pretty much nearly hard to find online these days .. as they delete the archives to make room for the new reviews and such. is that enough? and how could i add a picture? since i own all pictures and copyrights of me, there would be no issue to using any of the phtos found online of me.

The best option for the picture of a person is to upload it at the Wikimedia Commons. There is a step-by-step guide on how to upload pictures there, just create an account and hit the "Upload file" link (at the Commons, not at Wikipedia). I did some final cleanup and changes of structure in your article. I also removed "iTunes" because I don't see how can it be usedas a reference. Victor Lopes (talk) 01:51, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

ok, i uploaded a picture for the page on commons. have no clue how to link it to the page, or make the page look anything like todd's ...... anyone got any calgon? i need to be taken away.

No problem, just give me the URL to the picture, and I'll link it. If you want an infobox (that table at the upper right of the article with quick info) to be placed at your page, then you should provide some extra info, like your birthtown,the instruments you play, the label you are linked to (even if underground/independent), the musical genres, etc. Take a look at Template:Infobox Musical artist for a complete list of fields to be possibly filled with info. Victor Lopes (talk) 19:40, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

ok .. the image link is http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Image:Shawn_Z.jpg infobox info: Hometown: Elk Mountain, PA .. Singer/Songwriter , label: GypZee (indie) .. musical genre: Americana, Alt. Country, Folk Rock

Great, I'll build the infobox at your page. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:38, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, I didn't find an article about Elk Mountain (to be linked in your page), I mean, there are some American places called Elk Mountain, but the only one in PA seems to be a ski station or something. As you may be more familiar with the region, try to find the most precise article for your place of birth. Victor Lopes (talk) 00:59, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

heh .. actually, Elk Mountain is a ski mountain. and more of a resort than anything. but there's a few folks who live there year round. You can use the nearest city if you'd like .. that's Scranton, PA. not my birth town ... but my hometown is actually Elk Mountain. place of birth is Susquehanna, PA ... but i've never lived there. just the hospital that was closest when my mom went into labor.

Oh, ok, I'll provide the link to the ski resort then. Victor Lopes (talk) 19:07, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

very cool. much thanks to you. do you think it's ready to be published as a page now?

I believe so. However, be aware that although I've done everything I could for this page to be acceptable by Wikipedia, it is still likely to be requested for deletion by any other editor. Wikipedia policies may be clear and relatively simple, but the way editors act towards it is a matter of personal opinion. In other words, at the same time I think the page is fine, another person may not. If anybody request Shawn Z. to be deleted, then this issue will be no longer within my power, although I can act like a mediator in it. Good luck! Victor Lopes (talk) 02:33, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

i understand, i guess. but how would i publish that page as it looks now? maybe if other moderators see it as it's layed out, they'll not question it or think it's a sel promotion blah blah .. and just an artist page like a million others on wiki. and is it possible to add the fact that i'm a member of the Americana Music Association in the infobox and the "intro" of the page? would that possibly help any more for other editors?

For me, the page is fine, the only thing they could question is the verifiability of the information. But at least it doesn't look like a self promotion no more. We could add that to the article intro, but not to the infobox. Victor Lopes (talk) 18:08, 22 February 2009 (UTC)