MisrepresentationWatch

Help me!

Please help me with... I want to add a reference to an article on a website. I find the instructions on how to do this vey confusing. Can you help? MisrepresentationWatch (talk) 15:05, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

There are a few ways to do this. One of the easiest, perhaps, is through Visual Editor, as seen on the screenshot to the right. Click the cite button in the top bar (looks like a quotation mark) and then paste the URL into the automatic field. You can then click insert, and then edit to modify the fields (look out for errors, this tool often picks out the wrong names, for example).

Alternatively, there is Help:Referencing for beginners with some more options. The Ref toolbar is also available in the source editor and functions similarly. If you want, you can paste the article and ref you are looking to add here and I can give you an example as to how to format it. ASUKITE 16:18, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

May 2026

Hello, I'm Robertsky. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Ang Swee Chai, but you didn't provide a reliable source. On Wikipedia, it's important that article content be verifiable. If you'd like to resubmit your change with a citation, your edit is archived in the page history. If you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. In reference to your statement at User_talk:SamuelNelsonGISP#Question_from_MisrepresentationWatch_(15:30,_23_May_2026), I have just included in an article I have published on the website of the organisation (emphasis mine). See also WP:Advocacy. It is better if you can find third party sources about the event and use that as a source instead. This shouldn't be an issue if you have researched well for your write up. – robertsky (talk) 16:25, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

Hello Robertsky, this was my first time editing Wikipedia (except for a minor math edit years ago) and it was on a contentious topic. I don't understand what has happened or why. I wrote an article, based on a lot of research, concerning the subject of a Wikipedia article, and wanted to add a sentence to the Wikipedia article, with a reference to my article. My addition was immediately classed as vandalism, my addition was deleted, and my access to editing the Wikipedia article was blocked until the end of this month. This seems like a heavy reaction to an editing mistake. Can you explain? Your comment was that I didn't provide a reference to a reliable source. Does the fact that I posted the reference to my own article make it "unreliable"? I'd appreciate guidance here. The issue concerns the ongoing misrepresentation of the subject of the Wikipedia article, which my edit attempted to remedy. MisrepresentationWatch (talk) 07:27, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

Hi, I would like to first start with a thank you for your contributions.

To help with your understanding on why your edit was reverted, not all edits reverted are vandalism related nor it is about making determination of whether one source is unreliable. For that, we typically would make a community assessment at a noticeboard. In this case, the reversion is about the source used. It is precisely the fact that you wrote the article you want to use as a source is the issue. There is no apparent editorial team or control that I observe from looking through the website. What I saw was a list of authors and contributors. We class such articles as self-published sources. On here, we have Wikipedia:Verifiability as one of the keystone policies. Among it, we have a section on why we do not use self-published sources, and to bring attention to the key line: Never use self-published sources as third-party sources about living people, even if the author is an expert, well-known professional researcher, or writer. If you want to correct misrepresentations on the project here, it is more helpful you use the material(s) you have found during your research as source(s) when you add content here, not your article as a source.

If you wish to bring attention to your work and/or website, your user page is sufficient for anyone who is interested in your work, e.g. "I write more at https://www.campain.org/ where we attempt to correct misrepresetation in the media." A similar insertion to your user page should however be attempted after you have made more edits, lest others may see it as spam or advertising and request for speedy deletion.

my access to editing the Wikipedia article was blocked until the end of this month: This particular account isn't blocked from editing. If there are any access issues, it might be related to the network provider that you are using to access Wikipedia. Other than specific account blocks, we may issue blocks at specific IP address(es) or a range of IP addresses due to disruptive editing from this/these IP address(es). The disruptive editing might have come from other people and in that case, it is unfortunate that you had being assigned to the IP address by your network provider. Another possible reason is that if you are using Apple devices, i.e. MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, etc, you might be accessing from its privacy relay network, which to Wikipedia is a virtual private network (VPN) and you are encouraged to whitelist Wikipedia in your settings. Editing through VPNs are generally not allowed due to attribution issues.

Unless you have been editing while logged out, nothing on this account would have necessitated an block on this account, or any IP addresses used by this account (information of IP addresses used by registered account is heavily controlled, even the standard-bog admins do not have access).

I understand that considering all that you are experiencing that it may seem as a heavy reaction to your editing, it is an unfortunate combination of separate events. – robertsky (talk) 20:13, 24 May 2026 (UTC)