I've definitively determined there's a strong COI between the editor and the band Symphony of Heaven and personally identifying private evidence has been emailed to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org. It isn't hard to find it, but we can't directly post such information. I am opening the case here, because I suspect further promotional activity such as promoting bands, record labels or sources cited within the articles the editor created. The user is a prolific creator of articles about Christian Metal and Metal bands, albums and record labels. Suspicion was triggered when Metalworker14 uploaded an image into Symphony of Heaven through Commons, stating that they were the copyright holder only for me to find that it's a downsized version of the black and white photo right above "biography" from the band's official website. The band's website is copyrighted and does not identify the author of the photo, and the photo that was on Commons did not have VRT verification. The user has previously been notified about uploading an image from the band's Facebook. In the process of investigating copyright matters, I browsed the band's website and came upon "For managemental concerns: Return to Dust Promotions" at contact section of the page. When I went to seek information on that company, the search result suggests COI with the extensively cited source "The Metal Onslaught Magazine is extensively cited in Symphony of Heaven as well as other articles created by the same author. Graywalls (talk) 18:39, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

While I cannot comment on whether there is a COI issue with the article you flagged without seeing the off-wiki evidence you found, I would like to add that this website themetalonslaught.com is not a RS at all, yet Metalworker14 has excessively used it across many articles which raises serious suspicions that they may have a COI with the magazine. I strongly suggest they stop using this source entirely unless they receive approval at WP:RSN. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 19:11, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Saqib:, I believe that there is COI with the Magazine and the inserting party, actually. I just had to be really careful to not go foul of WP:OUTING but if you spend a few minutes Googling, it should become clear. Graywalls (talk) 19:47, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Off-wiki evidence does suggest that they have a COI with both Symphony of Heaven and Ascending King. And according to our P&Gs, Metalworker14 is required to declare their COI either on their user page or on the tps of the relevant articles, which they have yet to do so I strongly urge them to do so as soon as possible. Also, I recommend they refrain from directly editing these articles but if they continue to ignore these warnings, a temporary block may be necessary to get their attention. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 14:38, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Symphony of Heaven is one thing, but the bigger issue is the extensive use of sources they're closely related to that are not WP:RS trying to bolster the notability of non-notable bands, albums and recording companies. If you spent more than a minute or two searching with the research skills held by quite a few Wiki editors, that should become obvious. All I can say is that it's highly plausible and convincing that Metalworker14 has vested interest to promote certain authors and certain magazines, production and promotion companies. Graywalls (talk) 14:52, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that is absolutely correct. The user has created over 150 articles and the frequency with which certain sources and authors are used would be considered industrial grade spam if those references were being added to pre-existing articles.

The fact that the user created the articles themselves and used these non WP:RS compliant sources to support notability makes the matter worse rather than better.

To be honest, the sheer number of links makes me wonder if Search engine optimization was a factor here. Axad12 (talk) 15:39, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's a large part of what music promoters do. Outside evidence suggests involvement of suspected COI editor partaking in the promotion business. Perhaps themetalonslaught needs to be suggested for Mediawiki blacklisting. Graywalls (talk) 15:44, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Quite so. There is no place on Wikipedia for this sort of activity. Axad12 (talk) 16:03, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There appears to be a membership overlap between Symphony of Heaven, Timoratus, Ascending King, The Thlipsis, Mystic Winter. Also a member from those bands having COI with these sources cited by the user in question here

Metal Onslaught Magazine, Life of Defiance Podcast.

Other COI possibilities are Return to Dust Promotions and Battlefrost Productions Graywalls (talk) 16:35, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Axad12:, were you able to locate the source referring to these? Graywalls (talk) 20:34, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, A couple of days ago I had a look at the references for every 6th article that the user had created (as listed on their user page). I saw enough to appreciate that, as per your earlier comments, there was a recurring reliance on a rather small number of particular sources and authors. On that basis I was inclined to agree with your estimation that the user was involved in promotion and that there was certainly a clear and transparent conflict of interest in relationship to a particular individual.

However, I must admit that I do not recall specific sources at this point in time as I seem to have been quite busy on this noticeboard in the intervening two days and this thread had rather slipped from my mind. Axad12 (talk) 20:51, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just to update that still waiting on functionary to weigh in. Graywalls (talk) 20:45, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Alison Creagh (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Template:Did you know nominations/Alison Creagh (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Hawkeye7 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Hawkeye7 created an article about the President of the Australian Paralympic Committee and nominated it for DYK. They dispute having a COI here, despite Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-09-26/Serendipity, e.g. "media representative, with accreditation supplied by Paralympics Australia" and "Support from Paralympics Australia did not end in Australia. In Paris, they had set up headquarters at a site near the Paralympic Village known as "Our Mob", which contained meeting rooms, a TV studio, dining room and a McCafé concession (McDonald's being one of their sponsors). Tim Mannion, the General Manager of Communications, gave generous and welcome assistance and support to our efforts, including providing passes to the opening and closing ceremonies." Fram (talk) 18:37, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Hawkeye7: Writing a BLP about someone who sponsored your trip to the 2024 Paralympics to enhance Wikipedia content is one thing, but nominating their BLP for DYK seems a bit excessive and might not reflect well on you as an editor. I get that Fram has valid concerns, but I also see that you declined any involvement of paid editing, so to help ease the tension, I’d suggest you consider withdrawing your DYK nom. If someone else finds it interesting, they can always nominate it later! — Saqib (talk I contribs) 19:07, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Paralympics Australia did not sponsor my trip to Paris; it provided my media accreditation and assistance and support for our activities. I have never been involved in paid editing; this allegation is false and baseless. The article cannot be re-nominated later. WP:DYKRULES: At the time of nomination, an article must be considered new, which means it was created, expanded fivefold, or promoted to good article status in the seven days preceding a nomination. Nor can I withdraw it, for that is the prerogative of the reviewer and prep area builder. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:31, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hawkeye7, for the clarity, I didn’t allege you were involved in paid editing.— Saqib (talk I contribs) 19:37, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, that was Fram. All I have done is carry out my role as Wikimedian in Residence, writing articles to expand our coverage of Australian paralympians, coaches and administrators, and Australians at the Paralympic Games. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:16, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hawkeye7, here are some quotes from your Signpost article:

Media accreditation meant that I had access to the media tribunes at the venues and could attend any game even when the event was sold out (as was usually the case). [...]. It meant that we could use the buses of the [...] the Olympic transport system. It meant we had access to the resources of the Main Press Centre (MPC) and the Venue Media Centres (VMCs) [...] It meant that my photographer [...] had access to the Nikon store at the Stade de France, where she was able to get some of her equipment repaired and borrow some very expensive equipment for the duration of the games to supplement the gear she had brought with her from Australia – all for free. (My emphasis on 'all for free').

And Tim Mannion, the General Manager of Communications, gave generous and welcome assistance and support to our efforts, including providing passes to the opening and closing ceremonies (presumably also for free).

And Getting from one venue to another involved a trip on the Paris Metro using the Navigo cards issued to us as part of our media kit. Each day we criss-crossed the city on the Metro as we moved from one venue to the next.

This all sounds like quite a trip. Adding up the financial benefits of this package, what would be the approximate equivalent cash value? Would, say, USD500-1,000 cover it? And what about cost of flights, accommodation, etc?

The idea that there was no financial conflict of interest seems to be quite baseless. There is no meaningful difference between being paid for doing something and being given a large amount of expensive benefits for free.

The project to create large numbers of articles on Australian paralympians has been going in since 2011. During that time you have created many such articles and, based on your Signpost article, attended multiple competitions, possibly under similar terms to those described above. That being the case, what do you estimate to be the total value of benefits received over that period from Paralympics Australia or other organisations?

You deny conflict of interest and paid editing, so I think it would be useful to have a financial figure here to allow other editors to estimate to what extent that was (or was not) the case.

Please note that WP:PAID states: Paid contributions on Wikipedia involve editing any page in exchange for compensation, including money or other incentives. (Again, my emphasis on other incentives).

If an editor is in receipt of lucrative fringe benefits for the duration of a trip where they are researching future potential articles in relation to those who provided those fringe benefits then under the definition above the editor is being paid. However, regardless of that fact, the existence of COI seems quite clear. Axad12 (talk) 04:03, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The benefits listed were all used to produce articles and images for Wikipedia. There was no personal use. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:27, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That cannot possibly be true because the articles that were produced could as easily have been produced while sitting at home in front of a television and/or the internet. The images were taken by someone else so that is irrelevant.

As far as I can see it was just an expensive free holiday which had no bearing on the creation of article text.

The only possible exception would be the creation of the article on Alison Creagh, the president of the organisation who paid for the free holiday while you were an undisclosed paid editor... which leads us back to the obvious conflict of interest. Axad12 (talk) 02:28, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That is not true. Being present is a vital part. The difference between what can be done when one is present and absent is stark. A lot of material was gathered which could be obtained in no other way. And I was not editing in exchange for anything. That was not my motivation at all. My concern was to expand the coverage of disability sports, particularly women's sports. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is nonsensical to claim that it is necessary to witness an event to be able to write an article on it. Articles are based on material in published sources, not what someone saw with their own eyes or info received directly from discussion with a subject. Axad12 (talk) 04:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also would you care to share the details of the situation underlying the arbitration finding of 2011 where it was established (by a vote of 10 to 0) that 10) Hawkeye7 has a previously undisclosed conflict of interest with regards to LauraHale and should not be taking administrative actions on LauraHale, or at the behest of LauraHale. If I recall correctly, LauraHale was an editor who was also involved in producing large numbers of sports-based articles and had some specific relationship to netball. To what extent do the details there resemble the situation above (except in relation to your undeclared conflict of interest)? Axad12 (talk) 04:14, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just a brief update here... There is a marked similarity between the Australian Paralympic related activities of Hawkeye7 and those of the now dormant and WP:VANISHED user LauraHale. Both users seem to have created industrial volumes of Australian paralympic articles which were then swiftly nominated for good article status and inclusion in "Did You Know". Presumably this is some kind of joint endeavour, in which some form of conflict of interest was first demonstrated many years ago. Axad12 (talk) 08:00, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I collaborated with LauraHale on Wikipedia:GLAM/History of the Paralympic movement in Australia in 2011–2012. This was a joint endeavour with multiple editors, not just us. She would research subjects and create an article in something like point form, and when I got home from work I would edit them into a readable and usable form. My practice with all articles I work on and not just Paralympic ones is to send them to DYK or GA on completion in order to get another pair of eyes to review them and correct spelling errors etc. Collaboration with LauraHale ended years ago, and I have not worked with her since. She vanished after a campaign of harassment by Fram. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:51, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As I said, the fact that there was a significant undeclared conflict of interest in relation to editing on Paralympic Australia-related articles was demonstrated some years ago. Axad12 (talk) 19:29, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just because you said something does not make it a fact. It was not demonstrated years ago. It never happened. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:05, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, just to be completely clear...

Are you denying that you used admin tools inappropriately to assist another user with whom you had a conflict of interest on Australian Paralympics articles? That seems to have been passed by a 10 to 0 majority at arbitration and isn't just "something that I said". Here is the evidence [1].

Or are you denying the existence of some other form of conflict of interest in relation to the creation of Australian Paralympics articles?

I had only stated the former of those two things, but there is the interesting question of why the admin tools were used inappropriately. It has previously been suggested elsewhere on Wikipedia (and with some plausibility) that it was because of payments being received (by LauraHale and/or yourself). That is relevant to the discussion here as it indicates the long-running nature of the undisclosed paid situation. Axad12 (talk) 02:51, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I never used the admin tools on Paralympics articles. The racepacket case refers to events before I became involved with the Paralympics project. This was over ten years ago. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:34, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, so back in 2011 you were sanctioned for abuse of admin tools (in relation to your conflict of interest re: LauraHale), but then presumably later in that year (as per your comment upthread) you began working on the large scale paid creation of articles on Australian Paralympians (with LauraHale). My apologies for getting the dates slightly wrong. Axad12 (talk) 04:09, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The interesting point here is that LauraHale was certainly being paid for the creation and editing of Australian Paralympics articles from 2011 to 2012, that is proven here [2] where the work next to LauraHale’s name is indicated at being done at a rate of $100 per hour.

If I understand correctly, LauraHale was a Wikipedian in Residence at around that time, with (presumably) a declared conflict of interest – it’s hard to tell because her account was WP:VANISHED. You, however, were not a Wikipedian in Residence at that time.

Very helpfully you’ve added above that LauraHale would research subjects and create an article in something like point form, and when I got home from work I would edit them into a readable and usable form.

So, are we to assume here that LauraHale was being paid $100 an hour to create […] article[s] in something like point form, but that you were being paid nothing at all to edit them into a readable and usable form. Is that really at all plausible? And this is in relation to two editors who were found by ArbCom earlier that year to have some form of unknown conflict of interest between them. Axad12 (talk) 04:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Hawkeye7: I believe that is an aspersion against Fram per ArbCom's findings during WP:FRAM. Also, viewing DYK and GA nominations as a means to get a copyedit is at best oldfashioned, and ignores the publicity aspect; wasn't DYK exposure a HOPAU metric back then? In the present, it seems to me that the fuss over HOPAU-sponsored editing in the past, when you were collaborating on it with Laura Hale, should have indicated it was important to scrupulously disclose all articles related to HOPAU sponsorship going forward. Yngvadottir (talk) 23:57, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just because you may believe in the healing powers of wax fruit does not make it a fact. I may be oldfashioned but what I have said is a statement of fact. There was no fuss over HOPAU sponsorship. Ever. HOPAU articles are all categorised as such. And the majority of articles I have sent to DYK, GA and FA have been related to military history; I routinely send any article I work on along for review. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:19, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I try to ignore the tired "attack the messenger" approach. They even accused me of making personal attacks against David Eppstein at the linked DYK discussion, despite me not commenting on Eppstein or their edits at all. Meanwhile, Hakweye7 still can't seem to admit to the basic fact of having an obvious COI here. One would think that after their Arbcom experience, they would be more scrupulous or careful now, but as they apparently deny that that Arbcom finding of fact ever happened, I guess this is to be expected. I hope they read and comply with all the Wikimedian in Residence rules, e.g. they "are expected to identify their WiR status on their user page and on talk pages related to their organization when they post there" (WP:WIRCOI) and "there is a custom that Wikimedians in Residence do not edit about their institution, but rather share the knowledge of their institution." (emphasis in original). Fram (talk) 07:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Adding the likes of Mary Major serves on the board at the International Rootbeer Chugging Society, and citing the society itself or her own website is quite common promotional articles. The fictional IRCS is likely authoritative and reliable that Mary Major is on their board, but I have to say that's probably undue inclusion. I'll leave it up to others to weigh in on this re-addition Graywalls (talk) 04:27, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Citing the subject's board memberships is routine in biographical articles. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:51, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems very odd that a user would go on at great length in Signpost about the generosity of their patron, but not take the entirely reasonable precaution of making a simple CoI declaration on their user page re: all the generosity they have received. It is clearly concerning that instead of doing so the user is opposing unconflicted users' edits on the article they recently created on the president of the organisation providing the generosity. Axad12 (talk) 04:45, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Because WP:PAID clearly states except as a Wikipedian-in-Residence, or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF. Such grants have never counted as paid editing. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:51, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but WP:PAID also states that Wikipedians in residence who are paid must disclose which organization (GLAM or similar) pays them. Is there some mention of that fact somewhere on your very busy user page, or on the articles where you made the edits, or are you just another undisclosed paid editor? Axad12 (talk) 19:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am a Wikipedian in Residence, but I am not paid for it. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Surely it would be more correct to say that you haven't made the necessary declaration in relation to being a Wikipedian in Residence but that you have stated that you've been in receipt of benefits which are, under the definition in WP:PAID, equivalent to being a paid editor.

However, the lack of the required declaration means that you were (and still are) an undisclosed paid editor, pure and simple. You cannot possibly claim an exemption under a status that you hadn't disclosed in the appropriate fashion. Axad12 (talk) 02:20, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Since I was not paid, I did not realise that such a declaration was required. No payments were received. I apologise for not putting a declaration on my user page. I did not realise that was a requirement. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:47, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't directly related to the user discussed here, but I had a look at Paralympics Australia. Wow. The article looks as if it's company controlled social media profile and edited as if it was intended to be another social media platform to regurgitate contents from organization's own information. Graywalls (talk) 01:49, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• My practice with all articles I work on and not just Paralympic ones is to send them to DYK or GA on completion in order to get another pair of eyes to review them and correct spelling errors etc. Seriously? Using DYK as a spellchecker is ridiculous, If you don't feel capable of writing an article without a second set of eyes, you should give up the autopatrolled permission that was granted to you as a courtesy like ten minutes after your desysop, as opposed to abusing DYK. That's of course assuming that really is the only reason... Just Step Sideways 03:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I have written over 100 featured articles. How many are you claiming to have written? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:36, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  As soon as a user resorts to high score-ism, claiming that only those with an equivalent high score can scrutinise them, it's a clear sign that they are busted.

  (See also: Greg Henderson (another undisclosed paid editor), Doug whatever-his-surname-was, etc. etc.)

  This isn't about your high score. It's about your undisclosed paid editor status. Axad12 (talk) 03:49, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Well that is resolved then. I was not an undisclosed paid editor. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:54, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Oh yes you were... because you hadn't disclosed that you had received benefits or other incentives in relation to work undertaken. That is perfectly straightforward. No money has to change hands for someone to be WP:PAID, as already indicated at some length above (and presumably accepted by you as you have now apologised above for not having made the necessary declaration for an editor in that situation). Axad12 (talk) 04:01, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  You presume incorrectly. I have not accepted that. I was not paid or compensated in any way. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Okay, well in that case you have still failed to disclose that you received benefits from a third party in relation to whom you created articles. So you are the definition of an undisclosed paid editor. Axad12 (talk) 04:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  In relation to issues on whether or not you received some kind of payment for much earlier work on Australian Paralympics articles, I would urge you to respond to concerns raised in my earlier post here [3]. It would appear to be a topic of some importance that the matters raised there are resolved. Axad12 (talk) 05:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I was not paid anything at all! I have always been an unpaid volunteer editor. Is that really so unusual? For the last ten years I have normally spent an hour a day working on some Wikipedia article or other, or performing administrative tasks for the Military History Project. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 05:21, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Apologies but hopefully you will appreciate that it is simply not plausible that one individual was being paid $100 per hour and the other was being paid nothing at all, both for essentially the same work, while in collaboration on specific articles, and when a conflict of interest was noted between the 2 editors earlier that year. Axad12 (talk) 05:26, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I did write about it on the Signpost after the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics... I am not sure what you mean by "received benefits". Let me explain how it works. I apply for media accreditation for myself and other Wikimedians on the team from our National Committee (NOC) as a free-lance journalist writing for WMF or Wikimedia Australia (WMAU). The OCOG wants a single point of contact so that is me. I have to get WMAU to sign off on it. The NOCs have only have a certain number of accreditations to give out. Sometimes the IOC or the OCOG also wants WMF or WMAU to sign various undertakings. If your application is successful, they send you an id card, which is also your visa for that country. Now you are a journalist with the same standing as those from any other "non-rights" organisation! But it is all on your own dime unless you can get a grant from WMF. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 05:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Okay, so when you said that the General Manager of Communications [at Paralympics Australia], gave generous and welcome assistance and support to our efforts, including providing passes to the opening and closing ceremonies, presumably that is over and above what you mentioned directly above. So, we have (at the very least) free tickets being gifted and we have presumably other forms of generous [...] support, so what did that consist of? Axad12 (talk) 05:23, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I have written over 100 featured articles. How many are you claiming to have written? This sort of contradicts your earlier statement that your primary reason for submitting articles to DYK is because you need help proofreading. Just Step Sideways 06:02, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Quite so.

  When editors obsessed with high score-ism refer all their new articles to GA and DYK it isn't to do with proofreading. It is to do with metrics of some nature (either on-wiki or off-wiki metrics). Anyone with any doubt on that has only to look at Hawkeye7's user page, here [4] and look at the lines of stars, crosses and question marks on display (over a whole page of them!).

  Those are not all there in the name of proofreading. Axad12 (talk) 06:25, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  JSS: that's not completely fair to Hawkeye7's statement, which indicated the desire both for getting another pair of eyes and correcting errors. I definitely use the various DYK, GA, FA processes for that as well, as a second reader may spot small issues with neutrality if there are any. And even editors with a strong grasp of writing make occasional mistakes, which is compatible with the AP perm. Axad12, are you referring to the press pass as a free ticket? I don't think that's how it works, as you'd still need to buy tickets to an event even with a press pass? Possibly the id card as a visa means that some money was saved there. —Femke 🐦 (talk) 07:21, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Here is some background in relation to paid editing in relation to LauraHale, paralympics articles and Hawkeye7.

Prior to the 2011-2 Australian Paralympics project, LauraHale (contributions history: [5]) was a 2-year WP:SPA in relation to the subject of netball and made thousands of edits on that subject, creating many rather obscure articles (Netball in Vanuatu, etc).

Then in mid 2011 her netball-related activity stopped and she became an SPA in relation to Australian Paralympians, an activity for which it has already been established above that at least from 2011-2 she was paid $100 per hour.

Hawkeye7 has said that they collaborated very closely with LauraHale on the 2011-2 Paralympics work, but rather implausibly denies having received any payment, despite the fact that Hawkeye7 was sanctioned for abuse of admin tools around that time in relation to LauraHale, a user to whom Hawkeye7 had some form of established conflict of interest according to ArbCom.

Fast forward to 2018 and the details of a further Paralympics Australia project from 2015 onwards can be found in a post here [6]. The project’s aims and activity continue those of the 2011-2 project. LauraHale and Hawkeye7 continued to produce large numbers of Australian Paralympian articles during the 2015-8 period and LauraHale can be demonstrated to have been a member of the project. Hawkeye7 cannot be demonstrated to have been a member of the project but their output of articles in that topic area strongly suggests that they were involved. It is clearly plausible that this was also paid activity of some kind.

LauraHale's activity on Wikipedia ended in mid 2019. Hawkeye7 continues to be associated with Paralympics Australia and continues to create and edit articles in that subject area. It seems to me that it is highly implausible that Hawkeye7 was not remunerated in some way for the work in 2011-2 and plausible that payment for such work may have continued over much of the last 12 years. Axad12 (talk) 08:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like you have no evidence for the paid editing accusations. Do you think it's appropriate to make these kinds of WP:ASPERSIONs? Wouldn't it make more sense and also create less friction to stick to COI accusations? –Novem Linguae (talk) 12:34, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In fairness, when it comes to COI/UPE we do not require outright proof, and indeed it is virtually never produced in such discussions. Demanding outright proof of COI/UPE activity would generally speaking be unreasonable (as inevitably it would require some degree of outing). Similarly, consistent denials by a COI/UPE user are irrelevant as they are commonly encountered from COI/UPE users (see, for example, three different threads lower down on this noticeboard). The issue is thus simply whether there is a plausible pattern of COI/UPE activity, which in this case clearly there is over an extended period of time.

User A was being paid $100 per hour to create new articles. User B was working in collaboration with User A and was actually doing half of the work. Clearly it is virtually impossible that User A was not reimbursing User B in some way, as User A’s $100 per hour was dependent to some degree on User B edit[ing the articles] into a readable and usable form. That is all the more the case when Arbcom had previously determined that there was some kind of off-wiki contact between these users. The same pattern of editing then continues for some years. Sorry, but that is enough information for there to be serious concerns than User B was a paid editor.

Also, I do not consider discussing the plausibility of UPE in the context of a COIN discussion to be casting aspersions. That sort of discussion is the purpose of this noticeboard. Axad12 (talk) 12:55, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The notion that LauraHale would pay me a brass razoo is beyond incredible; it is completely fantastic. Never happened. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On the contrary, it is the notion that you were not compensated in some way which stretches credibility.

I think it would be useful if you were to clarify the nature of the conflict of interest between yourself and LauraHale. Evidently it relates to something off-wiki, as pretty much all CoI inevitably must.

Earlier that year you had abused admin tools in some way in her favour, which was highly inappropriate (putting it mildly). That was evidently an extreme course of action which would not have been undertaken on the basis of a passing acquaintance.

Whatever the nature of the relationship which led you to abuse those tools, it was evidently a type of relationship in which it would have been entirely natural if, later that year, one party was to have compensated the other for work undertaken on their behalf, especially if the other party was being well-remunerated for her part in that work. Axad12 (talk) 04:14, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What does this years old LauraHale stuff have to do with Alison Creagh? Is it possible we are off topic? –Novem Linguae (talk) 05:10, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It relates to the length of time that the user may have been involved in UPE. The topic of this thread is COI in relation to Hawkeye7, so that is entirely on topic.

If a thread is started about COI in relation to one user and one article, it is absolutely standard practice for any further COI-related information to be introduced and discussed so that the scale of any issues can be established.

Similar practice is found on, say, ANI. Axad12 (talk) 05:22, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On many occasions I've worked as a paid Wikimedian in Residence, collaborating with volunteer editors. On numerous other occasions, separately, I've edited collaboratively as a volunteer with paid Wikimedians in Residence. I suspect most Wikimedians in Residence have done the same. This is far from unusual. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:04, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps so, but given the abuse of admin tools in favour of the known paid party earlier that same year (and the established off-wiki CoI between the two users) the likelihood of the situation having been as innocent as you’ve suggested is low.

Also, in your case I’m sure the WiR status was always declared. In the present case the appropriate disclosure was only made as part of a defence against concerns that activity had been WP:PAID, and was made very belatedly (4 days ago) in relation to activity from 2012 onwards (for which see the user's user page). Axad12 (talk) 03:59, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The activity has never been paid. Your conspiracy theory is just plain nutty. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 07:36, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies (someone who, like yourself, had a minor role in a well known controversy, albeit in her case off-wiki)... Well, you would say that, wouldn't you? Axad12 (talk) 08:03, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please be careful of bludgeoning. Not every comment needs a response from the same editor. Now would be a great spot to let fresh voices chime in. –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:07, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies, I had intended to leave the discussion until receiving the user's most recent and rather personal response, which I believe warranted a brief reply. I will now stand down unless someone addresses me again directly. Axad12 (talk) 08:18, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment: We have certainly gone well past the point of casting aspersions. I notice in this thread OP User:Fram has been content to let another user to do all the advocacy. Suddenly the onus is on proving the negative: On the contrary, it is the notion that you were not compensated in some way which stretches credibility and the likelihood of the situation having been as innocent as you’ve suggested is low are both unqualified personal attacks against Hawkeye7 and should be struck. Dragging the now vanished Laura Hale in from twelve years ago is another purely unfounded attempt to broadbrush the subject unfairly. I consider the timing of this COIN report to be obvious negative political campaigning against one of Wikipedia's most productive and respected editors, a career military man who studies the most granular aspects of warfare, and a kind fellow who has donated uncounted and unpaid volunteer hours over the last 13 years to support the Australian Paralympic committee as an unpaid Wikipedia in Residence, facilitating the bonds linking our community to theirs, and has been long trusted by both. [struckthrough as besides the point, not as inaccurate] In this thread he stands accused of writing an article about the president of that committee (just one among his 546 page creations, 484 DYK notices, 370 Good articles, 146 A-class pages, 110 FAs, 96 TFAs), attending the Paris Paralymics on his own dime (pleads guilty), and getting passes, internet access, and food assistance as volunteer press (ditto). Am I missing anything? Oh, right: specific allegations of wrongdoing with proof some evidence for each allegation. None has been presented. As far as I can tell, Hawkeye7 had demonstrated themselves a remarkable representative of our en.wiki community, has proven himself trusted over many years of active contributions, hasn't been shown to have done anything wrong, and no amount of aspersions is going to stick without diffs. BusterD (talk) 14:42, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  FYI, by granular aspects, I meant boring details (logistics). Anyone want to refute the premises of my assertions (he's productive, respected, a professional military scholar, donated countless and unpaid volunteer hours as PA's publicly disclosed WiR, wrote a good faith article about the charity's president and turned it in for DYK, like he always does)? Anybody have any documented reasons for us to believe he's done anything at all wrong? No? Because that's the entire purpose of this thread on this noticeboard. BusterD (talk) 17:25, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I'm afraid that demonstrates a misunderstanding of this noticeboard.

  As I said above, when it comes to COI/UPE we do not require outright proof, and indeed it is virtually never produced in such discussions. Demanding outright proof of COI/UPE activity would generally speaking be unreasonable (as inevitably it would require some degree of outing).

  If outright proof was to be required before action could be taken, this noticeboard might as well be closed down.

  The points that you've made, however, have no bearing at all on whether the user has engaged in UPE. Axad12 (talk) 17:36, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I enjoy it when editors who claim to be relatively new at H7's RfA discussion (diff) attempt to point out the purpose of various noticeboards to two-decade Wikipedia veterans, while all the time recklessly conflating the bare minimum standard of documented reasons for us to believe you with outright proof of COI/UPE activity which nobody (especially the OP) has provided. BusterD (talk) 18:00, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• "I notice in this thread OP User:Fram has been content to let another user to do all the advocacy." I try to avoid bludgeoning and have stated my case. I am not "content" or responsible for what others write, no matter if it comes from Axad12 or from you.

"I consider the timing of this COIN report to be obvious negative political campaigning against one of Wikipedia's most productive and respected editors". The COI tag was placed on 27 September 2024, long before they became a candidate at the election. That Hawkeye only responded there after becoming a candidate, and that his answer lead to this COIN report, is not "political campaigning", and it would be good if you kept your WP:ABF aspersions to yourself.

"Anybody have any documented reasons for us to believe he's done anything at all wrong? No? Because that's the entire purpose of this thread on this noticeboard." Uh, yes, they deny having a COI and haven't followed the guidance for such situations (e.g. WP:WIRCOI). This discussion is not about the result (the article), nor about his other creations, which are completely irrelevant for this discussion. You have not demonstrated at all how they wouldn't have a COI wrt to the CEO of the organisation he is a WIR for. He creates an article for the boss of the organisation which arranged for him to have a press entry and other perks at the Paralympics. It doesn't get much clearer than that. Fram (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Clear as mud. My bar for success is demonstrating how they wouldn't have a COI? Nobody's made a reasonable case or brought ANY evidence to support such an allegation. As such, these are aspersions brought to the correct noticeboard for discussion. Just as the accused is running for admin. On the day. BusterD (talk) 19:39, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@OhanaUnited: you seem to have misunderstood the intention of COIN and this thread. As said at the top, this is to determine whether someone has a COI with an article, and "There are three possible outcomes to your COIN request" none of them matching your close of "nothing actionable". This isn't ANI, I didn't ask for action against an editor, I asked for a determination whether they have a COI or not, nothing more. Fram (talk) 07:01, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@OhanaUnited: Here I agree with Fram that we need clarification in the close: whether Hawkeye's open relationship with APC had any undue impact on his willingness to write an article about a notable individual in the org's leadership. Hawkeye7 has NEVER EVER denied having a connection with the organization. He's had a long and openly documented relationship with the organization on behalf of the Wikimedia community. He just presented this in a spectacularly visual way to the community to through the linked Signpost article. By this report, Fram has inferred (without accusing and without evidence of any kind) Hawkeye7 has done something improper. I'd be satisfied with a statement that while Hawkeye7 clearly does have a well-publicized institutional connection with APC and now PA, there's no evidence this motivated his actions any more than a good faith desire to see the org well-covered. I'm not great at brevity here, but Fram is right; we can't just let this hang. BusterD (talk) 07:51, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If Hawkeye7 failed to put the right notice on this DYK nom (and if reviewers caught it), that's a much different hand slap than this unspoken accusation. Even the best contributors make errors occasionally. That's why we have a page history. BusterD (talk) 07:59, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Feel free to overturn my closure. But my warning to Axad12 stands. OhanaUnited 15:19, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Overturn is exactly the wrong word to use, IMHO. I agree with your closure 100%. I'm not requesting a change of any kind. I concur Axad12 intruded themselves in a somewhat volatile and distracting way. Fram wants a determination convicting or exonerating Hawkeye7; only three outcomes apparently. My comment was pointed towards obviating any such determination. BusterD (talk) 18:58, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@OhanaUnited:, I'm not a fan of elements like I'd also advise you in your close. The role of a closer is to summarize the consensus reached in a discussion, not to give the closer's impression of it. Sdkb  14:18, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reopened, with the permission by OhanaUnited above. Fram (talk) 14:40, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Their closing statement in full read: "Plenty of accusations without evidence. Several shifting goalposts. Nothing actionable at this point. And User:Axad12, I'd also advise you to refrain from making entirely groundless personal attacks against people (to use your own words). OhanaUnited 02:07, 25 October 2024 (UTC)"[reply]

This is a general question, not about a specific user or article. WP:PE mentions "being an … investor" as an example of a financial COI. Does this mean that people who own small stakes (well under 1%) of publicly traded companies need to disclose their holdings on their talk page? I haven’t seen this discussed on this noticeboard before, and I tend to avoid writing about companies in which I own any stock, but I am not sure if small stock holdings are considered a COI. White 720 (talk) 20:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fuzzy line. I think even a 0.1% stake in a publicly traded company would be enough to keep most of us awake at night worrying about fluctuations in the share price, unless it's also less than 0.1% of your personal assets. Would your assertion that your small holding was not a COI pass the MANDY test? Safer to use the WP:ERW to keep the article's integrity intact, and your own integrity too. Cabayi (talk) 11:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Noted, thanks for your response. For certain megacap companies, a 0.1% stake would be worth over $1 billion; a more realistic stake for an individual investor would be closer to 0.000001%. White 720 (talk) 17:56, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to remember Dennis Brown encountered this a while back. No idea what, if any, result emerged. SerialNumber54129 18:35, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There was some split in the community on this, and there is no clear consensus, although one or two admin will go rogue and try to block anyone they can in these cases. I personally am not going to divulge my stock holdings, regardless of size, out of principle. My edits can be examined by anyone and are clearly not for financial gain, so it isn't anyone's business. Common sense says that if you own a substantial amount of a stock (my personal opinion means it is ~10% of your net worth, or you get ~10% of your income from it) then there is a clear COI, and should act as you would with any COI. It isn't about the dollar amount, the COI is about the influence it might have on your editing. If you do edit solely to benefit yourself, expect to get blocked; it doesn't matter how much you own. We can't verify your holdings, we can only judge your edits and most people have enough common sense to know a COI when they see it. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 00:34, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with what the other commenters seem to be saying here, that the percentage of someone's portfolio or net-worth is more important that the percentage of the company. If you knowingly own a single share Berkshire Hathaway, but your whole ability to retire depends on its success or failure, I think it is going to impact your editing a lot more than if you owned 25% of Microsoft but that were only tiny fraction 0.1% of your total investments (although if you're so wealthy that you own that much of a major company, and it's only a tiny percentage of your portfolio, there's probably an article about yourself that you need to avoid the temptation to edit). PCHS Pirate Alumnus (talk) 19:07, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you and the other editors on this, what matters is percent of your own portfolio not the percent of the company you own with the exception of the truly stupendously wealthy. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 19:44, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Lark & Berry (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Pomisolomon (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Undisclosed paid editing.

User's history of editing whereby their edit #1 was Lark & Berry-related, and then they made exactly nine additional perfunctory edits to WP:PGAME the ability to create an article directly (#2: wikilinked "England", #3: cosmetic edit + wlinked "England" again, #4: wlinked "UAE", #5: ... "Bahrain", #6: ... "Qatar", #7: ... "Kuwait", #8: italicized a word, #9 italicized a neighboring word in a separate edit, #10: changed one letter to introduce a spelling error) is evidence.

Following this, they created a promotionaly-worded aticle about the company Lark & Berry that relies on sponsored content, press releases, and is overall refbombed. I draftified the article as a COI creation.

User received Uw-paid1. User moved the article back, removed {{Undisclosed paid}}, and denied being paid. —Alalch E. 13:52, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,

I agree that elements of this matter are problematic. However, I see no off-wiki evidence of a connection between the account name and the subject, and no element of lifting material from the company website, as would be expected of a low-grade UPE job. Indeed the article text is entirely different from how the company promotes itself on its own website. I'm usually not slow to suggest UPE, but here I'm not seeing anything specific to support the idea except a feeling that the text is to some extent promotional and the user is an SPA who gamed the system. (The fact that the gaming was achieved in a 6 minute spree, mostly by turning individual words into wikilinks, strongly suggests that this is not the user's first account here).

However, all of that said...

The sentence commencing The brand name Lark & Berry was coined by Chavez is copyvio/closely paraphrased from an online pdf, here [8], page 4.

And source 9 ('The Week') appears to be non-independent and sponsored content, but it doesn't seem clear that any of the current article content is derived solely from that source. Other sources may also be of similar derivation.

What is best here, re-draftify? The text isn't so bad as to justify speedy deletion under G11 for unambiguous promotion. Maybe strip out the non-independent sourcing and the copyvio, see how much of the article is left and then make a decision based on how the article looks at that point?

Regards, Axad12 (talk) 16:13, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I do not know why you are reporting me here.

It is now that I hear the word Gaming the system. Yeah, I made 9 edits to enable me create an article, because when I read how to create an article the guideline says 10 edits and 4 days. I just followed that. If I am not doing that how do it be 10? And the edits are not unconstructive.

When I come to the page, immediately an hour later I created the page, as you can see from history, an editor called 'Chaotic Enby'' tagged it for promotional tone. 7 hours latter editor called ''Nikkimaria'' removed sources he considered unreliable. 9 hours later an editor who has an administrators right  called Discospinster removed a content which he considered promotional and even removed the tag that claims ''promotional tone'', after this all, you came and just , moved the page with a false claim that I am paid which is totally wrong. My question is, if someone with an authority superior to you claiming the article as non promotional, how do you dare to say it is promotional? The other unclear thing, on one hand you moved the page with the accusation of of more sources needed, on the other hand you accuse me of ref bombing, I could not get you at all. Pomisolomon (talk) 16:54, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please note, decision making on Wikipedia is based on consensus, not on authority. Administrators do not have greater authority, they just have a variety of tools that they can use to perform administrative tasks.

The issue is that you have created an article in the way that duplicates, pretty much entirely, the way that an undisclosed paid editor (UPE) would do, and like the typical UPE you appear to be a single purpose account. Furthermore the article, as created, was promotional and contained WP:COPYVIO and non WP:RS compliant sources. This is again typical of how a promotionally minded editor would create an article. Similarly there is an arguably undue emphasis on awards and recognition.

Please note, I make no allegations here, I only wish to clarify why the article has resulted in this thread being opened. I suspect that at the very least there will now be an amount of tidy up to bring the article into line with policies and guidelines.

Hopefully these notes are of assistance.

Regards, Axad12 (talk) 17:16, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even though Pomisolomon has refused to acknowledge a COI, this is a SPA focused on Draft:Lark & Berry. I’ve draftified the article for now and I hope they will submit it for a proper AFC review. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 17:55, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate your dedication to protect Wikipedia, but I would be happy if you guys do not rush into claims of COI, single purpose account and the likes, as I published another article today and will keep doing so in the future. I hope this message won't be offending as I want to write in a nice environment with you guys a head in the future. Pomisolomon (talk) 14:34, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• AKS.9955 (talk · contribs)
• IndiaOne Air
  • Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/IndiaOne Air
  • Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/IndiaOne Air (2nd nomination) (Ongoing AfD)
• TezJet

I am making a very unorthodox decision to bypass talkpage warnings and communication in favour of a COIN discussion. Normally, I would view this report as inappropriate without at least some warning, but AKS.9955 holds the autopatrolled right and the new page reviewer right. They should know the COI rules by now - and yet have, on multiple occasions, failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest. This issue first came to my attention in the second AfD for IndiaOne Air, when @Ratnahastin: commented that they suspected a COI. For the sake of this discussion, AKS.9955 has posted a picture of themself to Wikipedia, their full name (Arun Kumar Singh), and links to several of their social media accounts. I will only be posting links to social media accounts and news stories they have linked to on-Wiki, or webpages they very publicly linked to from a webpage they control and also linked to on-Wiki.

As stated on their own userpage, editor AKS.9955 can also be found on Twitter [9] and Instagram.[10]. The Instagram account's bio also links to a LinkedIn account- [11]. (The rest of the Instagram account is private- the LinkedIn thing is the only piece of information we get from it)

In the bio of the linked Twitter account, AKS.9955 self-identified as the CEO of IndiaOne Air. This appears to be confirmed by this news source, which AKS.9955 added to the IndiaOne Air article. Despite being so forthcoming about their identify, AKS.9955 has not been transparent about their potential for having a COI. They did not disclose their COI when creating the article in 2022. They did not disclose their COI in the initial AFD, again in 2022. In the initial AFD, they were one of the only two keep votes. The other keep vote, however, was made "per AKS.9955". They also have not disclosed during the current AfD discussion, despite Ratnahastin pointing out the potential COI in their nominating statement. However, in a response to a question about sourcing posed by @CNMall41, AKS.9955 did sum up the AfD by saying "the real question is, does the airline exist and has scheduled flights OR the effort here is to just delete the article????" (emphasis original).

Arun Kumar Singh has not been the CEO of the airline since late 2023. AKS.9955 has confirmed this onWiki, but failed to provide a source. Not directly relevant, but noting it down for timeline purposes.

Additionally, On AKS.9955's LinkedIn account (one of the non-private posts [12]), they self-identify as having a management role in TezJet. This appears to be confirmed by a news article- I can provide a link if needed. AKS.9955 created the TezJet article in 2019 and has continued to edit it until now. They did not disclose their connection to the company when they made the article, or any any point when they edited it. The article did not go through NPP either, because AK.9955 holds the autopatrolled right.

I've done some more digging, and I believe they have a COI or potential COI with many aviation articles - either because they have worked for them, or they work for a competitor. (For an example of their editing the article of a potential competitor, they voted delete in this AfD last year. (The AfD discussed Fly91, a regional airline in India - they don't currently fly the same routes as IndiaOne Air, but the potential COI should have still been disclosed). I am seeking further input on this matter to figure out exactly which areas they should not be editing. I'm not an expert in our COI guidelines- but it doesn't take an expert to figure out that the community needs to set some very firm boundaries when it comes to AKS.9955 and their editing of airline articles, and creating articles on businesses they own(ed) without proper disclosure. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 23:47, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with this report,AKS.9955 has autopatrolled right since 2015. They have been creating articles on airline related topics since then [13]. All of them will have to be checked for potential COI, meanwhile it might be worth revoking the right as they have clearly abused it. Ratnahastin (talk) 01:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was pinged regarding the AfD which I have no comment on. However, based on the information provided by GreenLipstickLesbian, there appears to be a clear COI with AKS.9955. As the user has failed to disclose their COI with IndiaOne Air, I will assume that there are other aviation related pages they have a COI with that they have also failed to disclose. Would love to hear feedback from @AKS.9955: though. --CNMall41 (talk) 02:29, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for flagging this @GreenLipstickLesbian:. This is indeed concerning that an airline CEO has been editing pages related to themselves and their competitors. I'm not sure if their autopatrolled rights can be removed yet, as we still need to assess whether the articles they created meet WP:N. However, their NPR rights should definitely be revoked now since they were granted in 2016, and I haven't seen them used. I’m also interested in hearing their thoughts on this report. --— Saqib (talk I contribs) 11:46, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Guys, this is the talked about Arun Kumar Singh, and yes, I have been CEO for several airlines in South Asia for a very long time. Contributing in Wikiepdia was my hobby (thousand of edits and hundreds of pages created), that I continued to do despite my busy schedule. All these James Bonds getting a high after pointing out a COI, can anyone tell me one single "wrong / paid" update that was done? I think Wikipedia has reached a point where it is no longer possible to contribute constructively without some sore losers sitting in their basements and preaching the world how things work. Can some admin delete my entire account altogether? I have no desires to contribute anymore to this website, which is fast becoming a cartel of "know it all". Let me find the place where I can request my account deletion. Do whatever the hell you guys want to with the pages; it does not change the business and real life at all. Arun Kumar SINGH (Talk) 05:21, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Update: Requested for deleting my account here. Good luck. Arun Kumar SINGH (Talk) 05:29, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"James Bonds getting a high"... "sore losers sitting in their basements and preaching the world how things work" — Such remarks against other editors are absolutely unacceptable, I would advice you to retract them or you would be risking stringent sanctions. Ratnahastin (talk) 07:32, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• I've removed all advanced rights/tools. See log for details. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 00:15, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• I took a look at the most recent creation by AKS.9955, which is Sky FRU. It was created last month with three references, one of which was to an "About Us" page and the other two were to websites that did not provide significant coverage of the subject to meet WP:GNG at the very least. That isn't the content standard expected of a "clean" article and as such I have unreviewed that page to let someone else at NPP evaluate it for notability. Haven't examined the other article creations but might look later. I think removal of autopatrolled and NPR was the right call here. Fathoms Below (talk) 01:27, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• I kind of went just a little maverick, and closed the AFD procedurally, and moved the article to Draft space at Draft:Sky FRU. You can't move an article at AFD to Draft space, per policy, so this solved that issue. Likely, that would have been the outcome anyway. They exist, there is a reasonable expectation that they will get notable in due time, but they lack the sources to stay in mainspace now (fails wp:corp/wp:gng), so we incubate them. If any admin thinks I've overstepped and decides to revert, I understand and won't argue, but this seemed to be the logical way to handle it. Just put a note on my talk page. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 08:30, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Probably for the best- given what just happened with the creator, it is unlikely that anybody would have put the effort in to find any more-hidden sources to prove the subject notable (if it even currently is). But this way, if anybody does want to do that in the future, they won't have to battle a pre-existing delete consensus. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 08:37, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I think it would have ended to drafity, else I wouldn't have done that, but the stigma of a previous AFD wouldn't have helped. And on paper, it is a perfectly legitimate draft that fits the criteria for drafts. The author of the AFD thanked me for the edit, so I'm guessing they agreed. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 10:17, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone help FrancoiseV please? I know very little about pharmacology. Polygnotus (talk) 10:17, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Polygnotus I can see FrancoiseV have declared their COI, but do you notice any issues with their editing? If so, please provide the diffs. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 10:40, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Saqib: Hiya! I have not seen any serious problems. I did notice one tiny beginner mistake here, specifically See2cure<ref>https://www.see2cure.com/</ref>. It would be nice if someone who is experienced like yourself can keep an eye on it and help out where necessary. I do think some of the article is pretty outdated, for example File:IPBS Funding sources.png is from 2018, and the references section looks bad because they are mainly bare urls. So please don't interpret me posting this section as an indication that they are doing something wrong, I just think they could use some help. I probably posted on the wrong page but there are a bunch of very experienced editors here who know how to improve an article such as this one and have experience helping good faith COI editors. Thanks, Polygnotus (talk) 10:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Polygnotus, I guess this noticeboard should be used only if an editor has repeatedly added problematic content over time and attempts to resolve the issue on the article's talk page or on their own talk page have failed. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 10:56, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All the entries he created involved in conflict of interest and probably paid. Please check also his disclosure and contributions in Commons.

• Article name (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• username (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Replace this with a brief explanation of the situation. 2A0D:6FC7:33B:81FA:678:5634:1232:5476 (talk) 18:20, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Have you notified them? Can you explain what the actual problems are and list some examples? See WP:DIFF. What interaction have you had? Have you ever edited using another username/IP address? Polygnotus (talk) 18:30, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello,

I have never had edited on any other IP or username other than this. I do sometimes upload articles under payment, tho not most of the time, and I always disclose those I do via a template on the talk page after such payment has been received, per Wikipedia’s rules. Most of my paid articles were on Hebrew Wikipedia, and out of the articles I’ve edited that are currently on English Wikipedia only Aleph Farms was paid. If the article about Barack Rosen is the one who raised suspicions, I’m happy to confirm that I was not paid to create it.

I’m here for any additional questions :)

עידו כ.ש. (talk) 19:44, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It looks to me as if everything is probably in order here.

The user has only ever created one article (Barak Rosen). That article has a significant problem in that large portions of the text are entirely without sourcing, but that does not seem to be something that an experienced UPE would have allowed to happen.

User, would you be able to add sourcing to the various elements where it is currently missing (as per WP:V)?

That article does not seem to me to be particularly promotional.

The user has already declared a paid COI in relation to a different article (Aleph Farms). If they had a COI in relation to the Rosen article then it seems reasonable to assume it would also have been declared.

Looking at the user's edit history back to the start of this year they appear to be a normal unconflicted user (except where declared on their user page). Axad12 (talk) 03:40, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for understanding. I’ll start to work on adding the sources per WP:V. I don’t have much experience on English Wikipedia rules but I’ll do my best based on reading and what I know from Hebrew Wikipedia. עידו כ.ש. (talk) 13:12, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Pacific War and Contingent Victory (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Nidrsta (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

New account whose only edits were to make a deletion discussion about the article, claiming the article is biased against the book and contains "personal attacks" against the author. In response to a COI inquiry in the deletion discussion (I previously put an inquiry on their talk page, but they didn't respond), the editor claimed it was "harassment" and stated "You're not supposed to ask that". Helpful Raccoon (talk) 20:58, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The editor "Helpful Racoon" without evidence accused me of conflict of interest. I responded that any potential conflict of interest is between me and Wikipedia, not between me and helpful raccoon. Nidrsta (talk) 21:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On the contrary, if you have a conflict of interest in relation to an article subject you are expected to declare it, as per WP:COI - where it says, for example: Editors with a COI, including paid editors, are expected to disclose it whenever they seek to change an affected article's content.

Attempting to bring about an article's complete deletion would be the most extreme form of seeking to change its content. Axad12 (talk) 02:32, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also, your comment above is clearly a tacit admission of CoI, as otherwise the answer to whether you have a CoI is simply 'no' (rather than evading the question or giving hypothetical and incorrect reasons on why you don't believe you have to disclose - as you have done every time the issue has been raised thus far). Axad12 (talk) 12:49, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Draft:Jamarius Reid (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• JamariusReid2 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

JamariusReid2 submitted a article in AfC and this user might be on WP:COI and self-promotion WP:NOTPROMOTION. Also, he submitted a photo of himself in Commons File:Jamarius Reid Graduation Fort Campbell 2020.jpg. Royiswariii (talk) 04:34, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also, of course, likely WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY which is strongly discouraged. If the user intends to persist with the draft then I would suggest that they declare their COI as a matter of urgency. Axad12 (talk) 04:47, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Royiswariii, I appreciate you flagging the issues, but please note that this noticeboard should only be used when an editor is violating our P&Gs and attempts to resolve the issue on the article's talk page or on their own talk page have been unsuccessful. Ideally, you should have first asked them to declare their COI on their talk page or issued an WP:AUTOBIO warning, which I don't see in this case. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 11:47, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Pacific Repertory Theatre (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (page created by Smartprt where they have a significant authorship share in stats)

Possible covert promo edit

• Golden Bough Playhouse (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (owned by Pacific Repertory)
• Theatre of the Golden Bough (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (owned by Pacific Repertory)
• Forest Theater (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (the building at which pacific Repertory is a tenant)
• Stephen Moorer (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (related to Pac Rep)

and related suspicious edits such as this

and this peculiar Special:Diff/916975478 by WP:SPA

• Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) Pacific Repertory related edits made in early 2010s
• Smatprt (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

I became suspicious and checked the contribution history after I learned they were responsible for a lot of advertorial puff contents inserted into Carmel-by-the-Sea over a decade ago. I realized the account has been resurrected from sleeper status and making edits in the same subject area. Private evidence of positive COI and UPE submitted to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org already about COI with Theatre of the Golden Bough's owner institution. Graywalls (talk) 14:34, 24 October 2024 (UTC) @Star Mississippi and Drmies:, I think they might be collaborating with you know who... or a slight chance of socking.. could you check? Graywalls (talk) 14:39, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Graywalls, I suggest you add this to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Smatprt/Archive. Geolocation makes it possible, but that is not a good enough piece of evidence. I could not base a CU block on any other technical data. Lots of people live there and any investigation will have to go by way of behavior and/or other information. Drmies (talk) 14:57, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Drmies:, do I start a new one, or am I supposed to add it into that case somehow? If the latter, I don't know how to do it. Graywalls (talk) 15:01, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    • You can go to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations and type in Smat's name, then follow the instructions. Go have a look and think about what evidence you would like to present. Drmies (talk) 15:19, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a CU and unfortunately do not have the bandwidth to dig right now, but endorse @Drmies' suggestion of an SPI. Let me know how I can help though. Also, ugh (issue, not you @Graywalls) Star Mississippi 16:35, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

SMATPRT here. Happy to answer any questions. As you can see from my history, I am only one person, and I am not a puppet for anyone else. As you can also see, I used to edit a variety of articles, mostly theatre related, or on the history of Carmel-by-the-Sea. After the great and ugly Wikipedia Shakespeare Wars, I soured on editing and have only continued on non-Sheakespeare articles infrequently. I was recently alerted that two significant Carmel History articles had been absorbed into a related article and then deleted and/or redirected, which is what I restored, since as I recall from Wiki policies, deleting unique pages and incorporating summery versions into a related article is not the Wiki way. Kinda the opposite, right? But it's been a while...

Anyhow - thanks for letting me respond. 50.213.42.61 (talk) 21:09, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To ensure the authenticity of the response, please always correspond while signed-in rather replying later and saying it was you from your account. Graywalls (talk) 22:38, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Signing in so you know it's me :-). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Smatprt (talk • contribs) 21:11, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Smatprt:, Although I don't want to make baseless accusations, the combination of your editing pattern, specifically the articles you edit and the evidence available off Wiki is strongly indicating you're doing paid editing. Paid editing does not mean there has to be a line item payment "for editing Wikipedia". I can not reveal the exact evidence, because policy strictly prohibits me from doing so publicly, but the relevant evidence has been emailed to the contact designated by Wikipedia. Graywalls (talk) 21:38, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• The off-wiki evidence is clear as a bell. Without a shadow of a doubt this is a COI/UPE editor, and for a long time. Won't post the evidence or links here because OUT. I'm not sure if what I found is different than the OP's findings, but if needed, I can send it in. Netherzone (talk) 21:58, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  @Netherzone:, check this out. Graywalls (talk) 23:52, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  I know there is a backlog at paid-en-wp, but I'm wondering about what was sent. I'm finding so much evidence off-wiki online, and also on Commons. Do you think I should send in a summary to paid-en-wp of what I've found to see if there can be some action on this? I'm surprised an admin hasn't blocked them yet, since the undisclosed paid editing and promotion has been going on for years and years. Netherzone (talk) 00:01, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  @Netherzone:, Nothing much. Just something you would see right out the window in plain sight, but can not say by name per WP:OUTING. Wouldn't hurt to send what you've got though. Graywalls (talk) 00:19, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Smatprt, thank you for your contributions. Could you please tell us if you have a Conflict of Interest with any of these articles, Pacific Repertory Theatre, Golden Bough Playhouse, Theatre of the Golden Bough, Forest Theater, Stephen Moorer? You have mentioned that you don't have a financial stake in the topics you edit,[16] but I am wondering if you have any other type of COI connection to the subjects of these articles? Netherzone (talk) 03:47, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment. I would be curious to see the evidence of paid editing because in looking at Smatprt's editing history I am not at all convinced that this is a paid editing account. What I see is an editor who is a Shakespeare buff with a particular interest in the Shakespeare authorship question. This is a natural pairing with an interest in the Carmel Shakespeare Festival and the Pacific Repertory Theatre (PRC) which runs the Carmel festival which has drawn national attention in the press and in academic journals related to American theatre and Shakespeare. The PRC has participated in scholarship in the Shakespeare authorship area; enough so that its director (Stephen Moorer) was given an award for his work by an academic society at Concordia University (a respected Canadian university) and the Shakespeare Oxford Society (an academic society that largely publishes on Shakespeare authorship issues) held its annual national convention in Carmel one year to correspond with the festival's unique programming. Anybody who is into Shakespeare scholarship as a passion could reasonably have the editing history that I am seeing from Smatprt. And if the editor happens to live in California they could be just taking an interest in a notable topic area in their local area. There's nothing wrong with that. Best.4meter4 (talk) 02:23, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  In fairness, I think I'd rather hear it from the user themselves. They were asked upthread whether or not they have a conflict of interest (on 24/10 and 31/10, and also on their talk page). The responses provided thus far seem evasive.

  The question that needs to be resolved is as follows, as per the request at the talkpage, here [17]

  Please indicate the nature of personal/professional relationship with the organizations/buildings/facilities in Carmel-by-the-Sea you have been editing on off and on for over a decade.

  The off-wiki evidence is perfectly clear in relation to the nature of the user's quite blatant conflict of interest. Axad12 (talk) 06:52, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Commment. Like 4meter4, I would like to see the evidence. Is this a case of an editor's COI/paid editing, or is this a misguided vendetta against that editor? -- Ssilvers (talk) 06:52, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  It cannot be provided here without WP:OUTING, however it is easily located. Axad12 (talk) 07:10, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Ssilvers and 4meter4, just a brief courtesy note to ask if you were able to satisfy yourselves as to the nature of the CoI under discussion here and to determine that this thread is very much not part of a misguided vendetta against the editor (who is not simply a Shakespeare buff with a particular interest in the Shakespeare authorship question)? Axad12 (talk) 17:16, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  No, I have no idea where to look. Moreover, even if it was COI or paid editing, I don't understand why good content that is properly referenced should be deleted. This appears to be some kind of hysteria. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:36, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Regarding where to look, why not have a try?

  Regarding deletion, I think you are conflating two entirely separate issues.

  You seem to have made a number of bad faith allegations recently, e.g. here [18], and the comment re: misguided vendetta above and now the allegation of some kind of hysteria.

  Could these comments and your apparent disinclination to consider the possibility of CoI be at all related to the fact that you're the largest single contributor to the article on Stephen Moorer (where you've made no fewer than 71 edits)? Axad12 (talk) 20:13, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Also, whatever is going on here [19]?

  And here [20] with further accusations of a vendetta and of threatening and badgering Axad12 (talk) 20:24, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  Furthermore, why is 4meter4 claiming at the Pacific Repertory Theatre article that the coi issues have been appropriately dealt with and solved? It doesn't seem very clear how a reasonable editor could have read this thread and arrived at that conclusion. Axad12 (talk) 20:35, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Axad12 I said that after adding more than 50 new references to the article, and checking the citations to the sources currently in the article. I spent many many hours sifting through sources in JSTOR, PROQUEST, EBSCOE, etc. I think after having read the literature and adding content and checking for verifiability, I could make an assessment on the state of the article. As it is, I am stepping away from it and have removed the article from my watchlist. This is too contentious of a topic area for my mental health. Please leave me out of this going forward.4meter4 (talk) 23:35, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

When I asked you to provide WP:THREESOURCES, it was simply a request for cooperation, which you're not required to honor, but it certainly frustrates others when doing so would help others realize notability and move along. Please also see the essay WP:AMOUNT. If what's needed is a 4 carat center stone diamond, five hundred 0.01 carat pieces won't be an acceptable substitute. You talk about how many sources, but not really about the DEPTH of coverage. It's extremely time consuming for other editors to have to sift through all those sources. When put together with your unwillingness to name the few sources that anchors down the notability, it can be seen as stalling the process. Graywalls (talk) 02:11, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Graywalls You are now bringing this up again at a noticeboard discussion at which I am not the focus. This is now feeling like WP:HOUNDING; particularly after I already expressed my need to withdraw over experiencing mental distress due to conflict at the PRT article in my comment here and on the PRT talkpage. I already requested that you allow me to depart from dialoguing with you further on this issue multiple times. Please leave me alone.4meter4 (talk) 02:22, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• I do not think I have acted in bad faith. As I have said before, if the content and sources regarding these arts organizations and related people are good, they should not be deleted. As for Stephen Moorer, I have had an interest in Shakespeare and regional theatre since joining Wikipedia in 2006, and so I have come across his WP article several times. I tried to improve it whenever I did (mostly in 2009). I see that someone recently deleted much of the content from the article, even though some of it is referenced acceptably. As for searching, I did do a search for "Smatprt" but did not see anything. -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:46, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  @Ssilvers If we're talking about the Stephen Moorer Wikipedia article, can you confirm that you participated in the original deletion discussion concerning that article?

  And while I get where you're coming from - smatprt has certainy experienced some harassment from socks in the past - this is not a deletion discussion. This discussion is purely about determining whether or not Smatprt has a COI and whether they are likely to have engaged in undisclosed paid editing. Let's not get distracted by other issues here. This appears to be some kind of hysteria is not a very productive statement. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 20:57, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• GreenLipstickLesbian, I do not remember. I am getting the feeling that this had something to do with the old Shakespeare Authorship Question war, but frankly I don't remember. If all this is about is whether he had a COI, I did misunderstand and apologize. I thought this had to do with all the deletions and AfDs people are making to all the articles he worked on. -- Ssilvers (talk) 21:04, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ssilvers, you are not being truthful nor are you AGF of those who disagree with you. You have stated that those who disagree with you all the deletions and AfDs people are making to all the articles he [Smatprt] worked on? Are you sure you mean all? You made a similar accusations to an admin, like this: They are on a vendetta to delete everything the COI person wrote and this they are threatening to delete or merge out three certainly notable arts organizations[21] to an admin when neither of these statements are true, there is no vendetta to delete everything, nor have there been threats to delete. Why did you make that accusation? You have also implied some sort of conspiratorial accusation on this very thread is this a misguided vendetta against that editor?. You have lied about me and assumed bad faith Netherzone is obviously very invested in deleting any and all material connected with Carmel [22] when I have done no such thing as trying to delete all material connected with Carmel, California. You are completely out of line. Please calm down, stop exaggerating and making things up and take a breather. Netherzone (talk) 23:54, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Question @Smatprt:, I have two questions for you. In 2016, you added that Stephen Moorer has two sisters: "Jacqui Hope Moorer" and "Catherine Hudson". You also added where they lived. You did not provide a source. I've looked for one, and the only place I can find this information is the Stephen Moorer Wikipedia page/mirrors of the Wikipedia page. What was your source for this information?

Similarly, in 2009, you uploaded this image. Could you please explain how you happen to possess the copyright for it? You said in the author field that I (Smatprt (talk)) created this work entirely by myself. Could you explain how exactly you created it?

That being said, even the now-off en-Wiki evidence is compelling. Couldn't you have just used edit requests? GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 09:13, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@GreenLipstickLesbian They also added the full date of birth on the BLP article Stephen Moorer in this edit without providing any source, which is also hint of Off-wiki relationship, such as potential use of non-published documents held by someone related to the article subject. Graywalls (talk) 15:18, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In an effort to bring this thread back on track, I note that on 24th October Smatprt said that they are Happy to answer any questions [23].

That being the case, can I suggest that all outstanding issues in this thread will be resolved by a straightforward answer from Smatprt on the issue of what degree of association there is between, on the one hand, user Smatprt and, on the other hand, Stephen Moorer and the Pacific Repertory Theatre.

If the user is unprepared to answer that question then it seems to me that some form of admin action needs to be taken based on the easily accessible off-wiki evidence confirming the nature of the relationship.

In the meantime I wonder if many of the recent additions to the thread (e.g. from here [24] to here [25]) might be collapsed, as the two users involved seem to have inadvertently derailed the thread into a content discussion which has no bearing on the central issue. Axad12 (talk) 03:35, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some of this have started brewing over at Talk:Forest_Theater#COI. @GreenC:, perhaps you wouldn't mind discussing the matter here regarding Smatprt. Graywalls (talk) 15:48, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

--> Well some here say it's obvious, but I have no idea how to look. From the context of the above discussion, I can make a reasonable guess. I would be more concerned about professional sock farms. COI and UPE exists all over Wikipedia it's a question of triage, how serious is it. The serious problems are dark money politics, PR firms, ideology think tanks, etc.. a small arts organizations is low hanging fruit mostly harmless and IMO a waste of time. I feel the same about Henderson for the most part: the harm level was very low, the removal of some article topics and content was unnecessarily damaging, and the time sink is/was high.

--> To give an example, I found a Republican political think tank had subtly molded the public perception of a Democratic think tank Media Matters for America that for over a decade cause massive harm to this organization after their biased description got picked up by international media echoed 100s of times around the world. I had to RfC change because some operatives were watching and blocking attempts.

--> Another example, Graywalls knows about, is that priest who used Wikipedia for self-promotion for over a decade, and to influence the media and clerks at the Supreme Court (USA) by injecting leading and false information into the news cycle.

--> When this forum gets involved in serious social problems let me know, happy to help, but it's hard to get outraged about a small arts community writing a theater history mostly concerning dead people, it's largely a harmless distraction from the limited resources available ie. the expert attention of people who care. -- GreenC 17:01, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

COI is a serious problem wherever it is found. Low hanging fruit does not get a free pass and identifying such users is not a waste of time. If you have no interest though, feel free not to participate. Axad12 (talk) 17:06, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would like "not to participate" any further in this discussion. Please, everyone, stop pinging me. I feel llke Dorothy, realizing that I can just click my heels together. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:26, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@GreenC:, You chose to engage in the article talk page questioning the COI tag and supporting evidence behind it. There's no leeway reserved allowing "small arts community may engage un undisclosed paid editing or public relations editing". Procedurally, COI/N is the proper place for such things to be discussed in details. I guess I don't understand why you get involved and question the tag if it's not that important to you. Graywalls (talk) 18:20, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Forest Theater was already on my watchlist, because you and some others had previously brought it to my attention, on that deeply obscure category talk page, whose stated intention was to form a group of editors to delete all the Henderson articles. I exposed it as unambiguous canvassing, after which everyone left to carry on in places unknown. -- GreenC 19:45, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that treating COI as triage vs comprehensive is that when it does come time to deal with major violators countless editors will point to our lack of action on the ones you say don't matter as proof that the community condones this sort of thing in general. Once you start making exceptions for the groups you don't think are a real threat it makes room for other people to make exceptions for groups they don't think are a real threat but you think are. I think that these sorts of things are in fact a real threat, even when its a small arts group and not a megacorp. Honestly especially when its a small arts group and not a megacorp because its more likely to avoid scrutiny due to the nature of the topic areas. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 19:39, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's not like a choice of triage vs comprehensive, the COI problem is so endemic anything you do is at best triage. -- GreenC 19:47, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can you elaborate on the analogy then? I don't see how a triage approach results in us not treating this particular case of malignant cancer (there are no gunshot patients or anything like that, look around you... This noticeboard is the OR). Horse Eye's Back (talk) 19:53, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's not about not treating. But is it cancer? Using the triage analogy, this noticeboard is the ER where patients show up (as new talk page sections). The participants here are nurses and doctors, some more expert and committed than others. There is investigations into what the source of the problem is, immediate actions (banner tags), longer term treatments like editing articles. My point is he patients are not equally important. Some have COVID and risk infecting the community. Some have a bruised knee. Most COI is banal and not very significant and easily fixed without major surgery. I'd like to see this forum respect the WP:PRESERVE policy more and be conscious of the natural human trait to exact revenge/punishment on the perps by way of deletion. Because it's self-defeating to remove good content that might be addressed with a lighter less invasive touch. -- GreenC 20:45, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This thread is not a thread about article content. Please take content discussion to the relevant article talk page. It is also not a location for shooting the breeze on how you think COI should be dealt with and whether or not you think COI is a serious problem. Axad12 (talk) 20:56, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is clearly about article content, we're discussing this particular case and you can't discuss COI without discussing specific content (how would such a discussion even work?). Horse Eye's Back (talk) 17:29, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can we keep philosophical conversations about the purpose of COI/N to the talk pages? Thank you so much.

And @GreenC - if you want to discuss content, may I advise the article talk pages? And if you'd like evidence- smatprt has self-disclosed their real life name and identity on enWikipedia in the past. They have a conflict of interest. They clearly don't want their irl identity to be tied to their username onWiki, so out of respect for a fellow human being, I'm not linking it. But they have a very obvious financial incentive to edit certain pages in a positive light, and the way they are hiding that, refusing to disclose in the modern day, and not use things such as edit requests, is alarming and dragging this out a lot longer than it needs to. Other editor's insistence of trying to relive old CTOPs and turn this into a deletion discussion are also not helping. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 21:04, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What is before us doesn't appear banal, not very significant, and easily fixed without major surgery. It appears to be the most pressing case facing us at the moment unless you know of others and are keeping them secret for some reason. There is no higher priority on the table. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 17:33, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

UPE and COI Promo, whatever the scale, is contrary to two of the fundamental principles of Wikipedia, WP:5P1: Wikipedia is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a social network, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, nor a web directory. It is not a dictionary, a newspaper, nor a collection of source documents although some fellow Wikimedia projects are. And, it is often the case that COI/UPE goes against WP:5P2; which can be observed with some regularity at NPP or AfC: We strive for articles with an impartial tone that document and explain major points of view, giving due weight for their prominence. We avoid advocacy, and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them. In some areas there may be just one well-recognized point of view; in others we describe multiple points of view, presenting each accurately and in context rather than as "the truth" or "the best view". All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy with citations based on reliable sources, especially when the topic is controversial or is about a living person. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong on Wikipedia. Netherzone (talk) 19:42, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that the entry created by or behalf of the company and most of its edits, including war editing, are by or behalf of the company. 2A0D:6FC7:43C:A1B2:A78:5634:1232:5476 (talk) 17:44, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Would you like to report an editor you believe is engaging in COI editing? If so, please mention their username; otherwise, I consider this report incomplete. Indeed, the article has experienced significant WP:DE and I've noticed some IPs repeatedly trying to whitewash some information. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 18:13, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've notified Stephen Gauci (talk · contribs), who appears to have a COI with the topic per his editing, Talk:Challenge_Group#COI_tag_(May_2024), and Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Help desk/Archives/2023 November 20#13:46, 20 November 2023 review of submission by Stephen Gauci

I'd assume that there will be no response. The article needs a rewrite as an encyclopedia, rather than the pr piece/report that we currently have. --Hipal (talk) 18:58, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. There is currently a lot of unsourced or non-independently sourced material, added by a likely COI user and of a promotional nature. A great deal of it can probably simply be removed. Axad12 (talk) 19:36, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Barbers Hill Independent School District (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• David Bloom -- BHISD (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

He is possibly the Director of Communications at BHISD, he has been deleting controversies about the school

Please see this edits he has made:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barbers_Hill_Independent_School_District&diff=prev&oldid=1253371179

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barbers_Hill_High_School&diff=prev&oldid=1253361157

He has been warned for violating the neutrality policy multiple times additionally. نوح   17:09, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

From the user's talk page it looks as though they are keen to do things by the books and abide by the relevant policy and process. Let's see how things develop from here. Regards, Axad12 (talk) 17:58, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am communication director for district. The entry on dress code for district and high school should be updated with relevant court rulings in the district's favor. First time on Wiki and not trying to create controversy ... Here are the main news items to update entry, in my opinion:

On Aug. 6, 2024, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed most of the claims in a federal civil rights lawsuit. The ruling was a second legal victory in the case for the Barbers Hill school district and its policy restricting hair length for male students.

On February 22, 2024, a Texas state district judge in February ruled that the school district’s male hair-length policy does not violate the Texas CROWN Act, which forbids, which prohibits race-based hair discrimination at work, school and in housing facilities in the state. Thus, the district is NOT violating the CROWN Act. 72.22.198.35 (talk) 18:30, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You may add relevant info with citations, but don't remove controversies and please don't use promotional language and maintain neutrality. It seems that you do have good faith, these links may help you:

Wiki:Conflict of Interest

Wikipedia:Neutrality

In best regards, نوح   18:47, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello David, I've left some further notes at your talk page relating to how to formally disclose your conflict of interest and how to create 'conflict of interest edit requests' at the relevant article talk pages. This will allow non-conflicted editors to look into this matter for you and take action as they deem appropriate. Hopefully my notes at your talk page are of assistance but if you need any further help do feel free to contact me. Kind regards, Axad12 (talk) 04:56, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but User:Snowleopardman/sandbox seems suspect given the subject's nickname and the user's name. SilverTiger12 (talk) 23:02, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@SilverTiger12: It is too soon to raise this here. At the top of this page, the instructions say: "This page should only be used when ordinary talk page discussion has been attempted and failed to resolve the issue, such as when an editor has repeatedly added problematic material over an extended period." This editor has two total edits, and no discussion about their problematic sandbox content was ever started, beyond the automated speedy deletion notices. I left a {{uw-coi}} notice for them, and that might be enough to get them to stop posting self-promotional content. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 22:58, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Robert Gober (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Rgstudio (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

User Rgstudio has made a wide range of edits to the Robert Gober article, beginning in 2008. It appears that the account may be the subject of the article or a representative of Gober. I left a message on the user's talk page notifying them of COI guidelines, but they made several rounds of additional unsourced edits after I flagged the COI rules. 19h00s (talk) 15:12, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@19h00s, I agree with you that the likelihood of a COI is about 99.9%. Gober is a great artist, however his studio assistant or intern should not be directly editing the article if they work for Gober. @Rgstudio, I can help update the article (within reason) if you make edit requests on the article talk page. This is in keeping with Wikipedia's guidelines for COI editors. See WP:COI and for the Edit Request Wizard see: WP:Edit request wizard for more information. If you are paid or receiving in-kind compensation (for example for an academic or job-training internship), you must disclose this information on your user page, otherwise you would be an undisclosed paid editor which is not permitted, for information on how to disclose see: Paid editor disclosure. Netherzone (talk) 15:26, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Now they're copy-pasting text from books on Gober into the article (with references to Amazon links), even after your ping. @Rgstudio, please acknowledge that you've seen the multiple points of contact about your edits on Robert Gober. 19h00s (talk) 16:51, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've reverted to the last good version prior to today's edits by the apparent COI user. Hopefully that will at least lead them to try a different approach. Axad12 (talk) 17:13, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies, but I was not seeing your edits. I do work with the artist and was correcting mistakes that others have put on his Wikipedia page. I was also adding information that was missing regarding his exhibitions and curated shows including links to the websites. I will undo my edits and read to better understand what I am allowed to change. I don't want incorrect and incomplete information out there, so I hope there is a way I can make edits. Rgstudio (talk) 17:30, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I misunderstood the COI information that says "However, our policy on matters relating to living people allows very obvious errors to be fixed quickly, including by the subject." I thought that meant that I as Robert Gober's longtime archivist could log on and change errors, I didn't understand that I need to contact the Edit request wizard to make changes. I will do that now. Sorry that I was not receiving notifications of your messages to me. I only saw them now when I searched for them trying to figure out why my edits were being removed. Rgstudio (talk) 17:34, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No worries at all, thank you for reverting the edits and engaging with us on this! Totally understand what you're aiming to do in terms of removing incorrect/outdated info and adding additional details about notable exhibitions and events Gober has participated in. As Netherzone explained above, there are multiple ways to go about adding or changing content on pages with which you have a COI - one of the easiest ways is to communicate with artist-interested editors like Netherzone (who offered above to assist on this), who can help you add well-sourced information that you otherwise would be warned against adding because of the Conflict of Interest. You're also welcome to use the edit request wizard to request changes. But I totally understand that you didn't see the notifications, and you definitely weren't trying to change anything controversial, so I think you're all good to move forward requesting changes via the official channels. Thanks for looping back around on this! 19h00s (talk) 17:38, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rgstudio, if you submit an edit request and I don't see it for a while, ping me on my user talk page which is located here: User talk:Netherzone, or by clicking on the word, "talk" after my name. Netherzone (talk) 18:21, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Adaptive system (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Dankonikolic (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

There has been a number of edits on the subject of "practopoiesis" and "ideasthesia", which are terms coined by Danko Nikolić, and which (as far as I can tell) aren't widely used. "See also" sections all over the wiki have been sprinkled with links to "practopoiesis", which redirects to a section of the Adaptive system article. Same with "ideasthesia". Here they link to the websites of two of his businesses. The account was warned as early as 2014 about their self-promotion. Also I'm not entirely sure what constitutes sockpuppetry or evidence thereof, but this seems like it might be a fairly clear-cut case? Silenuss (talk) 11:09, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, the main account has only made 1 edit since 2018 (and that was in 2022), and then there are the 2 IP address edits from earlier this year. It seems highly plausible that the IP edits may relate to the same end user, but I wouldn't consider it to be sockpuppetry to make 2 logged out edits such a long time after the main account was last used.

However, that still leaves the issue of self-promotion and whether there is any tidy up that needs to be done. I see you have removed the recent IP additions, is there anything else to be done in that regard?

Interestingly, the previous occasion when this user was brought to this noticeboard was here [29] back in 2015. Back then the user seems to have been able to summon the support of three quite blatant meatpuppets, but that is all ancient history now. Axad12 (talk) 11:57, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm thinking about removing all the "practopoiesis" links from the "See also" sections. There's no point linking to a section that doesn't exist anymore. I'll also get rid of the redirect. It's a little less clear what else I could/should do here, so I'd appreciate advice on how this sort of thing is usually handled. Silenuss (talk) 06:08, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sadly, it’s quite common for academics to be involved in citing their own works in a promotional way. The relevant policies (WP:SELFCITE and WP:CITESPAM) are rather brief and they don’t specify what action is to be taken. Some users take the approach that the individual edits should be taken on their merits, others take the view that they should all be removed. All agree that such edits should have been done via the COI edit request process. In practical terms the action to be taken will depend on how much tidy up users are prepared to undertake.

The degree of the self-promotion in this case is quite extreme. It goes well beyond self-citing and the user had previously been warned about using Wikipedia for self-promotion. Indeed they received a 24 hour block [30].

Comments by the user leave no room for doubt that they have been involved in a promotional campaign, for example:

you are right that there is my own interest involved: to promote ideasthesia. This is not deniable [31]

and Yes, I understand that this link promotes my work. But also isn't that in some way the goal of Wikipedia?

Of course, the goal of Wikipedia is very much not to promote academics or their work, as per WP:PROMO, so feel free to remove, revert, etc. to your heart’s content.

On the broader topic of people who self-cite, it's probably a good rule of thumb that if no one apart from the author could be bothered to install a reference then no one apart from the author is going to be troubled by its removal. After all, non-COI inclusion only requires the existence of one non-conflicted human being somewhere in the world who feels that the material warrants inclusion. That is a very low bar indeed. Axad12 (talk) 08:07, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also worth noting that the user's article on Practopoiesis was deleted after discussion at AfD here [32] for obvious reasons. Other users may wish to consider whether the article on Scaled Correlation, by the same author (and sourced almost solely to one of his own works) warrants a similar response. Axad12 (talk) 08:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Artists Repertory Theatre (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

This article is essentially being controlled by the organization. There are numerous WP:SPA single purpose accounts being used, but it's quite obvious that the organization itself is literally curating the article. Needs to be pared down, possibly re-done from scratch so that it's not written around the way the organization wants to present it. Graywalls (talk) 05:05, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Graywalls, I think you should mention some active editors who you believe have a COI with this article. I’ve checked the history and most of the accounts accused of COI are stale. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 07:24, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There aren't any active ones. Read through the edit history. They use a fresh burner account with each series of edits. Look in the talk page tag. I think those only represents some of them. It's obvious, because they make no other edits. Graywalls (talk) 07:40, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Graywalls, I believe the article should be semi-protected for at least a year. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 07:47, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Saqib:, also see TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley). I see it. Do you see the pattern too in the edit history? PR editing is glaringly obvious. Graywalls (talk) 08:50, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It looks to me as though there is potentially a great deal of WP:COPYVIO in the Artists Repertory Theatre article from material on their own website (specifically the 'Organisation History' section, here [33]). That ought to allow a large amount of material to be stripped out immediately. Axad12 (talk) 16:08, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Further examination indicates that a large proportion of the text has been lifted directly from the sources indicated in the text. Typically a sentence ends with a reference from where that sentence has been lifted. I'm happy to go through the whole article later today, compare it to the sources and strip out all the copyvio, but isn't there an easier way to do this (e.g. with Earwig?). Axad12 (talk) 16:43, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've now removed all WP:COPYVIO material from the article, but I am having trouble applying the copyvio template to request revdel. Could somebody more familiar with that template/process do the honours? Axad12 (talk) 18:58, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Revdel now requested at WP:CP. Axad12 (talk) 02:48, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Axad12, Thank you for your efforts on this. Why don't you install this script? — Saqib (talk I contribs) 08:58, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Simple answer: because I'm borderline computer illiterate and I don't understand it. To be honest, I find that looking into COI issues quite effectively only really requires time, persistence and Google (and I can get by without scripts - whatever they are).

There are some things that I find impossible to do here, like setting up SPIs, but usually if I ask nicely someone else will do that if they are convinced by the evidence I've located.

Apologies if that all sounds a bit Luddite. Everything I've learned here was picked up by looking into how someone else had done the same thing and then copying it (that was how I did the WP:CP referral a few hours ago). I get by okay with that, but if I have any strengths (opinions seem to differ on that point) they lie elsewhere. Axad12 (talk) 09:56, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Don't rely just on Google. Do a "second opinion" with DuckDuckGo, Bing and others as you often uncover additional information not found in Google. Graywalls (talk) 17:33, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please see:

• Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#GLAAD & anti-LGBT groups – a discussion about whether we can use certain material about public figures/third-parties, or if the organization's website falls under WP:BLPSPS.
• Wikipedia talk:Verifiability#SPS definition – a discussion about whether an organization's website is really self-published (i.e., written by 'the org' and posted online by 'the org') or if it might be traditionally published (e.g., if it is written by one staff member and posted online by a different staff member).

These discussions could have wide-ranging implications not just for non-profit advocacy groups, but also for political and corporate websites. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:09, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

None of these discussions has any implications for the use of sources: corporate websites are bad sources, just not for the confused reasons you propose. 100.36.106.199 (talk) 08:56, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, corporate websites are excellent sources for some statements because Wikipedia:Primary does not mean bad. If you need to include a statement along the lines of "The company said _____", then the corporate website is a good option for supporting that. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:30, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But, it should be used sparingly. Article should not be a place to voice what the company said. A company announcing it has reached net zero carbon footprint status citing the company, or Churnalism source is undue. Graywalls (talk) 19:38, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In principle, articles should be mostly WP:Based upon sources that are independent, and sources that are secondary (and ideally sources that unite both qualities and are also high-quality in other respects). That would still leave room for an occasional brief mention of things that seem relevant. For example, if the company is known for an eco-friendly marketing strategy, then adding a sentence saying that "they reported Net-zero emissions in 2022" might not be unreasonable. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:06, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If it's not discussed by secondary source that is NOT churnalism, I strongly disagree. The article isn't a place to parrot self aggrandizing contents issued by the company PR. As an acceptable use of primary source, if a reliable source announces company intends to close sometime in 2022, then there's a statement on the company's official page that they closed in January 2023, we can use it to cite the closure. For anything that's remotely boastful to the slightest degree, no way. Graywalls (talk) 20:17, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm never sure whether you actually mean secondary source when you say things like that. IMO if you have a notable business and you have an independent source saying something like:

• "The company's detailed plans for environmental stewardship are extensive. The company is embarking on a project that will save the whales, restore the wetlands, and reduce their carbon emissions. All of this ethos is reflected in their plastic-free packaging. Their environmental credibility is the most important factor in their company's marketing strategy. A public commitment to environmentalism has been good for profitability, but an oft-overlooked advantage is reduced risk of liability for ground contamination..."

and a few years later, the company issues a press release (or posts on their website) that they reduced their carbon emissions down to zero, then I've got no problem with the article mentioning their claim. The sources directed our attention to their environmentalism; the net-zero thing is merely an example of what the sources focused on. Simple examples are a good use of WP:PRIMARY sources. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:31, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I’d say that company websites are an acceptable source for certain basic info such as company location, names of CEO, CFO, etc. and maybe some basic historical details such as date founded.

Beyond that, no, because there is little meaningful difference between (a) how a company presents itself on its own website, and (b) a press release.

I don’t see any merit in the idea that if a company slightly rewords a press release and places it on its own website then somehow it becomes an independent WP:RS compliant source.

Also, the idea that content may become so because it was drafted by one member of staff and placed online by another is fanciful. In many companies the individuals who decide on website content are the same as those who draft press releases. Even if that were not the case, both individuals would have an identical paid conflict of interest. Axad12 (talk) 04:34, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

the idea that if a company slightly rewords a press release and places it on its own website then somehow it becomes an independent WP:RS compliant source. Zero people in any of the discussions taking place have suggested this. (That's why I object to the misleading framing by WAID in their first post in this thread.) 100.36.106.199 (talk) 21:07, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Quite so, I agree with you 100%. Axad12 (talk) 21:13, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Axad, putting their content on their website wouldn't make it independent. Nobody has suggested that. The question is whether it would make it stop being self-published.

There are three qualities that need to be kept completely separated here:

• Is the source independent?
• Is the source primary?
• Is the source self-published?

A press release saying that Bob's Business sold a million widgets last year is non-independent, primary, and self-published.

The same statement, made by the same people, but posted to their website, is IMO still non-independent, primary, and self-published. But a few editors at WT:V are arguing that the content of the website is non-self-published, at least for larger organizations, because probably 2+ different humans were involved in writing and posting it. According to these editors, putting that information on the corporate website makes it non-independent, primary, and non-self-published. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:21, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In that case I agree with you too.

I stand by my earlier comments that (a) the input of more than one individual with the same paid (or unpaid) conflict of interest does not resolve concerns about whether a source is self-published, and (b) it does not seem reasonable to assume the involvement of more than 1 individual.

Others may have a different view but I very much doubt if it would carry much weight at, say, COI edit requests (especially not the COI edit requests that I respond to, where any such argument would be firmly rejected). Axad12 (talk) 05:19, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think that this: the input of more than one individual with the same paid (or unpaid) conflict of interest does not resolve concerns about whether a source is self-published is a nice way of putting it. For example, Girl Genius is a webcomic written, illustrated, and published by a husband and wife. It's two humans, and they have also hired various colorists to help out (and a few of their things have been published in the traditional fashion), but the mere fact that there is more than one human involved doesn't mean that they aren't doing it themselves. WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:31, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Comstock's magazine (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

After proposing the article for deletion, user Eric Schucht contested the deletion; in his message, he affirmed himself to be a paid freelancer for the publication in question, which he did not disclose on his user page (despite listing other publications he has worked or freelanced for); additionally, he made unsubstantiated claims about the personal identity of a fellow Wikipedia editor, which violates Wikipedia's harassment policy. Specific to the Conflict of Interest policy, user Eric Schucht did not disclose his COI when he proposed the article for creation and otherwise did not disclose his COI on Wikipedia until the article was proposed for deletion. There is no contest here — Eric Schucht affirmed he is a paid freelancer for the company whose article is in question. He has an obvious Conflict of Interest. TheMediaHistorian (talk) 20:58, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TheMediaHistorian, OK, look! They’ve disclosed their COI. Now it’s your turn to share yours too, don’t you think? @Eric Schucht: You wrote, Maybe a connected contributor tag should be added to the talk page disclosing that. Why say “maybe” when you’ve got 99% of the article and you’ve already admitted your COI? It’s not a maybe; it definitely should be and you’ve done it yourself before, not me. Also, I can spot some unreliable citations and the content definitely has a promotional tone, as well. Anyway, could you explain why you never disclosed your COI for this particular article? Also, please avoid disclosing the real-life identities of other editors, as it’s considered outing - and you just did that. I’m hoping it was just a mistake. And what exactly led you to call this editor a former disgruntled Comstock's employee, especially since they’ve been on Wikipedia since 2020 and have never touched this page before. We really need to hear your reasoning on that. I’ve added some tags, so I hope you won’t just remove them! — Saqib (talk I contribs) 12:00, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I apologize for the concerns I've raised. A COI tag should have been added. I made the article before I started freelancing for the magazine, and never thought to add it until the issue was raised. I now see that was wrong. As for "unreliable citations and the content definitely has a promotional tone," obviously I want the article to meet Wikipedia standards and to be as good as it can be. Which sources or sentences are you concerned with? I'm happy to delete copy or do a re-write. <redacted> Eric Schucht (talk) 13:09, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Again, you are potentially revealing the identity of a Wikipedia editor, in violation of Wikipedia's policies. You were warned once before about this, and now you will be reported. TheMediaHistorian (talk) 15:32, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TheMediaHistorian, Your real-life identity - if it was true - has been redacted, so there's no need to worry. I'm still waiting to hear back from you. You can choose not to respond, but that will count against you. — Saqib (talk I contribs) 18:46, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is nothing to confirm or deny. The user in question originally posted information that included the full name of a purported Wikipedia editor, in violation of Wikipedia's anti-doxing policy. That information can't be confirmed or denied, per Wikipedia's own guidance against publishing comments and/or information that could lead people to uncover the identity of an editor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/key/Wikipedia:Harassment

"If you have accidentally posted anything that might lead to you being outed (including but not limited to inadvertently editing while logged out, which reveals your IP address, and thus, your approximate location), it is important that you act promptly to have the edit(s) oversighted."

and

"If you see an editor post personal information about another person, do not confirm or deny the accuracy of the information. Doing so would give the person posting the information, and anyone else who saw the page, feedback on the accuracy of the material."

What you are asking someone to do here is explicitly discouraged by Wikpedia. Accordingly, there is nothing to "count against," because what you're asking me and others to do is the precise opposite of what Wikipedia itself says we should do.

Last, no one has raised a COI issue involving me. An editor's appeal to hypocrisy in response to a COI issue against them does not rise to the level of a formal COI complaint. Thus, there is nothing for you to investigate on that matter. TheMediaHistorian (talk) 07:28, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Moreover, by posting that they believe the identity to be a "former disgruntled Comstock's employee" is still identifying, given that the Comstock's page in question — which the editor has since affirmed their COI — identifies, or once identified, that very person. So, User: Eric Schucht is still in violation of Wikipedia's harassment policy. TheMediaHistorian (talk) 07:29, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Peerspace (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Alto (rideshare) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Tock (company) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• PazSeguro (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

New/newish account. Another editor already warned them about COI and they denied it. Everything about their edit pattern screams PR editing. I'm not convinced. New account. Made 2-3 small edits, and right into creating three new articles on companies within a month of editing all showing signs of flowery language. Graywalls (talk) 17:56, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]