User:Icerat/disclosure

Let me first say I have an overall positive view of the network marketing concept. That does not mean I believe every company that uses (or claims to use) network marketing/MLM is legitimate, nor that every product they market is legitimate. Indeed to the contrary - I suspect a majority of companies that claim to be legitimate MLM companies are in fact not, and are poorly disguised scams with bogus products. Even within the legitimate MLM companies, some products are worthless or not worth the price charged. This is no different to any other industry.

More than a decade ago I actively and successfully built a network marketing business. I am no longer actively building such a business, however the fact I once did and maintain a blog reporting both positive and critical things about the company regularly leads a small number of editors, with their own very clearly anti-mlm POV, to try and get me banned from editing any articles related to the industry.

Frankly that's ridiculous (not to mention contrary to WP:COI), but just to ensure I'm covered, here's pretty much all the potential COIs I can think of ... I'm still registered with Amway and get discounts and volume rebates on the products they offer. I also have a membership card with Hemköp and get points and rebates on the products they offer. I also part-own a company that promotes health & wellness. If people think they need to be healthier, I'll conceivably make more money, so I apparently have a COI on any issues related to health & wellness. I'm also currently involved in developing a franchising system for pre-schools and launching an associated company. I suppose if people feel pre-schools are positive, I'll potentially make more money there, so that's also a COI. I run googleads on several websites. Another COI! Anything to do with google, internet advertising, or click-through stuff - off the list. There go any articles to do with education. I'm an Amazon affiliate. Damn, off the list come all authors, books, and publishing companies. I'm an authorised reseller of Microsoft products, so that I can get them at a discount for my companies. But potentially that means I could maybe sell them and make money. All Microsoft products are now a COI! I'm a former elite rower and used to be a paid rowing coach. If someone reads something positive on rowing on Wikipedia, that could increase the chances of me being paid to do it again! A COI! Oh, and I'm also a trained psychologist and former research scientist. All mental illness/wellness articles off the list. As are anything to do with behavioral interventions, especially in the alcohol and other drugs arena, which was my area of speciality. Oh wait - I've been asked to get involved in a startup providing business intelligence on Scandinavian and Middle-Eastern companies. Damn, I guess all articles on Scandinavian and Middle-easter companies are off the list. Oh no! Based on my experiences dealing with POV pushers on wikipedia and elsewhere I once, with partners, considered starting an internet reputation consultancy business. That means that doing a good job on wikipedia and elsewhere means people might want to hire the company! I discarded the idea, but still, you never know. That's a clear potential COI, so I guess I can't edit a damn thing!

Good grief.

I'll just keep trying to follow the rules and improve wikipedia as best as I can, and make some mistakes and learn some stuff as I go along. Just like I hope everyone else is trying to do.