User talk:Cryptohydrate

January 2023
Hello Cryptohydrate. The nature of your edits gives the impression you have an undisclosed financial stake in promoting a topic, but you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. Paid advocacy is a category of conflict of interest (COI) editing that involves being compensated by a person, group, company or organization to use Wikipedia to promote their interests. Undisclosed paid advocacy is prohibited by our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, and is an especially serious type of COI; the Wikimedia Foundation regards it as a "black hat" practice akin to black-hat search-engine optimization.

Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question if an article exists. If the article does not exist, paid advocates are extremely strongly discouraged from attempting to write an article at all. At best, any proposed article creation should be submitted through the articles for creation process, rather than directly.

Regardless, if you are receiving or expect to receive compensation for your edits, broadly construed, you are  required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use to disclose your employer, client and affiliation. You can post such a mandatory disclosure to your user page at User:Cryptohydrate. The template Paid can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form:. If I am mistaken – you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits – please state that in response to this message. Otherwise, please provide the required disclosure. In either case, do not edit further until you answer this message. David Gerard (talk) 23:15, 22 January 2023 (UTC)


 * I am not being paid for these edits in any way. I will await your assessment of the content prior to making any additional changes or comments. Thank you. Cryptohydrate (talk) 23:17, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi @David Gerard
 * I just reviewed the policy, and want to confirm I am not being directly or indirectly compensated for the edits. I have written a few medium articles about the topic, but I am not part of the Medium partner program. This is hobby work. I wasn't thorough enough in my review of Wikipedia policy prior to my first few edits, which were since removed. I do not plan to re-add those sections to avoid any gray area & controversial topics.
 * I appreciate your standards and desire to maintain a neutral and compliant atmosphere.
 * Awaiting your review and decision,
 * Drew Cryptohydrate (talk) 23:31, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi @David Gerard
 * Checking in - do you want me to hold off on ALL edits on Wikipedia or just for this particular page? Awaiting your guidance and reply
 * Drew Cryptohydrate (talk) 15:13, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
 * You probably are too involved to be editing on this particular page because of the COI, but there shouldn't be a problem elsewhere - David Gerard (talk) 17:45, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you David. I added enough info for now, hope it gets spared from deletion. Just discovered the potential for newspaper references which I think will fulfill the needs for a mainstream media interview.
 * I’ll have fun digging into the archives for other photographers for now. Appreciate your help. Cryptohydrate (talk) 17:50, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi @David Gerard @Psiĥedelisto
 * I think it might be most ethical for me to contribute to a non photography related topic until I can learn the ropes of Wikipedia editing better. This would also serve to balance out my contributions in light of the COI concerns raised by David.
 * I've made a few edits to the town of Elgin's page, and proposed the edition of a new page for White Pond, SC there, using adminhelp tag. Open to any feedback there.
 * Talk:Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina Cryptohydrate (talk) 20:25, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

profile pic
hi @Achim55 @Blastcat @Blastcat-iNat

Added a new profile photo that is not a selfie, is this compliant? Cryptohydrate (talk) 15:05, 24 January 2023 (UTC)


 * Yes, I feel that is better. Thank you! Blastcat-iNat (talk) 23:13, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Recent edits - open to feedback
Hi @David Gerard @Psiĥedelisto

I've recently made light edits to a few pages including:

Yorklyn, Delaware

Auburn Valley State Park

Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina

Jack Markell

Ira Block

I'm getting some good tips from other editors, and as I learn I'll revisit these small town pages to further refine my edits to comply with Wikipedia standards and contribute to the public good.

Thanks for your help last week. I won't continue to nag you, but feel free to chime in on my edits in your spare time if you see fit. Open to feedback as always.

Drew Cryptohydrate (talk) 14:13, 28 January 2023 (UTC)


 * Hello. In general it is bad form to continuously ping an administrator when administrator tools are not called for and you are not questioning some action an admin did with the tools. I'd encourage you to stop that. As regards your edits, they look fine to me, and I'm glad you're editing in other topic areas. WP:PR exists, you may consider it; so does WP:THQ; and furthermore WP:VP for general discussion. I don't care if you keep pinging me every time you change something (my signature after all does demand pings in order for me to notice anything as I don't keep track of my H:W hardly at all) as I'm not important and not an admin, but administrators generally shouldn't be pinged for no reason so they can deal with issues above my pay grade. Best, Psiĥedelisto (talk • contribs) please always ping! 02:57, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
 * (To be totally clear, the pay grade thing was some dark humor. There's a reason I'm not part of the WP:Welcoming Committee nor do I WP:MENTOR, I'm just a lot better at making content than helping others learn how. Good luck editing.) Psiĥedelisto (talk • contribs) please always ping! 03:01, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Good morning,
 * Gracious for the engagement. Thank you for taking the time. I'll read up on those links as to avoid my every learning moment happening in these exchanges. Cheers, I appreciate you.
 * Drew Cryptohydrate (talk) 14:21, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Twitter DMs
hello, I'm just letting you know that I have sent a lot of Twitter DMs today and so although it is not something that most users will ever experience I have actually run out of the ability to send them until it rolls over which I think happens 24 hours after I hit the limit hahaha. And no, I don't spam people, I just have long conversations on there and that is how I have hit the limit in the past. Either that or Elon Musk broke the website it's 50/50. If you want to continue the discussion you can use the email feature on Wikipedia to send me some other way or you can just go to my user page because my email is very public knowledge. All the best either way :-) Psiĥedelisto (talk • contribs) please always ping! 04:09, 18 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Greetings. I appreciated that time quite a bit. Love convos I can go back and reread and learn from continually. Talk soon, cheers. Cryptohydrate (talk) 12:54, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

Request for Article Review
Hello! I have recently edited the Wikipedia page for Provoke Magazine. Seeing as you are interested in photography, I was wondering if you would take a moment to provide some feedback for the article? Thanks. Andrew34jack (talk) 16:01, 6 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Hi Andrew34jack (talk),
 * I am a novice editor on Wikipedia and I am not qualified to provide feedback about the article.
 * My first suggestion: Go to the talk page of your article and submit an entry with   and a polite request for another editor to review the content. This randomizes the process and is likely the most expedient way to go about it.
 * Two other editors have been helpful to me prior: Tagging Psiĥedelisto (talk • contribs) since he has an interest in some Japanese things, and WomenArtistUpdates (talk) was also helpful with an article related to photography.
 * WP:PR exists, you may consider it; so does WP:THQ; and furthermore WP:VP
 * Drew Cryptohydrate (talk) 16:15, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the suggestions. I will look into them. Andrew34jack (talk) 23:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Blockchain & Cryptocurrency banner on my talk page
After reviewing Wikipedia's standards and interacting with several administrators and editors, I do not believe I am qualified to discuss Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies on this website until I have spent a while learning the ropes of editing, and can ensure any topic I am involved in is truly without COI.

That being said, should this banner still appear on my page?

  Cryptohydrate (talk) 15:27, 3 May 2023 (UTC)