Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard/Archive 133

Stemcor


Good afternoon,

I'm trying to see if I can find someone to help with editing the Stemcor page. I have posted a couple of times on the talk page but no changes have been made so far. Please could you help me with this? As I work for the company I am aware of the conflicts of interest rules I can't edit the article myself so any help would be greatly appreciated. The articles containing the up to date information on the company are here:


 * https://www.stemcor.com/news/
 * https://www.ft.com/content/c9e18fe8-5c0e-11e8-ad91-e01af256df68
 * https://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3809334/PEOPLE-MOVES-Stemcor-appoints-Martyn-Konig-non-executive-chairman.html

Many thanks,

Annabel


 * Thanks for disclosing your conflict of interest and not editing the article directly. It is fairly unlikely that someone will spend the time updating the article given only those references. If there is relevant information in them, then you can make suggestions on the talk page of content to include based off the references i.e. "x happened" supported by "reference y". Once you add request edit to the page, a volunteer will be alerted and come and make to review whether or not the content you'd like to add is verifiable and not promotional. If they find it suitable then they will add it to the article. SmartSE (talk) 21:08, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Actually I just visited the page and talk page. I agree with Smartsee - it's not clear what you want us to do.  I suppose I can dig up a few numbers to change and replace them.  I suppose what you really want is to go through the material on the bankruptcy (US usage) and remove the outdated stuff and replace it with new or forward looking material in the articles.  That's a bit tough at times, and you wouldn't believe how many companies would like to get rid of material on their bankruptcies! So please let us know what you think are the outdated points and what you think is the material that should replace it.  Don't be surprised if our editors don't fully agree, of course.
 * A couple of small things you can help with. Reuters gives your major shareholder only as "Apollo".  Is that Apollo Global Management?  Also some wry wit wrote (approx.) that the "headquarters appears to be in Jersey", which appears to be documented on the company's webpage.  It's amazing these days how many "headquarters" a company can have, e.g. a West Virginia Pharma can have its main factories in WV, its operational HQ in Pennsylvania, registered in Delaware, and its tax home in Luxembourg. (thanx to CorpM for the example) Could you let us know which HQ the company actually uses and point us to a reasonable reference? Smallbones( smalltalk ) 21:39, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

User:都是迷情




Also created a number of pages (Snow Ma, Alen Xu, David Xing, Henry Pang) deleted at AFD or G11 citing promotional/resume concerns. I've blocked this user indefinitely. MER-C 12:41, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
 * RJ Neuwirth prodded. Anyone who can evaluate Chinese sources? &#x222F; WBG converse 10:49, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Well I could, but I cannot seem to find them at Rostam J. Neuwirth. Alex Shih (talk) 16:54, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * - :) Obviously not at Rostam but at the other articles. &#x222F; WBG converse 04:21, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Editing about subjects censored by a repressive regime while under control of said regime
To avoid possible WP:OUTing and since I'm not even sure COI is the appropriate venue, I would appreciate if someone versed in COI policy would address this as a hypothetical COI policy question. Suppose one lives in country A. The regime in country A, per multiple RSes, represses any speech favorable (or even neutral) to an opposition group. The country also closely monitors electronic communication and the internet. Furthermore, expressing such favorable/neutral speech towards the opposition group may lead to incarceration and torture, and in some cases death. Does an editor in such a situation have a COI in relation to edits on the opposition group's article in Wikipedia?Icewhiz (talk) 07:38, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * With just those facts, it is not possible to answer.  But the person is probably at least very passionate about the opposition group if they are willing to take all that risk, and it is likely that they would have a difficult time editing neutrally about it. Jytdog (talk) 18:49, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't assume that the editor's problems are solved by the pseudonymity provided by Wikipedia. Things that might give him/her away would be an accidental slipping into IP editing, choice of topics (e.g. writing an article on a small village or a bio of a local politician), quality of English writing. I'd think a better 1st approach would be working as a source for an international journalist.  Maybe posting video on another platform with a CC-0 or other CC license. I'd guess that half of the folks who would want to use some sort of COI/NPOV exemption would really turn me off, and half I might find to be "real heros" . And of course, I'd likely be wrong at least half the time.  So there is nothing easy in answering this question, but I'd guess most editors would favor not making any exemptions. Smallbones( smalltalk ) 22:54, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't get the main point. Is it that the editor is bound to use his edits against the opposition group? Or in favor of it? Does the editor have an actual COI with the opposition group beyond this inherent influence of the political situation in his country? I think that treating this scenario as a COI is bound to create more problems than it solves. Should we chase Chinese editors that edit China-related topics? And Iranian? Turkish? Israeli? Venezuelan? Ukranian? Spanish? --MarioGom (talk) 05:54, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * In the hypothetical question the editor in question is taking a position in-line with the regime of country A - a position he would not be sanctioned for in country A. As for the pseudo-anonymous nature of Wikipedia..... Not in all countries. The question in mind, in terms of COI (which is why I am asking!), is whether the user has a COI in relation to possible sanctions from the regime of country A - the topic in question being one for which showing support will definitely lead to severe sanctions if known to authorities of A. As MarioGom points out there is indeed a slippery slope that is possible here, which is why I want to keep this as a hypothetical - though I would think the most extreme example (this one is a tad less severe) would be a North Korean user, from within North Korea (not many of them, if at all, the country has an extremely limited internet presence - nearly all or all regime controlled), editing about Kim Jong-un, dissidents to the regime, or topics such as Hamhung concentration camp.Icewhiz (talk) 07:58, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

ROTH Capital Partners

 * articles


 * editors
 * one person




 * another person
 * See also Sockpuppet investigations/MiamiDolphins3/Archive
 * See also Sockpuppet investigations/MiamiDolphins3/Archive

I would like to draw attention to the fact that User:Cypresscross is using a new protection on the ROTH Capital Partners article as a means to turn it into an attack page without being reined in by consensus or even scrutiny by other editors. It is evident from his edit history that is acting on behalf of specific companies/agendas (see extensive, promotional/disparaging edits on: Emmanuel Lemelson, Lemelson Capital Management, Dan David (money manager), The China Hustle and ROTH Capital Partners, among others, all of whom are involved in a web of ties and rivalries) and should not be editing these topics, if at all.

This issue has been brought up in the past in a sockpuppet investigation.

At the very least, the article/s should be reviewed by other unbiased editors and some semblance of NPOV should be restored, and Cypresscross be prevented from editing on topics for which he has a COI.76.76.46.49 (talk) 08:11, 31 July 2018 (UTC)


 * The article is not an "attack page," all of the edits are from reliable sources, including Barron's, WSJ, Reuters, LA Times, etc., all support the content which is written to follow WP guidelines including NPOV.  The edits have already been reviewed and expanded on by other established editors.  Explanations have been provided on the Talk Page.  These edits are not "on behalf" of any company or agenda as suggested above.


 * A series of disruptive edits were made by IPs in a short period of time. The accounts were tagged with disruptive edit notices, and edits were made to the talk page, encouraging consensus - all invitations were ignored and the disruptive edits and vandalism continued (always from diff. IPs).  A request for SPI (here) and increased protection on the page (here) was then requested (and granted). Cypresscross (talk) 15:08, 31 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Cypresscross’s COI is clear in the behavioral evidence brought forth in the investigation last year and has only become more apparent since. The ROTH Capital Partners page was expanded from a short stub to a fully-fledged attack page in a matter of days by Cypresscross alone. He has also continued to push promotional edits on the Emmanuel Lemelson page (a public supporter of ROTH’s whistleblower Dan David), and has clashed with editors there repeatedly (see Talk:Emmanuel Lemelson).


 * Contrary to the above claim, no other editors have been active on the ROTH page whatsoever, and the content has certainly not been reviewed by other established editors.


 * The IP accounts mentioned were tagged by Cypresscross himself, not an arbitrator, and he too initiated the SPI which was dismissed immediately. There was no vandalism, and the “edit warring” and copyright issues were both committed by Cypresscross himself, which can be seen in the edit history as well as his Talk page in a comment from an editor called .154.85.111.76 (talk) 18:33, 31 July 2018 (UTC)


 * IP would you please a) clarify if you are one person using all these IP addresses (or if you working with other people who are using them); and b) explain your relationship with Roth? This question is about you; please don't discuss other editors in your reply. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 18:40, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi. A) I confirm that this thread and a number of recent edits on the ROTH Capital Partners page were made by me. B) I do not work at ROTH, but do have a COI and was hoping to strengthen the article in light of recent page activity. After being rebuffed multiple times, I raised my concerns on several forums. Now that they are being addressed, I have no intention of working on the page again. Thanks for your time and interest.76.76.41.219 (talk) 21:44, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the straightforward answer on A). I am looking for clarity on B. Would you please explain the connection with Roth? (Are you a contractor paid by them, a family member of the owner, etc. The  nature of the connection is relevant and if you are being paid you must disclose that.  Thx)  Also, are you the same person (or working  for the same outfit) as ?  Jytdog (talk) 21:52, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, I am a contractor paid by ROTH. I don't use accounts and am not affiliated with User:Muffin7Maniac. I realize this will color the way you approach this issue, but I hope that you and the other editors here will still work for the restoration of neutrality on the Roth article.76.76.38.108 (talk) 22:37, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for answering forthrightly again. COI can only be managed if it is disclosed, and I appreciate you stating this. Better late than never.  Would you please disclose if you are a freelancer, or working for an agency? If the latter, you must disclose it.
 * Just to go over the ground rules -- because you are not using a named account, please disclose every time you post that you are being paid by Roth (and if it is agency that too; if a freelancer, just say that). Also paid editors should not edit articles directly, but should post suggestions on the talk page. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 01:16, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I am a freelancer. I very much appreciate this discussion and your willingness to hear me out. I made a number of edits on the page itself, and asked for help on the Talk page as well. In the future, I will disclose my position in the edit summary(?) of each post.52.129.123.116 (talk) 05:50, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for replying. I am very uncomfortable with you editing for pay from an IP.  The way Wikipedia works is that while editors are free to not provide their real world identities and privacy is protected via the OUTING policy, we look for people who want to stick around to create accounts, so that there can be a community -- so that people can become familiar with each other can still be accountable to one another, as individuals.  (What the community provides and values is really pseudonymity, not anonymity). This is why we have the SOCK policy - individuals are individuals. Individuals cannot get to know you if you are IP-hopping, and we cannot hold you accountable for what you do over time.  There are paid editors here whom I trust, for example.  Nobody here will ever be able to trust you, should you turn out to be trustworthy, if you are IP-hopping.  So I encourage you to create an account.
 * That said, since you have no stable identity here, yes, please disclose in the edit note that you are editing for pay, and who your client is. Additionally, as I noted above we ask paid editors not to edit directly, but instead to put edits through prior review, with disclosure, as follows:
 * a) if you want to create an article relevant to a COI you have, create the article as a draft through the WP:AFC process, disclose your COI on the Talk page with the Template:Connected contributor (paid) tag, and then submit the draft article for review (the AfC process sets up a nice big button for you to click when it is ready) so it can be reviewed before it publishes; and
 * b) And if you want to change content in any existing article on a topic where you have a COI, we ask you to
 * (i) disclose at the Talk page of the article with the Template:Connected contributor (paid) tag, putting it at the bottom of the beige box at the top of the page; and
 * (ii) propose content on the Talk page for others to review and implement before it goes live, instead of doing it directly yourself. Just open a new section on the talk page, put the proposed content there formatted just as you would if you were adding it directly to the article, and just below the header (at the top of the editing window) place the  tag to flag it for other editors to review.
 * OK? Jytdog (talk) 13:56, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that perspective. The climate for paid editing is quite poor, as you know, and I've always preferred that each edit/statement be judged on its own merit. The accountability/community aspect has always been an issue with that approach, perhaps I do lose more than I gain. I will follow the guidelines you laid out above, though I don't create new pages anyway. Do you have any pages edited by paid editors that you trust/paid accounts for me to look at as examples? Thanks. I hope we meet again on other projects.76.76.32.59 (talk) 05:27, 2 August 2018 (UTC)


 * User:Cypresscross, I reviewed your talk page and contribs and I don't see where you have been asked and have answered. Would you please disclose any relationships you have in the real world with subjects about which you  have edited? This question is about you; please don't discuss other editors in your reply. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 18:45, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * No relationships. I started to dig deeper into the subject after the large number of edits by different IPs and found abundant reliable resources that supported the original edits and that helped to expand the article (which had a stub tag inviting expansion of the article).  The subject has received extensive mainstream media coverage, with extremely consistent reporting on the key points in the article.  I invited feedback and suggestions on the talk page.  Working on one article has led to other related articles.  Thanks. Cypresscross (talk) 22:22, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi Cypresscross. Thanks very much for answering. You came into WP at the same time as sockfarm focused on the Lemelsons, and of your 719 edits,
 * 74	ROTH Capital Partners
 * 7	Talk:ROTH Capital Partners
 * 67	Martin Shkreli
 * 17	Talk:Martin Shkreli
 * 59	Dan David (money manager)
 * 42	Emmanuel Lemelson
 * 21	Talk:Emmanuel Lemelson
 * 26	Charles Murphy (hedge fund manager)
 * 313 edits right there. This all has a kind of strange moralistic Lemelson-like focus on religion and finance. And pretty judgemental about the "bad boys". The Roth page is pretty much only about the negative highlights.
 * I found the inclusion of your account in the MiamiDolphins3 SPI case entirely reasonble, I share the clerk's surprise that your account was technically unrelated, and I share the IP's dismay at the lack of NPOV in the Roth page.
 * Please do explain what is driving this pattern of editing. Jytdog (talk) 02:50, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Please do explain what is driving this pattern of editing. Jytdog (talk) 02:50, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Your edits really are restricted to a narrow set of topics ( Jytdog (talk) 13:39, 1 August 2018 (UTC)strike stray left in drafting remark Jytdog (talk) 13:39, 1 August 2018 (UTC))
 * Hi Jytdog In the list above I noticed that you left out Malala Yousafzai (which is one of the top articles I have worked on), and failed to mention that most of what I added to the Shkreli and Murphy pages is actually positive (even though you appear to be referring to them as "bad boys"). I also disagree that there is "strange moralistic" focus here and I'm not sure what "Lemelson-like" is - if the edits were "moralistic" than the sources they are based on were also "moralistic" and perhaps also "Lemelson-like".  I also do not agree that any of the edits have been "judgmental," or are necessarily "negative".   Everything on the Roth page is taken from reliable secondary sources, and follows WP guidlines.  I have requested and appreciated the edits to the page by other established editors. If any reliable sources can be found with new information on the company, I would be happy to see it added. Cypresscross (talk) 06:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * You'll have to expand on your "surprise," and what that's supposed to mean? I read the link you provided above, what I see is a user who requested the SPI essentially making completely unfounded suggestions, which are fully disproved by the actual investigation - i.e. MiamiDolphins3 was focused on a whole other set of topics (namely politics). I have no relationship with MiamiDolphins3 and had never heard of the account before it was brought to my attention. I also don't see the harmony in timelines you are referring to (a year apart), or how that is in anyway related to this discussion.  I disagree that the Roth edits did not have NPOV - I do however think that the page can be improved, and have invited feedback to that end, including from the IPs. Cypresscross (talk) 06:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * "Pattern of editing"? As I mentioned above, working on one page has led to another, which seems pretty normal, and has been my experience the whole time on WP. I did not plan initially on spending much time on the Roth page, my plan was to clean up clearly promotional text by what appeared to be COI editors.  This resulted in more clear COI editing and sock IPs (which have now been proven out per above), I ended up digging deeper because of the disruptive editing, a simple review of the timeline of events shows that to be the case.  Isn't just about everyone on WP typically working on a narrow set of topics that they find interesting (e.g. you state on your page that you are primarily interested in religion)?  Cypresscross (talk) 06:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * User:Cypresscross In these diffs you interpersed your comments within mine and corrected the spelling in one of my comments. Please do not interfere with other people comments - don't add yours in the midst of theirs, and don't change them.  In this diff I am moving your comments out of the midst of mine, as well as writing this reply. I am also striking a stray remark I left during drafting.
 * Thank you however for taking the time to reply.
 * That said, I do not find your responses credible and will not be responding further. I am turning instead to enforcement. Jytdog (talk) 13:39, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * If I violated some policy on "interpersed" comments (to use your word), it was done because I didn't know such a policy existed. I wrote it that way to make the responses easier to read in relation to the questions. Also, when I went back to correct my own spelling errors it looks like I accidentally corrected one small one of yours as well (editing in code, you can get lost - just as you left a "stray remark" in your edit - which I noticed but didn't think it was important enough to correct you.).  I also do not find your responses credible, and neither does (User:Smartse, per the comments below), your comments have become increasingly presumptive and a violation of WP policy on AGF. Cypresscross (talk) 14:34, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Please just don't intersperse comments or change other people's comments in the future. See WP:TPG and WP:THREAD. Thanks.Jytdog (talk) 14:37, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * It seems to me like a completely baseless accusation against User:Cypresscross. I don't see the relevance of asking them to make a disclosure here. If you hadn't asked, I was going to close the discussion. SmartSE (talk) 22:18, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. In fact I had already made a disclosure further up in my comments, but was happy to make the disclosure again per my response just above.  Again thanks  and I invite any and all feedback on the page. Cypresscross (talk) 22:28, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * User:Smartse I looked at the SPI and I have looked at Cypresscross' edits, and based on that, I asked. Have you looked at them?  Jytdog (talk) 01:12, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes I'd looked through quite a few edits and while I can't say that there are zero problems, I don't see anything to indicate that they have a COI in relation to any of the articles they've edited. Articles like  would certainly be extremely unusual for COI editors to create. SmartSE (talk) 09:56, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * The socks for Lemelson added added this
 * "In an October 26, 2015 Wall Street Journal documentary about Lemelson, he advocated a philosophy of investment based on Christian ethics, saying: 'If we take scripture as a guide, particularly Matthew 25:14-30, we hear the parable of the talents, and in that parable it’s very clear The Lord blesses exceedingly those who take the talents they're given and multiply them, and for those who would not, even what they have will be taken away, so I think it comes down to our view of how we see capital, how we see our talents, if we see them as something that is our own, the result of our own distinct sacrifices and work, we’ll have a very different approach to how we handle it then if we see it as something that we’ve been entrusted with, that we’re meant to be stewards over. God gives us talents so we can use them, and the purpose of those talents is to Glorify The Lord.”"


 * Those kinds of edits you diffed, are a near-perfect reflection of the sockfarm's perspectives, who came here to advocate for this semi-moralistic view of markets and investors -- for Lemelson and his views.
 * Cypresscross has also edited about Trump and his religious views, tied to Lemelson -- see this diff series for example. Well, see for example this and this and well this by one of the socks.
 * The DUCK is clear to see as is the external interest. There should have been an admin review of behavioral evidence before that SPI was closed. Jytdog (talk) 13:22, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks again for your input. Using loaded words like "moralistic" is itself a failure of NPOV and GFE, and many of the comments above by Jytdog are simply inaccurate.  For example many of the edits I made to the Nordlich page defended the subject and added balance, contrary to the suggestion by Jytdog above, the edits are not "a reflection of the stock farms perspective" (whatever that perspective may be). Jytdog made a similar suggestion above about Shkreli etc., but was way off mark on the nature of the edits).  Undoubtedly ten of millions of people (perhaps more?) share the same NPOV expressed by the mainstream sources I have cited in my edits.  Even though Jytdog says he has handed this over to "enforcement" he goes on to attach a label ("Duck") to it anyway that confirms his presumptive conclusion and which, in my opinion, is a further violation of WP policies.  To suggest that the edits to various parts of one of the most highly read and edited pages on WP (Trump), which includes edits on various topics and correcting details of citations, is somehow proof of some theory about COI, misses the mark. Importantly, even though many editors have now looked at the Roth page, only minor changes have been made to my edits (with about 90-95% remaining), a testimony to the fact the edits follow WP guidelines (and that the article was improved by them).  In fact the real issue here is that the WP community itself can detect and correct failures in NPOV or COI, but that has simply not been the case with my edits, with the vast majority left unchallenged. For example, it might seem like the edits to Roth are slanted to the negative, but the truth is, there are no reliable sources I could find that described the company's notability for anything other than what was added (even though I invited comments and feedback, esp. about new sources on the talk page and here as well - even the IPs could not find or suggest other reliable sources (although they did provide the LA times source) - the fact is the Roth page is now simply an accurate reflection of the company's notability, in accordance with WP guidelines. Of the ~750 edits I have made over almost 3 years, very few have ever been reverted or undone, including edits to the highly scrutinized Trump page (and the ones that were, I usually agreed with after seeing the improvement).  I also wish to state unequivocally (again) that 1) I only edit topics I am interested in 2) seek to write in an encyclopedic way and from a NPOV using only reliable secondary sources 3) do not have COI and 4) I am not and have never received pay as an editor. Cypresscross (talk) 15:06, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

TMG PR


TMG PR blocked for username violation but worth keeping an eye on the drafts in case a new account reappears. ☆ Bri (talk) 19:17, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Sockring discovered by checkuser, have added to WP:PAIDLIST. See Sockpuppet investigations/TMG PR ☆ Bri (talk) 14:46, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

The Mather Group
This freelance offers Wikipeida paid editing services. Some of his accounts are already blocked, see Sockpuppet investigations/Jgreene1333/Archive. According to his page the following articles were created by him: --MarioGom (talk) 22:27, 31 July 2018 (UTC)


 * It looks like most of the articles created by User:Jgreene1333 have already been deleted. The remaining three (Jen Sinkler, Carter Cruise, and Nigel Roberts) have been fixed by other editors. So unless there's reason to think he's resumed paid editing with new socks, I don't think there's anything to do here. –&#8239;Joe (talk) 06:56, 1 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Ok. There is also which was created by . I'm mostly sure it is a sockpuppet of  (although the account was too old for the SPI, see Sockpuppet_investigations/Frogg92477/Archive). If it were confirmed, it would be a reason for speedy deletion because it was created while evading a block. But since it isn't, I'm not sure how to proceed. --MarioGom (talk) 13:04, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Faradorian


In another SPI, checkuser stated "User:Faradorian, which seems Unrelated to the above accounts, also looks like it may be a paid editing account". I'm not going to do a deep-dive at this time, but thought maybe they would like to say something about it here. I suspect it was their editing in the removable media space that was of concern, in fact one edit described a particular company as a "leading provider". ☆ Bri (talk) 01:58, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I addressed this elsewhere. CRU is a "leading" provider, but without a citation I have removed the offending word.Faradorian (talk) 15:34, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Keeping the pressure up


Again, the net is cast somewhat wider to haul in more spam. I don't think there are as many false positives as last time. MER-C 20:11, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Yawn


As these lists are getting long, feel free to remove false positives. MER-C 15:43, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Trivenishankar


Anasuya Shankar's pen name is "Triveni", raising the question of whether the editor has a COI with respect to this article. I asked at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography whether this editor had a COI but did not get an answer.

This editor now seems to be using a new account. I don't know why. Kendall-K1 (talk) 15:10, 2 August 2018 (UTC)
 * The page User:Trivenishankar is a slightly modified version of Anasuya Shankar, in other words a WP:FAKEARTICLE. I think an admin could/should handle that. ☆ Bri (talk) 15:59, 3 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I have nominated the user page as WP:U5 and left uw-agf-sock warnings on both accounts. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 17:13, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Another round of ACPERM evaders

 * Articles for deletion/John Carlo Villaruel
 * Articles for deletion/Call of War
 * Articles for deletion/Myish Bogdasarov
 * Articles for deletion/Unit DX
 * See Articles for deletion/Morten Pilegaard
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * Articles for deletion/Myish Bogdasarov
 * Articles for deletion/Unit DX
 * See Articles for deletion/Morten Pilegaard
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Morten Pilegaard
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Morten Pilegaard
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/JomRun
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Thy Geekdom Con
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer
 * See Articles for deletion/Ancheer

I've cast the net somewhat wider this round as the previous heuristic was getting less effective, so expect a few more false positives. Still, there's plenty of spam to go around and quite a bit has been nominated for deletion. MER-C 19:19, 22 June 2018 (UTC)

Sockpuppet investigations/ErnestCarrot
And sure enough, there was another large bunch of socks. Sigh. MER-C 14:23, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
 * From User:JimmySpanner/sandbox
 * From User:EricGaffer3/sandbox and User:TimmyMallet1/sandbox
 * From User:ChrisBird1/sandbox
 * See Articles for deletion/Helping Hands Care and Nursing at Home
 * From User:FalloutChick40/sandbox
 * See Articles for deletion/Mid Shropshire Wheelers.
 * From User:ShropshirePirate/sandbox
 * See Articles for deletion/Matthew Lee Morgan.
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Barbara Devlin.
 * See also
 * From User:Lopezburrg/Saurav Kumar
 * From User:Timer77/sandbox
 * See also
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Neighbor (company).
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Matthew Lee Morgan.
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Barbara Devlin.
 * See also
 * From User:Lopezburrg/Saurav Kumar
 * From User:Timer77/sandbox
 * See also
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Neighbor (company).
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * From User:Lopezburrg/Saurav Kumar
 * From User:Timer77/sandbox
 * See also
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Neighbor (company).
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See also
 * See Articles for deletion/Neighbor (company).
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Neighbor (company).
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * From User:ILoveMyHounds/sandbox and Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * See Articles for deletion/Alvexo
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * From Special:Deletedcontributions/ILoveMyHounds
 * MER-C holy smokes, thanks for doing this research. I'm a little distracted by other projects now but if a nomination like that for PCO Imaging comes up again, would you ping me? I would have def voted "delete" on that but didn't see it in time. Obviously cutting the legs (paychecks) out from under the paid editing advocacy editors is important. ☆ Bri (talk) 16:58, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
 * And today we have a new user TheRainMandem whose first meaningful edit is to deprod Lyndaship (talk) 15:20, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Make that two, with another spam page under construction. I prefer not to follow up spam SPIs quickly for BEANS reasons, so I'll keep this in mind next time I run the detection program. I suggest taking the article to AFD. MER-C 18:31, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I've listed it at AfD. I also PRODed Boulevard (lifestyle magazine) yesterday as it has same creator and one of the socks linked to it from this one as his first edit, today I see a new IP editor has done some work on it but not as yet dePRODed Lyndaship (talk) 18:48, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Nominated a slew of stuff for g5/g11 deletion under the ToS violation procedure. ☆ Bri (talk) 23:54, 3 August 2018 (UTC)


 * From User:EdwardBranch/sandbox.
 * From User:EdwardBranch/sandbox.
 * From User:EdwardBranch/sandbox.
 * From User:EdwardBranch/sandbox.
 * From User:EdwardBranch/sandbox.

Some historical stuff. MER-C 16:26, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

From the latest SPI. MER-C 08:36, 3 July 2018 (UTC)
 * From User:MarshalSherif/sandbox
 * From User:MarshalSherif/sandbox

A week's worth of articles just clearing the ACPERM bar

 * See Articles for deletion/Brett Stalbaum
 * Prod
 * See Articles for deletion/Kona Film Corporation
 * See Articles for deletion/Winc
 * See Articles for deletion/Jeanne Munn Bracken
 * See Articles for deletion/EBricks Outlet
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Winc
 * See Articles for deletion/Jeanne Munn Bracken
 * See Articles for deletion/EBricks Outlet
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/EBricks Outlet
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/EBricks Outlet
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Claire Cliteur
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo
 * See Articles for deletion/Alex Salcedo

I think there are a few socks in this dump. Note that there is another new heuristic for catching accounts that clearly aren't the first ones operated by the relevant editors. MER-C 16:26, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

Here we go again


Might as well post these while I'm here. MER-C 14:06, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Bump to keep out of the archive for another couple of weeks. MER-C 20:09, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Editing at Steven Kunes


Steven Kunes has been the subject of edits from quite a few editors with a possible conflict of interest. For the past few days two ips (100.34.149.66, 71.224.64.55) have been editing the article, adding information that could possibly be used promote the article subject's books, while also removing information about the subject's multiple criminal convictions from the article lead. Both of the ips are geo-locatable to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the hometown of the article subject. Today It was brought to the attention of a number of editors that an individual claiming to be Kunes posted this ad on Upwork (which is now restricted) to edit his article so that his books and writing credits were added. This was done about 8 hours ago, and the text of the ad was preserved at Talk:Steven_Kunes. It reads; "I am an author,, screenwriter and playwright. I have a Wikipedia page under my name: Steven Kunes. Although I've been successful as a writer over the past 35 years, I went off the deep end and got myself arrested for cashing bad checks when I got divorced and was down and out. Because of my writing notoriety my legal troubles made all the papers and, of course, Wikipedia. There are a few editors that keep deleting my writing credits and they only leave up references to articles about my arrest. It's very unfair and very embarrassing. Life is a mixed bag of good and bad, and I want my writing credits to appear on my Wikipedia along with my legal troubles. Over the last few days I edited my page and added my writing credits -- and the editors keep taking them down. Finally, an editor blocked my page from being edited for an entire year, unless it's by an authorized Wikipedia editor. I want YOU to look at the last dozen or so entries on my Wikipedia page and restore my scriptwriting credits as well as the two books I recently published. So you really don't have to create anything, per se, just look over the deletions and restore them. It is absolutely NOT FAIR that the editors keep altering my page to feature only negative content. If you're a seasoned Wikipedia editor, you know they do this and you'll be able to quickly see what I'm talking about. My only other option is to contact the legal department at Wikimedia, I suppose. Thank you!!!"

It is interesting to note that User:George David NH (talk) arrived at the article today after the ad was placed and more or less repeated  the parts of the edits the ips made earlier. This is suspect, to be sure, especially given that George David NH rarely edits outside of the draftspace. They also repeated a tentative legal threat (to involve Wikimedia legal) that Kunes possibly made in the Upwork ad (an ip made it here as well ) at User_talk:SarekOfVulcan. Requesting that some of the veterans here keep an eye on the article (and Talk:Steven Kunes), and to directly I would like to ask; Do you edit in any way that may clash with WP:COI and WP:PAID?--SamHolt6 (talk) 20:07, 3 August 2018 (UTC)


 * There's also some definite signs of WP:OWNERSHIP behaviour on the part of the subject and his representatives. As a general statement to whomever of them see this, no single editor has any right of ownership or editorial control over an article. If you are the subject of an article, then it's not your article - it's an article about you (note the distinction).
 * Consensus is Wikipedia's fundamental model for editorial decision-making. We strive for accuracy and balance in articles, particularly biographies of living persons, and there are proper ways to deal with problems in an article about you. But you will discover that charging in with guns blazing, accusing others of editing in bad faith, and threatening legal action will quickly backfire. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 21:46, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I do not know Steven Kunes, nor do I work for him. I was contacted by him regarding the issue with his page and I took a look at it for him. I received no money nor do I intend to. I saw that his article was full of negative information about him so I edited the intro to remove the second sentence which states: He has been convicted of felony commercial burglary and grand theft by false pretenses. I did not think that was a fair way to begin his article, so I replaced that with mention that he had been an executive story editor for South Park, Cheers, and Family Ties. My edits were promptly removed by SarekOfVulcan under the idea that I was whitewashing Kunes' article. Stephen Kunes' page is very damaging, so I contacted SarekOfVulcan and I did tell him that I would contact Wikipedia legal because I don't know what the correct course of action is other than to ask someone with authority to help stop the slandering. George David NH (talk) 23:11, 3 August 2018 (UTC) I do not wish to take legal action against anyone. George David NH (talk) 23:16, 3 August 2018 (UTC)
 * If you don't know Kunes, why would he contact you?--Bbb23 (talk) 23:57, 3 August 2018 (UTC)
 * You might wish to revise your above statement after looking up the word 'slander' in a dictionary,, and reading this article from the Santa Barbara Independent, already cited in the Kunes biography. It would be as well to also provide a source for the statement that Kunes "had been an executive story editor for South Park, Cheers, and Family Ties", since you failed to cite one. 86.147.197.31 (talk) 23:33, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I just think that Kunes' article is negative and not one that's useful to anyone. And it's certainly detrimental to him. Wouldn't it be better if the article was focused on his writing achievements and included some basic information regarding his legal issues further down the page? George David NH (talk) 23:46, 3 August 2018 (UTC)


 * It would be better if you didn't falsely accuse other Wikipedia contributors of 'slander'. It would be better if you told us where you got the information that Kunes worked on "South Park, Cheers, and Family Ties" from. As for the prominence given to Kunes legal issues, I'd have to say that given the lack of verifiable sourcing regarding his writing career, it is hard to see how his numerous encounters with the legal system could fail to be prominent. To my mind the real issue is whether there is enough verifiable material to establish Kunes' notability as a writer in the first place. 86.147.197.31 (talk) 23:55, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Because I do not know much about Kunes' crimes and have not been part of the ongoing development of his Wikipedia page, I refrain from further involvement. Lesson learned. George David NH (talk) 00:10, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking part in the discussion. Your contributions raise a related question: are you a paid editor, and if so where have you disclosed that in order to comply with WP:PAID? -- Euryalus (talk) 01:37, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * He said this above, for what it's worth: ... and I took a look at it for him. I received no money nor do I intend to. There are a few loose ends in the statement, though., if you don't know him, why'd he contact you in particular?  Anarchyte ( work  &#124;  talk )  05:36, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw that. It's more a general question. -- Euryalus (talk) 06:35, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

User:Johnsaavn




Admitted covert advertiser IRL, but denies doing so on Wikipedia. Blocked a few days ago, but forgot to list here. MER-C 18:03, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

Also significant editing on: Lyndaship (talk) 19:10, 31 July 2018 (UTC) Sandbox above is bio under development for David Carey, connected to Hearst and a "customer experience management solutions company". ☆ Bri (talk) 15:41, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * You moved Federica Marchionni to draft space, which I think was a good idea. What about the other biographies here? ☆ Bri (talk) 03:11, 5 August 2018 (UTC)
 * more native advertising I see. The article subjects *may* be notable, but none obviously so (with the exception of Sarah Morrow), and thus I have no qualms about moving them to the draftspace for quarantine. As usual, I will note on my move description that a neutral editor can easily begin AfC proceedings if they are so inclined.--SamHolt6 (talk) 03:32, 5 August 2018 (UTC)
 * done.--SamHolt6 (talk) 03:32, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Ankitkmwt

 * also recreated under and
 * also recreated under and
 * also recreated under and
 * also recreated under and

As explained by previously and warned by  multiple times to manage conflict of interest on his talk page, Ankitkmwt constantly violating WP:COIEDIT and clearly not here to build an encyclopedia but to promote their films, directors and actors so I believe it's time to issue a block. Thank you. GSS (talk |c|em ) 06:11, 29 July 2018 (UTC)


 * I suspect the user removed PROD from Chicken biryani 2‎ and Chicken Biryani (film) using an IP address which is a violation of WP:SOCK so can someone please take care of this user. Thank you. GSS (talk |c|em ) 05:35, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Bitcoin - part 5(?)


Audacity has been editing Bitcoin, where he has an obvious COI. I strongly suspect that he is also an undisclosed paid editor. Bitcoin is operating under General sanctions/Blockchain and cryptocurrencies including 1RR. A typical edit of Audacity on Bitcoin is to remove any edits I make that are placed near the top of the article and to move them (bury them) lower in the article, e.g.  the following 2 reversions in 34 minutes  

Audacity claims that the 1st diff is not a revert because he only moved my text, rather than deleted it. This contradicts WP:Edit warring which defines a revert as “An edit or a series of consecutive edits that undoes other editors' actions—whether in whole or in part—counts as a revert.”

I’ve asked Audacity 3 times to declare his obvious COI and he just stonewalls, 1st saying only “ I don't edit to promote my own financial interests “ rather than addressing the situation he’s found or put himself in (as COIs are defined). His only other response was a veiled link to WP:HOUND (part of WP:Harassment).

Audacity has been an administrator since May 2007. He does have a odd history however, with his edits dropping by 90% in September 2007 and then dropping further until there were almost none (with some exceptions) until April 2018 when he started becoming very active again. As far as I know, being an admin does not grant him any exceptions to the rules, but we all know that there are some protections that admins have, mostly justified, against folks who have an axe to grind because of their exercise of admin powers. If anybody has suggestions on how to deal with an admin in this case, please let us all know. To Audacity - do you claim any special exceptions or the use of any special procedures because of your admin status?

I am demanding that
 * 1) read WP:COI and WP:Paid-contribution disclosure
 * 2) give a straight answer on this page about his COI - that is about the situation he is in, not about his intentions, and about his paid editing status
 * 3) link to his user page showing the required declarations near the top of the page.

Folks probably want to know “where is the evidence?” Since Audacity has linked to WP:Harassment, and since there is some personal info in the evidence, I want to be especially careful here about following all the rules regarding WP:Outing. There it says I may e-mail a minimum number of admins to provide the evidence. Is 3 or 4 OK? I’ll send a fairly short e-mail to any admin who asks via e-mail, as long as they commonly edit this page and the number doesn’t get too large.

Smallbones( smalltalk ) 01:39, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I'd email an arbitrator. MER-C 07:04, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I'll wait awhile for Audacity's response here.  In the meantime any arb can request that I send them an email. Smallbones( smalltalk ) 11:19, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * In similar circumstances, I've used the email list mentioned at WP:FUNC but without further response. A trusted admin has been more fruitful, for me. ☆ Bri (talk) 16:05, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, your e-mail has been forwarded to the main arbcom-l mailing list. Alex Shih (talk) 04:21, 29 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Just to be clear, I'd still like Audacity to make a full COI and Paid-editing disclosure rather than wait for ArbCom action. This is based on WP:ADMINACCT "Administrators are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Wikipedia-related conduct and administrator actions and to justify them when needed."  "Promptly" is the key word here, and I believe that COI and PAID editing declarations would likely resolve the entire issue without any delay.  Smallbones( smalltalk ) 15:47, 29 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Travelling, just saw this. Can somebody send me a copy of "the evidence"? Cheers,  Λυδ α  cιτγ  13:33, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
 * It's a shame you have forced me to go to an Arb to get a straight answer about your COI and paid-editing status. I have no idea how long ArbCom will take to decide this matter, except to say that they often are fairly slow.  The best way, and the fastest, would be for you simply to make a COI disclosure about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and to make the required paid editing disclosure (for all your paid editing).  Repeating myself from above (bolding added) from WP:ADMINACCT "Administrators are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Wikipedia-related conduct ... and to justify them when needed." The paid editing disclosure is required by the Terms of Use and WP:PAID.  Paid editors are prohibited from editing without this disclosure. ArbCom will almost certainly ask for these disclosures before doing anything else on the case.
 * - you may send a copy of my email to Audacity, except, in no case should you reveal my email address to him. Smallbones( smalltalk ) 14:41, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Is there evidence of COI here? Smallbones did a similar COI against and myself here: Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard/Archive_131 Looping  as he is often on these crypto articles as well. Thanks! Jtbobwaysf (talk) 15:05, 5 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, based on private material. MER-C 16:26, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

User:Jithinrajtk




Confirmed covert advertiser based on freelance job postings. Indeffed. MER-C 12:45, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Yup! I have already dispatched several into AFDs:-) Looking into others.... &#x222F; WBG converse 13:06, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Pump and dump
A couple of days ago The Wall Street Journal had an article Some Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions (paywall) (see Yahoo at Crypto 'Pump and Dumps' Distort Trading)

Pump-and-dump is a type of securities fraud. Only the "pump" part could be done on Wikipedia - editing to puff up demand for a cryptocurrency in this case, but that would still be fraud IMHO.

See Deceptive advertising for a basic introduction. SEC rules require our usual paid disclosures, prominently placed (i.e. in the article itself), plus a disclosure of the amount of money paid and in what form. Initial coin offerings are considered securities in most, but not all cases. So please keep an eye out for pumping. Smallbones( smalltalk ) 15:46, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

User likely paid by PR firms previously blocked for sockpuppetry


The user is involved in disclosed paid editing. However, disclosures are not compliant with the paid editing policy, since only the articles being edited are disclosed. Both clients and payers remain unknown. This is particularly troubling in this case, since two of the paid articles are likely linked to blocked sockpuppets, making this a form of paid proxying.

MarioGom (talk) 21:48, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Brilliant Earth is a Go Fish Digital customer, which is a marketing firm involved in undisclosed paid editing and already had some of its sockpuppets blocked for it, see Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer.
 * Rumble.com was initially created by, see Sockpuppet investigations/F1F2F2.


 * Note that is in a similar situation, also with a Go Fish Digital client, although in that case the problem is just incomplete disclosure, not proxying since Go Fish Digital sockpuppets were not (known to be) blocked back then. --MarioGom (talk) 21:52, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Davykamanzi is a freelancer working through Upwork, so the crossovers are likely to be cases where they have been hired by the same client rather than proxying for a blocked editor. I've had a look at their disclosures, and it seems that they have been declaring their clients on each article they have worked on, so they appear to be compliant. - Bilby (talk) 22:12, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * My bad. I did not notice Davykamanzi disclosures on talk pages. --MarioGom (talk) 22:18, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Interpublic

 * (formerly Berwitz)
 * (formerly Berwitz)
 * (formerly Berwitz)

Interpublic has been a problem before (it is a PR company and has ... an 'interesting' history). Now we have an editor insisting on inclusion of stuff against reversion by multiple editors including me. It's disruptive for sure but maybe has a COI dimension. ☆ Bri (talk) 17:17, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * OK let's start with a few things: 1) Interpublic is not a PR company. 2) The inclusion of "stuff" is literally adding an IPG agency onto the list of IPG agencies. 3)There is no intention of being disruptive: Initiative is a key agency that is part of IPG (this is documented ad nauseam) and I am simply including it. 4) I would
 * understand a "Conflict of Interest" if there was a promotional element, but this is literally just a point-of-fact name of the company. Whoever is eliminating my edits should explain why they are doing so, since there is no clear reason for it.Berwitz (talk) 22:26, 7 August 2018 (UTC)Berwitz


 * @Drm310 Have mercy on me I have no idea how to do all you said. How can I have a direct conversation with you? There has to be a way to get to the bottom of all this.Berwitz (talk) 22:26, 7 August 2018 (UTC)Berwitz


 * has disclosed here that they are an employee of Interpublic.
 * Unless I am very wrong, my unsophisticated searching shows that you are in a PR/communications role with the company. Notwithstanding whether you are paid specifically to edit Wikipedia as part of your job duties, you are employed by them and you are representing their interests. I will let my fellow editors weigh in on if this crosses the threshold of paid editing, but regardless you are solidly in conflict of interest (COI) territory. COI editing is not prohibited... undisclosed paid editing is.
 * At the bare minimum, you should disclose your connection to this company on your userpage. Our standard advice is that you should not attempt to directly edit the pages at all. You should instead suggest edits on the article talk pages, using the request edit to attract the attention of other uninvolved editors.
 * Please stop adding the company "Initiative" to the list on Interpublic Group of Companies. You are reverting the work of other editors and are about to break the three revert rule. This states that an editor must not perform more than three reverts on a single page within a 24-hour period. Undoing another editor's work—whether in whole or in part, whether involving the same or different material each time—counts as a revert.
 * The reason your work is being undone is because have added a non-notable company (as Wikipedia defines notability) to a list that normally includes only notable entries. In general, a person, organization or product added to a list should have a pre-existing article before being added to most lists. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 22:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I will also add that no single editor has any right of ownership or editorial control over an article's contents. Consensus is Wikipedia's fundamental model for editorial decision-making. When disputes arise, take it to the article talk page and if that fails to resolve the issue, follow the proper dispute resolution processes. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 22:36, 7 August 2018 (UTC)


 * @Drm310 Taken in order. I am in PR/Comms at the company. Having created a login YESTERDAY I wasn't aware of all the rules - so please stop framing this as me somehow refusing to disclose anything. I started a page on Initiative - a 40+ year-old agency within the IPG network with over 3,000 employees and a number of top brands as clients - under the assumption that given all that it warranted a) its own page and b) at least being listed as an IPG agency in a list of IPG agencies. It's astounding to me that someone - anyone - took time to delete that. WHY? It's factually correct and not insignificant either. Consistently removing it suggests otherwise...which would be very misleading (not to mention a bit odd). To that I ask: Please stop removing it. It belongs there. Period. I don't understand why you or anyone else seems to feel so strongly that it doesn't but nothing you wrote above comes close to explaining it.
 * Regarding the actual page, I was not aware that I could not put up a page as someone who works at the company, given that I was providing objective information that can be fully referenced. A COI suggests that suggests I benefit from a Wikipedia page...I do not. It's simply to provide information. For one thing, Wikipedia's strength is that it is not promotional in any way...so I am lost on where my conflict of interest is. If I was trying to promote or sell something, this would make more sense to me.
 * Further, my understanding is that I was submitting the page for review - not for publication just yet. The return message signified that it might take up to 7 weeks for this to be approved. I assumed there may be something I didn't know off the bat and would need to edit, but I figured that was part of the process. What I didn't know was that editors would be taking pot shots at me at in a public forum. Please rethink that process - it seems incredibly wrong. Thanks.Berwitz (talk) 22:44, 7 August 2018 (UTC)berwitz

the geek group


User 173.13.12.242 is violating COI... a check of ARIN shows the IP Address is assigned to the organization the article is about. Zlassiter (talk) 04:37, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

User Nicpal775 made edits as the request of the director of the organization... https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Geek_Group&type=revision&diff=532495293&oldid=532492836 Zlassiter (talk) 04:44, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Jewish Broadcasting Service


This user appears to be a SPA with the sole purpose of editing this article. Judging by the name there is a clear COI. I left a message on their talk page last year which went unanswered. I missed at the time of that warning that they received one 7 years ago as well. They continue to edit the page without declaring their conflict. These edits include removing the advertisement tag from the article without explanation. -  Galatz גאליץ שיחה Talk  16:51, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 7 years of not answering any warning on the user talk page and now edit warring by removing maintenance tags without explanation is enough. I would say block would be justified. --MarioGom (talk) 18:24, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
 * And the last action was done after I told them that WP:Communication is required. Seems to me they have no intention or willingness to do so. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 19:18, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

disclosed COI
Hello. On the talkpage of the article, and their userpage; the editor has declared their COI to ScaleFactor. Before realising their disclosure, I put the COI tag on the article. I havent removed it for now. Would somebody please take a look at the article and take appropriate action? Thanks a lot, — usernamekiran (talk)  22:06, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * the COI tag should probably stay, as the entirely of the article's content (with the exception of small changes by other editors) has been produced by a disclosed COI editor. Another editor could clean the article of any content they feel infringes upon WP:COI and then remove the tag, as maintenance templates are not intended to be left up indefinitely. I would do it myself, but my looking into the article in preparation to clean it instead convinced me to nominate it for deletion at Articles for deletion/ScaleFactor.--SamHolt6 (talk) 23:44, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * thanks. Jimfbleak closed the AfD speedily. — usernamekiran (talk)  23:58, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

User:Kawika



 * cryptocurrency transactions platform

Confirmed covert advertising. Indeffed. MER-C 20:00, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Head impact telemetry system


This is a real mess, needs some cleanup. In its current state, article looks like an ad for an American company called Simbex but there was also some good research introduced at the same time as all this, so a simple rollback isn't the best solution. ☆ Bri (talk) 15:09, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I realized that File:Head_Impact_Telemetry_System.jpg adorning the article was probably from the manufacturer -- a high resolution image not apparently available on the public Internet uploaded by User:Downfromthedoor, the same user who the the expansion in the diff above. Lower-resolution versions of the image appear in press pieces from the 2000s probably derived from company-supplied materials, e.g. ☆ Bri (talk) 02:03, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for finding this. Horrible. A huge COPYVIO was introduced by Downfromthedoor which I have asked to have revdelled; when that is done I will merge and redirect to Football helmet or something. Jytdog (talk) 03:25, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

The comments above are nonsensical. The original version of the page was factually incorrect and incomplete. All of the content that has been recently added is 1) descriptive and factually correct, 2) a distillation of peer reviewed research that was achieved through federal funding, and 3) in no way promotes or markets a product. The image was uploaded with careful consideration of wikipedia copyright rules. I uploaded it and have copyright.  This image, since it's creation in 2003 has been freely provided to multiple sources, inclusive of: media, journal publications, book chapters, and been publicly available on multiple websites.  As an aside, I also find your critiques (e.g. "real mess", "horrible", "looks like an ad for Simbex") of this attempt to provide relevant and accurate information insulting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Downfromthedoor (talk • contribs) 04:10, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * User:Downfromthedoor. Thanks for posting here. Please state your relationship with any of the players here (Simbex, Riddell, Virginia Tech, Dartmouth, etc).  Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 04:14, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * User:Jytdog No problem.  I'm a co-developer of the technology, have closely collaborated in the basic research of head injury in sports / military with the institutions you mentioned, am a co-author for many of the publications referenced, and have been involved in nearly all aspects of the history described. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Downfromthedoor (talk • contribs) 05:00, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your answer. OK, so you definitely have a conflict of interest here.  Let's move this over to your talk page - there is a bunch of orientation to walk through about a) how we manage conflict of interest in Wikipedia; b) how we write about health in Wikipedia.  It will take some time; I hope you will be patient. In the meantime; please have a read of WP:EXPERT. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 07:00, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

María Asunción Aramburuzabala


New editor repeatedly adds uncited promotional content to the article. From the latest editing, phrases include "considered one of the most influential women in Mexico", "most prestigious", "high sense of social responsibility", "highest professional and ethical standards", etc. I have left a "Managing a conflict of interest" COI templated message two days ago, to no avail. Edwardx (talk) 08:53, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Confirmed covert advertiser. Indeffed. MER-C 10:57, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

Societat Civil Catalana


User Gargaroi keeps pushing his POV over tags of Jordi Borràs saying he is pro-independence, hides the fact of Somatemps association being far-right and removes any mention to spanish nationalism. Diff:. He removes other contents like in this diff:. In general, any text (and its source) exposing negative points about the matter of the article is removed by this user or plainly ignored. He might have a conflict of interest (WP:COI). This user only edits the page Societat Civil Catalana, see his contribution history, so he might be a WP:SPA. I have used the talkpage of Gargaroi but he does not respond. He only has contributed in the talk page of the article once, just to deny the far-right position of Somatemps, denying what the sources say about that organisation. The last diff of him has a paragraph stating that "Former members from Somatemps, a unionist platform recurrently described as from far-right by pro-independence media outlets", implying that Somatemps is not far-right and it is only a tag used by Catalan independentists to deligitimate the association. However, in article Somatemps (article to which I contributed and has been reviewed by others too) provides these sources saying it is a far-right organisation (Spanish sources). The article has quoted the corresponding paragraphs:            Societat Civil Catalana has been edited by many sockpuppets, see and. These sockpuppets have also vandalised Somatemps. I am reporting Marlorsen too. He was blocked for 48 hours after showing the same behaviour as Gargaroi and the sockpuppets. has stated he belongs to Societat Civil Catalana, the article in question. Filiprino (talk) 18:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
 * User has again done a revert and  too. I have reported  in the edit warring notice board too: .Filiprino (talk) 12:17, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
 * User today has removed content from article Miriam Tey de Salvador and replaced links to the english Wikipedia in other paragraphs with links to Spanish Wikipedia and added as source a link to the webpage of that organisation, diff: . I consider that he tried to do spam. Moreover, he has continued to try to push his WP:POV in Societat Civil Catalana. The page is now protected and without his edits, however, I think he has violated WP:NOFORUM in the talk page (Talk:Societat Civil Catalana), diffs:, , , . This user seems to be doing great efforts to push WP:POV regarding Societat Civil Catalana and its members. He himself said he belongs to that organisation, as per this diff: , I quote: "(As representant of SCC the entry was changed according to the orignial entry in Spanish. Both entries have now a similar structure and the weight is put on the objectives of the organisation and less on controversial points that are not demostrated. This controversal points are still on the entry but in a much reduced form because there are still controversal and are not proofed.)". I think he accidentally revealed his IP. In the talk page of Societat Civil Catalana we can see this diff , IP [] starts editing the section "Mayor Edits" and then  continues within 4 minutes. It is an static IP from Switzerland, not from Spain at all. VPN? Block evasion? Sockpuppet? If someone is watching this page (the Noticeboard), could please take a look? Other editors have also pointed out in their respective revert summaries of Societat Civil Catalana things like WP:SPA, WP:COI and WP:NPOV. Filiprino (talk) 12:59, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm now looking into it, both in English and Spanish Wikipedias. Although it looks like an admin might be required too. --MarioGom (talk) 14:41, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

--Manlorsen (talk) 16:55, 11 August 2018 (UTC) @Filiprino you refer to the articles Miriam Tey de Salvador and Societat Civil Catalana. On the talk page of the article Miriam Tey de Salvador you can find an explanation of the changes totally compliant to the policy of wikipedia. There are some Spanish links to wikipedia because for the same entry there was no English version.

From which IP address I write and in which country I live is totally irrelevent to this matter. There is no conflict of interest WP:COI because I am not working for SCC. However I wonder if Filiprino has a WP:COI as Filiprino has so onesided oppinions and is so ardently argying against SCC without presenting facts but just oppinions of third people.

I would like that we focus on the articles and not on things outside the article like IP, WP:COI, etc which is merely used to discredit the editor. I presented a list of changes in the talk of the Societat Civil Catalana and I would like that this will be considered for further discussions. --Manlorsen (talk) 16:55, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Removing contents from an article (Miriam Tey) or blanking whole sections (Societat Civil Catalana) is not a way to contribute to Wikipedia. Filiprino (talk) 18:24, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I proposed a couple of changes in the article [] because the points are either non relevant or not well sourced. I think in wikipedia there is a policy of not writing facts that are not well contrasted Neutral_point_of_view. I am following this policy and in this sense it is better to delete information that is not well sourced.--Manlorsen (talk) 07:57, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

--Manlorsen (talk) 07:50, 12 August 2018 (UTC) I would like to point out here that Filiprino has had a lot of conflicts in his past publications. Interesting it is to see in his history and many editor wars that he represents a political position close to the catalan separatism what in my oppinion precludes him for an objective analysis about topics related to Catalonya. I would like to kindly ask to take into consideration the points indicated here Neutral_point_of_view--Manlorsen (talk) 07:50, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Albright Stonebridge Group


On 25 July 2016 at 18:17, a corporate account of Albright Stonebridge Group,, was blocked. Same day at 20:21 was registered and continued editing the article. Since then, all his edits are on Albright Stonebridge Group or people connected to the organization. --MarioGom (talk) 17:42, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

This seems to be going on with related articles, the relation of them is the CEO:

As well as with the following user: --MarioGom (talk) 22:35, 7 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Globetrotter17 also edited Victoria Nuland, CEO of Center for a New American Security, an organization Madeleine Albright is director emeritus . These are also subject to COI and UPE:
 * (obvious COI)
 * (PR firm)
 * --MarioGom (talk) 17:08, 12 August 2018 (UTC)
 * (PR firm)
 * --MarioGom (talk) 17:08, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Go Fish Digital and Attentiv
As part of the Go Fish Digital SPI I found out that and  are sockpuppets of a Go Fish Digital employee. These were used to create and edit Attentiv, a project by Go Fish Digital founders. I sent initial proof about this to functionaries-en@, although this was not used in the SPI (yet?). If that evidence is not enough, please, notify me. I compiled additional evidence since I sent my notes to functionaries-en@. I'm not posting such evidence here since it involves the real name of the owner of the account. The only part of the evidence that does not involve real names is that, another GFD sockpuppet, was used to de-PROD the article. --MarioGom (talk) 18:10, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
 * One sockpuppet speaks to another: I'm throwing up now. ☆ Bri (talk) 16:07, 3 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I did not receive any confirmation of receipt or any comment on wiki. I'm not sure what to do now. Is the functionaries mailing list the right place to send this or should I send it somewhere else? --MarioGom (talk) 14:21, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Recommend you send to, the community rep on WMF Board. He has commented at User talk:Jimbo Wales, so I know he's following the matter. ☆ Bri (talk) 02:22, 5 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Meh. It is beating a dead horse. --MarioGom (talk) 20:28, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

User:LewishamLabour
Username may imply shared use. Only article edited so far is Damien Egan, a Labour politician for Lewisham. Username plus editing behaviour strongly suggests an undeclared conflict of interest.  Tera TIX  13:22, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Having reviewed their edits and username, blocked for promotional editing and username violation. Yunshui 雲 水 15:23, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

New America and related entities
I have reviewed New America (organization) and related articles and there seems to be persistent COI activity. I am splitting it per-user since it does not seem to be just one person, but multiple COI/UPE accounts that could belong to different people. I suggest to look at histories of these articles, since there are other users that look like sockpuppets. I didn't include them here at the moment since evidence is pretty weak.


 * Clarahogan (obvious COI)


 * Saschameinrath (obvious COI)
 * (New America / Open Technology Institute)
 * (Meinrath's fiancée)
 * (co-founded by Taylor)
 * (Open Technology Institute)
 * (Meinrath's organization)
 * (Meinrath's organization)


 * TylerRoss94 (obvious COI )

--MarioGom (talk) 17:22, 12 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Dc510 (suspicous SPA)
 * (New America child organization)
 * (New America / Open Technology Institute)
 * (Meinrath's publication)
 * (researcher at New America / Open Technology Institute, Meinrath's coauthor)
 * (diff, promoting Meinrath's work)
 * (diff, promoting Meinrath's work)
 * (FCC, weak connection to New America )
 * (coauthor of Ben Scott (policy advisor) and other New America fellows)
 * (diff, award to Ross)
 * (Open Technology Institute)
 * (diff, award to Ross)
 * (Open Technology Institute)


 * (direct COI )
 * Sascha Meinrath is related to this organization too. This article was created by another editor with COI (Josherman9) and later edited by Dc510. --MarioGom (talk) 17:56, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * (direct COI )
 * Sascha Meinrath is related to this organization too. This article was created by another editor with COI (Josherman9) and later edited by Dc510. --MarioGom (talk) 17:56, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Created by Josherman9, who has COI here too. --MarioGom (talk) 18:02, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Created by Josherman9, who has COI here too. --MarioGom (talk) 18:02, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I've tagged a few of them for merge/deletes. Joseph<b style="color:#00FF00">2302</b> (talk) 18:14, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Three Six Zero

 * Articles


 * COI accounts


 * UPE sockpuppets
 * (blocked: Sockpuppet investigations/Pleaschamp/Archive)
 * (see Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer/Archive, GFD)
 * (blocked: Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer/Archive, GFD)
 * (blocked: Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer/Archive, GFD)
 * (blocked: Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer/Archive, GFD)
 * (blocked: Sockpuppet investigations/BurritoSlayer/Archive, GFD)

Three Six Zero has been editing its own article, the article about its CEO (Mark Gillespie) and its artists. This editing has been done from users that look corporate and from sockpuppets by Go Fish Digital and possibly other PR firms (at different periods). These sockpuppets also edited Roc Nation artists (likely because Three Six Zero has some partnership with them? see ).

I don't think there's too much to do here right now, other than possibly blocking the users that are still standing. But I would suggest others to start watching these articles, since COI and UPE is likely to continue. --MarioGom (talk) 22:46, 8 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Recent related block: . This seems an ongoing UPE operation on a fairly large scale. --MarioGom (talk) 22:57, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

User:VeryFineChemicals
Account solely dedicated to Together for Sustainability and related articles. Username plus editing behaviour strongly suggests an undeclared conflict of interest. (Has now declared on userpage  Tera TIX  13:24, 13 August 2018 (UTC))  Tera  TIX  13:16, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

I created this account because I think that TfS, with its connection to the sustainability efforts of so many big companies, is worthy of one. Yes, I'm affiliated to it in a professional way. and I didn't know the rules about it :/ I'll try to make a more neutral article, and invite all of you to help me point out the most problematic sections.  VFC TIX 


 * Could you please describe the exact nature of your affiliation? Are you employed by the organization, or do you belong to one of their member organizations, or is it something else? Thank you --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 16:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * In regards to the article itself, the best thing you could do from here would be to find independent, reliable sources that provide significant coverage of the topic, not just passing mentions. Post these on the talk page and use Template:Request edit to alert other editors. This would help the article meet the notability guideline for companies.  Tera TIX  23:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Potential COIs from old accounts

 * User 1:
 * User 2:
 * User 3:

I have just came across two potentially undisclosed conflicts of interest, and one apparent disclosure, from old accounts. One of them,, is still sporadically active but last edited in March 2017. The other two, (last edited in November 2011) and  (last edited in January 2013), have not edited in nearly a decade. According to the latter's last edit, which was on their user page, they claimed to be a writer for the magazine. This may have been in response to 's January 2011 COI warning, but that edit was made over a year and a half than the user's first edit in July 2012 (to the Punk Globe article).
 * Article 1:
 * Article 2:

All three accounts have edited the Punk Globe article, though and  only edited the article thrice and once respectively. , in particular, has overwhelming majority authorship at both Punk Globe and White Trash Debutantes, and created both articles in January 2008 and February 2008 respectively. More information can be seen at the XTools article information pages of Punk Globe and White Trash Debutantes. If you check the latter's user page and talk page, old 2008–09 versions (drafts? backups?) of the two articles can still be found. On a related note, it may be prudent for someone—preferably an administrator—to remove that from those pages, given their BLP concerns.

I have already added COIs to both the Punk Globe article and White Trash Debutantes article along with Connected contributors here and here respectively, noting 's apparent COI disclosure with this edit. I understand that this case may be stale, but I am bringing it here anyway in case anything should be done about it beyond what I already have. If nothing else, it may attract more attention to the articles. To avoid outing, I will refrain from linking to any off-wiki evidence for these potential conflicts of interest. I trust you all to find it on your own.

Is this a case of conflicts of interest? If so, should any further action be taken? Thank you for your time and apologies in advance if stale cases like this are inappropriate to bring here. —Nøkkenbuer (talk • contribs) 01:52, 12 August 2018 (UTC)
 * If years have gone by, you will want to look at the articles to see if they bear the mark of promotional editing. No point in bothering with years-old accounts though.96.127.243.251 (talk) 10:07, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

Al-Ahbash
Samsparky has been a disruptive WP:SPA on Al-Ahbash, disruptively editing, repeatedly placing unwarranted POV tags, failing to accept the result of his own RFC, filing a report on WP:DRN even though the RfC had resolved matters, and so forth. He has had numerous talkpage warnings about his edits:. Today he mentioned his COI:. I've placed a connected contributor template on the article's talk page, but I think he needs to be warned, handled, and observed by COIN editors. Thank you. Softlavender (talk) 04:40, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Comment: Al-Ahbash is a religious moment with millions of followers worldwide. Merely being a follower of a religion isn't problematic enough to warrant COI suspicion. If the problem is edit warring, it should be addressed as such. --Soman (talk) 06:51, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Comment:Samsparky wants to use Wikipedia to "publicize" (as per its own admission) the Al-Ahbash. Following are some more important facts about Samsparky:
 * All of Samsparky's edits are single-purpose, fixated on Al-Ahbash only
 * Samsparky edits Wikipedia using Mobile edit, Mobile web edit(s), exclusively, a well-known method used by the socks
 * Samsparky's account was reactivated after the hiatus of almost 9 or 10 years as soon as KevinAbdulqader and AbeEll got banned due to sock-puppetry. Samsparky took / picked up exactly from the very same point and using almost the same arguments, verbage, links and more where KevinAbdulqader and AbeEll banned from. Thank you. McKhan (talk) 18:26, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Question: Does Al-Ahbash really have "millions of followers worldwide", as Soman stated above? Can someone verify that with a citation/source or something? Softlavender (talk) 19:08, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Given the Al-Ahbash originated from Lebanon, naturally, they have a significant following there as per this source, dated December 2007. However, I am afraid it is very difficult to quantify the followers of Al-Ahbash world over for the mere reason that they try to hide behind the Sunni Muslims which are in billions, despite the fact they don't agree with them, so much so, that the Al-Ahbash don't even pray in the same direction of Mecca in North America and elsewhere as par to mainstream Sunni Muslims. It is important to note that the Al-Ahbash's beliefs are very much an amalgamation of Shia, Sunni and Sufi beliefs hence several Fatwa(s) (a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority.) against them by the Sunni Scholars. Obviously, the Al-Ahbash don't agree with those Fatwa(s) nor the recognized authorities (i.e. Scholars, Institutions) behind them, thus, the Al-Ahbash have set-up their own Fatwa Centers, for example Dar-ul-Fatawa in Australia. I hope it helps. Thank you. McKhan (talk) 23:32, 13 August 2018 (UTC)I


 * 'Question - On the one hand, I agree that the subject's use of DRN to try to re-litigate a Request for Comments (on the grounds that the arguments given were "strawman arguments". However, we need to ask a question, since this is the Conflict of Interest noticeboard.  Does the subject really have a conflict of interest in the usual sense (employment, paid editing, other usual COI), or are they just a fanatic?  Have they been explicitly asked about COI?  If they are just a fanatic, then the issue is not COI but disruptive editing.  Robert McClenon (talk) 23:03, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

AdamOPEX


This user's talk page and name is an advertisement. Their draft which they have submitted for AFC has promotional content. I suggest a block due to user name and page advertisement. I will address this to the Username report page as well. AmericanAir88 (talk) 16:40, 15 August 2018 (UTC)


 * The editor has voluntary disclosed on the their page. scope_creep (talk) 22:51, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Jzsj and St. Xavier's Higher Secondary School, Thoothukudi


I've opened a discussion about the COI tag at Talk:St. Xavier's Higher Secondary School, Thoothukudi. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 22:21, 11 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Discussion there is closed. John from Idegon (talk) 23:04, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Dot Com Infoway


Added Dot Com Infoway to WP:PAIDLIST based on their own adverts. An editor,, has (re)created an article on their CEO and other things listed here.

Peach & Lily makes me think that there's an apparent connection to prior discussion regarding ☆ Bri (talk) 22:41, 15 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Long history on this one:
 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam/2007 Archive Dec_1
 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam/2008 Archive Mar_1
 * Administrators'_noticeboard/Archive133
 * Turns out they're already banned. MER-C 08:09, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Sycamore Partners


This article has received significant contributions exclusively from these single-purpose accounts. Given that undisclosed paid editing is quite common in private equity firms, these are pretty strong candidates for undisclosed COI. --MarioGom (talk) 16:49, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Definitely didn't get paid to do it. Just a dude who couldn't sleep one night looking up companies based on my home state. - TK1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by ThaKrupt1 (talk • contribs) 17:19, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

COI policy question
I've got a question regarding the extent of my paid COI. Specifically, I have a COI on David M. Cote, with all the appropriate disclosures. A suggestion I received was to create a separate article on the topic of the Fix the Debt campaign (this is a draft link, as the current link is a redirect to Peter George Peterson). Coverage of the topic on Wikipedia is lacking, so I voluntarily created a draft and submitted it via AfC. The article mentions David Cote, with whom I have a COI. Knowing there are other types of COI not exclusive to paid COI, where does my scenario fit? I reviewed WP:COI and I'm still unclear on the matter. I want to err on the side of caution, how does COI apply to Wikipedia articles voluntarily created by a COI editor on which the new article mentions the paid subject in that proposed article?--FacultiesIntact (talk) 19:25, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I think your COI should be extended to anything David M. Colt would have a COI himself. At least that would be the safe side. Anyway, I'm fairly new to COI conflicts on English Wikipedia, so I'd like to get the opinion of more experienced users here. --MarioGom (talk) 16:50, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the response . Does anyone else have any insight here?--FacultiesIntact (talk) 17:03, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
 * What I have observed in similar cases is that those with a conflict of interest are encouraged to go through the Articles for creation process, which will involve someone reviewing and approving the article for movement into the mainspace before publication. On the talk page of the draft, a Connected contributor is usually added to clarify the connection. After the article is published, the conflicted editor follows the standard practice of submitting edit requests for edits that are not uncontroversial and well-sourced corrections.Thus far, it seems you have been following this procedure just fine. Given how connected Cote is to the Fix the Debt campaign (according to your own draft), it may be best to consider yourself to have a conflict of interest with the subject, as well, and thus add Connected contributor to the draft talk page. Feel free to use the following code: Someone else can add checked later, after checking your contributions. I am also new to the matter of COI, though I think it is reasonable to consider anyone whose client is Cote to have a conflict of interest with something as connected to him as this campaign. Personally, if I were in your circumstances, I rather stay on the safe side, especially given how hostile large parts of the Wikipedia community are to paid editing. —Nøkkenbuer (talk • contribs) 17:31, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I will also note,, that if your contract can be reasonably construed to include being paid to create an article like this, then Connected contributor (paid) is the correct template. What is unclear to me is, if you created this draft the terms of your paid editing on Cote's behalf entirely out of your interest and familiarity with the matter, whether it qualifies as simply a (financial) conflict of interest or if it is still a  one. This is where it may be better to get input from someone more experienced in these matters. If you want to be especially cautious here, then the following code would probably be better:  As for which is most appropriate here, I have my own opinion, but it is best for someone more experienced in COI matters to address that. —Nøkkenbuer (talk • contribs) 17:46, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Rapking007


Although they working through AfC the content is entirely promotional. In addition the WP:APPARENTCOI is glaring here. I have asked this person to disclose any connection, and they have steadfastly said they have none. See discussion here.

This person is here to abuse WP for promotion, and should be indeffed. Jytdog (talk) 12:53, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

Figwood


All his articles seem to be paid works, including the above ones, besides Draft:Scott Aharoni. There also seems to be hints of collusion (socks?) with one article editors like,. It is also very likely from the way he has completed 2 articles that he is an experienced hand, and a probable reincarnation of some banned user.  Jupitus Smart  18:37, 18 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi I am not involved with anyone and not receive payment for my edits. I edit, create page which I believe the subject is notable. Please guide me if I did anything wrong. Figwood (talk) 06:49, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Lionel (radio personality)


LionelY2K is pretty obviously the subject of the article. In the past two years, he's carried out 16% of the edits to the article. Looking over his contributions, this is clearly the only purpose of his account.

As I've already explained why he shouldn't do that, I'm going ahead and blocked him. However, as he's been at it for so long, it probably needs more eyes. Ian.thomson (talk) 14:10, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

The New School



 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below
 * - I am not terribly sure about this one, but they did kick off the set of 6 removals by (mostly) new users that are linked below

It appears that for the last couple years, employees of The New School have been editing the school's article and articles related to the school on behalf of the school without disclosing their conflicts of interest, or only revealing them once questioned. There have also been some accounts seemingly created to be "official" New School accounts based on their names. Some of the edits have been benign, such as, but it also includes multiple removals of sourced information about a sexual harassment case against the school and some edits that are less-than-neutral. I originally came across this when I was reverting the unexplained removals in those previous 6 diffs, and I originally just thought the three users were socks of one person, but after a little poking around I figured out that they all seem to be different employees of The New School, except User:Batec and User:Batec.hris, who seem to be the same person. I think that because it's so widespread (the articles I linked are not the only ones edited) and because it's so many different editors affiliated with the school, it might merit some reaching out to the school itself and explaining our COI policy and how to request edits rather than them doing them themselves unless it's obvious vandalism, but I don't know if that's something we do. cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 13:39, 19 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Some more details:
 * (obvious meat or sock, should be blocked, see editor interaction)
 * (blocked after edit warring)
 * (see talk page: blocked as meatpuppet of Lowfive22, confirmed COI)
 * (obvious sockpuppet, should be blocked)
 * (blocked because of promotional username)
 * (employee of Milano School of Management, Policy, and Environment, notified and added connected contributors to the article)
 * (whould need closer inspection, although it is not active since 2016...)
 * Reaching out the school would be good, if someone is willing to do on their own. Anyway, I added Template:Uw-coi to their talk pages, that should be enough for them to read the policies and decide if they want to comply or not. --MarioGom (talk) 14:10, 19 August 2018 (UTC)


 * These related articles are also edited with undisclosed COI:
 * --MarioGom (talk) 14:23, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm willing to draft up something to reach out to the school with if someone is willing to look it over and make the contact themselves. I'm not sure if I'm the right person to be doing the reaching out myself since I'm not an administrator (though I do have a long history with Wikipedia). cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 14:25, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * --MarioGom (talk) 14:23, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm willing to draft up something to reach out to the school with if someone is willing to look it over and make the contact themselves. I'm not sure if I'm the right person to be doing the reaching out myself since I'm not an administrator (though I do have a long history with Wikipedia). cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 14:25, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Possible* return of FFHypeTEAM sockring


Noticed a familiar editing pattern when I reviewed Draft:Davy Sage recently, leading me to believe the Nigeria-based FFHypeTeam marketing... team has returned to editing Wikipedia (see Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard/Archive_132). I noticed (the draft was on my watchlist after is was deleted for being affiliated with Sockpuppet investigations/Daniel Kobe Ricks Jr/Archive) the the draft was created with a large, well conducted edit by a new editor. It should also be noted that per the off-wiki information User:Akuagoldie provides on their userpage they seem to be connected to Kwao Lezzes-Tyt (the founder of the FFHypeTeam) and Amerado, a musician who's prospective article has been repeatedly created by editors affiliated with the FFHypeTeam. I'm preoccupied for the moment, but can someone keep an eye on this? SamHolt6 (talk) 14:56, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello SamHolt6, I am not in by anyway connected to Kwao Lezzes-Tyt (the founder of the FFHypeTeam) and Amerado. I am here to add my quota to Wikipedia Akuagoldie (talk) 16:28, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Your editing history and off-wiki activities Indicate otherwise; an admin can ask me for clarification so as to avoid outing. SamHolt6 (talk) 04:57, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

On the user page he declares that he works for a company called SEOGHANA. The company web site on meet the team includes Kwao Lezzes-Tyt. Comparing articles edited an overlap shows with those by FFHypeTeam. Lezzes-Tyt states that Nikki Samonas is one of his clients and an article for her has just been created by this editor Lyndaship (talk) 18:50, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I have moved all of the editor's articles to the draftspace for quarantine. User:Evtwumasi, I recommend you take a look at WP:COI, WP:PAID and begin disclosing which articles were created for pay.--SamHolt6 (talk) 19:11, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello SamHolt6, I received the alert in my inbox as well, and I must say under no circumstance had I added Nikki Samonas to my recent articles. Kwao Lezzes-Tyt was hired to do some social media marketing on a contract basis for a few clients and I had no idea he had used my account to profile Nikki Samonas on Wikipedia. I had no intention, whatsoever to take money for writing and I had no idea Kwao Lezzes-Tyt has been blacklisted. Action was taken when I realized the harm he had caused to my account, and a report I filed has seen him blocked from SEOGHANA website. I frankly left all my profile on my user page because I have nothing to hide. I love developing content and I love improving Wikipedia locally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evtwumasi (talk • contribs) 00:08, 24 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Did you willingly let another person use your account? Wikipedia's policy is clear that accounts can never be shared - ever - for any reason.
 * If your account was used without your knowledge or consent, then it can be considered compromised.
 * In either case, I don't see any outcome other than your account will be blocked. --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 22:34, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello Drm310 My account was used via my personal computer by Kwao Lezzes-Tyt because I am automatically logged in. He used my personal computer unaware.
 * Eventhough I have my laptop in my possession now,I have also reset the password. Evtwumasi  23:05, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, that's slightly more credible than "my little brother did it." Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:22, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Only very very "slightly" more credible...you might want to password protect your PC too. Dom from Paris (talk) 08:42, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Seriously? You admit to being an SEO. I am minded to block as a spammer. Guy (Help!) 09:39, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

SOM Media

 * users
 * pages
 * pages
 * pages
 * pages

Prior discussion with this person is here. To save you clicking:


 * The account name was formerly Sommedia and was changed to "Ilwd" after I gave them the corpname notice.


 * Every edit they have made has been related to SOM Media.


 * They have very obviously evaded scrutiny at AfC. Only admins will be able to see this in the history of the deleted pages but an obvious SPA/sock, moved the Rueben Wood page to mainspace from AfC, and  moved the J Metro page to mainspace. We banned FoCuSandLeArN here at ANI for UPE here, back in January 2017.  I don't know if all three accounts are one person or if there is 1 or 2 paid editors + a company representative, or some variation thereof, but this stinks.


 * Ilwd has denied paid editing as well as any connection with the company four times (diff, diff, diff, diff)


 * This edit makes it appear that the person using this account is more experienced than the contributions of this account would lead one to think.


 * This person's responses completely lack credibility. This person is here solely to promote SOM Media (including refspam that remain and everyone can still see, like this) and is obviously evading disclosure and review of their edits. Please indef.  The Sozerburk account is stale or I would have taken that to SPI. Jytdog (talk) 14:39, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Support per OP, clearly NOTHERE. GiantSnowman 15:08, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
 * In the meanwhile, I blocked indef per NOTTHERE. If there is consensus it was a bad block, any admin can lift it.--Ymblanter (talk) 15:12, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

User Jytdog Should Be INDEFINITELY Blocked

 * User Jytdog has deleted an article on bases of no proper reasonings


 * Interaction with this user has been very hostile and has abused his abilities


 * Repeatedly harrassment to a user to prove something they have no ties to


 * Also making accusations of having multiple accounts that also do not have any relation

Ilwd (talk) 15:03, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Coal Press Nation

 * (maybe master?)
 * named master
 * 14 August
 * 14 August
 * 16 August
 * 18 August

WP:Sockpuppet investigations/Pptt226 looks a lot like, believed to be a media PR company in Nigeria. Here are a few articles probably within their payment window. Pending confirmation of accounts added to case 3 August, but I'll be surprised if it is negative given the content/behavior similarities. ☆ Bri (talk) 05:10, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I'll purge all of these if CU comes up positive (which I am fairly confident is the case). MER-C 08:27, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

WikiProfessionals

 * articles

Not sure where to post this, so I'll add it here. WikiProfessionals came up in a discussion at User talk:Charlesnelson. At first glance, the company seems to be pretty much promising WP:NOT types of articles, but I've got no specific articles to use as references which show any policies or guidelines actually being violated. Anyway, I was just wondering whether Wikipedia keeps track of such companies just in case they do run afoul of WP:COI or WP:PAID. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:08, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * we keep track of them at PAIDLIST. --MarioGom (talk) 06:39, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * WikiProfessionals is banned. --MarioGom (talk) 06:40, 21 August 2018 (UTC)


 * There are articles they claim on their website to have created that are here, and untagged. Poker Stars for one. John from Idegon (talk) 06:53, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Those testimonials might just be made up and using the names of existing articles in case any potential customers check. Another testimonial was by someone named "Sam Alvey" which could be Sam Alvey. That article was actually deleted via AfD, but was recreated about a year later based upon a new claim of notability. Obviously if the company has been banned, any edits made by anyone associated with it are almost certainly not going to disclosed as required by PAID, which means they probably will go unnoticed unless there's an obvious problem with them. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:09, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * just tagged "Sam Alvey" and "PokerStars" with undisclosed paid. That's probably the best that can be done at the moment until someone goes through all the suspected articles and cleans up what can be cleaned up or AfD's what can't. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:14, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Theroadisloing seems to have tagged all of the remaining testimonials which might be articles except one by alaw firm named "Dechert" which might be Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dechert. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:20, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

Mediacorp


Censorship on the article, declared paid editing in User talk:Matthew hk. Matthew_hk  t  c  15:01, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

Shenphen Rinpoche


There is an ongoing discussion in the article talk page about conflict of interest from Balazs38. It started when Balazs38 tried to remove any information about legal cases against Shenphen Rinpoche and then proposed it for speedy deletion when they failed. I removed all unsourced or poorly sourced material as per WP:BLP, although the user continued editing the article and removing COI tags. The user talked about itself in plural, so I asked about who "we" refers to, as per WP:NOSHARING. They finally disclosed being long time students of Lama Shenpen Rinpoche. --MarioGom (talk) 18:42, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * I think the issue is solved here. COI is now disclosed and the user agreed to follow COI policies, including not editing the article directly. --MarioGom (talk) 21:04, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Draft:Paltering


Rogerslab would appear to be the lab of Todd Rogers, who is listed in the draft as one of the proponents of the concept. If this is the case, and it appears to be, the author is using Wikipedia to publicize their own work. Robert McClenon (talk) 05:48, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Adding: Citations to Rogers's work were also added to various existing mainspace articles (example). — Paleo Neonate  – 08:28, 22 August 2018 (UTC)
 * User:Rogerslab/sandbox/Reminders through association
 * User:Rogerslab/sandbox/Reminders through association

Sonyaa


Per this edit summary the editor has a strong COI. Their claim in the edit summary may or may not be some kind of misunderstanding, but their COI is evident in their edits to Nazar_(TV_series) and its talk page, as well as the article Sonyaa which they created twice (speedy deleted as A7 both times). They have received a final warning about adding unsourced info - which they claim is their own personal knowledge - to the Nazar article, and two different IPs from the same range have turned up to restore the name of the actor to the article. It doesn't seem unlikely that the actor has a minor part in the show, but no sources support that, and in any case the repeated insertions of her name in the "starring" list is definitely incorrect according to what the existing sources do say. I'm not going to edit war over it, but I have tried repeatedly to explain that articles are built on verifiable information and it sems they are a bit tired of me. Anyone else wants to have a go? bonadea contributions talk 17:28, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Probable paid editing and socks
I came across this article Chiori Peter Cole that links to his brothers Gifted Cole Chiori and Paul Cole Chiori all 3 look to be non notable and were created by 3 very similar accounts 2 of which have the same kind of user page info described at NPP talk page Wikipedia_talk:New_pages_patrol/Reviewers. Not sure if this is worth launching a SPI as it seems a bit light. Anyone any thoughts? --Dom from Paris (talk) 13:30, 22 August 2018 (UTC)
 * No, I don't think so. scope_creep (talk) 18:49, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Panduit

 * (blocked as promotional username - Guy (Help!) 09:00, 25 August 2018 (UTC))
 * (blocked as promotional username - Guy (Help!) 09:00, 25 August 2018 (UTC))

Repeatedly adding promotional material, removing previous references and adding up to 25 external links to their own website. In reply he says “I'm not in conflict of interest here since I work at Panduit. I've made minor edits to the site.” Theroadislong (talk) 19:44, 14 August 2018 (UTC)
 * i've opened a discussion at their talk page, and nominated the page for speedy. My goodness. Jytdog (talk) 20:23, 14 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Panduit is a good product for concealing cable runs, but I cannot for the life of me see how something so banal would be encyclopedic.96.127.243.251 (talk) 03:01, 15 August 2018 (UTC)
 * It would be if there were reliable independent sources. It's not obviously unencyclopaedic. The article was, however, obviously spam. Guy (Help!) 09:00, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Garmin


Just a heads up that we have a couple of accounts who appear to work for Garmin. Hudson1997a referred to Garmin using "we" and "our." 's name is thankfully obvious, but they have already edited the article (though to remove vandalism). Given the distant in time between their edits, I'm inclined to believe these are distinct individuals, which suggests the possibility that other employees may be editing the article. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:13, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Hello, I have self disclosed on my talk page. I plan on only removing vandalism as its contributing to un-Wikipedia related issue we are experiencing.  Andrewatgarmin (talk) 19:11, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Please read WP:VANDALISM carefully as this has a very specific meaning here. Your use of the words "intentionally misleading" is more general than "vandalism". You might want to concentrate on WP:VANDNOT especially the section "Misinformation, accidental". I would suggest that you err on the side of caution when dealing with "misleading" information and check out the editor's history before removing the information and any user that is at least WP:AUTOCONFIRMED should be contacted before reverting their misleading information or make an WP:Edit request on the artucle's talk page. Dom from Paris (talk) 09:13, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

StylusGuru


This user always references the work of a single author, Robin Quinn. I have checked (and now removed as WP:REFSPAM) multiple references to Quinn, especially the apparently idiosyncratic claim that the first Ponzi scheme was by Charles Wells. In cleaning this up, I did not find a single example that was added by anyone other than StylusGuru. In many cases the book was first added by StylusGuru as "upcoming" and StylusGuru subsequently went back and changed the publication status.

It is not much of a stretch to suppose a connection here. I have left a warning. Guy (Help!) 09:37, 25 August 2018 (UTC)