Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard/Archive 14

Common Cause

→ See also: Two Common Cause sections in COI/N Archive 8 & one on COI/N talk page.

• 208.201.146.137 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Common Cause (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)

Anonymous IP address 208.201.146.137, which is assigned to Common Cause, has continued to edit the article Common Cause, despite being warned to stop previously. Are the administrators ever going to take action to stop this, or are they all on vacation? XINOPH | TALK 11:35, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

XINOPH, how about sending an email to Common Cause and inviting them to look at this page, as well as the talk page for that IP showing all the warnings. It's possible that there are multiple clueless users involved. Maybe we can get the attention of their IT department and convince them to circulate a memo.

In addition to that, I support a short block for this edit.[1] IANAA. Jehochman ^Talk 14:03, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

What is IANAA? — Athaenara ✉ 18:04, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

IANAL is netspeak for "I am not a lawyer." So, IANAA is "I am not an administrator." XINOPH left a message on my talk page requesting a block of Common Cause. Jehochman ^Talk 18:10, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Cool beans. I added it to the Glossary. — Athaenara ✉ 20:33, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

And back again. I cleaned up after it. — Athaenara ✉ 17:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Can we block this IP temporarily? The IP is permanently assigned to Common Cause. Maybe that will get their attention, and they'll alert their staff about our content policies. Jehochman ^Talk 04:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

If things proceed as before, the COI SPAs will show up soon after this is archived. Their edits will be reverted: the article is on several NPOV editor watchlists. — Athaenara ✉ 04:58, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

User Wendyhiggins, Dr Hadwen Trust

• Dr Hadwen Trust (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Wendyhiggins (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - media director of Dr Hadwen Trust

User:Wendyhiggins has created a self-promotional userpage and has edited several articles related to her animal rights activism. Among these is the Dr Hadwen Trust. Since the edits may be legitimate, I have decided not to revert them, and instead to seek a second opinion here. YechielMan 13:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Good catch. I've reverted some of the edits, warned the user and tagged Dr Hadwen Trust. This needs attention from a careful editor to restore or confirm neutral point of view. Once that's done, remove the {{COI}} tag. Jehochman ^Talk 13:54, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Most of the text on the Dr Hadwen Trust had been copied straight from its website. I did some cleanup today. — Athaenara ✉ 20:59, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

No edits from Special:Contributions/Wendyhiggins since report. — Athaenara ✉ 04:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

ResMed deletion of negative information

• ResMed (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Resmed (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

The above user removed negative content from the article with the statement "deletion of incorrect and non-encyclopedic content". However, the company's own website seems to verify the information that was deleted, along with several other sources that Google turns up. RJASE1 ^Talk 21:34, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

• Jamieparanal (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - February & March 2007
• Speaktruthtoprosper (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - May 2007

Two additional single-purpose accounts involved. — Athaenara ✉ 23:00, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I have tagged the article as COI and noted my action on the talk page. Bearian 00:40, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

No edits from Special:Contributions/Resmed since report. — Athaenara ✉ 04:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Quicken Loans

• Quicken Loans (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)

Ok, please excuse my stupidity if this is the wrong place to post this, but I am new here so I haven't really learned all the policies yet.

Anyways, there is a slow moving edit war over at Quicken Loans between anti-Quicken users (many of which are obvious sockpuppets) and other, possibly corporate, users. Here's a list of the troublemakers, going back fairly far in the article history:

• Clayc313 (talk · contribs) has made some good edits, but seems to be pro-Quicken. Most of his/her edits are to Quicken Loans, a fair amount of others are to Dan Gilbert (somebody who works at Quicken Loans), and then there are a few edits to Michigan related topics, including Livonia, Michigan, which is the headquarters of Rock Financial, a company that seems to be (from my quick research), a subsidiary of Quicken Loans.

• Drig06 (talk · contribs) seems to be a sock of Clayc313, which I'm hypothesizing based on similar edits. While this user does not edit exactly the same articles as Clayc313, he does edit Quicken and related topics. For instance, s/he edits Fathead, which is owned by the aforementioned Dan Gilbert. However, also like Clayc313, Drig06 does have some good edits.

• 12.165.188.130 (talk · contribs) seems to be the same person. Key clues include his/her most recent edit and this edit, changes very similar to ones previously made by the above users. This also seems to be a pretty good clue. Finally, this IP has also made several edits to Fathead (the disambig page) and Fathead (brand). This user does have some good edits in his/her contribs, but has some vandalism as well.
  • I think you'll find this quite informative. Looks like time for a WP:RFCU. Raymond Arritt 17:56, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

• Fianlly, there's Rockfinancial (talk · contribs) (and some seemingly associated IPs, but that doesn't really matter), which, besides having a clearly corporate username, keeps putting information back in that's removed by the above three users. Since that info is verified, this seems like a good thing.

This is just a sampling of the most recent disturbances, if anyone would like to go further back in the article's war zone of an edit history, I'm sure there are other suspicious contributors to be found there. However, this is the most I can deal with at the moment.

Thanks so much and sorry to have to bother you with all this (and again please accept my humble apologies if this is misplaced or unnecessary!). Slan-cheh 17:52, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

• You've come to the right place. I went through the article with a machete and cut out about half of the content, which was either not sourced or reflected a non-neutral tone either for or against the company. The current version should be neutral.

Going forward, it is clear without a checkuser that the first three users you listed are sockpuppets. I'm not sure what to do about that, but knowing is half the battle. Leaving messages asking them to mind NPOV would help; temporary page protection is also an option. I'll let someone else make that decision. YechielMan 00:15, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Last edits to Quicken Loans by users listed above:

• Clayc313 - 9 June
• Drig06 - 9 June
• 12.165.188.130 - 7 June
• Rockfinancial - 10 June

No edit warring since NPOV editors stepped in on 11 June. — Athaenara ✉ 04:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Niketan Pansare

• Niketan Pansare (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Niketanp (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Vipulp (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

This is as blatant as they come, but may be notable. Creator's name matches the article's. The only other editor has only contributed to this article, and is probably a friend of his. Bearian 00:23, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Not notable. Tagged for speedy deletion. Videmus Omnia 01:18, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Various BBC-owned IP addresses

The BBC-owned IP addresses:

• 132.185.144.120 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 132.185.144.122 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 132.185.144.123 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)[added by Andy Mabbett 16:33, 8 June 2007 (UTC)]
• 132.185.240.120 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 132.185.240.121 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 132.185.240.122 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 132.185.240.123 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Bbcsomerset (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) [added by Athaenara ✉ 05:50, 6 June 2007 (UTC)]

all have a history of editing BBC-related articles. Some of these edits were flagged as CoI, others not, but appear to be so on reflection (e.g the removal of deletion nomination from an article about BBC radio presenter). I wonder whether someone shouldn't contact the BBC, and ask them to run an article on Wikipeida's CoI policy, in their staff magazine, or on their intranet? Andy Mabbett 09:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Some of the edits from these addresses are also fairly juvenile vandalism that doesn't reflect well on the BBC ([2][3][4]). If these came from BBC employees, I'm sure their employment contracts say something about actions disreputable to their employer. 86.140.181.239 13:13, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

And again: [5]. Andy Mabbett 17:09, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

And again [6]. Andy Mabbett 16:33, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Shane Osborn

• Shane Osborn (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• 164.119.66.30 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Pearbo (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Shane Osborn is the Nebraska State Treasurer - article is being edited by the above IP, which whois shows as belonging the Office of the Chief Information Officer for Nebraska. RJASE1 ^Talk 19:14, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

• Pearbo (talk · contribs) is, I'm fairly certain, the same user as the above IP, and apparently logged in as User:Pearbo in order to create a now-deleted autobiographical article on Perry Pirsch, who is, according to this, Mr. Osborn's deputy and general counsel. (The text of the Pirsch article can be seen here.) The same user is adding peacock language to the Osborn article. Some elementary digging makes it pretty clear that User:Pearbo is Perry Pirsch. RJASE1 ^Talk 20:06, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I have tagged this article and made recommendations on the talk page of the article. Bearian 19:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Ottawa Curling Club

• Ottawa Curling Club (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Earl Andrew (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - I cleaned up a lot of unsourced and trivial information from the Ottawa Curling Club page diff, and noticed that this user edits widely on curling topics. Many of the articles edited by Earl Andrew contain a great deal of unsourced and (often trivial) personal / organisational information, indicating he has a strong connection to the people and organisations he is writing about. The OCC article contains information about various aspects of club business, including a long table of current league statistics, redlinks to club members, past presidents, and so on. Rather than answer my concern, he reverted the cleanup without comment and declined to answer questions about why he believes the information to be notable and his connection to the subject. Earl Andrew is a solid Wikipedian, but given the statement on his userpage that he is a member of this organisation, there is clearly a barrier to his impartiality on this topic. I sense a revert scuffle if I attempt to clean up the article again, so if a 3rd eye could be cast over it that would be much appreciated. Deiz talk 07:34, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the COI, but these articles certainly need major attention for sourcing and style. For example, Jenn Hanna: "In the final, Hanna's team played well, and led for most of the game, and were looking like they were going to win it. In the tenth end, Hanna's team was up by two but did not have the hammer. Hanna's team had a rock on the button that was already well guarded, and decided to throw another guard rather than take away Jones' only chance at scoring, an in-off. Jones managed to make the extremely difficult shot, coming in-off of a Ontario stone just in front of the house, to take out Hanna's shot rock to score four and win the Scott". Gordonofcartoon 21:24, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Additional opinions are needed at Talk:Ottawa Curling Club. -- Satori Son 20:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Earl Andrew has talked about the need for consensus which is positive, but still seems a little resistant to any changes despite the consensus which is emerging in favour of removing the questioned information. As of right now, the article is in line with ps & gs, hopefully we can keep it that way. Deiz talk 23:44, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Mark Douglas Olson

• Mark Douglas Olson (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Avidor (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Swanny123 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Minnesota Republican 6th Congressional District Chair, Mark Swanson [[7] ]is editing the page for his friend Rep. Mark Olson who is awaiting trial in July for domestic assault. Mark Swanson was once Rep. Mark Olson's campaign manager. Swanson is defending his edits on the comment section of the MN Publius blog [[8]]. Avidor 15:36, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

User Avidor's recent edits follow more along the lines of this section. He an avid critic of Rep. Olson. Recent edits by me were done in strict accordance with the neutrality policy and an impartial administrator should be able to judge the reason for my edits and the COI that Avidor is exhibiting. As such his recent edits should be reverted or the article deleted entirely (since he created it). Furthermore, he is using the COI policy in an attempt to discourage me from making appropriate editing and should be nominated for at least a temporary block.Swanny123 17:48, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

It appears that BOTH Avidor and Swanny123 have potential conflicts of interest with respect to the subject of the article. I propose that both editors refrain from editing the article. The article talk page is open for both editors to make proposals to other — keeping in mind that the talk page is for discussing improving the article; it is not a forum for discussing Mr. Olson; nor is it for a discussion of editors. — ERcheck (talk) 04:25, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I have an opinion but no COI. I will stop editing the page if persons with genuine COI issues like PRT promoter Mr_Grant (David Gow) and Republicans like Swanny and the guy from the AEI stop editing the page.Avidor 13:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

This is not a negotiation. BLP and NPOV are non-negotiable. Avidor made this report with respect to Swanny123 — who has stopped editing the articles. Swanny123s edits were well within WP:BLP guidelines. On the other hand, Avidor has chosen not to abide by the request to stop editing the article. If Avidor wants to add the other names to this report (per the guidelines), feel free to. However, if Avidor continues to ignore this, and edits against policy (BLP, COI, disruption), he may be blocked from editing. — ERcheck (talk) 00:00, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

See WP:COI — A Wikipedia conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral encyclopedia, and the aims of an individual editor.. You don't have to belong to an organization or make a profit from your edits. If you use Wikipedia to promote your views, you have a COI. — ERcheck (talk) 00:02, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I have reviewed the edits of Swanny123, Avidor, Mr Grank, and the "AEI" guy to the Olson article. Swanny123, Mr Grant and AEI guy's edits do not violate NPOV nor do their edits show a COI results. Swanny123 has chosen to step back from editing. — ERcheck (talk) 00:31, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

• Avidor's web pages, wiki edits, etc show a high level of interest in a very narrow area and set of articles. ERcheck is trying to apply wiki policy in the areas of WP:COI and WP:SOAP and makes a good case of it. If disruptive edits, WP:BLP violations, and/or POV/agenda pushing continue in this matter, blocks for all still involved and/or page protections would be in order. Rlevse 00:49, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Users Occupational Illness and PintoPotts

• PintoPotts (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Pinto Potts (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Occupational Illness (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) -- spa for advertising a law firm, cleverly using a non-law-firm article to accomplish its purposes. Check especially the userpage. THF 11:18, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

I think I already saw this in a later listing. Two pages have been deleted as a result. YechielMan 03:01, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

United Nations Billion Tree Campaign

• United Nations Billion Tree Campaign (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Billion Tree Campaign - UNEP (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) The UN is promoting its billion tree campaign with this account. This is probably very low on the COI radar, just giving a heads up, especially if this account were to become blocked, this could lead to some bad mojo. -N 16:53, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
  • I've already looked at this article. It's basically okay, especially given the work N has done on it, and I'm willing to give it the unofficial kosher symbol. :) YechielMan 03:06, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

FHM spammer

• fhmonline.com: Linksearch en - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - Meta: SRB-XWiki - COIBot-XWiki - Eagle's spam report search • Interwiki link search, big: 20 - 57 • Linkwatcher: search • Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • Veinor pages • meta • Yahoo: backlinks • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.org • DomainsDB.net • Alexa • OnSameHost.com • WhosOnMyServer.com - Added linksearch. — Athaenara ✉ 11:16, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

12.0.24.130 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) -- This IP address associated with FHM almost excusively adds FHM links to Wikipedia and rarely adds content. Chicken Wing 20:25, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Resolved.

Mike Gravel articles

• Mike Gravel (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Mike Gravel presidential campaign, 2008 (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Political positions of Mike Gravel (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• National initiative (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• TheNewHampshireVolunteer (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

This user appears to have conflict of interest in that he works/volunteers for the campaign in question. Metros 13:11, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

• Metros has pretty much solved this problem himself by reverting edits from the banned user. I left a note on one of the talk pages. Since Mr. Gravel's article is undergoing active editing as current events unfold, I hope that the long-term effect of this troll's vandalism will be minimal. YechielMan 06:39, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
  • I've semiprotected the Mike Gravel article. Durova^Charge! 17:35, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
• Yeah, whoops, forgot to check back in here with an update. Turns out the user was our old pal DavidYork71 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) returning so I took care of that. Metros 18:03, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

The Spastic Centre

• The Spastic Centre (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• TheSpasticCentre (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

COI editing by a charitable organization despite being previously warned. RJASE1 ^Talk 18:27, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

• Article is not neutral and gives too much emphasis to the charity's activities as opposed to encyclopedic significance. However, based on a web search, it's a notable organization and not a deletion candidate. I'm not sure how to proceed. YechielMan 02:44, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

• • The editor was warned on 7 June and has stopped making COI edits. I've prod'ed the article because after cutting out the promotional stuff, there's nothing left. Jehochman ^Talk 19:53, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Matthew Earnest

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Matthew Earnest

• Matthew Earnest (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• MATTHEWEARNEST (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - Note article and username are the same for this article. -FeralDruid 04:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

As I was flagging it for uw-coi, another user flagged it for AfD. -FeralDruid 04:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Half Cousin and Iodine - Album

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gronland

• Half Cousin (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Iodine - Album (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Gronland (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - An employee of Gronland records appears to be creating and editing articles by the bands it publishes. Bearian 19:02, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Ouch. I think I'll start a mass AFD/IFD on everything this editor has laid hands on. YechielMan 06:45, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup seems complete on this and Gronland (talk · contribs) has not edited recently. Think this can be closed as resolved. Videmus Omnia 17:44, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

James T Clement

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James T Clement

• James T Clement (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Sting of the Viper "LEGACY" ACT I (2007) (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Sting of the Viper “UNFORGIVEN” ACT II (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Sting of the Viper “REDEMPTION” ACT III (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Blukem (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 71.55.188.168 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 71.55.30.132 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

The user name Blukem corresponds with the name of one the films listed on James T Clement's filmography and the name of a comic on the website listed as the official website of the Sting of the Viper films. BlueAzure 15:27, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

AFD is probably the right course of action for these movies. nadav (talk) 06:38, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I now nominated all the articles for afd at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James T Clement. nadav (talk) 07:19, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

71.55.30.132 has been removing afd and cleanup templates from the pages. nadav (talk) 08:22, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Positive Coaching Alliance

• Positive Coaching Alliance (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• PositiveCoach (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 24.5.15.163 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Copied (in essence) from the talk page, for your review:

1. it was created by a user, User:PositiveCoach, whose name is similar to the name of the article
2. the creator has only contributed edits to that article as seen here: Special:Contributions/PositiveCoach
3. another unregistered user has only made contributions to this article and to persons linked into this article as members of its advisory board, as noted here:Special:Contributions/24.5.15.163
4. it was identified by the conflict of interest notice board bot as a possible autobiography. Bearian 19:45, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I've reverted the IP's unsourced claims and semiprotected the article. It's probably notable enough to remain on this site but needs citations. Durova^Charge! 20:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

HTML Refresh Language

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/HTML Refresh Language

• HTML Refresh Language (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)

Created and mainly edited by Rosswnelson (talk · contribs); describes an initiative by someone called Ross Nelson. Andy Mabbett 21:15, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

• • WP:AFD is probably a better destination than here, which is where I've sent this. The only citation for this article about a computer language created by Ross Nelson is Ross Nelson's website. Looks like garden variety vanispamcruft to me. Thanks for catching this. Durova^Charge! 03:12, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Tri state beirut

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tri-State Beirut League

• Tristatebeirut (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - User is creating numerous articles about a non-notable league, the Tri-State Beirut League, which lacks reliable sources, references, Google hits, importance, and apparently hasn't even started. AW 18:33, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Articles include 2007 Summer TBL season, Tri-State Beirut, Tri-State Beirut League All-Star Classic, Season structure of the TBL, Tri-State Beirut League All-Star Skills Competition, Tri-State Beirut Tournament Circut, Tri-State Beirut League, TBLBracket and probably more. --AW 19:49, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
    • Yup, most of this editor's contributions deal with this league that appears to be playing a variant of beer pong. I've left a polite welcome with suggestions because the person also made some useful edits to roller hockey and might be unaware of our site standards. The new articles probably deserve group deletion. Durova^Charge! 20:00, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
      • How do I do a group deletion? I've been putting them up for Prod (and speedy in a few cases)) --AW 20:15, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
        • Try WP:AFD#How_to_list_multiple_related_pages_for_deletion. Thanks for your good work at this thread. Durova^Charge! 20:51, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
          • Thanks, and thank you! Do I have to remove the PROD and speedys first? --AW 21:13, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
            • Not sure. AFD has gotten a lot more complex since I was a regular there. But based on the content I saw the whole group looked like an obvious set of candidates for deletion. Durova^Charge! 00:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Kossar's Bialys

• Kossar's Bialys (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Judae1 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

This article contains a lot of peacock terms since it is edited by the owner of the bakery. User:Judae1 claims to be Juda S. Engelmayer and the owner of the bakery. He writes on his user page "Juda also has business experience, being an owner of a bit of New York’s Jewish history, Kossar’s Bialy Bakery on the Lower East Side." He actually wrote in the article "Kossar's Bialys wins rave reviews from just about every food and market rating service..." and called the bakery a "New York City landmark establishment". He even adds false citations to his edits. Please see [9].

• The Fact is that Kossar's, regardless of who I am, has won every single food critic award consistently and over again. Whether it is Zagat's, Schecky's, CitySearch, Time Out NY, Saveur Magazine, and a host of blogs, Kossar's has been winning them for decades. It is also on every NYC tour of Lower Manhattan. I could overload Wiki with every single reference and every single link available, but that would be overkill and arguably make it more of an advertisement. Second, this Agha seems to have a knack for not reading too well, because all of the references are valid and state the facts as written. The article from 1958 mentions the union association that was exclusive to bialy bakers. Logic dictates that there is no unique union group established for one bakery, but for a whole industry. The fact that few records exist about it does not make it less of a fact. Look at NYU's library NYU's union records on the union and scroll to where it states the term - Bialy (Kuchen) Division.

It is wholly possible for an interested party to edit without conflict, as long as one sticks to what is fact. The mere fact that user Nadar does not like it, does not make it wrong either. I earned this person's ire when I edited the Israeli raid on Entebbe Wiki site, and he has become relentless - bordering on harassment. Wiki is a site for enlightenment, not a place to alter history or modify facts to suit a point of view. Telling me I cannot write because he disapproves of my edits due perhaps, because they are in opposition to views held by this contributor is not useful. Because of this editor's zeal, Wiki administrators locked editing on Operation Entebbe. See this for what it is. Juda S. Engelmayer 14:41, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Interestingly, he also is the "Vice President, Government and Corporate Issues Practice at 5W Public Relations." He is the main editor at 5W Public Relations too. I warned him about the conflict of interest here [10], but he just removed my warning.--Agha Nader 02:20, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I gave Kossar's Bialys a major trimming to remove traces of advertising; please take a look. (Some of what used to be there could be transplanted into bialy.) I tagged 5W Public Relations as COI without taking further action. For better or worse, Judae1 is an established contributor who knows how to find references for both altruistic and ulterior purposes. Sometimes it's not possible to solve all problems that arise. YechielMan 03:26, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I take the false citations business very seriously. How exactly do you conclude that? Durova^Charge! 17:31, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

He wrote: the "bakery is now the last remnant of what was once a major industry..." I added a citation needed and he removed the tag and added three references. The problem is that none of the 'references' supported the claim that the bakery is "the last remnant" of the bialy industry [11]. I made this edit [12] and wrote in my edit summary "neither of the sources make the claim that it is "the last remnant of what was once a major industry", then he reverted my edit and wrote in his edit summary "Sure it does, it says "Kossar's is also one of the last bastions of homemade, classic New York-style bialys." [13]. Obviously he knows the difference between "one of the last bastions" and "the last remnant", but he wanted to exaggerate, because he has a conflict of interest. Since he owns the bakery his financial interests clash with those of the encyclopedia. I recommend a block since his edits have been disruptive. --Agha Nader 19:07, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

You'll find no false citations. There are three bakeries left in the country that make bialys, but Kossar's is the last one that still has a totally handmade process. Bell Bialys in Brooklyn and Slims use an automated tunnel oven where Kossar's are still hand-pulled and placed in the brick oven on wooden peels by hand, no automation - so yes, last one is not incorrect.Juda S. Engelmayer 19:02, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I guess that logic only makes sense if you own the bakery. "bakery is now the last remnant of what was once a major industry..." does not equal "There are three bakeries left in the country that make bialys"--no matter how much spin you put on it.--Agha Nader 19:35, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The industry was an artisan one, handmade. Not machine made. The union was for bialy makers, not hopper stuffers; people who had broad forearms from rolling dough and lifting peels. The other two are not that. You can be as obstinate as you'd like, yet the facts do not change.Juda S. Engelmayer 19:39, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Please see WP:OR. You are not exempt from it--Agha Nader 19:42, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

(outdent) All right, in the interests of WP:AGF I'll regard the citation issue as a semantic mistake. Please refrain from the appearance of impropriety in the future. If you wish to improve the article then the best thing to do is to write up a sample draft in your own user space, post a userpage template on the draft, and post a link at the article talk page asking uninvolved editors to review and adapt it for the article. It's also fair to post review requests to editors who recently edited that page and to the relevant WikiProjects. Uninvolved editors are more likely to craft an appropriate neutral and encyclopedic tone. Durova^Charge! 19:58, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank youJuda S. Engelmayer 20:04, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

User LeanInsider

• LeanInsider (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) works for Productivity Press. Has asked for help on if and how s/he can add links to Productivity Press books Book listings, after recieving a warning about the edits to Lean manufacturing
• Lean manufacturing (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) LeanInsider added a book and general link. I reverted the edits and gave a spam and coi warning.
• Kanban (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) Added a book link after asking for discussion on the talk page.
• Organizational culture (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) Asked for discussion about adding a book link.

I think LeanInsider has done a commendable job of trying to work within WP:COI guidelines, but I'm a bit concerned about the "Book listings" feedback s/he recieved. This may be more a spam issue than coi, but I wanted to check here. Anyone want to take a look? -- Ronz  19:31, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I checked the contribs and the article talk page discussions. COI eagerness to add links must be tempered by NPOV policies and guidelines. — Athaenara ✉ 03:13, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

User Seigi Choujin

• Seigi Choujin (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

The bot keeps listing articles by User:Seigi Choujin, including many anime stubs with "Choujin" in the title. The articles look reasonable, without traces of spam that I can see, but the similarity of names is too obvious to dismiss these as false positives. Can someone please check his contribution log? YechielMan 12:20, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

• A sampling of the edits tells me that if there's any problem it might be a username issue. Looks like a devoted anime fan rather than a conflict of interest. Durova^Charge! 18:11, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Advertising

I copied this section from the Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) because someone told me this is the proper place and that is why it's format is a bit funny:

It seems to me that people with little experience and with strange formats to their edits are creating large edits to Wikipedia, what I really want to say is that I think that advertisers are editing Wikipedia because of the increase in use from institutions, e.g. [14] has a summary section but no beginning section, and it's linked to Advertising#Optimisation which used to have the {{advert}} tag (that is before I edited it). I don't really know what to do about this, other than creating a anti-ad force that systematically goes through all articles linked to the {{advert}} tag, finds the user that created the bad edits, then warns them, and fixes the article, and finally fixes any articles that got edited by him/her but that's hard work (and Wikipedia is so big that it wouldn't wonder me if that already exists). I thought I might mention it either way. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 00:31, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I would also like to note that copy testing also mentions Young all the time, just like Advertising#Optimisation used to, and, to me at least, the way that the person uses it as a reference is bad formatting and proof of what I'm saying above (that inexperienced advertisers are editing certain things to make institutions end up thinking that they need their form of advertising, it could even be a scheme to make Wikipedia surfers end up on a particular article). Jeffrey.Kleykamp 00:40, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Freckles.10.6.2005 is the one that made all the edits, he admitted to working for one of the companies that he wrote about [15], not that that's a problem, but if too many people do that then it will probably become one. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 00:50, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

This is where the copied stuff ends, now what? Jeffrey.Kleykamp 19:11, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up. Looking into the matter some, that talk page post carries the tone of an apology and I see few edits since then. The circumstances seem to indicate a good faith mistake on that editor's part. I appreciate the cleanup. And if this kind of thing interest you, consider yourself welcome to pitch in at this backlogged board. I'm an administrator who likes to coach good editors into Wikisleuthing and I'd be glad to help show you the ropes. Best wishes. Durova^Charge! 19:43, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Friendbot

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Friendbot

• Friendbot (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• James3uk (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 172.159.38.125 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• 172.159.141.149 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Special:Linksearch/*.friendbot.co.nr

I stumbled across a potential conflict of interest, James3uk created the Friendbot page and if you look at his contributions added or, in the case of here [16], updated links to Friendbot which 172.159.38.125 (I'm pretty sure is his IP address) added before. It's a bit old but I don't think there is a time limit, so, I thought I'd report it. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 19:35, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

There aren't any independent sources, so you might WP:AFD the article. Durova^Charge! 20:03, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I tried adding it, but it currently doesn't look like that worked, maybe it will work later or I did something wrong. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 20:14, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

OK, it sort of worked now, also, what do I do about the external links to the friendbot website that that person and the IP address created, delete them? Jeffrey.Kleykamp 20:20, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm not so sure - there ought to be a deletion template at the top of the page and I don't see any recent edits in the history. Instructions are at WP:AFD#How_to_list_pages_for_deletion. Go ahead and leave the article as-is so the folks at AFD can evaluate the whole thing. Durova^Charge! 20:24, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Afd result: article deleted and protected against re-creation. — Athaenara ✉ 07:33, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Kirk Fraser

→ See also: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kirk Fraser

• Kirk Fraser (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Kirk fraser (talk · contribs)

The user appears to be vandalizing an article he has created, possibly about a business associate. He has twice reverted COI tags. Bearian

• I have listed Kirk Fraser and the unrelated Kirk Frasier for WP:AFD. Kirk fraser violated WP:3RR last week, but he has been inactive, so the violation is not actionable. YechielMan 01:35, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Goguryeo-China wars (1) and (2)

(1) Military history of Goguryeo

• Military history of Goguryeo (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Assault11 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Wiki pokemon (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Jiejunkong (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)
• Naus (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Notice This list is incomplete (either intentionally or casually). See Talk:Goguryeo-China_wars#Military_history_of_Goguryeo, it is almost a consensus, except the three users who were busy at working on the admin page here.--Jiejunkong 04:22, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

This article was originally named Goguryeo-China wars. However, several users have moved the article to the current name because they fear that readers will think that Goguryeo is not a Chinese kingdom because of the title. I believe that their edits and comments are COI and are preventing the other editors from reaching a compromise. Also, their biased viewpoints on the subject is clear. Assault11 has an RfC filed against him [Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Assault11]. Naus has stated that users Cydevil38 and Good friend100 should be "slapped on the mouth". [17]. There have also been insults such as describing wikipedia as a "circlejerk for ethnocentric Koreans". Good friend100 21:31, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The administrator moved the article back, so this report is not valid anymore. Thank you for those who reviewed it. Good friend100 23:52, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

(2) Goguryeo-China Wars → Military history of Goguryeo

Admins, a few editors accused Korean Wikipedians here as being ultranationalists for naming the article Goguryeo-China wars so because it sounds "anti-Chinese" - because Goguryeo won most of the battles & KPOV wanted to put emphasis on winning over "China". I personally think that some Chinese editors here are just paranoiac.

And then come here anti-Korean Japanese editors (the same ones who sweat NPOV in Liancourt Rocks, Sensaku Islands, etc. & also Korea-China disputes such as Mount Baekdu & Heavenly Lake). They're mostly in WikiProject Japan, but you know what they love to mess around with Korean business. They haven't participated in the discussion, but they're like "it's neutral." "it avoids further conflicts". The problem is that they've done this in almost all Korea-China disputed articles. And I guess when I accuse them of being simply anti-Korean, they shrug off, "doing the right thing gets criticism sometimes."

The following is what I wrote, and none of them in the discussion have been effectively able to counter them.

• "Two wrongs don't make a right. There is no reason to rename this article to "Military history of Goguryeo" just because of this trash logic that Goguryeo is a constituent of China and therefore cannot war China - simply b/c the two do not link, and there are so many better options."
• "Everyone should know better that a country's military history is not defined by its single war with another country."

• Let me elaborate. If you wanted to write a military history article on Goguryeo, then you should include weapons, traditions, strategies, and chronology, etc. But the CPOV editors just can't tolerate an article in which Goguryeo is successful against many modern-day China constituents & when the article title specifically states China (it's really out of convenience & practicality) as the opposing country, so they change it to military history. Then it's not neutral because the military history is seen from Chinese viewpoint, and China is not the universal meter for military histories of other countries.

• "Second, the consensus is that Goguryeo is a Korean country. See Britannica, etc. above."
• "Third, you cannot use WP:RM to test ethnic neutrality (that is, the CPOV editors are trying to use this naming dispute to overturn the consensus that Goguryeo is a Korean country)."
• "Fourth, even a constituent state can fight its containing entity. For example, war between Confederates and the Union. Even then, Goguryeo (even if you were to consider the Chinese tributary system, everyone knows that this didn't mean Chinese control but just diplomatic relations) was a separate country anyways. And it doesn't matter which tribes and people constitute which countries - as long as they're separate countries."
• "Fifth, there are so many better options: 1) Get rid of this article & categorize other related articles 2) Remain at this article's title 3) Choose another title similar to this"
• Another reason: Always there are bound to be a loser & a winner in a war. That is really to say, China won in the end so I'm not sure where CPOV is coming from. Thanks. (Wikimachine 03:23, 23 June 2007 (UTC))

User:Good friend100, User:Cydevil38 and User:Wikimachine refuse to answer the following questions about the anachronistic title:

1. By their exact logic, equally-controversial articles "Goguryeo-Korea wars" and "Goguryeo-Japan wars" should be created. "Goguryeo-Korea wars" includes Goguryeo-Silla war and Goguryeo-Baekje war. For example, the war fought by King Geunchogo of Baekje against Goguryeo, obviously belongs to "Goguryeo-Korea wars". Note that this is based exactly on the same logic of them. They persistently put one's ancestor and one's grand grand sons together to sell a POV, which confuses first-time readers including some admins.

Maybe they should be created, we never said no. Again, two wrongs don't make a right. Just because something wasn't done before doesn't mean you can't do it yourself now. (Wikimachine 17:38, 23 June 2007 (UTC))

1. They admit that Silla must be included in this Goguryeo-China wars article, as Silla led the Silla-Tang alliance (in terms of man-power and need) to destroy Goguryeo and ended Goguryeo's entire military history. Then I asked the question "does this mean Silla is part of China because of this title 'Goguryeo-China wars'?" Then the funny thing is that none of these POV users answer the question, which is right on the target--the inconsistent title. But they do have lots of time to write lots of things here to work on system admins.--Jiejunkong 04:17, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Merge issues

The merge issues being argued here are beyond the scope of this noticeboard. — Athaenara ✉ 04:27, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I've looked into this and I only see ethnic or national affinity, which we don't consider a COI. That doesn't mean the POV pushing, if it exists, is OK. We all edit articles about things around us or our nations' histories. However whatever we write has to be NPOV. This article may need some outside intervention. Lemme check if it's had an RfC lately. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 08:18, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

It's not that they're of the same nationality concerned in a dispute or anything. It's that they brought the dispute about within a framework which itself is already POV to begin with. They were being overly sensitive. Here's a bad example, but how bad it is portrays how ridiculous this situation is: "Alaska-USA war is POV because it implies that Alaska is part of Russia" (maybe some super anti-communists think that way). (Wikimachine 17:42, 23 June 2007 (UTC))

John summers (basketball player)

John summers (basketball player) (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) John Summers (talk · contribs)

• Same article name and author. Article has bad misspellings, possible copyvio of pics, and obvious copying from another source, also possible copyvio. Marginal notability of college basketball player.

Sorry, I forgot to sign this. Bearian 21:09, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Not even marginally notable. He's a freshman backup who shot 14% for a school that was 12-20 in a minor conference, and apparently has been kicked out of the program. This is a speedy-delete rather than a COI problem. THF 01:48, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Shannon Perrine

• Shannon Perrine (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) All edits (save one) appear to be by the same person, possibly the subject. (Relisting because it appears the previous listing was removed unintentionally.) Amnewsboy 15:10, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
• Gmanhoobie (talk · contribs)

Gmanhoobie could be a fan of Perrine's. The article needs some work, so let's WP:AGF and see how Gmanhoobie contribues further. --Ronz 15:35, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

I had thought that it was a fan until I saw the description of "self-authored" for Perrine's image -- but I will say that I do think the article was written in good faith. Also, it appears that another editor has taken this article to WP:AFD. Amnewsboy 18:34, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

That would be me. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shannon Perrine. —Psychonaut 19:14, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

"self-authored" Good catch. --Ronz 19:19, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

User:65.28.141.107 (Plagiarist or flak?)

The above account was created on 15 April, 2007, apparently for the purpose of dumping 1,240 copyrighted words, verbatim, from here and here into the Teen Challenge article. In doing so, the above user deleted, "The [Teen Challenge drug treatment] program claims to have an 86 percent rehabilitation rate, but this number does no [sic] inlcude clients who dropped out and relies on self-reported measures of progress." A reference to this was given as "Sullivan, Amy. 'Patron Feint.' The New Republic. April 3, 2006". An electronic version of Sullivan's article is here, and it says, "Teen Challenge's widely touted 86 percent rehabilitation rate crumbles under examination. (Teen Challenge doesn't count those clients who dropped out of the program, and it relies on self-reported measures of progress.)"

Projection70, who I am not implicating in a COI, cleaned up the wording some, but it took a week. For that week, Wikipedia said, in the Teen Challenge article, "We express our thanks and appreciation to Dr. Roger Thompson for conducting this independent survey for Teen Challenge of Chattanooga, Inc." and "This adequate response allowed us to analyze the success of the Teen Challenge program . . ." [emphasis added] The re-write did not redress the removal of sourced material. The note on the Sullivan piece is just left orphaned at the end of the article [18][19].

POV pushing, copyright violations, inappropriate external links (the addition and deletion of anti-TC sites or the sites of their "competitors", as well as changes to the "official" site), brochure-ese, zero sources (they would likely point to the source of the hijacked copy, which is a dead-end page on TC-USA's site anyway), nothing contrary to the organisation's line even though there are obviously controversies—this one's got it all.

Even if User:65.28.141.107 does not have a COI, I do. So, I'm not touching this one. My conflict of interest: I think these people, and their ilk, are batshit crazy cultists. I don't do "religion" articles, which is in the best interest of the project and my own mental health. .s X ile 04:20, 29 June 2007 (UTC) - Talk

You ought to double check the timestamp of the edits. The IP user concerned has not edited since then. There's nothing we can do. MER-C 09:23, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Rednex

• Rednex (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)
• Brian Reddyb (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Disagreement over the alleged Brian Reddyb's contribution to the Rednex band. A revert war has been initiated by an editor who insists to be the claimed individual. CounterFX 14:06, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

The citations do check out that a Brian Reddyb was in the band. I've full protected the article for two weeks and referred the participants to WP:ADOPT. Also cited Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Midnight Syndicate, which I hope serves as a cautionary example. Durova^Charge! 16:03, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

A point of clarification: the primary complaint is presently a suspicion of WP:HOAX, expressed by various individuals on the article talk page. A discussion concerning the WP:COI issues, and the importance of the purported individual's contribution to the band, can only be started once the claim that the individual actually existed at all is verified. CounterFX 16:33, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

If understand correctly, a most of the concern regards some recent hoax activity by IP addresses. The Brian Reddyb account claims those were unrelated actions by other people due to the band's underground following. Under these circumstances I sometimes challenge editors to agree to a checkuser. If Brian Reddyb's assertions are true then he'd probably be eager to clear up any suspicions. Durova^Charge! 18:10, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Brian Reddyb and sockpuppets are community banned for WP:HOAX violations. Durova^Charge! 02:04, 3 July 2007 (UTC)