John Cummings makes Wikipedia a product catalogue

[Giraffe Stapler]

There's a small spat on ANI right now wherein someone is accusing John Cummings (T-C-L) of paid editing. I didn't pay much attention to it because I know that John Cummings knows how to profit from Wikipedia without having to resort to actually writing articles for money (ie Monmouthpedia (T-H-L), Wikipedian in Residence, consultant, etc) but then I looked at one of the articles in question - QWSTION. Wow.

Cummings has gotten professional images from the company and uploaded them to Commons. Then he has placed them in the Wikipedia page he wrote for QWSTION. There's about 40 (forty!) of them in the article. I will include a screenshot below so future historians can see for themselves.

screenshot

Qwstion.jpg

Of course the ANI thread isn't going well because there is no proof of paid editing and Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing) is there to loudly say that there's nothing wrong with this. Geeetech (T-H-L), another product catalogue created by John Cummings is likely to be deleted.

[AndyTheGrump]

[No Ledge]

Interesting that QWSTION has been around for the better part of a year and the Geeetech product gallery has been on Wikipedia since September 2018‎. Nobody noticed until recently?

Also I can't help but note that the editors behind this are the ones who have cracked the code for how to shake money loose from the Wikimedia Foundation's money tree. Wikimedians-in-residence, local chapter insiders, etc. As L. Hale. Seems they use their auto-patrolled status to slip by the articles-for-creation/new pages patrollers.

I'm not totally uncomfortable with having articles about companies like these, but I am uncomfortable with the extreme double standards applied based on the "credentials" or insider standing of the article authors.

If we're being real, if QWSTION were created by a new user, I suspect it would pretty quickly be draftified, stubified, or possibly tagged for G11.

Right.

[Newyorkbrad]

I was hoping this thread was about Johnny Ramone.

[AndyTheGrump]

I was hoping this thread was about Johnny Ramone.

Since it isn't perhaps you'd like to comment on the actual topic. If you saw an article like this from a new user, yow would you react?

[Midsize Jake]

I was hoping this thread was about Johnny Ramone.

Since it isn't perhaps you'd like to comment on the actual topic. If you saw an article like this from a new user, yow would you react?

To be fair, I was sort of hoping the same thing, though of course I would have preferred one on Joey.

Anyway, so far it looks like they're going to keep the QWSTION article, since right now there's only one "delete" vote (from Mr. Levivich, noting that there are no "WP:NCORP sources"). I predict that your (i.e., Mr. Grump's) suggestion — to rewrite the article so that it's less of a blatant advertisement — will get some perfunctory head-nodding, followed by zero effort made in that direction.

[AndyTheGrump]

I was hoping this thread was about Johnny Ramone.

Since it isn't perhaps you'd like to comment on the actual topic. If you saw an article like this from a new user, yow would you react?

To be fair, I was sort of hoping the same thing, though of course I would have preferred one on Joey.

Anyway, so far it looks like they're going to keep the QWSTION article, since right now there's only one "delete" vote (from Mr. Levivich, noting that there are no "WP:NCORP sources"). I predict that your (i.e., Mr. Grump's) suggestion — to rewrite the article so that it's less of a blatant advertisement — will get some perfunctory head-nodding, followed by zero effort made in that direction.

The more blatant promotional aspects of the article have already been removed. As for Levivich's observation, I've seen 'no WP:NCORP' arguments at AfD before (probably made them myself) having little or no effect for consumer brands with any sort of media presence at all. If it was down to me, the guideline would be a lot tighter, but it isn't. Or at least isn't as generally applied. Not much point in voting delete in such circumstances.

[Midsize Jake]

The more blatant promotional aspects of the article have already been removed.

Ehh, I don't mean to be a contrarian of anything, but it's still pretty blatant if you ask me.

Then again, I should say that it's actually quite impressive aesthetically, given the self-imposed visual/layout limitations of MediaWiki and all that. I almost bought a handbag myself, before I remembered that I'm more of a regular-guy type and I don't use handbags.

[Zoloft]

The more blatant promotional aspects of the article have already been removed.

Ehh, I don't mean to be a contrarian of anything, but it's still pretty blatant if you ask me.

Then again, I should say that it's actually quite impressive aesthetically, given the self-imposed visual/layout limitations of MediaWiki and all that. I almost bought a handbag myself, before I remembered that I'm more of a regular-guy type and I don't use handbags.

I owned a murse (T-H-L) once.

The '70s were lit.

[Beeblebrox]

I see that the article has been severely chopped, down to three paragraphs and one image, and Joe Roe has pulled Cummings' autopatrolled user right. I think that's a pretty reasonable outcome. It doesn't matter if it can be proven he had a coi or was being paid, the article on its own is evidence of a problem regardless of why.

[No Ledge]

Qwstion everything.

[Giraffe Stapler]

I will paraphrase John Cummings reply in the ANI thread about this:

I didn't do anything wrong. That guy was being mean to me. Why do men's topics like cars get pictures but when I put pictures of things that women like (like bags and 3D printers) people get upset? I have long COVID so I will be ignoring your questions until this ages off ANI. Peace out!

[No Ledge]

I will paraphrase John Cummings reply in the ANI thread about this:

I didn't do anything wrong. That guy was being mean to me. Why do men's topics like cars get pictures but when I put pictures of things that women like (like bags and 3D printers) people get upset? I have long COVID so I will be ignoring your questions until this ages off ANI. Peace out!

Buick Encore (T-H-L) a car that women love, based on all those ads they run during men's basketball games showing women raving about its ability to park itself ("I used to hate parallel parking!").

What the Wikipedia article doesn't have is pictures of cars in every color that GM offers for sale.

[AndyTheGrump]

I will paraphrase John Cummings reply in the ANI thread about this:

I didn't do anything wrong. That guy was being mean to me. Why do men's topics like cars get pictures but when I put pictures of things that women like (like bags and 3D printers) people get upset? I have long COVID so I will be ignoring your questions until this ages off ANI. Peace out!

Buick Encore (T-H-L) a car that women love, based on all those ads they run during men's basketball games showing women raving about its ability to park itself ("I used to hate parallel parking!").

What the Wikipedia article doesn't have is pictures of cars in every color that GM offers for sale.

That's one ugly car. If I was GM, I'd pay people to remove the photos...

[No Ledge]

I will paraphrase John Cummings reply in the ANI thread about this:

I didn't do anything wrong. That guy was being mean to me. Why do men's topics like cars get pictures but when I put pictures of things that women like (like bags and 3D printers) people get upset? I have long COVID so I will be ignoring your questions until this ages off ANI. Peace out!

Buick Encore (T-H-L) a car that women love, based on all those ads they run during men's basketball games showing women raving about its ability to park itself ("I used to hate parallel parking!").

What the Wikipedia article doesn't have is pictures of cars in every color that GM offers for sale.

That's one ugly car. If I was GM, I'd pay people to remove the photos...

Or was it Buick Envision (T-H-L) or Buick Enclave (T-H-L)?

I envision an encore in an enclave. To tell the truth I can't tell all those "Buick E" SUVs apart.

I think in the bigger models the woman is usually a mom ferrying her kids and their friends to a soccer match.

If she's lucky Mr. Mayhem isn't in the back seat causing trouble.