Obvious paid editors are obvious

[Eclipsed]

Obvious and well mentioned elsewhere, from a Big Company in the Oil and gas industry:

Arturo at BP (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Employee of BP (T-H-L)
Disclosure: Yes
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No
Last active: Mar 2013

and another Big Company, Oil and gas industry:

Saraorsi (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Employee of ConocoPhillips (T-H-L)
Disclosure: Yes
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No
Last active: Nov 2012

and another Big Company, Oil and gas industry:

Chevron justinh (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Employee of Chevron Corporation (T-H-L)
Disclosure: Yes
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No
Last active: Feb 2013

[thekohser]

Larry Sanger posted on Facebook that Columbus, Ohio is being considered by the Intelligent Community Forum (T-H-L) as one of the world's "smartest" cities.

So, I had a peek at who created and maintains their article PR puff piece with no independent reference citations on Wikipedia.

Randyrandy74 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Randall Barney is the Program Manager of the ICF. Randyrandy74 is his Facebook name.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes, copyright violation
Blocked: No

66.134.26.243 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Farmington, CT address -- not too far from ICF headquarters.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

ICFCommunications (T-C-L)
Likely COI: ICF's Communications department, perhaps?
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes
Blocked: Yes, by good old Cirt

I'd like to congratulate Intelligent Community Forum on successfully spamming Wikipedia.

[thekohser]

Some people have surmised that I must spend hours poring over Wikipedia articles, trying to find editors with a conflict of interest. Far from it. It's so simple to find a COI editor, just in the normal usage of Wikipedia.

For example, today I learned that a buddy of mine is going to be changing jobs, now working for Pinto Brothers foods. To learn more about Pinto Brothers, I went to their website. On their website, I saw that they feature a headline newsfeed from a publication called The Packer -- a trade journal for the fresh fruit and vegetable wholesale industry, since 1893!

I then wondered if The Packer has a Wikipedia article -- and it does... The Packer (T-H-L).

I check the edit history of such a relatively obscure article, and I see that one of the main contributors in 2011 was an IP address:

65.116.49.2 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: 65.116.49.2 is hosted by Vance Publishing, the publishers of The Packer. The IP editor also seemed to take a keen interest in editing the Wikipedia article about Redshirt Theory (T-H-L), a questionable encyclopedia article about an electronic music composer named Aaron Jones. How coincidental that according to his LinkedIn profile, the same Aaron Jones who is Redshirt Theory also worked as the Digital Advertising Manager for Vance Publishing between 2008 and 2011, when the IP address was editing the article about The Packer. Note that in the month that Jones left his job at Vance Publishing, the IP address essentially gutted the WP article about The Packer.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes, two mild warnings about external links and reliable sourcing
Blocked: No

Congratulations, Aaron "Redshirt Theory" Jones, for getting your musician autobiography published in Wikipedia, while on the clock at Vance Publishing!

[Hex]

Nice sleuthing.

[thekohser]

One paid editor is now keeping a public log of his timesheet.

Helps me figure out just how much time I'm spending on Wikipedia

Hey, what happened to the log, Eclipsed? I guess maybe duty called?

[TungstenCarbide]

Some people have surmised that I must spend hours poring over Wikipedia articles, trying to find editors with a conflict of interest. Far from it. It's so simple to find a COI editor, just in the normal usage of Wikipedia.

yup

[thekohser]

Some people have surmised that I must spend hours poring over Wikipedia articles, trying to find editors with a conflict of interest. Far from it. It's so simple to find a COI editor, just in the normal usage of Wikipedia.

yup

Don't forget this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one.

[thekohser]

Check out the contributions of Barslori (T-C-L), and then those of Loribars (T-C-L).

Two different accounts, so it couldn't possibly be the same person using them, right?

If anyone ever tells you that Wikipedia does not allow spam, ask them about the provenance of Unconquerable Nation (T-H-L). Did that spawn from the natural wisdom of the crowd, my friends?

[Eclipsed]

One paid editor is now keeping a public log of his timesheet.

Helps me figure out just how much time I'm spending on Wikipedia

Hey, what happened to the log, Eclipsed? I guess maybe duty called?

The public log was an experiment. I ran with it for a few months to see what would happen. I did log all my wiki-time, a majority of which was actually free work. No one on-wiki seemed to take much notice of it, either good or bad. It was time consuming and not giving much return, so I ended the experiment.

As for the shit-related article theme, that started way back with some work on Joseph Oppenheim (T-H-L) ("who invented the modern widespread manure spreader"), then much later a newly created biz stub for PooPrints (T-H-L) ("a commercial service that uses DNA profiling of feces to assist with pet waste management"), and then finished the trifecta with an AFC-fixup-and-accept of DoodyCalls (T-H-L) (yet another pet waste management company). All of that was free work. You can't make that shit up!

[thekohser]

As for the shit-related article theme, that started way back with some work on Joseph Oppenheim (T-H-L) ("who invented the modern widespread manure spreader"), then much later a newly created biz stub for PooPrints (T-H-L) ("a commercial service that uses DNA profiling of feces to assist with pet waste management"), and then finished the trifecta with an AFC-fixup-and-accept of DoodyCalls (T-H-L) (yet another pet waste management company). All of that was free work. You can't make that shit up!

Your note made me look a bit more into "pet waste" on Wikipedia, and it didn't take me long to find this probable violation of WP:BLP. Craftily done, to make it look like it's part of the cited reference. Thing is, it's so grammatically ambiguous, it's not clear exactly who didn't pay his bills! Yay, Wikipedia!

[thekohser]

Another simple one. I was just spouting off in another thread, mentioning "Smith Travel Research (T-H-L)". So, I grit my teeth and look to see if they have a Wikipedia article. Of course they do!

Stephawharton (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Stephanie Wharton is a reporter for HotelNewsNow.com, a subsidiary of Smith Travel Research.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Over 95%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Congratulations, Stephanie. It's not a bad article, and nearly 700 Wikipedia users per month are able to find what they were looking for.

[thekohser]

Mikejwalsh (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Michael Walsh is chief sub-editor of Travel Weekly Group.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Over 60%
Ever warned on Talk page: Speedy delete notice and such
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

It's not obvious, but I get the sneaking suspicion that this editor, Ten Thousand Bullets (T-C-L), is a paid editor.

[thekohser]

Ladtdisart (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably an employee of The CW Television Network, if not company president Mark Pedowitz himself.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Over 80%
Ever warned on Talk page: Speedy delete notice
Blocked: No

[DanMurphy]

Wildtigers (T-C-L) has really spiffed up the Wikipedia article on controversial Indonesian tycoon and political fixer Tomy Winata (T-H-L).

Mr. Tigers also controls his bosses article on the Indonesian wikipedia (but since editor numbers are so low there, that's really easy to do).

[thekohser]

Wildtigers (T-C-L) has really spiffed up the Wikipedia article on controversial Indonesian tycoon and political fixer Tomy Winata (T-H-L).

Mr. Tigers also controls his bosses article on the Indonesian wikipedia (but since editor numbers are so low there, that's really easy to do).

Wildtigers... Winata,tomy. I think I see a pattern.

[DanMurphy]

Wildtigers (T-C-L) has really spiffed up the Wikipedia article on controversial Indonesian tycoon and political fixer Tomy Winata (T-H-L).

Mr. Tigers also controls his bosses article on the Indonesian wikipedia (but since editor numbers are so low there, that's really easy to do).

Wildtigers... Winata,tomy. I think I see a pattern.

Oh, it's easier than that. One of the window-dressing charities he has is supposed to be saving tigers in Sumatra.

Another of his employees is Nyong s (T-C-L), who makes the connection explicit here (Artha Graha is Tommy's holding company).

I suspect paid editing is particularly effective for folks like Tommy.

[thekohser]

I suspect paid editing is particularly effective for folks like Tommy.

You mean "Tomy".

[thekohser]

Mn185015 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably Mukesh Negi, because the account's sole purpose is to add links to Negi's blog. Even if the links were eventually removed from Wikipedia, Negi still got at least a couple months' worth of free link advertising.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: A couple of mild warnings about link spam
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Asaganich (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably Al Saganich, who is Sr. Principal Curriculum Developer (Oracle).
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: A mild warning not to use YouTube as a link in WP articles
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Paulcolmer (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably Paul Colmer, who is Lead Consultant for CSC. CSC awarded a grant for Colmer to write a paper about "In memory data grids", and so all of Colmer's brief foray into Wikipedia was singularly focused on promotion of in memory data grids.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Couple of notices that his pet article was being nominated for deletion, but at least they invited him to the Teahouse before he quit the project.
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Enes1177 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Likely to be Enes Akar, a developer for the Hazelcast company.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%, even the deleted content from 2009 that you can no longer see in his contributions history.
Ever warned on Talk page: Multiple notices about when his 2009 article on "Chemorbis" (his employer before Hazelcast) was deleted. Plus, a copyright violation notice about his work on Hazelcast.
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Cimas (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Signs off as Dr. Benjamin Gilad, one of the founders of Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence (T-H-L), an article created by Cimas.
Disclosure: Yes, but not on his User page
Unity of focus: About 70% or more
Ever warned on Talk page: Multiple notices about how he wasn't playing nicely with other Wikipedians, including calling them "son" in his rebuttals.
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Andyfreeberg (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Andy Freeberg is a former employee of Eastwick Communications (a PR firm) that handled the account of myDIALS, whose Wikipedia article Freeberg created. He now works for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (T-H-L), which is the only Wikipedia article Freeberg has edited since 2011.
Disclosure: Yes
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No, just a friendly welcome.
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

I hope that it's becoming fairly clear that the Wikipedia governance system (especially Jimbo Wales) emphasizes how "bad" and "unethical" it is for paid conflict-of-interest editors to create or modify content about the subject with which they are closely affiliated. However, if it is this simple for me (and others) to discover these very obvious paid COI editors who have scarcely been admonished or reverted, one has to question... why does Wikipedia's governance system even address this so-called problem? Wouldn't it be better to just encourage disclosure and welcome the editing?

[Hex]

Wouldn't it be better to just encourage disclosure and welcome the editing?

I, and also this cheerful tomato that I found in an image search for "thumbs up", concur.

[thekohser]

MariaTash (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably is Maria Tash (T-H-L), who by dint of hosting the Thursday, May 6, 2010 seminar "Power Selling With Style" at the Association of Professional Piercers' Annual Conference & Exposition, is now considered by Wikipedia as "an authority on the art of body piercing." (Note that the "reliable source", the trade show handbook, is incorrectly cited in Wikipedia as the QAPP, rather than the APP, because the ball closure ring in the organization's logo looks vaguely like the letter "Q".)

More than 5 months later, the WP reference to the Association of Professional Piercers still erroneously reads "QAPP", thanks to a lousy logo design.

You can spoon-feed the errors to all of the various Wikipedians on this message board, but in most cases, they either are too stupid to pick up on the cues, or they really don't give a crap about Wikipedia's "always improving" mantra. QAPP, it is!

[Ming]

I hope that it's becoming fairly clear that the Wikipedia governance system (especially Jimbo Wales) emphasizes how "bad" and "unethical" it is for paid conflict-of-interest editors to create or modify content about the subject with which they are closely affiliated.

What I gather is that whoever-it-is is making a distinction between editing as an employee and editing for hire. Ming's conquest of Wikipedia is not yet complete, so he is as yet unable to dictate that mere businesses are not fit subject matter for an encyclopedia, but considering the treatment of Arturo at BP and several other similar cases Ming deduces that those who usurp his rightful reign don't care about employee editing. Ming thinks this is an obtuse attitude on their part.

[EricBarbour]

So, Greg! How's that chapter on paid editing coming along?......

[thekohser]

So, Greg! How's that chapter on paid editing coming along?......

It's coming along!

[Hex]

Agnesodelia (T-C-L)

Appeared out of nowhere in 2009 to create the fully-formed article Thiess Contractors Indonesia (T-H-L), about a mining company, then vanished. The article has remained virtually untouched ever since. An absolutely perfect effort, well done.

Interestingly, the paid editor seems to have stolen the name of a real person in Indonesia to use as a disguise.

[thekohser]

Appeared out of nowhere in 2009 to create the fully-formed article Thiess Contractors Indonesia (T-H-L), about a mining company, then vanished.

I like how "the community" has fleshed out the content with many, many reliable sources.

[EricBarbour]

Appeared out of nowhere in 2009 to create the fully-formed article Thiess Contractors Indonesia (T-H-L), about a mining company, then vanished.

I like how "the community" has fleshed out the content with many, many reliable sources.

Still, it's a pretty good article, even with the typos and the bland corporate-speak that conveys no information.
(Note the edits made since it was created. Mostly gnomes and bots, changing categories. And doing very little else.)

[thekohser]

A client of Freud Communications (Mrs. Jimbo Wales' employer) is The Fat Duck (T-H-L), run by chef proprietor Heston Blumenthal (T-H-L). What do you know?

Sjonesy909 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Either an employee of The Fat Duck, or is Blumenthal himself
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: A mild rebuke by "Zoticus"
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

MatthewViagogo (T-C-L), Laurabrown11 (T-C-L), Sophiebrown11 (T-C-L), and Ses62 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Every edit is to the Viagogo article, with some edits blatantly attempting to remove content that's critical of the company.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Two were warned, two were not
Blocked: No


Note: Viagogo is a "crisis communications" client of Freud Communications (employer of Kate Garvey, Jimmy Wales' spouse).

[EricBarbour]

MatthewViagogo (T-C-L), Laurabrown11 (T-C-L), Sophiebrown11 (T-C-L), and Ses62 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Every edit is to the Viagogo article, with some edits blatantly attempting to remove content that's critical of the company.
Note: Viagogo is a "crisis communications" client of Freud Communications (employer of Kate Garvey, Jimmy Wales' spouse).

Now, this is the kind of stuff we need for the book. I'll bet that almost every Freud client is receiving such "treatment".

[EricBarbour]

Coriolis (T-C-L)
Likely COI: right there on his bloody userpage: "I work at Coriolis Research. http://www.coriolisresearch.com. Contact me via info@coriolisresearch.com attention Tim and it will find me." Coriolis is a market research firm that "focuses on food, consumer packaged goods, retailing and foodservice". He edits articles about food and grocery companies Kraft and Safeway, and almost nothing else.
Disclosure: Yes, and he was apparently ignored. Stuck it right in their faces.
Unity of focus: 90+%
Ever warned on Talk page: One miserable warning from Coren's bot, dating from 2007. Otherwise nothing.
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Our church is considering trading our Wissinger organ for a Fisk organ.

Of course... Cbfiskinc (T-C-L)

[EricBarbour]

As mentioned elsewhere:
MorganH85 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: employee or representative of Four Loko (T-H-L).
Disclosure: no
Focus: 90+%
Blocked or warned: no

Note: as usual with biased corporate articles, most of Four Loko was written by random IP addresses and minor sockpuppets.

[thekohser]

Jilltutt (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Affiliated with Qualtrics
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Then comes the stream of COI editors... LithiumFlower (T-C-L), Surveyq (T-C-L), Tylergpage911 (T-C-L) (Tyler Page works for Qualtrics), and the aptly-named Qualtricswiki (T-C-L). And let's not forget the IP address that traces to Qualtrics headquarters, 199.58.199.98 (T-C-L).

Again, not really fishing for this stuff -- I use the Qualtrics survey platform occasionally in my work. They're good folks out there in Utah.

[thekohser]

And I glance at a note I have on my bulletin board, about the American Customer Satisfaction Index (T-H-L) (ACSI), so...

Lkerber (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Larry Kerber went to the University of Michigan, where the ACSI was launched.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Then followed quickly by:
Morgeson (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Forrest Morgeson is the director of the ACSI
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%, including the biography of the founder of ACSI
Ever warned on Talk page: Pestered twice to remember edit summaries
Blocked: No

Then:
68.40.167.226 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address from Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the ACSI
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Over 90%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Then:
141.211.41.12 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address from University of Michigan
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Over 95%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Then:
65.23.81.67 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address has a mail-to address at the ACSI
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Then, Forrest Morgeson decides to open a new account:
Fmorgeson (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Director of the ACSI
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes! Given a COI warning, after seven years of unfettered activity on the article in question, and no activity by the account in about 20 months. So, not even likely the warning has been read by Morgeson.
Blocked: No


Remember, one of the main stories that the Wikimedia Foundation loves to tell is that Wikipedia is created by volunteers who work for free to build a neutral encyclopedia. It brings a tear to the eye.

(I would say that the above accounts have done 90% of all the work on the ACSI article.)

[TungstenCarbide]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =557581308

[thekohser]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =557581308

Wow, that's the first time I've seen that "Connected contributor" template. Those are really ugly.

They should go on thousands of Wikipedia articles.

[Michaeldsuarez]

Wow, that's the first time I've seen that "Connected contributor" template. Those are really ugly.

They should go on thousands of Wikipedia articles. :evilgrin:

That template is usually placed on the talk page. In fact, it's currently the only page in the article space that possesses that template. Perhaps the template should be moved to the talk page for equality's sake.

[TungstenCarbide]

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =557581308

Wow, that's the first time I've seen that "Connected contributor" template. Those are really ugly.

They should go on thousands of Wikipedia articles.

First time I've ever seen it on an article instead of the talk page. I think you're right, Greg, there are thousands of articles that could use that tag - alert the readers to what a dump the place is.

[Poetlister]

That template is usually placed on the talk page. In fact, it's currently the only page in the article space that possesses that template. Perhaps the template should be moved to the talk page for equality's sake.

No, the templates should all be moved to the main page. There is very little point having them on the talk page, where maybe 99% of people who look at the article will never look. One wonders how the practice of hiding the template became so prevalent. (Answers on a postcard please.)

[thekohser]

The Connected contributor template's cousin (with which it was merged) was the Notable Wikipedian template, which ever carried complaints as being too self-referential.

Fewer than 3,500 Wikipedia pages contain either the Connected contributor or the Connected contributor multi templates. If the templates were applied liberally, I would guess that 500,000 or more pages should carry the tag.

[EricBarbour]

The Connected contributor template's cousin (with which it was merged) was the Notable Wikipedian template, which ever carried complaints as being too self-referential.

Fewer than 3,500 Wikipedia pages contain either the Connected contributor or the Connected contributor multi templates. If the templates were applied liberally, I would guess that 500,000 or more pages should carry the tag.

Sounds about right to me, as a bare minimum......

[tarantino]

Ps6665! (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably Peter S. Fosl (T-H-L).
Disclosure: no
Focus: 100%
Blocked or warned: no

Despite creating and making 50 edits to the Peter S. Fosl biography, over a 5 year period, Ps6665! has no user or talk page. He's never been welcomed.

[Volunteer Marek]

Ps6665! (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably Peter S. Fosl (T-H-L).
Disclosure: no
Focus: 100%
Blocked or warned: no

Despite creating and making 50 edits to the Peter S. Fosl biography, over a 5 year period, Ps6665! has no user or talk page. He's never been welcomed.

That doesn't look like paid editing but rather just good ol' fashioned COI.