Obvious paid editors are obvious

[EricBarbour]

They've created three fully formed ads in one edit for each, ‎Customs4U (T-H-L), Baci Lingerie (T-H-L) and Skweez Media (T-H-L). One was deleted and the other two are at AFD. No one has accused them of being a paid editor yet, but it's obvious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... i_Lingerie

Contested speedy for publicity/notability/copyvio, I did a quick check of a few phrases for copyvio and haven't found them in current edition. Possibility of notability, bringing to AfD for consensus vs a speedy. Tawker (talk) 18:33, 21 March 2014 (UTC)
Note - article does require considerable cleanup, does read as advert right now -- Tawker (talk) 18:35, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Hey looky, that little shit Tawker has crawled out of his basement once again. I thought he quit WP back in 2012.
Now I've gotta write up some more of his "valuable work". Still talking about the Boy Scouts, eh Andrew?

[Poetlister]

Talpatra (T-C-L)

They've created three fully formed ads in one edit for each, ‎Customs4U (T-H-L), Baci Lingerie (T-H-L) and Skweez Media (T-H-L). One was deleted and the other two are at AFD. No one has accused them of being a paid editor yet, but it's obvious.

Customs4U has been speedied. Baci Lingerie is on AfD, but Cirt has voted keep. The name's a rip-off of a well-known firm of London lawyers. Skweez Media is also on AfD.

[Hex]

Baci Lingerie is on AfD, but Cirt has voted keep. The name's a rip-off of a well-known firm of London lawyers.

That is about as likely as the name of this chocolate being a rip-off of a well-known firm of London lawyers.

[tarantino]

Jordan.labelle (T-C-L). He is Jordan LaBelle, copywriter for Oxi Fresh Franchising Co. and the sole author of Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning (T-H-L), besides the bots adding and changing categories and disambiguations. The article is essentially unchanged since his last edit in July 2012.

[thekohser]

This is a classic way of using Commons to self-promote.

Mohammad Saleem Mian.



In case it gets deleted:

Description
English: I have been in real estate sales for over 14 years and have greatly enjoyed my vast variety of clientele and the challenge of the industry. During those years, I have developed great concern for the goals of the business entrepreneur and investors and am mandated to assist my clients in all possible ways to achieve their goals.

I have successfully completed the purchase and sale of numerous plazas, office buildings, Apartment Buildings, hotels, businesses, industrial buildngs, agriculture land and homes. The invaluable amount of experience and expertise gained throughout the years help me provide better service to clients at all times. My dedication to research and communications has also enhanced my ability to provide faster and more accurate information to my clients.

The real estate industry is challenging, ever-changing and multi-faceted. My education and work experience, together with the many updates, the real estate associations provide to realtors on a regular basis, made this profession interesting, rewarding and satisfying. In fact, the most satisfying experience is to have a happy buyer or seller. I often consider my client's success as my own success.

Feel free to contact me for your real estate investment needs or if you intend to purchase or sell a business, or your existing real estate investment. Trust is the key for better service.

Date 26 August 2011
Source Own work
Author Mianms

[Jim]

This is a classic way of using Commons to self-promote.

Mohammad Saleem Mian.

In case it gets deleted:

Description
English: I have been in real estate sales for over 14 years and have greatly enjoyed my vast variety of clientele and the challenge of the industry. During those years, I have developed great concern for the goals of the business entrepreneur and investors and am mandated to assist my clients in all possible ways to achieve their goals.

I have successfully completed the purchase and sale of numerous plazas, office buildings, Apartment Buildings, hotels, businesses, industrial buildngs, agriculture land and homes. The invaluable amount of experience and expertise gained throughout the years help me provide better service to clients at all times. My dedication to research and communications has also enhanced my ability to provide faster and more accurate information to my clients.

The real estate industry is challenging, ever-changing and multi-faceted. My education and work experience, together with the many updates, the real estate associations provide to realtors on a regular basis, made this profession interesting, rewarding and satisfying. In fact, the most satisfying experience is to have a happy buyer or seller. I often consider my client's success as my own success.

Feel free to contact me for your real estate investment needs or if you intend to purchase or sell a business, or your existing real estate investment. Trust is the key for better service.

Date 26 August 2011
Source Own work
Author Mianms

Yeah, but... would you buy a house (or a raft in a flood) from that man? This COI stuff may sometimes be counterproductive, you know.

[EricBarbour]

Anyone care to bet that Matti Leshem (T-H-L) and Gatam (T-C-L) might be more than a bit, um, friendly?......

[tarantino]

Jeremy112233 (T-C-L) has to be one of the most successful paid editors. Just look at the list of 454 articles he showcases on his user page, and the photos he has uploaded, particularly, the 15 publicity photos of Zevia soda cans where he claimed they were his own work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... tagfilter=
04:33, 6 August 2012 Dcoetzee (talk | contribs) deleted page File:Zevia Strawberry.jpg (This is a professional product photo with a commercial camera by Gary VanStraten. Not the uploader's own work.)
00:38, 31 March 2012 Jeremy112233 (talk | contribs) uploaded "File:Zevia Strawberry.jpg" (This is my photograph and I relinquish its copyright to the public domain.)

13 of those photos were subsequently uploaded to commons by obvious paid editor HtownCat(T-C-F-L).

[tarantino]

Jeremy112233 (T-C-L) has to be one of the most successful paid editors...

I see that wikipedians recently investigated Jeremy112233, and the evidence strongly suggests that he is the COO of WikiExperts (T-H-L). On October 17, 2013, the firm, its employees, and any related firms were banned from editing Wikipedia. James Cummins (author) (T-H-L) is presumably his autobiography. He's denied all of this though.

[thekohser]

We should probably add WMF staffer Zack Exley to this list of COI self-aggrandizing editors. He's not having a good time of it right now. Probably would have helped if he weren't so snide and arrogant.

[enwikibadscience]

We should probably add WMF staffer Zack Exley to this list of COI self-aggrandizing editors. He's not having a good time of it right now. Probably would have helped if he weren't so snide and arrogant.

It didn't help me any, being snide and arrogant. Well, it might have. No one at en.Wikipedia listens to dissonant voices, none-boys-club members, until a boy can complain about their arrognce, then you actually start getting a few things done. Better than nothing.

All that crap about anyone can edit, SOFIXIT, etc. is just BS.

[thekohser]

Sorry for cross-posting, but from this story, we find:

Ekcpr (T-C-L)
(Eileen Koch & Company Public Relations)

Presumably with client Gurbaksh Chahal (T-H-L) (first guest of The Secret Millionaire (T-H-L) and CEO of RadiumOne (T-H-L) -- both articles started by Ekcpr).

[EricBarbour]

We should probably add WMF staffer Zack Exley to this list of COI self-aggrandizing editors. He's not having a good time of it right now. Probably would have helped if he weren't so snide and arrogant.

And Vandenberg is going around AFDing the articles Zach worked on. And Forsyth shows up to, predictably, attack Zach. And others show up to defend Zach. And Gerard puts his useless pseudo-pithy two cents in the bucket:

This is basically the action: bitter querulousness.

It doesn't, unless you're a banned editor looking to troll.

It's not that these people are corrupt/incompetent/etc, that's been well established. It's that they are so deterministic. The battle lines have been drawn, over and over again, and they repeat the same idiotic actions like mechanisms.

[Hex]

And Gerard puts his useless pseudo-pithy two cents in the bucket:

This is basically the action: bitter querulousness.

He does love that word, doesn't he?

[thekohser]

Nroth82 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: In 2010, Nicholas Roth was a Communications Specialist with Maritz LLP.
Disclosure: "yes I am Nick Roth and I do work at Maritz, however I still do not see how this article is advertising"
Unity of focus: Appears to be close to 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes
Blocked: No

See also: 156.45.254.11 (T-C-L) and 156.45.254.69 (T-C-L) (both trace to Maritz headquarters ISP).

[thekohser]

Lipmanhearne (T-C-L), Klramsey (T-C-L), and Armadillopanda (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Kyra Ramsey was a Marketing Manager at Lipman Hearne
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100% for both of the latter accounts that still have viewable contributions
Ever warned on Talk page: Armadillopanda was "Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Lipmanhearne"
Blocked: Lipmanhearne and Armadillopanda, yes. Klramsey, no.

Congratulations to Klramsey, who has had almost complete control of the Lipman Hearne (T-H-L) article, since 2009.

[EricBarbour]

I think Patapsco913 (T-C-L) is a good candidate for a paid editor.

He does endless bios of Jewish businesspeople and their relatives. Lately, everyone associated with Levi Strauss and the Smart & Final grocery chain, very systematically. Every bio has the same format, and none of them ever has the slightest bit of negative information about the subjects.

P913 worked on the bios of Comcast executives. I recently saw someone on IRC talking about blocking it because "it's obviously Kohs, who works for Comcast". (Greg denies it's him or anyone he knows.)

If Patapsco913 doesn't slow down or change his process, he's gonna be blocked, and probably for bad/wrong reasons.

[thekohser]

I think Patapsco913 (T-C-L) is a good candidate for a paid editor.

He does endless bios of Jewish businesspeople and their relatives.

In my experience, paying customers tend to break out as follows:

20% want an article about a person
20% want an article about a thing
60% want an article about a corporation

I have doubts that a paid editor would have so much "volume" just on biographies, and all Jews. Unless he's working on behalf of some Jewish business organization, like the Jewish Business Network.

[thekohser]

Asifkhan83 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Asif Khan is a former Market Research guy at Hall and Partners / Omnicom.
Disclosure: None that I could see
Unity of focus: Appears to be close to 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes, numerous times about image use
Blocked: Are you kidding? Of course not!

See also, 12.166.104.210 (T-C-L) and AliHewitt (T-C-L).

[Hersch]

I haven't been tuning in to this thread on a regular basis, but lately the issue of paid editors has been on my mind. If a Real Life Person or business saw something on their WP article that was unfair or defamatory and wanted to do something about it, it seems to me that in most cases they would quickly become road kill if they went in and tried to fix it themselves, regardless of whether they chose to disclose their COI. It seems to me that people in this position need assistance from WikiKombat veterans, who are familiar with the Byzantine rules and can anticipate and outwit the system gamers. Companies like Greg's could be seen as simply a means of leveling the playing field.

[thekohser]

Here's something -- another organization partners with a Wikimedia Foundation group to fund a Wikipedian-in-Residence, and it turns out that the organization's Wikipedia article (Cochrane Collaboration (T-H-L)) has mostly been written by people with a financial conflict of interest.

Yay, Bright Line Rule!

(I almost feel sorry for Jimbo, having his nose rubbed in his oft-ignored "Rule", especially when the violators are friends of the WMF.)

[HRIP7]

Here's something -- another organization partners with a Wikimedia Foundation group to fund a Wikipedian-in-Residence, and it turns out that the organization's Wikipedia article (Cochrane Collaboration (T-H-L)) has mostly been written by people with a financial conflict of interest.

Yay, Bright Line Rule!

(I almost feel sorry for Jimbo, having his nose rubbed in his oft-ignored "Rule", especially when the violators are friends of the WMF.)

Interesting idea in the resulting discussion on Jimbo's talk page:

Soumyadeep B replies : Thank you for bringing into notice this issue and I will refrain from further editing the cochrane page. I did want to bring into focus on two larger issues

1. I did wonder since the WIR is also being paid by the Cochrane Collaboration how that is exempted from Wiki edit rules to incorporate Cochrane evidence into Wikipedia. Is not the whole scheme of WIR (nothing to do with qualifications of Sydney Poore)then against the grail of COI policies of Wiki - since it aims to cite a particular publishers evidence . It is to be noted that though Cochrane is a not-for-profit the cochrane library which will be cited in the wiki articles and the cochrane database of systematic reviews are both commercial entities being run by "for profit" private publisher Wiley which sells its subscription. Kindly clarify. About engaging in talk pages see end of point 2.

2. One cannot avoid conflict of interest altogether . The only people who have zero conflict of interest are people who have zero knowledge about it. The issue is transparency and that I have maintained that by mentioning COI in all pages and all articles where I have written(and that is how people have come to know about it). Maybe Wiki should also allow a section below each article , just like medical journals do to state competing interest. Otherwise in the name of COI all wiki will be doing is discourage people with high-end knowledge to edit and improve the quality of articles or make them do edits from anonymous accounts. Punishing people for transparency is not the right way of dealing with COI. Another way to go about it is that one might engage in talk page to avoid editing directly but i would still see it as per bioethical principles to be an "undue enticement" or "influence".

These broader issues on ethics and competing interests need to be discussed in details especially with regards to healthcare information and medical knowledge .

The idea marked in blue would meet EU legal disclosure requirements, because unlike the weaker kinds of disclosure championed by the Wikimedia Foundation's legal department (statement on the user's user page, the article talk page or in the edit summary), the disclosure would be visible to readers.

[thekohser]

FloNight will be paid only $6500 for six months of part-time work (mostly remote access). At just $250 a week, it's maybe twice what she might make on the front line of a fast food counter. Another example of how Wikipedia depresses the real monetary value of knowledge curation.

[EricBarbour]

Here's something -- another organization partners with a Wikimedia Foundation group to fund a Wikipedian-in-Residence, and it turns out that the organization's Wikipedia article (Cochrane Collaboration (T-H-L)) has mostly been written by people with a financial conflict of interest.

I need to write this up, not only because of COI editing but because two, (oops, THREE) prominent insiders were involved.

viewtopic.php?p=67262#p67262

[thekohser]

I think I have this paid editing thing all figured out now. Given that the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees is closing ranks with Jimbo, and they'll soon have that "paid advocacy disclosure" amendment on the Terms of Use, here's what you need to do to be a "trusted" paid contributor to Wikipedia.

First, write the following on your User page:

My name is <INSERT NAME> and I am an account manager at Interprose Public Relations. We work directly with high-tech clients in a variety of markets, with a specialization working with mobile and telecom companies. Our intention is not to utilize Wikipedia as a promotional medium, but rather to help the editing community deliver a factual summary of our clients' businesses. We do not wish to directly edit our clients' Wikipedia entries, but we are happy to act as a resource for the editing community by providing factual, non-advertorial information and accompanying third-party citations.

Member of Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement (CREWE)

Then simply proceed to edit Wikipedia just as you always have, with no Talk page "consensus building" bullcrap that never works anyway.

In no time, your client's Wikipedia article will shine with such "factual, non-advertorial information" as this:

That same year also saw the launch of its all-outdoor Horizon Compact[7] microwave radio with transport speeds of 800Mbit/s, as well as the AirPair Unite,[8] capable of handling both Ethernet and TDM traffic across a single wireless IP stream.

...In addition to adding greater frequency coverage with the introduction of its Horizon S-Series and E-Series[20] radios, DragonWave also achieved an industry first[21] by offering 2048 QAM on its Horizon products, a large advancement over the industry standard 256 QAM systems commonly used. Anticipating a rapidly growing need for wireless backhaul driven by expanded use of mobile devices and smartphones,[22] DragonWave's product portfolio addresses all available wireless frequencies, in both the licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

Problems all solved!

Thank you, Geoff Brigham. Thank you, Jimbo Wales. Thank you, CREWE group. Thank you all, for making COI advocacy editing "above board" because of the disclosure principle.

[HRIP7]

I think I have this paid editing thing all figured out now. Given that the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees is closing ranks with Jimbo, and they'll soon have that "paid advocacy disclosure" amendment on the Terms of Use, here's what you need to do to be a "trusted" paid contributor to Wikipedia.

First, write the following on your User page:

My name is <INSERT NAME> and I am an account manager at Interprose Public Relations. We work directly with high-tech clients in a variety of markets, with a specialization working with mobile and telecom companies. Our intention is not to utilize Wikipedia as a promotional medium, but rather to help the editing community deliver a factual summary of our clients' businesses. We do not wish to directly edit our clients' Wikipedia entries, but we are happy to act as a resource for the editing community by providing factual, non-advertorial information and accompanying third-party citations.

Member of Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement (CREWE)

Then simply proceed to edit Wikipedia just as you always have, with no Talk page "consensus building" bullcrap that never works anyway.

In no time, your client's Wikipedia article will shine with such "factual, non-advertorial information" as this:

That same year also saw the launch of its all-outdoor Horizon Compact[7] microwave radio with transport speeds of 800Mbit/s, as well as the AirPair Unite,[8] capable of handling both Ethernet and TDM traffic across a single wireless IP stream.

...In addition to adding greater frequency coverage with the introduction of its Horizon S-Series and E-Series[20] radios, DragonWave also achieved an industry first[21] by offering 2048 QAM on its Horizon products, a large advancement over the industry standard 256 QAM systems commonly used. Anticipating a rapidly growing need for wireless backhaul driven by expanded use of mobile devices and smartphones,[22] DragonWave's product portfolio addresses all available wireless frequencies, in both the licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

Problems all solved!

Thank you, Geoff Brigham. Thank you, Jimbo Wales. Thank you, CREWE group. Thank you all, for making COI advocacy editing "above board" because of the disclosure principle.

[thekohser]

Oh, darn... now look what you've done.

[Vigilant]

Oh, darn... now look what you've done.

It's almost like the "wikipedia community" is too incompetent to build an encyclopedia...or keep it clean from obvious corporate spam.

[thekohser]

Obornp (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Patrick Oborn, Founder of Telarus
Disclosure: User page identifies as Patrick Oborn, but Telarus barely mentioned
Unity of focus: Appears to be about 90% focused on the Telarus article, or adding commentary about Telarus to other companies' articles
Ever warned on Talk page: Mildly admonished for crufting up articles with obscure lists of "indirect channel partners"
Blocked: No

And look what we have here now!

Solveforce (T-C-L)

My name is Ron Legarski and I came to the Wikipedia community to share in the global brain trust that has become a universal compendium of human knowledge.

Telarus Video Library
Ron Legarski Endorses Telarus

Ron Legarski, president of Solveforce LLC, talks about the benefits of working through Telarus for his data, voice, and cloud clients. Solveforce was the top selling partner of Telarus in 2011.

[thekohser]

208.116.141.100 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address traces to Reliance Globalcom (T-H-L)
Disclosure: Disclosed relationship with MyWikiBiz and with Reliance network in every Wikipedia edit
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: Not yet

[EricBarbour]

208.116.141.100 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address traces to Reliance Globalcom (T-H-L)
Disclosure: Disclosed relationship with MyWikiBiz and with Reliance network in every Wikipedia edit
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: Not yet

Ah, so that's why Coretheapple was doing that "stuff". Crazy bastard.
I have written him up thusly for posterity. Yee-haw.

[EricBarbour]

System Center Configuration Manager (T-H-L)

Surely this is being written by Microsoft personnel, or someone else with a financial interest. Like a lot of Microsoft product articles, it's pathetic, but features an absurdly-detailed timeline of releases--especially recent ones.

(Mentioned only because of that funny Emory University business last night.)

[thekohser]

(Mentioned only because of that funny Emory University business last night.)

Obvious Kohs alma maters are obvious.

[thekohser]

Ah, so that's why Coretheapple was doing that "stuff". Crazy bastard.
I have written him up thusly for posterity. Yee-haw.

I would say that Coretheapple spent at least 5 hours solid this weekend, working himself up into a lather, over what was obviously intended as a throw-away prank. Smallbones probably wasted about 2 hours, as well.

[thekohser]

I'll be meeting later today with some employees of HUGE (digital agency) (T-H-L). Of course, I like to check out Wikipedia to inform myself of a neutral "sum of human knowledge" written by volunteers, sort of thing.

Top editors of that article?

Samwestonx (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Sam Weston has been VP of Communications for HUGE, since November 2010.
Disclosure: User page says "In 2007 I moved to New York to join Rubenstein." But then he took the new position at HUGE, and didn't update on Wikipedia.
Unity of focus: Appears to be about 50%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Other editors include 74.73.241.251 (T-C-L) (from Brooklyn, where HUGE is headquartered), Visor55 (T-C-L) (a single-purpose account that largely created most of the article that still holds up today), and 24.90.235.100 (T-C-L) (also from Brooklyn).

[thekohser]

Just participated in a market research survey about market research firms...

Was asked about my awareness of the firm NeuroFocus (T-H-L). Yes, I'm familiar with them. They were bugging me for business for the better part of a couple of years. Let's take a look at who created their Wikipedia article, contributing about 90% of its current content, shall we?

Maianhnguyen (T-C-L)
Likely COI: At the time of article creation, Mai-Ahn Nguyen was Marketing and Social Media Intern at NeuroFocus.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Appears to be at least 90%
Ever warned on Talk page: Speedy deletion notice
Blocked: No

Nguyen's impassioned plea not to delete NeuroFocus:

This article should not be deleted because it is a significant contribution to Wikipedia. Neuromarketing is a rapidly growing new industry and NeuroFocus has been identified as the leader of the field. NeuroFocus is an international company strategically invested in by the Nielsen Company and has a profile by Hoover's Inc. Many international, national, as well as local independent media outlets have reported on NeuroFocus, including significant sources such as NPR, CNN, BBC News, Business Today (Egypt,) San Francisco Chronicle, and Financial Times (London)among others. NeuroFocus is also supported by many notable figures (with Wikipedia pages) on its advisory board, including Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel.

Wikipedia would benefit from having a NeuroFocus page as people who are interested in Neuromarketing (already a Wikipedia page) would be able gain access to an example of a neuromarketing company. Wikipedia users would be able to see how a neuromarketing company was developed and the services and offerings that it is able to provide. Having a NeuroFocus page would help to bring more attention to neuromarketing, a new phenomenon in global business and market research. NeuroFocus and neuromarketing have provided significant advances in market research and have been able to provide an alternate, and purportedly much more effective and actionable, way for companies to gain information about consumers. The neuromarketing phenomenon is steadily gaining more press and attention and Wikipedia would benefit from having an example company.

And, look, Mai-Ahn -- you won! Your article is still there, after almost 4 years. Jimbo still makes lots of money from speeches about Wikipedia and its neutrality; the NeuroFocus article is viewed about 25 times a day by interested readers; and you, my dear, have advanced your career to Assistant Buyer in aerie Underwear, at American Eagle Outfitters in Pittsburgh.

Life is good.

[thekohser]

Aligzanduh (T-C-L)
Likely COI: CEO of Etheric Networks, Alexander Hagen
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: For the first half of his wiki-career, appears to be at least 60%
Ever warned on Talk page: Notability of articles he created
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

There I was, reading the Wikimedia Foundation's blog post about Yale's Information Society Project (T-H-L), and so I wanted to know more about this effort by Yale University. I can trust Wikipedia to be neutral and free of paid advocacy editors, so there I turned! Wikipedia taught me that Dr. Laura E. DeNardis was the Project's Executive Director from 2008-2011. How did I learn this? I simply reviewed the contributions of the creator of Wikipedia's article about the Information Society Project...

Drled (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Is it possible that Drled is Dr. Laura E. DeNardis?
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Appears to be over 90%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes, in August 2012, she was told "Please do not write an article about yourself."
Blocked: Nope

In fact, even after that 2012 warning, she came back the following year to promote her own book.

Five dollars to the Wikipedian who posts this info to JimboTalk, and has it stick there for at least 24 hours.

[thekohser]

Five dollars to the Wikipedian who posts this info to JimboTalk, and has it stick there for at least 24 hours.

Okay, how about ten bucks?

[thekohser]

Five dollars to the Wikipedian who posts this info to JimboTalk, and has it stick there for at least 24 hours.

Okay, how about ten bucks?

Fifteen dollars is my final offer. I don't want to hear any Wikipedian in good standing complaining about "the economy", if you can't even be arsed to spend 5 minutes to earn $15. That equates to a $360K annual income.

[thekohser]

There I was, reading the Wikimedia Foundation's blog post about Yale's Information Society Project (T-H-L), and so I wanted to know more about this effort by Yale University. I can trust Wikipedia to be neutral and free of paid advocacy editors, so there I turned! Wikipedia taught me that Dr. Laura E. DeNardis was the Project's Executive Director from 2008-2011. How did I learn this? I simply reviewed the contributions of the creator of Wikipedia's article about the Information Society Project...

Drled (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Is it possible that Drled is Dr. Laura E. DeNardis?
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Appears to be over 90%
Ever warned on Talk page: Yes, in August 2012, she was told "Please do not write an article about yourself."
Blocked: Nope

In fact, even after that 2012 warning, she came back the following year to promote her own book.

It looks like Jimmy Wales is not pleased with the Wikipedia editing activity of the former director of the Yale Information Society. Even after she was warned about editing about herself with a conflict of interest, she promoted her own book on Wikipedia, as recently as a few months ago. Jimbo says:

"My position is the same as always. I frown very strongly on such things. In many or most cases it starts with someone not knowing any better. But once people have been warned, I have little sympathy for it."

It would appear that the Wikimedia Foundation (via Ms. Patel) should be a little more careful about which entities it chooses to align itself. Of course, it is likely that nothing will happen to the Wikipedia content manipulated by Dr. DeNardis, nor will her User account be reprimanded or restricted in any way.

[tarantino]

Kseling (T-C-L), is probably Katie Seling, public relations director of Seattle City Light (T-H-L). 156.74.250.7 resolves to global.ci.seattle.wa.us. Their combined edits to Seattle City Light are here.

On June 14th, The Seattle Times reported "City Light hires online results firm to polish its CEO’s image".

Late last year, Seattle City Light executives didn’t like what rose to the top of Google search results about the public electric utility and Chief Executive Officer Jorge Carrasco’s tenure there.

So City Light hired Brand.com, an online reputation-management company, to drown out critical stories in search results and replace them with happier items.

The “action plan” described in the contract with Brand.com called for creating positive blog items and stories about City Light’s green image, “to thereby lessen the prevalence of any negative or less-relevant stories.”

...

Among the mentions generated for City Light by the deal were blog posts on websites including Huffington Post, which did not disclose they were connected to a paid marketing campaign for the utility.

City Light’s chief of staff, Sephir Hamilton, signed the contract with Brand.com in October, and extended it in February. The two contracts together authorized $47,500 for services through the end of this year. But a City Light spokesman said the city had paid only $17,500 to date and did not plan to spend more.

[thekohser]

Ltorvi (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably is Lara Torvi, who is the Communications Manager at the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Just one teeny, tiny warning about an image copyright concern (a photo of her boss Carole Post (T-H-L), who <as we know> left the NYC DOITT to become the Chief Strategy gal at the discriminatory New York Law School).
Blocked: No

And the painful irony is that as I find more and more low-impact and undisclosed (but easily identified) PR editors working on Wikipedia, it's very often that they are the youthful, attractive, female editors that Wikipedia's community desperately needs to balance out the male, basement-dwelling, neckbeard types; but what these young ladies are doing is "breaking Jimbo's Bright Line Rule", and so should be subjected to admonishment. (But, thankfully, they very rarely ever are scolded, or their content reverted.)

For example, here is Ms. Torvi:

[Poetlister]

they are the youthful, attractive, female editors ... they very rarely ever are scolded, or their content reverted.

No doubt if they were scolded, Jimbo would be very thoughtful.

[Hex]

And the painful irony is that as I find more and more low-impact and undisclosed (but easily identified) PR editors working on Wikipedia, it's very often that they are the youthful, attractive, female editors that Wikipedia's community desperately needs to balance out the male, basement-dwelling, neckbeard types; but what these young ladies are doing is "breaking Jimbo's Bright Line Rule", and so should be subjected to admonishment. (But, thankfully, they very rarely ever are scolded, or their content reverted.)

That's an interesting point. Like Victoria "AnnBLea" Taylor.

[tarantino]

If you browse through some of the 118,816 articles categorized as orphaned, you will find a plethora of bad articles. One of the first I looked at was Mc2 energy drink (T-H-L), which has been around for 6 years. It was written by Rserota (T-C-L), who also wrote MC2 Energy Drink (T-H-L) (which has been created and deleted 4 times), and Ronald Serota (T-H-L).

Ronald Serota was an attorney and had an ownership interest in CleanPath and Beverage Plus, the company that marketed MC2 energy drink. He can no longer practice law, after admitting to misappropriating client funds to prop up Beverage Plus, and has also recently divested all of his interest in CleanPath.

[thekohser]

65.204.229.11 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: IP address owned by Intuit corporation
Disclosure: No outward sign to the Wikipedia user that this is an Intuit IP address
Unity of focus: Appears to be at least 20%
Ever warned on Talk page: Several warnings for unconstructive content
Blocked: No

Hall of fame edits:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =558791785
* http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =368066032
* http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =245507157

[NotNormal]

they are the youthful, attractive, female editors ... they very rarely ever are scolded, or their content reverted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk: ... t_Terminus

Paid? More than likely. Sockpuppet? Definitely. Warned, only for sockpuppetry and then allowed to continue on the same path (2 warning for sockpuppetry in fact).

To save you from combing through the clutter, here is my favorite message from WilliamH: "Hi. Despite the results of the second sockpuppetry case filed against you, I have requested that your account is not blocked. Speaking as someone myself who has created articles where a conflict of interest may be construed......." By the way, WilliamH blocked one of my socks a while ago with skipping a beat.

[thekohser]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk: ... t_Terminus

Paid? More than likely.

Anyone who created an article Healthy Paws Pet Insurance (T-H-L) is a paid editor, and if not, I will eat a dog.

Not to mention...

NRF Loss Prevention Conference & EXPO (T-H-L)

TravelerVIP (T-H-L)

Olympia 66 (T-H-L)

R&F City (T-H-L)

If at least 50% of these are not paid content, I'll donate $50 to the WMF (which is worse than eating a dog).

[tarantino]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk: ... t_Terminus

Paid? More than likely.

Anyone who created an article Healthy Paws Pet Insurance (T-H-L) is a paid editor, and if not, I will eat a dog.

Here's her Elance profile.