Obvious paid editors are obvious

[thekohser]

clearly, you don´t want me to participate on this subject. Point taken. Bye, bye.

I'd love to have you participate here.

My hypothesis goes as follows:

* More women than men participate in the public relations and digital marketing industries. (Edit: This may be a false premise, but it is at least close to 50-50, or could be over 60%.)
* The Wikimedia community wants a greater proportion of women participating on Wikipedia.
* The Wikimedia community shuns or restricts participation on Wikipedia from personnel in the public relations and digital marketing industries.

Something's got to give, don't you think?

I don't understand why you'd feel driven off by my wry comment that focuses mostly on my third point above.

[Poetlister]

Edgar Foxall (T-C-L) is mostly written by Edgarfoxall (T-C-L), obviously not the same person, but maybe his son or grandson. The claim to notability is very weak: his "work features in one of the Penguin poetry anthologies, Poetry of the Thirties (1964)". I am not sure if it would survive an AfD.

[slacker]

The almost automatic bad faith assumption that User:X must have a conflict of interest with topic X is one of Wikipedia's biggest flaws re. COI editting. Common sense should tell anyone who has ever editted Wikipedia for a while, that when trying to dream up a user name, in a not insignificant number of cases, their mind will often gravitate to something related to the thing they want to write about. Unless their very first edit's are of the form, "X is the best thing sing sliced bread", then the useless busy bodies who constantly patrol the creation logs for user name 'violations', should simply butt out.

[thekohser]

Unless their very first edit's are of the form, "X is the best thing sing sliced bread"...

In many cases, the first edits are indeed in the form of singing bread, and that's how we know they're paid and/or COI editors. They're singing for their bread, as it were.

[thekohser]

Ambrishraja (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Seems to think that Amrish J. Kawa was first to introduce cardboard furniture to the land of India, and he wants everyone to know it.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Numerous times
Blocked: No

[thekohser]

Anyone ever hear of World Fuel Services (T-H-L)? Until today, I hadn't (when I learned that it is supposedly the company headquartered in Florida that has the most revenues).

Wikipedia's current article about the company mentions:

In 2013, the company was named as a co-defendant in various lawsuits as owner of Bakken formation light crude oil aboard a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway train which derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec on July 6, 2013, killing an estimated forty-seven people and destroying much of the community's downtown.

Compare that to the massive article, Lac-Mégantic rail disaster (T-H-L), which even I must admit is a fascinating compilation.

So, given that the shipper of the oil was World Fuel Services, and that this oil killed a bunch of people, including these innocent tykes... you would think that when the oil company (or what we presume to be the oil company) edits Wikipedia to remove any mention of the lawsuits related to that disaster, you would think that this would have raised a stink in the press. But, short of that, you'd think that it would at least motivate a "trusted Wikipedian" to let the corporate editor know about the conflict of interest guidelines, but alas, not a peep on the talk page of User:World Fuel Services Corp. (T-C-L)

We're told that one of the fantastic things about Wikipedia is how practically every edit is closely watched by a team of diligent protectors of neutrality, verifiability, and sourcing. I contend that Wikipedians do a fairly crappy job of this, in fact... but who can blame them, when there's 280 people on the payroll in San Francisco, doing an infinitely smaller amount of such work than the volunteers, when it comes to protecting the integrity of Wikipedia?

[thekohser]

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded an exploratory grant of $250,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation’s "Discovery department".

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (T-H-L)

Wikipedia article created and mostly initially crafted by Robertsonadams (T-C-L), the webmaster of the Knight Foundation. In his defense, his editing (2005-2011) was long before COI editing by employees of subject articles got to be a "big deal" for the Wikimedia Foundation.

[thekohser]

Even despite my extensive blog post pointing out how one WMF donor, the John Templeton Foundation (T-H-L), was using multiple accounts from 2007 to 2013 to polish up the Wikipedia article about itself, it appears that they still have no shame in editing with a COI -- but at least they now disclose it.

In typical fashion, first there were numerous attempts to get help on the Talk page of the article, not a single "Wikipedian in good standing" responded, and so Alyssa Settefrati, the Communications Specialist at the John Templeton Foundation, took matters into her own hands and began directly editing the article.

No one gives a shit. The article lede looks like a brochure. Jimbo's Bright Line Rule is not being followed (once again), but Settefrati is within the bounds of the Terms of Use, so legally, this is proper use of the Wikipedia website.

[Hex]

who can blame them, when there's 280 people on the payroll in San Francisco, doing an infinitely smaller amount of such work than the volunteers, when it comes to protecting the integrity of Wikipedia?

It would be fun to produce some numbers comparing the volume of content work produced by every paid employee of the WMF to the general volume of edits on the English Wikipedia, say across the last calendar year. Just simple edit counts. And maybe then relate it to how much money they conned the donors out of the same period.

[Poetlister]

Jimbo's Bright Line Rule is not being followed (once again), but Settefrati is within the bounds of the Terms of Use, so legally, this is proper use of the Wikipedia website.

That's the WMF's fault for not drafting the Terms of Use properly.

[thekohser]

who can blame them, when there's 280 people on the payroll in San Francisco, doing an infinitely smaller amount of such work than the volunteers, when it comes to protecting the integrity of Wikipedia?

It would be fun to produce some numbers comparing the volume of content work produced by every paid employee of the WMF to the general volume of edits on the English Wikipedia, say across the last calendar year. Just simple edit counts. And maybe then relate it to how much money they conned the donors out of the same period.

That doesn't sound fun to me. But, I suppose you're imagining a result something like this?

[thekohser]

Hoult123 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably either Tom Gutteridge (T-H-L) or an employee of his production company, Standing Stone, which is located at Hoults Yard. Note that Standing Stone was founded in 2007, and User:Hoult123 began editing Wikipedia in 2008.
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%, for over six years
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

User:Hoult123 is probably immune from Wikimedia's Terms of Use clause about undisclosed paid editing, given that a Tom Gutteridge (probably a namesake of the Standing Stone Gutteridge) is one of the three co-founders of The People's Operator (T-H-L), which Jimbo Wales chairs. Maybe somebody could check with JimboTalk, to see if he's ever spoken with his colleague Tom about what constitutes proper and improper engagement with Wikipedia COI topics, and then they could contact the other Tom Gutteridge about it.

[thekohser]

Dallastexjr (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Potentially the founder of the Museum of Perth (T-H-L)
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: Appears to be about 85%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

Interesting to note that on 15 January 2016, there was a Wikipedia Meetup at the Museum of Perth. Then three weeks later there was a Wikipedia article about the Museum of Perth, authored by Dallastexjr to say that the museum "began life as a virtual museum on the social media site Twitter in October 2012 by Dallas Robertson".

[trout]

Golden_Nugget_Atlantic_City (T-H-L):

Entertainment[edit]
The Showroom is Atlantic City's most intimate entertainment venue. In this 500 seat showroom, every seat is "up front!"

The Grand is a 16,920 square foot ballroom and showcases today's top artists, headline comedians and classic entertainers.

The Deck puts you right at the water's edge and offers live entertainment seasonally.

Rush Lounge offers live entertainment nightly. Located right off of the Main Atrium and directly off of the casino floor. Rush Lounge serves as a spot for guests to relax, enjoy a cocktail, listen to live music, gamble and watch the latest game on flat screen high-definition TV’s.[7]

[Poetlister]

Golden_Nugget_Atlantic_City (T-H-L):

Entertainment[edit]
The Showroom is Atlantic City's most intimate entertainment venue. In this 500 seat showroom, every seat is "up front!"

The Grand is a 16,920 square foot ballroom and showcases today's top artists, headline comedians and classic entertainers.

The Deck puts you right at the water's edge and offers live entertainment seasonally.

Rush Lounge offers live entertainment nightly. Located right off of the Main Atrium and directly off of the casino floor. Rush Lounge serves as a spot for guests to relax, enjoy a cocktail, listen to live music, gamble and watch the latest game on flat screen high-definition TV’s.[7]

The article has been extensively overhauled by Yngvadottir and someone called Carrite; they are evidently happy with it.

[Randy from Boise]

Golden_Nugget_Atlantic_City (T-H-L):

Entertainment[edit]
The Showroom is Atlantic City's most intimate entertainment venue. In this 500 seat showroom, every seat is "up front!"

The Grand is a 16,920 square foot ballroom and showcases today's top artists, headline comedians and classic entertainers.

The Deck puts you right at the water's edge and offers live entertainment seasonally.

Rush Lounge offers live entertainment nightly. Located right off of the Main Atrium and directly off of the casino floor. Rush Lounge serves as a spot for guests to relax, enjoy a cocktail, listen to live music, gamble and watch the latest game on flat screen high-definition TV’s.[7]

The article has been extensively overhauled by Yngvadottir and someone called Carrite; they are evidently happy with it.

She beat me to it and edit-conflicted my limited contribution out of it, I understand. Gotta have insomnia pretty early in the day to beat them Euros.....

RfB

[trout]

The article has been extensively overhauled by Yngvadottir and someone called Carrite; they are evidently happy with it.

Hard to see where anyone's benefited, they could have kept the information about the facilities and removed the promotional wording. And look at the wiki-babble they didn't remove:

The resort sits on a 14.6 acres (5.9 ha) property and contains a 74,252 sq ft (6,898.2 m2) casino; 728 guest rooms; seven restaurants; a nightclub; a 462-seat theater; a 16,920 sq ft (1,572 m2) recreation deck with a health spa, outdoor heated pool, hot tubs, cabanas, tennis and basketball courts, and jogging track; 50,922 sq ft (4,730.8 m2) of meeting and function space; a nine-story parking garage with direct walk-through into the complex; and the 640-slip Frank Farley Marina (a public facility owned by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry and managed by Landry's).

[thekohser]

Rpaul9578 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably an employee of C.A. Walker Research Solutions (T-H-L) (which Wikipedia says has only 25 employees)
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: For two months in 2010, it was 100%. He came back in 2015, though, to make an unrelated edit!
Ever warned on Talk page: A few image licensing warnings
Blocked: No

[Poetlister]

Rpaul9578 (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably an employee of C.A. Walker Research Solutions (T-H-L) (which Wikipedia says has only 25 employees)
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: For two months in 2010, it was 100%. He came back in 2015, though, to make an unrelated edit!
Ever warned on Talk page: A few image licensing warnings
Blocked: No

His 2015 edit was faulty, incorrectly putting text in <ref> tags. That remains uncorrected after nearly a year.

[thekohser]

Only because it's currently in the news...

This edit was by a marketing employee of Mossack Fonseca (T-H-L). He only became compliant with WMF Terms of Use about three months later.

[thekohser]

Foursouthpaws (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Probably has some vested interest in Orchid Bay, Belize (T-H-L)
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Only a mild warning about an ill-formated REDIRECT template
Blocked: No


I came to check out whether Orchid Bay had its own article on Wikipedia, since the community management company seems to have plastered the web with numerous "how to move to Belize" articles that all seem to end up saying, "if you move to Belize, you should move to Orchid Bay". Looks like they infiltrated Wikipedia quite easily, and nobody's ever had a complaint.

[thekohser]

Spoke today with a VP of market research at a financial services company (about $10B in revenue), and he mentioned their past use of a content-management platform that they used, called "GIA". Of course, to find out more about it, I turned to Wikipedia, knowing that what I found could probably be fairly trustworthy, because it would be written by insiders at the company itself, not by Cheetos-encrusted kids in their basements.

I was not disappointed. Global Intelligence Alliance Group (T-H-L) has been written almost 90% by three single-purpose accounts:

Newtonslaw40 (T-C-L)
Sunshine 20000 (T-C-L)
Newday2014 (T-C-L)

Couple of warnings here and there, but for the most part, nobody really gives a darn that these guys wrote the article for their own organization (or perhaps client, if it's a PR deal). Why is there a WP:COI policy again?

[thekohser]

They've only been active for a month, but if PenguinsElite (T-C-L) isn't a paid editor working for a TV production company or possibly a automotive content distribution company, then I would be very, very surprised.

[thekohser]

Someone at work diversifying Wikipedia content:

RTLLC (T-C-L)

[thekohser]

Need a Wikipedia article written about a uranium mining company that recently went through newsworthy struggles, but you don't want the Wikipedia to say anything unpleasant about the company?

Then HomersDoh (T-C-L) to the rescue!

[thekohser]

Can you guess which hit Broadway musical that Wikipedia editor Hamiltonhamilton (T-C-L) has been working on?

[thekohser]

The previous four posts were the result of my simply casually looking through 100 new articles that were created (and thus survived) about 6 or 7 days ago. I think it's safe to conclude that self-interested, single-purpose editors are still a substantial component in the new article creation process. You would think that after 15+ years, Wikipedia policy and public relations efforts would have finally stamped that out, if they were serious about it.

[Poetlister]

The previous four posts were the result of my simply casually looking through 100 new articles that were created (and thus survived) about 6 or 7 days ago. I think it's safe to conclude that self-interested, single-purpose editors are still a substantial component in the new article creation process. You would think that after 15+ years, Wikipedia policy and public relations efforts would have finally stamped that out, if they were serious about it.

The rules exist. They just don't have enough competent people to enforce the rules.

[Hex]

Sundog (company) (T-H-L) is a marketing and technology company based in Fargo, North Dakota with offices in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As an article, it's also almost entirely the work of a single-purpose account, Pljohnso (T-C-L). Could that, by any chance, be Preston Johnson, a writer for Sundog, who has the Twitter name @prestojohnso? Hmmm. I wonder.

It was created as a subpage of Pljohnso's user page and moved to mainspace by a user called NTox (T-C-L), with no obvious sign of how NTox found it there. However, NTox's first edits were all to Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) (T-H-L) . Moorhead and Fargo are two halves of the same metro area, divided by a river. You do the math.

[Poetlister]

That's all in accordance with policy, isn't it? The user with a COI made no edits to article space, only to his own user space. It was then moved to article space by someone not employed by that company, and probably not paid to do so, who therefore cannot be called a paid editor. You can't stop editors doing favours for friends.

[thekohser]

Sundog (company) (T-H-L) is a marketing and technology company based in Fargo, North Dakota with offices in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As an article, it's also almost entirely the work of a single-purpose account, Pljohnso (T-C-L). Could that, by any chance, be Preston Johnson, a writer for Sundog, who has the Twitter name @prestojohnso? Hmmm. I wonder.

It was created as a subpage of Pljohnso's user page and moved to mainspace by a user called NTox (T-C-L), with no obvious sign of how NTox found it there. However, NTox's first edits were all to Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) (T-H-L) . Moorhead and Fargo are two halves of the same metro area, divided by a river. You do the math.

I like how the very first footnote citation no longer has anything to do with the company. They intended to link to this, which was simply a newsletter publication by their insurance company, who was doing a "client spotlight" story in the newsletter. That's balls.

[Kingsindian]

Olympics! I don't know if this is paid or COI editing.

I noticed this curious case of Jan Ø. Jørgensen (T-H-L).

Jan Østergaard Jørgensen[3] (born December 31, 1987 in Aalborg) is a male badminton player from Denmark. He plays in the Denmark Badminton league representing SIF (Skovshoved). Sportswear and equipment is sponsored by Yonex.

Originally the sentence was added by an IP in Denmark with the name of the previous sponsor. It was updated here.

[Kingsindian]

European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (T-H-L), recently in the news as a non-profit associated with Yanukovych and Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort. Created a couple of years ago by an IP in Washington DC, whose other contribution was to add a paragraph to the Podesta Group (T-H-L) article mentioning its link.

[thekohser]

Maybe not "obvious", but something strikes me as odd about how Huggi (T-C-L) has received many notices on his Talk page about articles of his that were deleted, which he promptly erases without archiving.

Normally, this wouldn't arouse that much suspicion, but the articles are subjects like South East Asian Vegetarian Union, Brownice, Happycow, Joie (restaurant), Adam Moledina, Stateless Transport Tunneling, etc.

Something ain't right.

[Kingsindian]

I don't know if there's a COI thread, but I'll just drop this here.

Sikivu Hutchinson (T-H-L)

Started by Dante8 (T-C-L) who has since been indef blocked for multiple copyvios.
Totally rewritten by Sgerbic (T-C-L), who lists herself as the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics. She also has a WP page.
Another editor visible in the history is Blackskeptic (T-C-L), who seems to do nothing else other than edit this article and the one for Hutchinson's father.

The page is, not surprisingly, a puff piece. There are lots of citations to the Center for Inquiry (T-H-L), a skeptic organization.

[thekohser]

How brilliant would it be if Professors Ling Cen and Sean Xin Xu were actually working "undercover" for a paid editing firm? Businesses like Continental Materials Corporation (T-H-L) and Hatteras Financial Corp (T-H-L) get their beautiful paid articles, students get their college course credit, and the professors get a little spending cash on the side to augment their academic salaries.

Of course, I am not suggesting that this is what is actually going on (indeed, they expressly say "This teaching collaboration is for educational purpose only. It does not represent any commercial interest.") -- but wouldn't it be brilliant? Wikipedians wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them, because it's a "teaching collaboration" that the WMF and the Wikimedia movement support with open arms!

[thekohser]

Megantague (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Could it possibly be that this is the social media manager for the General Assembly (school) (T-H-L)?
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: No
Blocked: No

And don't forget who else works for General Assembly...



Tsk, tsk... Jorm, you ought to have a word with the young lady.

[thekohser]

Malskowronska (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Could possibly be Margaret Skowronska, Business Manager at MJ Boyd Consulting (T-H-L)
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Numerous notifications that her article draft had been rejected
Blocked: No


Margaret Skowronska


But not to worry, along comes...

Holahlaskar (T-C-L) to sweep away the rejected draft tag, and move it to article space, no questions asked!

And, fear not, a trusted Wikipedian let single-purpose account Holahlaskar know that he (or she) "did a nice job".

[thekohser]

The Category:Employment agencies is chock-full of paid editors and COI drive-bys.

Agencyfiller (T-C-L)

Aquishongkong (T-C-L)

Rraaqqiibb (T-C-L)

Suellen605 (T-C-L)

Koskanaris (T-C-L)

Mamtak 2008 (T-C-L)

Msmith2010 (T-C-L)

ClaireFowler (T-C-L)

WWY1941 (T-C-L)

Padivi (T-C-L)

Watkinc (T-C-L)

Abrobo819 (T-C-L)

Nobody seems to care. For all the "tough talk" that Jimbo and the WMF spew forth about making sure paid editors stay away from Wikipedia, these kinds of editors are free and clear to do as they please on the site.

[Poetlister]

And, fear not, a trusted Wikipedian let single-purpose account Holahlaskar know that he (or she) "did a nice job".

Isn't it lovely to see such a superb example of WP:AGF. Shouldn't that be applied to all cases of suspect COI?

[thekohser]

Anyone have any idea which website Smallbones is babbling on mysteriously about here? Based on how he covered his tracks and self-reverted and left us cliff-hanging with a promise of a private e-mail to Der Jimbo, I'm going to guess that he's got nothing of substance. Boney, why don't you come here and tell us about it? We have no WP:OUTING policy here.

[tarantino]

One of the more interesting paid editors I've come across is Ed Sussman, who's BC1278 (T-C-L) and Edsussman (T-C-L). He has a law degree from Duke, was a journalist, ran fastcompany.com and inc.com, and is now a PR rep for Facebook and others. The first article he created was Social_journalism (T-H-L), where he's prominently featured. He's quite the self-promoter.

[Eclipsed]

Anyone have any idea which website Smallbones is babbling on mysteriously about here? Based on how he covered his tracks and self-reverted and left us cliff-hanging with a promise of a private e-mail to Der Jimbo, I'm going to guess that he's got nothing of substance. Boney, why don't you come here and tell us about it? We have no WP:OUTING policy here.

Maybe WikiWash? Although that has been around since 2014.

[Hex]

Plasmarok (T-H-L)

Plasmarok is a registered name for the fully recovered vitrified aggregate created by the Advanced Plasma Power Gasplasma waste to energy process.

Created by Richard.lafferty (T-C-L) in 2010 - aka the Communications Officer of Advanced Plasma Power Ltd.

It is mechanically strong and environmentally benign.

Is it? Mr. Lafferty didn't deign to provide a citation. But Wikipedia has been providing his company with a free platform to advertise its product at the top of Google for the last six years.

[AndyTheGrump]

Plasmarok (T-H-L)

Plasmarok is a registered name for the fully recovered vitrified aggregate created by the Advanced Plasma Power Gasplasma waste to energy process.

Created by Richard.lafferty (T-C-L) in 2010 - aka the Communications Officer of Advanced Plasma Power Ltd.

It is mechanically strong and environmentally benign.

Is it? Mr. Lafferty didn't deign to provide a citation. But Wikipedia has been providing his company with a free platform to advertise its product at the top of Google for the last six years.

There for six years, but gone within minutes (as "Unambiguous advertising or promotion") as soon as it is mentioned here...

[Poetlister]

Deleted by Laser brain (T-C-L), not someone I'm familiar with. Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing intermediate between leaving the article intact and deleting it, leaving no article on something that may be notable.

[thekohser]

It becomes increasingly difficult to understand who does worse for the reader of Wikipedia -- the insiders who think they know what they're doing is for the reader's own "good", or the corporate guys who think they're doing the right thing by the reader.

You know, "just to name a few".

[thekohser]

Painfully obvious, in my opinion...

RMRicondo (T-C-L)

Lauren Broussard (T-C-L)

SGrimmer (T-C-L); Consciousleader (T-C-L); Apreston (T-C-L); Soulwork742 (T-C-L); Inspiredleader (T-C-L); MJ888 (T-C-L); and InspiredDreamer25 (T-C-L) (all part of what appears to be a 10-year campaign)

Simea 99 (T-C-L)

JCYeh13 (T-C-L) and Keiradog (T-C-L)

Google Child (T-C-L); Cheyenna Burns (T-C-L); ButterflyHerder (T-C-L); and GuyBurns33 (T-C-L)

Mdutilepr (T-C-L); Asusundevil23 (T-C-L); and Ajtotman (T-C-L)

Lemzee (T-C-L) (for four long, dedicated years)

I could go on, but I grow weary...

[thekohser]

Another three-and-a-half-year program, underway here.

[thekohser]

Consider Alison Beckwith Consulting...

Then consider the following Wikipedia users:

Ajbeckwith (T-C-L) and Abeckwith (T-C-L)
Likely COI: Every edit has been about a Beckwith client, including Edit Number One to discuss the Main Page of Wikipedia!
Disclosure: None
Unity of focus: 100%
Ever warned on Talk page: Various warnings initially that content was not up to snuff.
Blocked: No

That's over six years of plugging away on Wikipedia, yet Smallbones has never noticed her. It's a shame that driving her off will hurt the gender gap, so maybe she should be welcomed?

Also, Chemsoph (T-C-L).