DinosaurL

Help me!

Please help me with resolving a COI claim that I believe to be false.

I am new to Wikipedia editing, so please excuse obvious or silly questions.

As my first project I have been attempting to improve the quality and accuracy of the Paul Smith (fashion designer) page, which I noticed was very underdeveloped for such a prominent figure.

In the spirit of full disclosure and openness, I would like to begin by saying that I am an employee of Paul Smith Limited. However, this page is dedicated to Paul Smith the individual and not the company, so I believe a COI claim is not completely valid here. I am editing this page outside of work as a personal project and am not doing so for profit. Furthermore, I believe that every edit I have made has come from a neutral point of view, has been directly sourced from trusted authorities and has observed Wikipedia's guidelines (to the best of my knowledge).

Following on from this, I would like help with the following:

• How should I best resolve the existing COI warning on the Paul Smith page?
• How should I make future edits to the Paul Smith in a way that fellow editors will be happy with - can I suggest edits that are then approved by others?
• How can I best build my profile as a trusted editor by editing other pages?

Please help me as I am very keen to contribute to the Wikipedia community in the correct way.

replicareplica (talk) 16:21, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Firstly let me say well done for seeking help with this - all too often people are known to ignore COI warnings/notices and carry on editing regardless. I'd firstly suggest reading WP:PSCOI. It answers most of your questions, but you've already hit the nail on the head in your proposals thus far. Regarding the COI tag, once a full discussion has been held on the talk page, with your proposals - it can probably be removed. Going forward, as you've suggested here, each time you make an edit, ask someone to review it and highlight anything they may think is an issue. As for being a trusted editor - as Jimmy Wales says - "Wikipedia is yours. I trust you." Once again, welcome! ^Alex J _Fox^(Talk)_(Contribs) 17:40, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Your attention needed at WP:CHU

Hello. A bureaucrat or clerk has responded to your username change request, but requires clarification before moving forward. Please follow up at your username change request entry as soon as possible. Thank you. --I am k6ka ^{Talk to me!} _{See what I have done} 19:55, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Conflict of interest in Wikipedia

Hi Mark. I work a lot on conflict of interest issues here in Wikipedia. I'm giving you notice of our Conflict of Interest guideline and Terms of Use, and will have some questions for you below. Please do read the notice, and the comments, and reply to my question....

Hello, Markrfountain87. We welcome your contributions to Wikipedia, but if you have an external relationship with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest or close connection to the subject.

All editors are required to comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view content policy. People who are very close to a subject often have a distorted view of it, which may cause them to inadvertently edit in ways that make the article either too flattering or too disparaging. People with a close connection to a subject are not absolutely prohibited from editing about that subject, but they need to be especially careful about ensuring their edits are verified by reliable sources and writing with as little bias as possible.

If you are very close to a subject, here are some ways you can reduce the risk of problems:

• Avoid or exercise great caution when editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with.
• Avoid linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam).
• Exercise great caution so that you do not accidentally breach Wikipedia's content policies.

Please familiarize yourself with relevant content policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, verifiability of information, and autobiographies. Note that Wikipedia's terms of use require disclosure of your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation.

For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have a conflict of interest, please see our frequently asked questions for organizations. Thank you.

Comments/questions

Wikipedia highly values contributions by subject matter experts; at the same time, experts have some special challenges when they first start editing here. Please see the essay with advice for experts, WP:EXPERTS, which discusses both sides of that coin.

One of the challenges is related to conflicts of interest (COI). Wikipedia is a widely-used reference work (not social media) and managing COI is essential for ensuring the integrity of Wikipedia and retaining the public's trust in it. COI is managed here in two steps - disclosure and a form of peer review.

Disclosure first. I see that above you disclosed that you work for the fashion house of Paul Smith (fashion designer). You also say that you don't think this constitutes a COI because the article is about the person, not the company. In terms of how we think about COI in Wikipedia, that is not true - you have a COI here. The reputation of the house and its ability to make money (and thus your livelihood) depend in turn on the reputation of its designer. There is no way around that. This will be a dialogue, so before I say more, please let me know if you will agree that you have a COI. Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 02:39, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Firstly, thank you for your advice and helpful approach. As you can tell, I am very new to Wikipedia and there is still a great deal I have to learn, so please bear with me.

Although, at present, I agree that my account looks like a single-use account, this is not my long-term intention. I began by editing the Paul Smith (fashion designer) page as it is a subject about which I have knowledge. I also recognised it as being a page that was underdeveloped on Wikipedia compared to the amount of relevant and reliable information that exists online and elsewhere. It was also out of date and inaccurate in places before I began editing.

Simply put, I wanted to contribute where I saw a shortfall in knowledge and my intention has always to improve the article and Wikipedia, not to benefit Paul Smith Limited.

I do agree that there is a COI according to the rules of Wikipedia. However, I also believe that are important caveats, which I will outline below:

• Most crucially, my edits were all done in good faith with the aim of improving the article. Looking back at my edits, I believe the tone may need altering to bring them further in line with what is expected. However, I think it is important to recognise that every edit is well sourced from a reliable news channel or website.
• I do work for Paul Smith Limited but I am in no way obliged to edit the Paul Smith (fashion designer) page as part of my job. This was a task that I initiated on my own outside of work and I chose this article as a place to being editing as it is a subject in which I have knowledge. It seemed like a good place to learn.
• As soon as I learnt about the COI regulations I was open and upfront about declaring my COI. You'll see at the top of my talk page that I asked for help before this discussion was raised. I have also no updated my user page to include a clear declaration. I am very keen to contribute and share my knowledge with the community in a way that is in line with the principles of Wikipedia. Please help me to do this!
• I do think it's important to make a distinction between the brand and the man. This is probably a longer discussion for another time, but in the longer term I would advocate splitting the page and starting a new page for Paul Smith Limited, in line with the guidelines laid down by Wikipedia:WikiProject_Fashion

To conclude, I am excited about contributing the Wikipedia in the future, so I hope we can overcome this early hurdle.

In specific reference to the Paul Smith page, I still regard it as a work in progress as there is much more information that would depend the knowledge of the subject. I understand that there is a process whereby I could suggested edit so that they can be checked and approved/dismissed by trusted editors. If you could please point me towards any existing tutorials or pages outlining how this process should take place please point me towards them.

I would also suggest that the current Paul Smith (fashion designer) is reviewed by an experience editor before any further edits are made. The work I have down thus far has all been in good faith (as outlined above), but it was admittedly done at a time when my understanding of Wikipedia guidelines and editing was not sufficient.

Thanks DinosaurL (talk) 20:24, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply! It's great that you intend to stick around. Happy. With regard to Paul's page, you have a COI there. There is no way around that, and I am glad that you are willing to work by making edit requests. You can do that easily - and provide notice to the community of your request - by using the "edit request" function as described in the conflict of interest guideline. I made that easy for you by adding a section to the bottom of the beige box that you will find at the top of the Talk page - there is a link at "click here" in that section -- if you click that, the Wikipedia software will automatically format a section in which you can make your request and that has the "edit request" tag on it. Please be sure to offer concrete suggestions, with reliable sources. Like this:

In the AAA section, after the 2nd sentence, please add "Aasd fads sdfasd sdfasdf dasdfds. Aasdfasd asdfasdf asdfas, asdf adfsasd wete sdf sdf.

References

Thanks. (signature)

Please make really concrete, like that - that is the best way to help people help you. You can reply here if you have any questions or want to discuss anything. Jytdog (talk) 05:52, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

That's all been fantastically helpful, thanks again. I will make sure that any further edits I want to make to the Paul Smith page are done via this request process.

When it comes to cleaning up the page as it is now, what is the best way to go about this? How do we rally the troops and get experienced editors to assess it? DinosaurL (talk) 17:04, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

You are welcome! thanks so much for talking nicely with me (some people get so upset!) so thanks.

With regard to getting the article improved... there are "WikiProjects" here in Wikipedia, and if you look at the body of the beige box at the top of the Talk page of the Paul Smith article, you will see that 4 "WikiProjects" are mentioned there. Each of those Projects has a talk page, where members of the project talk about what is going on in the various articles that their project cares about. Some projects are more active than others.. I don't follow any of those four. But it would make sense to introduce yourself at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fashion (really introduce yourself, at least as working for the design house), tell folks you have a COI, and ask if they would work with you to update the article. That is the best way to rally help. i don't much care about fashion so won't be getting involved there. But i would be happy to help you if you have any more issues or questions about COI. Good luck! Jytdog (talk) 19:12, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Notice of COIN discussion

I was brought here by a posting at COIN made by someone else, who didn't provide you notice. I am providing you with that notice.

This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard regarding a possible conflict of interest incident in which you may be involved. Thank you. Jytdog (talk) 02:32, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia and copyright

Hello DinosaurL, and welcome to Wikipedia. All or some of your addition(s) to Paul Smith (fashion designer) have been removed, as they appear to have added copyrighted material without evidence of permission from the copyright holder. While we appreciate your contributions to Wikipedia, there are certain things you must keep in mind about using information from sources to avoid copyright and plagiarism issues here.

• You can only copy/translate a small amount of a source, and you must mark what you take as a direct quotation with double quotation marks (") and cite the source using an inline citation. You can read about this at Wikipedia:Non-free content in the sections on "text". See also Help:Referencing for beginners, for how to cite sources here.
• Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing. (There is a college-level introduction to paraphrase, with examples, hosted by the Online Writing Lab of Purdue.) Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify the information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.
• Our primary policy on using copyrighted content is Wikipedia:Copyrights. You may also want to review Wikipedia:Copy-paste.
• If you own the copyright to the source you want to copy or are a legally designated agent, you may be able to license that text so that we can publish it here. Understand, though, that unlike many other sites, where a person can license their content for use there and retain non-free ownership, that is not possible at Wikipedia. Rather, the release of content must be irrevocable, to the world, into the public domain (PD) or under a suitably-free and compatible copyright license. Such a release must be done in a verifiable manner, so that the authority of the person purporting to release the copyright is evidenced. See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials.
• In very rare cases (that is, for sources that are PD or compatibly licensed) it may be possible to include greater portions of a source text. However, please seek help at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions, the help desk or the Teahouse before adding such content to the article. 99.9% of sources may not be added in this way, so it is necessary to seek confirmation first. If you do confirm that a source is public domain or compatibly licensed, you will still need to provide full attribution; see Wikipedia:Plagiarism for the steps you need to follow.
• Also note that Wikipedia articles may not be copied or translated without attribution. If you want to copy or translate from another Wikipedia project or article, you must follow the copyright attribution steps in Wikipedia:Translation#How to translate. See also Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia.

It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices, as policy requires that people who persistently do not must be blocked from editing. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 22:45, 14 March 2018 (UTC)