I am a data professional, paid to work with open source and commercial databases. Briskmad (talk) 18:48, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This user has publicly declared that they have a conflict of interest regarding these Wikipedia articles: Imply Data I am an employee of Imply Data. I have made edits to the Imply Data article while an employee, which was a violation of the Wikipedia Terms of Use.

Hello, Briskmad! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. You may benefit from following some of the links below, which will help you get the most out of Wikipedia. If you have any questions you can ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are already excited about Wikipedia, you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field when making edits to pages. Happy editing! Peaceray (talk) 19:35, 6 July 2016 (UTC)[reply] Getting Started Contributing to Wikipedia The five pillars of Wikipedia • Tutorial • Your first article How to: edit a page • upload an image Getting Help Frequently Asked Questions New contributors' help page Where to: ask questions • make requests Tip of the day Request administrator attention Policies and Guidelines Neutral point of view • Reliable sources Verifiability • Citing sources • No original research What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Simplified Manual of Style • Three-revert rule Copyrights • Non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism • Sock puppetry Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The Community Community Portal • Adopt-a-user program Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • Resolving disputes Build consensus • Village pump IRC channels • Mailing lists Discover what's going on in the Wikimedia community (The Signpost) Things to do Be bold in editing • Help develop an article Maintenance • Peer review • Requested articles Join a WikiProject • Translating articles Cleaning up: General • Spam • Vandalism Miscellaneous Categories • Disambiguity • Stubs User pages • Talk pages Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Hello, Briskmad. Some time ago, a file you uploaded — File:Andi Gutmans by Peter Adams 2015.jpg — was tagged with {{OTRS pending}}, indicating that you (or perhaps the copyright holder if you did not create this image) submitted a statement of permission to permissions-en@wikimedia.org. Though there is often a backlog processing messages received at this address, we should have received your message by now.

• If you have not submitted (or forwarded) a statement of permission, please send it immediately to permissions-en@wikimedia.org and let us know at the OTRS noticeboard that you have done so.

• If you have already sent this message, it is possible that there was a problem receiving it. Please re-send it to permissions-en@wikimedia.org and let us know at the OTRS noticeboard that you have done so.

If we don't hear from you within one week, the file will be deleted. If we can help you, please feel free to ask at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 14:37, 5 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A tag has been placed on Gian Merlino, requesting that it be deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under two or more of the criteria for speedy deletion, by which pages can be deleted at any time, without discussion. If the page meets any of these strictly-defined criteria, then it may soon be deleted by an administrator. The reasons it has been tagged are:

• It seems to be unambiguous advertising which only promotes a company, product, group, service, person, or point of view and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become encyclopedic. (See section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion.) Please read the guidelines on spam and Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations for more information.
• It appears to be about a person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), individual animal, or web content, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. (See section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion.) Such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 19:20, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Your edit to Imply Data has been removed in whole or in part, as it appears to have added copyrighted material to Wikipedia without evidence of permission from the copyright holder. If you are the copyright holder, please read Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for more information on uploading your material to Wikipedia. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted material, including text or images from print publications or from other websites, without an appropriate and verifiable license. All such contributions will be deleted. You may use external websites or publications as a source of information, but not as a source of content, such as sentences or images—you must write using your own words. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously, and persistent violators of our copyright policy will be blocked from editing. See Wikipedia:Copying text from other sources for more information. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 21:44, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've edited the page to remove possible copyright violations. Briskmad (talk) 23:15, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Briskmad. The nature of your edits, such as the one you made to Imply Data, gives the impression you have an undisclosed financial stake in promoting a topic, but you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. Paid advocacy is a category of conflict of interest (COI) editing that involves being compensated by a person, group, company or organization to use Wikipedia to promote their interests. Undisclosed paid advocacy is prohibited by our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, and is an especially serious type of COI; the Wikimedia Foundation regards it as a "black hat" practice akin to black-hat search-engine optimization.

Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question if an article exists. If the article does not exist, paid advocates are extremely strongly discouraged from attempting to write an article at all. At best, any proposed article creation should be submitted through the articles for creation process, rather than directly.

Regardless, if you are receiving or expect to receive compensation for your edits, broadly construed, you are required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use to disclose your employer, client and affiliation. You can post such a mandatory disclosure to your user page at User:Briskmad. The template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=Briskmad|employer=InsertName|client=InsertName}}. If I am mistaken – you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits – please state that in response to this message. Otherwise, please provide the required disclosure. In either case, do not edit further until you answer this message. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 10:18, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am not being compensated for my edits. Thank you for your attention to detail and the work you are doing to help improve Wikepedia! Briskmad (talk) 10:31, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Briskmad. However, that doesn't really answer the question, which is whether you have any kind of financial stake in, or financial relationship with, the company, whether as an employee, collaborator, stakeholder, contractor, intern or whatever. If you have ever received, or expect ever to receive, any kind of payment, emolument or reward from the company or from Gian Merlino you are expected to make appropriate disclosure. Thank you, Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 15:35, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. I do not have a financial stake in the company, as I also do not have a stake in the other companies where I have edited Wikipedia pages. I do not expect to receive any kind of payment or reward from Imply Data nor Gian Merlino. I sincerely appreciate that you and other administrators are keeping an eye on this and preventing Wikipedia from becoming yet another marketing outlet! Briskmad (talk) 15:59, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A question, though. I am an employee of Snowflake, Inc. I have not (nor do I plan) to edit any Snowflake pages, and editing Wikipedia is not in any way part of my job duties there. Should I still add a {{Paid}} disclosure to the user_talk:briskmad page? Briskmad (talk) 16:54, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I'm not sure that we have any firm guidance on this; in my view it does no harm, but is not obligatory or even necessary unless you intend to request changes to that page – and that's a bridge you could cross if you ever come to it. Thanks, Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 17:33, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Justlettersandnumbers, can you please re-revert the Imply Data page to version 1070724323? Or is this something I should do myself?Briskmad (talk) 18:53, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No, you should seek consensus on the talk-page for those changes. If an edit you've made is reverted, your next step is discussion, not making the same edit again – see WP:BRD. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 19:42, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OK, Justlettersandnumbers, now I am confused on the right path forward. According to WP:BRD, "Consider reverting only when necessary. BRD does not encourage reverting, but recognizes that reversions happen." Then, "when you have a better understanding of the reverter's concerns, you may attempt a new edit that reasonably addresses some aspect of those concerns" If I understand correctly, you made a decision to revert based on possible copyright violations. I submitted a new edit that removed sections that might violate copyright. Next there was a revision based on suspicion of undisclosed financial stake, which we have now discussed. What's the right process to have an open discussion before it's the right time to make more edits, in the "Cycle" section of BRD? I've never had anything I've submitted get reverted before, so this process is new to me. Sorry to annoy you with my newb questions.Briskmad (talk) 20:19, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Gian Merlino is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gian Merlino until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article.

MarioGom (talk) 00:49, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard regarding a possible conflict of interest incident with which you may be involved. Thank you. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 18:54, 24 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Here from COIN, in reference to the potential conflict of interest: While I understand you are not paid to edit, do you have a close personal connection in any way with Imply Data? FrederalBacon (talk) 05:59, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

While I did not have a connection to Imply Data when I first edited the article, I do have a connection now. I've put more details in the COIN discussion.Briskmad (talk) 02:36, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, the change in employment is understandable. So your COI would fall under General COI, and should be disclosed on your talk, and if you're going to be involved in the article, should probably be on the talk of the article as well. There are some templates there to do so, and I can help if you need. And like I said on COIN: Feel free to contribute, as long as everything is disclosed, and you do try to avoid editing the article directly (while there is nothing against it outright, if you have a disclosed COI, most would prefer the talk page be used), you are all set. FrederalBacon (talk) 02:50, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have never done this before, FrederalBacon, so any guidance on how to properly disclose all that I should would be very welcome. Briskmad (talk) 03:37, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You have been blocked indefinitely for disruptive paid editing. See this noticeboard discussion and this talkpage discussion, followed by this edit to the article ("as discussed"??). You can request unblock from an uninvolved administrator by placing {{unblock|your reason here}} on this page. Bishonen | tålk 10:49, 26 September 2022 (UTC).[reply]

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without good reason (see the blocking policy).

Briskmad (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

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Request reason:

I now understand better the rules for conflict-of-interest. I've added a COI box to the top of this talk page and I will be very careful to avoid editing any articles where I have a conflict-of-interest or the perception of a COI in the future

Decline reason:

You declared the COI, but you must formally declare your paid editing, which is a Terms of Use requirement. Paid editing is not limited to specific payment for edits, or specifically being asked to edit- any paid relationship triggers the disclosure requirement(such as mere employment, as you say you are). Agreeing not to make COI edits is a start, but then we need to know what edits you will make instead. 331dot (talk) 07:40, 17 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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If you want to make any further unblock requests, please read the guide to appealing blocks first, then use the {{unblock}} template again. If you make too many unconvincing or disruptive unblock requests, you may be prevented from editing this page until your block has expired. Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

Briskmad (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

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Request reason:

I now understand better the rules for conflict-of-interest. I've added a COI box to the top of this talk page and updated it to explicitly note that I edited the [Imply Data] page while employed at that firm, which I now understand was a Terms of Use violation through mere employment. If this block is removed, I will not make future edits to any article which touches upon my employer, seeking to contribute instead in areas where I have expertise and interest, including computer science, geography, and history. I have more carefully studied the policies of Conflict of Interest and Terms of Use and will be careful to adhere to them.

Accept reason:

Briskmad is unblocked on the agreed condition that they will not edit Imply Data or associated pages (including talk pages), subject to the normal exceptions of WP:BANEX. This may be appealed after 6 months to any administrator (and appealed to WP:AN). Should you be unclear as to whether something is in or out, you may contact me. Nosebagbear (talk) 19:47, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Bishonen and 331dot:, in terms of the paid editing side of the block, this would appear to be sufficient - potentially coupled with some pagebans. The copyright aspect didn't seem to get covered much above, potentially because their amendments were viewed as acceptable, but pinging for thoughts on unblock. Nosebagbear (talk) 14:37, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OK with me. 331dot (talk) 14:39, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's fine by me. Bishonen | tålk 16:03, 20 October 2022 (UTC).[reply]

@Briskmad - will you agree to be unblocked on the condition of a partial ban on Imply Data, and a stated agreement not to edit other articles that are related to them (appealable in 6 months to any admin - though you'd still have the normal restrictions on paid editing should that happen)? Nosebagbear (talk) 16:47, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I agree to a ban on the Imply Data page and also agree that I will not edit articles related to Imply Data. I understand that this can be appealed after 20 Apr 2023. 16:58, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Briskmad (talk) 16:58, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]