I don't know of a reasonable way to communicate with such a large group editing such a diverse collection of articles. Can anyone coming here to help guide these newish editors suggest a way to organize how we help? So we don't duplicate effort or interfere with each other?
For starters, I'll begin with the article listed last (the Laredo Petroleum article, since the list is likely to change) and work upward from there, contacting the editors and working on the article talk page and the editors' talk pages. If others helping out would list where they're helping, maybe we can minimize duplication. DocTree ( ʞlɐʇ· ʇuoɔ) Join WER 22:23, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
Based on the user pages, there appears to be more than one university represented. At least one editor says he's from a university outside of Beijing. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 00:50, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
Other editors (example here) are already noticing these edits and assuming that they are WP:Paid editing (specifically, WP:Conflict of interest#Paid advocacy, public relations, and marketing) or are otherwise being made "not in good faith." This could result in blocks or other actions which are either 1) unwarranted and likely to discourage these new contributors if the editors are simply ignorant of how things are done around here or 2) very warranted if my assumptions that these editors are who they say they are turn out to be incorrect and they are in fact editing in bad faith. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 00:50, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I plan on adding the following message to the talk pages of the 24-odd users listed on User:Davidwr/Tsinghua. Suggested changes welcome.
Extended content
|
---|
==Your edits of business-related articles== You may have noticed that some articles created or edited by you have been deleted or have been nominated for deletion. Most of these articles were written in cooperation with other editors creating and editing similar articles or adding similar content to other articles. All told, there appear to be aboug 20-30 editors who have created and collaborated on at least 60 articles. Collaboration is welcome at Wikipedia. After all, it is one of the largest collaborative projects on the Internet, if not the largest. The articles in question are being deleted or nominated for deletion because either the company the article is about does not appear to meet Wikipedia's "notability" requirements, the article does not use "reliable sources" that are "independent of the company" clearly demonstrate that the company meets these requirements, or because one or more editors believes that the article is otherwise unsuitable for Wikipedia. Please read Wikipedia:Notability, Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), Wikipedia:SIGCOV, Wikipedia:Reliable sources, Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion for more information. To prevent other editors from thinking that you are intentionally editing Wikipedia in a way that harms the encyclopedia, I recommend that you temporarily stop editing business-related articles until you have a better understanding of what should and should not be in business-related articles. I have created a page to bring together these 20-30 editors and other editors who wish to help them learn how to edit Wikipedia in a productive way. The page is at User:Davidwr/Tsinghua. ~~~~ |
davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 02:59, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Business#Need help from experienced business-article editors ( diff). davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 02:54, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
Kudpung กุดผึ้ง ( talk) 03:04, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
A day after I created User:Davidwr/Tsinghua another editor independently opened a discussion at Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Incidents/Archive 2#Group of New/Newish Editors Creating/Editing pages about companies.
I have reconciled the lists of accounts, both lists now contain all names that were on either list. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 07:45, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I have added gaps in the editing history for the 5 "older" accounts ("Group 1") that were created in January and June 2013. I added the date of account creation for all accounts and the date of the first (and so far, only) relevant edit for each IPv4 and IPv6 "account."
All 5 of these accounts were inactive from 4 August to 1 September. Only 1 was active from 21 September to 16 October and only two were active from 3 August to 10 November.
Note that the academic calendar in China is different than in the United States. For Tsinghau University, vacation for graduate students and researchers was July 22-August 18, 2013 and/or August 12-September 8 depending on their field of study. [1] I would expect similar calendars for other major Universities in and around Bejing. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 23:06, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
If it becomes necessary to find older accounts that might share these editing patterns, I recommend that an administrator do what I have done, but with deleted edits included:
Doing this with deleted edits, particularly for those accounts created in June and January, may reveal additional editors who would benefit from learning how to edit productively. Who knows, some of those editors may have "moved on" and are now editing other content areas and doing so productively. If we can find these editors, this may be a "win-win" because they likely already have a good relationship with a few of the "old 5" accounts and can teach them how to edit with that "personal touch." davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 23:32, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I've seen at least one article, Parker Drilling Company, deleted as a copyright violation. I've also noticed a number of others that are close paraphrases of either the company web site, company publications, and/or company-written Securities and Exchange Commission documents such as 10-K forms. When I find a notable company that does this, such as Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc (an S&P 400 company), I clean it up to forestall deletion. This disrespect of copyright is exactly the kind of thing an editor or group of editors unfamiliar with Wikipedia's respect for copyrights would do. It is also exactly the kind of thing an editor or group deliberately engaging in "promotional editing" would do if they were unaware that it increases the likelihood of their work being deleted. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 03:15, 28 December 2013 (UTC)
Hi Tryptofish, thank you very much for your kind guidance on the talk page! Yes, we are indeed a group of students from China working on a class assignment of a course, learning to efficiently contribute knowledge to Wiki, and we wholeheartedly wish to make contributions while being good Wikipedians. We have talked with our course professor, who would like to communicate about the details of the assignment with you (or any of the admins that you think is proper) and seek for your advice, so may I know if it is convenient for you to give me an email address for further contacts? Thank you in advance, and Happy New Year! -- Whisoseryus ( talk) 10:18, 28 December 2013 (UTC)
One editor asked for help back in June 2013. It is unclear if he received the help he asked for. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 03:12, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
User:Uttsinghuajoint2014/Course Page. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 21:59, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
Finally, User: Uttsinghuajoint2014, one of the course instructors, has stepped forward.
Please read User:Uttsinghuajoint2014/Course Page and a thread he opened on my talk page: User talk:Davidwr/Archives/Archive 16#About the New Editors of Education Assignment. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 05:59, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
I don't know of a reasonable way to communicate with such a large group editing such a diverse collection of articles. Can anyone coming here to help guide these newish editors suggest a way to organize how we help? So we don't duplicate effort or interfere with each other?
For starters, I'll begin with the article listed last (the Laredo Petroleum article, since the list is likely to change) and work upward from there, contacting the editors and working on the article talk page and the editors' talk pages. If others helping out would list where they're helping, maybe we can minimize duplication. DocTree ( ʞlɐʇ· ʇuoɔ) Join WER 22:23, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
Based on the user pages, there appears to be more than one university represented. At least one editor says he's from a university outside of Beijing. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 00:50, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
Other editors (example here) are already noticing these edits and assuming that they are WP:Paid editing (specifically, WP:Conflict of interest#Paid advocacy, public relations, and marketing) or are otherwise being made "not in good faith." This could result in blocks or other actions which are either 1) unwarranted and likely to discourage these new contributors if the editors are simply ignorant of how things are done around here or 2) very warranted if my assumptions that these editors are who they say they are turn out to be incorrect and they are in fact editing in bad faith. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 00:50, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I plan on adding the following message to the talk pages of the 24-odd users listed on User:Davidwr/Tsinghua. Suggested changes welcome.
Extended content
|
---|
==Your edits of business-related articles== You may have noticed that some articles created or edited by you have been deleted or have been nominated for deletion. Most of these articles were written in cooperation with other editors creating and editing similar articles or adding similar content to other articles. All told, there appear to be aboug 20-30 editors who have created and collaborated on at least 60 articles. Collaboration is welcome at Wikipedia. After all, it is one of the largest collaborative projects on the Internet, if not the largest. The articles in question are being deleted or nominated for deletion because either the company the article is about does not appear to meet Wikipedia's "notability" requirements, the article does not use "reliable sources" that are "independent of the company" clearly demonstrate that the company meets these requirements, or because one or more editors believes that the article is otherwise unsuitable for Wikipedia. Please read Wikipedia:Notability, Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), Wikipedia:SIGCOV, Wikipedia:Reliable sources, Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion for more information. To prevent other editors from thinking that you are intentionally editing Wikipedia in a way that harms the encyclopedia, I recommend that you temporarily stop editing business-related articles until you have a better understanding of what should and should not be in business-related articles. I have created a page to bring together these 20-30 editors and other editors who wish to help them learn how to edit Wikipedia in a productive way. The page is at User:Davidwr/Tsinghua. ~~~~ |
davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 02:59, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Business#Need help from experienced business-article editors ( diff). davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 02:54, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
Kudpung กุดผึ้ง ( talk) 03:04, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
A day after I created User:Davidwr/Tsinghua another editor independently opened a discussion at Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Incidents/Archive 2#Group of New/Newish Editors Creating/Editing pages about companies.
I have reconciled the lists of accounts, both lists now contain all names that were on either list. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 07:45, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I have added gaps in the editing history for the 5 "older" accounts ("Group 1") that were created in January and June 2013. I added the date of account creation for all accounts and the date of the first (and so far, only) relevant edit for each IPv4 and IPv6 "account."
All 5 of these accounts were inactive from 4 August to 1 September. Only 1 was active from 21 September to 16 October and only two were active from 3 August to 10 November.
Note that the academic calendar in China is different than in the United States. For Tsinghau University, vacation for graduate students and researchers was July 22-August 18, 2013 and/or August 12-September 8 depending on their field of study. [1] I would expect similar calendars for other major Universities in and around Bejing. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 23:06, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
If it becomes necessary to find older accounts that might share these editing patterns, I recommend that an administrator do what I have done, but with deleted edits included:
Doing this with deleted edits, particularly for those accounts created in June and January, may reveal additional editors who would benefit from learning how to edit productively. Who knows, some of those editors may have "moved on" and are now editing other content areas and doing so productively. If we can find these editors, this may be a "win-win" because they likely already have a good relationship with a few of the "old 5" accounts and can teach them how to edit with that "personal touch." davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 23:32, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
I've seen at least one article, Parker Drilling Company, deleted as a copyright violation. I've also noticed a number of others that are close paraphrases of either the company web site, company publications, and/or company-written Securities and Exchange Commission documents such as 10-K forms. When I find a notable company that does this, such as Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc (an S&P 400 company), I clean it up to forestall deletion. This disrespect of copyright is exactly the kind of thing an editor or group of editors unfamiliar with Wikipedia's respect for copyrights would do. It is also exactly the kind of thing an editor or group deliberately engaging in "promotional editing" would do if they were unaware that it increases the likelihood of their work being deleted. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 03:15, 28 December 2013 (UTC)
Hi Tryptofish, thank you very much for your kind guidance on the talk page! Yes, we are indeed a group of students from China working on a class assignment of a course, learning to efficiently contribute knowledge to Wiki, and we wholeheartedly wish to make contributions while being good Wikipedians. We have talked with our course professor, who would like to communicate about the details of the assignment with you (or any of the admins that you think is proper) and seek for your advice, so may I know if it is convenient for you to give me an email address for further contacts? Thank you in advance, and Happy New Year! -- Whisoseryus ( talk) 10:18, 28 December 2013 (UTC)
One editor asked for help back in June 2013. It is unclear if he received the help he asked for. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 03:12, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
User:Uttsinghuajoint2014/Course Page. -- Tryptofish ( talk) 21:59, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
Finally, User: Uttsinghuajoint2014, one of the course instructors, has stepped forward.
Please read User:Uttsinghuajoint2014/Course Page and a thread he opened on my talk page: User talk:Davidwr/Archives/Archive 16#About the New Editors of Education Assignment. davidwr/( talk)/( contribs) 05:59, 17 January 2014 (UTC)