This page has been
mentioned by multiple media organizations:
|
I'm Sprinkler Court. I am happy to discuss my edits with you all. Thanks. Sprinkler Court ( talk) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
Hi, SC: Understand if you want to be circumspect about editing the Bruce Braley page, was going to search for better refs, but figured I would shortcut by asking you here. The video that was released - it wasn't actually GENERATED by America Rising, was it? My understanding was that someone found it on a Braley supporter's personal site. Just trying to find a better wording. Prefer if you respond on my Talk page (I'll be sure to get it that way). Plus, if you want to send items which you think should be in article space, but are reluctant to post due to COI, feel free to send them along. -- Anonymous209.6 ( talk) 15:27, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
You're right that Senator Walsh was an Army Colonel. He had a state commission as a Brigadier General. It's not unusual for state adjutants general to have one federal rank and a different state rank. Usually it's because they're waiting for federal recognition of a promotion to the next higher rank. I had meant to make that edit myself, but had not gotten to it yet. If anyone questions it, I can cite references about Walsh specifically, or give other examples of state rank versus federal recognition. Billmckern ( talk) 13:56, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
First of all, I want to thank you for your honesty and forthrightness about your conflict of interest. That said, I'm uncomfortable with your editing here, which I think contravenes the practices described in our conflict-of-interest guideline. You state you are employed by a partisan "research firm" which appears to specialize in producing political attack ads. Your editing here seems to be a direct extension of your paid work, since you've focused exclusively on adding negative material about political candidates on the opposite side of the partisan fence. I think what you're doing falls under the rubric of "paid advocacy", a practice which is either "strongly discouraged" or completely forbidden here. Even if one disputes the "paid advocacy" characterization, there is clearly something unsavory about a political operative dedicated to adding political attack-ad material to Wikipedia biographies. I suppose it would be reasonable for you to continue to contribute to article talk pages, so long as you use them appropriately, but I think it is clearly inappropriate for you to directly edit articles—particularly biographical articles of living people whom you are paid to disparage. MastCell Talk 17:41, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
This goes beyond uncomfortable. Wikipedia is not a political website. Thank you for disclosing your conflict of interest. You stated that you are editing where you have a conflict of interest, and where you have a vested interest. Since you recognized both situations but continued editing (a wrong decision), I have blocked your account.
While I am not sure whether you are paid for your edits, you should know that paid editing is forbidden. Please don't continue with a different account or "pass the baton" to another person in your office.
Should you wish to edit Wikipedia for your personal pleasure, you may request that the block be lifted. Should you want to do that, I would only agree on condition that you stay away from editing that could be viewed as political advocacy.
Thank you, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Jehochman Talk 16:28, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
To clarify, yes, I do work for a Republican research firm. However, I have never been paid to make any edits to any pages. America Rising, the firm that I work for, is not paid by its clients to make edits to Wikipedia. It's not part of our job description. I am just genuinely interested in politics and current events. All of the edits that I made were widely reported and up to Wikipedia's standards for inclusion in my view. I always disclosed my COI or vested interest though so that others could judge my edits properly. I do plan on challenging this block, as I believe it is a rush to judgment and not merited. Sprinkler Court ( talk) 00:45, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
In accordance with our conflict-of-interest guideline, you have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to American political candidates. Specifically, your employment depends upon your ability to portray candidates from the opposing party in the worst light possible. Editing with a conflict of interest is strongly discouraged by our site guidelines; in the setting of the additional consideration due living biographical subjects, who have been the target of your edits here, I am going to upgrade that discouragement to a prohibition. Please do not edit any articles or material dealing with politicians or candidates for office in the U.S., broadly construed. If you edit such articles, I will block your account. You may comment on the associated article talkpages, so long as you avoid overwhelming them with verbiage and respect the time and effort of other contributors here, who are volunteers. MastCell Talk 22:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The Arbitration Committee has authorised discretionary sanctions to be used for pages regarding living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, a topic which you have edited. The Committee's decision is here.
Discretionary sanctions is a system of conduct regulation designed to minimize disruption to controversial topics. This means uninvolved administrators can impose sanctions for edits relating to the topic that do not adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, our standards of behavior, or relevant policies. Administrators may impose sanctions such as editing restrictions, bans, or blocks. This message is to notify you sanctions are authorised for the topic you are editing. Before continuing to edit this topic, please familiarise yourself with the discretionary sanctions system. Don't hesitate to contact me or another editor if you have any questions.
This message is informational only and does not imply misconduct regarding your contributions to date.Gamaliel ( talk) 00:10, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
"upgrade that discouragement to a prohibition". I become very concerned when admins begin asserting authority beyond their remit. I think this harassment of Sprinkler Court is unfortunate, although not surprising. Chris Troutman ( talk) 04:28, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
That seems like a twisting of words and an attempt to state they are not 'paid to edit Wikipedia', but are still being paid to advance the causes of their Republican clients. So in essence, they most definitely ARE being paid to edit Wikipedia. Whether it's being specified in the contract or not, Tim Miller is taking this up as a cause for the PAC and his employees are directed to make edit to Wikipedia. So while I still state the editor has not been edit warring and used the Talk page when I reverted one of their edits, this type of SPA, POV advocacy is at the very least unseemly, and probably can be called paid advocacy. Dave Dial ( talk) 02:49, 21 October 2014 (UTC)"We've consulted long-time Wikipedia editors, don't believe the blocking will stand, and are going to appeal," he said in an email. "Nobody has produced an example of a disruptive edit made by an America Rising researcher and we are not being paid to edit Wikipedia. Every edit our researcher made was accurate, relevant to the topic at hand, met the Wikipedia standards, and flagged for other editors the potential conflict of interest."
You are more than welcome to continue making quality contributions to Wikipedia. Note that because you are a logged-in user, you can create articles yourself, and don't have to post a request. However, you may continue submitting work to Articles for Creation if you prefer.
Thank you for helping improve Wikipedia!
LaMona ( talk) 22:11, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Hello, Sprinkler Court. It has been over six months since you last edited your Articles for Creation draft article submission, " Tim Miller".
In accordance with our policy that Articles for Creation is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia
mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}
or {{db-g13}}
code.
If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.
Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. 1989 ( talk) 09:51, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
This page has been
mentioned by multiple media organizations:
|
I'm Sprinkler Court. I am happy to discuss my edits with you all. Thanks. Sprinkler Court ( talk) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
Hi, SC: Understand if you want to be circumspect about editing the Bruce Braley page, was going to search for better refs, but figured I would shortcut by asking you here. The video that was released - it wasn't actually GENERATED by America Rising, was it? My understanding was that someone found it on a Braley supporter's personal site. Just trying to find a better wording. Prefer if you respond on my Talk page (I'll be sure to get it that way). Plus, if you want to send items which you think should be in article space, but are reluctant to post due to COI, feel free to send them along. -- Anonymous209.6 ( talk) 15:27, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
You're right that Senator Walsh was an Army Colonel. He had a state commission as a Brigadier General. It's not unusual for state adjutants general to have one federal rank and a different state rank. Usually it's because they're waiting for federal recognition of a promotion to the next higher rank. I had meant to make that edit myself, but had not gotten to it yet. If anyone questions it, I can cite references about Walsh specifically, or give other examples of state rank versus federal recognition. Billmckern ( talk) 13:56, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
First of all, I want to thank you for your honesty and forthrightness about your conflict of interest. That said, I'm uncomfortable with your editing here, which I think contravenes the practices described in our conflict-of-interest guideline. You state you are employed by a partisan "research firm" which appears to specialize in producing political attack ads. Your editing here seems to be a direct extension of your paid work, since you've focused exclusively on adding negative material about political candidates on the opposite side of the partisan fence. I think what you're doing falls under the rubric of "paid advocacy", a practice which is either "strongly discouraged" or completely forbidden here. Even if one disputes the "paid advocacy" characterization, there is clearly something unsavory about a political operative dedicated to adding political attack-ad material to Wikipedia biographies. I suppose it would be reasonable for you to continue to contribute to article talk pages, so long as you use them appropriately, but I think it is clearly inappropriate for you to directly edit articles—particularly biographical articles of living people whom you are paid to disparage. MastCell Talk 17:41, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
This goes beyond uncomfortable. Wikipedia is not a political website. Thank you for disclosing your conflict of interest. You stated that you are editing where you have a conflict of interest, and where you have a vested interest. Since you recognized both situations but continued editing (a wrong decision), I have blocked your account.
While I am not sure whether you are paid for your edits, you should know that paid editing is forbidden. Please don't continue with a different account or "pass the baton" to another person in your office.
Should you wish to edit Wikipedia for your personal pleasure, you may request that the block be lifted. Should you want to do that, I would only agree on condition that you stay away from editing that could be viewed as political advocacy.
Thank you, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Jehochman Talk 16:28, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
To clarify, yes, I do work for a Republican research firm. However, I have never been paid to make any edits to any pages. America Rising, the firm that I work for, is not paid by its clients to make edits to Wikipedia. It's not part of our job description. I am just genuinely interested in politics and current events. All of the edits that I made were widely reported and up to Wikipedia's standards for inclusion in my view. I always disclosed my COI or vested interest though so that others could judge my edits properly. I do plan on challenging this block, as I believe it is a rush to judgment and not merited. Sprinkler Court ( talk) 00:45, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
In accordance with our conflict-of-interest guideline, you have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to American political candidates. Specifically, your employment depends upon your ability to portray candidates from the opposing party in the worst light possible. Editing with a conflict of interest is strongly discouraged by our site guidelines; in the setting of the additional consideration due living biographical subjects, who have been the target of your edits here, I am going to upgrade that discouragement to a prohibition. Please do not edit any articles or material dealing with politicians or candidates for office in the U.S., broadly construed. If you edit such articles, I will block your account. You may comment on the associated article talkpages, so long as you avoid overwhelming them with verbiage and respect the time and effort of other contributors here, who are volunteers. MastCell Talk 22:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The Arbitration Committee has authorised discretionary sanctions to be used for pages regarding living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, a topic which you have edited. The Committee's decision is here.
Discretionary sanctions is a system of conduct regulation designed to minimize disruption to controversial topics. This means uninvolved administrators can impose sanctions for edits relating to the topic that do not adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, our standards of behavior, or relevant policies. Administrators may impose sanctions such as editing restrictions, bans, or blocks. This message is to notify you sanctions are authorised for the topic you are editing. Before continuing to edit this topic, please familiarise yourself with the discretionary sanctions system. Don't hesitate to contact me or another editor if you have any questions.
This message is informational only and does not imply misconduct regarding your contributions to date.Gamaliel ( talk) 00:10, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
"upgrade that discouragement to a prohibition". I become very concerned when admins begin asserting authority beyond their remit. I think this harassment of Sprinkler Court is unfortunate, although not surprising. Chris Troutman ( talk) 04:28, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
That seems like a twisting of words and an attempt to state they are not 'paid to edit Wikipedia', but are still being paid to advance the causes of their Republican clients. So in essence, they most definitely ARE being paid to edit Wikipedia. Whether it's being specified in the contract or not, Tim Miller is taking this up as a cause for the PAC and his employees are directed to make edit to Wikipedia. So while I still state the editor has not been edit warring and used the Talk page when I reverted one of their edits, this type of SPA, POV advocacy is at the very least unseemly, and probably can be called paid advocacy. Dave Dial ( talk) 02:49, 21 October 2014 (UTC)"We've consulted long-time Wikipedia editors, don't believe the blocking will stand, and are going to appeal," he said in an email. "Nobody has produced an example of a disruptive edit made by an America Rising researcher and we are not being paid to edit Wikipedia. Every edit our researcher made was accurate, relevant to the topic at hand, met the Wikipedia standards, and flagged for other editors the potential conflict of interest."
You are more than welcome to continue making quality contributions to Wikipedia. Note that because you are a logged-in user, you can create articles yourself, and don't have to post a request. However, you may continue submitting work to Articles for Creation if you prefer.
Thank you for helping improve Wikipedia!
LaMona ( talk) 22:11, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Hello, Sprinkler Court. It has been over six months since you last edited your Articles for Creation draft article submission, " Tim Miller".
In accordance with our policy that Articles for Creation is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia
mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}
or {{db-g13}}
code.
If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.
Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. 1989 ( talk) 09:51, 16 January 2017 (UTC)