User:Andrevan/COI

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COI

Past COI declaration

• Around 2009-2010, I was paid $75 by a small company to help them update their Wikipedia page with basic factual information. We're talking copyedits and referenced expansion of an already existing article, so I saw no harm in obliging the offer. I did so in accordance with all policies and guidelines including NPOV. In fact much of what this consisted of was giving them advice on our policies and guidelines for notability, so that their own edits could conform appropriately for what they wanted to write about. For example, they wanted to create an article about the company's founder, and I advised them that they would need to find sources and appropriately write in a neutral tone; I didn't create that article myself, just helped them improve what they were doing, which I would have done anyway. I was very conflicted about taking even that $75 at the time (I was a college student), and in retrospect I regret taking money for those edits, and not disclosing that small payment at the time, even though I hewed close to policy and pushed back on puffery, and there was no formal disclosure policy at the time. It was a 1-time thing, and I never repeated it (taking any money for editing)
• Around the same time, I had also created an article for a company I was working for at the time, creating a potential WP:COI, though I was not specifically asked or paid to do so, or paid by the company for anything Wikipedia-related, and I also tried to be impartial, and follow the spirit and letter of the guidelines in addressing the content. I was simply trying to create an encyclopedic and sourced article about something I knew about, due to my direct experience, and not promoting the subject.
• I've since gotten all the pages involved in the above deleted, so hopefully that's some small consolation. Well-fleshed-out bright line notability guidelines, and consensus views on referencing requirements, didn't exist as much as they do now, back then.

• I also had a few very small edits - adding references and factual information to an existing article - to a company that I had worked for in 2012. I was working as a software engineer and wasn't asked, directed, or paid to make those edits. Again, nothing that wouldn't be acceptable anyway.

COI statement

I am not being paid or compensated or benefitting in any way (other than self-satisfaction and feeding the unhealthy obsession) for any of my work on Wikipedia. Aside from that historical instance in the prior section, my comments and edits reflect me only, and I am not representing the opinions or work of my employer or day job or anyone else other than myself. I am currently employed by a large media company managing a team of software engineers on a streaming video content management system. I have never edited the articles for my current employer or any employer or their products (aside from old instances described in the previous section). I have a small New York corporation which I am the officer and majority shareholder, but it is not notable enough to be in Wikipedia, and I've never done any edits to benefit it. I am not an officer or a major board member or any stakeholder or candidate for any company, or political party, or organization. I am not and have never been employed by, on the board of, or acting in any volunteer capacity on Wikipedia or any other website for any political party, political organization, advocacy organization, or any other payroll that you think I'm on (still waitin' for those Soros checks tho*)

*joke