User talk:Du wutz rite

Wikipedia misuse by a real‐life associate

Disclaimer: Du wutz rite is an alternate account; I believe my maintenance of this account to be legitimate.

People in my workplace frequently mention how 'well known' one of our colleagues is. I was curious about the veracity of this statement, so I searched the English Wikipedia for this colleague's name. I dicovered a BLP, which I believe to be advertising created by an editor with clear COI's.

I was suspicious that the BLP failed NPOV. Checking the history, I determined the creator of the biographical stub to be another co‐worker and mutual friend. Xe is using xir real name as a Wikipedia username.

All content, much of it OR, has been contributed by my friend. Xe has no user history other than creating, editing, and defending this bio. In the face of a speedy deletion nomination on NN grounds, my friend removed the A7 template in clear violation of deletion policy.

My friend stated on another user's talk page that xe created the bio after 'seeing -----'s work around town'. I know this to be a deliberate obfuscation of xir personal connection to the subject.

As a wikipedian, I am angry at my friend for using Wikipedia as a soapbox. As a friend and co‐worker, I am angry that xe has resorted to dishonesty in order to promote our colleague online.

I have two issues

I feel that, being so personally involved with both the subject of the BLP and the article‐creator, I myself have a COI in calling for the article's deletion.
I do not believe that the subject of the BLP meets notability, but I may be wrong.

Allowing what I see as advertisement to be part of Wikipedia goes against my wikivalues, but I do not want to suffer workplace retaliation for online actions. How should I proceed? Du wutz rite (talk) 06:10, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, and thanks for your concern about conflicts of interest. Your problem is best addressed by introducing uninvolved third parties to the article and raising your concerns so that they can be individually evaluated. This can best be done by taking your request to the conflicts of interest noticeboard. There you can raise the issue and they can either help you improve the article or suggest alternative actions, such as the deletion which you have already raised as a possibility. Hope that helps! --Shirik (Questions or Comments?) 06:15, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]