User talk:Bri/COI patterns

Identifying COI editing: state of the Wiki nation

@Victorgrigas: This reply is in response to the question you posed at Doc James's talkpage about how to identify COI editing. Out of respect to him, due to the length, I'm replying here instead.

Bottom line up front is that other than the Checkuser tool, I know of very few actual tools being used at the moment. The tool used the most is the correct application of a skeptical brain. Earwig's copyright violation detector can also assist but first you have to identify that a passage is likely to be a copyvio, and have a source in mind to which to compare. There is another somewhat murky tool built into the WP editing system that I don't want to go into, other than to say that until recently, I did not use it at all. So COI editing can be found and handled just fine without major tools.

There's a ML tool funded by WMF called ORES that I'd say hasn't had an impact on WP:COIN, at least not as far as I'm aware. It's sometimes billed as a vandalism detector but obviously if it can do that, it can do other things. We might hear more about that soon.

A while ago, I started this essay to really examine how we identify COI editing, but gave up. It's really too sensitive to talk about fully here, and could easily become a recipe book for those not aligned with our goals. But I think some of the LTAs engaged in undisclosed paid editing (also known as UPE sockfarms) are getting smarter and studying our convo's at WP:SPI and WP:COIN. If you look at COIN (it has extensive archives) you can figure out some patterns for yourself.

The main thing is that advocacy editing is, well, pushy, I guess or has a certain PR style of writing with extensive use of questionable sources – like interviews of the subjects – as well as actual press releases. It seems to be hard for many editors trained in this field to get away from this style. So the articles themselves give them away, which is at it should be, because we are concerned about content first and foremost. ☆ Bri (talk) 03:24, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks User:Bri. Agree. Our copypatrol tool picks up a lot of low level paid editing. Paid editors often copy and paste from sources the company gives them. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:31, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

@Megalibrarygirl: The conversation here is something that might help you get up to speed on COI and socking issues. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:56, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

@Bri: thank you for the head's up and the info! :) Megalibrarygirl (talk) 20:29, 10 October 2017 (UTC)