USFBMann

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Hello, USFBMann, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions.

I noticed that one of the first articles you edited appears to be dealing with a topic with which you may have a conflict of interest. In other words, you may find it difficult to write about that topic in a neutral and objective way, because you are, work for, or represent, the subject of that article. Your recent contributions may have already been undone for this very reason.

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One rule we do have in connection with conflicts of interest is that accounts used by more than one person will unfortunately be blocked from editing. Wikipedia generally does not allow editors to have usernames which imply that the account belongs to a company or corporation. If you have a username like this, you should request a change of username or create a new account. (A name that identifies the user as an individual within a given organization may be OK.)

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{Help me}} before the question. Again, welcome! 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 19:21, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

Are your references to "conflict of interest" and "undisclosed financial interest" in response to the fact that I work for General McKenzie currently as the Communications Manager for the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida? If so, what do you suggest I do to assuage your concerns? I've received the information from McKenzie directly about his birth year, his military posts in relation to the missions cited on his Wikipedia page? I would think that he knows which year - specifically - he was born in (not a guess at two different years that you have reinstated on this page). I'm a little discouraged by this overzealous protection of "that's just the way we do things at Wikipedia" but would like to find a way to have these edits reinstated in a manner that everyone is happy with. What are your suggestions? USFBMann (talk) 20:45, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

Pretty obviously you are a paid editor. We can deal with any article inaccuracies later. As a paid editor you are not entitled to edit articles and have to request edits on the talk page.

And McKenzie does not have "his wikipedia page". Wikipedia has an article on McKenzie.

What I suggest that you do is to read the section below, and do what you are asked. You may not edit further until you do. 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 20:55, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

October 2023

Hello USFBMann. The nature of your edits, such as the one you made to Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., gives the impression you have an undisclosed financial stake in promoting a topic, but you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. Paid advocacy is a category of conflict of interest (COI) editing that involves being compensated by a person, group, company or organization to use Wikipedia to promote their interests. Undisclosed paid advocacy is prohibited by our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, and is an especially serious type of COI; the Wikimedia Foundation regards it as a "black hat" practice akin to black-hat search-engine optimization.

Paid advocates are very strongly discouraged from direct article editing, and should instead propose changes on the talk page of the article in question if an article exists. If the article does not exist, paid advocates are extremely strongly discouraged from attempting to write an article at all. At best, any proposed article creation should be submitted through the articles for creation process, rather than directly.

Regardless, if you are receiving or expect to receive compensation for your edits, broadly construed, you are required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use to disclose your employer, client and affiliation. You can post such a mandatory disclosure to your user page at User:USFBMann. The template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=USFBMann|employer=InsertName|client=InsertName}}. If I am mistaken – you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits – please state that in response to this message. Otherwise, please provide the required disclosure. In either case, do not edit further until you answer this message. You have declared you are employed (in the same department) and made the edits at his request, but made no formal declaration. 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 19:23, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

This edit is where you acknowledged that you are paid editor, but not in the right manner, nor in the right place. 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 19:27, 9 October 2023 (UTC)