Richmanpaul

Managing a conflict of interest

Hello, Richmanpaul. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on the page Paul Richman, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for article subjects for more information. We ask that you:

• avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization, clients, or competitors;
• propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (you can use the {{edit COI}} template);
• disclose your conflict of interest when discussing affected articles (see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § How to disclose a COI);
• avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam § External link spamming);
• do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution which forms all or part of work for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. See Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure.

Also, editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. — jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 19:38, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear jmcgnh,

Thank you for your message. I didn't know most of those things, so thanks for telling me about them. I'll do my best to follow those rules in the future. Thanks again.

Sincerely, Paul Richmanpaul (talk) 20:14, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear Editors,

My Wikipedia page received the following notice today: "A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject." I was unaware that Wikipedia's policies did not look kindly on adding content to his own Wikipedia page when I added some content to my page on March 5th. Wikipedia notified me of this and, as a result, I first apologized in a message to Wikipedia and then COMPLETELY REMOVED THE CONTENT I HAD ADDED from my page on March 7th, reverting the page back to the way if was beforehand. As a result, my Wikipedia page is now back to the way it was in February of this year. I hope this action on my part alleviates your concern. Thanks!

Sincerely, Paul Richman March 9, 2024 Richmanpaul (talk) 17:47, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

The article can still benefit from your input, Richmanpaul. Just use the talk page to make your suggestions and list your sources, and let others decide what to accept and what to reject. Best, — Usedtobecool ☎️ 18:00, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

FYI, there is no "dear editors" to address on Wikipedia. You have to work with the ones who are editing with you, by looking at the history of the article you are editing. In this case, it was Dekimasu who tagged the article for autobiographical editing. You needed to discuss it with them. Best, — Usedtobecool ☎️ 18:02, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear Usedtobecool,

Thanks very much. I'll try to contact Dekimasu in this regard.

Sincerely, Paul Richmanpaul (talk) 18:07, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

I have removed the tag from the article with the understanding that you won't edit the article again, and what's in the article right now was not added by you or under your direction. You can talk to Dekimasu on their talk page or on the article's talk page, including if they have lingering concerns with my removal of that tag, and you can use edit request templates to ask other editors to evaluate any changes you want made to the article in the future. Good luck! — Usedtobecool ☎️ 18:18, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear Usedtobecool,

Thanks so much. I really appreciate it! However, I went to my Wikipedia page and noticed that you had evidently removed the section about my two textbooks (and also reference to those two textbooks in the section having to do with my career.) I had just added the fact that there were Chinese translations to those sections on March 7th and forgot that I had added the single word Chinese to those sections.) Those two textbooks I wrote were very important. Would it be possible for you to please revert my Wikipedia page back to where it was, reinserting the wording you took out, and just eliminate the word "Chinese?" I hope so, and thanks!

Very best regards, Paul Richmanpaul (talk) 18:28, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

I did not make those edits. Again, look at the history of the article, and discuss your concerns with the editors who happen to make the edits you don't agree with. Try to convince them on the talk page, but ultimately, you don't get to decide what's important. Wikipedia wants to document what's published in reliable sources about a subject, only a summary, of knowledge that's worth knowing. Your role, as one of the subjects, would be to watch out for any serious concerns such as libel or harrassment, and suggest sources that may not already be in the article, because you are likely to know about more of them than a random editor. Bookmark this if you are having trouble finding the history page of your article. Best, — Usedtobecool ☎️ 19:00, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear Usedtobe cool,

Thanks. I'll give it a try. And have a great weekend!

Very best regards, Paul Richmanpaul (talk) 19:22, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks Paul, you too. It looks like you've had quite the career. I am sure, in time, sources will come into existence or be found, that will make it possible to include fairly and proportionately all facets of your contributions. It just may not be now. Wikipedia recognises how hard it is for academics to get coverage in a culture that's obsessed with other things. That's why academics are included on the basis of their contributions to their field even if there isn't much in the way of secondary sourcing (WP:NPROF). However, that also means that articles are more likely than not, to be incomplete or unbalanced. Regards! — Usedtobecool ☎️ 19:41, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Hi Usedotbecool,

Thanks again for your very nice comments. You're a delight to work with. I hate to be a pest but, in trying to follow your advice, I went to my page's history to try to find the editor who deleted the section and the reference to my two textbooks. Unfortunately, the history only went back to March 7th, and I couldn't find the editor you suggested I contact. Do you know who the editor is and how I can contact him or her?

Very best regards, Paul Richmanpaul (talk) 20:29, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

┌───────────────────────────┘
See Help:Page history; it has a video tutorial, what you want starts at 5:30ish. Dekimasu is the only one who's edited after you. This may be the edit you want. Best, — Usedtobecool ☎️ 02:06, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Please note that it is not the case that all of the edits to the Paul Richman page were self-reverted before I added the conflict of interest tag to the article. The effect of the series of edits was to re-add to the article a list of patents as well as allusions to books with a reference to Worldcat. Aside from the conflict of interest statement, my changes to the article were this, reinstituting a change I had already made before the edits with a conflict of interest.

The reasons for removing the references to the books are the following. First, existence of the books on Worldcat does not support the claim that these were "seminal" works. (They may have been seminal, and it is not my intent to belittle the works, but Worldcat does not make such judgments; we edit out these types of statements when they are unsupported whether they contain positive or negative claims.) Second, the linked page on Worldcat notes the existence of the books, but does not corroborate the publication information listed, and does not contain evidence of the range of translations listed. There is no reference to Spanish, Chinese, or Russian there at all, and there is nothing to indicate what works were translated or written in a foreign language.

Separately, the list of patents was added last year by an editor with few other edits on Wikipedia; this edit was that editor's only major addition to any article on the site, and was added with an inaccurate edit summary—it said "copyedit", but actually added a new section without explanation. I have not removed the list of patents, but this type of editing often attracts criticism, so it is not surprising to me that there was a separate attempt to remove that list. Wikipedia articles are not CVs, and it is difficult to know how much the list of patents contributes to the average reader's understanding of the biography.

Finally, please note the contents of WP:REALNAME. In the case of this discussion, I am not aware at this time of any confirmation that you are the subject of the article. If any other direct editing of the article or related articles takes place, it is possible that the account used here could be blocked as a precaution against impersonation. This would not mean that you had done anything wrong; instead, confirmation or a change to a different username would be required. Best, Dekimasuよ! 04:14, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Dear Dekimasu - Thank you very much for your detailed explanation as to what happened, which I completely understand and I am very willing to accept. As I had previously indicated to Wikipedia in the TALK section associated with my article, I was unaware that Wikipedia's policies did not look kindly on adding content to one’s own Wikipedia page when I added some content to my page on March 5th. Wikipedia notified me of this and, as a result, I first apologized in a message to Wikipedia and then I immediately removed (almost) all of the content I had added to my page on March 7th. I read what you have said and, as I said before, although I’m disappointed that the existence of my two textbooks is no longer mentioned at all in the article (especially since there are a number of references that clearly prove that at least English language versions of both books exist), all that you’ve done is acceptable to me. Once again, I’m very sorry for any trouble I might have caused and, in the future, please be assured that I certainly won’t be making any additions or modifications to my Wikipedia page! Dekimasu – thank you so much for your understanding. Sincerely, Paul Richman Richmanpaul (talk) 17:50, 10 March 2024 (UTC)