From DIYinfo.org
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A Diyinfo conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the aim of Diyinfo, which is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced and unbias information based website, and the aims of an individual editor.
COI editing involves contributing to Diyinfo in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. Where an editor must forgo advancing the aims of Diyinfo in order to advance outside interests, that editor stands in a conflict of interest.
COI edits are strongly discouraged. When they cause disruption to Diyinfo in the opinion of an uninvolved administrator, they may lead to accounts being blocked and embarrassment for the individuals and groups who were being promoted.
[edit] What is a conflict of interest?
Diyinfo is not a forum for advertising or self-promotion, or a vanity press. As such, it should contain only material that complies with its content policies, and Diyinfoians must place the interests of Diyinfo first. Any editor who gives priority to outside interests may be subject to a conflict of interest.
There are no firm criteria to determine whether a conflict of interest exists, but there are warning signs. Adding material that appears to promote the interests or visibility of an article's author, its author's family members, employer, associates, or their business or personal interests, places the author in a conflict of interest. When editors write to promote their own interests, their contributions often show a characteristic lack of connection to anything the general reader might want to consult as a reference. If you do write an article on an area in which you are personally involved, be sure to write in a neutral tone and beware of unintentional bias. Neutral point of view is one of Diyinfo's fundamental principles.
If other editors suggest that your editing violates Diyinfo's standards, take that advice seriously and consider stepping back, reassessing your edits, and discussing your intentions with the community. In particular, consider whether you are editing tendentiously.
[edit] Examples
- Citing oneself
Editing in an area in which you have professional or academic expertise is not, in itself, a conflict of interest. Using material you yourself have written or published is allowed within reason, but only if it is notable and conforms to the content policies. Excessive self-citation is strongly discouraged. When in doubt, defer to the community's opinion.
- Financial
If you fit either of these descriptions:
- you are receiving monetary or other benefits or considerations to edit Diyinfo as a representative of an organization (whether directly as an employee or contractor of that organization, or indirectly as an employee or contractor of a firm hired by that organization for public relations purposes); or,
- you expect to derive monetary or other benefits or considerations from editing Diyinfo; for example, by being the owner, officer or other stakeholder of a company or other organisation about which you are writing;
then we very strongly encourage you to avoid editing Diyinfo in areas where there is a conflict of interest that would make your edits non-neutral (biased). Diyinfo's neutral point of view policy states that all articles must represent views fairly and without bias, and conflicts of interest do significantly and negatively affect Diyinfo's ability to fulfill this requirement. If your financially-motivated edits would be non-neutral, do not post them.
- Legal antagonists
If you are involved in a court case, or close to one of the litigants, you would find it very hard to demonstrate that what you wrote about a party or a law firm associated with the case, or a related area of law, was entirely objective. Even a minor slip up in neutrality in a court-case article on Diyinfo for an active case-in-progress could potentially be noticed by the courts or their parties, and this could potentially cause real-world harm, not just harm to Diyinfo. Because of this, we strongly discourage editing when this type of conflict exists.
- Self-promotion
Conflict of interest often presents itself in the form of self-promotion, including advertising links, personal website links, personal or semi-personal photos, or other material that appears to promote the private or commercial interests of the editor, or their associates.
Examples of these types of material include:
- Links that appear to promote products by pointing to obscure or not particularly relevant commercial sites (commercial links).
- Links that appear to promote otherwise obscure individuals by pointing to their personal pages.
- Biographical material that does not significantly add to the clarity or quality of the article.
- Autobiography
It is not recommended to write an article about yourself. If you are notable, someone else will notice you and write the article. In some cases, Diyinfo users write articles about themselves when the more appropriate action would be to create a user page. In these cases, the article is normally moved into the user namespace rather than deleted. If you believe you may be notable enough, make your case on the appropriate talk pages, and seek consensus first, both with the notability and any proposed autobiography.
- Campaigning
Activities regarded by insiders as simply "getting the word out" may appear promotional or propagandistic to the outside world. If you edit articles while involved with organizations that engage in advocacy in that area, you may have a conflict of interest.
- Promotional article production on behalf of clients
Producing bias promotional articles for Diyinfo on behalf of clients is strictly prohibited.
[edit] How to avoid COI edits
Diyinfo is an independent community run website that anyone can edit," but if you have a conflict of interest avoid, or exercise great caution when:
- Editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with,
- Participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors,
- Linking to the Diyinfo article or website of your organization in other articles;
- and you must always:
- Avoid breaching relevant policies and guidelines, especially neutral point of view.
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| Those who feel the need to make controversial edits, in spite of a real or perceived conflict of interest, are strongly encouraged to file a "request for comment" on one of the administrators talk pages. |
[edit] User subspace to publish short autobiographies
Contributing signed-in users may use their user subspace to publish short autobiographies within the bounds of good taste and compatible with the purpose of working on Diyinfo. If you wish to write about yourself without working on Diyinfo, consider starting a website or a blog instead. Diyinfo is not a free webhost.
[edit] How to handle conflicts of interest
Conflict of interest often raises questions as to whether material should be included in Diyinfo or not. It also can be a cause, or contributing factor, in disputes over whether editors have an agenda that undermines the mission of Diyinfo. Suspected conflict of interest incidents may be reported directly to any of the administrators (as above), remember conflict of interest is not a reason to delete an article.
- Dealing with suspected conflicted editors
The first approach should be direct discussion of the issue with the editor, referring to this guideline. If persuasion fails, consider whether you are involved in a content dispute. Editors and admins may act in conflict of interest situations as in any case of point of view pushing. However, using COI allegations to gain the upper hand in a content dispute is frowned upon.
Who has written the material should be irrelevant so long as these policies are closely adhered to. The imputation of conflict of interest is not by itself a good reason to remove sound material from articles. However, an apparent conflict of interest is a good reason for close review by the community to identify any subtle bias.
[edit] Consequences of ignoring this guideline
Diyinfo's Law of Unintended Consequences
If you write in Diyinfo about yourself, your group, your company, or your pet idea, once the article is created, you have no right to control its content, and no right to delete it outside our normal channels. Content is not deleted just because somebody doesn't like it. Any editor may add material to or remove material from the article within the terms of our content policies. If there is anything publicly available on a topic that you would not want included in an article, it will probably find its way there eventually. More than one user has created an article only to find himself presented in a poor light long-term by other editors.In addition, if your article is found not to be worthy of inclusion in the first place, it will be deleted, as per our deletion policies, and if you edit war to try and obtain a version of your choosing you may have your editing access removed, perhaps permanently.
Therefore, don't create promotional or other articles lightly, especially on subjects you care about.
[edit] Blocks
Accounts that appear, based on their edit history, to exist for the sole or primary purpose of promoting a person, company, product, service, or organization in apparent violation of this guideline will be warned and made aware of this guideline. If the same pattern of editing continues after the warning, the account may be blocked.
