User talk:ComputerRick

November 2017

Hello, I'm Meters. I noticed that you made a comment on the page Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard that didn't seem very civil, so it has been removed. Wikipedia is built on collaboration, so it's one of our core principles to interact with one another in a polite and respectful manner. If you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Meters (talk) 19:35, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

Harassment

Please stop harassing me and several other editors or else I will report you to administrators. You have been following me everywhere, reporting other editors to make your "case" against me, inserting your replies all over old discussions without any order, called me a fascist and have been fabricating numbers of users I've supposedly attacked. Stop or you will be reported. --Mr.hmm (talk) 12:33, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

Reported to administrators

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. --Mr.hmm (talk) 13:30, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

COIN follow up

This is a followup to my comment here.

I work on conflict of interest issues here in Wikipedia, along with my regular editing. Your edits to date are promotional with regard to Deciso and its product, OPNsense, and attacking its real world rival, Rubicon Communications, LLC (Netgate) and its product PfSense. I'm giving you notice of our Conflict of Interest guideline and Terms of Use, and will have some comments and requests for you below.

Hello, ComputerRick. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a COI may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. Editing for the purpose of advertising or promotion is not permitted. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. We ask that you:

• avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, company, organization or competitors;
• propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (see the {{request edit}} template);
• disclose your COI when discussing affected articles (see WP:DISCLOSE);
• avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see WP:SPAM);
• do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation (see WP:PAID).

Also please note that editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you.

I have not made any attempts to attack, filter, impede, or otherwise comment on PfSense. I have been making a clear attempt to expose someone who is very clearly biased and his edits reflect that. I've made NO comments that do anything other than try to include OPNSense, simply as a counter to Mr.hmm's behavior in ensuring that it doesn't exist anywhere. I've been doing this for a week, he's been at it for 2 years, yet because he is gaming the system, I'm getting more focus. I am simply trying to right what I view as a wrong. I am in no way affiliated with or in communication with Deciso. I edit very infrequently and only to the point of inclusion. All I have been asking for is a fair, unbiased review of Mr.hmm's actions since account creation, including edits prior to his name change and a response to that exactly. Did you verify the credibility of the accuser prior to addressing me? ComputerRick (talk) 19:59, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Comments and requests

Wikipedia is a widely-used reference work and managing conflict of interest is essential for ensuring the integrity of Wikipedia and retaining the public's trust in it. As in academia, COI is managed here in two steps - disclosure and a form of peer review. Please note that there is no bar to being part of the Wikipedia community if you want to be involved in articles where you have a conflict of interest; there are just some things we ask you to do (and if you are paid, some things you need to do).

Disclosure is the most important, and first, step. While I am not asking you to disclose your identity (anonymity is strictly protecting by our WP:OUTING policy) would you please disclose if you have some connection with Deciso or the developer community for OPNsense, directly or through a third party (e.g. a PR agency or the like)? You can answer how ever you wish (giving personally identifying information or not), but if there is a connection, please disclose it. After you respond (and you can just reply below), I can walk you through how the "peer review" part happens and then, if you like, I can provide you with some more general orientation as to how this place works. Please reply here, just below, to keep the discussion in one place. Thanks! Jytdog (talk) 19:02, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

First, to address your question, I have no personal or professional interest in, communication with, or affiliation with Deciso, I have no COI to disclose, beyond believing OPNSense worthy of inclusion.

I simply wanted to add a line to a table, in doing so, found the page locked. I posted my first comment since my account was created over 5 years ago and I'm attacked ad hominem for it, and I responded aggressively. I was researching firewalls and came to this page only after reading some articles referring to OPNSense as being a very capable project, of which I added to the Draft:OPNSense page. I was hoping to find more technical information and project details, only to find OPNSense missing. This turned into a personal effort to have it included. I appreciate your comments and fair consideration of this issue. I did not act perfectly within the guidelines of WP and have apologized in multiple places because of my errors. I've made no comments regarding PfSense, and I would fight for it's inclusion. To be clear, I am continuing to read guidelines, improve my online responses in format and tone, and am making significant effort to be a positive contributor. I have made two edits prior to and unrelated to this, with hopes of making more in the future. I am more than open to "general orientation", but I believe that I've come across most of the pages. I'll review whatever references you provide, thanks. ComputerRick (talk) 19:59, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. This sort of makes sense. I am still looking into things. As I said at COIN, for the love of God please stop trying to change anything while also this is getting looked at by independent people. Jytdog (talk) 21:30, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

I'm being accused in other places of being a sock, there's an open WP:ANI, and I have other people involved in several disputes over multiple pages, primarily the Firewall List and Draft:OPNSense pages. My frustration is the selective enforcement of some requirements and complete ignorance of other guidelines for mention is other articles, all per the WP:GNG, especially in that notability requirements do not need to be met for discussion in a separate article. I'll try to lay off for a bit, thanks again. ComputerRick (talk) 22:15, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

The ANI was closed and is here. I have asked all of the people involved to step back while the rest of the community sorts this out and I talk to folks. See the discussion at COIN I linked to at the top of this thread.

If you like please read User:Jytdog/How where i try to explain what WP is and is not - what its mission actually is, how the community governs itself, and what the main policies and guidelines are through which the community tries to realize the mission.

If you want to show that you are here in good faith I suggest that you edit about other stuff while we work out the issues around these two products. Please try to use only high quality, independent sources (avoid company websites, press releases, and blogs, and concentrate on adding high level accepted knowledge to WP aimed at the general public -- stuff people can learn from, not "news" and not super-detailed product information. If you know a lot of about firewalls and networking maybe you can improve our coverage of those topics. Very often articles get warped by tons of detail being added to some tiny aspect while there is some big hole or very undeveloped sections about important stuff. Experts can be very helpful in evening out content, filling gaps and trimming back excessive detail. Please consider doing that. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 00:10, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Your experience looks almost identical to mine, so thank you for bringing it to Jytdogs attention. I tried to report the page to the appropriate parties months ago when I was updating my router, but I had no idea what I was doing, so I filed different kinds of reports / warnings. It appears that this COI thing is what was needed all along. Peter.dolkens (talk) 20:10, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Sorry another question

Hi ComputerRick. I also have wanted to ask, if you are coordinating with other editors off-Wikipedia to lobby for OPNsense here in WP. If you have been, you have been. That is what it is. The main thing I am after is to get that disclosed and managed going forward, here in WP. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 00:40, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

No need to apologize for asking, but as I stated above, I was researching firewalls and found OPNSense. Further research brought me here and it wasn't complete. When the page was locked, it could not be edited, and I started doing research as to why. It seemed that OPNSense was being prevented from inclusion by a very strong, vocal user and I went after it. Consider me a dog with a bone, which may be inappropriate here, but if it fixes an issue that has been festering for 2 years and abused by someone gaming the system, then it's worth it. I have not collaborated with anyone else regarding OPNSense in any way.

It's also very frustrating that in one breath, one user will paint himself the victim, that everyone is attacking him, all the while he's making baseless claims against others. I'm former military and I'm not one to shy away, I would and have behaved similarly in every aspect of my life. This person is manipulative and, in my opinion, bullies people into silence. I'm hoping for a resolution with this user, which will resolve the other OPNSense inclusions. My account existed prior to this and will exist after OPNSense ceases to. Other outside evidence, also points to malicious behavior by PfSense in an effort to discredit and cause harm to the OPNSense project. I would honestly like to do a CheckUser and see if he's in Austin, Tx, that would indicate a likely relationship. I'm in Alaska and Deciso is in Europe. Also, I have not claimed to know any names of players, because I don't, that seems like that would be a red flag to indicate an affiliation or personal relationship if you are naming principals of either or both, in his case, of these organizations. I just wrote a novel, thanks for reading it. :) ComputerRick (talk) 01:59, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your clear reply about whether you have been coordinating. It is weird that a bunch of people showed up at once.

On the other stuff, hell is other people. The editing community does its best to work with that.  :) Jytdog (talk) 02:02, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Your submission at Articles for creation: OPNSense has been accepted

OPNSense, which you submitted to Articles for creation, has been created.
The article has been assessed as Start-Class, which is recorded on the article's talk page. You may like to take a look at the grading scheme to see how you can improve the article.

You are more than welcome to continue making quality contributions to Wikipedia. Note that because you are a logged-in user, you can create articles yourself, and don't have to post a request. However, you may continue submitting work to Articles for Creation if you prefer.

• If you have any questions, you are welcome to ask at the help desk.
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Thank you for helping improve Wikipedia!

~Kvng (talk) 14:03, 1 December 2017 (UTC)