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Hi FoCuSandLeArN. I've come across a few edits of yours that I find rather difficult to explain and would appreciate hearing your side of the story. They all relate to articles you created in 2015: Wei Yan (scientist), Benning Violins and Pharma Documentation Ring. In each case, just days before you created them, an SPA account uploaded the images you used to commons:
@Smartse: Hey there! Um, that's ages ago and I can't really explain what other editors have done, but if I recall correctly at least PDR was an AfC draft I grandfathered into mainspace after seeing it was deleted and was indeed a notable subject. Dozens of these are deleted every month, and sometimes I am quick enough to save them, albeit not regularly and with a slight delay due to my personal engagements. I used to do that (not so much these days, where you'll mostly find me patrolling, etc) with stale drafts, as I know DGG and others do as well. Often times previous submitters come back if they see their original article subject now located in mainspace, and they proceed to edit the article themselves, sometimes uploading images (a fair amount of which are deleted under several criteria). The AfC process is quite flawed; I grew wary of the AfC status quo a while ago and participated in the recent RfC pertaining to NPP and its future (which alluded to AfC as well). The other two I can't remember to be quite frank; I do remember consulting with Voceditenore about Benning's notability a long time ago...judging by the time frame this is when I used to review articles on a regular basis, that would probably explain your lucky triad. Given I used to review so many submissions I didn't follow through on most of my watchlist changes after I saw the articles were in decent condition. There are some nice examples out there of the AfC process succeeding, if you know what to look for!
Thank you for your explanation. You did recall correctly that Draft:Pharma Documentation Ring existed, but there was never a logo there, and once it was uploaded, you knew about it within 19 hours. I cannot find any trace of the other articles in Draft space and looking through your deleted contributions I found you started the Yan article here and the Benning article here (sorry but these links won't work for you, but I can easily undelete User:FoCuSandLeArN/sandbox2 so you can see). It's clear from those diffs that you started the articles yourself and again, images were added with 36 hours for Yen (added during move to mainspace) and 14 hours for Benning. At the Yen article Weiyanunsom (talk ·contribs) (the same user as the uploader, and who has a name very similar to the subject) also made edits to your sandbox. I am always hesitant to make such statements, but I afraid that these articles bear many hallmarks of undisclosed paid editing, which, as I am sure you are aware is prohibited. I am also concerned about some of your more recent contributions such as: your rewrite of Andrew N. Liveris where User:Earflaps (recently blocked as a socking paid editor) added a PR photo 9 days later. Would you like to disclose anything? SmartSE (talk) 22:15, 22 December 2016 (UTC)
I will perform a simple Commons search before or after creating an article to see if pertinent logos/images are available; I will sometimes upload some myself from flickr; I'm not on Wikipedia all day so my edits are not instantaneous. As you aptly stated above I cannot access those diffs. After your first contact I have come to vaguely recall an IP or SPA edited my Wei draft repeatedly, which I reverted; they seem to have been aware of the draft, but I obviously cannot assess their intentions nor drives. Having created thousands of articles I have come to the notion of letting the encyclopaedia do its work; I could keep track of every edit performed on drafts/articles I've created, but that fosters a false sense of property which I do not condone. As it happens regularly, especially for busy article creators such as myself, we often cross paths with COI editors who subsequently edit articles we're working/worked on, sometimes to their detriment, sometimes pertinently, even though they're new and are often unaware of the dangers involved in biased editing. During the past few years I've taken a proactive approach with regards to some high-profile articles (gnoming was getting a bit monotonous), be them biographies or corporate articles; as such I may obviously have interacted unwittingly with COI editors, as we all have with such inflated editing contribution numbers. We can very gladly discuss the specific edits at hand!
It is unfortunate yet another sock was uncovered and there's an article I edited in common with this person. Please let me know how I can help. As far as disclosure goes, Liveris attended my alma mater! Merry Christmas, FoCuScontribs; talk to me!23:00, 22 December 2016 (UTC)
OTHERCRAP isn't a strong argument. And to be clear, I haven't suggested that you are a sock - I mentioned that a user who has been blocked as a sock added a photo to an article that you wrote, very shortly afterwards. SmartSE (talk) 00:27, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
Focus, I think what SmartSE is getting at is not that you are a sock, but that some of your articles may be the result of undisclosed paid editing. The only two that I have personal experience with are Benning Violins and Ivo Varbanov (see below). Although they pass the notability criteria, they are not household names and do not appear to have been previously red-linked in other articles or listed on requested articles pages which is what usually leads to article creation. It might help if you explain to SmartSE what led you to choose those particular but rather marginal and disparate music-related topics. I have to confess that I found it a bit puzzling at the time. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 08:44, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
Don't know how relevant this is SmartSE, but just a note here about Benning Violins. Focus asked me about this subject on 10 February 2015, over a month before it was created in article space. He and I had done a lot of work at AfC at the time, with me giving advice on some of the music-related drafts he was reviewing. (See here for the archived discussions.) In the conversation on my talk page about Benning, I and several of my page watchers gave some advice about potential sources, and I also emailed Focus copies of articles that I have access to through HighBeam. He completed the first draft of the article on 22 March, 6 days before the image was uploaded. He also asked me for advice on the notability of Ivo Varbanov (pianist) here. If I recall, I suggested some references for that too and also tweaked the formatting on the draft, but my edits don't show up in the actual article's history for some reason. Voceditenore (talk) 07:08, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
I do not really recall: I might've come across one of Varbanov's recordings either at one of the libraries I go to or through Youtube's recommended videos. Benning I believe provided or fixed one of Heifetz's instruments, and I'm an admirer of Perlman, who in turn was his friend of many years. FoCuScontribs; talk to me!14:51, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
Sorry for modification to Gavin DeGraw article. Just wanted to add the collab with AvB. However, it seems I removed some content and do not understand why. Are you sure there is not a bug with the editor ?
My Article on Farhan Wilayat Butt
I have received your message that my following article will be deleted:
Hello, FoCuSandLeArN. It has been over six months since you last edited your Articles for Creation draft article submission, "sandbox".
In accordance with our policy that Articles for Creation is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply edit the submission and remove the ((db-afc)) or ((db-g13)) code.
If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.
Yep, I did not only delete information but tried to add some, and when you revert you deleted it. Was the added information unsuitable for Wikipedia ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.248.54.17 (talk) 11:57, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
I have generated two wikipedia pages, i.e. Farhan Wilayat Butt and Pakistan Peacekeeping Mission and I have received your same messages about both of these pages:
Blatantly non-notable. Not a single independent source available.
Please I request you not to delete my both pages, as I have spent hours on both pages and have made my maximum efforts to provide sufficient and most appropriate information.
Secondly, please be apprised that I need to understand the issue in very easy words. Please do not write in very technical language and please guide me in very simple words, what I actually need to do?
As far as my personal understanding is concerned; I have placed various References and External Links as evidences... but receiving that type of message is really frightening me.
Please be apprised that as far as my article on Farhan Wilayat Butt is concerned; you have mentioned that he is blatantly non-notable! But please be informed that a person who is presiding a peace mission, who has achieved a number of awards from various organizations and even from ministers, a person who is running so many welfare projects... how can he be a non-notable person? As far as references are concerned; I have already mentioned references and external links. You are requested to please approve my article on Farhan Wilayat Butt and please do not delete it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PeacekeepingMission (talk • contribs) 13:57, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
@PeacekeepingMission: I've nominated your articles for deletion. See the tags placed at the top for more information. Please do not remove these as you did with the previous (PROD) templates, as this is considered disruptive. Your subjects simply appear to carry no extensive coverage in independent nor reliable sources. We require topics to be notable for inclusion in the encyclopaedia. Do not take this personally. Also, you appear to have a close connection to either this individual or his organisation; you might even be Farhan himself. Be aware there are guidelines dealing with such conflicts (e.g. WP:AUTO). Best, FoCuScontribs; talk to me!15:15, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
@FoCuSandLeArN: I am neither Farhan Wilayat Butt, nor I am an employee or associate of his organization. I just admire his efforts, struggles and welfare activities; as he did so much for betterment of our community and I personally observed him sharing his charity funds for purchase of wheel-chairs for disabled persons our areas. You guys have attmpted again and again to remove his article; these things shall never make us loose our trust on him. You people are unfortunate because you wont have any of his details in future. I am deleting his article. Bye