User talk:Dns75204

A belated welcome!

Here's wishing you a belated welcome to Wikipedia, Dns75204! I see that you've already been around a while and wanted to thank you for your contributions. Though you seem to have been successful in finding your way around, you may still benefit from following some of the links below, which help editors get the most out of Wikipedia:

If you have questions, just use this link to ask for help; a volunteer will visit you here shortly!

Need some ideas of what kind of things need doing? Try the Task Center.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Again, welcome! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:12, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Conflict of interest

All good, all resolved, welcome back and feel free to remove this if/whenever you like to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:00, 12 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's quite obvious that you have a conflict of interest regarding the David Slater article. In accordance with our terms of use, you are required to make full disclosure. DS (talk) 20:42, 5 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I am not exactly sure what you mean by "full disclosure." I am David Slater, the subject of the page. My main interest is in correcting information that is incorrect. Dns75204 (talk) 03:06, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Fellow Wikipedia community members: Please see user Dns75204's Unblock request below. He is now aware that all of us who choose to make edits to a Wikipedia page (and even a Talk page) must follow the community standards including not making edits to a page where we have an undisclosed conflict of interest. He is more aware of these standards and if and after his Unblock request is approved, as stated in his request, he "will instruct anyone who might POSSIBLY think of adding something to this page to NOT do it. And, [he] will use the "talk page" in future instead of making edits on [his] own." Jimdmurphy (talk) 04:07, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thank you Jim. I was primarily referring to my wife, who on occasion has made edits, and she is not a registered user. Neither of us knew that that was found upon. Dns75204 (talk) 21:34, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

frowned upon Dns75204 (talk) 21:34, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Dns75204. The nature of your edits, such as the one you made to David Slater, 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 employed (or being compensated in any way) by a person, group, company or organization to promote their interests. Paid advocacy on Wikipedia must be disclosed even if you have not specifically been asked to edit Wikipedia. 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 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 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:Dns75204. The template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=Dns75204|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. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:13, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I am David Slater. I haven't made any attempts (that I can recall?) to make money from this page. I'm not exactly sure what it meant by that. I do recall updating the info about albums I recorded in the past, but made no attempt to "sell" them. Heck, I don't even have any. They are out of print. Dns75204 (talk) 03:07, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I forgot to address your question about a "paid advocate." I do not know what that is, but if it means I ever paid someone to get on Wikipedia to advocate for me, then, no, I have never done that. The confusion may be that I forgot my original user name and made a new one. My user name now is dns75204 and that is the only one I will use. Furthermore, I will instruct anyone who might POSSIBLY think of adding something to this page to NOT do it. And, I will use the "talk page" in future instead of making edits on my own. Thank you. Dns75204 (talk) 03:34, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As previously advised, your edits, such as the edit you made to David Slater, give the impression you have a financial stake in promoting a topic, but you have not complied with Wikipedia's mandatory paid editing disclosure requirements. You were asked to cease editing until you responded by either stating that you are not being directly or indirectly compensated for your edits, or by complying with the mandatory requirements under the Wikimedia Terms of Use that you disclose your employer, client and affiliation. Again, you can post such a disclosure on your user page at User:Dns75204, and the template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=Dns75204|employer=InsertName|client=InsertName}}. Please respond before making any other edits to Wikipedia. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:18, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I am David Slater. I haven't made any attempts (that I can recall?) to make money from this page. I'm not exactly sure what it meant by that. I do recall updating the info about albums I recorded in the past, but I made no attempt to "sell" them, nor do I even have any to sell. They are out of print. All I do in music these days is play locally at a handful of restaurants. I'm basically retired except for that. /thanks Dns75204 (talk) 03:09, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am NOT being directly or indirectly compensated for any edits I have ever made, or will ever make, on Wikipedia. Dns75204 (talk) 21:24, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You still have not adequately responded or taken action to the inquiry regarding your appearance as an undisclosed paid editor. If you make any additional edits without complying, you may be blocked from editing. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:19, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I am David Slater. I haven't made any attempts (that I can recall?) to make money from this page. I'm not exactly sure what it meant by that. I do recall updating the info about albums I recorded in the past, but I made no attempt to "sell" them, nor do I even have any to sell. They are out of print. All I do in music these days is play locally at a handful of restaurants. I'm basically retired except for that. /thanks Dns75204 (talk) 03:10, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am NOT being directly or indirectly compensated for any edits I have ever made, or will ever make, on Wikipedia Dns75204 (talk) 21:25, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You have been blocked indefinitely from editing for not responding to repeated inquiries about possible undisclosed paid editing.

If you believe that there are good reasons for being unblocked, please review Wikipedia's guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text to the bottom of your talk page: {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:21, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

Dns75204 (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

Request reason:

It seems I was blocked for trying to make money from the Wikipedia page about myself. I did not do this, in fact I'm not sure how that would be done. All I can remember doing is updating the section about albums I recorded in the past. I recorded a couple of independent (without a record label) albums that I added to the list, but didn't make any effort to sell them. I do not even have any of the albums now. They are out of print, and I am largely retired except for doing music locally for a few restaurants. Other edits I made over the years to this page were to correct information that was false or irrelevant. Thank you.

Now to address someone's question above about a "paid advocate." I do not know exactly what that is, but if it means I ever paid someone to get on Wikipedia to advocate for me, then, no, I have never done that. The confusion may be that I forgot my original user name and made a new one. My user name now is dns75204 and that is the only one I will use. Furthermore, I will instruct anyone who might POSSIBLY think of adding something to this page to NOT do it. And, I will use the "talk page" in future instead of making edits on my own.

Finally, I should clarify something I said in passing on the talk page of the David Slater page. I have no intention of hiring an attorney to do any kind of legal action. All I meant was that it had occurred to me to ask an attorney about what is legally permitted to post about someone online, etc. I do not have knowledge of what is permissible in this area and it simply occurred to me that I should learn about it, and the best way might be to ask an attorney who knows such things.

One more thing: The reason I want to be unblocked is not to make further edits to the Wikipedia page, but to be able to participate on the talk page. I have learned that that is the appropriate way to approach it.

Thank you.

Dns75204 (talk) 03:11, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Accept reason:

Hello David Slater,

Thank you very much for the detailed assurances and clarifications, and welcome back.
If, beyond current discussion topics, or after a discussion seems to have ended with consensus for such changes, you'd like to suggest new changes, please click the "request corrections" link in the orange box at the top of Talk:David Slater.

One reason why I believed you might be acting on behalf of who turns out to be yourself is that you talked about yourself in third person in the edit summary of Special:Diff/1294949016.

Please make sure you're logged in for all edits to Wikipedia that are related to yourself. You are not strictly required to login for edits completely unrelated, as the community values and grants privacy, but you are of course encouraged to stay logged in at all times. Details about this can be found in our policy against sockpuppetry. Strictly speaking, the talk page messages sent to Talk:David Slater while blocked are block evasion and could be removed, but I see no point in doing so in this specific case here.

Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:47, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@ToBeFree: you said "If, beyond current discussion topics, or after a discussion seems to have ended with consensus for such changes, you'd like to suggest new changes...".

Since we know from recent experience that Dns75204 is a novice in understanding WP protocol, can you clarify the guidelines for how Dns75204 (talk) can or cannot participate in the "current discussion" about his own criminal history? Jimdmurphy (talk) 11:17, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry if that was ambiguous – Dns75204, you can of course participate in current discussions. You are welcome and encouraged to do so. For article subjects, discussing on the article's talk page is the only encouraged way of participating in the article's development. What I was trying to say is that formal edit requests made using the link in the orange box are only for simple/uncontroversial changes or those a consensus already exists for. Creating such a request automatically asks reviewers from the entire encyclopedia to have a look. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:13, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I think I understand. I've learned more about Wikipedia in the last 48 hours than I've known for 20 years. Dns75204 (talk) 21:32, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

The Barnstar of Diplomacy

Dear Dns75204,

Thank you very much for discussing with the other editors in a situation that must have been tough, upsetting and taking a while to navigate. Wikipedia's processes are often a mystery even to experienced editors, and dealing with a situation where opinions differ and a consensus must somehow be found can be especially difficult. Thank you very much for all your time and understanding!

Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:19, 30 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your sensitivity and your commitment to fairness. Dns75204 (talk) 20:54, 1 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]