GW Lopez

Scam

Hi, I have seen your comment here offering to pay $1499 to an editor regarding the article about you and its proposed deletion. You should be aware that this is a scam. If the community here decides you meet wikipedia's notablility criteria then the article will be kept at no cost to you. If you do not, then no amount of money you pay anyone to edit here will prevent the article from being deleted. You should also read WP:PAID and note that paying people to edit here without proper disclosure (as previously happened with Greghenderson2006) is a violation of wikipedia's terms of service and even with proper disclosure is frowned upon by many editors and comes with strict guidelines. The best advice is simply, don't do it. Melcous (talk) 20:35, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for the heads up. This has been a stressful and demeaning experience, Melcous. Since the notification of the deletion of my article I have been contacted by seemly legitimate representatives of Wikipedia encouraging modifying the article to comply Wikipedia's editorial requirements. GW Lopez (talk) 21:23, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

I am sorry to hear that Gary. The wikipedia community is overwhelmingly made up of volunteers whose goal is to create a useful encyclopedia for readers. It is highly unlikely that any of them would ever contact you (and if they did, it would be here on wikipedia, not elsewhere). But sadly there are scammers who will try to profit off your desire for an article and/or off your distress. Please ignore them and don't waste your money.
Can I also encourage you to have a read of this: Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing.
The big thing to understand is that as an encyclopedia, articles here are about people, but they do not in any way belong to those people. (So it is not in any way "your article".) Personally, my advice would be to let the deletion discussion run its course, and if the community decides the notability criteria is not met, then take that on the chin and walk away. If you want to become more well known, then you can always create your own website that you control to promote yourself or your work, but that is not what wikipedia is for, and as you have discovered, trying to use wikipedia in that way often turns out to be an unpleasant experience. Cheers, Melcous (talk) 21:35, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

I want you to know, Melcous, that I was not trying to circumvent the rule by working with a certified Wikipedia editor, I was try to do things the right way. So, when I was contacted by a high-level admin from Wikipedia who advised me to work with a seasoned editor, I did. I was further told there would be a fee, part of which would be donated to Wikipedia. The Wikipedia admin that contacted me was

Brendan Conway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brendanconway). He appears to be legitimate. Brendan advised me to work with Wikipedia editor, William Avery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3AWilliam_Avery), who also appear legitimate. Brendan gave me the fee and transaction information. Since I know nothing about how Wikipedia works, I followed their directions. Again, I am not trying to bend the rules. If this was a scam, it is a good one since the email address, links, and router tracking all appear right.

Again, thanks for the head's up.

Gary GW Lopez (talk) 21:55, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes, both Brendanconway and William Avery are legitimate wikipedia editors, but neither of them have contacted you - unfortunately someone else is just using their names. You can read more about this here if you're interested. I understand that you were not trying to bend the rules in this case, but were taken in by the scam, which as you say, can look quite legit. It's despicable. It would be appreciated if you can forward their emails to you to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org (as noted in the red box at the top of WP:SCAM) to report them. Thanks Melcous (talk) 22:06, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Will do. GW Lopez (talk) 00:01, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

Mr. Lopez, you mention above I was not trying to circumvent the rule by working with a certified Wikipedia editor. Please be aware that there is no such thing as a "certified Wikipedia editor". The encyclopedia does not have a certification process; if someone such as an article creator told you they were "certified" by Wikipedia to make an article about you, that statement was not truthful.

Please do be careful. I too believe that if you wish to have an online presence to promote yourself and your accomplishments, it's a much better idea to pay a web designer to create a high quality website about you and your work. See WP:ABOUTME for more information. Sorry that this has been an unpleasant experience all the way around. Netherzone (talk) 15:14, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for the advise and counsel, Netherzone. 69.181.123.181 (talk) 16:11, 17 December 2023 (UTC)