VRCWiki:Conflicts of interest

Conflict of interest (COI) editing involves contributing to the VRChat Wiki about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers, or your financial and other relationships. Any external relationship can trigger a conflict of interest. Someone having a conflict of interest is a description of a situation, not a judgment about that person's opinions, integrity, or good faith.

COI editing is discouraged on the VRChat Wiki as it can undermine public confidence and may cause public embarrassment to the individuals and organizations being promoted. Editors with a COI may be unaware of how much it has influenced their editing. If COI editing causes disruption, an administrator may opt to place blocks on the involved accounts.

However, we understand that COI is hard to avoid. Some VRChat users may be the only source of information for worlds, avatars, and tools. It is acceptable for those users to contribute this information. Content should be verifiable if possible, but contributors should use common sense. Avoid advertising and use neutral language to maintain a neutral point of view (NPOV).

Editors with a COI, including paid editors, are expected to disclose it whenever they seek to change an affected article's content. Anyone editing for pay must disclose who is paying them, who the client is, and any other relevant affiliation; this is a requirement of the VRChat Wiki. COI editors are discouraged from editing affected articles directly and can propose changes on article talk pages instead. However, our policy on matters relating to living people allows very obvious errors to be fixed quickly, including by the subject.

Editors with a COI should follow VRChat Wiki policies and best practices scrupulously:

• You should disclose your COI when involved with affected articles.
• You are discouraged from editing affected articles directly.
• You should propose changes on talk pages or by posting a note at the COI noticeboard so that they can be peer-reviewed.
• You should not act as a reviewer of affected articles if there is any dispute on its content.
• You should respect other editors by keeping discussions concise.

Note that no one on the VRChat Wiki controls articles. If the VRChat Wiki hosts an article, others may add information that would otherwise remain little known. They may also decide to delete the article or decide to keep it should someone later request deletion.

Paid Editing

Being paid to contribute to the VRChat Wiki is one form of financial COI; it places the paid editor in a conflict between their employer's goals and the VRChat Wiki's goals. The kind of paid editing of most concern to the community involves using the VRChat Wiki for public relations and marketing purposes. Sometimes called "paid advocacy," this is problematic because it invariably reflects the interests of the client or employer.

More generally, an editor has a financial conflict of interest whenever they write about a topic with which they have a close financial relationship. This includes being an owner, employee, contractor, investor or other stakeholder.

The VRChat Wiki requires that all paid editing be disclosed. If you receive or expect to receive compensation (money, goods or services) for your contributions to the VRChat Wiki, the policy is:

• You must disclose who is paying you, on whose behalf the edits are made, and any other relevant affiliation (on the talk page).
• You should make the disclosure on your user page, on affected talk pages, and whenever you discuss the topic.
• You are discouraged from editing affected articles directly.
• You should propose changes on talk pages so that they can be peer-reviewed.
• You should not act as a reviewer of affected articles if there is any dispute on its content.
• You should respect volunteers by keeping discussions concise.