User talk:GentleOnion571

Greetings, do you use AI in the creation/generation of the content you're adding to articles? I ask only because it's unusual for editors to insert flawlessly cited and formatted content in large single edits, without followup edits to fix small issues. Please note: I am not accusing; I'm only inquiring. AI has become a pervasive issue wrt Wikipedia editing, and I - like a great many longtime editors - have become suspicious of editing patterns that are suggestive of AI influence. Thanks. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 21:20, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi,

> do you use AI in the creation/generation of the content you're adding to articles?

No, I carefully think about what I want to say, and write all content by hand - preferably using Vim on a nice Colemak keyboard.

For finding sources I use traditional search engines, and sometimes search mode in AI models - however I treat these responses as I would treat the list of Google search results (without any guarantee of completeness or correctness, even though it's presented with such confidence) - along with all the usual ways like going to libraries / local archives etc.

I'm very careful to include references for every sentence I write with a fully annotated inline reference, with page numbers for PDFs (using the `#pagenum=X` URL suffix for the PDF page, and `|page=Y` for the number as printed, as they often differ), and adding archive.org links (navigating back in time for dead links to find the last alive version) where I think there's a risk of something going offline etc.

I read (and contribute) to Wikipedia because I know it is a human creation, well referenced, and rigorously reviewed/contested.

> I ask only because it's unusual for editors to insert flawlessly cited and formatted content in large single edits, without followup edits to fix small issues.

Yes, I have made some quite like large edits to Southern Arterial Route, a page I originally created through the AfC process. In those cases I copy the current content and work in Vim as I prefer that for writing. I check for syntax errors in my own self hosted Mediawiki (I wrote some details about that at https://jakecoppinger.com/2025/09/green-lights-more-often-the-secret-2018-study-of-sydneys-traffic-signals/#Drafting_in_Wikitext), and then after checking multiple times I copy the diff into Wikipedia (checking that nobody has changed the page in the meantime).

Where I make smaller edits and don't copy into Vim I certainly make mistakes - I made one such typo yesterday (before your message) in a string of small edits (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C5%8Chashi_Junction&diff=prev&oldid=1333251761#:~:text=and%20175%20meters.-,Line%2028,-%3A)

I'm open to working in smaller chunks/diffs - is that preferred/the expectation? I'm relatively new so would appreciate any advice!

Thanks, Jake Jakecopp (talk) 03:05, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Outstanding reply, thank you very kindly for the details. I appreciate your rigorous methodology. The only criticism I can muster is for your use of Vim, as vi and all of its siblings and descendents are evil spawn of the devil, in the mighty edit war where Emacs reigns supreme. Of course, I say this in jest! cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 03:39, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Haha, I appreciate the ongoing rivalry! Thanks. Jakecopp (talk) 04:47, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

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Thanks - my error when copying from my editor into the Wikipedia editor. GentleOnion571 (talk) 17:15, 5 September 2026 (UTC)

Hello GentleOnion571. The nature of your edits, such as the one you made to Leonie Sandercock, 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:GentleOnion571. The template {{Paid}} can be used for this purpose – e.g. in the form: {{paid|user=GentleOnion571|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. Magnolia677 (talk) 10:52, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Hello, I am not paid for my edits and do not expect to be paid, so I am quite confused.

I live in Sydney, and thought these sections were relevant given the substantial profile of Jack Mundey and Sandercock’s literature regarding Australia. I’d appreciate any suggestions on how I could improve my edits in future. GentleOnion571 (talk) 11:00, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

You added a significant amount of unsourced information about what she was working on. Do you know her personally? Magnolia677 (talk) 15:11, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

I do not know her and have never met (or communicated with) her.

I don’t think I did add uncited text - did you perhaps see my new {{citation needed}} additions and misread the diff as me adding these paragraphs? I strive to never write anything uncited on Wikipedia (even obvious things).

eg. see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonie_Sandercock&diff=1373852897&oldid=1372595091

I’ve since made more changes to the page, and I think I’ve cited every addition well (typically with page numbers and quotes using the {{q template, and sometimes even paragraph numbers for web sources) GentleOnion571 (talk) 16:24, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

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Hi! I am an edit filter patroller and I saw one of your edits is automatically rejected by the system - I'd like to give the link WP:Archive.today guidance here, as it outlines why Wikipedia suddenly decided to not use that archiving services anymore.

Happy editing and cheers. :) 海盐沙冰 _{/ aka irisChronomia / Talk / Uploads} 09:38, 22 September 2026 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for that!

Definitely across it (and I don't intend to add archive.today links), but I copied the citation from another wiki page which still had it in the citation. GentleOnion571 (talk) 09:48, 22 September 2026 (UTC)

Hello, I'm Qwerfjkl (bot). I have automatically detected that this edit performed by you, on the page Bike paths in Sydney, may have introduced referencing errors. They are as follows:

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