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Plainsite.org on Tesla, Inc. and Elon Musk

In relation to Tesla, plainsite.org is currently cited in a couple of places. Yesterday I removed a third plainsite.org citation related to Tesla. I did so for two reasons. Firstly, a few days ago the person behind plainsite.org filed a lawsuit against Tesla. Secondly, in the filings of that lawsuit they divulge their personal, financial investments against Tesla. (Investing against a company means short selling of that company's stock or as in this case, the purchase (from an entity unrelated to the company) of put options that will pay out handsomely if the company goes bankrupt.) Per their filing, the plainsite.org owner has made an investment that will as a maximum pay out $200,000 if Tesla goes bankrupt (or the stock becomes essentially worthless) by June 19 of this year. Among the investments listed in their filing is an investment against Tesla on March 8, 2019, so on that date they created a personal, financial interest against Tesla. On the Tesla article, I removed the reference to plainsite.org (and the content that it alone supported) because I consider it self-evident that we cannot cite material from a website operated by a person who has started a legal conflict with Tesla and who is actively investing against the company. In addition to Tesla, the lawsuit list as defendants also Elon Musk, a company Smick Enterprises Inc. as well as an apparently non-notable, named individual. As such I think a general decision on the scope of plainsite.org citations is necessary. For this discussion I am paging QRep2020, an anti-Tesla-focused SPA who happens to have introduced all three references to plainsite.org. Lklundin (talk) 13:23, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

How is this user QRep2020 not a COI account? Seems to have flown under the radar despite already being blocked. A true advocacy/COI SPA. —DIYeditor (talk) 13:39, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
I included Plainsite.org because I could not find any other website on the Internet that is keeping an living count of lawsuits where Tesla is a party. I frankly agree Plainsite is a bit too involved - though Aaron Greenspan has denied being a part of TSLAQ - but until there's another website that is providing that sort of detailed important information, I thought the point was important enough to surface. Feel free to prove me wrong as I didn't spend hours researching. QRep2020 (talk) 17:18, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
As if short-sellers are known for their reliability and honesty. -- GreenC 19:33, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
Any evidence that this has been true on a large scale? Conversely, why would I trust someone promoting a stock? Don't they have the same COI as a short seller? Springee (talk) 21:39, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
Nobody involved in short selling, holding or promoting a stock should be editing the relevant article directly in my opinion. Isn't that textbook COI? —DIYeditor (talk) 01:34, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
  • How is any of this relevant to the current discussion? What reason do we have to believe someone from Plainsite is editing entries on Wikipedia? QRep2020 (talk) 01:05, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
First, my comment was directed at the claim that short sellers in general are unreliable or dishonest. I didn't take that comment to be Wikipedia specific and my answer certainly wasn't meant to be. As for Wikipedia specifically, are you suggesting one of the editors here has a COI or just that Plainsite has the COI? What level of fiscal involvement becomes a COI issue? If I own 100 shares of Grumman should I be barred from editing the Grumman article? Springee (talk) 01:59, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
Yes, my understanding is that you should not be editing Grumman. I'm a little surprised you need to ask this but maybe there is something I am woefully misunderstanding about WP:COI? —DIYeditor (talk) 02:11, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
How did you derive that from WP:COI?
Any external relationship—personal, religious, political, academic, legal, or financial (including holding a cryptocurrency)—can trigger a COI. How close the relationship needs to be before it becomes a concern on Wikipedia is governed by common sense. For example, an article about a band should not be written by the band's manager, and a biography should not be an autobiography or written by the subject's spouse. There can be a COI when writing on behalf of a competitor or opponent of the page subject, just as there is when writing on behalf of the page subject.
On one hand I could take it to mean Democrats are not allowed to write about Republicans as they have an interest in making Republicans look bad. Republicans are not allowed to write about Republicans as they have an interest in making Republicans look good. So only independents can write about Republicans? That might fall into the common sense end of things. Back to Grumman, if I were a major shareholder then I would have a clear COI. As a minor shareholder of a major (and technically no longer existing) company how much impact could my edits have on the stock price? I mean if everything I write is from RS and has WEIGHT then how could it be the sort of cutting edge news that would move the markets? WP:COI gives examples of company owners but not typical shareholders. I would agree that Greenspan from Plainsite would have a COI with regards to Tesla based on disclosed investments but I don't believe Greenspan in an involved editor here. Absent insider knowledge how could I with some tiny fraction of Grumman shares impact the stock price by editing the Grumman article? Springee (talk) 02:33, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
I'm going to assume you are trolling or something. Despite being linked to the correct spelling of Grumman you are still typing Grumann and as you say it doesn't even exist anymore. or financial (including holding a cryptocurrency). At this point I am extremely skeptical of your handling of any of this and I think we should look further into it to see if any funny business is going on. —DIYeditor (talk) 02:50, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
I've corrected the spelling error from Grumann to Grumman. Grumman is no longer a company. It merged with Northrup. Thus there are no shares of Grumman to speak of. Springee (talk) 03:09, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
This includes being an owner, employee, contractor, investor or other stakeholder. Couldn't be more clear. Please explain how this could possibly elude you? —DIYeditor (talk) 02:56, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
I don't agree that owning some shares in a company makes you a "Paid Editor". That is the section you are quoting. Springee (talk) 03:04, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
Despite how you may wish to interpret the section heading that introductory sentence states plainly that it is about a financial conflict of interest and what this includes. —DIYeditor (talk) 03:11, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
So then how is owning a few shares of Grumman (spelled correctly this time) a bigger COI vs editing an article about a political candidate I want to see succeed or fail? Per WP:EXTERNALREL, "How close the relationship needs to be before it becomes a concern on Wikipedia is governed by common sense.". If I own one share of Grumman how much incentive do I have to try to sneak some market moving information into the article? Again, "governed by common sense". Springee (talk) 03:20, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
This is a discussion for either WP:COI/N or Wikipedia Talk:COI. —DIYeditor (talk) 03:27, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
I think it's a reliable repository for the relevant lawsuits. That is, if a RS mentions X vs Y lawsuit and that lawsuit is available on Plainsite then I would say we can reliability assume the copy is reliable (not a altered or doctored). Additionally if a RS links to information on Plainsite I would consider it reliable for inclusion here (assuming WEIGHT). Essentially we should treat Plainsite as we would the content of a personal blog.
Lklundin, DIYeditor, it is not appropriate to start this off with a discrediting statement about QRep2020. Certainly there is no evidence they have a COI with Tesla. As for disliking Tesla, well that is clear but how many editors here dislike the left or right yet are actively editing those topics. If there is evidence they are editing problematically then take it to ANI. It should not be a topic here. Springee (talk) 21:39, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
I reject the claim that QRep2020 is being inappropriately discredited here. The editor should be informed when edits that they (alone) have made are being discussed here. The SPA tag exists exactly to inform others about such an editor. That QRep2020 appears to edit disruptively and make advocacy out of COI is explained here. Lklundin (talk) 12:26, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
Adding to my about comments about Plainsite, it has been used as a reference by news outlets. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] In most of these cases Plainsite is acknowledged as a transparency site that filed for fredom of information requests or simply collected and published the relevant legal documents. In almost no cases save for a comparison of the number of active legal cases pending against various car companies, is Plainsite credited with some level of data transformation. Again, I think we can assume the information is truthful but should assume the information has zero WEIGHT. It would only be included in cases like CNBC citing Plainsite as the source for depositions etc. Springee (talk) 01:30, 25 May 2020 (UTC)
I wonder if we can sidestep the issue at hand for now. I came across a "Google Dataset Search" entry for Tesla lawsuits that references Plainsite as the source. Although the information was assembled by Plainsite it looks like the entry does not list Plainsite as one of the databases. Maybe this would work instead of a link to Plainsite since Plainsite is under scrutiny. Are there any policies on Wikipedia about data sets and sources? https://datasetsearch.research.google.com/search?query=%22tesla%20lawsuits%22&docid=5q3qE%2FgkHRIQhrg7AAAAAA%3D%3D QRep2020 (talk) 14:56, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
I don't think that really changes things in my view. There are two questions that we have to ask before information from Plainsite could be used in any article. The first, is if the material is reliable. In basically all cases it's reliable as evidence that "Plainsite said X". Per WP:RS it can't be treated as reliable for general statements of fact. I think it can be reliable as a source for "copy of lawsuit, deposition materials etc related to legal case X". This is how it has been cited by a number of RSs. We should not use it as a source for Plainsite generated claims including statistics (example X had 50 lawsuits in 2019). However if say NBC News says "X had 50 lawsuits in 2019 according to Plainsite" that would be considered RS since a RS is vouching for the material. All of this only addresses the reliability of the material. The other question is WEIGHT/DUE. Even if we had a letter from the all mighty saying Plainsite was 100% true there is still the question of weight. In this case we really need 3rd party RSs to cite the information to show it has weight in context of the bigger topic. I don't see that the Google search does that. Springee (talk) 15:26, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
Thank you for explaining. The matter at hand really is then whether Plainsite is a reliable "repository" of lawsuits. If it is a reliable repository, then an editor can cite it in a Wikipedia article and count the amount of lawsuit references under the guidelines allowed for calculation by Wikipedia:No original research for inclusion of a statement of the references tally. Plainsite might be biased but biased sources are allowed under Wikipedia:Reliable sources and even with that it is not as if Plainsite is generating factual statements. If something as controversial and profiteering as Wikileaks is allowed to be a repository source on a Wikipedia article then Plainsite should be as well. QRep2020 (talk) 16:39, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
We might be in agreement but I'm not certain. Per OR and RS we shouldn't have a sentence claiming Tesla is involved with X no. of lawsuits because Plainsite lists X or says so. However, if a RS says in his deposition Tesla CFO said X [cite per RS that links to Plainsite] then I don't see a reason not to have both the cite to the RS as well as linking directly to the deposition. If the Wikipedia article is going to attribute the claim it should go to the RS unless they attribute the specific claim to Plainsite. So if RS says "Tesla did X per Plainsite" then it would be OK for the article to say "legal something site Plainsite said Tesla did X"[citation to RS]. Note that the details of any such edit are subject to local consensus. Springee (talk) 16:52, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
I don't think we are unfortunately. How about linking to a new or updated Wikipedia list article that lists the approximately 700 lawsuits and employs an External Links section to link to the docket list on Plainsite vis-a-vis a source link in References section? I do not want to go so far as to suggest precluding any reference to Plainsite because regardless of perspective Plainsite did do work to assemble the list and I bet it is against some Wikipedia policy to "snatch and run" with the producibles of other sites' efforts. QRep2020 (talk) 19:04, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
This is really an article level discussion but what you need is a RS that draws attention to the number of lawsuits. If Forbes has an article that notes the number of lawsuits or compares the number of cases vs other automakers then we have some weight for article inclusion. This isn't a question of where the list comes from, rather if the information is DUE for inclusion. If Tesla had more pending lawsuits than all other car companies combined it would be a shocking fact but it wouldn't be DUE unless a RS discussed it (even that doesn't guarantee inclusion). Think of this as Wikipedia informational due process. Sometimes it seems like good information is being excluded but that's just how things work around here. We are meant to be summarizing what reliable sources say about the subject. Consider that our intended audience is a decade in the future. If the number of lawsuits is considered important it will come out. Perhaps not as soon as we would wish but it will come out. Springee (talk) 19:15, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
While it should be clear that we cannot use plainsite.org as a reference for Tesla (and Elon Musk), it is different if a RS cites plainsite in connection with one of these entities. Wikipedia has created for itself the process here for (re)evaluating whether a source is reliable. The typical, reliable news media cannot be expected to retroactively assess whether a source they cite is still reliable in their view and will typically not on their own retract a story if a source they quote turn out to be something else than it was at first. So if for example CNBC e.g. a couple of months ago cited plainsite.org in relation to Tesla (or Elon Musk), would we then cite the CNBC source with or without attribution (knowing that their source had the above mentioned problems)? Lklundin (talk) 15:31, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
Yes, I would be OK citing CNBC in that case. We would have to ask, how would/could the material sourced to Plainsite be compromised by the site owner's fiscal interest? Please note that a similar fiscal interest has or currently exists with sites like Electrek and Cleantechnica other than they profit with increases in Tesla stock vs drops. Back to Plainsite, the primary thing the website offers is a publicly accessible repository of court and government documents that would otherwise be difficult/expensive to access. Do we have any evidence at all that such records are false or altered? None that has been presented. If CNBC says, "Musk said X in his SolarCity deposition according to legal records requested by Plainsite" where is the concern? I can see some concern if CNBC says Plainsite says "Tesla has 50 lawsuits pending vs 10 for GM". Still, given Plainsite's involvement with Tesla and TSLAQ I would have to assume CNBC would understand that Plainsite isn't an unbiased source yet chose to cite them anyway. So while a case could be made that a stat purely generated by Plainsite may be questionable we should still treat it as reliable if a reliable source does the same. Springee (talk) 16:03, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
I agree. If a RS cites plainsite.org on Tesla (or Elon Musk), then we should be able to use that with attribution. Lklundin (talk) 11:51, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

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