Talk:Matt Formston

November 2025

• What I think should be changed (include citations): I propose a full rewrite of the Matthew Formston article to improve structure, accuracy, and neutrality. The new version includes updated achievements, board roles, and recognition, with citations from Surfing Australia, Paralympics Australia, Penguin Books, and the Governor-General’s Honours List.

Full draft available at User:BreeContributes/sandbox

• Why it should be changed: The current article is outdated and lacks structure. It omits key achievements, board roles, and recent honours. The proposed version improves clarity, neutrality, and verifiability, and includes reliable sources.

BreeContributes (talk) 06:44, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi there,

Just leaving a polite follow-up on this edit request from 18 November.

If an editor has time to review the proposed update, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks very much. BreeContributes (talk) 01:54, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Not done: there's multiple issues with your draft. It lacks inline citations, making it difficult to verify the assertions made. It also includes parts that are too promotional and subjective, including the "philosophy" section and claims like Formston promotes a “why not” mindset, focusing on possibility over limitation or transforming fear into confidence and empowerment. I suggest you resubmit the parts of your rewrite that should be added to the existing article with sources cited inline. IsCat (talk) 22:58, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

January 2026

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I have revised the draft to remove promotional or subjective language, added inline citations to all factual statements, and restructured the article to improve neutrality and compliance with BLP guidelines. The updated draft is here: User:BreeContributes/sandbox Would an editor be able to review the revised version when available? Thank you. BreeContributes (talk) 05:41, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Hello again, thank you for your time. I was just wondering if you could have a look at the revisions I made to the article and let me know if anything else needs to be changed, or if it can be approved? Full updated draft available at User:BreeContributes/sandbox BreeContributes (talk) 03:41, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

Not done for now: Your COI edit request is not being implemented as of now. Your citations are formatted as Wikipedia:Bare URLs. Please convert them into citations. More info can be found at Wikipedia:Citations. Thank you! - Otherwise (Talk?) 04:37, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

Hello, and thank you for your time. I believe I have now converted all bare URLs into full citation templates. The draft has been updated in my Sandbox User:BreeContributes/sandbox and is ready for review. Thank you for the guidance. BreeContributes (talk) 23:48, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Hello again, thank you for your time. I was just wondering if you could have a look at the revisions I made to the article in particular the citations?

User:BreeContributes/sandbox BreeContributes (talk) 21:43, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

April 2026

I have addressed all issues raised, including bare URL formatting and citation sourcing. All references now use {{cite web}} templates with full details. Factual inaccuracies have also been corrected. Updated version is in my sandbox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BreeContributes/sandbox — requesting independent editor review. BreeContributes (talk) 09:22, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

I have addressed all issues raised, including bare URL formatting and citation sourcing. All references now use properly formatted cite web templates with full titles, publishers and dates. Factual inaccuracies have also been corrected, including the number of national cycling titles, the year of The Blind Sea premiere, and publisher details for Surfing in the Dark. Additional independent reliable sources have been added throughout, including citations from AFP/France 24, The Guardian, the International Paralympic Committee, the International Surfing Association, the Australian Government Department of Health, the Governor-General of Australia, Paralympics Australia, Vision Australia, Blind Sports NSW and Surfing Australia. Updated version is in my sandbox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BreeContributes/sandbox — requesting independent editor review. BreeContributes (talk) 09:30, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

An additional concern was "It also includes parts that are too promotional". So you may still be asked to review this within your offering. That can be hard to do with a COI. JFHJr (㊟) 03:30, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm having difficulty accessing the Australian Paralympic History Project link. It's not on the Wayback Machine or available by searching the website. SomeoneDreaming (talk) 02:19, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

Based on spot checking, I noticed several points where the citations did not match up with the material cited. I'm not sure whether this is human error or based on the use of editing tools, but either way it is not acceptable. I removed what I saw but can't check everything at the moment. SomeoneDreaming (talk) 02:32, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the spot check, and apologies for the slow response — I didn't get a notification, and only saw it today.

Both removals were fair: the Optus wording went beyond what the partnership announcement supports, and the surfing clinics sentence was cited to a Vision Australia piece about the book, which doesn't cover clinics. Neither goes back in without a source that actually says it. The Australian Paralympic History Project link is gone — I replaced it with the Paralympics Australia profile on 19 August, before I'd seen your note.

I did a full citation pass on 19 and 21 August, so the version you checked has been reworked since. If you have time to look again I'd welcome it. BreeContributes (talk) 10:54, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

I took a look again. I appreciate your work to bring this up to standards and have added it to the page. The one thing that would still be needed is a citation for his birth page. I also think the "other activities" section could be improved to flow a bit better--right now it's kind of a list of one fact per source. But I think it is an improvement over the previous state of the article, so I went ahead and added it to the main page. SomeoneDreaming (talk) 18:12, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

thank you @SomeoneDreaming I will look at your suggestions and improve it. I sincerely appreciate the time you've taken to help. BreeContributes (talk) 22:13, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

A response has not yet been received for this question.

Edit request reply 8-JUN-2026

  Request closed for inactivity  

• The above edit request has not received any responses over the past 3 weeks (22 days in total).
• Discussion is often a key component to implementing edits, and requests may be adversely affected when they fail to garner input from either reviewing or requesting editors. In light of this — and as a safeguard — this request has been declined as needing more discussion.
• The COI editor is urged to revive stalled communications by making contact with local editors on those editor's own talk pages, and then by moving those discussions back to this talk page.
• The COI editor may also wish to broadcast requests for edits at the talk pages of the WikiProjects which give advice on this article. Those projects are usually listed at the top of an article's talk page.

Regards,  Spintendo  00:07, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

References

COI edit request: three factual corrections

I have a declared conflict of interest (I work on behalf of the subject) and have not edited the article. Three small corrections, each verifiable against sources already cited in the article.

1. Post-nominal in the first sentence. The lead currently gives the post-nominal as OAM, linked to Medal of the Order of Australia. This contradicts the Honours section of the same article, which states he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2025 Australia Day Honours. Member of the Order of Australia is AM, not OAM. Please replace the post-nominal with:

{{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}}

Sources: the Australian Honours Search Facility record already cited in the article (current ref 13); the Governor-General's Australia Day 2025 Honours List; and the Governor-General's media notes for the Order of Australia (AM) (PDF, p. 40).

2. "Three consecutive world titles". The lead currently reads:

"Formston also holds three consecutive world titles for Surfing (2017, 2018 and 2020) at the ISA Para Surfing World Championships"

2017, 2018 and 2020 are not consecutive. Please change to:

"Formston has also won three world titles at the ISA World Para Surfing Championships (2017, 2018 and 2020)"

For clarity, Formston has four world titles in total: the three ISA titles above, plus the 2022 Association of Adaptive Surfing Professionals (AASP) Championship Tour title, which the article does not currently mention. This request only corrects the ISA sentence — I'll propose the AASP title separately as a sourced addition.

3. "Current" world champion. The Surfing section currently reads:

"As a professional surfer, Formston is the current Para Surfing World Champion, winning the 2017, 2018 and 2020 ISA World Para Surfing Championships (VI Division)."

This is sourced to a 2020 page and is a relative time reference that has since gone stale. Please change to:

"Formston won the ISA World Para Surfing Championship (VI division) in 2017, 2018 and 2020."

Happy to provide anything further if it helps. Thanks. BreeContributes (talk) 11:03, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

I'm marking this as answered since I replaced the old version of the page with the sandbox version per above. SomeoneDreaming (talk) 18:14, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

thankyou so much! @SomeoneDreaming I appreciate your time! BreeContributes (talk) 22:11, 27 August 2026 (UTC)