[WikiEN-l] Get PAID to make content for Wikipedia!

[Steve Bennett]

On 11/6/07, Charlotte Webb <charlottethewebb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Isn't this more or less what I said in my (quite unpopular) response
> to the "[WikiEN-l] Could we use a chore wheel?" thread...


I don't think so.

Proposition A: Paying some users devalues the experience of editing for free
for other users.
Proposition B: Volunteer editors prefer self-direction to being bossed
around.

The common thread is perhaps "Anything that makes people think of editing
Wikipedia as work is bad." But the two ideas are pretty different, mostly
because in B, nothing was ever going to stop the self-directed from avoiding
the chore wheel. If anything, it even works in their favour: "Ha! Look at
those poor saps on the chore wheel! Hours wasted every month fixing typos!
And look at me, gallivanting around writing articles about Norwegian
mushrooms. What a lark I'm having!"

Seriously. The WMF paying some editors is not something we can opt out
of. But a chorewheel is something we can opt out of signing up for.

Steve