On 16 April 2014 14:03, Russavia <russavia.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Could the WMF and the BoT perhaps clarify whether COI editing amongst
WMF staff/contractors is officially discouraged/forbidden, and whether
there is something official in writing which lays out guidelines for
how and when WMF staff/contractors should be editing articles relating
to their fellow WMF'ers.
Hi Russavia,
When WMF staff edit the projects, they (we) are subject to the same
policies and guidelines as everybody else. That means that if a staff
person breaks a rule on the projects, that person risks being warned
or reverted or sanctioned by the community, the same as everybody.
There are no special WMF policies related to this. It might seem that
perhaps there should be, but I have thought about it a lot and I
believe it'd be a bad idea. In part that's because the on-wiki
policies/practices/guidelines/conventions are numerous and
ever-evolving, and so copying or mirroring or summarizing them, and
keeping that updated, would be a lot of work for the WMF. But it's
mainly a roles-and-responsibilities issue. Editorial policies are
developed, and therefore also best-understood and best-enforced, not
by the WMF but by the community. Equally, the community plays no role
in the development or enforcement of WMF internal staff policies and
practices.
I'll also briefly say this: my own first edits, back in 2005 or 2006
before I joined the WMF, were anon edits to the article about the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I then worked. Back then I
had no idea that was frowned upon, and when I found out years later I
was mortified. But: long-time editors told me it was okay, that what I
did was actually very typical for a new editor, and that many people
who started out making vandalism or COI edits went on to become highly
valued contributors. It's been obvious to me in the years since that
yeah, my story is in no way unusual -- in fact, my experience is that
whenever a handful of editors gather together socially, usually within
a hour or two they'll start swapping funny stories about their early
on-wiki rule-breaking. It's no big deal. Upshot: making mistakes as a
not-very-experienced editor needs to be understood to be a normal part
of the learning process, and IMO trying to name-and-shame people for
it is bad form. We were all new once :)
Thanks,
Sue