2009/6/10 AGK wikiagk@googlemail.com:
In practice, however, it would be exceedingly rare for that type of editing to not be problematic to some degree; the nature of the business world is such that paid editing would almost certainly not adhere to Wikipedia's NPOV policies. Consider this: if a client commissions a Wikipedia article's creation, would the client be satisfied with an article that did not reflect a stance that was at least a smidgen flattering? I wouldn't imagine so. On that basis, I think a blanket discouragement from editing for payment to be the most sensible approach to the issue.
This only really applies to one type of paid editing, doesn't it? Commercial or quasi-commercial, ones where the client has a definite stake in the "message" of the article.
You can easily have paid editing where this isn't the case at all - an educational group, for example, which pays people to produce content about a specific field without presupposing the tone of that content. In many cases, it may just be that the topic is one where it's hard to put the "sponsor's" slant in - mathematics, for example, would be a lot more resilient than alternative medicines!
We've already had a very limited form of this - the project on Commons which pays for the creation of images - and there's no doubt that, if done carefully, this could be extended to article-writing without the danger of producing editorial slant in the end product. This is pretty much the traditional encyclopedia model, in fact - paid generalist or specialist editors, who may well bring their own prejudices to the text but aren't expected to comply with the "central editorial slant" on each.
I agree entirely paid editing can be a bad thing - but so can unpaid editing for a topic you hold dear. Likewise, both can be forces for good. I'm not sure it's wise to completely throw away the opportunity for a powerful tool which we haven't used much yet, due to short-term fears about commercial interests.
(In short: regulate, sure. Don't forbid; it'll bite us in the long run.)