James,
Which parts of those statements to you consider factually inaccurate, and which parts do
you consider misleading in some other way?
Cheers,
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of James
Heilman
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 5:32 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [arbcom-l] Where is WMF with pursuing companies that offer paid
editing services
Wikipedia is not for sale. We are not simply another advertising venue available to the
corporations of the world. We have mechanisms for corporations to suggest changes to our
content and it is called the talk page.
Lets look at the changes likely made by Burger King staff in more detail:
In this edit this sentence "The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled
patty made with 100% beef with no preservatives, no fillers and is topped with daily
sliced tomatoes and onions, fresh lettuce, pickles, ketchup and mayo, served on a soft
sesame seed bun."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whopper&type=revision&diff=773836335&oldid=773833110>
was
added not once but twice. And than was added again following its first removal.
In this edit this sentence "The Whopper, also known as America’s favorite burger, has
a flame-[[grilling|grilled]] patty made with 100% beef with no preservatives, no fillers
and is topped with daily sliced tomatoes and onions, fresh lettuce, pickles, ketchup and
mayo, served on a soft sesame seed bun. Whopper and America’s Favorite Burger are
trademarks of Burger King Corporation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whopper&diff=773807497&oldid=773585358>"
was added.
One of the accounts did not disclosed their relationship to the company in question. And
yes this is spam, so they did spam Wikipedia. See [[WP:PEACOCK]]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Puffery>
and [[WP:NPOV]] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars>, the latter
of which is pillar number 2.
This is not the first time the marketing department at a multi billion dollar company has
tried to adjust our content for the company's / shareholder's gains. A few years
back a couple of the heads of marketing at Medtronic
<https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/wikipedia-editors-for-pay/393926/>,
along with a number of physicians one of whom they had paid more than a quarter of a
million dollars, tried to remove the best available evidence regarding vertebroplasty, a
procedure which medicare spent at the time more than a billion dollars a year on. Half a
dozen paid editors working together can easily get a majority in many of our decision
making processes.
Our readers deserve a Wikipedia which is written independently of the subject mater in
question. Our readers have been harmed by undisclosed paid editing in the past. These are
individuals typically less savvy and less wealthy than the executives at a large
corporation. I am sorry but our readers are the ones that deserve our attention and our
protection. We already have the Wifione case
<http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/03/manipulating-wikipedia-promote-bogus-business-school-316133.html>
were Wikipedia was used to promote an unethical Indian university and therefore we played
a role in misleading the students who applied. We must do better.
James
On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 5:23 AM, Gnangarra <gnangarra(a)gmail.com> wrote:
but they didnt spam, nor did they introduce any false
hoods, or remove
controversial content, they just put a description of the Whopper for
the opening sentence. As Andy said rather than biting and creating
arguments amongst ourselves would it not be better to have used the
opportunity to benefit the community in a positive way.
On 14 April 2017 at 18:44, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 14 April 2017 at 11:38, Andy Mabbett
<andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
wrote:
A far better (and less WP:BITEy) outcome would be
to get then to
Pretty sure WP:BITE doesn't apply in the case of deliberate abuse
for clear purposes of spamming.
- d.
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