It comes down to asking what the purpose of the Foundation and a project
like Wikipedia is. Is it to produce a free source of knowledge, or is to
promote volunteerism? If it's possible to build a better encyclopædia by
encouraging paid editing or allowing for-profit entities to sponsor a
particular page, then that's a possibility that we ought to make ourselves
open to. Volunteerism, of course, has served the movement well and got us
to where we find ourselves today, but it is not and should not be
considered an end unto itself.
Of course, as has been pointed out, there are potential pitfalls with this
model that have been discussed many times - there are many potential COI
issues, and paid editing in some areas may discourage unpaid editing in
others. However, I think it would be unwise simply to dismiss those sort
of possibilities out of hand.
Cheers,
Craig Franklin
On 30 March 2013 11:29, Thomas Morton <morton.thomas(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
It's a weird dichotomy.
I've spent several hundred quid on source material for my current topic
area. I could easily have spent several grand.
Paid editing is a major issue, because it conflicts with our culture
But if someone were able to buy my sources then it would be of huge
benefit.
And, controversially, if someone could fund me one day a week to write
these articles I could likely expand from one GA per month to covering this
entire field in GAs in a year.
Without that it will take me a good five years
I've come recently to see that funding article work is not inherently an
awful thing. But it needs to be done with extreme care to protect our
ideals and neutrality. And that is a HARD problem.
Tom
On Saturday, March 30, 2013, Thomas Dalton wrote:
On Mar 30, 2013 1:04 AM, "Mono"
<monomium(a)gmail.com <javascript:;>>
wrote:
How so?
It would be completely against our culture. Wikipedia is a volunteer
written encyclopedia.
You would end up with a two-tier system of paid editors and unpaid
editors.
There would inevitably be a lot of conflict
between those groups. The
whole
concept would be extremely divisive.
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