A marketing slogan that I'd like WMF to banish is that Wikipedia is 100% written by volunteers. That's simply false.

A marketing slogan that I'd like WMF to banish is that Wikipedia is 100% written by volunteers. That's simply false. Wikipedia is written by individuals with a mix of motives, and for some people those motives include financial compensation. Diverging a little into the topic of paid contributions: generally I feel that *disclosed* paid editing is ok so long as it's done in a manner that's compliant with our policies. For example, a museum staffer who publicly discloses their affiliation and writes on Wikipedia about a fossil that the museum has in its collection may be a net positive writer for the encyclopedia. On the other hand, a someone who's a POV-pusher for a political interest, whether paid or unpaid, may be a net negative for the encyclopedia. In any case, Wikipedia is only partially written by volunteers, and public communications from WMF should be consistent with this reality. Pine On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 1:58 AM, rupert THURNER &lt;rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: and http://nonprofitwithballs.com/2015/06/9-annoying-nonprofit-trends-that-need… _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

The fact that someone is not paid *by WMF* to edit does not mean that they are a volunteer. That would be like saying that a newspaper salesperson standing at the door of a grocery store is a volunteer because he is not paid by the grocer and instead paid by the newspaper. As with paid contributors to Wikipedia, the newspaper salesperson's presence at the door of the grocery store may or may not be in compliance with the policies of the grocery store. Agreed that perfect neutrality is difficult, but we try to achieve neutrality through the wisdom of the crowds and avoiding undue weight. We have a policy on neutrality; we don't have a policy that forbids all paid editing, and in some cases I feel that paid editors who are honest about their affiliations and compensation can be net positives on Wikipedia. Pine On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Thyge &lt;ltl.privat(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: 100% reasoning write > about their own country/city etc. > > Contributors make a living from other sources. Anybody could have some > affiliation other than getting paid and total neutrality is hard to come > by. > > Thyge > 100% feel the rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com its specifically committees, http://nonprofitwithballs.com/2015/06/9-annoying-nonprofit-trends-that-need… https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Some Wikipedians in Residence also get paid for their work, saying "Wikipedia is written by volunteers" is honest and doesnt have the puffary of 100%. As a community we are working to create more activities, projects and partnerships with GLAM where the people participating are being paid to edit as part of their employment so yeah 100% is no longer an honest declaration even if its just few 100 people out the 70,000 plus that contribute every month On 8 February 2016 at 07:10, Gerard Meijssen &lt;gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: not We paid about anybody some motives I manner for of exactly that http://nonprofitwithballs.com/2015/06/9-annoying-nonprofit-trends-that-need… ?subject=unsubscribe> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, -- GN. President Wikimedia Australia WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>