Your comments below have nothing to do with what you said earlier. I
appreciate the value of translation, and actually worked as a professional
translator for twenty years. This is not about translation. You suggested companies
pay the Foundation or (individuals) to translate articles about them. Once
money changes hands over content, the question becomes whether the Foundation or
the translator has a responsibility to ensure that the content is
satisfactory to that client. The exchange of money can be viewed as a contractual
agreement of sorts. Assuming we do that, it is the corporation that determines the
content of the article, not the community. It is clear that this is a
violation of NPOV.
In general, I am also opposed to people paying for articles. I think that
this will be the first step toward a breakdown of a volunteer community. Imagine
this scenario. If Danny is getting paid to translate or write articles,
maybe I should too. Maybe I wont even write an article until I get paid for it.
In just four and a half years, we have been highly successful because we are
a volunteer organization devoted to creating free content--not a
translator's bulletin board. What you and Gerard are proposing will harm the
volunteer
spirit of the project by creating unnecessary hierarchies within it of paid
writers and volunteers. This is completely against everything we have succeeded
in doing so far.
Danny
In a message dated 8/18/2005 8:27:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
sabine_cretella(a)yahoo.it writes:
If a company pays us to write or feature an article,
does that mean that we are beholden to them to provide their POV as well?
no - since whoever wants such a translation knows that the article is
already npov - so he wants this content translated and not re-written to
his/her favour
What
about if a political or religious group tries to do the same thing?
see above: any article for wikipedia is there to be improved - also the
translated ones ...
To what
degree will corporate or other moneys be used as leverage against NPOV.
I am confident that the community will reject this idea.
well ... see: if there is a translated article and you don't even know
about this and then it is uploaded it is treated like any contribution -
people will have a look at it and say it is fine or modify it