[Foundation-l] 300 Euro for excellent Articles: an experiment

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

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 at 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