[Foundation-l] Mywikipediaspace

[Lars Aronsson]

Andre Engels wrote:
> 2006/10/6, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com>:
> 
> > Now imagine that someone sets up a website that strongly implies that
> > paying him will get a company a good article in Wikipedia, and follows
> > that up by posting blatant PR puffery and claiming that it is NPOV.

> The scary thing is... This already exists. [...]
> http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=16892
> [...]  [[en:User:MyWikiBiz]]

I didn't know about MyWikiBiz before this.  Apparently the case 
was discussed already in August 2006 on wikien-l, a list I don't 
read.  However, I fail to see what the problem is.  Jimbo has now 
blocked the user account based on their marketing, not based on 
the content they contributed, which I find strange.  Where can I 
find any indication that MyWikiBiz has been "posting blatant PR 
puffery" in articles?

Jimbo earned his money first, then retired and started Wikipedia.  
Not everybody is so happy.  Most need to earn their daily lunch 
money.  If they can do so by writing free software or contributing 
free contents to projects such as Wikipedia, all the better.  If 
the content is good, I don't see why this should be a problem.

At 22:32, October 5 on the [[user talk:MyWikiBiz]], Jimbo says 
MyWikiBiz "is resisting the new policy".  Which new policy?  
Where is this written?  Jimbo also says WikiMyBiz "used the 
Wikipedia trademarks inappropriately and did not warn customers on 
some key pages that using his service is no guarantee of getting 
an article into Wikipedia" and the obvious remedy would be to have 
those details fixed, not blocking and banning the contributor for 
good.

Perhaps MyWikiBiz is a really, really bad guy.  If that is the 
case, Jimbo has failed to show how or why.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se