[Foundation-l] Corporate vanity policy enforcement

[Brad Patrick]

Brad Patrick wrote:
> Dear Community:
>
> The volume of corporate vanity/vandalism which is showing up on 
> Wikipedia is overwhelming.  At the office, we are receiving dozens of 
> phone calls *per week* about company, organization, and marketing 
> edits which are reverted, causing the non-notable, but 
> self-aggrandizing authors, to scream bloody murder.  This is as it 
> should be.  However, I am issuing a call to arms to the community to 
> act in a much more draconian fashion in response to corporate 
> self-editing and vanity page creation.  This is simply out of hand, 
> and we need your help.
>
> We are the #14 website in the world.  We are a big target.  If we are 
> to remain true to our encyclopedic mission, this kind of nonsense 
> cannot be tolerated.  This means the administrators and new page 
> patrol need to be clear when they see new usernames and page creation 
> which are blatantly commercial - shoot on sight.  There should be no 
> question that someone who claims to have a "famous movie studio" and 
> has exactly 2 Google hits - both their Myspace page - they get nuked.  
> Ban users who promulgate such garbage for a significant period of 
> time.  They need to be encouraged to avoid the temptation to recreate 
> their article, thereby raising the level of damage and wasted time 
> they incur.
>
> Some of you might think regular policy and VfD is the way to go.  I am 
> here to tell you it is not enough.  We are losing the battle for 
> encyclopedic content in favor of people intent on hijacking Wikipedia 
> for their own memes.  This scourge is a serious waste of time and 
> energy.  We must put a stop to this now.
> Thank you for your help.
>
> -Brad Patrick
> User:BradPatrick
> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.