[Foundation-l] Paid editing, was Re: Ban and moderate

[David Goodman]

Obviously, the ones who do better at it are the ones we cannot detect.
My experience is that some in-house PR people do a very poor and
easily detectable job.  An expert specialist who knows what is
actually wanted will do far better than a PR generalist who approaches
it like any other PR. I have, however, seen some PR people from
institutions learn  the merits of entering a purely factual
description and of doing only articles on the notable people there,
not the borderline ones.

On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 5:38 PM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Since the can of worms has been opened...
>
> In my opinion, which ironically is probably similar to Greg Kohs',
> having any stance on paid editing of Wikipedia is pointless. Most large
> companies and organizations are already paying people to edit Wikipedia
> (albeit quietly). The ones we know about and complain about are the
> companies that are too small to do it in-house and try to outsource it.
> Any policy we enact is going to be ignored by the people doing it
> quietly and will only affect the people doing it publicly (like Kohs).
> The only way we can be effective in this regard is to strengthen our
> COI, NPOV, OR, and V policies to minimize misuse of Wikipedia (paid or not).
>
> That said, I still believe that Kohs has gone far beyond being a useful
> critic. Yes, he has points that are worth discussion, but that doesn't
> mean we have to overlook his disruptive behavior. He clearly has an axe
> to grind and intends to grind it. We don't have to facilitate that.
>
> Ryan Kaldari
>
> On 10/22/10 2:04 PM, Fred Bauder wrote:
>> Yes, but he is relentless when not prodded. Unless we chose to open up
>> Wikipedia to paid editing of the sort he does he will probably continue
>> to be relentless.
>>
>> When I was checking out thekohser on freelancer.com I found a couple of
>> other Wikipedia editors who were bidding on contracts to edit Wikipedia
>> for money.
>>
>> One, who had completed two contracts and had accepted a third, seems to
>> have given up. The other seems to be an excellent editor, but at this
>> point I have not identified a particular contract of theirs.
>>
>> The question remains: what do we expect of someone who edits Wikipedia,
>> or any other foundation project, for money. And frankly, why would we
>> make trouble for someone living in Bangladesh that is earning what is a
>> month's salary there, $30, in return for adding an article about some
>> marginally notable business to Wikipedia?
>>
>> Our policies remain somewhat unclear, see:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28policy%29
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28guideline%29
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28guideline%29/Noticeboard
>>
>> And the Reward Board:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reward_board#Money
>>
>> These examples are from the English Wikipedia, but potentially apply to
>> any foundation project.
>>
>> Fred
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG