[WikiEN-l] Bounties for editors

[Matt R]

The following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:Now_Hiring

is to a deletion debate on a page for bounties (cash etc) for bits of work on the project. I believe such a page would be a good thing. Arguments in favour follow:

It's worked fine, as far as I can tell, on the German edition since last July, and in a number of free software/open source communities. Some people have argued that selfless altruism is the ideal goal for Wikipedian motives. I disagree. Altruism is good if you can get it, but most people work on Wikipedia for a variety of additional reasons: for fun, to practice a language, to gain a reputation, to socialise, to document their POV, and so on. We don't need to worry so much about motives, but rather whether people follow policy in their editing. We should encourage reward systems where we can do so without compromising our goals.

Others have argued that the lure of cash would cause people to pay others to insert their bias and such. Of course, this is a risk with or without a bounty board, but at least we can monitor and police this page. Moreover, Wikipedia mechanisms are quite robust against POV pushers, regardless of motivation. We deal daily with people with strong views on religion, politics, ethics etc, yet we cope well -- and as we probably all know, people get more passionate about these things than any financial pressure could induce.

Wikipedians will always be volunteers. But cash is useful for Wikipedians. For example, we now demand, and rightly, reliable sources for facts. But it's the case that acquiring reliable sources can be an expensive activity.


-- Matt
[[User:Matt Crypto]]