[WikiEN-l] Gaping void in Wikipedia

[Gregory Kohs]

Ben McIlwain ("Cyde Weys") wrote:

And as for NPOV articles ... if someone is being paid to write articles
on these businesses, it isn't going to be NPOV, but it's going to be POV
in a way that you could only establish it as such if you were intimately
familiar with the subject matter, or were prepared to do lots of
research.  That's why we have the general prohibition against publicity
articles; they tend not to be NPOV, and even when they do appear to be,
they likely aren't.


Ben, I just got off the phone with a potential client.  They have this
awesome promotional idea that is going to BLOW AWAY all of their previous
marketing efforts, including their 2004 Super Bowl ad campaign.  This is the
campaign to end all publicity campaigns.  It's no wonder nobody's ever
thought of it before, because it is pure genius.  Here's their plan...

They're going to have MyWikiBiz cook up this amazingly scripted article in
Wikipedia.  Every word is going to be spelled correctly, and all the Wiki
syntax is going to be ship-shape.  It's going to include some incredible
information that is sure to mesmerize consumers across the face of the
Earth.  We're talking stuff like IDENTIFYING THE CEO of the company, and
maybe even LISTING THE CHAIRMAN's name.  Not only that, but MyWikiBiz will
cite the YEAR THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED.  Wait, there's more -- the types of
products that the company sells will be LISTED FOR ALL TO SEE, with internal
Wikipedia links to those classes of products.  Still with me?  Just as
buyers are falling out of their seats to scramble to this company's
headquarters to try to execute a leveraged buyout, we will dumbfound them
all, by LISTING THE COMPANY'S STOCK TICKER SYMBOL.  Oh. My. God.  There will
be a bull market frenzy that will put the dot-com bubble to shame, all
thanks to Wikipedia.

Try not to break down in a fit of consumer ECSTASY, when I reveal the coup
de grace...  That's right, we'll finish it all off with an EXTERNAL LINK to
the company's HOMEPAGE.

Somebody shut us down, before we can carry out this master plan of
marketing.

And somebody speedy delete the article on Coca-Cola, too.  There's a line in
there about "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" as being "widely
considered one of the best advertising campaigns in history" -- with no
reference cited.

  -- Gregory Kohs





-- 
Gregory Kohs

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