[WikiEN-l] Is editing for payment a fundamentally problematic conflict of interest?

[Guettarda]

On 3/4/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:02:13 -0500, Marc Riddell
> <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >I feel you are missing my point. Why would being paid money for any
> >contribution I made to a project make that action unclean?
>
> Because he who pays the piper calls the tune.  See my comment
> elsewhere in this thread: what would you do - and what would they do -
> if your researches showed that the CEO eats babies?


It's all a matter of how you do it.  If someone asked you to write an
article in a format that is acceptable to Wikipedia (wikicode, NPOV, etc.),
I don't see anything wrong with them compensating you for your time.  On the
other hand, if someone asked you to write the article, post it under your
own name, and defend it, then we have a problem.  The difference is, are
they asking for your service as a writer who knows how to write a
WP-acceptable article, or are they trying to rent your reputation in
Wikipedia?  The former is no big deal, the latter is a problem.