[WikiEN-l] Almeda University paying for positive Wikipedia edits

[William Pietri]

For those wondering why allowing paid editing might not be such a good 
idea, take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Almeda_University#Paying_freelancers_to_revert_this_article_daily

It's a long-term contract for a 7-days-a-week effort  to replace 
negative edits with positive ones. Full marks to [[User:Randywombat]] 
for finding this.


Note in particular the endless self-justification in the Almeda 
approach. I think that will undermine any attempt to find clever rules 
that allow paid editing where there is even the slightest possibility of 
conflict of interest. I'm sure any of us could rewrite that job 
description to make full use of Wikipedia jargon. And if somebody's 
income depends on them not getting the essential meaning behind our 
words, they may be able to keep it up for quite a while.

William


-- 
William Pietri <william at scissor.com>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri