[Wikimedia-l] addressing paid advocacy

[James Salsman]

The Foundation should actively solicit paid advocacy as undercover
mystery shoppers in order to expose the perpetrators and their
activity patterns. In many cases it wouldn't be necessary to actually
turn over any money if insider partners at e.g. XYZ corporation can
"ask for references" from previous paid advocacy successes. If this
were to become an ongoing effort culminating in name and shame
releases ("We caught these paid advocates puffing up these
corporations' articles and blocked them") it could easily drive the
worst abusers out of business.

Sincerely,
James Salsman