On 16 April 2014 14:03, Russavia russavia.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Could the WMF and the BoT perhaps clarify whether COI editing amongst WMF staff/contractors is officially discouraged/forbidden, and whether there is something official in writing which lays out guidelines for how and when WMF staff/contractors should be editing articles relating to their fellow WMF'ers.
Hi Russavia,
When WMF staff edit the projects, they (we) are subject to the same policies and guidelines as everybody else. That means that if a staff person breaks a rule on the projects, that person risks being warned or reverted or sanctioned by the community, the same as everybody.
There are no special WMF policies related to this. It might seem that perhaps there should be, but I have thought about it a lot and I believe it'd be a bad idea. In part that's because the on-wiki policies/practices/guidelines/conventions are numerous and ever-evolving, and so copying or mirroring or summarizing them, and keeping that updated, would be a lot of work for the WMF. But it's mainly a roles-and-responsibilities issue. Editorial policies are developed, and therefore also best-understood and best-enforced, not by the WMF but by the community. Equally, the community plays no role in the development or enforcement of WMF internal staff policies and practices.
I'll also briefly say this: my own first edits, back in 2005 or 2006 before I joined the WMF, were anon edits to the article about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I then worked. Back then I had no idea that was frowned upon, and when I found out years later I was mortified. But: long-time editors told me it was okay, that what I did was actually very typical for a new editor, and that many people who started out making vandalism or COI edits went on to become highly valued contributors. It's been obvious to me in the years since that yeah, my story is in no way unusual -- in fact, my experience is that whenever a handful of editors gather together socially, usually within a hour or two they'll start swapping funny stories about their early on-wiki rule-breaking. It's no big deal. Upshot: making mistakes as a not-very-experienced editor needs to be understood to be a normal part of the learning process, and IMO trying to name-and-shame people for it is bad form. We were all new once :)
Thanks, Sue