[Wikimedia-l] WMF employee writing articles for $300

[Russavia]

Steven,

Did it occur to you that the reason the account is anonymised is that
one would likely not want it to be found out? It also beyond the
realms of imagination that "Wikipediocracy trolls" would create an
account on 6 January 2012 as a joe-job account, and sit on it all this
time and then have Odder (who is certainly no friend of
Wikipediocracy) find out about it, and let him beat them to the punch.

But here's a little more evidence for you. From that screenshot, you
will notice in September Sarah earned $96 from a job which is
described as "Wikipedia Writer Editor". The information for that job
is found at https://www.odesk.com/jobs/~01fb1fd477c79e30b0 (and I have
taken the liberty of uploading it at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8j_w_yHF5ymdHQzTkJkRkY5TWM/edit?usp=sharing)

>From this we can ascertain the following:

* The job was posted on 3 September 2013
* The client is in the United States
* Sarah was one of 9 applicants for the job, applying on 4 September 2013
* The client was interviewing 2 applicants, and they ended up hiring Sarah
* On 4 October 2013 (a Friday), the client last viewed this job -- the
little question mark pop-up says "This is when the client last viewed
or interacted with the applicants for this job." - in all likelihood
this is when the information was provided to Sarah.

>From Sarah's contributions between this period we can see that she was
involved in creating and editing articles relating to Turkey, Algeria,
Guatemala, creating articles such as
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugénie_Luce, etc

On 6 October 2013 (-8 GMT), after editing articles on places/people in
Moldova and Ukraine, at 12:14 she made this edit
(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_III_of_Moldavia&diff=prev&oldid=576031919).
At 13:53, a little under 2 hours later, Sarah posted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Inn_(nightclub). Again, this is a
somewhat puff piece article, out of sync with what she was editing at
the time, with sourcing that one wouldn't really expect in an article.
The wording at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Inn_(nightclub)#Music
is especially telling. Then
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1935&diff=prev&oldid=576044989
is done straight afterwards. That it was posted a little under 2 hours
after her edit to the Stephen III of Moldavia article would correlate
with the 2 hours that she billed the client for cleaning the article
up to make it presentable, receiving $96. Then it was back to normal
editing. Not bad for 2 hours editing on a Sunday afternoon, eh?

And surely you can understand why people would post this information
publicly. Already on this very list I have been attacked by no less
than 4 Wikimedia insiders (yourself included) who are clearly trying
to run deflection and interference. Emailing the WMF and Sue
privately, so that it can be quietly ignored, or swept under the
carpet; this is the experience of many people in the past, so why
waste one's time. And anyway, doesn't the public, including the media
whom I have also taken the liberty of advising that this issue exists,
have a right to know that such things are happening on a project that
prides itself on how transparent it is.

Steven, does this smell like trolling and an elaborate "set up Sarah"
joe-job? People can continue to bury their heads in the sand, attack
me for trolling, run interference, and believe in vast conspiracies
and other such nonsense. I will look at this logically, and taken in
with information that Odder provided, it's couldn't be clearer.

What isn't so clear is how Sue and Jimmy will respond......





On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Steven Walling <steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Russavia <russavia.wikipedia at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Odder has published a fantastic blog piece at
>> http://twkozlowski.net/paid-editing-thrives-in-the-heart-of-wikipedia/ in
>> which it is revealed that a WMF employee is engaged in undeclared paid
>> editing on English Wikipedia, and charging what it appears to be $300 per
>> article.
>>
>> I have cc'ed both Sue and Jimmy in on this email, but also sending to this
>> list as I know they, and other WMF employees, do use this list, and I think
>> it would be pertinent that they respond publicly to the issues raised here.
>> It is ever so more important given that the undeclared paid editing
>> occurred AFTER the whole Wiki-PR debacle (Sue's press release, WMF's
>> cease-and-desist, and of course the resultant media attention).
>>
>> What do Jimmy and Sue believe should occur given that such editing violates
>> Wikipedia policies and also Jimmy's so-called Bright Line Rule. In relation
>> to Jimmy's line, many are still clueless as to what exactly this Bright
>> Line is (it's not very bright), and how it should be applied in practice,
>> so Jimmy, if you are out there, your comment is requested on that.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Russavia
>>
>
> I'm with David and Nathan here.
>
> The "evidence" presented is an anonymized oDesk account and a screenshot.
> Screenshots are very easily doctored, and Wikipediocracy trolls have many
> reasons to attack a Wikimedian like Sarah. I wouldn't be surprised if
> they'd go so far as to set up a fake account using her picture and
> information.
>
> If you really cared about solving this, you could try emailing Sarah, her
> superiors, and Sue directly. Considering many staff don't follow high
> volume lists like Wikimedia-l, especially on the weekend, it's not exactly
> the best way to get a response from the WMF. It is, however, a great way to
> stir up bullshit drama.
>
> I'll hold out for Sarah's comment, if she feels comfortable. Otherwise
> smells like trolling.
>
> Steven
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