[Wikimedia-l] Paid editing v. paid advocacy (editing)

[Ting Chen]

Hello Peter,

I see the following two possibilities:

Either the paid editing brings a higher quality and thus by that quality 
imposes itself as an authority and thus discourage further "unqualified" 
editing

Or the paid editing does not bring a higher quality, then an unpaid 
volunteer editor will with right feel fooled and ask: Why does that 
person get paid and I not, it is obvious that my work is less valued and 
thus I will quit.

In both cases I come back to my conclusion, and that is paid editing 
changes the collaboratory nature of our projects.

Greetings
Ting


Am 10.01.2014 16:23, schrieb Peter Gervai:
> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Ting Chen <wing.philopp at gmx.de> wrote:
>> Wikipedia articles. So they pay 10.000 Dollar to Bryce DeWitt (I know, he is
>> dead, I just don't want to name any living people) to write about field
>> theory, or John Wheeler to write about general relativity, and so on and so
>> on. I wonder if this happens, would there still be anyone who dares to
>> change or write articles on topics about theoretical physics? If this
> I understand your intentions but the example was faulty, as you mix up
> paid editing with authority or celebrity status.
>
> If Albert Einstein wrote an article about relativity (not paid by
> anyone but because he really likes to share his knowledge) nobody
> really would dare to chime in.
>
> However John Doe, Jr., however he's paid isn't special and people will
> trim his advocacy way more than a normal one.
>
> In fact authority is not equal to article protection and humble
> silence: we had pleny of cases where notable academics went away in
> flaming anger because a "nobody" questioned their authority and
> requested, for example, external sources or proofs.
>
> I believe "paid advocacy" vs. "paid article writing" destinction is
> valid and important; as well as the general "article writing" vs.
> "advocacy" distinction, which may not be black and white but it's
> definitely a separate hue or brightness. :-)
>
> Peter
>
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