[Foundation-l] Paid editing, was Re: Ban and moderate

Fri Oct 22 21:38:29 UTC 2010

Since the can of worms has been opened...

In my opinion, which ironically is probably similar to Greg Kohs', 
having any stance on paid editing of Wikipedia is pointless. Most large 
companies and organizations are already paying people to edit Wikipedia 
(albeit quietly). The ones we know about and complain about are the 
companies that are too small to do it in-house and try to outsource it. 
Any policy we enact is going to be ignored by the people doing it 
quietly and will only affect the people doing it publicly (like Kohs). 
The only way we can be effective in this regard is to strengthen our 
COI, NPOV, OR, and V policies to minimize misuse of Wikipedia (paid or not).

That said, I still believe that Kohs has gone far beyond being a useful 
critic. Yes, he has points that are worth discussion, but that doesn't 
mean we have to overlook his disruptive behavior. He clearly has an axe 
to grind and intends to grind it. We don't have to facilitate that.

Ryan Kaldari

On 10/22/10 2:04 PM, Fred Bauder wrote:
> Yes, but he is relentless when not prodded. Unless we chose to open up
> Wikipedia to paid editing of the sort he does he will probably continue
> to be relentless.
>
> When I was checking out thekohser on freelancer.com I found a couple of
> other Wikipedia editors who were bidding on contracts to edit Wikipedia
> for money.
>
> One, who had completed two contracts and had accepted a third, seems to
> have given up. The other seems to be an excellent editor, but at this
> point I have not identified a particular contract of theirs.
>
> The question remains: what do we expect of someone who edits Wikipedia,
> or any other foundation project, for money. And frankly, why would we
> make trouble for someone living in Bangladesh that is earning what is a
> month's salary there, $30, in return for adding an article about some
> marginally notable business to Wikipedia?
>
> Our policies remain somewhat unclear, see:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28policy%29
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28guideline%29
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing_%28guideline%29/Noticeboard
>
> And the Reward Board:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reward_board#Money
>
> These examples are from the English Wikipedia, but potentially apply to
> any foundation project.
>
> Fred
>
>
>
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