User talk:Herostratus/Articles about extant organizations
General discussion[edit]
For my part, I (the creator of this page) don't especially like these proposals on the merits. But I'm a social democrat, and a more pro-business person might feel that these are good proposals on the merits. It comes down to a philosophical opinion on what an article about a corporate entity should be: more of a listing of their vital statistics and description of their products and so forth, or more a description of their role in society, or whatever. We're not Frontline but we're not the Chamber of Commerce either, and threading that needle is difficult and contentious.
However, I'm not not suggesting this on the merits, but as I said for two reasons:
- To address the concerns (or professed concerns if you prefer) of the PR industry.
- To remove some of the practical reasons for the PR industry to be involved with the Wikipedia.
If this proposal doesn't gain traction, it doesn't mean that these concerns won't be addressed. It just means that they'll be addressed by agents of the corporations themselves, directly. This is problematic as it threatens our reputation, the morale of the volunteers, and our actual neutrality, in my opinion.
There's no force on earth that will stop paid agents from editing the Wikipedia, of course. The point is to strip it of its raison d'etre and reduce the need for it.
(This was proposed earlier, here: [[Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 84#Proposal: Articles about extant corporations, and there was some discussion -- mostly negative -- there, but I believe I'm not allowed to move other people's comments here under the terms of release.) Herostratus (talk) 16:11, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
- Hi Hero. I started a similar effort called WP:NPOVCORP as an essay. Though I never got around to finishing it, it is based on a lot of good feedback from the idea lab. Also, check out User:BigNate37/TM/Extant organization content notice. I've used it on the Talk page of the Waggener Edstrom article on an experimental basis. Corporate 22:31, 4 October 2012 (UTC)