Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Series/Paid editing
Articles tagged: Does Wikipedia pay?[edit]
Disinformation report "Wikipedia and the assault on history"
2023-12-04
An analysis of a literary mystery.
Disinformation report The "largest con in corporate history"?
2023-02-20
Gautam Adani and his companies possibly behind scheme featuring scores of socks, infiltration of articles for creation process.
In the media Truth or consequences? A tough month for truth
2022-08-31
But Annie Rauwerda is the real thing!
In the media Denial: climate change, mass killings and pornography
2021-11-29
Will they deny non-fungible tokens next?
Disinformation report Paid promotional paragraphs in German parliamentary pages
2021-09-26
Did German Wikipedia love parliaments a little too much? Plus fake-bacon and a ponzi scheme.
Disinformation report Paid editing by a former head of state's business enterprise
2021-04-25
The Trump Organization's paid editors: Michael and Ivanka?
Disinformation report A "billionaire battle" on Wikipedia: Sex, lies, and video
2021-02-28
Edits of the rich and famous.
In the media Concealment, data journalism, a non-pig farmer, and some Bluetick Hounds
2020-12-28
As 2020 draws to a close, this website has been splattered all over the headlines.
Opinion How billionaires rewrite Wikipedia
2020-11-29
How billionaires re-write Wikipedia: Billionaires are different from you and me.
News and notes Ban on IPs on ptwiki, paid editing for Tatarstan, IP masking
2020-11-01
Branding pause, birthday.
Special report Paid editing with political connections
2020-09-27
WE charity and Justin Trudeau, Bell Pottinger, Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.
In the media WIPO, Seigenthaler incident 15 years later
2020-09-27
A celebrity quiz, Scots, and a Crypto-hating Wikipedia editor
From the archives Wikipedia for promotional purposes?
2020-08-30
A question from 2005 that we still haven't answered.
Discussion report Fox News, a flight of RfAs, and banning policy
2020-08-02
Plus a proposed massive invasion of privacy!
COI and paid editing Some strange people edit Wikipedia for money
2020-08-02
And thanks for the photo, Ghislaine!
Opinion Trying to find COI or paid editors? Just read the news
2020-06-28
A scientific scandal and the Renaldo of investment banking.
Recent research Automatic detection of covert paid editing; Wiki Workshop 2020
2020-05-31
New results from academic research
News and notes 2019 Picture of the Year, 200 French paid editing accounts blocked, 10 years of Guild Copyediting
2020-05-31
Many of these accounts now blocked on the English-language Wikipedia.
Discussion report English Wikipedia community's conclusions on talk pages
2019-04-30
Plus: another round of paid editing discussion.
In the media Women's history month
2019-03-31
An explosion of women's history coverage, continuing coverage.
In the media Court-ordered article redaction, paid editing, and rock stars
2018-12-01
Real-world news competes with the usual celeb fascination for Wikipedia's commentators.
In the media Kalanick's nipples; Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill
2017-06-23
The anatomy of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's chest area has been the talk of the month. But so have high-profile edits, hacked articles, and one particular newborn growing up.
Special report Massive paid editing network unearthed on the English Wikipedia
2015-09-02
Nearly 400 accounts blocked in largest paid-editing bust ever.
In the media Orangemoody sockpuppet case sparks widespread coverage
2015-09-02
Also vital statistics regarding Ja Rule.
In the media Paid editing; traffic drop; Nicki Minaj
2015-08-12
The Atlantic discusses "The Covert World of People Trying to Edit Wikipedia—for Pay".
Op-ed On paid editing and advocacy: when the Bright Line fails to shine, and what we can do about it
2015-07-15
"How long will this take?" This is one of the first questions new clients ask. They come to us because the Wikipedia entry about the company at which they work is wrong, incomplete, or even just outdated. The answer varies ...
In the media Turkish Wikipedia censorship; "Can Wikipedia survive?"; PR editing
2015-06-24
The Hürriyet Daily News reports that the Turkish Wikipedia has posted banners on the top of the encyclopedia to warn users that a number of articles are being blocked by the Turkish government.
Discussion report A quick way of becoming an admin
2015-06-17
Author's note: This might be a violation of WP:BEANS; read at your own risk.
Interview Meet a paid editor
2015-03-04
Before being indefinitely blocked, User:FergusM1970 made more than 4600 edits on the English Wikipedia, spread over eight years. In the last two years, he was paid to edit several articles for clients that included the Venezuelan energy company Derwick Associates. We spoke with him about his experiences.
Op-ed Is Wikipedia for sale?
2015-02-04
Hundreds of posted jobs offer money to edit Wikipedia. These jobs appear to be thriving, with tens of thousands of dollars changing hands each month.
Recent research Shifting values in the paid content debate; cross-language bot detection
2014-07-30
Shifting values in the paid content debate: Kim Osman has performed a fascinating study on the three 2013 failed proposals to ban paid advocacy editing in the English language Wikipedia. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, Osman analyzed 573 posts from the three main votes on paid editing conducted in the community in November 2013.
News and notes With paid advocacy in its sights, the Wikimedia Foundation amends their terms of use
2014-06-18
The Wikimedia Foundation has amended its terms of use to ban editing for pay without disclosing an employer or affiliation on any of its websites. The broad scope of these changes will allow the WMF to selectively enforce their terms of use to avoid ensnaring well-meaning editors.
Paid editing Does Wikipedia Pay? The Moderator: William Beutler
2014-06-11
William Beutler (WWB), author of the blog The Wikipedian, is a long-time editor and community-watcher. He is also a paid editor (WWB Too). Well—not anymore—because he gave up direct editing of articles in 2011. Instead, for the past three years he has followed Jimmy Wales' Bright Line rule in acting as a researcher and consultant for companies and clients that want to suggest changes to Wikipedia articles and engage on the Talk page.
News and notes PR agencies commit to ethical interactions with Wikipedia
2014-06-11
Eleven public relations agencies have declared their intention to follow "ethical engagement practices" in Wikipedia editing. The results were published last Tuesday: a joint statement from the participating PR agencies—representing five of the top ten global agencies and all but one of the top ten in the United States—clarifying their views and practices with regards to the Wikimedia projects.
Forum Should Wikimedia modify its terms of use to require disclosure?
2014-02-26
About a week ago, the Wikimedia Foundation proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' terms of use to specifically ban paid editing, by adding a new clause titled "Paid contributions without disclosure". We have asked two users, one in favor of the measure (Smallbones) and one opposed (Pete Forsyth), to contribute their opinions on the matter.
News and notes Foundation takes aim at undisclosed paid editing; Greek Wikipedia editor faces down legal challenge
2014-02-19
The Wikimedia Foundation has proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' Terms of use to specifically ban undisclosed paid editing. ... Dimitris Liourdis, a lawyer in training who moonlights as an administrator on the Greek Wikipedia, is embroiled in a legal dispute with a Greek politician over alleged edits made to his Wikipedia article.
WikiProject report Special report: Contesting contests
2014-01-29
Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
News and notes WMF employee forced out over "paid advocacy editing"
2014-01-08
On 8 January, the Wikimedia Foundation notified the Wikimedia-l mailing list that Sarah Stierch, a popular Wikimedian and the Foundation's Program Evaluation Community Coordinator, was no longer an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, as a result of being paid to create articles on the English Wikipedia.
News and notes Foundation to Wiki-PR: cease and desist; Arbitration Committee elections starting
2013-11-20
The Wikimedia Foundation has sent a formal cease and desist letter to Wiki-PR—the public relations agency accused of breaking Wikipedia policies and guidelines by creating, editing, and maintaining several thousand articles for paying clients through a sophisticated array of accounts. The Foundation's attorneys, Cooley LLP, have demanded that Wiki-PR's employees abide by the site's Terms of Use and the language of a community ban from the English Wikipedia.
Discussion report More discussion of paid advocacy, upcoming arbitrator elections, research hackathon, and more
2013-10-23
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
News and notes Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
2013-10-16
Media coverage on Wiki-PR, the multi-million-dollar US-based company that has broken several policies and guidelines on the English Wikipedia in its quest to create and maintain thousands of articles for paying clients, continued this week with a feature story by Martin Robbins in the British edition of Vice magazine.
Discussion report Ada Lovelace Day, paid advocacy on Wikipedia, sidebar update, and more
2013-10-16
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
News and notes Wiki-PR's extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
2013-10-09
Extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed: An investigation by the English Wikipedia community into suspicious edits and sockpuppet activity has led to astonishing revelations that Wiki-PR, a multi-million-dollar US-based company, has created, edited, or maintained several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients using a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts.
Op-ed Q&A on Public Relations and Wikipedia
2013-09-25
Over the last year, there's been extensive debate about whether public relations professionals and other corporate representatives should participate on Wikipedia and, if so, to what extent and what kinds of rules should be followed.
In the media PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients; can Wikipedia predict the stock market?
2013-05-13
An article published on May 10 on Odwyerpr.com written by Greg Hazley documented a "spar" between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and public relations firm Qorvis partner Matt Lauer, who disputes Wikipedia's guideline discouraging public relations firms from editing articles on their clients.
News and notes Court ruling complicates the paid-editing debate
2012-11-12
Last week, media outlets reported a ruling by a German court on the problem of businesses using Wikipedia for marketing purposes. The issue goes beyond the direct management of marketing-related edits by Wikipedians; it involves cross-monitoring and interacting among market competitors themselves on Wikipedia. A company that sells dietary supplements made from frankincense had taken a competitor to court. The recently published judgment by the Higher Regional Court of Munich, in dealing with the German Wikipedia article on frankincense products, was handed down in May and is based on European competition law.
Paid editing Does Wikipedia Pay? The Founder: Jimmy Wales
2012-10-01
Does Wikipedia Pay? is a Signpost series seeking to illuminate paid editing, paid advocacy, for-profit Wikipedia consultants, editing public relations professionals, conflict of interest guidelines in practice, and the Wikipedians who work on these issues by speaking openly with the people involved. This week, a scandal centering around Roger Bamkin's work with Wikimedia UK and Gibraltarpedia erupted ... In light of these events, opinions on how to avoid future controversy are as important as ever. ... The Signpost spoke with Jimmy Wales to better understand how he views the paid editing environment and what he thinks is needed to improve it.
Paid editing Does Wikipedia pay? The skeptic: Orange Mike
2012-07-23
Does Wikipedia pay? The skeptic: Orange Mike: Does Wikipedia pay? is an ongoing Signpost series seeking to illuminate paid editing, paid advocacy, for-profit Wikipedia consultants, editing public relations professionals, conflict of interest guidelines in practice, and the Wikipedians who work on these issues... by speaking openly with the people involved.
News and notes Showdown as featured article writer openly solicits commercial opportunities
2012-04-30