SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and related projects, explained yesterday that it will establish new rules covering paid editing. The heart of the change is that anyone who is paid to edit the site must "add your affiliation to your edit summary, user page, or talk page, to fairly disclose your perspective," according to Wikimedia's explanation of the change. The organization has also published a FAQ on paid editing.
The changes come after some high-profile commotions over paid editing. In October, Wikipedia deleted more than 250 accounts believed to be connected to a PR firm that was writing articles on the site. In January, the Wikimedia Foundation fired an employee who was accused of taking paid editing gigs. Among the world's most heavily trafficked websites, Wikipedia ranks sixth, according to Alexa. It's the only top website that's owned by a non-profit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Reziac on Thursday June 19 2014, @02:35AM
#1 is a good point. But I think #2 requires that Wikipedia maintain a "Wall of Shame", because otherwise it's likely to mostly go unnoticed.
As to the initial spate of jocular comments... yes, exactly how do you plan to enforce this? You might catch some by chance, but it's not like you even have positive IDs on most editors.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by AnythingGoes on Thursday June 19 2014, @04:24AM
And how easy is it to hide any form of payment?
How do you differentiate between a true opinion held by someone against a paid opinion?
Unless you have access to all bank records (in which case, cash is still possible?)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday June 19 2014, @05:11AM
Yep, that was pretty much my thought... they must have some magic glasses that let them see all this info about every commercial editor.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.