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Wikipedia Changes Rules, Forces Editors to Disclose if They're Paid

posted by Woods on Thursday June 19 2014, @12:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the paid-to-proofread dept.

AnonTechie writes:

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.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 20 2014, @05:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 20 2014, @05:08AM (#57811)

    I recently stopped contributing to WP. I used to have accounts. At some point, it didn't really seem worth the effort anymore. So I started just contributing anonymously. For a while, I would defend edits, and try to add constructive feedback. But, I found one article where I could really help, and the page was "owned" by someone who wouldn't let me make constructive changes, despite my familiarity with the topic. I got into a flamewar with the asshat, and decided I no longer cared about defending my edits against these kind of losers. So, I started just contributing tags, redlinks, and small scale copy-edit changes. That was fine for several years. Now, a new breed of asshat seems to have emerged. The new breed no longer even considers redlinking to be a good faith act if it conflicts with their preconceived vision of how WP is to be "done". I was hunted down for such vile offenses, and I've got to say, it's not any fun any more to try to improve anything. It feels like work, now. So, I'm out.

    Now, I'm just waiting for the fork. It'll happen someday. I just hope it's sooner rather than later. I'm hoping for a more decentralized model, though, like a git-based WP.

    Cheers!