| Paid Editing Proposals |
| In November 2013, there were three main discussions and votes on paid editing: |
| No paid advocacy (talk) (closed: opposed) |
| Paid editing policy proposal (talk) (closed: opposed) |
| Conflict of interest limit (talk) (closed: opposed) |
Summary: If you are being compensated for contributing to a Wikipedia article, you must disclose this fact before editing. If your edits cause a dispute, you may be asked to stop editing the article. Advocacy is forbidden.
Paid editing is the practice of accepting money to edit Wikipedia. Editors who intend to participate in paid editing are required to edit transparently and neutrally, and are prohibited from introducing bias into Wikipedia's coverage or violating our core content policies – just like any other editors. To ensure the neutrality of paid editors, they must disclose that they are being compensated for their contributions.
Paid advocacy is being paid to promote or disparage something or someone on Wikipedia, and is a subset of paid editing. All advocacy, paid or unpaid, is prohibited on Wikipedia.
Accepting money or rewards for editing Wikipedia is not inherently problematic. For example, it would be acceptable if a university asked one of its professors to write up its warts-and-all history for a Wikipedia article. The Wikipedia reward board – a place where editors can post incentives, financial or otherwise – is another benign example. In these examples, the paid editing is transparent and usually intended to improve the quality of articles, not to slant the articles toward a particular point of view.
Public relations and marketing[edit]
It is generally expected that Wikipedia editors will not merely obey specific rules but do intellectually honest work. This is particularly incumbent upon anyone who is being paid to edit articles. Articles should not merely be narrowly, technically true, but should represent honest efforts at well-rounded balanced coverage of their topics. If this is not what you are trying to achieve, then you should not be editing articles.
If you:
- Are receiving benefits or considerations from the subject of an article, and you are a representative, contractor, or employee of the subject; or
- Expect to get benefits or considerations from editing Wikipedia (for example, by being an owner, officer, or other stakeholder of an organization who would benefit; or having some form of close financial relationship with a topic),
then you must disclose your financial interest on your user page before editing Wikipedia pages where these external relationships could undermine your ability to edit neutrally. You must explicitly reiterate this disclosure in your first comment in any discussion related to the subject with which you have a financial interest. By making this disclosure, you help other editors to scrutinize your work for potential bias.
If you get into a dispute with other editors, you should seek advice from uninvolved editors (for example, on the Conflict of Interest Noticeboard). You may have to recuse yourself from further editing of the topics in question. You must exercise care not to become a tendentious editor, or else you could be blocked.
If your changes to an article could lead to controversy due to your financial interests, you should use the article's talk page to suggest changes, or the {{edit COI}} template to request edits, instead of editing. You will not be ignored. Requested edits are subject to the same editorial standards as any other, and may be accepted or rejected.
Content intended to advertise, promote, or advocate a specific subject or viewpoint is strictly prohibited. Wikipedia is not a means of promoting or advertising something.
No harassment of editors[edit]
All editors who make efforts to follow policy are entitled an assumption of good faith. If an editor discloses a financial interest, it is expected that others will scrutinize the changes made by the editor while not commenting on the editor. Hounding editors due to their financial interests is not allowed. Furthermore, Wikipedia's "outing" policy expressly prohibits the disclosure of personal information of any editor, including editors who have disclosed a financial interest related to their participation in Wikipedia. It is not permissible to investigate editors for conflicts of interest using sources from outside of Wikipedia.