Submissions:2015/Found in Translation: Comparing paid editing policies in the top Wikipedia language editions


 * Title: Found in Translation: Comparing paid editing policies in the top Wikipedia language editions


 * Theme: Community


 * Type of submission: Presentation


 * Author: William Beutler, Andrew Lih, Rhiannon Ruff, Danny Adler


 * E-mail address: williambeutler@gmail.com, andrew.lih@gmail.com


 * Username: WWB, Fuzheado, 16912 Rhiannon


 * Affiliation:

Beutler Ink, American University


 * Abstract: How consistent or varied are paid editing policies across Wikipedia's different language editions? This presentation describes what we found when we looked at the top 30 language communities in Wikipedia and how this might help communities chart a future path for their paid editing policies.

The English Wikipedia's "Conflict of interest" (COI) guideline is arguably one of the community's most scrutinized behavioral guidelines. In recent years, it has been augmented with corollary advice pages, impacted by WMF's Terms of Use changes, and even rewritten to a significant degree. It is also unusual as the only issue for which Jimmy Wales has offered a more stringent set of standards than the official guideline. Considering the repeated controversies over "paid advocacy" editing, and keen interest from PR and marketing professionals, we can expect it to be the subject of debate for the foreseeable future.

However, considerably less attention has focused on how non-English language editions handle the same set of circumstances. Community members who contribute only in English may be wholly unaware of how some European language editions, particularly German and Italian, have taken a different path. And many typical English Wikipedia editors may be astonished to learn that, in some cases, shared accounts named for a company are not only permitted, they are actually encouraged.

Until now, a complete global view of Wikipedia's COI rules has been spotty and anecdotal. This presentation summarizes a research project inspired by a discussion session at Wikimania 2015 and conducted by the authors in August/September 2015 to survey the COI rules in the top 30 language editions.


 * Length of presentation: 30 minutes


 * Special schedule requests: N/A


 * Will you attend WikiConference USA if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

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