Wikipedia:Don't cry COI
This is an essay on civility. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: Do not attack editors just because they are paid editors or have a conflict of interest. |
When an editor sees a
COI editors
Paid editors often are seen as bad or
Having a conflict of interest is not necessarily a problem in itself. The project has procedures to monitor and manage problems that arise from conflicts of interest. For example, paid editors must disclose their conflict as legally required by our
Paid editors and experts
COI editors may know a lot about their subject. Unfortunately, they are often confused with experts, who also know a lot about their subject.
Experts and paid editors alike are criticized frequently, having their edits reverted on sight and getting harassed on their talk pages. This is detrimental to Wikipedia. Experts frequently have the most knowledge of subjects that non experts would know little about, such as nuclear physics, quantum field theory and semiotics. A non-expert would have a hard time editing these subjects and could inadvertently introduce misleading information if they added or reworded text.
Professors, class projects, and university edits
Like experts, these are often lumped in with COI editors. It is a little bit different from the last two because there is a place for reporting class projects: Wikipedia:School and university projects. However, unidentified projects risk being misidentified as COI edits.
The "no paid advocacy" proposals
Several times in several essays users have tried to propose policies to essentially ban paid editing. These
Paid editors aren't all bad
Although, yes, they are paid to edit Wikipedia, and that by nature may make some dislike them, paid editors frequently have more knowledge of a subject than the average layman.
Complicated subjects such as the biology of obscure animals known only by their Latin classifications and other subjects deep within a particular science cannot be written by people who don't know what they are. Paid editors are not entirely the best people to be writing these articles, but they at least know their subject.
Astroturfing PR firms
These need to be distinguished from paid or COI editors. Often paid editors work for themselves and have worked for the company before being asked to edit Wikipedia. PR firms are companies hired to edit Wikipedia by employing editors. Some are there to update, but others are more malicious in their intent. While some PR firms have a hands-off policy,
This is a larger breach of policy than paid editors, and should be dealt with more quickly. However trying to out individual editors as
See also
- Wikipedia:Avoid academic boosterism
- Wikipedia:Paid editing
- Wikipedia:Bright lines
- Wikipedia:Self promotion
- Guidelines for editors who may have a conflict of interest