User:Smallbones/Paid

Strategic objectives of this guideline
 * 1) Encourage behavior from corporate participants that help improve Wikipedia
 * 2) Discourage behavior from corporate participants that does not improve Wikipedia

Key principles

When it comes to our relationship with companies, the key principles we as a community want to encourage are NPOV, transparency, Wikipedia's autonomy and the use of Talk pages.

Linchpins to success

This guideline will only be successful if:
 * Editors from all sides of the issue can reach a reasonable and intelligent compromise
 * We can agree that the extremes (outright banning or outright allowing) are not the best choices for Wikipedia
 * We can agree on creating a guideline that is suitable "most of the time" and not allow the impossibility of covering every exception to inhibit us from putting something reasonable in place (see tag at the top for "common sense")
 * That creating clearer rules and guidelines will improve the situation, even if not resolve it completely

Current problems caused by this issue
 * Wikipedia is under siege by blatant spam
 * Many companies contribute in a manner that is disruptive and violates WP:NPOV
 * We have created a market dynamic that encourages using the black-market for unethical Wikipedia consultants
 * Good-faith participants that could help the project are often subject to newbie biting and other issues

Comment from Smallbones

Paid advocacy and paid editing have long been contentious issues on Wikipedia. We pride ourselves on being the "encyclopedia that anyone can edit," and on our policy of presenting a neutral point of view without advocacy. At times these principles seem to conflict, and the international press has reported on many instances where paid advocates appear to have distorted the content of our articles.

Shaming by the press has been the main practical deterrent to paid advocacy on Wikipedia, punishing what the press considers to be improper conduct by paid editors. Nevertheless, our rules on the matter have been unclear. This (proposed) policy, which is enforceable by blocks, is intended to clarify our rules and lead to enforcement by Wikipedians, rather than by the press or other outsiders. It will serve to protect the interests of our readers, editors, and any organization that may wish to participate in Wikipedia through paid employees.

This guideline applies to "paid advocates," which refers to anyone editing on behalf of a company, organization, politician or cause, including public relations, reputation management, lobbyists, publicists, political campaign managers, search engine marketing professionals and Wikipedia consultants. It may also include non-profit advocate groups, individuals or family members asked to edit on a company's behalf, or a volunteer in an advocacy group or trade association. Paid advocates are expected to disclose their conflict of interest, make an honest effort to be neutral and - as a rule of thumb - should avoid directly making content contributions or removals to the article.

Instructions
Paid advocates may support Wikipedia by requesting factual corrections, discussing controversial issues, offering contributed content or offering other resources such as images and research.

Share sources

An editor that shares independent, neutral and reliable sources on the Talk page in an organized way and with proper citation templates, substantially improves the chances of impartial editors from Wikipedia's editorial community improving the page. Avoid sharing anything published by the company, such as press releases and focus on credible, independent sources that cover the subject in substantial depth.

Request a factual correction

To request a factual correction, describe the error in detail on the Talk page with request edit at the top of the request. This will put your request in a queue for review by an impartial editor. Be sure to include independent sources where the correction(s) can be verified.

Flag an issue of overt bias

To flag a more urgent or controversial issue, consider raising the issue on the conflict of interest noticeboard. You may also attempt to re-write the section neutrally using the request edit process.

Create a new article

If the organization, product, individual or topic has been the subject of significant media coverage, but no article exists, you may choose to create a new one. You can request the article be written by following the instructions at Requested articles or submit an article yourself at Articles for creation for review by an impartial editor.

Other content contributions

Other content contributions can be made through discussion on the Talk page, by talking to heavy contributors to the article, or through the request edit system. Substantial re-writes can be submitted for consideration using the template.

Non-COI

Wikipedia encourages organizations to contribute to Wikipedia in areas where they may not have a conflict of interest or the conflict of interest may be modest. This includes corporate social responsibility programs and donating images under a free license.

Paid advocates should keep in mind that substantial content contributions will require them to read and understand our content policies and do their best to keep their contributions neutral. Those that hire a Wikipedia consultant to help them are encouraged to use one that complies with this guideline by providing disclosure, asking for feedback and respecting Wikipedia's content policies.

Disclosure
The Federal Trade Commission's astroturfing laws recommend commercial interests identify their affiliation in online communications. Additionally, professional associations may expect members to engage in "honest communication." The Wikipedia community expects paid advocates to follow these best practices on Wikipedia, by identifying their conflict of interest. This can be done on user pages, Talk pages or elsewhere, so long as it is easily identifiable by impartial editors assessing the content or request.

Direct Editing
Paid advocates should avoid directly editing articles they have a conflict of interest with, except for non-controversial edits, such as improving citations and formatting, correcting grammar, edits explicitly approved on the Talk page, and non-promotional images. All content decisions on articles should remain in the hands of impartial, volunteer editors.

Consequences
Paid advocates will never be blocked or banned exclusively for violating this policy, when their edits are neutral, well-sourced and properly balanced. However, paid advocates that operate discreetly and are exposed, where they have violated Wikipedia's content policies, may be subject to harsher penalties than normal. A paid advocate that uses the articles for creation system will receive feedback on how to improve their submission, while those that violate this policy may find promotional articles deleted or trimmed indiscriminately by editors unwilling to spend their time repairing their work.

Paid advocates that violate this guideline may also put themselves at risk for exposure in the media or build a contentious relationship with our editors, making future edits more difficult.

In order to prevent paid advocacy, all paid editors who edit a page that may be of interest to their employers must declare their status as paid editors near the top of their user page. This declaration must include the name of their employer(s) and a brief statement of ethics which will include a declaration on how they intend to prevent the appearance of paid advocacy. The names of the employer(s) must be kept on the user page for a full year after the employment has ended.

The declaration, for example, may state that the editor intends to follow the bright line rule or the code of ethics of .... If they wish to compose their own code of ethics regarding paid editing and paid advocacy, they may link the statement to a separate user page.

When editing a page of interest to their employer or a policy page, paid editors must declare their conflict of interest or link to their conflict of interest statement. Any statement or !vote on a policy page may be discounted because of the conflict of interest. No paid editor may close a discussion on a policy page.

Paid editing on Wikipedia is defined as writing or editing on Wikipedia in return for money, or similar inducements. This includes inserting or deleting content about the editor's employer or client into or from an article, talk page, or policy. The employer must potentially have some control over the editing for it to be considered paid.

Paid editing is a type of conflict of interest (COI) and paid editors must follow the guidelines on COI very carefully. Paid editing is not prohibited per se, but paid editing combined with advocacy for the employer is strictly prohibited.

Paid advocacy is any contribution or edit by a paid editor to Wikipedia that advocates for an employer's point of view. Advocacy of any sort is prohibited by our policy on neutral point of view, and paid advocacy is considered to be an especially egregious form of advocacy.

Editors such as employees of public relations firms, lobbyists and lawyers, who advocate for their clients outside of Wikipedia, may be presumed to be paid advocates if they do not closely follow this (proposed) policy.

Enforcement
The arbitration committee or any administrator may enforce this policy by blocking the paid editor if the editor is advocating a position that favors his or her employer, or if the paid editor is violating the plain reading of his or her code of ethics on paid advocacy.