User:Smallbones/Proposed commercial editing policy


 * Intro
 * Defining commercial. editing
 * Allowed editing
 * Prohibited editing
 * Enforcement

First draft

Commercial editing

Commercial editors, those who edit Wikipedia as part of a commercial transaction, have historically caused problems on Wikipedia by violating our policies on NPOV, No advertising, No spam, No promotion, .... Their actions are currently regulated by WP:COI, and WP:Paid editing disclosure, but problems have continued. This policy supplements WP:COI and WP:PAID and all commercial editors must follow all of these rules.

Defining commercial editing
A commercial editor is any editor who accepts payment or similar inducements to edit a Wikipedia article as part of a commercial transaction. The following types of editors are automatically considered to be commercial editors.

Commercial editors include

 * Firms that advertise that they will write, edit or create Wikipedia articles for pay or similar inducements, including the
 * owners, managers, employees, and contractors, including freelancers, of these firms.
 * Firms that mainly sell goods or services other than Wikipedia editing or writing services, if they edit Wikipedia, or hire a commercial editing firm, including the
 * owners, managers, board members or employees of the legal, public relations, marketing or sales departments, or employees who receive a commission based on sales or revenue; and
 * contractors of these firms, including PR firms, SEO firms, lawyers and legal firms, consultants and the employees and contractors of these firms or individuals.
 * Non-profit and similar organizations which have the purpose of promoting, supporting or regulating business (e.g. the American Chamber of Commerce) or of a specific type of business (e.g. the Association of Windmill Operators).
 * Government agencies, other than those whose purpose is to promote culture, education or health (e.g. museums, libraries, and hospitals)


 * (please add other types of editors you believe should be automatically covered)

Commercial editors do not include
Several types of editors are excluded from the definition of commercial editors, even though they may accept pay for duties that include editing Wikipedia. These editors must still follow the rules as stated at WP:PAID and WP:COI


 * Wikipedians-in-residence who work for a cultural institution that shares the values of the Wikipedia movement
 * as long as they work openly with all Wikipedians and declare their affiliation with their employer.
 * Employees of the WMF, or chapters or other affiliates of the WMF, as long as they contribute in an appropriate way to the movement.
 * Non-profits and similar organizations which do not hire commercial editors or firms to edit for them, or promote political or commercial points of view. These organizations must still follow WP:COI and WP:Paid editing disclosure as well as all other Wikipedia policies and guidelines. In some cases a non-profit may own a for-profit business (e.g. Hershey Foods was formerly majority owned by Hershey Trust, which runs an orphanage). Or a non-profit may have net revenue generating departments (e.g. museum restaurants and stores). In these cases, editors paid by the non-profit should avoid editing articles on the "for-profit" parts of the organization.
 * Credentialed specialists in scientific, medical and academic professions who edit in topic areas that may overlap with those in which they are paid to work. For example, a professor of mathematics may naturally be expected to write about mathematics, and they are likely to be interested in and knowledgeable about areas adjacent to their own research. Individuals in such a situation should avoid promoting their own work directly (e.g., creating Wikipedia articles based on their new publications) or adding promotional content to articles on organizations with which they are affiliated (e.g., the university which employs them).
 * (please add other exclusions you believe should be added).

Commercial editors must

 * Register an account with a username that ends in "(commercial)", e.g., User:Example (commercial).
 * Disclose every edit they make on their userpage along with their employer, client and other affiliations with respect to that article. Relevant affiliations include, but are not limited to, other people who have provided them with text to include, and any website that has served to connect them with their client or commercial editing employer. They must also declare their commercial status on every page they edit and in the edit comment for every edit they make.
 * All contracts or agreements for commercial editing on Wikipedia must provide that all parties will follow this policy and all other Wikipedia policies and the terms of use; or otherwise forego editing Wikipedia.
 * Disclosure is a minimum requirement for commercial editors to contribute to Wikipedia. Commercial editors, like all other editors, must put the interests of the encyclopedia ahead of the interests of their employers and clients. They must respect the volunteer nature of the Wikipedia community. In particular, commercial editors must not edit Wikipedia for advertising, advocacy, marketing, promotion, public relations or publicity purposes. They must follow the conflict of interest guideline and must not edit tendentiously.


 * If an employer or client demands that a commercial editor violate a Wikipedia policy, the editor must forego further editing for that employer or client and report the situation to an administrator.

Commercial editors may

 * edit an article talk page that they are paid to edit and insert a link to a press release from their employer or client or a page on their employer's or client's website that the believe is relevant to the Wikipedia article.  They may also insert a brief (100 words or less) explanation of why the linked material is important to the article.
 * in the case of a violation of our policy on biographies of living people, they may remove the BLP violation and report it on WP:BLPN.
 * register an alternative non-commercial account, per VALIDALT-Designated roles. Both accounts must declare their connection and link to each other. The non-commercial account may not, in any way, contribute to any commercial editing.

Commercial editors or firms may not

 * edit any Wikipedia article, except an an article covered by the Biographies of living persons policy while informing the BLP noticeboard of their edit. If their edit to the biographical article is reverted and noted at WP:BLPN, they may not repeat their edit to that article.


 * edit any page other than their own userpage and user talk page, article talk pages for which they are being paid, WP:COIN, WP:BLPN, and WP:AN.
 * to underline the above prohibition, the pages they may not edit include, but are not limited to, WP:Articles for creation, WP:Articles for deletion, WP:Good articles nominations, WP:Featured article nominations, any policy or guideline pages or talk pages, any draft article pages, any talk pages on articles related to their employer's or client's competitors or suppliers ... (other pages that might be important to mention).


 * Commercial editors who maintain a non-commercial account may not use either account to obtain any position of trust within the community.
 * Commercial editors may not accept or solicit payment in return for content appraisal, such as:
 * Nominations, reviews or promotions as part of any featured content appraisal process or good content appraisal process;
 * Nominations for, and reviews or selection of items for the main page (e.g. In the News, Did you know? and today's featured article, picture or list);
 * Content screening, such as at new page patrol and articles for creation;
 * Nominations, !votes and closures as part of any deletion process as well as any other informal petitions for undeletion.


 * use their account as a WP:Role account that belongs to their employer or client. All Wikipedia accounts are to be used by only one individual.  Multiple commercial editors representing the same employer or client may not edit the same pages over short time periods (e.g. weeks or months). If a commercial editor drops an employer or client, they should declare that on their user page. If a new commercial editor then replaces the old commercial editor, the new editor must declare on their user page that they have replaced the old editor.


 * hire a new commercial editor or firm if a previous employee or contractor has been indefinitely blocked or banned for improper commercial or paid editing.

Enforcing this policy
Editors who violate this policy may be indefinitely blocked by any administrator. The admin may also create a request for comment at WP:AN to ban the employer and the client. They and the blocked editor may appeal the block and bans at WP:AN, after declaring all paid edits made since June 2014, and the associated employers, clients, and affiliations.

Administrators may indefinitely block editors who write promotional articles, violate no advertising or similar policies, especially if they are single purpose editors or otherwise appear to be undeclared commercial editors. If the blocked editor appears to be an undeclared commercial editor, the blocking administrator should note this in the block. If the only substantial edits to an article were made by blocked commercial editors, administrators my delete the article.

Topics that are promoted by commercial editing often come in and out of fashion, e.g. with binary options being a popular topic one year, cryptocurrencies becoming popular the next, and online gambling becoming popular the year after. As a new topic becomes popular with commercial editors, other editors may wish to impose discretionary sanctions on the newly popular topic, at a request for comment.