Wikipedia:Commercial editing

Commercial editing, or editing for profit, is very controversial on Wikipedia. Editors with a financial conflict of interest (such as business owners and public-relations professionals acting on their behalf) should recognize the risk of editing affected articles directly. A better approach is to disclose the conflict of interest, make suggestions on talk pages and noticeboards, and request edits using the edit COI template.

Financial conflicts of interest
You have a financial conflict of interest if any of the following applies:


 * 1) you are receiving monetary or other tangible benefits to edit Wikipedia on behalf of an individual or organization, whether as an employee or contractor, or
 * 2) you expect to derive monetary or other tangible benefits from editing Wikipedia as an owner of, or significant stakeholder in, an organization or product you wish to write about, or by having some other form of close financial relationship with the subject of the article, or
 * 3) you are editing articles related to a business competitor or litigation adversary, or an interest group that advocates for or against your business or industry.

Other forms of financial conflict may exist. Good practice is not to edit Wikipedia in order to gain a commercial advantage for you or your associates.

Non-commercial editing
The conflict of interest guideline distinguishes between paid editing with or without a conflict of interest. Examples of paid editing without a conflict of interest include:


 * responding to requests on the reward board;
 * accepting remuneration as a Wikipedian-in-residence;
 * paying translators to move material between different-language Wikipedias;
 * hiring experts to review technical or medical articles, as was done by the Google Foundation, or to remedy suspected copyright violations;
 * working on behalf of Wikipedia's Education program;

and similar scholarly work.

Experts and editing at work
This essay discourages editing for profit. It does not intend to discourage experts from editing articles in their field of study, nor to prevent editing at work. Subject-matter experts can contribute to Wikipedia articles related to their area of expertise. They must ensure that their external financial relationships in the field do not interfere with their responsibility to follow Wikipedia's principles, policies, and guidelines.

Many people use Wikipedia as a reference while working. If a user notices an opportunity to improve an article, they are encouraged to do so, so long as they avoid editing any article related to their employer or its competitors. For example, a software engineer working at Apple could help improve the article C++, but they should avoid editing ASP.NET (a product of Apple's competitor Microsoft). Likewise a New York Times journalist who writes about Washington politics could edit Wikipedia's article on the United States Congress, or a reviewer who works for Wine Spectator could edit a Wikipedia article about a winery. However, editors should not edit articles about the organizations for whom they work.

Investigation
An editor who appears to be editing for profit can often be identified because their contributions will focus on a narrow set of articles, and have a peculiar point of view that is always positive or negative, or their edits may have the tone of advertising. It is not necessary, nor even allowed, to investigate the real life identity of an editor. Cases of suspected commercial editing may be reported at the Conflict of interest noticeboard. A determination is made by inspecting the edits, not the editor.

Remedies
An editor with a financial conflict will not lose editing privileges for reverting vandalism, removing clear violations of the biography of living persons policy, or making minor spelling or grammar corrections. However, it is preferable for such editors to request help from neutral editors at noticeboards such as WP:COIN (for businesses) or WP:BLPN (for biographies).

If an editor persists in commercial editing after being warned, their account may be blocked for violations of relevant policies such as neutral point of view, no original research, and conflict of interest. Such accounts may be blocked indefinitely when used solely for disruptive purposes.

Articles that appear to have been written by editors with a close connection to the subject may be tagged using the template until they have been thoroughly reviewed and repaired by neutral editors. When an article is unequivocal advertising, it may be speedily deleted.

Requesting help
Subjects, including people, businesses and groups, have an interest to ensure that articles about them are accurate and up to date. If you are concerned about how you are presented on Wikipedia, please contact us to request help. Rest assured that all inquiries are handled swiftly.