Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-04-24/Job board

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Proposal to pay editors for contributions

By Hermione1980, 24 April 2006

A new proposal, called the paid editor job board, started by Cookiecaper earlier this week has generated a firestorm of controversy. The proposal, originally named Wikipedia:Now Hiring, operates on a similar principle to Wikipedia:Bounty Board. However, unlike the Bounty Board, the paid editor job board would pay individual editors for specific Wikipedia contributions, instead of giving a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Many users are vehemently opposed to the proposal. "This is completely against the spirit of the project," states Ambi. Others, though, say that it will lead to more articles being brought to featured article status. "People work on Wikipedia for all sorts of reasons, and money could be one of those motivations," notes Matt Crypto.

Matt Crypto, among others, also reasoned that this would not be the first time that people have been paid for contributing to Wikipedia. Larry Sanger, once editor-in-chief of Nupedia, was effectively a paid contributor to Wikipedia, where he acted as "chief organizer".

The proposed page to post possible editing jobs was nominated for deletion on April 23. The result was to keep the page; in closing the debate, A Man In Black observed that "nearly every 'delete' comment has instead offered a reason that the proposal should be rejected." Discussion about the proposal is still taking place on the talk page.

A proposal of the same nature last July on the German Wikipedia garnered some attention as well (see archived story). The response at the time was fairly similar, to the extent of both proposals surviving attempts to delete the page amid considerable criticism of the idea.

Also this week: Office actions — M.A.N.I.A. — Unfit source — Job board — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — B.R.I.O.N. — T.R.O.L.L.