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List:       wikien-l
Subject:    [WikiEN-l] Bounties for editors
From:       Matt R <matt_crypto () yahoo ! co ! uk>
Date:       2006-04-18 12:06:54
Message-ID: 20060418120654.25114.qmail () web25004 ! mail ! ukl ! yahoo ! com
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The following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:Now_Hiring

is to a deletion debate on a page for bounties (cash etc) for bits of work on the \
project. I believe such a page would be a good thing. Arguments in favour follow:

It's worked fine, as far as I can tell, on the German edition since last July, and in \
a number of free software/open source communities. Some people have argued that \
selfless altruism is the ideal goal for Wikipedian motives. I disagree. Altruism is \
good if you can get it, but most people work on Wikipedia for a variety of additional \
reasons: for fun, to practice a language, to gain a reputation, to socialise, to \
document their POV, and so on. We don't need to worry so much about motives, but \
rather whether people follow policy in their editing. We should encourage reward \
systems where we can do so without compromising our goals.

Others have argued that the lure of cash would cause people to pay others to insert \
their bias and such. Of course, this is a risk with or without a bounty board, but at \
least we can monitor and police this page. Moreover, Wikipedia mechanisms are quite \
robust against POV pushers, regardless of motivation. We deal daily with people with \
strong views on religion, politics, ethics etc, yet we cope well -- and as we \
probably all know, people get more passionate about these things than any financial \
pressure could induce.

Wikipedians will always be volunteers. But cash is useful for Wikipedians. For \
example, we now demand, and rightly, reliable sources for facts. But it's the case \
that acquiring reliable sources can be an expensive activity.


-- Matt
[[User:Matt Crypto]]




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