There's an interesting story leading in the British newspaper the Independent this morning based on an undercover sting of lobbyists Bell Pottinger:
"Discussing techniques for managing reputations online, Mr Wilson mentioned a team that could 'sort' Wikipedia. "'We've got all sorts of dark arts,' added Mr Collins. 'I told him [David Wilson] he couldn't put them in the written presentation because it's embarrassing if it gets out.'" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/caught-on-camera-top-lobbyists-boasting-how-they-influence-the-pm-6272760.html There might be some editors who want to start an immediate investigation to search for the members of this 'team' but I think that would probably be a waste of time which would put suspicion on a large number of innocent editors. It's always possible Bell Pottinger were boasting. What might be better is to stress that any lobbyist seeking to use 'dark arts' to correct inaccurate or unfair Wikipedia articles, or to add properly sourced positive information, is best advised to use OTRS and to provide sources. It seems to me that current policy and guideline pages are much heavier on telling people what not to do and threatening dire consequences, than they are on helping people to help us. -- Sam Blacketer _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
