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Paid editing has always been a very controversial issue on Wikipedia. The purpose of this essay is not to address whether it should be permitted or not, but to lay out a Paid editor's bill of rights which those engaging in it, if permitted to do so, should enjoy. These rights may be incorporated into any agreement under which Wikipedia editors are compensated (by referencing the URL of a fixed history version of the article from a specific date when changes are ratified by broad consensus, which, if ratified, will be posted prominently herein and assigned a version number).
As of September 2020 there is no consensus on whether paid editors may or may not edit on Wikipedia. Some editors believe that any paid editing automatically violates our no advertising and neutral point of view policies. Others believe that since paid editing has not be banned per se that it is allowed.
There is a consensus, incorporated into Wikipedia's terms of use and the paid editing policy that if an editor is paid to edit, they must declare their employer, client, and other affiliations relevant to their paid editing.
If this essay is made into policy, companies not agreeing to these terms should be subject to sanctions, which might include banning of their editors, blocking of their IP addresses, or public notice of their failure to comply with Wikipedia ethics. Because online work is very frequently the target of scams, it should be difficult for those companies failing to comply to recruit a workforce, as these people would have little promise of being paid, and likewise difficult to recruit customers, who have no desire for association with underhanded enterprises. The present draft is meant as a starting point for discussion.