Wikipedia Experts
Wikipedia is an interesting ecosystem, and most of its content is created by volunteers. When people refer to Wikipedia experts or professional Wikipedia writers, they usually mean people who are employed by PR companies and work for pay to create some particular type of Wikipedia content, as opposed to Wikipedia writers, who work in Wikipedia community for free. These non-volunteers usually work on personal Wikipedia profiles and Wikipedia pages for businesses and other organizations.
Most of the actions of these professional Wikipedia writers violate Wikipedia policies, specifically the conflict-of-interest policy. In some cases, the actions of these PR companies may violate Federal and state laws. Specifically, the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits advertisement if it’s purported to be from an independent and impartial source such as Wikipedia and the professional writers’ employers may be acting in a conspiracy to violate the act. Moreover, attempts to circumvent Wikipedia conflict-of-interest policies may lead the PR companies to conceal their activities using aliases and other tricks, thus violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (which was further strengthened by the Patriot Act) and/or state laws that prohibit various degrees of online impersonation.
In addition, professional Wikipedia writers are often despised by Wikipedia community, as they are paid for work that Wikipedia volunteers do for free. Once discovered to violate policies, these professional Wikipedia editors and their organizations are banned, and their contributions are often deleted in bulk. The most vociferous cases even find their way to national press, creating bad publicity for the persons and companies involved.
This is why Wikipedia and the for-profit world are not compatible, and why at Wenard, we do not recommend using professional Wikipedia editors. The bottom line: once you attempt to influence the content of a Wikipedia page with your wallet, you and the “professional writer” you employ are in violation. You can find more information in Wikipedia pages for companies and Wikipedia pages for people which offer some alternative workable options. You’re also welcome to contact us with further questions.