(As of this writing) these were laid out by the project's initiating editor. Some people adhere to them, some don't. You don't have to adhere to all or even most of these to belong to and/or help the project.

Basic principles

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  • It's not OK to edit the Wikipedia in return for financial compensation, or under the orders of any government, corporation, or similar organization. It is not against policy. But it is still detrimental to the project.
  • No person is capable of accepting financial compensation from a third party while editing material affecting that third party's interests in a genuinely fair-minded manner. They may say that they are. They may think that they are. But they're not.
  • A person accepting financial compensation from a third party is placing himself in the following conundrum:
    • If they are not willing and able to present the totality of properly encyclopedic material about their client, warts and all, with a truly fair-minded ability to give proper weight to material which may be inimical to their client's interests, or support the inclusion of such material when appropriate, then they should not be editing the Wikipedia.
    • And if they are, their client should fire them.
    • And in either case, they are acting unethically.
  • The presence of paid editors is demoralizing to the Wikipedia community and very dangerous to the Wikipedia's reputation and long-term viability.
  • Public relations is an honorable profession. Private entities in free society have the right to defend their reputations and fairly advance their interests, and practicing public relations under the ethical guidelines of the Public Relations Society of America is honorable and useful to society. Causing harm, contention, demoralization, resource waste, and disrepute to the people's encyclopedia isn't.

Some project members may hold that editing by avowed paid agents should be permitted for tactical reasons (to prevent worse offenses by convert paid agents) but closely controlled and monitored; others are opposed to it altogether. But editors who believe that paid editing is a positive good are probably not in accordance with the founding principles of this Wikiproject.

Quotes

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