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Navigating Wikipedia as a paid representative of an institution:

How to begin?

Raimund Liebert

Wikimedia Österreich / 2025-01

Wikimedia Foundation (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_mini_globe_handheld.jpg), „Wikipedia mini globe handheld“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

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WHAT TO EXPECT

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  • Create user accounts
  • Declare paid editing
  • Verify your user account

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across all projects!

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DISCLAIMER

  • Wikipedia and its sister projects are volunteer-driven. Contributing as a paid representative of an institution has limitations: technically (terms of use, which we will cover) but also culturally.

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  • Following the rules won’t give you special rights regarding “your” content. Beware of conflicts of interest standing in the way of the volunteer community’s call for encyclopaedic neutrality.

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  • This is not legal advice. Errors and omissions excepted.

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Create user accounts

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Each Wikimedia user account gives you access to all Wikimedia projects, regardless of where you created it:

HOW TO USE YOUR USER ACCOUNTS

Screenshot: Text is by Wikipedia authors; see the history of https://w.wiki/Ck77. Website design is by authors of https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Vector/2022. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_shot_of_English_Wikipedia_article_in_Vector_2022.png), added red arrow, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

… and many more

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Each Wikimedia user account gives you access to all Wikimedia projects, regardless of where you created it:

HOW TO USE YOUR USER ACCOUNTS

Make yourself familiar with benefits like the “watchlist” for pages and adjust your user settings to your needs, e.g. regarding notifications.

Screenshot: Text is by Wikipedia authors; see the history of https://w.wiki/Ck77. Website design is by authors of https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Vector/2022. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_shot_of_English_Wikipedia_article_in_Vector_2022.png), added red arrow, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

… and many more

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MAKE IT 2: CREATE AN OFFICIAL AND A PRIVATE USER ACCOUNT

Screenshot: Text by Wikipedia authors; see history of https://w.wiki/Ck77. Website design by authors of https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Skin:Vector/2022. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_shot_of_English_Wikipedia_article_in_Vector_2022.png), added red arrow, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

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CHOOSE A NAME FOR YOUR OFFICIAL USER ACCOUNT

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EXAMPLES FOR USER NAMES

EXPLANATION

YES

Jill Johnson (The Mars Museum)

Jill Johnson (TMM)

full name and name of the institution

YES

JJ (The Mars Museum)

Jill (The Mars Museum)

this conceals our individual identity (to a certain extent) but still marks you as an individual

NO

The Mars Museum

name of the institution

NO

Head curator (The Mars Museum)

name of a position in an institution

NO

Jill and Jake (The Mars Museum)

PR team (The Mars Museum)

anything that implies sharing a user account among several people

BETTER NOT

Jill Johnson

full name without the current institution’s name

BETTER NOT

Fantasyname123

any name concealing your identity and affiliation (which you have to reveal later anyway)

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CHOOSE A NAME FOR YOUR ADDITIONAL PRIVATE USER ACCOUNT

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EXAMPLES FOR USER NAMES

EXPLANATION

YES

Fantasyname123

any name concealing your identity and affiliation

NO

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anything similar to the recommendations in the YES and NO sections for official user accounts

BETTER NOT

Jill Johnson

full real name

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SEPARATE AND CONNECT YOUR TWO USER ACCOUNTS

Mention / link your two user accounts on your user pages.

I have another user account for edits in my capacity as an employee of The Mars Museum.

My private user account is User:Fantasyname123.

Keep contributions with both user accounts as separated from each other as possible. Avoid editing the same Wikipedia pages with two different user accounts.

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Declare paid editing

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WHY AND HOW TO DECLARE PAID EDITING

» You must disclose each and any employer, client, intended beneficiary and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. «

In most cases, a declaration on your user page is sufficient.

Exceptions:

  • Italian-language Wikipedia�extra: list of contributions, declaration on article discussion pages – details: https://w.wiki/te4
  • Russian-language Wikipedia�extra: list of paid editors – details: https://w.wiki/5w2M

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START CREATING YOUR USER PAGE

Log in with your user account and click on your user name on top of the page:

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GLOBAL AND LOCAL USER PAGES

  • Create a global user page on https://meta.wikimedia.org/.
  • This will be displayed as your user page in all Wikipedias and its sister projects where you don’t have a local user page.
  • Preferably do this in English.

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GLOBAL AND LOCAL USER PAGES

  • Create a global user page on https://meta.wikimedia.org/.
  • This will be displayed as your user page in all Wikipedias and its sister projects where you don’t have a local user page.
  • Preferably do this in English.
  • Consider creating local user pages in the projects you will edit the most, e. g. French-language Wikipedia.
  • These will overwrite your global user page in the given projects.
  • Use the local language, e.g. French in French-language Wikipedia.

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WHAT TO MENTION ON YOUR USER PAGE

  • on behalf of which institution
  • the type of affiliation with your institution (e. g. employee, intern, external service provider…)

The person behind this account declares, in accordance with the terms of use, to be paid as an external advisor by The Mars Museum for edits to Wikipedia and its sister projects.

EXAMPLES (no specific wording is mandatory)

I contribute on behalf of The Mars Museum as an intern.

I’m happy to be here as The Mars Museum’s head curator.

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Verify your user account

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VERIFIED USER ACCOUNT IN FRENCH-LANGUAGE WIKIPEDIA

Screenshot: Text by Louis Faivre d'Arcier - Archives municipales de Lyon, Mattho69 (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Louis_Faivre_d%27Arcier_-_Archives_municipales_de_Lyon), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/; icon by IWorld (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huggle-icon-user-ignore.svg), „Huggle-icon-user-ignore“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

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example:

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VERIFIED USER ACCOUNT IN GERMAN-LANGUAGE WIKIPEDIA

Screenshot: Christian Erlinger (ZHB), Itti (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Christian_Erlinger_(ZHB)), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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example:

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VERIFIED USER ACCOUNT IN GERMAN-LANGUAGE WIKIPEDIA

Screenshot: Christian Erlinger (ZHB), Itti (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Christian_Erlinger_(ZHB)), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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example:

User account verifications happen on local user pages in German-language and/or French-language Wikipedia: don’t forget to add a paid editing declaration on your local user page!

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HOW TO GET YOUR USER ACCOUNT VERIFIED

  • only in French and German
  • send an email to info-fr@wikimedia.org (in French) or info-de-v@wikimedia.org (in German)
  • the email needs to be sent from a clearly identifiable domain address (e.g. …@themarsmuseum.org)

Hi,

I’m an employee of The Mars Museum. Could you please verify my user account “User:Jill Johnson (The Mars Museum)”?

Thanks,�Jill

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HOW TO GET YOUR USER ACCOUNT VERIFIED

  • only in French and German
  • send an email to info-fr@wikimedia.org (in French) or info-de-v@wikimedia.org (in German)
  • the email needs to be sent from a clearly identifiable domain address (e.g. …@themarsmuseum.org)

Hi,

I’m an employee of The Mars Museum. Could you please verify my user account “User:Jill Johnson (The Mars Museum)”?

Thanks,�Jill

  • A volunteer support team is processing the request. Please be patient.
  • After verification, a note will be added to your user page in French-language or German-language Wikipedia.

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THANK YOU