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'{{Coord|39.939586|N|75.611783|W|display=title|source:placeopedia_region:US-PA_type:landmark |format=dms |name=MyWikiBiz}} {{Infobox dot-com company | name = MyWikiBiz | logo = [[File:MyWikiBiz logo.png|135px]] | company_type = [[Privately held company|Private]] | foundation = 2006 | founder = Gregory Kohs | location_city = | location_country = [[United States|US]] | key_people = Gregory Kohs ([[CEO]]) | revenue = | company_slogan = Author Your Legacy | url = [http://www.mywikibiz.com/ www.mywikibiz.com] | screenshot = | caption = | alexa = {{IncreaseNegative}} 621,124 ({{as of|2014|6|18|alt=May 2014}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mywikibiz.com |title= Mywikibiz.com Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2014-06-18 }}</ref><!--Updated monthly by OKBot.--> | website_type = [[Wiki]] | language = [[Multilingual]] | registration = Optional (required to edit pages) | advertising = [[Google AdSense]] | launch_date = 2006 | current_status = Active }} '''MyWikiBiz''' is a [[wiki]] directory that allows people and enterprises to write about themselves. The site began as a service creating [[Wikipedia]] articles for paying [[corporation]]s; the founder and owner of MyWikiBiz, Gregory Kohs, was soon banned from Wikipedia.<ref name="chron">{{cite journal|url=http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1831/wikipedia-blocks-a-pay-for-play-scheme|title=Wikipedia Blocks a Pay-for-Play Scheme|journal=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]|date=2007-01-24|last=Read|first=Brock|accessdate=2008-08-27}}</ref><ref name="msnbc">{{cite web|url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16793247/|title = Idea of paid entries roils Wikipedia|authorlink = Brian_Bergstein|last = Bergstein|first = Brian|date = 2007-01-24|accessdate = 2008-08-20|publisher = [[MSNBC]]/[[Associated Press]]}}</ref> {{As of|2015|4|url=http://www.mywikibiz.com/Special:Statistics}}, the MyWikiBiz directory contained over 70,000 pages of content.<ref name=Jan2014>[http://web.archive.org/web/20140123083846/http://www.mywikibiz.com/Main_Page Main page, Jan 2014]</ref> ==History== Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in [[Pennsylvania]] in July 2006, as a paid editing service, writing content for inclusion in [[Wikipedia]] and other community-edited sites.<ref name="pr">{{cite web|url=http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=16892|title=MyWikiBiz press release: Wikipedia – Open For Business|publisher=24-7 Press Release|date=2006-08-08|accessdate=2008-08-20|author=MyWikiBiz.com}}</ref>{{dead link}} He said Wikipedia's "[[Wikipedia:Reward board|reward board]]", where editors offer cash rewards or gifts to create or improve Wikipedia articles, indicated his venture met community standards.<ref name="msnbc"/> ''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'' observed, however, that the "reward board" offers "to trade work on one article for similar work on another piece," and that the ones that involve money, like an offer to pay $55 to elevate [[Lithuania]]<nowiki/>n entries to "featured article" status, "seem pretty altruistic."<ref name="chron" /> Kohs said he felt that corporations were underrepresented on Wikipedia, and charged between $49 and $99 USD for articles that, he said, conformed to Wikipedia policies.<ref name="msnbc" /> === Conflict with Wikipedia === Although paid-for contributions were not banned at the time this site commenced, many Wikipedia users felt that a neutral encyclopedia could not be written with paid-for contributions. While it was widely known that Wikipedia was used by corporations and public relations people, such contributions were produced in secret.<ref name="welt">{{cite news|url=http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article147789/Wikipedia-Artikel_die_man_kaufen_kann.html|title=Wikipedia-Artikel, die man kaufen kann (Wikipedia articles that you can buy)|newspaper=[[Die Welt]]|language=German|first=Mathias|last=Peer|date=2006-08-24|accessdate=2008-08-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39362654,00.htm|title=Wikipedia, nouvel enjeu de relations publiques (Wikipedia, a new issue of public relations)|publisher=[[ZDNet]]|accessdate=2008-08-27|date=2006-08-11|last=Noisette|first=Thierry|language=French}}</ref> Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told the [[Associated Press]] that surreptitious editing by corporations did not mean the site should prevent such activity, and that "It's one thing to acknowledge there's always going to be a little of this, but another to say, `Bring it on.' "<ref name="msnbc" /> A few days after MyWikiBiz was launched, the site's user account was blocked by Wikipedia's co-founder [[Jimmy Wales]], on the grounds of "paid editing on behalf of customers." It was one of the few such blocks personally by Wales in Wikipedia's history.<ref name="zittrain" /> Wales called Kohs to tell him that paying for edit was "antithetical" to Wikipedia's mission. Wales viewed the problem as one of "conflict of interest and the appearance of impropriety arising from editors being paid to write by the subjects of the articles,"<ref name="zittrain" /> He and Kohs reached an agreement, under which Kohs could create "Wikipedia-like" articles on his site and that they could then be "scraped" to Wikipedia by Wikipedia editors. According to Kohs, about ten articles came to Wikipedia by this method.<ref name="msnbc" /> The agreement between MyWikiBiz and Wales did not last long. Articles from MyWikiBiz were nominated for deletion, and MyWikiBiz participated in those discussions.<ref name="zittrain" /> Wikipedia's conflict of interest rules were being drafted at that time, and Kohs believed one rule as allowing him to post article text on his own user page at Wikipedia. Wales called this "absolutely unacceptable," and blocked Kohs from editing Wikipedia<ref name="msnbc" /><ref name="zittrain" /> In his book ''The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It'', [[Jonathan Zittrain]] said that Wales believed that his prior agreement had been misrepresented, and that MyWikiBiz had been "spamming Wikipedia with corporate advertisements rather than 'neutral point of view' articles."<ref name="zittrain">{{cite book|url=http://yupnet.org/zittrain/archives/16#48|title=The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It|page=140|year=2008|publisher=[[Yale University]] Press|authorlink=Jonathan_Zittrain|last=Zittrain|first=Jonathan|isbn=0-300-12487-2}}</ref> Ultimately, Kohs was permanently banned from Wikipedia.<ref name="msnbc" /> ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' said "it's hard to feel too bad for MyWikiBiz," and that "if the encyclopedia is serious about gaining acceptance from academe, surely it has a vested interest in dissuading companies from paying to improve their presence on the site."<ref name="chron" /> [[Heise Online]] expressed a suspicion that MyWikiBiz's "was not an isolated case of attempted corporate infiltration" of Wikipedia. It said that "PR agencies and think tanks are the more serious threat to Wikipedia" than individual efforts to influence articles, because they are available in conflicts over articles, utilizing the services of professional writers with plenty of paid working time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24930/1.html|title=Edit-War um Friedrich Merz (Edit War on Friedrich Merz)|publisher=[[Heise Online]]|language=German|date=2007-03-31|accessdate=2008-08-20|last=Jellen|first=Richard}}</ref> === After the site ban === In late October 2006, after MyWikiBiz was banned from Wikipedia,<ref name="msnbc" /> Kohs formed a partnership to promote and market a wiki-based directory at Centiare.com,<ref name="msnbc" /><ref name="sbwire">{{cite web|url=http://www.sbwire.com/news/view/9912|title=Centiare on the heels of Wikipedia|date=2007-01-05|accessdate=2008-08-20|publisher=press release}}</ref> after which Kohs moved its contents to MyWikiBiz.com.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=VsZOIOerAa0C&pg=PA58&dq=Centiare+to+MyWikiBiz.com&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wkOtUbG2MvDlyAGr74HAAg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Centiare%20to%20MyWikiBiz.com&f=false |title=Semantic Digital Libraries |page=58 |editor=Sebastian Ryszard Kruk, Bill McDaniel, and W. William D. McDaniel |year=2008 |accessdate=June 3, 2013 |publisher=Springer}}</ref> Kohs appeared on ''[[Attack of the Show!]]'' on January 25, 2007, and discussed MyWikiBiz.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=14996 |title = Attack of the Show: Blog, January 15, 2007 |accessdate = 2007-10-15 |author = dvinson |date= 2007-01-15 |work = Attack of the Show: Blog |publisher = [[G4TV]] |quote = Gregory Kohs, webmaster for mywikibiz.com and Molly Wood, the Executive Editor from C-Net join us tonight at 7PM to discuss!}}</ref> In January 2014, the site's main page carried a notice stating that all but the 5,000 most viewed pages would be removed from public view, citing link spamming damaging the site's Google [[page rank]].<ref name="Jan2014">[http://web.archive.org/web/20140123083846/http://www.mywikibiz.com/Main_Page Main page, Jan 2014]</ref> In June 2014, Kohs was not allowed to present at or attend WikiConference USA 2014, a national [[Wikimedia]] conference. He had proposed a presentation called "Confessions of a Paid Editor." <ref name="O'Dwyer">{{cite web|last1=O'Dwyer|first1=Jack|title=Wikipedia Critic Kohs Banned from New York Meeting|url=http://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/2515/2014-06-03/wikipedia-critic-kohs-banned-from-new-york-meeting.html|website=O'Dwyer's|accessdate=6 April 2015}}</ref> ==See also== {{Portal|Philadelphia|Companies}} * [[Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia]] {{-}} ==References== {{Reflist|2}} ==External links== *[http://www.mywikibiz.com/ MyWikiBiz] {{Wikipediahistory}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mywikibiz}} [[Category:Internet companies of the United States]] [[Category:Commerce websites]] [[Category:Organizations based in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Companies established in 2006]] [[Category:Privately held companies based in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Companies based in Pennsylvania]]'