Discovered an odd email (found it in my Junk folder). It was from a 'marketing company' (Wiki Managers) who are offering to set up Wiki entries on demand.
Is this possibly legit, or just the scam my email assumed it was? I'd always thought Wiki was a purely not-for-profit organization run by volunteers. That said, creating a unique Wikipage for an author sounds attractive, as there are a LOT of independent author Wiki pages now.
especially since it was directed to your junk folder
Huh?
The default criteria used by email programs to determine spam are often not conclusive. I once used an email program that didn't recognize obvious spam but insisted on putting legit info mails – I had asked for – into the junk folder. I had to check my junk folder at least once a week for misplaced emails!
HM.
Depends on the program being used, especially with the web based ones like Gmail. Some of them have very good filters, some don't. For PC based ones like the one within my Thunderbird program I have to train it to ID spam, but once trained it's very good.
It's possible that they will post a wiki page for you, but the problem then becomes; is the page accept by the editors. If the page is poorly written and or looks like an ad, then the page may be removed. Then you either pay them to rewrite it, or you've lost money.
I have been and on/off editor on Wikipedia, and know of some companies, that pay PR- or Ad-companies to write an article on wiki.
Edit:
4. Self-promotion. It can be tempting to write about yourself or projects in which you have a strong personal involvement. However, remember that the standards for encyclopedic articles apply to such pages just like any other. This includes the requirement to maintain a neutral point of view, which can be difficult when writing about yourself or about projects close to you. Creating overly abundant links and references to autobiographical sources is unacceptable. See Wikipedia:Autobiography, Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.
Thanks, Zellus. That's what I suspected. That the fact is actually semi legit, and that, assuming they are familiar with Wiki, and known enough NOT to write over glowing references for their client, it would probably pass most casual Wiki checks.
That sorta what it sounded like, but I was surprised that Wiki hadn't caught on to this type of thing yet. But as I noted, there are a LOT of Independent Publishers Wikipages out there, more than you'd expect would be created by Wiki on their own.
I'm still not sure about the idea, but instead of discouraging me, your arguments convinced me that they're likely semi-legitimate. However, it doesn't really matter anyway. After having noticed the post in my junk mail while doing a periodic purge, it was auto-purged the next day anyway, so the link to their site is gone.
