The Wikipedia Agency
WhiteHatWiki Services & Capabilities
WhiteHatWiki is perhaps the most experienced Wikipedia agency in the world in dealing with the full spectrum of Wikipedia scenarios, from page updates to dealing with warning flags and hostile editors, to new pages. We bring not only more than a decade of Wikipedia consulting to bear, but highly-skilled professionals with impressive backgrounds in law, academia and journalism. And we do everything following the “white hat” ethical way, the core ethos of our company – never taking the improper or unethical shortcuts that end up creating so many Wikipedia problems.
We approach assignments as a team, bringing PhDs with extraordinary research skills together with legal experts accustomed to dealing with complex policy environments. We make this intellectual firepower available to all our clients, including public and private companies across dozens of sectors, large law firms, universities, non-profits, corporate executives, and public figures in a variety of fields. We’ve also assisted clients with pages about a huge variety of scientific, technological, academic and cultural topics.
Wikipedia Strategy
Wikipedia policies are equivalent to a body of law, subject to a decentralized decision making by sometimes inconsistent or even hostile editors. Our Wikipedia agency team members, with exceptional backgrounds in law and academia as well as a decade of professional Wikipedia consulting, are constantly studying and evolving practices to adapt to this highly complex environment. Every assignment begins with internal discussions not just about content and policies but also strategy and tactics to help assure Wikipedia reaches the right results within this complex environment, while at the same time staying strictly within Wikipedia policy.
Updating Wikipedia Pages
Wikipedia page updates might seem routine, but actually require a technical process that is subject to intense scrutiny thanks to Wikipedia’s onerous “conflict of interest” policies and Terms of Use. Failing to abide by these policies can result in warning flags, blocked or banned user accounts, and the incitement of hostility amongst editors. Our success is the result of laborious research, deep policy knowledge and the tactical knowledge we’ve gained from dealing with hundreds of client matters.
Wikipedia Page Creation & Wikipedia “Notability”
Before taking on a client to assist with the creation of a new Wikipedia page, we perform a “notability” assessment to determine if the page is highly likely to meet Wikipedia’s qualification criteria and be approved by independent reviewers. An independent review is required of conflict of interest editors. Our experts engage in intensive research to create a draft page that strictly adheres to Wikipedia’s voluminous policies and best practices. We’ll work with you until the draft is approved.
Wikipedia Editor Conflicts & Controversies
Whether dealing with an editor who places a warning flag atop an article in good faith or a troll attacking a Wikipedia page with overtly biased or even libelous language, we are highly experienced in working on what Wikipedia terms “contentious matters.” A wide range of responses are possible with the Wikipedia system, depending on the nature of the conflict and whether the editors involved are being tough but fair or are being malicious. We’ve successfully handled more contentious matters than probably any other Wikipedia agency, since we’ve made it a specialty. In some cases, highly damaging and improper content can be dealt with very quickly.
Monitoring Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an open editing environment – while the policies controlling content are very strict, for editors who don’t have a conflict of interest or pretend not to, enforcement of the rules comes after publication, not before it. This means mistakes and bias can be introduced on pages without warning. We help our clients set up 24×7 alerts of page changes at no additional charge. And when requested, we can do active monitoring to evaluate every edit on a page, recommending solutions to Wikipedia violations.
Specialized Wiki-PR
Obtaining credible news coverage to establish “notability” and validate information is difficult in a press environment where in-depth coverage of subjects with original reporting is becoming less common. Our team includes seasoned PR professionals who are also intensively trained in Wikipedia “notability” and “reliable source” policy. We frequently consult with PR agencies and also offer stand-alone PR services specifically geared toward getting our clients quality press coverage from credible editorial sources.
Training
We want our clients to Wikipedia savvy enough to follow the logic of our recommendations and understand the process of getting requests approved. Unlike practitioners who don’t work collaboratively, we consider it a success when our clients can eventually take over posting straightforward requests without our help
