“Black hat” editors all publicly claim to abide by Wikipedia policies but unless they fully disclose they are paid editors with a conflict of interest, they are violating one of Wikipedia’s most important policies and risk getting banned and having their content removed. Why do they do it anyway?
The work of anonymous “black hat” editors usually isn’t as closely scrutinized by reviewers as that of paid editors because no conflict of interest is disclosed. As a result, they can afford to be far less intensive in researching and writing articles (and charge less per article.) Black hat editors frequently take short cuts, against Wikipedia policy, to save time. For example, they might even find a way to avoid new content from being reviewed (in the short term) by another editor.
Since they are writing anonymously and without disclosure, they also don’t tend to disclose their real-world credentials to the world, let alone their real name. They aren’t standing behind every article with their real world reputation. By remaining in the shadows, they don’t feel as much intense pressure to abide as strictly as possible to the sometimes burdensome Wikipedia policies. They might pass the savings along to you, but they also pass along the long-term risk and the lower quality of their work.
