The title of this piece is clear enough to brief what this article is going to be about. So, without further ado, let’s get straight to the point.

Trustpilot is a digital rating platform that helps consumers measure the reputation of businesses. Customers are required to review a product or a service and provide a star rating. Companies with a Trustpilot profile receive scores based on how the customers have rated their services. It is a Danish company and went public in 2021. The company was designed to provide a rating system for retailers and other service providers. Recently, the company has been facing issues regarding the authenticity of its reviews, with users stating that “reviews are not always trustworthy.“There have been several instances where the company has been accused of either failing to represent a genuine customer experience or deliberately attempting to manipulate consumer behavior. The company has also been blacklisted several times for posting fake positive reviews.

Now that we know one part of the story, it’s time to understand the other side as well.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is has been an authentic source of information for everything. Publishing articles on Wikipedia may seem like an easy task, as it is an open-source platform, but in reality, it’s not. The editing and administrative team of Wikipedia is a staunch group that is strict and vigilant about its policies. Anything that’s against Wikipedia’s policies or guidelines is swiftly taken down to protect the reliability and reputation of the platform.

Unfortunately, people have confused Wikipedia with other promotional pages that help them market their businesses or, in some cases themselves. No doubt, having a company or individual Wikipedia page creates a lasting impact when a person searches for you or your business. It is the first place for people to learn about your company, as Wikipediaenhances the level of respect and credibility. But, this is only possible if the business or person is notable or noteworthy.

Articles on Wikipedia are considered to be credited solely because they are created after extensive research. Wikipedia editors focus on notability and noteworthiness of the subject. Both these factors are part of a judging metric used by Wikipedia editors to decide whether a given topic warrants its own article.

• Is the business or individual worthy of notice?
• Is it/he/she/them remarkable?
• Have they/she/he/it changed the world?
• Are they/she/he/it unusual enough to be recorded?

After knowing both sides of the coin, let’s move forward to the conflict.

The Feud Between Wikipedia Editors and TrustPilot

Trustpilot claims to be open and transparent, which is true but only to a certain extent. This is because Trustpilot’s reviews about Wikipedia editors are nothing but a hoax. The ones posting on the platform are not being completely honest. The reason behind these negative reviews is the failure of getting their pages up on Wikipedia.

As stated above, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia; now, who wouldn’t like themselves to have their page on a globally recognized platform? This exact need of having a global presence lures users to make an attempt to create their or their businesses pages’. What they don’t know here is that there’s an entire list of protocols to be followed in order to have your Wikipedia page up and running. Their several failed attempts to create an article on Wikipedia lead to blockage of their accounts, which frustrates the user. Such users use platforms like Trustpilots and blatantly blame Wikipedia editors for being biased. Such comments and reviews change the perspective of people and shed a negative light on Wikipedia.

The entire gist of the conflict turns out to be a gap between the users and the Wikipedia publishing rules. To make their audience understand the basic do’s and don’ts of publishing, the Wikipedia administrators have created a General Notability Guideline, a detailed article that helps you judge and evaluate the subject’s notability. Unfortunately, users are unaware of such helpful material and make unsuccessful and stubborn attempts to get their page live on Wikipedia. Until and unless the user understands the entire publishing process, it is difficult for them to see Wikipedia as a neutral platform and not a biased one.

The reviews on Trustpilot about Wikipedia editors are clearly the thoughts and experiences of unsuccessful users who could not get their page published even after several attempts. As Tupac Shakur says,”Follow the rules or follow the fools,” the users need to have a clear mindset before publishing their page on Wikipedia.

In a Nutshell

All in all, this is a sheer case of misunderstanding, and extreme venting, which has now turned into severe misguidance and platform shaming. The users are required to research their subjects and judge them according to Wikipedia metrics. They must understand that Wikipedia is not a promotional platform and is completely neutral and fair. On the other hand, Trustpilot needs to reevaluate its policy of allowing the user to post anything, be it dishonest or paid reviews.