You are right, but does the act qualify as bribe ? In my opinion, it would be a bribe if the compensation was presented as a condition to write and publish the

You are right, but does the act qualify as bribe ? In my opinion, it would be a bribe if the compensation was presented as a condition to write and publish the article. Otherwise it may be interpreted as a tip which is then not so obviously bad because it is a common practice. The problem with tips, especially in the US, as far as I know, is that it is kind of perverted. It should be a free gift expressing gratitude and recognition, but it is often considered by the receiver as a due and even the amount is often codified and considered an implicit agreement. This is so strong that not giving a tip is socially considered bad. In France and most European countries tips are thankfully not considered as a due and requesting a tip is even considered rude, especially if the amount is specified. So what if the author (US) interpreted his compensation requests as a tip ? It could have been considered as normal from his perspective since it is so common. The information that would help clarifying our mind on this is if the author has put the compensation as a condition to write the article or not. As long as we don't know this, making any judgment in one way or the other is just poor judgment, that's all I tried to explain in my previous answer. From this perspective the down vote is a bit disappointing.