Changes

''The Register'' said:<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/]</ref>

''The Register'' said:<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/]</ref>

:Wikipedia has tried to balance the utopian goal of "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" with the more utilitarian goal of "a website anyone would want to read". With over a million articles, and a rulebook almost as dense, Wikipedia has demonstrated an insatiable desire to participate, create lists and generate procedures. The result is a huge silo of recorded trivia, and perhaps the world's largest, most distributed bureaucracy - mostly manned by a casual staff of teenagers and the unemployed.  

:Wikipedia has tried to balance the Utopian goal of "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" with the more utilitarian goal of "a website anyone would want to read". With over a million articles, and a rulebook almost as dense, Wikipedia has demonstrated an insatiable desire to participate, create lists and generate procedures. The result is a huge silo of recorded trivia, and perhaps the world's largest, most distributed bureaucracy - mostly manned by a casual staff of teenagers and the unemployed.  

==False Claim About Brent Bozell==

==False Claim About Brent Bozell==

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In September 2005, a friend of Seigenthaler's discovered the Wikipedia entry and alerted Seigenthaler, whom then contacted the Wikimedia foundation to have the article corrected, however the false biography had remained on Wikipedia for many months.

In September 2005, a friend of Seigenthaler's discovered the Wikipedia entry and alerted Seigenthaler, whom then contacted the Wikimedia foundation to have the article corrected, however the false biography had remained on Wikipedia for many months.

Wikipedia critic Daniel Brandt later discovered the prepetrator of the prank was Brian Chase, an acquaintance of Seigenthaler Sr.<ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref>  John Seigenthaler Sr later published an article in ''USA Today'' on the whole affair.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm</ref>

Wikipedia critic Daniel Brandt later discovered the perpetrator of the prank was Brian Chase, an acquaintance of Seigenthaler Sr.<ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref>  John Seigenthaler Sr later published an article in ''USA Today'' on the whole affair.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm</ref>

Instead of being apologetic, Wikipedia editors criticized Seigenthaler afterwards on a Wikipedia talk page for publicly complaining of the falsehoods about him:<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=3</ref>

Instead of being apologetic, Wikipedia editors criticized Seigenthaler afterwards on a Wikipedia talk page for publicly complaining of the falsehoods about him:<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=3</ref>

:"Mr. Seigenthaler's attitude and actions are reprehensible and ill-formed," said one comment. "[He] has the responsibility to learn about his own name and how it is being applied and used, as any celebrity does on the Internet and the world-at-large. Besides, if there is an error whether large or small, he can correct it on Wikipedia. Everyone fails to understand that logic." Another wrote: "Rather than fixing the article himself, he made a legal threat. He's causing Wikipedia a lot of trouble, on purpose."

:"Mr. Seigenthaler's attitude and actions are reprehensible and ill-formed," said one comment. "[He] has the responsibility to learn about his own name and how it is being applied and used, as any celebrity does on the Internet and the world-at-large. Besides, if there is an error whether large or small, he can correct it on Wikipedia. Everyone fails to understand that logic." Another wrote: "Rather than fixing the article himself, he made a legal threat. He's causing Wikipedia a lot of trouble, on purpose."

The Siegenthaler scandal was originally billed as a "hoax", then "controversy" and finally downgraded in its stable version to "incident".  Despite the damage to an innocent person and embarrassment to Wikipedia's credibility as a viable source, the Siegenthaler scandal is considered by many internal Administrators as "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia" <ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Seigenthaler%2C_Sr.#The_best_thing_that_ever_happened_to_Wikipedia Talk:John Seigenthaler Sr.#The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia], retrived 23 March 2007.</ref> becaue it catapulted it <ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/lofiversion/index.php?t1100.html Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander], Joel Leyden, Israel News Agency, 8 May 2006.</ref> from the top 50 to the top 10 most visited websites, and gave it its first substantial publicity outside America.

The Siegenthaler scandal was originally billed as a "hoax", then "controversy" and finally downgraded in its stable version to "incident".  Despite the damage to an innocent person and embarrassment to Wikipedia's credibility as a viable source, the Siegenthaler scandal is considered by many internal Administrators as "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia" <ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Seigenthaler%2C_Sr.#The_best_thing_that_ever_happened_to_Wikipedia Talk:John Seigenthaler Sr.#The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia], retrieved 23 March 2007.</ref> because it catapulted it <ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/lofiversion/index.php?t1100.html Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander], Joel Leyden, Israel News Agency, 8 May 2006.</ref> from the top 50 to the top 10 most visited websites, and gave it its first substantial publicity outside America.

==Essjay Scandal==

==Essjay Scandal==

The need to appoint a "Catholic expert" arose in the fall of 2006 when misinformation in the hit piece on [[Paul Weyrich]] and the [[Free Congress Foundation]] was pointed out by a friend of Weyrich.  Weyrich was being targeted as a right-wing "theocratic dominionist" who wanted to bring back slavery and burn witch's at the stake. [http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200505020944.asp]  Wikipedia's entry on [[Dominionism]] up front defines it as, "a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism." [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dominionism&diff=83649766&oldid=83640075] When Weyrich's friend exposed the flaw in Wikipedia's expert reasoning and sources, demonstating Weyrich is Catholic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Paul_Weyrich#Inaccurate_information], Weyrich's friend subsequently recieved a Community ban. [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=7075]  In early 2007, Jimbo Wales appointed a "Catholic expert" then to cover the gap.

The need to appoint a "Catholic expert" arose in the fall of 2006 when misinformation in the hit piece on [[Paul Weyrich]] and the [[Free Congress Foundation]] was pointed out by a friend of Weyrich.  Weyrich was being targeted as a right-wing "theocratic dominionist" who wanted to bring back slavery and burn witch's at the stake. [http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200505020944.asp]  Wikipedia's entry on [[Dominionism]] up front defines it as, "a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism." [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dominionism&diff=83649766&oldid=83640075] When Weyrich's friend exposed the flaw in Wikipedia's expert reasoning and sources, demonstrating Weyrich is Catholic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Paul_Weyrich#Inaccurate_information], Weyrich's friend subsequently received a Community ban. [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=7075]  In early 2007, Jimbo Wales appointed a "Catholic expert" then to cover the gap.

In January Wikipedia critic Daniel Brandt discovered that a prominent Wikipedia administrator, bureaucrat and arbitrator nicknamed Essjay has lied <ref>[http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/essjay.html Essjay/Archive/52 recovered by Brandt for posterity]</ref>  on Wikipedia and in phone interviews with ''The New Yorker'' magazine about his age, job, background, and academic credentials<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6423659.stm</ref>.  Essjay, who later identified himself as Ryan Jordan and who was an employee at Wikia Inc. funded by Jimbo Wales, had claimed to be a 40 year old homosexual, holding doctoral degrees in theology and canon law and is a tenured professor at a private university; but he was in fact a 24 years old community college dropout [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=22351] from Kentucky. This fraud was reported by ABC, BBC and many other major news organizations.  Jimbo Wales upon learning of this incident, stated: "I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it."<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact</ref>

In January Wikipedia critic Daniel Brandt discovered that a prominent Wikipedia administrator, bureaucrat and arbitrator nicknamed Essjay has lied <ref>[http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/essjay.html Essjay/Archive/52 recovered by Brandt for posterity]</ref>  on Wikipedia and in phone interviews with ''The New Yorker'' magazine about his age, job, background, and academic credentials<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6423659.stm</ref>.  Essjay, who later identified himself as Ryan Jordan and who was an employee at Wikia Inc. funded by Jimbo Wales, had claimed to be a 40 year old homosexual, holding doctoral degrees in theology and canon law and is a tenured professor at a private university; but he was in fact a 24 years old community college dropout [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=22351] from Kentucky. This fraud was reported by ABC, BBC and many other major news organizations.  Jimbo Wales upon learning of this incident, stated: "I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it."<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact</ref>

The first public notice occured on Wikipedia Review, a critic's forum frequented by Brandt and several other prominent Wikipedians, including many who have been blocked from editing Wikipedia.  Brandt pointed out as early as July 2006 [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=12701] that "something... doesn't add up" regarding Essjay's claim of being a college professor despite editing Wikipedia as much as 16 hours per day.  One of the site's administrators posted on Jan. 11, 2007 regarding Essjay's hiring by Wikia after noticing that Jordan's "Essjay" account on Uncyclopedia (a Wikia-owned site) had been changed to include the "Staff" reference, normally given only to paid Wikia employees. The "Essjay" user page on Wikia had been posted, along with the name "Ryan Jordan," on Jan. 7, 2007 - with no explanation given for why Essjay would leave a tenured faculty position to work as a Community Manager for Wikia. The situation quickly became the subject of increasing speculation by the Wikipedia Review forum members, of whom Brandt was the most skeptical.

The first public notice occurred on Wikipedia Review, a critic's forum frequented by Brandt and several other prominent Wikipedians, including many who have been blocked from editing Wikipedia.  Brandt pointed out as early as July 2006 [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=12701] that "something... doesn't add up" regarding Essjay's claim of being a college professor despite editing Wikipedia as much as 16 hours per day.  One of the site's administrators posted on Jan. 11, 2007 regarding Essjay's hiring by Wikia after noticing that Jordan's "Essjay" account on Uncyclopedia (a Wikia-owned site) had been changed to include the "Staff" reference, normally given only to paid Wikia employees. The "Essjay" user page on Wikia had been posted, along with the name "Ryan Jordan," on Jan. 7, 2007 - with no explanation given for why Essjay would leave a tenured faculty position to work as a Community Manager for Wikia. The situation quickly became the subject of increasing speculation by the Wikipedia Review forum members, of whom Brandt was the most skeptical.

Later, the same administrator posted further details [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=20992] of discrepancies between Jordan's Wikia user page and his Wikipedia user page on January 19th, after Jordan added still more personal-background information to his Wikia user page that bore little similarity to the credentials he had claimed on Wikipedia since April of 2005.

Later, the same administrator posted further details [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2778&view=findpost&p=20992] of discrepancies between Jordan's Wikia user page and his Wikipedia user page on January 19th, after Jordan added still more personal-background information to his Wikia user page that bore little similarity to the credentials he had claimed on Wikipedia since April of 2005.

==Daniel Brandt controversy==

==Daniel Brandt controversy==

Brandt wrote in 1991 of [[Political Research Associates]] (PRA), such a group  will "generally inbreed with their adversaries and mutate into a peculiar political animal". [http://www.namebase.org/news02.html] By mid 2005, precisely these type of activities of PRA described by Brandt were pervasive in the politcal sphere in Wikipedia.  SlimVirgin, who is reputed to be former [[JFK]] [[White House]] Press Secretary [[Pierre Salinger]]'s chief researcher Linda Mack [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=3910&st=0&p=15170&#entry15170] when the two worked together for ''ABC News'' in the 1980s, was asked by PRA's Senior Researcher [[Chip Berlet]] [http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10352] to sanitize Brandt's criticism of Berlet and PRA from all of Wikipedia.  SlimVirgin, who wrote most of Wikipedia's Attribtution policies, rewrote the Reliable Source policy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Workshop#Request_of_finding_for_ex_post_facto_policy_changes] which at the time would have banned Berlet as a source ''for any article'' in Wikipedia because of Berlet's extreme views published over the years in various extremist publications.  Before she was through, she created the Daniel Brandt bio ''citing Berlet as a source'' to accuse Brandt of a false and malicious guilt by association smear -- aligned with Holocaust deniers.  Brandt, having been smeared by the cabal of Berlet & SlimVirgin, with the rewritten policy could no longer be used as a critic of Berlet or PRA, on the basis of him being aligned with extremists.

Brandt wrote in 1991 of [[Political Research Associates]] (PRA), such a group  will "generally inbreed with their adversaries and mutate into a peculiar political animal". [http://www.namebase.org/news02.html] By mid 2005, precisely these type of activities of PRA described by Brandt were pervasive in the political sphere in Wikipedia.  SlimVirgin, who is reputed to be former [[JFK]] [[White House]] Press Secretary [[Pierre Salinger]]'s chief researcher Linda Mack [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=3910&st=0&p=15170&#entry15170] when the two worked together for ''ABC News'' in the 1980s, was asked by PRA's Senior Researcher [[Chip Berlet]] [http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10352] to sanitize Brandt's criticism of Berlet and PRA from all of Wikipedia.  SlimVirgin, who wrote most of Wikipedia's Attribution policies, rewrote the Reliable Source policy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Workshop#Request_of_finding_for_ex_post_facto_policy_changes] which at the time would have banned Berlet as a source ''for any article'' in Wikipedia because of Berlet's extreme views published over the years in various extremist publications.  Before she was through, she created the Daniel Brandt bio ''citing Berlet as a source'' to accuse Brandt of a false and malicious guilt by association smear -- aligned with Holocaust deniers.  Brandt, having been smeared by the cabal of Berlet & SlimVirgin, with the rewritten policy could no longer be used as a critic of Berlet or PRA, on the basis of him being aligned with extremists.

Brandt had for many months posted the real life identities of several Wikipedia Administrators on his wikipedia-watch.org/hivemind.html site because in Brandt's view Wikipedia not only allows, but encourages, the unfair invasion of a public person's privacy by anonymous Wikipedia Sysop smearmongers.  [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=063d220bf3cf1aeeb502a12236fa8f1e&showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=&#entry21441]

Brandt had for many months posted the real life identities of several Wikipedia Administrators on his wikipedia-watch.org/hivemind.html site because in Brandt's view Wikipedia not only allows, but encourages, the unfair invasion of a public person's privacy by anonymous Wikipedia Sysop smearmongers.  [http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=063d220bf3cf1aeeb502a12236fa8f1e&showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=&#entry21441]