Random funny comment on the Essjay situation

From Rcade's blog:

Bureaucracy's engrained so deep in Wikipedia that there's an official job called Bureaucrat. Twenty-three people have attained this level, a heady rush that must be similar to how I felt when my magic-user reached 22,501 experience points and became a Thaumaturgist before he was eaten by a bulette.

So captures the spirit of the Wikipedia MMORPG.

RealtyExecutives.com brags about WikiSpamming

This press release from RealtyExecutives.com is basically them bragging about their success at spamming Wikipedia.

I haven't looked to see if the article is still on Wikipedia; I just find it amusing that the press release reads like these people got their content through some sort of arduous approval process.

If only all spammers would announce their spaminations!

Why Jimmy Wales must dismiss Ryan Jordan from the ArbCom

From the comments at metafilter:

I've never edited on Wikipedia, but just earlier today I stumbled on a page with blatant errors and further questionable information (I need to research). I only noticed the errors because the article is related to the material I've worked with since the 80s. It's factual data, not subject to interpretation. Most people would read it and accept it as truth. Stealthy bad info is evil.

I'm swamped with work right now. Still, I was considering finding the hour or two it would take to research and do a thorough job of fixing that article (properly referenced to real, peer-reviewed publications). Hell, if I needed help I could even call one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet about that subject – a PhD well known in his field – who I've known and worked with for nearly twenty years.

I have no interest in becoming a regular Wiki editor and all of the ego games that seem to come with that. I'm just a person with some specific knowledge to contribute and the resources to do a good job. But after this shit I really don't feel like volunteering my time. I've got real publications to work on. If one of the PhDs I work with turned out to be a fraud, they'd never be allowed to publish through professional channels again.

If Jordan doesn't resign, and Wales doesn't force him to, this could very well spell the end of the reign of the godking; Jimmy's just about used up the last of his cred. Then again, that might not be such a bad thing. Maybe it's time to start soliciting donations for the fork.

Another pertinent comment, again from metafilter:

I have to say, finding out a senior editor was lying through his teeth doesn't bother me much. Having the stalwart leader of the organization say "eh, whatever" though -- that does not bode well.

Wales had a good idea and made it work, but like most entrepreneurs he is ill equipped to run a large and stable organization. There will come a time (perhaps there already has) when the best thing he can do for the future of Wikipedia will be to step aside. I wonder if he'll muster the grace to do it?

More on certain fraudulent Wikipedians

There's some interesting new evidence in relation to Ryan Jordan. Specifically, this edit -- one of Essjay's very first edits -- in which he refers to "his students" and his "Ph.D." (neither of which ever existed). It's quite clear that Essjay invented this persona before he even started editing Wikipedia under the Essjay identity. I cannot, at this time, believe that he created this identity merely to protect his anonymity, as many have suggested. No, no, this was, from its onset, a direct, deliberate fraud.

I still don't understand why Mr. Jordan did this. Perhaps it was social engineer, or simply attention seeking. Whatever it was, however, it was quite thoroughly immoral and unethical of him, and he should be quite ashamed of himself. From his "apology", however, it's quite clear that he's not. One wonders if the fact that his fictitious boyfriend "Robbie" (presumably Essjay's sockpuppet) voted for Essjay on his own RfB will have any effect: normally, the penalty for this sort of vote fraud is a lengthy block and a revocation of all privileges. It's something of a surprise to me that Essjay hasn't oversighted these edits yet.

However, this really shouldn't be about Mr. Jordan. It's not. His problems are real and quite sad and problematic, but that's not the real issue. The real issue here is that Jimmy Wales, despite being aware that Mr. Jordan had put all this energy into creating such an elaborate deception and foisted it off on the Wikipedia Community for nearly two years, nonetheless doesn't "really have a problem with it" (for more context, see this randomly-select blog article). Apparently Mr. Wales doesn't give a shit if his contributors pass themselves off as things they're not, even when representing Wikipedia in the media, lie to him and to everyone else, and generally treat Wikipedia as if it were their giant personal plaything. (Yes, I know, it really is Wales' personal plaything. Maybe he just doesn't mind sharing his toys.) I can only hope that Wales was merely uninformed as to the truth depth of Jordan's deception, and, now that it's no doubt harassing his cell phone continuously, as the media are all trying to get comments from him (hey, anybody want his cell phone number? I have it somewhere! haha, just kidding), he will presumably have enough sense to realize that he really does have to hang Jordan out to dry if he wants to retain any sense of dignity and respectability for Wikipedia.

The only other downside to this is that I'm almost certainly not going to get any sort of timely action on my efforts to get Wales to put an end to publishing libel about me on Wikipedia. I poked him last night on this issue, and he hasn't replied, but of course he's way too busy to deal with the likes of me. Oh well. Nobody believes anything they read on Wikipedia anyway.

Larry Sanger proven right about Wikipedia

Larry Sanger has long argued that Wikipedia is anti-intellectual. And, sadly, he has been proven right, by Jimbo's recent fiat appointment of Essjay to the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee. This person, who apparently lied to the Wikipedia community -- and to the New Yorker (scroll to bottom for editor's note about Essjay's deceptions) -- for months about basically every aspect of his identity, including his academic credentials. Amongst the lies Essjay told is that he was a leading scholar in Roman Catholicism. Jimbo -- and much of the Wikipedia community, apparently -- has apparently chosen to forgive Essjay his deceits and appointed Essjay to the Arbitration Committee, where Essjay will be called upon to decide if other editors are behaving in a manner which is beneficial to the project.

Quite frankly, a man who would lie about his academic credentials, and then use those credentials to add undue weight to his own opinions in debate on Wikipedia, does not deserve to even be allowed to edit Wikipedia, let alone sit in judgment over those who do. For examples of where Essjay has done this, see this comment (about Catholic Confession), this comment (about another aspect of Catholicism), this comment (about another Christian topic), and this comment (another Catholic topic). Essjay has no more right to claim to be a scholar of Christianity (and certainly not "Wikipedia's leading scholar on Catholicism"!) than I do, and yet his totally inexpert opinion has been given undue weight because of his lies. It is a travesty that he holds a position of high authority in this community; that he does certainly has a great deal to say about how little the Wikipedia community cares about writing a factually accurate encyclopedia.

I confess that I liked Essjay when I knew him, and in general his judgment was, in my experience, reasonably good. However, I shall never be able to trust him again, not after finding out the extent to which he lied to the Wikipedia community, to others, and (most importantly, from my point of view), to me. The best interpretation of this entire situation is that Essjay created a false identity to preserve his anonymity and then got caught up in it. However, if you want a false identity to protect yourself, that's fine, but don't elaborate it with false claims intended to puff up your own authority and prominence.

Over the past few years, a number of people with included false claims on their resumes or CVs have lost academic leadership posts (for example, Eugene R. Kole, former President of Quincy University, who resigned when two of the degrees he listed in his biography were found to be fictitious). It is startling and telling that Essjay, after revealing similiar lies, is not only not censured, but in fact elevated to one of the highest positions of responsibility that Wikipedia has. Clearly Jimbo has decided to demonstrate just how much unlike academicia Wikipedia is.

Update: Apparently Slashdot is talking about this now. Also, there's an apology (if you can call it that) on Essjay's user talk page at enwiki. I especially like the "If I leave Wikipedia, the terrorists will win" at the bottom. Nice.

2nd update: This is apparently a hot topic on the blogs. See, for example, Freakonomics, Blog World, Infothought, and Rough Type, just for starters.

3rd update: Not only is this getting even more blog play (MetaFilter, Digg, XODP, and Larry Sanger; see also Technorati), but the mainstream tech media is also starting to get involved. This is going to get ugly fast.