Wikipedia Sucks!

This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame Jews for their own persecution, and inflate Jewish collaboration with the Nazis. To explain how distortionist editors have succeeded in imposing this narrative, despite the efforts of opposing editors to correct it, we employ an innovative methodology. We examine 25 public-facing Wikipedia articles and nearly 300 of Wikipedia’s back pages, including talk pages, noticeboards, and arbitration cases. We complement these with interviews of editors in the field and statistical data gleaned through Wikipedia’s tool suites. This essay contributes to the study of Holocaust memory, revealing the digital mechanisms by which ideological zeal, prejudice, and bias trump reason and historical accuracy. More broadly, we break new ground in the field of the digital humanities, modelling an in-depth examination of how Wikipedia editors negotiate and manufacture information for the rest of the world to consume.

Ognistysztorm wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 10, 2023 4:27 am

Volunteer Marek had taken to Twitter to bicker with the authors of the article, alleging that globally banned user Icewhiz had written parts if not all of it. Eric can you pull out any relevant details from the book wiki regarding Volunteer Marek and Icewhiz?

The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an extermination camp operating a giant gas chamber inside a tunnel near Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_concentration_camp

SkepticalHistorian wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:42 pm

Haha, this “Holocaust in Poland” incident is potentially being arbitrated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... _in_Poland

Reliable sources (revisionists, aka Holocaust deniers) proved the gas chamber there was phony.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_co ... camp_story

Would this inspire other concentration camp gas chamber investigations?

SkepticalHistorian wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:57 am

The part about the gas chamber in a railway tunnel made a lot of sense.

The theory, refuted by mainstream historians, contends that KL Warschau was an extermination camp operating a giant gas chamber inside a tunnel near Warszawa Zachodnia railroad station and that 200,000 mainly non-Jewish Poles were gassed there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_concentration_camp

Could have used the exhaust from a coal-fired locomotive such as has happened here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balvano_train_disaster

Icewhiz wrote a user page about the Warsaw concentration camp conspiracy theory: How Wikipedia promoted Holocaust distortion for 15 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Icew ... acy_theory

Grabowsky & Klein 2023 wrote: Piotrus, an editor since 2004,Footnote205 researchs Wikipedia for a living – he has identified himself as Piotr Konieczny, associate professor of Communications at Hanyang University in South Korea.

JASIST wrote: Piotr Konieczny
piokon@post.pl
Hanyang University ERICA Campus
Department of Information Sociology, Room 210
55 Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, 426-791 Korea

Piotr Konieczny wrote: Teaching with Wikipedia in a 21st-century classroom: Perceptions of Wikipedia and its educational benefits

This article explores the current perception of Wikipedia in academia, focusing on both the reasons for its unpopularity among some and the reasons for its growing acceptance among others. First, the reasons that Wikipedia is still struggling to gain acceptance among many academics and higher education professionals are identified. These include common misconceptions about Wikipedia, doubts about its quality, uneasiness with the challenge that it poses to the traditional peer-review system, and a lack of career-enhancing motivations related to using Wikipedia. Second, the benefits of teaching with Wikipedia for educators, students, and the wider society, as discussed in the current teaching literature, are explored. Finally, the article presents an argument for using Wikipedia in a variety of ways to help students develop critical and academic writing skills.

Piotr Konieczny wrote: I think this demonstrates how Wikipedia can potentially replace traditional textbooks or book chapters. I am not saying Wikipedia articles can replace an in-depth book, but they sure can replace a 20-30 page-long biographical chapter on the significance of a historical figure’s life.

Grabowsky & Klein 2023 wrote: Volunteer Marek, who has identified himself in the past as Radek Szulga, associate professor of economics at Lyon College, resorts to offensive language as a matter of course.

Lyon College wrote: Dr. Radek Szulga
Associate Professor of Economics
Office 331 located in the Lyon Business and Economics Building
870.307.7209 | radek.szulga@lyon.edu

smartbackgroundcheck wrote: Radoslaw S Szulga
1355 Dogwood Dr
Batesville, AR 72501
(530) 204-8358

Piotr Konieczny
piokon@post.pl
Hanyang University ERICA Campus
Department of Information Sociology, Room 210
55 Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, 426-791 Korea

Grabowsky & Klein 2023 wrote: Volunteer Marek, who has identified himself in the past as Radek Szulga, associate professor of economics at Lyon College, resorts to offensive language as a matter of course.

Lyon College wrote: Dr. Radek Szulga
Associate Professor of Economics
Office 331 located in the Lyon Business and Economics Building
870.307.7209 | radek.szulga@lyon.edu