Why We Hate Wikipedia / Ten things you probably didn't know about Wikipedia

[Lir]

There was a scandal years ago where Jimmy used the Wikipedia debit card on vacation in Moscow, buying expensive liquor, lap dances, and call girls. That was money donated by people to help the site, but Jimbo is a textbook narcissist.

[Bbb23sucks]

There was a scandal years ago where Jimmy used the Wikipedia debit card on vacation in Moscow, buying expensive liquor, lap dances, and call girls. That was money donated by people to help the site, but Jimbo is a textbook narcissist.

Yeah I know. There was a thread somewhere I think.

[NadirAli]

Jimmy Wales not running it doesn't worsen it.

He's a hypocrite as it is. He claimed in an Interview "We're an open democracy."

Apparently the guy hasn't even read his own policies. Even besides that, he's corrupt head to toe. He was alleged to have offered edits for donations.

Can't really trust him. Sorry Jimbo.

[badmachine]

There was a scandal years ago where Jimmy used the Wikipedia debit card on vacation in Moscow, buying expensive liquor, lap dances, and call girls. That was money donated by people to help the site, but Jimbo is a textbook narcissist.

Yeah I know. There was a thread somewhere I think.

lotsa luck finding it. idk whether google is censoring it or whether wikipediareview has added noindex to their site. for its part, wikipedia review has removed its search capability.

Sorry, the administrator has taken the search engine offline for the moment. Please try again later

but it was a big deal at the time. maybe someone has an archive of it somewhere.

[Bbb23sucks]

There was a scandal years ago where Jimmy used the Wikipedia debit card on vacation in Moscow, buying expensive liquor, lap dances, and call girls. That was money donated by people to help the site, but Jimbo is a textbook narcissist.

Yeah I know. There was a thread somewhere I think.

lotsa luck finding it. idk whether google is censoring it or whether wikipediareview has added noindex to their site. for its part, wikipedia review has removed its search capability.

Sorry, the administrator has taken the search engine offline for the moment. Please try again later

but it was a big deal at the time. maybe someone has an archive of it somewhere.

I've been thinking about making a Wikipedia Review archive for a long time. Do you know anyone who might have the some iteration of the database? I tried contacting the zordrac guy, but he disappeared right before I did.

Also, I think the thread (at least the one I read) was either here or on WPO.

[ericbarbour]

He was alleged to have offered edits for donations.

Not "alleged", "PROVABLE". Google/Alphabet employees enjoy "special non-defamatory treatment" on WP to this day. Similar things have happened for BLPs of prominent Wikipedia fans, including the founders of Creative Commons, Sunlight Foundation, Berkman Center, Knight Foundation, Craig Newmark and Craigslist, etc.

[badmachine]

I've been thinking about making a Wikipedia Review archive for a long time. Do you know anyone who might have the some iteration of the database?

i wish. maybe Eric has archives or at least links

as for the wmf credit card, there are indeed threads that mention it on wpo but the scandal[?] seems to originate from Danny Wool's blog.

but the wpo threads contain links like this one that mentions the !scandal:
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/wikip ... ds3ve.html

[Daniel Brandt]

There are a few good posts on this forum about the activities of SlimVirgin, but I didn't see much on the Essjay scandal. The link below shows some information about Essjay, who wanted to participate in this new adventure.

As I recall, his real name was revealed when some Wikipedia hotshots were contemplating a Wikipedia spinoff involving some present and former admins. They were considering what was needed to incorporate legally. In the course of discussing this, Essjay's real name was revealed.

When I noticed this discussion on another forum, I blew the whistle on Essjay's real name by using my fax machine to notify The New Yorker. Essjay had made up all those fancy titles concerning his high-level contacts and activities with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and his extremely-impressive academic credentials.. The New Yorker was embarrassed, and they spilled the beans in an editor's note in the next issue.

https://www.conservapedia.com/Wikipedia ... ontroversy

[gnngl]

There are a few good posts on this forum about the activities of SlimVirgin, but I didn't see much on the Essjay scandal. The link below shows some information about Essjay, who wanted to participate in this new adventure.

As I recall, his real name was revealed when some Wikipedia hotshots were contemplating a Wikipedia spinoff involving some present and former admins. They were considering what was needed to incorporate legally. In the course of discussing this, Essjay's real name was revealed.

When I noticed this discussion on another forum, I blew the whistle on Essjay's real name by using my fax machine to notify The New Yorker. Essjay had made up all those fancy titles concerning his high-level contacts and activities with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and his extremely-impressive academic credentials.. The New Yorker was embarrassed, and they spilled the beans in an editor's note in the next issue.

https://www.conservapedia.com/Wikipedia ... ontroversy

Conservapedia, the highly reliable source...

[ericbarbour]

There are a few good posts on this forum about the activities of SlimVirgin, but I didn't see much on the Essjay scandal.

Agreed. That was the day Wikipedia's near-vertical participation growth started to falter. It was an inauspicious scandal for the "Magical Encyclopedia That Cannot Be Wrong" or whatever you want to call the damn thing.

The problem with documenting Essjay is: we have far TOO MUCH info on the book wiki. Up to 96k bytes, making it one of the longest articles. Too long to post on a forum. Loads of now-dated drivel, mostly about Jimbo fucking up and trying to apologize. Wikipedians love to rage type at each other. Most of it is unreadable.

The list of things Essjay did "for" Wikipedia is long and disturbing.

1. Jimbo installed him on everything, usually without consultation, and only Jimbo can accept the ultimate blame.
2. You can thank Essjay for starting the "Countervandalism Unit", thus ushering in the era of the "patroller", who today has great political power on WP while not actually making content. Or doing anything else of real value.
3. Essjay gave us the "Esperanza" thing, which failed horribly.
4. Essjay's conduct showed quite clearly that Wikipedia nerds would accept any level of lying, prevarication, and manipulation, in return for their "powerz". Just like any good little cult.
5. And in spite of all that scandal, Jimbo Bimbo turned right around and hired Essjay to work at Wikia.

The archives of Essjay's talkpage are full of horrors, and also full of oversighted revisions, so you don't even get to see the real horrors. Lots of squabbling was obliterated by persons unknown. This was the last revision before it was cleared out, and the assholes tried editwarring it:

curprev 20:32, 5 March 2007‎ Thatcher talk contribs‎ m 1,897 bytes 0‎ Protected User talk:Essjay: find somewhere else to discuss the implications of these events; serious concerns exist but Essjay's talk page is not in projectspace and is not a forum for addressing them [edit=sysop:move=sysop]
curprev 20:30, 5 March 2007‎ Thatcher talk contribs‎ 1,897 bytes −56,023‎ Enough! If Essjay was here he would have the right to delete comments as he saw fit; just because he is gone is not an acceptable reason to leave this here
curprev 20:27, 5 March 2007‎ Munta talk contribs‎ 57,920 bytes +56,023‎ ←Undid revision 112886238 by Hipocrite (talk)Stop removing content premiturely and without concensus
curprev 20:26, 5 March 2007‎ Hipocrite talk contribs‎ 1,897 bytes −56,023‎ per agreement down at the bottom, blanking

If I see that "I have been for several days in a remote part of India with little or no Internet access" quote from Jimbo once more, I will vomit.