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Wikipedia Editor Out After False Credentials Revealed
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
By James Doran
E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
NEW YORK — Wikipedia, the controversial online encyclopedia, is planning to ask its army of faceless Internet editors — known as Wikipedians — to verify their credentials after one of the most prolific of their number was exposed as a fraud.
The online reference work was dealt a serious blow last week as it emerged that EssJay, a Wikipedia editor understood by the site and its users to be a tenured professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law, was in fact a 24-year-old from Kentucky called Ryan Jordan with no higher educational qualifications to speak of.
What is more, Mr. Jordan's expertise and dedication to the site seemed so great that he was given a full-time job at another company run by Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder.
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After initially ignoring the problem, Mr. Wales has since asked Mr. Jordan to resign from Wikia, the Internet company he controls, and has removed him from the Wikipedia Web site.
Wikipedia has come under fire from all sides amid claims that much of its content is unreliable and prone to Internet vandals who deliberately print false information on the Web site.
Didn't any of ever notice the tab in Wikipedia that says "Edit this Page?" See [red]sample here[/red]. Well, to be honest, I never did either!
Turns out YOU can edit and delete and modify ANY term in Wikipedia at any time to be anything YOU want ... with no vetting of the info. Outrageous ... !
__________________ [red]MISS TEAK[/red], 25' Parker mod-V Sport Cabin "Life's too short to own an ugly boat ..." www.classicparker.com
The whole concept of Wikipedia is, in fact, the common editing capacity. The theory is that if you find something that you can improve, you just do it. Of course, it is possible that mis-information is uploaded, either accidentally or deliberately but since it can always be edited again, the theory is that the good and correct will eventually prevail, as people with commitment and knowledge take a constructive interest in a section that they can provide valuable input for. If you think about it, the theory (notice how many times I have said "theory" so far) is actually very good - and for most of Wikipedia it works. Of course, when you find someone with bad intentions who continues to insert poor information, no matter how many times someone else corrects it, there is the risk that the good person will get tired before the bad one. But the concept of sharing information for common good is pretty neat - kind of what we try to do here on THT. Right?
yeah, I agree with all that. I have seen Snopes and Wikipedia used to support various arguments and discussions online. I guess until just now, I didnt realize someone with a devious mind could change things in Wikipedia and it would get printed as gospel. Now I know. cant trust it.
Yea, how would one know that at any given time the information wasn't correct. It seems like it would take several visits to the same topic to be sure.
What you all say is true but at least Wikopedia doesn't have any hidden agenda. If you really want to see the dangers of people with an agenda pretending to provide facts check out the new pretend "alternative"
Didn't any of ever notice the tab in Wikipedia that says "Edit this Page?" See [red]sample here[/red]. Well, to be honest, I never did either!
Turns out YOU can edit and delete and modify ANY term in Wikipedia at any time to be anything YOU want ... with no vetting of the info. Outrageous ... !
What you all say is true but at least Wikopedia doesn't have any hidden agenda. If you really want to see the dangers of people with an agenda pretending to provide facts check out the new pretend "alternative"
Wikopedia may not have a hidden agenda, but the people who post erroneous and/or misleading information there obviously do.
As the deliberate misinformation posted there is very often politically motivated the end result is exactly the same.
Wikipedia's getting strange 
! 
