Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Does Wikipedia Have a Fever?
McGough's Musings ^ | March 25, 2007 | John J. McGough

Posted on 03/26/2007 7:28:12 PM PDT by WannabeTurk

The recent Essjay brouhaha at Wikipedia has led a lot of denizens there to question whether the encyclopedia that "anyone can edit" is in reality more Second Life than Encyclopedia Britannica. For those of you in a coma during March 2007, Essjay was a long-time contributor to Wikipedia who was eventually promoted by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales to the illustrious arbitration committee -- Wiki's grand tribunal that is the last stop in the dispute resolution process. In other words, Essjay had the final say over what information was real and what information should be included into Wikipedia. Problem was, Essjay, who promoted himself as a Professor of religion with four degrees including a Doctorate in Canon law, was in reality a 24-year-old community college dropout from Kentucky.

Personally, I do not have a problem with creating a new persona for oneself per say, however I do have a problem when that role-playing takes place at the same time you are proclaiming yourselves as a collection of all human knowledge. Unfortunately, it gets even worse. Not only does Wikipedia claim to be a repository of the world's collective intelligence, but it also claims with a straight face to have an army of volunteers that allegedly scour the site for vandalism and false information. This is an exaggeration at the very least. When a web site cannot even vet their own administrators, how are we supposed to believe they can successfully vet 1.7 million articles each and every day? Simple answer: They can't.

As it stands now, there are only 1,156 administrators at Wikipedia and only 849 of them are considered active. That means there is one active administrator for every 2009 articles at Wikipedia. Good luck fighting vandalism or point of view warriors in that kind of environment.

(Excerpt) Read more at mcgoughsmusings.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: dysfunctional; essjay; fraud; godsgravesglyphs; wikipedia

1 posted on 03/26/2007 7:28:14 PM PDT by WannabeTurk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: WannabeTurk
I learned about Wacky-pedia when a libtard challenged me on some point and cited them as a source. I followed the link and read their pitiful excuse for an encyclopedia. I soon discovered that anyone could write any damn crap they wanted to. So I altered the page (I think we were arguing about the origins of fascism). A few days later I discovered he had changed it back. After a few back & forths the admins "froze" the page (naturally while it recited his revisionist crap).

I've softened on Wacky-pedia since, but consider it more of a joke than anything else.

Wouldn't hurt my feelings none if it were to bite the big one...
2 posted on 03/26/2007 8:04:04 PM PDT by rockrr (Never argue with a man who buys ammo in bulk...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Berosus; Cincinatus' Wife; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; Fedora; ..
Ping!
3 posted on 03/26/2007 10:51:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 24, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

4 posted on 03/26/2007 10:51:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 24, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rockrr; SunkenCiv

Do you think it would do any good to promote alterative wikis, like Conservapedia?

http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page


5 posted on 03/27/2007 2:47:13 AM PDT by Berosus ("There is no beauty like Jerusalem, no wealth like Rome, no depravity like Arabia."--the Talmud)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Berosus
Since Google will always suppress traffic to conservative web sources, it would be better to take on the wiki-wacky-pedia editing as a fulltime job. ;') The alternative is to continue to ridicule Google for doing so until they change their policy -- and remember, they deny they have any such policy, even though a trip to their "news" search engine results proclaims it every minute of every day.
6 posted on 03/27/2007 7:42:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 24, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Berosus
Would it do any good? Sure. The more the merrier. But does it do anything to resolve the root problem? I think not.

The root problem, IMNSHO, is rampant liberalism. Throughout history there has been conflict. The winner if those exchanges got to write the accounts of the conflicts. That became our collective history. That may be an oversimplification, but it remains a valid thumbnail of how we as a species have tracked our progress.

Until now.

Advances in our civilization have made it possible for a leisure class to prosper. This group are consumers, not producers. No, that's not quite true. They do produce....rhetoric! Traditionally society has regarded this sort of "citizen" appropriately: as slackers and as village idiots. We've tolerated them as long as they didn't get in the way of real men doing real business. When they did get in the way, they got stepped on. In the cruel, intemperate real world of old, liberals didn't survive many winters...

Unfortunately, the "wussification" of society has allowed liberals to flourish (picture a plague of rats). They found places where their singular byproduct - bullsh!t - can be marketed - newspapers and the education system. In these occupations they are positioned to perform their most insidious and diabolical scheme - the rewriting of history. They are actively erasing the names, places and events that don't advance their agenda, and creating, embellishing, and distorting the ones that do.

Words have meaning, but who controls the words, controls those meanings. Liberals are working overtime to control the words!

So let me bring it home (yes, I know I went way long on this!). By creating alternate brain-trusts instead of forcing the liberals to toe the line, we abrogate control of those assets to them. I have no intention of ever ceding ground to any liberal....ever! FMCDH!

We are experiencing a cultural balkanization in America. Conservatives have largely abandoned newspapers and the alphabet news channels because we recognize that they are hopelessly (and hopefully mortally) biased against us.

The libtards look at the most unbiased of news sources (which isn't saying much!) - Fox News - and deride it as a "tool of the VRW". We no longer trust or accept each others sources. We no longer believe what the other is saying. I have come to a firm conclusion that the only trust that I can have in a liberal is the trust that they will screw me & mine if given half a chance.

So, go ahead and develop the Conservapedia's. But don't abandon our history to the libs - that's like giving a drunken teenager the keys to your car!
7 posted on 03/27/2007 9:52:11 AM PDT by rockrr (Never argue with a man who buys ammo in bulk...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: rockrr

The Situation:

Wikipedia , http://www.wikipedia.com , describes itself as “ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” It also claims to be unbiased, objective, formal, scholarly, and generally as reliable as any other encyclopedia . None of these assertions are true. I have diligently tried to correct blatant falsehoods, supplement with other perspectives or well-documented sets of facts, and write other articles presenting those facts. All have been rejected.

The Challenge:

Go to Wikipedia and search out your favorite movie star, politician, minister, historical hero, singer, historical event, religion/philosophy, etc. If you see non-factual material, attempt to edit it. If you run into the same run around that I did, proceed to the next section below.

The Plan:

Return to Wikipedia frequently editing as many radomn articles as possible with anything and everything. It matters not if it is nonsensical or legitimate. Messages about their blatant editorial bias would be especially helpful. Continue doing this while passing these instructions onto others.


8 posted on 04/07/2007 4:30:14 PM PDT by DBCJR (What would you expect?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson