Joe Szilagyi » Wikipedia

Feed

All articles in category: "Stupid,Wikipedia"

Wikipedia COO was convicted felon

Dec 14th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Just when it can’t get any stupider. Carolyn Doran, Wikipedia’s now former Chief Operating Officer, is a felon.

For more than six months, beginning in January of this year, Wikipedia’s million-dollar check book was balanced by a convicted felon.

When Carolyn Bothwell Doran was hired as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation, she had a criminal record in three other states – Virginia, Maryland, and Texas – and she was still on parole for a DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) hit and run that resulted in a fatality.

Her record also included convictions for passing bad checks, theft, petty larceny, additional DUIs, and unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gun shot to the chest.

Much more in the article. Wikinews, Wikipedia’s own news service, even has an article called “Chief Operating Officer of Wikimedia Foundation was convicted felon“.

UPDATE 7am 12-14-07: It’s on Digg now. Still hasn’t crossed major news media besides Yahoo! UK news here, but it just broke late last night Pacific time. If this gets wide coverage, it will be a few days, because other news sources will need to review it. If it hits a wire service like AP or Reuters, it’s all over.

Stupid, Wikipedia
Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah’s Traverse Mountain

Dec 7th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Via Digg: “We aren’t democratic.” That’s how Wikipedia founder Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales described his famously-collaborative online encyclopedia in a recent puff piece from The New York Times Magazine. “The core community appreciates when someone is knowledgeable,” he said, “and thinks some people are idiots and shouldn’t be writing.”

read more | digg story

Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s secret mail lists 2

Dec 4th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

As an addendum to this post, about Wikipedia’s secret harassment mail lists, it looks like the genie is well and truly out of the bottle now. It’s getting posted on blogs non-stop, and that means that there is a good 50/50 shot that it will hit the mainstream media. Once that happens, its going to get a bit ugly for Lise Diane Broer, Jimmy Wales, and Wikipedia in the press spin department.

On top of all that, it gets better. Read this. It appears that Lise Diane Broer, who can be seen in this YouTube interview about Wikipedia, leaked the name of a Congressional staffer that edited Wikipedia, and the man was fired. Lise Diane Broer, aka Durova, is the admin that was part of the secret list that was used to harass and cyber-stalk real people, and was the main admin in the Register story that blew this latest stupid scandal into the public eye.

If you want to see the “secret evidence” that was used to ban a user, go look here. It’s awfully sad and pathetic, for supposedly a person who primped herself up as some Sherlock Holmes of Wikipedia, who was able to ferret out evildoers out to destroy the encyclopedia or some nonsense. For people that have never followed the comedy that is the behind-the-scenes or making-of Wikipedia, it’s a pretty funny ongoing thing to watch. I detached myself from that nonsense ages ago, and don’t regret it. Its too funny not to watch, though. Its almost as good as John Bunnell’s Wildest Police Chases for Nerds.

To read up on this behind the scenes comedy (or tragedy, as people in Real Life Get Hurt By Wikipedia Editors), the best places are:

* http://www.wikipediareview.com
* http://www.wikitruth.info
* http://nonbovine-ruminations.blogspot.com

News, Stupid, Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s secret mail lists

Dec 4th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Oops, looks like they got outted. See the “Criticism of Wikipedia” article, where admin “Jossi” is suppressing mention with troll Chip Berlet‘s assistance of the Register article. Sadly, to get the real story, you need to read external sources such as:

* http://www.wikipediareview.com
* http://www.wikitruth.info

“On-Wiki” they are already in spin control. The best thing about the secret mail list is that it is hosted on Wikia.com servers, the private for-profit company owned by Jimbo Wales, which is legally supposed to be seperate from registered charity the Wikimedia Foundation. Various people have already informed the IRS.

Direct link to The Register article is here. If nothing else, read this news article.

News, Stupid, Wikipedia
Wikipedia finances for FY2006

Sep 5th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Want to read Wikipedia form 990? Backup third party archive here.

Legal stuff, Wikipedia
The Linux Vault, “The Linux Wikipedia”

Sep 3rd 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

The Linux Vault is a new wiki project founded with the mission of creating a centralized GNU/Linux information website. It has been just created, so we are begging everybody to take part of it and make it the place for writing guides, HOW-TO’s, configurations, administration tips, tricks, tweaks or whatever else related to the GNU/Linux system.

read more | digg story

Digg, Nix, Wikipedia
Wikirage: See What’s Hot Now on Wikipedia

Aug 30th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Thanks, Virgil! WikiScanner was first, now WIKIRAGE: “This site lists the pages in Wikipedia which are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Popular people in the news, the latest fads, and the hottest video games can be quickly identified by monitor this social phenomenon.”

…and of course, the things that people fight tooth and nail over, to control the news. You can use this to easily see where the current “edit wars” on Wikipedia are–just look at the last hours’ top items. Crazy. How long until Wikipedia starts hiding editing histories?

read more | digg story

Webjunk, Wikipedia
Wikipedia and conflicts of interest, part 3

Aug 25th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

There’s a fascinating article on Wikipedia Review entitled, “The tight-knit web of Wikimedia and Wikia“. Remember when I mentioned some Wikipedia and Wikia conflicts of interests twice before? Read this paragraph. It’s a load of information, but read it through anyway (don’t just tl;dr it):

Non-profit and for-profit board members and accountants both have fiduciary duties to act in the best interest of their organizations. By various laws and governance principles they have to recuse themselves or avoid involvement when there is a conflict of interest. Even a perceived conflict can be corrosive to governance and is sometimes prohibited because donors and volunteers lose faith. Someone who is on the board of Wikimedia Foundation or prepares its finances and also has a financial stake in Wikia should be very careful about taking positions within Wikimedia properties that could benefit Wikia by directing traffic there, banning things from Wikipedia so as to distinguish it from a commercial site, making Wikipedia less attractive to constituents than Wikia, etc. Actions that seem to raise a conflict might include hiring personnel from the volunteer Foundation to work at the for-profit corporation, installing Wikia, Inc. employees into positions of power within Foundation properties, selectively banning some commercial links while allowing others, travel and speaking engagements for the Foundation that are also used to drum up support for the for-profit venture, etc.

Got it? Now, this section…

(4) The Wikimedia Foundation’s own Form 990 indicates on Line 80 that there is a personnel relationship between Wikia, Inc. and the Foundation. Yet, the Wikipedia article about Wikia, Inc. has been edited to say that “Wikia, Inc. is independent from the Wikimedia Foundation…”

Bold emphasis mine. See where this might be heading? I’m no lawyer, but… from a pure ethical standpoint, I see major problems that websites are denied “Googlejuice” and SEO from Wikipedia’s outbound links, except for companies that have a financial stake with the founders of Wikipedia. Add in that some Wikimedia Foundation board members may be financially benefiting their privately owned, for-profit businesses on the fiscal backs of Wikipedia, which is legally listed as a charity in the state of Florida…? How long until the mainstream media really begins to dig into this? Probably not until everyone starts blogging about it. Not that I would encourage such a thing, mind you.

Click here to read the full article.

Wikipedia
Corporate Networks Continue to Vandalize Wikipedia

Aug 20th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Ever since Wired News first wrote about WikiScanner last week, Internet users have spotted plenty of interesting changes to Wikipedia by people at nonprofit groups and government entities like the Central Intelligence Agency. Many of the most obviously self-interested edits have come from corporate networks. More from the New York Times, now. The jig is up!

read more | digg story

Digg, News, Wikipedia
Wikipedia Employee Doctors Article on Wikipedia Scanner

Aug 17th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Vishal-WMF, an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, has removed evidence from a news story that uncovered that Virgil, the scanner’s creator, was HIRED by the Wikimedia Foundation! News story that was removed by Wikipedia Employee (not admin, EMPLOYEE).

read more | digg story

Digg, Wikipedia
Wikipedia Spin Jobs, part 3

Aug 15th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

And one more, for keeping score. I give this one week before larger mainstream media (CNN, ABC News, etc.) latch onto this and then all hell will absolutely break loose, leading to much hand wringing by Jimbo Wales and general Oh Noes! on Wikipedia. Gee, imagine that? Corporations and governments editing articles to get rid of negative information about them or to slander the competition!

Webjunk, Wikipedia
Wikipedia Spin Jobs, part 2

Aug 15th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Another good article on the whole mess and brilliant idea here by Kristen Nicole.

In what could be considered a sociology experiment, Griffith found that a good portion of edits for company entries are being made by the companies themselves. This isn’t surprising at all–it’s something that’s been speculated upon, and tested on a smaller scale. The team behind Wikipedia is also aware of it, and has been working to deal with issues such as this. Wikipedia’s policies have changed since it’s onset, and the user-generated system has been improved as a result. There is also a new edit-marking system that’s currently being tested on Wikia for possible use on Wikipedia in the future, making it even easier to track changes made to entries.

This is what I mentioned yesterday.

Webjunk, Wikipedia
Better Know A Wikipedian

Aug 15th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Should I, or shouldn’t I…?

Wikipedia
Wikipedia Spin Jobs

Aug 14th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

This is fantastic, and great idea by the programmer.

Caltech graduate student Virgil Griffith just launched an unofficial Wikipedia search tool that threatens to lay bare the ego-editing and anonymous flacking on the site. Enter the name of a corporation, organization or government entity and you get a list of IP addresses assigned to it. Then with one or two clicks, you can see all the anonymous edits made from those addresses anywhere in Wikipedia’s pages.

If any Wikipedia editors, admins, or public relations hacks from their Wikimedia Foundation whine or complain about it (that includes Jimbo Wales, but looking at you, Lise Diane Broer, User:Durova, and David Gerard, User:David Gerard), they need to be roundly slapped in the face by modern society for being obnoxious. To be honest, every edit on Wikipedia ought to include an IP address, irregardless of username, for the public to see. It’s the only way to expose bias and spin jobs, and to make sure that anyone defamed or libeled on their Wikipedia article is able to legally pursue those who committed illegal acts. For an example of how people have been severely hurt by Wikipedia, have you ever heard of John Seigenthaler? You should read about it.

Direct link to the awesome tool. I hope multiple corporations, agencies, and foundations get reamed if they’ve abused the system.

UPDATE: Wired Magazine is now having readers research and submit interesting results. Early winners (or rather, losers):

1. Fema.gov vandalized the John Orman, chairman of the CFL party’s Wiki page. 71.252.64.8 came back as- Multi-RBL check 71.252.64.8 (poker-2.fema.gov) using Robtex. FEMA, of course, is under Homeland Security, which the senator runs.

2. The Blackwater USA (a mercenary company with family ties to the Bush House) site was completely deleted and rewritten by Blackwater’s PR hacks to detail all their “services” and “sacrifices,” eliminating the facts (still available at SourceWatch) about their being founded and owned by billionaire right-wing fundamentalist Republicans.

3. The same IP from the House of Representatives that edited the ‘Dirty Sanchez’ article, also edited the ‘Bill Frist’ article.

I wonder if this will lead to Wikipedia trying to close the door on anonymous editing, or at least the ability of people to scan/research easily anonymous (IP) editing, for “privacy reasons”.

Webjunk, Wikipedia
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales

Jul 29th 2007

By: Joe Szilagyi

View Comments

Ever think of visiting Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? Yikes.

Photos, Travel, Wikipedia
- 1
- 2
- >