Curtains get Pulled back on Wiki Editors

[Crazed Rabbit]

A fun new toy has come into use that allows people to see who exactly is editing wikipedia and what they are writing. Wired magazine has a list:

http://wired.reddit.com/wikidgame

All sorts of fun edits are shown there: People from the NYT doing all sorts of edits to heap scorn on conservatives, someone at the Democrat party offices calling Rush Limbaugh's listeners legally retarded, the NFL removing criticism. Someone from the UN called late Italian writer Fallaci a 'racist whore', another form the BBC called Bush a 'wanker'.

Of course, there's conservatives and Bush backers editing things too.

CR

[Lemur]

Here's the BBC edit. I don't imagine they thought this was going to last for long; it's kinda silly.

An amusing roundup of edits from known IP ranges:

• Somebody at the CIA repeatedly added “Wahhhh!” to the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• At the Vatican, they messed with the entry about the Catholic Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, removing “links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged that Adams’s finger prints and hand prints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971.”
• Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee computers added color commentary to the Rush Limbaugh profile, describing him as an idiot, racist and bigot, while noting this about his listeners: “Most of them are legally retarded.”
• Diebold employees removed references to Diebold CEO Walden O’Dell being a loyal supporter of the Bush Administration.
• People at Fox News made extensive (and incorrect) edits to Al Franken’s profile.
• Fox News staffers also “de-loofahed Bill O’ Reilly, posted false information about the ratings of Fox News shows, accused Keith Olbermann of making light of Peter Jennings’ death and deleted rating info for MSNBC programs.”
• Somebody at the NYT added the very clever insult “jerk” to Bush Junior’s entry, while others are editing the Wall Street Journal’s entry for some reason.
• A computer at the New York Times was also used to call Tom DeLay a “grand dragon,” which is pretty good but not quite as good as Robert Byrd’s actual title, “Exalted Cyclops.”

[Xiahou]

A computer at the New York Times was also used to call Tom DeLay a “grand dragon,” which is pretty good but not quite as good as Robert Byrd’s actual title, “Exalted Cyclops.”

Sound like pet names for.... oh nevermind.

[Lemur]

My new favorite Wikipedia edit: Someone from a CIA IP address edited an entry on the singer Stacy Lattisaw. I guess it's the revenge of the boyfriend:

She dumped her first boyfriend to be with Gill, who in turn had took her virginity and left her.

[Husar]

I'm starting to see the CIA in a whole new light.

[Odin]

the NFL removing criticism.

Good, because Odin=major football fan.

Let the political idiots do what ever they want but leave the NFL and college football alone.

[naut]

Al-Jazeera says the foundation of Israel was just as bad as the Holocaust

Uhhh...

[Rodion Romanovich]

While wiki may contain untrustworthy material, I find it excellent because it also contains some different opinions and interpretations on things that aren't entirely certain, and I learn a lot about the conflict(s) that may exist on a subject by seeing what interpretations exist. Quite often wiki has been forced to have separate sections for different views as a result of this - those articles are always a quite fascinating and interesting read, though sometimes I'm surprised over how one side has skipped answering certain remarks from their opponents . In a strange way wiki's errors are positive: wiki may actually be today's greatest teacher of "critical reading"!

[Innocentius]

I'd love to knwo who's behind this:

[drone]

I'd love to knwo who's behind this:

This...is...Euler!