Wikipedia "professor" has Wikidegree

[aupointillimite]

This made me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6423659.stm

Fake professor in Wikipedia storm

Internet site Wikipedia has been hit by controversy after the disclosure that a prominent editor had assumed a false identity complete with fake PhD.

The editor, known as Essjay, had described himself as a professor of religion at a private university.

But he was in fact Ryan Jordan, 24, a college student from Kentucky who used texts such as Catholicism for Dummies to help him work.

He has retired from the site and his authority to edit has been cancelled.

Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopaedia open to all, written by volunteers from around the world.

'Trust and tolerance'

Under the name Essjay, Mr Jordan edited articles and also had the authority to arbitrate disputes between authors and remove site vandalism.

In his user profile, he said he taught both undergraduate and graduate theology, and in an interview with the New Yorker in July 2006, was described as a "tenured professor of religion".

His real identity came to light last week when the magazine added an editorial note to the piece highlighting the deception.

"At the time of publication, neither we nor Wikipedia knew Essjay's real name," the note said.

Essjay told them he hid his identity because "he feared personal retribution from those he had ruled against online", the newspaper's note said.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, writing on the site on 3 March, said that Mr Jordan was apologetic, but that Wikipedia was "based on twin pillars of trust and tolerance".

"Despite my personal forgiveness, I hope that he will accept my resignation request, because forgiveness or not, these positions are not appropriate for him now," he wrote.

And in a post the next day, Mr Jordan announced his retirement from the site.

"I hope others will refocus the energy they have spent the past few days in defending and denouncing me to make something here at Wikipedia better," he said.

[Matty the Damned]

Essjay!?!?!?!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! ZOMG!

Matty the Damned has for quite a while found the User Talk pages, Articles for Deletion, Arbitration Committee proceedings and other official goings on at WackyPedia to be most amusing. Far more interesting than the articles themselves. He lurks there, saying nothing but watching all.

Anybody who wants to see the bizarre side of an internet community should pay a visit to the administrative side of Wiki.

I'm well aware of Essjay. He's not just an administrator (sorta of like a Moderator) he was the next level up.

Most amusing.

MtD

[Ihavehope]

i love wikipedia..

[aupointillimite]

It would have been amazing if Essjay's official statement had been, "I did it for the lulz."

[Matty the Damned]

I've gone and dug up the links to the Wackypedian Shit Storm concerning EssJay.

First up there's now an article on the mattter. It's been listed for deletion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essjay

Remember to check out not just the article page, but the article talk page and the deletion page. These people are seriously nuts.

Once EssJay was outed as a fraud the Wackypedian knitting circle convened a notorious Request for Comment or RfC. These events are fearsome. They make our hissyfits look tame. In fact they refer to these shaming circles as "Pile Ons".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_noticeboard/Essjay

And lastly, EssJay (as I suspected) was more than just a mere editor or humble Administrator. He was a WP Bureaucrat. Within the Wackypedian hierachy Bureaucrats have special powers above that of Admins. The only higher rank is Steward. Here's Essjays successful Request for Bureaucratship:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_bureaucratship/Essjay

Totally, Wackypedia is cult.

MtD

[Lwood]

I say he deserves some WikiPunishment,  Thermometer  in the WikiHole anyone ??

[aupointillimite]

I say he deserves some WikiPunishment,  Thermometer  in the WikiHole anyone ??

His Wikihumiliation will make it wikiworth it.

[Matty the Damned]

Well I would imagine his wikistress is through the wikiroof. He's on permanent wikibreak now, so he'll get some good wikirest.

MtD

[aupointillimite]

Well I would imagine his wikistress is through the wikiroof. He's on permanent wikibreak now, so he'll get some good wikirest.

MtD

We can wikithank WikiGod that he's not wikigiving WikiWikipedia a bad wikiname anymore.

WikiWikipedia can wikigo back to wikibeing an unbelievably wikiaccurate wikisource of wikitruth.