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Essjay controversy

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The Essjay controversy refers to events related to a wikipedia user known by the name "Essjay" who was a prominent editor and administrator of the English Wikipedia and briefly concurrently employed by the for-profit organization Wikia. He gained notoriety outside Wikipedia and Wikia when The New Yorker magazine made a February 2007 addendum to an article written some months prior. The original article had presented Essjay as having notable academic credentials. [1] The addendum stated that according to Essjay these credentials were non-existent and were part of an online persona he had created in part to avoid cyberstalking.[2][3]

New Yorker interview

Essjay was interviewed for a New Yorker article on Wikipedia titled "Know It All" published in the July 31, 2006 issue. According to the New Yorker, "he was willing to describe his work as a Wikipedia administrator but would not identify himself other than by confirming the biographical details that appeared on his user page.[1]

At the end of February 2007 the New Yorker updated the article with a correction indicating that "Essjay" had identified himself as Ryan Jordon (born 1982/3) [4]. The New Yorker went on to state, "he was described in the piece as 'a tenured professor of religion at a private university' with 'a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law.'" He now claims he's actually "twenty-four and holds no advanced degrees, and that he has never taught."[1] An investigation by the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal found he had attended, but never graduated from, Centre College and Bluegrass Community and Technical College (formerly known as Lexington Community College).[4]

According to Vancouver daily paper 24 Hours, activist and Wikipedia critic Daniel Brandt had discovered the Essjay/Ryan Jordan connection, and reported this to The New Yorker.[5]

Controversy fallout

Initially, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said of this administrator's invented persona: "I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it."[2] Following intense scrutiny from bloggers on the internet and internally from Wikipedia, Wales later wrote on his Wikipedia User talk page, "I have asked Essjay to resign his positions of trust within the community."[6] Essjay retired from Wikipedia on March 4, 2007. Shortly afterward, Wikipedia stewards, at Essjay's request, deleted most of the content of his user page and removed his account's administrative rights.[citation needed] Essjay also resigned from Wikia, Wales's for-profit company. Reaction from within the Wikipedia community was sharp, but mixed with some fellow editors offering complete support while others accused Jordan of "plain and simple fraud."[6]

As a result of the controversy, Wikipedia users began a review of Essjay's previous edits and discovered evidence he flaunted his fictional professorship to influence editorial consideration of edits he made.

"People have gone through his edits and found places where he was basically cashing in on his fake credentials to bolster his arguments," said Michael Snow, a Wikipedia administrator and founder of the Wikipedia community newspaper, The Wikipedia Signpost. "Those will get looked at again."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Schiff, Stacy (2006-07-24). "Know it All". The New Yorker.
  2. ^ a b Zaharov-Reutt, Alex (March 2, 2007). "Wikipedia: did one of its admins lie?". iTWire.
  3. ^ Farrell, Nick (March 1, 2007). "Wikipedia 'expert' lied about qualifications". The Inquirer.
  4. ^ a b Wolfson, Andrew (March 6, 2007). "Wikipedia editor who posed as professor is Ky. dropout". Louisville Courier-Journal. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ King, Ian (March 2, 2007). "A Wiki web they've woven". Vancouver 24 Hours.
  6. ^ a b c Cohen, Noam (March 5, 2007). "A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Audio

Further reading

Wikinews has related news:

News sources

February 28, 2007


March 1, 2007


March 2, 2007


March 6, 2007

Primary sources

Essjay's userpage images

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