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Wikipedia’s seedy underbelly…

So, this last week has seen Jimbo Wales, wikipedia “founder” and all round cad, exposed for some of the less salubrious activities undertaken on his watch.Valleywag has been the source of the majority of the coverage, and, in the spirit of the gawker media empire, hasn’t held back in taking shots at Jimbo. These cover manifold and varied sins;

1. Jimbo gets laid on the back of sorting a (frankly scary) woman’s page
2. Jimbo gets paid on the back of sorting a (frankly dodgy) guy’s page
3. Jimbo flies first class on the wikipedia foundation despite weaselling as much cash as possible out of conferences etc for himself; also Jimbo expenses for personal stuff, and never pays it back.
4. Jimbo/the Wikipedia foundation, employs people (the COO!) who have serious criminal records in positions where they shouldn’t be (COO!).

But, for once, it isn’t point 1 that bothers me so much. I will grant that I got great lulz out of the whole notion for a little while, and the transcripts of their sex chat over IM was a little disturbing, but mainly just epically seedy. No, the issue here is what it means for wikipedia; the new found of supposedly peer reviewed, community sourced ‘knowledge’. What it means, when Jimbo is accused of locking down a donors uncomplimentary page for $5000, is that wikipedia is becoming more of a source for advertorials.Not that that’s anything new, but at least before this disclosure there was a feeling that you could see what was going on. There were plenty of scandals, but mostly about the people you would expect to be a little more contentious; cult leaders, dubious market traders and off course, nasty teenage grammar-nazis who feel that their interpretation of episode 11, series 5 of Babylon 5 is so much more incisive than yours. Jimbo, though, is the man who claims to have started Wikipedia (he didn’t, a much nicer guy, Larry Sanger, did most of the work and coined the term, as well as the idea of having an encyclopedia editable by anyone). As such, he needs to behave in an appropriate manner or get out; I’m sick and tired of seeing the ex-pornographer flouting the sensible laws of wikipedia in his quest to appear noble and like the saviour of mankind. Jimbo, let’s hope that this is what ends up in the history books, not your wrong-headed running of wikipedia.

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