WikiGnomes and Bigfoot: Andrew McMillen's February 3 profile of and his quest to rid Wikipedia of the phrase "comprised of" has been one of the most widely circulated and commented upon media stories about the encyclopedia recently.
Arrest reported in Wikipedia editing of Parsons article
Earlier this month, ITMreported on a Canadian government investigation into Wikipedia edits to the articleSuicide of Rehtaeh Parsons from an IP address belonging to theDepartment of National Defence. Parsons' 2013 suicide at the age of 17, which her parents blame on Internet harassment following her alleged gang rape at 15 by four teenage boys, caused a nationwide outcry againstcyberbullying. Two of the alleged assailants eventually pled guilty to charges ofchild pornography related to the distribution of a photo of Parsons. The Wikipedia edits appear to attempt to cast doubt on her alleged sexual assault and subsequent suicide.CBC Newsreports (February 26) that according to Parsons' father, Glen Canning, the father of one of those alleged assailants was arrested for making those Wikipedia edits from a computer atCFB Shearwater. The Department of National Defence confirmed that an unidentified man was arrested and released but refused to confirm a connection to the Parsons case.G
H. G. Wells predicted Wikipedia:Voxcompares (February 23)H. G. Wells' utopian vision of a "Permanent World Encyclopaedia" to Wikipedia. Wells had written about the idea in 1937.A.K.
Wiki Wars:Quartz features anarticle (February 23) by William Beutler on the recent "Gamergate and Grammy kerfuffles", which Beutler describes as part of Wikipedia's teenage growing pains.A.K.
WMF Office bans:The Daily Dotexamines (February 22) the recent uptick inglobal bans by theWikimedia Foundation and related community concerns that the process lacks transparency. The piece, which focuses mostly on the ban ofRussavia, features quotes from several Wikimedians critical of the global ban process, as well as comments byKatherine Maher, the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Communications Officer.A.K.
Footprints:The Cary Newsreports (February 19) on an unsourcedFebruary 2 edit to the articleApex, North Carolina which claimed that "The town also has a long history ofBigfoot sightings, which has attracted many newcomers to the area." The Town Manager of Apex removed the sentence from the article on February 19 and told theNews that "he has no personal knowledge of Bigfoot's existence."G
I think Vox needs to give H.G. Wells a chance. For Wikipedia to achieve world peace, we have to have enough people in enough places making enough contributions that people can learn the crooked motivations behind every warmongering jailmongering politician of every stripe in the world, and learn the ideological and practical successes and methods of every popular movement throughout the world. Of course, world peace is reached only through apocalypse; ours is whether we can get enough people who simply want to see all the data and every point of view that we can fight off the shills and reputation management agents to keep the information in the encyclopedia.Wnt (talk)23:59, 24 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
