View Full Version : More Proof Wikipedia is a Joke
"Editing your own entry on Wikipedia is usually the province of vain celebrities keen for some good PR. But a new website has uncovered dozens of companies that have been editing the site in order to improve their public image.
The Wikipedia Scanner, which trawls the backwaters of the popular online encyclopaedia, has unearthed a catalogue of organisations massaging entries, including the CIA and the Labour party.
Workers operating on CIA computers have been spotted editing entries including the biography of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, while unnamed individuals inside the Vatican have worked on entries about Catholic saints - and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.
Meanwhile, an anonymous surfer from Labour's Millbank headquarters excised a section about Labour Students which referred to "careerist MPs" and criticisms that the party's student movement was no longer seen as radical.
And somebody from a computer traced to Democrat HQ edited a page on conservative American radio host Rush Limbaugh, calling him "idiotic", "ridiculous" and labelling his 20 million listeners as "legally retarded".
But the biggest culprit that the Scanner claims to have discovered is Diebold, a supplier of voting machines, which it says has made huge alterations to entries about its involvement in the controversial "hanging chad" election in the US in 2000. The company was criticised in the wake of the disputed results, but edits made by its employees on Wikipedia have included the removal of 15 paragraphs detailing the allegations."
LINK (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/15/wikipedia.corporateaccountability?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront)
Don't forget to include Speedy editing the Belgian and European pages!
I know, I'm bad.
I got on there and said 'Europe is a world leader', and 'Belgium has done a lot for the world'.
I'm such a liar!!!!
Soundbear
08-15-2007, 12:27 PM
All those revelations about people modifying their own stuff should help to make the information more reliable.
Soundbear
08-15-2007, 12:30 PM
Besides which fact, it would be so easy to refute anything wrong with the information. But Speedy, you never even bother to deny the quotes people post.
Now, you always CLAIM that you don't want to waste your time. But personally, I'm pretty sure you just can't refute the truth.
Err..okay, whatever it is you're talking about.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Besides which fact, it would be so easy to refute anything wrong with the information </div></div>
It is also very easy to refute that black is white. But some things even the most simplest of people should grasp, and not need someone else to do their research for them /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
If you can read that article and yet still think Wikipedia is even worth refuting... well, I'm afraid that says a lot more about you than me.
Soundbear
08-15-2007, 01:51 PM
Ya know Speedy, it's not that we don't care WHAT you think, which we usually don't, it's just that we don't know IF you think!!!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Barry Morris</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ya know Speedy, it's not that we don't care WHAT you think, which we usually don't, it's just that we don't know IF you think!!! </div></div>
Who is "we"? You and the fifteen voices in your head?
And counting blowup dolls DOES NOT count!! /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/no_no.gif
I edited Gretzkys stats to have only 12 goals.
Wikipedia is a crock of crap by the way. LOL
The Berean
08-15-2007, 11:58 PM
If that were true, Speedy's posts would all be there verbatim.
Like was said, countering information is easily posted to stuff posted here from Wikipedia. But it never is.
adigirl
08-16-2007, 08:22 AM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Barry Morris</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ya know Speedy, it's not that we don't care WHAT you think, which we usually don't, it's just that we don't know IF you think!!! </div></div>
/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: T-pot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I edited Gretzkys stats to have only 12 goals. </div></div>
...and bumped up your IQ to eleven in your bio on it?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: adigirl</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Barry Morris</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ya know Speedy, it's not that we don't care WHAT you think, which we usually don't, it's just that we don't know IF you think!!! </div></div>
/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif </div></div>
Adigirl, did you know 300 million is 300 times larger than 10 million???
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msFullArt.asp?an=14323
About the Wikipedia Scanner:
As soon as the software was launched on the internet, chaos erupted.
Among many revelations, Wikipedia Scanner reported that:
- Microsoft tried to cover up the XBOX 360 failure rate
- Apple edit Microsoft entries, adding more negative comments about its rival
- Bill Gates revenge? Microsoft edits Apple entries, adding more negative comments about its rival
- The Vatican edits Irish Catholic politician Gerry Adams page
- In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that “Iraq was involved in 9/11”
- Exxon Mobil edits spillages and eco-system destruction from oil spillages article
- FBI edits Guantanamo Bay, removing numerous pictures
- Oil company ChevronTexaco removes informative biodiesel article and deletes a paragraph regarding fines against the company
- Scientology removes criticism and negatives article from Scientology page
- Al Jazeera TV station adds that the foundation of Iraq was just as bad as the Holocaust
- Amnesty International removes negative comments
- Dell Computers deletes negative comments on customer services and removes a passage how the company outsources work to third world countries
- MySpace removes paragraph when their website was hacked
- EA Games deletes whole paragraphs of criticism about employment practices and business methods
- Dog breeding association deletes whole paragraphs about fatal attacks by dogs on humans
- US Republican Party changes the "Post-Saddam" section of the Baath Party article to a different account of the war, changing the language from "US-led occupation" to "US-led liberation"
- Fox News removes all controversial topics against the network from the Fox News page
- News of the World deletes a number of criticism against the paper
- Nestle removes negative comments on its business practices from its page
- UN address calls journalist Oriana Fallaci a racist ‘prostitute’
- Portuguese government removes entries about Prime Minister’s scandals
- DieBold, the company that controversially supplied computerised polling stations in the US elections, removes numerous paragraphs with negative comments
- Walmart removes criticism of outsourcing work. The retailer also changes negative paragraphs of underpaid workforce
- Sony removes harmful paragraphs against blu-ray systems
- Someone at Reuters calls Bush “a mass murderer”
- Coca Cola removes negative content about its effects
- British Conservative Party removes negative references of its MPs and deletes paragraph of the party’s old policies
- US University adds the “prestigious” adjective to its page
- Boeing edits from “Boeing is a leading American aircraft and aerospace manufacturer” to “Boeing is the leading American aircraft and aerospace manufacturer”
- MSN Search is “a major competitor to Google”. That’s what MSN added to their page
- BBC changes Blair's drink from coffee to vodka and his workout from the gym to the bedroom. Someone from the BBC also changes Bush’s page, changing the name from ”George Walker Bush” to “George Wan*** Bush”
- Someone from The Guardian edits the Wikipedia page of rival newspaper The Times. Originally in the article it is said that The Times sells more than The Guardian. After the edit, The Guardian sells more.
Yup, I linked to that last week.
Too bad this had to surface. It makes it hard to know if this can be trusted:
"Griffith created the tool to "create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike," he said on his web site. He admitted that it's impossible to be sure if the edits were made by someone working at one of the organizations, although the I.P. address reveals that they were made by someone with access to their network, he says."
Goes back to the old saw, "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
Too bad, this one had a lot of potential to bust a lot of chops.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Vatican edits Irish Catholic politician Gerry Adams page </div></div>
Do you think it was the Pope??? /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool_shades.gif
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Speedy the Arrogant Parrot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yup, I linked to that last week.
Too bad this had to surface. It makes it hard to know if this can be trusted:
"Griffith created the tool to "create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike," he said on his web site. He admitted that it's impossible to be sure if the edits were made by someone working at one of the organizations, although the I.P. address reveals that they were made by someone with access to their network, he says."
Goes back to the old saw, "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
Too bad, this one had a lot of potential to bust a lot of chops. </div></div>
Pork chops?
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