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Wikipediametric
WikiLeaks released a set of 3402 e-mail messages exchanged between a group of Wikipedia editors, conspiring to alter entries of the online encyclopedia in line with their political agenda. The group called itself Wikipediametric, and generally targeted pages about history and current events, biasing them in favor of nationalism (WP) and Eastern European countries and against Russia (WP), Socialists (WP), Communists (WP) and Jews.
This article contains content from Wikipedia An article on this subject has been nominated for deletion on Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/ Edit war Current versions of the GNU FDL article on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article |
WP+ NO DEL |
The group employed a number of malicious tactics to achieve this end, including creating and citing false sources, assuming multiple accounts and false personas, defaming and blocking users who disagreed with them and instigating Wikipedia:edit wars with other users. The members frequently discussed covering up their nature as a 'cabal' by creating elaborate false identities and avoiding suspicion by editing pages in a gradual manner as well as using external websites and programs to 'cheat' the wikipedia system.
The emails also make reference to other similar cabals including, the 'Russians' and the 'Jews' who engaged in similar activities, espousing Wikipedia:Communist and Wikipedia:Jewish nationalist ideologies respectively, who the Eastern Europeans often engaged in conflicts with.
The various 'cartels' and 'cabals', as they are described, while still a limited phenomenon, seem to be attempting to create an 'oligopoly of information' which could prove a serious threat to internet free speech.[1][2][3]
Articles for Deletion proceedings were marked by unified votes from multiple members of the cabal, and Wiki canvassing of members beforehand.
Wikipedia:Communist genocide is one of the most virulently anti-communist articles on Wikipedia. It typifies the bottom-feeding, how-low-can-they-stoop tactics of the right in general and Wikipediametric specifically, in its overreaching point-scoring against communism. By typifying tragically accidental deaths due to crop failures in the USSR and China as genocide, it demeans the real lesson of those deaths.
Before Arbitration was made aware of the cabal, they came out in droves to keep this propaganda.
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Communist genocide: Biruitorul, Hillock65, jacurek, Martintg, Piotrus, poeticbent, Radeksz, Sander Säde, and Vecrumba voted to Keep it.
The arbitration only banned them for three months, and topic banned for a year at most. They laid low for some of the intervening AfDs, but were right back at it again for the most recent one, breaking their topic bans.
- 3rd nomination: Molobo (with the sockpuppet MyMoloboAccount), Radeksz and Sander Säde both voted to Keep it.
- Martintg was absent from most of the AfDs but was a mainstay on the talk pages.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Soviet-run peace movements in Western Europe and the United States: bald assertions backed by the Hoover Institution's propaganda tool; Staar. Biophys, Biruitorul, Piotrus, and Jacurek cast their votes to help Keep the article. In the followup AfD, Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Soviet-run peace movements in the West, Biruitorul, Piotrus, and Radeksz all voted Keep.
Had this been a left-wing cabal, it would have never gotten off the ground. Any misbehaviour, however minor, is immediately used to block lefties, and even repeating one's case is grounds for a block if the lefty is unwise enough to do it at Administrator's Noticeboard/Incidents (WP:ANI)
But not only are the right given a slap on the wrist by Arb, they do not even abide by the terms of the decision, and are not penalized for cheating. See the second and successive Genocide AfDs; Radekzk went ahead and pontificated about the AfD, despite a topic ban. Molobo (with the sockpuppet MyMoloboAccount), Radeksz and Sander Säde all VOTED at the 3rd nomination AfD despite topic bans. User:Collect edited scores of times on articles about Nazism and any other part of the political spectrum you could care to name, while under a political topic ban.
It is possible that arbitrators suffer from the Darth Vader syndrome; Darth Vader was portrayed as a chronically and preposterously evil character, until it was revealed that he was merely misunderstood. The pursuit of the warm and fuzzy feeling that is received by such an, again, preposterously happy ending, is what may be addictive to arbitrators. They would much rather be happy than right.
It would be nice to think that some independent body might surface to deal with problems of this kind. But the great likelihood is that such a body will in turn be infiltrated by the perpetrators, as did User:Dc76, insinuating a petition to further the cabal's interests into Irbisgrief's Political Spectrum Reconciliation Project
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 arbitration case on mailing list. wikipedia.org. URL accessed on 2 December 2010.
- ↑ article on wikipediareview. wikipediareview.com. URL accessed on 2 December 2010.
- ↑ WikiLeaks file.. wikileaks.is. URL accessed on 2 December 2010. Note it is in Torrent form and difficult to extract.