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Whatever gooses your gander (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} khym_chanur) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} otf_wank,@ 2004-12-14 19:44:00 |
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Meet Sollog Immanuel Adonai-Adoni, numerologist, psychic, founder of the Temple Of 'Hayah (TOH) religion, and self proclaimed mathematical genius. Someone created an article about him and his religion on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit (even anonymice). And thus began a kerfuffle that includes lawsuit threats and the establishment of the hate site WikipediaSucks.com
The orininal article wasn't really an article so much as a PowerPoint-presentation type bullet list of accomplishments sing paeons to the greatness of Sollog, including "Sollog was investigated by the FBI for accurate prophecies about the Oklahoma City bombing, 911 and the Madrid Massacre", and "Sollog's most famous math discoveries are". Someone else edited it to be more like an actual article, and to make it follow Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy, which (oversimplified) means saying "Supporters of X claim this, while opponents of X claim that"; this included a link to a very unflattering newspaper article about Sollog. There's an edit war of removing and restoring this link, with anonymice Sollog supporters claiming that the reporter is being sued for slander (even though the article was published 8 years ago, and is still online), and an anonymouse threating to SUE Wikipedia for "endorsing that libel", even though merely linking to a page, y'know, isn't endorsing. When legal threats didn't produce immediate results, supporters argued that the newspaper which produced the article was too small-time to be linked to from an encyclopedia, an argument which didn't impress the Wikipedia regulars.
There's also some arguments about Sollog's mathematical "discoveries", with most Wikipedia editors agreeing that they're either rediscoveries of old theorems or flat out wrong, while a supporter claims that another mathematician stole his work, the playjerist! ("and Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Oy!")
Eventually, the FBI get involved: an anonymouse claims that TOH and TOH members are reporting Wikipedia, Jim Wales (Wikipedia founder and operator), and others editing the Sollog article to the FBI for hate crimes. On the other hand, Jim Wales has made a report to the FBI because of harassing phone calls he's been receiving; in fact, one of the editing comments by an anonymous read "There are many members within TOH, just ask Jim Wales about how TOH members from around the world are calling him on phone". Then, finally, there's the WikipediaSucks.com site, with such charming topics as "Does Jim Wales daughter suffer from FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)" and "Is Jim Wales wife fat and ugly or a 'bomis babe'?".
To see all the spooge for yourself, you can look at the editing log for the article, where the editing comments are occasionally wanky, and especially the article's talk page, where accusations of sock-puppetry and religious bigotry fly. Also see the debate on whether to delete the article or not (it was decided to be kept).
P.S.: Wikipedia has an article on Fandom Wank, so feel free to mosey on over and edit it to your heart's content.
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