Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

For serious discussion of the "major" forum for Wikipedia criticism and how it fails.
Post Reply
User avatar
CrowsNest
Sucks Maniac
Posts: 4459
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:50 am
Been thanked: 5 times

Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by CrowsNest » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:35 am

Another ice age has passed, so you know what that means. The scrappy never give up folks of Wikipediocracy wroted another blog post. Yay!

http://wikipediocracy.com/2019/02/07/so ... er-learns/

I skipped to the bottom, because, well, y'know, their stuff is fuuuucking hard work. Imagine my surprise, when it seemed they had yet again, FIXED WIKIPEDIA. These folks are dead smart, aren't they? They make things go, as their leader once said, in an ironic but not appreciating the irony way.

Anyway, yes, behold the fix......
What should be done? The same thing that should have been done when Qworty was exposed. First, acknowledge that there are people who use Wikipedia to attack other people, sometimes for years. Second, acknowledge that every biography is a potential target for this. Third, protect every single biography of a living person with the existing pending revisions system. Fourth, ensure that every new biography gets protected this way by an admin-bot. Fifth, fully and permanently protect articles that are obvious problems (like Rachel Marsden’s).

All of these actions could be done right now, with only a modicum of effort. And while none of them directly address the sockpuppetry issues, they would go a long way to cut down on cases like this going forward.
So, as you can see, they made some claims, and sat back like we're supposed to be glad their mom's and dad's bumped uglies and gifted the world their genius.

You know what this means too. TO THE ANALYSIS BUS!
acknowledge that there are people who use Wikipedia to attack other people, sometimes for years
Ok, right. You want Wikipedia to acknowledge that they facilitate scumbags? You expect this to happen. Did you, like, just meet them or something?

Get the fuck out of here with this lazy ass shit. Telling people Wikipedia should do shit they never gonna do, like you're too stupid not to know they won't be doing it. You knew it, right? Riiiiight?
acknowledge that every biography is a potential target for this.
These fucking people. I hate it when they make me stick up for Wikipedia. If you don't think Wikipedia hasn't yet "acknowledged" biographies are potential targets for bad people looking to do bad shit, then you are blind. Your issue is how they react, clearly. As you well know. Please. Just stop with the stupid. You're meant to stop the cuetip when you feel resistance.
protect every single biography of a living person with the existing pending revisions system.
Why? What will that achieve, for instance in this particular case? Do you think your readers are stupid? Do you think they might not realise how easy it would be for one of these bad people to get on the 'automatically accept my edits' list? It's a very big fucking list. Are you really trying to suggest to the world Wikipedia has had the capacity or the desire to do a background check on all the current 7,122 people on that list? Shit, I bet there are DEAD PEOPLE still on it. Wikipedians die. Not fast enough, but they are mortal. Not even Xeno likes them. And to state the fucking obvious, even if you can't get on that list, you just attack a related article, like.....a book.

If you want to educate people, why not tell them how many times this scenario has played out: Wikipedia is busy being Wikipedia. Something bad happens, because, well, Wikipedia. They implement a fix. The bad people figure out how to circumvent this new inconvenience. Something bad happens. There are Wikipedia editors right now adding and removing white space from articles, one of the many ways around a recently erected barrier the Wikipedians were too stupid to even predict. You think that shit just happens? It's called an arms race. And Wikipedia isn't very good at making weapons. The encyclopedia is built and maintained by weapons, but that isn't the same thing at all.
ensure that every new biography gets protected this way by an admin-bot
Oh, I see. You're only pretending to be Wikipedia critics. What you are really here to do, is push their propaganda for them. Why not be honest with the reader? Why not tell them that this is precisely the strategy Wikipedia has right now, for fixing all its problems? Hand it all over to bots. Like that ever solved ANYTHING.
fully and permanently protect articles that are obvious problems (like Rachel Marsden’s).
Hey, geniuses. Didn't you start out by explaining that all biographies are potential targets? But hey, I'm all ears. Your method for determining what is and is not an obvious problem biography, is what exactly? If you say it is a biography that has been attacked before, I swear to God......
All of these actions could be done right now, with only a modicum of effort.
On spare me. I could rattle off twenty things the Wikipedians could do with virtually zero effort that would massively decrease the harm they do, and every single one of them, will not happen, not now, not ever. Just add your bullshit to the pile. Seriously, have you really never met the Wikipedians?
they would go a long way to cut down on cases like this going forward.
Really? The Wikipedians could fulfil every wish on your sad little list, and the barriers to someone doing a Qwerty, the disincentives to the sort of people who do such things, would still be virtually indistinguishable from thoughts and prayers. Seriously, get the fuck out of here with this shit.

--------------

There we have it. Not for the first time, dear reader, we serious critics who actually have knowledge of Wikipedia, are forced to apologise for the fact there are people out there who still think Wikipediocracy is a Wikipedia criticism site. Not for the first time, they have hidden the identity of the author of one of their laughable attempts at bringing knowledge and expertise to the world. Not even revealing their forum handle. Understandable really. They're kind of sensitive to criticism. Ironic, no?

You really want to prevent another Qwerty? Rather than just prop up a failing project with their own already tried and failed bullshit propoganda. In no particular order....

1. real identities required before editing

That's it.

They won't do it, and I don't blame them in their position (not because it is not the right thing to do, but because a competitor would simply take advantage and launch Original Wikipedia, still with all that anonymous goodness you know and love), so we're back to the only sensible solution anyone has ever come up with to rid the world of the harm Wikipedia does......

DESTROY IT.

HTD.

User avatar
ericbarbour
Sucks Admin
Posts: 4547
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:56 am
Location: The ass-tral plane
Has thanked: 1099 times
Been thanked: 1797 times

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:26 pm

All you can do is point and laugh.

Note that this kind of Canadian political editwarring ALWAYS ends up involving Rachel Marsden. Stupid but true.

Also notice that Tarantino, their new Fearless Leader, has been keeping a very low profile lately....their forum is becoming more like a Poetlister monologue every day.

User avatar
Strelnikov
Sucks Admin
Posts: 1041
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:25 pm
Has thanked: 395 times
Been thanked: 251 times

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by Strelnikov » Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:08 pm

ericbarbour wrote:....Also notice that Tarantino, their new Fearless Leader, has been keeping a very low profile lately....their forum is becoming more like a Poetlister monologue every day.


As King of the Spooks, shouldn't you only see the online equivalent of a big fedora, sunglasses, and a long trenchcoat? That guy is in so deep, he should be invisible in broad daylight.
Still "Globally Banned" on Wikipedia for the high crime of journalism.

User avatar
ericbarbour
Sucks Admin
Posts: 4547
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:56 am
Location: The ass-tral plane
Has thanked: 1099 times
Been thanked: 1797 times

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by ericbarbour » Fri Feb 15, 2019 9:49 pm

Strelnikov wrote:As King of the Spooks, shouldn't you only see the online equivalent of a big fedora, sunglasses, and a long trenchcoat? That guy is in so deep, he should be invisible in broad daylight.

I can easily picture him in the mod's area, blubbering that "Strelnikov is a RACIST and, and, and we have to DESTROY him". Because you used the word "spook". That's the definition of Internet pathetic spergitry.

Say again: Nothing that Tarantino might actually be up to would surprise me. Paid editing, WMF insider, political operative biasing content. Maybe all three at once (it's happened, anyone remember Sarah Stierch? She's still doing paid editing despite losing all her admin powers!) Of course it's more difficult to bullshit people on Wikipedia because they routinely block active TOR nodes. So he would have to operate dozens of sock accounts. But WO doesn't give a ratball about TOR or other means of hiding, so he can "go to town".

BTW I suspect Mid-Jake wrote that blog post. It's his particular brand of mild snark.

User avatar
Strelnikov
Sucks Admin
Posts: 1041
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:25 pm
Has thanked: 395 times
Been thanked: 251 times

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by Strelnikov » Thu Feb 21, 2019 5:49 am

ericbarbour wrote:
Strelnikov wrote:As King of the Spooks, shouldn't you only see the online equivalent of a big fedora, sunglasses, and a long trenchcoat? That guy is in so deep, he should be invisible in broad daylight.

I can easily picture him in the mod's area, blubbering that "Strelnikov is a RACIST and, and, and we have to DESTROY him". Because you used the word "spook". That's the definition of Internet pathetic spergitry.

Say again: Nothing that Tarantino might actually be up to would surprise me. Paid editing, WMF insider, political operative biasing content. Maybe all three at once (it's happened, anyone remember Sarah Stierch? She's still doing paid editing despite losing all her admin powers!) Of course it's more difficult to bullshit people on Wikipedia because they routinely block active TOR nodes. So he would have to operate dozens of sock accounts. But WO doesn't give a ratball about TOR or other means of hiding, so he can "go to town".

BTW I suspect Mid-Jake wrote that blog post. It's his particular brand of mild snark.


At this point, the WO inner circle is like the people formerly within the Lyndon LaRouche organization who are older than 25 - Ol' Brownteeth used to treat all of his old timers from the Caucus of Labor Committees/US Labor Party days like absolute shit* - the WO-MBers could easily drop out of WikiCriticism, get new hobbies, stop keeping up with Wikipedia, which has left them behind. They won't. At least the ex-LYM, ex-USLP, ex-EIR people can warn others about the cult - the WO-MBniks are keeping the old world of pre-ruin Wikipedia alive, sort of.

*There were a number of large-scale defections over a number of years, which is why "dearly departed" Lyn Marcus had to concoct the LaRouche Youth Movement, which Herschelkrustovsky is involved in, if his printshop telephone extension tree was up to date when I called his place a few years ago. And, yes I'm bringing up Planet LaRouche as an example because he recently died. If it were the '90s, I would be mentioning Gino Perente and NATLFED, the Marxist-Leninist variation of the LaRouche-style cult of personality political organization. Perente croaked in 1995.
Still "Globally Banned" on Wikipedia for the high crime of journalism.

User avatar
Tommy
Sucks Noob
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:31 pm

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by Tommy » Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:36 pm

Real identities? Hardly anybody would be left... And not that forging a real identity is difficult.

User avatar
CrowsNest
Sucks Maniac
Posts: 4459
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:50 am
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by CrowsNest » Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:28 am

The way this story has progressed, is a classic example of what Wikipediocracy is all about. Unusually, the blog was noticed, but all that has happened is they have chased down the editor, recruiting the worst of the worst within the cult to do so. It is looking likely that the author could have been Tarantino, this guy presumably having done something to piss him off and thus move him to look for a way to take him out. Tarantino certainly has form for using Wikipediocracy for that purpose, as opposed to criticism.

What has not happened, to reference the title of the piece, is to progress any exposure or public discourse of the fact this stuff isn't new, Wikipedia just never learns from it's fuckups. From the title and (incredibly flawed) conclusion, you could have been forgiven for thinking their intent here was to get lessons to be finally learned, or highlight how they are not being so learned. Nothing about the subsequent efforts of the Wikipediocrats suggests this is their goal, or is even remotely on the horizon of their thinking.

The Wikipediocrats can't even be bothered to highlight how the cult's reactions to a familiar form of abuse yet again being exposed, weren't new. The way ArbCom is slow and secretive, and the way the machine reacts first only to protect the real victim. They've noted it, without conceptualizing it. Even down to the ultimate diva quit of the suspect, it is not remotely new.

Unsurprisingly then, with critics like this, Wikipedia never gets fixed. True critics know it can never be fixed, the point being Wikipediocracy persists with this dangerous myth that it can, somhow, be fixed, and they happily work with absolute insider scum like Black Kite, people who have done their damnest to abuse their internal power to ensure the very worst aspects of Wikipedia remain unaffected by external criticism, in their spreading of this myth.

Better to think of it more like a semi-regular maintenance service Wikipediocracy offers the cult, like tick removal. Routinely helping them cover up their blemishes, whilst pretending just as much as the Wikipedians do, that there is no underlying cause that derives from the true nature of the cult, that these things are only ever the result of aspects of their reality that they cannot possible control.

I bet there won't even be a follow up blog post to prove the takeaway here is same shit, different day (although there may well be one now I've said there won't).

User avatar
Graaf Statler
Side Troll
Posts: 3996
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:20 pm

Re: Wikipediocracy fixed Wikipedia AGAIN. Wait. What?

Post by Graaf Statler » Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:32 pm

Strelnikov wrote:At this point, the WO inner circle is like the people formerly within the Lyndon LaRouche organization who are older than 25 - Ol' Brownteeth used to treat all of his old timers from the Caucus of Labor Committees/US Labor Party days like absolute shit* - the WO-MBers could easily drop out of WikiCriticism, get new hobbies, stop keeping up with Wikipedia, which has left them behind. They won't. At least the ex-LYM, ex-USLP, ex-EIR people can warn others about the cult - the WO-MBniks are keeping the old world of pre-ruin Wikipedia alive, sort of.

*There were a number of large-scale defections over a number of years, which is why "dearly departed" Lyn Marcus had to concoct the LaRouche Youth Movement, which Herschelkrustovsky is involved in, if his printshop telephone extension tree was up to date when I called his place a few years ago. And, yes I'm bringing up Planet LaRouche as an example because he recently died. If it were the '90s, I would be mentioning Gino Perente and NATLFED, the Marxist-Leninist variation of the LaRouche-style cult of personality political organization. Perente croaked in 1995.

I should say closer to Maoism, and not to the Marxist-Leninist variation of the LaRouche-style cult. They are much closer to the Asian variant, altough that article 13 demonstrations in Germany the typical old fashion European variant from the 70 where. Because they where only in Germany I think they where directed by a few left extreem leftish old timers in the age of me, because I recognised the style. But for the rest they are closed to the North Korea variant, including a rich corrupt top layer. It is a mix form, it is something new of the same kind as all this anarchistic self formed organisations who want to create a new world order.

There problem is always the same, they have to compere with the existing world order, a battle they always lose at the end in the western world. Because there alternative is not attractive and not better than the existing far from perfect system. There better world they can offer is simple not a better alternative.
I have seen in my long life many attempts like this and there rice and fall, I am a what we call a ervaringsdeskundige, a experience expert. But for sure they will have some impact in the future, just like the hippy movement had and all it's spin offs. But the revolution like Saturn devours its own children, isn't it? And that is what happens now.

Post Reply