Crap or questionable articles

Good, bad, biased, paid or what-have-you. There's an endless supply.
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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Sat May 27, 2017 1:20 am

One of the first things most manchildren do when they show up on WP and grind vandalism or whatever: write or add to the article about their goddamn high school. You would be surprised to know how many admins started like that.

Benjamin Stone pointed this one out on Facebook and took a screenshot.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 457&type=3

It's still there, and has been there since May 13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovington,_Illinois
And a Twinkle-driving patroller removed it the same day, and two days later another account readded it and expanded it.....

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:07 pm

We don't see these things everyday, so they should be mentioned more often: an actual expert in a technical field, being the primary author of a lengthy article, which ends up being TOO long and arcane and difficult for laymen to read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_u ... ithography

Currently 94k bytes. I dare anyone who doesn't know anything about the subject to read it.....and tell us what EUV lithography is used for.

From 2005 to the present day (12 years!), the primary author has been
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guiding_light
along with a succession of IP addresses, who might be the same person. He/she is trying to maintain anonymity but it shouldn't be difficult to infer a name from the subject matter, and the numerous references to ASML, a major maker of semiconductor processing equipment. And the 240 references, many of which are technical papers written by the same few experts in the field--one of whom is probably "Guiding light". Who was also responsible for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_patterning

Seriously: Is it wise for a Wikipedia article to look like a peer-review paper for a very small audience? Especially when you end up with this kind of wall of impenetrable jargon? And of course, we can't expect the insiders to be critical of this material, as they're getting something for free about extreme technical arcana. Which they are NOT qualified to judge. There could be huge errors or even subtle hoaxes all over this tiny article space. Without advanced semiconductor lithography, the Internet and Wikipedia of today would not exist; so perhaps Wikipedia should do a better job of covering something it is totally dependent on.

On GL's talkpage:
Thank you for your recent addition to Proximity effect! I created the article (there was a stub about a comic book there before) and so I watch it, but as I'm not a physicist I lack the expertise to bring the article up to par. Your addition is much appreciated. KillerChihuahua 13:19, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, Tracy Walker, longtime Internet troll, divorcee, and operator of a Florida Christian preschool, is qualified to judge this subject! Because she's a Wikipedia administrator!

(Ask me about her sometime....)

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:54 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Stein

A regular target of hatred, apparently for writing snarky editorials for Time magazine and other places. Various IP addresses post mean little comments, editwars occur, the article is locked and unlocked. The haters appear to be winning.

Note that back in 2010 the infamous Jayjg showed up and tried to keep it "neutral"....not to defend Stein's right to free speech, hell no! Because Stein is Jewish! No one mocks or attacks a Jew when Jayjg is on the job! (Which he no longer is....he gave up on this article in 2013, leaving it to the pissants.)

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Fri Jun 23, 2017 9:22 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_aircraft

Good case of "WP:OWN" abuse for several years. Always badly organized and fought over. Involves well-known insider assholes like Dream Focus, airplane nut GraemeLeggett, and that epic little bastard Andrew "Colonel Warden" Davidson. Ask me about any of them sometime--especially Davidson.

The current aircraft with the largest wingspan is not mentioned in this shit article, because WP:OWNers will not tolerate it. See the talkpage.

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Jul 01, 2017 8:05 pm

Something I posted on Facebook, a discussion from the Tube Collector's mailing list, complete with a shit WP article:
The XM1000 was brought up--a late attempt by Telefunken to make a numeric display with a tiny CRT and internal shadow masks......unfortunately the IEE company was already making such a device, called a "NIMO". Which was a poor seller anyway. Tube manufacturers were getting really desperate in the late 1960s. NIMOs were already notorious for a short lifetime because the beam current had to be operated very "hot" to get usable brightness. Which burned up the cathode and the phosphor screen.

Dan Stocks found one and said:
"Got an XM1000 numerical readout CRT + the socket today.. Apparently these are pretty rare as they infringed the NIMO tube patent and so most of the production was destroyed.."

My response:
"Understatement of the week. That might be one of the rarest tubes in the world--a preproduction sample of a patent violation of a technology ("Charactron" shadow-mask CRTs) that was already on its way out in 1968/69, when this sample was probably made. You have just made a major "score", especially with the custom socket. IEE NIMOs themselves are very rare but this thing is a true museum piece."

And Jan Wuesten turned up to comment:
"Eric, believe it or not, I do have quite a few of those....Duds and others that may or may not work, I have not made a test setup yet though it is planned to be made.
BTW the development of this one was sidelined as PhD thesis by the son of one of the TFK board members.... TFK burnt a lot of money on this...
This whole patent infringement story may also be a myth. the Nimos would have to be patented or at least patent-pending in Germany (or at least outside of the US) at this time.
If they only held an US patent Telefunken was happy to sell them worldwide except for the US. If they had it patented elsewhere then Telefunken could still sell everywhere except elsewhere.
As a real international patent - which is not really international as it only covers those countries being part of the WIPO (international Patent Cooperation Treaty) - is and was PRETTY expensive I doubt that a doomed project like the NIMOs had a strong enough funding for a worldwide patent coverage.

BTW there's a NIMO article on Wikipedia, which apparently is wrong....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimo_tube

Wikipedia continues to do a very bad job of covering early electronics history. There's more content added every year--but it isn't any better or more accurate!

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Sun Jul 02, 2017 11:08 pm

Nerdboy shit with amazing lack of referencing AND IT'S BEEN MORE-OR-LESS LIKE THIS SINCE 2007....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuzz

Plus this--typical of the loving way WP treats obscure alternarock bands--tagged since 2009....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_(band)

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:11 pm

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:36 am

> As many of you are no doubt personally aware, the FBI’s inclusion of Juggalos as a “gang” has resulted in hundreds if not thousands of people subjected to various forms of discrimination, harassment, and profiling simply for identifying as a Juggalo. Over the past five years, our legal team has heard testimonies and reports from Juggalos all over the nation who have lost custody of their children, been fired from jobs, denied access into the armed forces, and the most common consequence — being officially labeled as a gang member by law enforcement agencies for wearing Juggalo related clothing or brandishing one or more Juggalo tattoos. A simple traffic stop for a broken tail light can — and has — resulted in an otherwise law-abiding, hard-working, taxpaying citizen being put on a local or state list of gang members simply for displaying their Juggalo pride. Being labeled a gang member can be a permanent stain on an individual’s life, since it will come up in a simple background check every single time. Whether that person is applying for a job, trying to adopt a child, join the armed forces, or attempting to acquire housing … their name may pop up as being “gang-affiliated,” even if that person has never been charged with any kind of crime.'
> https://www.juggalomarch.com

Best of luck with that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggalo_gangs

Their main problem is a lack of respect from the idiots of law enforcement. Since juggers have a tendency to be alcoholics and drug users, and not to organize effectively or file class actions, law enforcement will continue to treat them as subhumans. But then this is generally true of American society--if "authorities" didn't abuse juggers, they would abuse blacks or native tribe members or Catholics etc---anyone "different".

Ultimately this is how the rich and powerful maintain their power, by forcing the "lower classes" to fight and hate each other. Not that anyone cares.

By the way, the Wikipedia article has "serious issues", which are difficult to research. Most of the article as it sits was the work of one secrecy-prone maniac who was obsessed with gangs. Especially "juggalo gangs".

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =AnnerTown

AnnerTown got most of it from a blog. And was told not to do that, and ignored the critics. And deleted the warnings from his/her talkpage, after much squabbling with ICP fan "BigBabyChips" and the notorious AndyTheGrump:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =543542592

An attempt to file an arbitration request against "BigBabyChips" was refused. "AnnerTown" eventually disappeared, BigBabyChips was blocked as a sockpuppet of one "SugarBear", who fought over various metal/hiphop acts and related cultural ephemera. And then, various other sockpuppets and IP addresses started editwarring the Juggalo gangs article. But the questionable content remained therein.

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:32 am

Ten years after I first saw this, it's still one of the funniest articles on Wikipedia.
It literally looks as if it were written by a 12-year-old boy.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Doom

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Re: Crap or questionable articles

Post by ericbarbour » Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:27 am

On 7/26/17 8:05 AM, James Whartenby antqradio@sbcglobal.net [TUBECOLLECTORSASSOCIATION] wrote:
> John Howell, who worked for General Electric and by default Edison Electric, is credited with the invention of the manual stem sealing machine by Charles Eisler. Eisler wrote the book "Million-Dollar Bend" a personal history and an account of the defense of his patents for automatic stem sealing machines. He won four separate infringement cases in court against the lamp and vacuum tube cartel consisting of Westinghouse, GE and RCA.


Which is a really weird and obscure book and I wish it would be reprinted, to act as a warning to both corporate cartels and to patent holders.

Also there's the matter of the title: if you want posterity to remember you well, calling your book "The autobiography of the benefactor of the radio tube and lamp industry" isn't going to help much.

Eisler is almost totally forgotten today. So forgotten that, despite his role as a major innovator in glass-metal seals, he is not mentioned at all in English-language Wikipedia. (Yet another case of en-WP doing a bad job of documenting electronics history.) But he IS mentioned in the German Wikipedia, because he was a German emigre.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eisler

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