http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wikipedia-Homepage-1...VQQcmdZViewItem

Yeah, they were buzzing about this on the Wikienlist a while yesterday, I think.

Jonny

Already one purchase:




Why not report the auction to ebay?



Link to report to ebay http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_bas...e=Continue+%3E#

This is the only one that lets you add an explanation.

UPDATE: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=151053542


23:05, 13 August 2007 Alison (Talk | contribs) blocked "Diremine (contribs)" (account creation blocked) with an expiry time of indefinite (Clear threat to spam wikipedia [http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wikipedia-Homepage-12-Permanent-Text-Links-%20SEO_W0QQitemZ160146092291QQihZ006QQcategoryZ117001QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem here].)


eBay item number was 160146092291

Wonder who did that?

you're a real party pooper

She did somehow find him. Nobody else could.

Party-pooper, me

Either way, the guy made sure his Ebay username and WP username were identical, then announced his plans (in a covert kinda way) on WP. Then decided to blank that - obviously a bad idea.

Previously, the guy's career involved adding links to his own blogs on certain articles and being reverted.

Next time, he'll choose a different username, I'm guessing

The ironic thing is I only found that because a post on Encyclopedia Dramatica said something about admins being for sale on ebay, so I did a search for Wikipedia on the latter site.

Sadly, I have found no evidence of said admin sales, even in completed transactions

They must have oversighted them.

Alison, you only got half the job done. Didn't you notice and investigate the pages that Diremine was apparently hired to modify?

Namely, look at the page about Kenneth L. Fisher. Did you notice who created the page?

I've brought this page to the attention of admins before. They ignore me. Fisher must be an investor in Wikia or something.

Greg

Dumb move to ban the user. You had the user name, all you had to do was watch it and see what it did. If the links were spammish, delete them, and potentially block the user if the spam is severe enough; if the links are useful to the encyclopedia, let them stay even if they were made with another motive in mind. Blocking the user will just cause him/her to create a new account--there's cash on the line here--and you will most likely not be able to detect him or her again. This is the kind of reflexive harshness that is so typical of admins but actually counter-productive.

How about putting a bunch of dispute etc. templates there? I'd do it, but I'm banished!
{{TotallyDisputed}}
{{Autobiography}}
{{Original research}}
etc.

and then give details on the talk page.

The funny thing is that he's a highly trusted e-bay user. 6580 trades, 99.9% positive feedback rating: http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...P:feedback:3:uk

Hardly a troll.

Interesting... This smells like one of those "breaching experiment" setups to me, or maybe research for some sort of SEO site or magazine article.

One of that eBayer's former ID's is "arothstein"... a Google search for "arothstein SEO" turns up an "Alan Rothstein" who works for an SEO company called iProspect, but unless he's been fired recently I doubt such a company would get involved in something of that nature, at least officially. Then again, Greg K. has demonstrated that trying to do it above-board is a Bad Idea™, so if someone's going to do it at all, why not go with eBay? Other than the fact that he's risking that high feedback rating, of course.