I didn't see this come up in the feeds, but this is pretty bad. A Daily Mail journalist (big newspaper in the UK) is pretty pissed off with Wikipedia after his own son screwed with his biography.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770
Who put me there or why, I have no idea. But if you look me up on Wikipedia, the world's most frequently consulted reference work on the internet, you'll find an entry under my name.
On second thoughts, don't bother, because you won't find it very informative. When I last looked yesterday, this was all it said: "Tom Utley is a British journalist who currently writes for the Daily Mail. He is the son of the distinguished journalist T. E. Utley."
Someone has blogged about this as well, checking the diffs.
http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/04/...pedia_utley.php
Full Version: Abortion and why, since my boy fiddled my Wikipedia entry, I've feared the sinister power of the internet
QUOTE(The Joy @ Sat 12th April 2008, 5:56am) 
Dammit. I scan the news like a hawk and I missed it all tucked up there.
I think we should reconsider those forums. Or preferably scrap them, they make it harder to find threads.
The diff is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=143597498
on 11 July 2007 and persisted until 23 July 2007.
Can anyone decipher the London 'gangsta' style argot used here? E.g. what does 'propa belta at smokin tac' mean?
[edit] A bit of research in Dr Google shows that
http://www.newcastlestuff.com/charver/dictionary.html
belta adj. Expression of enthusiasm: top-notch, excellent, brilliant. Can be used to emphasise anything that is exceptional in Charver life.
tack: North East england name for cannabis resin
So it is not London gangsta but Geordie in fact. "One of them is exceptionally good at smoking cannabis".
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=143597498
on 11 July 2007 and persisted until 23 July 2007.
QUOTE
'''Tom Utley''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[journalist]] who currently writes a witty weekly column for the [[Daily Mail]]. He is the son of the distinguished journalist [[T. E. Utley]]. He is the proud father of 4 sons. One of them is propa belta at smokin tac. The other is currently havin an affair with Mylene "Sideboob" funbags Klass. Raker. One other is MDMAzin. and the other i dont have any scoop on but there are rumours he was caught fornicating with a dead brown bear that was actually black. Funny that.
Can anyone decipher the London 'gangsta' style argot used here? E.g. what does 'propa belta at smokin tac' mean?
[edit] A bit of research in Dr Google shows that
http://www.newcastlestuff.com/charver/dictionary.html
belta adj. Expression of enthusiasm: top-notch, excellent, brilliant. Can be used to emphasise anything that is exceptional in Charver life.
tack: North East england name for cannabis resin
So it is not London gangsta but Geordie in fact. "One of them is exceptionally good at smoking cannabis".
QUOTE
I remember reading, years ago, a persuasive article arguing that Wikipedia would soon become the most authoritative work of reference on the planet, for the paradoxical-sounding reason that it was open to the entire population of the world to edit, whether they knew what they were writing about or not.
The theory was that, yes, mistakes would be made in the early versions of articles, but the very laws of mathematics dictated that the tendency over time would be for errors to be corrected, until what was left would be the distilled essence of pure truth.
the trouble with that analysis is that it makes far too little allowance for the real world, populated as it is by countless vandals like my sons, who value a good laugh - or the chance to grind an axe - far above man's quest for enlightenment.
Indeed, I notice that Wikipedia's article on itself is marked with a padlock, meaning it's protected from interference by you or me - which doesn't say much for its managers' faith in the emergence of truth through absolute freedom.
The theory was that, yes, mistakes would be made in the early versions of articles, but the very laws of mathematics dictated that the tendency over time would be for errors to be corrected, until what was left would be the distilled essence of pure truth.
the trouble with that analysis is that it makes far too little allowance for the real world, populated as it is by countless vandals like my sons, who value a good laugh - or the chance to grind an axe - far above man's quest for enlightenment.
Indeed, I notice that Wikipedia's article on itself is marked with a padlock, meaning it's protected from interference by you or me - which doesn't say much for its managers' faith in the emergence of truth through absolute freedom.
And the game goes on... and on ... and on ...
So, in that example, who won what Bob McHenry calls "The Wikipedia Game" ???
Chorus: We didn't stomp the liar...
So, in that example, who won what Bob McHenry calls "The Wikipedia Game" ???
Chorus: We didn't stomp the liar...
Added a comment a couple of hours ago, just a link back to here, but they haven't posted it yet.
Jon
Jon
QUOTE(Jon Awbrey @ Sat 12th April 2008, 12:40pm)
Added a comment a couple of hours ago, just a link back to here, but they haven't posted it yet.
Jon
I commented yesterday. Still not posted.
These sites that invite comments, but then take their sweet time posting them (if at all) are getting to be really annoying.
Greg
QUOTE(thekohser @ Sat 12th April 2008, 3:54pm)
QUOTE(Jon Awbrey @ Sat 12th April 2008, 12:40pm)
Added a comment a couple of hours ago, just a link back to here, but they haven't posted it yet.
Jon
I commented yesterday. Still not posted.
These sites that invite comments, but then take their sweet time posting them (if at all) are getting to be really annoying.
Greg
I have noticed that a lot of these UK sites are decidedly lacking in a decent respect for the opinions of us colonials.
Jon
QUOTE(Kato @ Sat 12th April 2008, 12:28am)
I think we should reconsider those forums. Or preferably scrap them, they make it harder to find threads.
My idea, so my bad...
What I'd like to do eventually is figureout a way to highlight threads that have, say, a five-star rating with something more obvious than just the five stars. But what would be really nice would be a means of filtering the news-thread list so as to only show five-star threads, in chronological order.
Right now, the best we can do would be something like this link:
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?act=S...changefilters=1
Which is simply the "Order by number of replies" option at the bottom of the topic list. That way you see all the most heavily-scraped stories, i.e., the ones picked up from wire services by the most papers, but something involving human-generated ratings would be better.
I dunno... maybe I could make the stars bigger...
Diff seems to have been oversighted
See no evil...
See no evil...
QUOTE(Jacina @ Tue 15th April 2008, 4:29am)
Diff seems to have been oversighted
See no evil...
Executed by a Recent Changes patroller boy.
Funny how he (and others like him) missed the bad "recent change" at the time it counted.
Greg
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