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Wikipedia bans Scientologists
« on: 2009-05-29 16:42:32 » |
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Wikipedia Bans Church of Scientology
[ Hermit : It seems that the Scientologists lose any time that there isn't an identifiable group that can be browbeaten, bribed or blackmailed into accepting their pernicious behaviour. Wikipedia has accepted that some people simply cannot running their scissors into others and acted to prohibit the use of their forum by memoids to propagate their fantasies. Sensible? Apropos of something, it is a pity this article was written by somebody who can't spell and didn't bother to use a spell checker. I am not fixing it. ]
Source: Wired.com
Authors: Ryan Singel
Dated: 2009-05-29
Wikipedia has banned the Church of Scientology from editing any articles as punishment for repeated and deceptive editing of articles related to the controversial religion, a landmark ruling from the site’s inner circle which prides itself on being open and inclusive.
In a 10-1 ruling Thursday, the site’s arbitration counsel voted to ban users coming from all IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology and its associates, and further banned a number of editors by name. The story was first reported by The Register.
Self-serving Wikipedia edits are hardly new. Wired.com readers pulled in an award for discovering the most egregious Wikipdia whitewashes by corporation and government agencies, but this is the first time the site has taken such drastic actions to block such edits.
And such edits are unlikely to stop, now that the user-created encyclopedia has become one of the net’s most popular sites and is often the top result for searches on a subject. Being able to massage an entry about oneself or one’s company has proven difficult to resist, even for founder Jimmy Wales — despite Wikipedia’s official warnings to the contrary.
The Church of Scientology, founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, has had a long and bloody history on the net — dating back to Usenet groups, where critics maintain that the organization is a cult that brainwashes its members and sucks them dry financially. The Church, which teaches that humans are reincarnated and lived on other planets, says it is a legitimate religion. [ Hermit : Classic example of lunatic American reportage bowing to "balance" and ending up vulnerable to being used to propagate any insanity ]
The case, which began in December, centers on more than 400 articles about the ultra-secretive Church and its members. Those pages have hosted long-running, and fierce edit wars that pitted organized Church of Scientology editors — using multiple accounts — versus critics of Scientology who fought those changes by citign their own or each other’s self-published material. In fact, this is the fourth Wikipedia arbitration case concerning Scientology in as many years.
The Committee also banned a number of editors individually, prohibiting them from editing any Scientology-related articles for at least six months. Those privileges can be re-instated afterwards if they show they can play nicely by Wikipedia’s rules.
While most disputes involving the Web and Scientology in the past year have involved anti-Scientology activists who bind toghther under the name Anonymous, that group is largely not involved in this argument, since only registered accounts are able to edit the articles under dispute.
The Church of Scientology did not immediately return a voice message, asking for comment.
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