That's REALLY going to leave a mark

Wikipedia "expert" commentator turns out to be an utter fraud:

Fake Wikipedia prof altered 20,000 entries

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, has been plunged into controversy after one of its most prolific contributors and editors, a professor of religion with advanced degrees in theology and canon law, was exposed as a 24-year-old community college drop-out.

The editor, who called himself Essjay, was recruited by staff at Wikipedia to work on the site’s arbitration committee, a team of expert administrators charged with vetting content on the online "free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit".

But no-one apparently vetted the credentials of Essjay, who claimed to be a tenured professor of religion at a private university and contributed to an estimated 20,000 Wikipedia entries.

In fact Essjay was actually Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old from Kentucky with no advanced degrees who used texts such as Catholicism for Dummies to help him correct articles on the penitential rite or transubstantiation.

He was unmasked after the New Yorker magazine ran a long feature on Wikipedia last summer that referred to Essjay’s contributions to the site and how he would spend up to 14 hours a day editing, "correcting errors and removing obscenities".

The piece described him as a "professor of religion with a PhD in theology and a degree in canon law" and noted he was serving his "second term as chair of the mediation committee" which rules on disputes over information posted on the site.

But last week Essjay was forced to resign after a noted critic of the online encyclopaedia contacted the New Yorker and told the magazine his biographical information was fake.

"He holds no advanced degrees," the New Yorker stated in an editor’s note. "He has never taught."

The magazine added: "At the time of publication, neither we nor Wikipedia knew Essjay’s real name."

Essjay had told them he hid his identity because "he feared personal retribution from those he had ruled against online", the New Yorker said.

In a statement posted on the site on March 3, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder, said he had asked EssJay to "resign his positions of trust within the community" immediately after learning he had "used his false credentials in content disputes".

"From the moment this whole thing became known, Essjay has been contrite and apologetic," he said. "People who characterise him as being 'proud' of it or 'bragging' are badly mistaken."

But Mr Wales added: "Despite my personal forgiveness, I hope that he will accept my resignation request, because forgiveness or not, these positions are not appropriate for him now - Wikipedia is built on (among other things) twin pillars of trust and tolerance.

"The integrity of the project depends on the core community being passionate about quality and integrity, so that we can trust each other. The harmony of our work depends on human understanding and forgiveness of errors."

The Louisville Courier Journal in Kentucky found Mr Jordan has attended but never graduated from a community college in the city.

Asked about the incident’s impact on Wikipedia’s credibility, Mr Wales told the paper: "It is not good, obviously, but the interesting thing is that Mr Jordan was an excellent editor, credentials or no. His work was extremely positive for Wikipedia."

Wikipedia said it had received no complaints about the accuracy any of Essjay’s contributions. On Essjay’s user talk page on Wikipedia, the word "retired" is spelt out in a big black box.

"My comments here will be short and to the point: I’m no longer taking part here," Mr Jordan said in his final posting. "I’ve enjoyed my time here, and done much good work; my time, however, is over, and leaving is the best thing for me and for Wikipedia.

"I walk away happy to be free to go about other things. I hope others will refocus the energy they have spent the past few days in defending and denouncing me to make something here at Wikipedia better. With love to all who have been my friends here."

Critics of the site said the deception was indicative of Wikipedia culture that often results in incorrect information as it allows anyone to create or alter entries.

When first alerted to Mr Jordan's fake persona, Mr Wales said he had no problem with the invention.

The New Yorker quoted him in its correction as saying: “I regard it as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it.”

But over the weekend he changed his mind after an outcry from Wikipedia users.

The Wikipedia entry on the “Essjay scandal” says reaction “from within the Wikipedia community was sharp, but mixed with some fellow editors offering complete support while others accused Jordan of 'plain and simple fraud'”.

Wikipedia, founded in 2001, is run by a foundation in St. Petersburg, Florida. A non-profit organisation, it carries no advertising. It attracts around 160 million unique visitors a month and has six million articles in 250 languages, including 1.6 million in the English edition.

In 2004 Mr Wales launched a commercial company, Wikia, in an attempt to create profitable websites based on the Wikipedia model.

Regrettheerror.com, a website that reports on corrections in the media, said The New Yorker should have heeded a cartoon that appeared in its July 5 1993 issue that showed a dog typing at a computer with the caption, “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.”

What's funny about this, though, is not that the prolific author of wikipedia pieces is a drop-out loser: that comes as absolutely no surprise at all. What's hilarious is that the New Yorker bought it hook, line, and sinker.

The future for young Mister Essjay? Why, an internship at the New York Times, of course!