One last, brief comment on the Essjay scandal
Something just came to my notice about the Essjay scandal that removed all doubt on a certain point, which placed things into a clearer perspective. I know I said I wouldn’t write anything else about the scandal, so I’ll be brief.
A Wikinews article quotes a page from Essjay’s old user talk archives. (Note, this latter page is hosted by Daniel Brandt, a harsh Wikipedia critic. I would link to the original Wikipedia page, but it appears to have been deleted from Wikipedia.) Essjay wrote on Feb. 2:
Once I accepted a position with Wikia, I was in a safe place to “come out,” and I did. Before I accepted the position, I provided all my real details to Angela [Beesley] and Jimbo, and immediately provided the same information to [Wikipedia lawyer] Brad Patrick…
This clearly confirms that Jimmy and crew did know that Essjay was a 24-year-old who had been impersonating a professor, and they knew this as early as January, when Essjay started work with Wikia. That entails that
- In January, Wikia hired Essjay in full knowledge that Essjay had been impersonating a professor.
- In February, Jimmy nominated Essjay to the Arbitration Committee knowing that Essjay had been impersonating a professor. The Arbitration Committee had to accept Essjay’s nomination. Presumably, many if not all of the members also knew that he had been impersonating a professor.
- In February, when Jimmy told The New Yorker, “I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it,” he was referring to the fact that Essjay had been impersonating a professor.
I would like to point out, therefore, why this can be considered a scandal: it reveals that Wikipedia’s management did not regard it as a problem if one of its own co-managers engaged in identity fraud for personal advantage. Indeed, Wikipedia’s management knowingly aided and defended such fraud. Only after these sad facts were publicly exposed, only after there was a hue and cry, did Jimmy Wales decide to ask for Essjay’s resignation. Critics may claim that the world of Wikipedia has its own irremediably corrupt ethics; but the recent backpedalling of Wikipedia’s management actually demonstrates that Wikipedia is in fact still constrained by the higher ethics of the larger and more mature world of which it is a part. That’s one good thing–it is, perhaps, the silver lining to be found here.
Anyway, I’ll bow out now.
[…] 3: here is the last comment I’ll be making about this situation. I promise. — Erm, not quite. […]
Pingback by Citizendium Blog » Jimmy Wales’ latest response on the Essjay situation — March 5, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Why would you believe Essjay’s version of events? This is the same kid who said in his “apology” that he was offered money by Stacy Schiff to compensate him for his time. See - http://blog.xodp.org/2007/03/closure-still-lacking-in-essjay.html -.
Comment by Internet Esquire — March 5, 2007 @ 4:02 pm
How plausible is it to think Wikia hired Essjay without determining both that he was 24 and what is his real background. How many real-world 24-year-olds can you point to who have not only achieved two advanced degrees? Okay, a few in math. But how many that have achieved tenure at a university? Zero, right?
Comment by Stephen Ewen — March 5, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
I assume that someone somewhere in the top echelon knew. That’s essentially inevitable. He was “open” about it to questions for over a month.
What I find disturbing is that basically every avenue of discussion on WP has been closed and in many cases deleted. I mean, the RfC, the User talk page, the article, the AfD was speedily closed out of process, and then speedily reopened amid-review. Comments are also disappearing about it from Jimbo’s talk page. I’m not calling “cabal” or anything, but it’s starting to smell funny.
Comment by ZachPruckowski — March 5, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Agreed with Internet Esquire, you are presumptuous to believe Essjay, after he accuses Schiff of bad practices.
Zach: RfCs are generally deleted, and Wikipedia gives its users the right to have their userpage and talkpage deleted, as a right to drop out of the project. The article AfD I agree was closed out of process, but at the time, did Essjay meet Wikipedia’s criteria for notability?
At the time Jimmy defended Essjay, he did so not knowing this fake ID was to sway content disputes.
Comment by Nicholas Moreau — March 6, 2007 @ 9:23 am
How do we know for sure that Jimmy Wales knew that Essjay had been impersonating a professor? The talk page on Wikipedia Watch could be fake, or Essjay could be lying on it.
Comment by Bob — March 7, 2007 @ 4:57 am
I was born in 1973, and I graduated medical school in 1998, so I was 25 at the time. I was the third-youngest in my med school class. So I suppose it’s (almost) possible to have two degrees by age 24, though it would be a bit of a stretch. And I have not yet achieved tenure at a university, though I have been nominated to be faculty at UCLA.
Comment by Michael Benjamin — March 7, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
The Essjay Controversy Rumbles On… Mr. Jimmy Wales and his crew have managed to cover up a letter Essjay sent to a college professor usinig his falsified credentials to vouch for Wikipidia’s accuracy and reliability. Currently, the article on the Essjay controversy on Wikipedia does not mention the letter Essjay sent to a real world professor in which he used a fake persona. UNBELIEVABLE!
Comment by Zelda Goodman — March 25, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
[…] Larry Sanger neatly summarized the events surrounding a scandal that took place in early 2007. In January, Wikia, Inc. hired a 24-year-old named Ryan Jordan, in full […]
Pingback by Wikipedia Review: Opinions and Editorials » Blog Archive » The tight-knit web of Wikimedia and Wikia — August 21, 2007 @ 8:01 am
Does Jimmy Wales know that Essjay had been impersonating as a professor?
Comment by Karen — March 16, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
Yes, he hired him: how could he not know?
Comment by Larry Sanger — March 17, 2008 @ 7:09 am