hi,
I do not understand why this accusation is written as a work of fiction.
Whatever the problems faced by an individual, it does not provide
grounds for crimes like theft. If the person does resort to these
methods, has to face the consequences, if found out. I am sure we
appreciated User:Nichalp's contributions when they were made. However,
when he/she has made mistakes and makes them multiple times, I think
this also warrants serious investigation.
Pradeep
Handheld
On 07/02/2012, guptchar(a)ovi.com <guptchar(a)ovi.com> wrote:
This is the story of Nichalp[1], an Indian student from Mumbai who became
obsessed with editing Wikipedia at a young age. He transformed several
articles into featured articles, and became a role model for many editors.
He was granted the bureaucrat, oversight and administrator privileges -
nobody deserved these rights more than him, not even Jimbo.
A major change in Nichalp's life came when he came to Australia for higher
education. Facing a severe financial crunch, Nichalp decided to use the only
extraordinary skill he had - editing Wikipedia - for making money. He put up
ads on several freelancer recruiting websites, promising to write articles
in oexchange for small amounts of money.[2] These were the days when the PR
professionals had started realizing the importance of Wikipedia. There were
many takers for Nichalp's services. With his "sockpuppet" accounts,
Nichalp
made a number of contributions (many of which stand deleted now).
Unfortunately for Nichalp, the Wikizealots live in an idealistic world. They
don't realize that, in the long run, editors cannot be expected to devote
their time to the project for free.[3] When the Wikihounds came to know
about one of Nichalp's paid editing accounts they came after him. Nichalp
knew he would be stalked in real life, so he made his main account inactive.
Meanwhile, he continued to be active through his other paid editing
accounts. A man of foresight, Nichalp started another account in April 2009
to gain back his admin rights.[4]
The Wikihounds have an astonishing ability to track the suspicious accounts
- they tracked another one of Nichalp's paid editing accouents.[5] The drama
prompted the Arbitration Committee to send him an email enquiry about the
paid editing concerns. Nichalp's identity was well-known to those who had
exposed his paid editing. The personal information that he had posted
earlier on his user page and elsewhere on Wikipedia (and social networking
sites) had made it easy for Wikihounds to stalk him in real life. Denial was
not an option - Nichalp knew the Wikihounds were capable of producing
evidence against him. Pleading not guilty would only gather more eyeballs
and possibly lead to media attention - that could sabotage his post-college
career. Pleading guilty was not an option either - it would lead to the same
fate. Nichalp did what he felt was the best option before him. He neither
accepted the charge, nor denied it. What happened next was unfortunate for
him. Ignoring his 5-year long devotion to the project, the Arbitration
Committee took away his bureaucrat, administrator and oversight rights in an
unopposed judgment.[6]
Realizing that his paid editing accounts may be under survelliance from the
Wikihounds, Nichalp abandoned all of them. All of them, except one - the one
he had started in April 2009 with the objective of gaining back his admin
rights: Wifione. Nichalp carefully crafted his new wiki identity. He devoted
this new account to earning money from India's most notorious self-styled
"management guru". To make sure his paid editing does not appear blatantly
obvious, Nichalp (or shall we call him Wifione, now?) engaged in a wide
range of edits. Wifione rose up in the wiki-hierarchy and became the
administrator. He tried not to appear like a paid editor, but the constant
pressure from his client forced him to make constant edits to the pages
associated with the client. Anyone looking at his top 50 edits would not
fail to notice that much of his work in the article namespace was devoted to
the pages associated with his client and its competitors.[7] But Wifione
knew
that nobody would oppose him openly: his client is infamous for suing any
one who criticizes him or his organization. Nobody wants to be sued for 500
million bucks in a court that lies in the remotest part of the Indian
subcontinent - traveling to and staying in Silchar during every court
hearing could bankrupt a humble wiki editor. Besides, Wifione had taken care
not to repeat the mistakes he had made as Nichalp - he had left no tracks
that would lead the Wikihounds to him. Or so he thought.
[1]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nichalp
[2]
wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=1122a1d3e604276b519c9501881856f4&showto…
[3]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing
[4]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&dir=prev&a…
[5]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=29530835…
[6]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticebo…
[7]
wikidashboard.appspot.com/enwiki/wiki/User:Wifione
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