Unbelievable but Shocking !
I am not sure if Wikifone is same as Nichalp, but a look at the edit
history of Wikifone, the editor has some serious interest to protect the
interests of IIPM and its stakeholders.
He seems to even change policy pages to suit his cause
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ANo_original_research&…
Wifione seems to be working on IIM and Amity ( Competitors to IIPM)
articles as well, possibly trying to show them in bad light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amity_University&action=historysu…
Nevertheless , this has be investigated or possibly reported to Arb Com.
-TC
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Pradeep Mohandas <
pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> 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&showtopic=…
> >
> > [3] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing
> >
> > [4]
> >
> en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&dir=prev&action=vi…
> >
> > [5]
> >
> en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=295308358#Ca…
> >
> > [6]
> >
> en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticebo…
> >
> > [7] wikidashboard.appspot.com/enwiki/wiki/User:Wifione
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
> --
> Pradeep Mohandas
> How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
Hello everyone,
I am pleased to announce the beginning of the voting of steward elections
2012 [1]. Eligible voters are now encouraged to give their valuable votes
to elect new stewards this year. To find out more about voter eligibility,
please take a look on our guidelines page. [2] Vote page will remain open
to vote until February 27 2012, 23:59 (UTC).
This year, we have made some modifications so it will be easier for voters
to vote compared to the last years. You just have to follow the following
steps.
- Click on the big gray vote button on the vote page, a box will appear;
- Select your vote (yes/no/neutral), and write your comments (if you
have any) in the comment box;
- And click "vote" on that box and it will save your vote automatically.
Additionally, we are using template and bot so it will be easy to check the
votes and verify the eligible ones.
This year, we are also arranging the confirmation of existing stewards [3],
so you are also welcome to give your valuable comments/feedback about their
works. Confirmations are a good opportunity to check if we are still happy
with our current stewards. So please speak your voice there.
if you have any queries related to anything about to the election, you can
ask us on the talk page [4]. You are also free to poke us on IRC channel
#wikimedia-stewards-elections.
We hope you will participate as soon as possible to speak your opinion and
make this year's election a successful one (as you did in past).
Please feel free to forward this e-mail to any other lists if you think it
will be useful. :-)
Regards,
Tanvir Rahman
Wikitanvir on Wikimedia
(On behalf of the Election Committee.)
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012/Guidelines
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Confirm/2012/en
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Stewards/Elections_2012
Some sources on my Wikipedia search are showing reports that prospective US
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's staff have become embroiled over
edits they wanted made to his Wikipedia article.
Given the prominence of the personage and the current point in the
seemingly interminable US election cycle, the more eyes on this the better.
Gingrich is probably more sympathetic to Wikipedia than most politicians
but we probably wouldn't want to get into a fight needlessly, especially
one in which we may appear to take a partisan position.