Fred Bauder (fredbaud@ctelco.net) [050218 01:23]:
True and in our human attempt to adequately describe such folks we use the words "totalitarian" and "terrorist", in reference to such organizations and governments as the People's Republic of China and individuals such as Osama bin Ladin. Such folks do not hesitate to "mess up other things for the cause". There is every reason, based on their history, to presume that they will conduct themselves in that way on Wikipedia and in fact they routinely do so, some crudely, some with a measure of sophistication.
Astroturfing in general is going to be a problem. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:204.251.90.242
The edit in question is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yahoo%21&diff=prev&oldid=1...
That's a crude example. I am certain there are much less crude examples ongoing as we speak.
- d.