[WikiEN-l] People editing their own Wikipedia articles.

[Chip Berlet]

Hi,
 
Consider the situation from the point of view of a Wiki editor whose entry repeatedly has been attacked and filled with false claims and defamatory text. My real name is Chip Berlet.  I discovered my entry after being on Wiki for a short time when I got an e-mail from a reporter asking me why I had hid the fact that I had been a member of SDS, a radical group in the U.S. in the 1960s.  I had never been a member of SDS,  I responded.  It's all over the Internet, he replied.
 
Sure enough, it was all over the Internet, but is was not true.  I tracked it back to an entry made by a LaRouche supporter here on Wiki.  I deleted the false information, and was immediately embroiled in a controversy over whether or not it was proper for me to edit my own entry.  Forget that the entry was false, and given that I am freelance journalist, potentially defamatory, and certainly something that threatend my ability to earn a living. 
 
Since then, several Wiki editors with whom I have had a disagreement have gone out of their way to add negative text to my entry.  Currently, one Wiki editor has added a large amount of false and defamatory material to my entry.  This material has appeared on various websites and print publications, but it simply is not true. This editor is also in the middle of a lengthy mediation with me that has been protracted and not to his/her liking. Editing my entry is a form of juvenile retribution.
 
Am I supposed to publish a printed document refuting false statements plonked onto my entry by cult lunatics, right-wing fanatics, and just plain jerks? Am I supposed to rely on sympathetic and honest Wiki editors who take the time to demand documentation and evidence on my behalf on my entry page?  Am I supposed to leave the false and defamatory on my page in the meantime?
 
Am I pissed off?
 
YES!
 
I do not have an answer to these question, but I do know that the typical anarcho-libertarian response that it will all work out in the long run is not very statisfying when someone is filling up your entry with crap.
 
-Cberlet
aka
Chip Berlet