[WikiEN-l] Johann Hari and WP

[Newyorkbrad]

There's an ANI thread on this issue.

There is also some coverage on an external, critical website.

Newyorkbrad

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Charles Matthews <
charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> I've probably said here in the past (and have certainly thought) that
> attention to WP's more media-like aspects can be a distraction from the
> 'pedia stuff. But the current hoo-ha about [[Johann Hari]] of the
> (London) Independent touches rather directly on an aspect of my past
> admin work. See
>
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/12/johann-hari-suspended-independent
>
> As anyone who follows the past history of the article about Hari can
> see, I was involved quite heavily in the BLP side, at a point over three
> years ago. And then the particular edit war ceased after I blocked one
> of the participants for three months. I point this out because I was
> dealing also with the other party in that war, the account the Guardian
> inaccurately calls a "sock-puppet". There is a fair amount of mud being
> slung at Hari right now on another matter. [[Andreas Whittam Smith]] is
> looking into both the alleged plagiarism, which he is obviously entirely
> competent to do, and the alleged COI or meat-puppet or whatever editing
> from the account [[User:David r from meth productions]].
>
> Given the "attempted outing" going on, and possible further close
> interest in the real-life identities of editors caught up in this
> business, I'm concerned (a) that this all may get nastier yet, and (b)
> that at least one person's professional standing may be affected by
> interpretations based on identifications, tenuous or otherwise, of our
> editors. Whittam Smith may need some help in figuring out the
> implications, at very least.
>
> If there are admins or others out there with further information on all
> this, I'd be interested to hear, offline and on a confidential basis. A
> submission  to Whittam Smith might help justice be done in this matter.
> Also, I suppose, I might not be the right person to handle this, and I'm
> open to other suggestions as to what, if anything, should be done.
> Please use good judgement in posting anything to this list.
>
> Charles
>
>
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