[Wikimediaindia-l] FW: Blatant misinformation and vandalism of India articles on Wikipedia

Tue Nov 22 16:53:29 UTC 2011

Hi there,

most of you know me by my user id, AshLin or have met me in the
WikiConference wars.

I must ask editor's to not get duly influenced by one editor's response. If
Frustrated Editor has issues, let him take Fowler&fowler to ANI or to India
Noticeboard. Fowler&fowler has on the whole maintained a neutral,
representative and high quality "India." He has gone to great trouble to
get highly reliable sources, wonderful images and good language on India
article.

Frustrated Editor is completely anonymous, while that may be permitted on
Wikipedia, he is not visible to stand by his statements to this community,
he remains cloaked in anonymity, he has NOT given his own user id.

Statements like India is "It is heavily biased and doesn't mention the fact
that India is the oldest and the oldest continuing civilization in history"
is completely POV, nor does he give reliable source citations to support
his claim. The "emerging superpower" crap is another of the urban legends
people want to add.

Only one example is given & stated out of context. Fowler has shortened it
as per the tone of the article. If the user feels so concerned about it,
let him reveal himself on India Noticeboard & article talk page & take it
up for discussing. BTW canvassing is against Wikipedia policies too.

Warm regards,

Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Pradeep Mohandas <
pradeep.mohandas at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  hi,
>
> I got this email from a user. I have pointed him/her to the mailing list
> and am sharing it here.
>
> warm regards,
> Pradeep
>
> User:Prad2609
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Frankly Idontcare* <idontcarefrankly at yahoo.com>
> Date: 22 November 2011 18:50
> Subject: Blatant misinformation and vandalism of India articles on
> Wikipedia
> To: "pradeep.mohandas at gmail.com" <pradeep.mohandas at gmail.com>
>
>
> Dear Pradeep Mohandas,
>
> I got your e-mail address from your user page on wikipedia.<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User%3aPrad2609> I
> understand that you were involved in the Wikipedia conference that was held
> in Mumbai in November 2011. This should mean that you are part of
> Wikipedia. I have to bring to your attention, an issue, that has been
> bothering me from a long time.
>
> There are a few administrators on Wikipedia who "legally vandalise" pages
> related to India and block anyone who disagrees with their point of view.
> (POV) For example, if you view the "India<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India>"
> article on Wikipedia, you will notice that the introduction does not do
> justice to what is arguably the greatest civilization in world history. It
> is heavily biased and doesn't mention the fact that India is the oldest and
> the oldest continuing civilization in history. It doesn't mention the fact
> that India is an emerging superpower. The page is being constantly
> monitored and vandalised by a group of users/administrators who seem to
> have an inherent bias towards India. I tried editing the page, but was
> unable to do so because of the following users: Fowler&fowler<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aFowler%26fowler>
> , Saravask <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aSaravask>, Quigley<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aQuigley>,
> Elockid <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockid>and ElockidAlternate<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockidAlternate>.
> Of all the mentioned users,  Fowler&fowler<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aFowler%26fowler>
>  and Elockid  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockid> (
> ElockidAlternate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockidAlternate> is
> his alternate account) are by FAR, the worst. they seem to have something
> against India and Indians.  Fowler&fowler<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aFowler%26fowler> has
> continually uploaded offensive images in the demographics and economy
> sectionof the India article and made disparaging remarks about India and
> Indians! He is an administrator!!
>
> Moving on to Elockid  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockid>and
> ElockidAlternate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockidAlternate> (same
> user with another account). Go through the Economic History of India
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India>article. Under
> GDP Estimate, the following sentence was deleted by ElockidAlternate<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockidAlternate>
> :
>
> "*According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book ''The World
> Economy: A Millennial Perspective'', India had the world's largest economy
> from the first to the 18th century, with a (32.9%) share of world [[GDP]]
> in the 1st century to (28.9%) in 1000 AD, and in 1700 AD with (24.4%).*"
> <ref>The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Angus Maddison</ref>"
>
> and this sentence was replaced by:
>
> *"According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book Contours of
> the world economy, 1-2030 AD: essays in macro-economic history, India had
> the world's largest economy during the years 1 AD and 1000 AD"*
> *
> *
> Now, let me tell you how this is wrong on SO many levels:
> 1) The first statement is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT and the book clearly mentions
> that India had the largest economy from the first to the eighteenth century!
> 2) In the book " Contours of the world economy", the author clearly
> mentions that India had the largest economy from the first to the 16th
> century and in the 17th century! the sentence uploaded by Elockid <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockid>
> or ElockidAlternate <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aElockidAlternate> is
> wrong!
>
> I have tried to correct this error and I got blocked for being a
> "sockpuppet", even though i am not! I tried reporting on the Vandalism
> noticeboard, but i got blocked from editing the vandalism noticeboard!!! Is
> there anyway I can alert Jimmy Wales about the constant anti - Indian
> editing by some administrators on Wikipedia? Also, is there any way you can correct
> these edits, cuz a lot of people may be exposed to this misinformation!
> Please get back to me.
>
> Regards,
> Frustrated editor!
>
>
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