What is rather odd is that the 'story' is written as a defense of Nichalp/Wifione/Wikifone. Possibly some people may have known him personally and therefore the tone of the article.
I find the statement "They don't realize that, in the long run, editors cannot be expected to devote their time to the project for free.[3] ". Realise? What does that mean? Nobody is forcing anyone to devote any time at all to Wikipedia. What Wikipedia represents is an opportunity (among other, better, things) for people to commit fraudulent acts, but that may be said of almost anything material or even spiritual. If anyone doesn't like it, they are free to relax and do something else that they find more spiritually or materially relevant. And it is not 'they' who don't realise (or do, we the silly naive people), it is 'us'.
As for the client, the less said the better. It remains to be seen why the government regulators fail year after year to do anything about this sad situation. So far, the scams do not amount to hundreds of thousands of crores, which at least attracts CAG attention, although the impact on India's societal health may end up being far deeper. Have they ever sued the government or threatened to sue? Have they sued individual government officers? - that is certainly pretty hard to do, much much harder than to sue individual volunteer Wikimedians.
People following education issues will have noticed that minority education institutions have soundly protested the provisions of the new Right To Education Act. I feel such actions are partly a response the the pressure that will now be put on privately funded teaching mills. It is a very complex situation, but the nexus between politicians and degree shops/moneymaking rackets is a doleful commentary on India's evolving political landscape.
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 1:38 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucherian@gmail.comwrote:
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&a...
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=histor...
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@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@ovi.com guptchar@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=24786&st=0&p=177577&#entry177577
[3] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid_editing
[4]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&dir=prev&action=view&target=Wifione
[5]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=295308358#Cash_for_spam
[6]
en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard&oldid=296240244#Nichalp
[7] wikidashboard.appspot.com/enwiki/wiki/User:Wifione
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