Coming Attractions …

I've been wanting to start a BIGGER PICTURE meta-discussion on the Global Badlist issue, because I think a lot of casual observers — who don't know Wikipedia the way that many of us Sadder Budweisers at The Wikipedia Review have been forced to Get To Know It — may be missing what's really going on at the Meta Levels of WikiMedia's Command & Control Freakdom.

So I think I'll take some time this week to lay out a few observations on that score.

Jon

Here's an exercise to get the ball rolling …

Compare & Contrast:

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/wikipediareview.com (WebCite Copy)
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/wikia.com

According to a semi-reliable source, there are about 13,000 outbound links from Wikipedia to Wikia. Back in the day, I would have known where to find a couple of those link tracer tools, but maybe someone else will have one ready to hand.

Jon

Ummm - I just deleted Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spam/LinkReports/wikipediareview.com per a request I received, and as it had been previously deleted last year anyway it shouldn't have been hanging about. It's automatically generated/collated by COIBot (T-C-L-K-R-D) . There was no sense in leaving it hanging about and it was causing problems. Best off referring to the webcite version.

But I felt so much safer knowing that Big Bubba Bot was watching over us !!!

Ja Ja

A Little Boid tole me to try it this way:

• Special:LinkSearch&target=*.wikipediareview.com
• Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=10000&target=http://*.wikia.com

The Score, Sports Φans, Is This:

• Wikipedia Review.Com — 46
• Wikia.UnLimited — 14,708

But I'm sure there was an independent service out there somewhere or other that gave a nice summary report. Will try to find it later.

Jon

Don't like the Ads? Then become an Admind! Users who are Adminds will only see Ads in their Dreams and have more options than anonymous users!

Data like these could be hauled out of one Wikiapedia closet after another until the Ca$h Cow$ take over the link farm. It's the sort of thing that makes you ROFL every time you hear some Wikipediot getting all Holier Than Thou about their "educational charity" and demonizing others for their "crass commercialism". The plain fact is that Wikipedia is nothing but the store-front façade of a non-profit organization that is being used to funnel link-lucre into the commercial hoppers of Wikia. Maybe Wikipedia's self-anointed "spam fighters" once had a legitimate job to do, but Job One these days is making sure that the lion's share of the SPAM goes straight into Jimbo's Frying Pan.

Jon

Greg Kohs blogged on this subject at the end of last year:

• Greg Kohs (22 Dec 2008), Hypocrisy 101 : External Links "Policy"

There he reports approximately 12,000 links from Wikipedia to Wikia. Checking today we get the following report:

• Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=10000&target=http://*.wikia.com

This last time I clicked it, I got 14,780 links from Wikipedia to Wikia. That's a rate of 1500 additional links per lunum.

It appears that Hypocrisy is one of the few Growth Industries that we have left.

Jon