http://www.halfpixel.com/2007/02/15/delete-wikipedia/
QUOTE
There’s been a little bit of a furor over Wikipedia and its inclusion policies for webcomics. It’s happened before; the most recent round of anger at Wikipedia’s confused methodologies started when Brad Guigar’s Evil Inc was put up to a vote for deletion, then spared, then re-deleted without a new vote, then re-spared by the Wikipedia gods. Next on the non-notable chopping block was Paul Southworth’s Ugly Hill. Paul took it personally and decided to link Ugly Hill’s Article for Deletion at his site, which of course resulted in upset fans supporting the strip’s inclusion.
But in Wikipedia terms this is called “meatpuppetry,†and frowned upon, as it can skew the vote in one direction. After all, if a hundred people who are fans claim a comic is notable, how will the three Wikipedia editors who know it’s not be heard?
The Webcomics Purge of ‘07 continues with the deletion of Starslip Crisis‘ article. An article for deletion was submitted to Wikipedia, to delete Starslip Crisis, and the measure carried.
The result was delete and redirect to Blank Label Comics. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 10:42, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
I started the vote to delete Starslip Crisis.
I started the vote to delete Starslip Crisis using a freshly-registered user with no other edits under his belt.
I also used faulty logic to initiate the discussion: I said www.starslip.com has no Alexa data, and isn’t notable as a result. (www.starslip.com is just a redirect: the comic’s URL is www.starslipcrisis.com and has an Alexa rank.)
Then I registered ten more fake users to stuff the original delete vote. This is called “sock puppetry†in Wikipedia terminology, and is frowned upon. The names of the fake users I used in the AfD are: Salby, Incredulous, Banalzebub, Hammerabbi, LKeith30, Repromancer, Expiwikist, Floxman, YothSog, and 66.27.212.63.
It’s so frowned upon that when someone else — a person I don’t know calling himself WizardBrad — tried to use a sock puppet to get his Keep vote to count twice, he was found to be cheating and his vote was struck from the record! Bless your heart, WizardBrad.
Here I was terrified that the Wikipedia editors-that-be would uncover my ruse to falsely delete a webcomic from their pages, and not only did they not find me out, they discounted someone cheating in Starslip’s favor!! How did they catch him and not me? Why did they bother to check up on his IP and not the IP address I used for the ten fake voters?
But in Wikipedia terms this is called “meatpuppetry,†and frowned upon, as it can skew the vote in one direction. After all, if a hundred people who are fans claim a comic is notable, how will the three Wikipedia editors who know it’s not be heard?
The Webcomics Purge of ‘07 continues with the deletion of Starslip Crisis‘ article. An article for deletion was submitted to Wikipedia, to delete Starslip Crisis, and the measure carried.
The result was delete and redirect to Blank Label Comics. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 10:42, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
I started the vote to delete Starslip Crisis.
I started the vote to delete Starslip Crisis using a freshly-registered user with no other edits under his belt.
I also used faulty logic to initiate the discussion: I said www.starslip.com has no Alexa data, and isn’t notable as a result. (www.starslip.com is just a redirect: the comic’s URL is www.starslipcrisis.com and has an Alexa rank.)
Then I registered ten more fake users to stuff the original delete vote. This is called “sock puppetry†in Wikipedia terminology, and is frowned upon. The names of the fake users I used in the AfD are: Salby, Incredulous, Banalzebub, Hammerabbi, LKeith30, Repromancer, Expiwikist, Floxman, YothSog, and 66.27.212.63.
It’s so frowned upon that when someone else — a person I don’t know calling himself WizardBrad — tried to use a sock puppet to get his Keep vote to count twice, he was found to be cheating and his vote was struck from the record! Bless your heart, WizardBrad.
Here I was terrified that the Wikipedia editors-that-be would uncover my ruse to falsely delete a webcomic from their pages, and not only did they not find me out, they discounted someone cheating in Starslip’s favor!! How did they catch him and not me? Why did they bother to check up on his IP and not the IP address I used for the ten fake voters?
A perfect demonstration of how to game Wikipedia and get away with it. Except that Kris Straub is making a larger point than just gaming the system...
