Essjay controversy

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Netscott (talk | contribs) at 00:27, 7 March 2007 (rv, sorry that lead is not the story... he forged his credentials ages ago... the controversy was the reporting about it). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 00:27, 7 March 2007 by Netscott (talk | contribs) (rv, sorry that lead is not the story... he forged his credentials ages ago... the controversy was the reporting about it)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. Feel free to improve this article or discuss changes on the talk page, but please note that updates without valid and reliable references will be removed. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Misplaced Pages's deletion policy .
You may share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.

Please improve the article if possible, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.

Template:InfoboxStart

July 31, 2006 — The New Yorker publishes story about Misplaced Pages by Schiff.
January, 2007 — Essjay hired by Wikia.
January 15, 2007 — Essjay posts autobiographical details on his user page at Wikia, giving his name, age, previous employment history from age 19, and positions within various Wikimedia Foundation projects.
February 23, 2007 — Wales announces his appointment of Essjay to Misplaced Pages's Arbitration Committee.
February 28, 2007 — Radar Online notes the fact correction appended to the The New Yorker article.
March 3, 2007 — Wales issues a statement on his user talk page at Misplaced Pages.
March 4, 2007 — Essjay announces his retirement from Misplaced Pages on his user talk page at Misplaced Pages.
March 6, 2007 — Story featured on World News with Charles Gibson.

Template:InfoboxEnd

The Essjay controversy refers to events related to a Misplaced Pages user known by the name "Essjay" who was a prominent editor and administrator of the English Misplaced Pages and briefly concurrently employed by the for-profit organization Wikia. He gained notoriety outside Misplaced Pages and Wikia when The New Yorker magazine made a February 2007 addendum to an article written some months prior by Stacy Schiff. The original article had presented Essjay as having notable academic credentials which were cited from Essjay's Misplaced Pages userpage. The addendum stated that according to Essjay these credentials were non-existent and were part of an online persona he had created in part to avoid cyberstalking.

Essjay described himself on his user profile as "a tenured professor of theology at a private university in the eastern United States." In reality, Ryan Jordan was a 24-year-old community college dropout from Kentucky who relied on sources like Catholicism for Dummies when editing articles.

After he was outed, Jordan resigned as a contributor to the site.

New Yorker interview

Essjay was interviewed for a New Yorker article on Misplaced Pages titled "Know It All" published in the July 31, 2006 issue. According to the New Yorker, "he was willing to describe his work as a Misplaced Pages administrator but would not identify himself other than by confirming the biographical details that appeared on his user page.

At the end of February 2007 the New Yorker updated the article with a correction indicating that "Essjay" had identified himself as Ryan Jordon (born 1982/3) . The New Yorker went on to state, "he was described in the piece as 'a tenured professor of religion at a private university' with 'a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law.'" He now claims he's actually "twenty-four and holds no advanced degrees, and that he has never taught." An investigation by the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal found he had attended, but never graduated from, Centre College and Bluegrass Community and Technical College (formerly known as Lexington Community College). The paper also found that, despite his claim to have had a three month special position with a United States Bankruptcy Trustee, the office had no record that Jordan had worked there.

According to Vancouver daily paper 24 Hours, activist and Misplaced Pages critic Daniel Brandt had discovered the Essjay/Ryan Jordan connection, and reported this to The New Yorker.

Controversy fallout

Initially, Misplaced Pages co-founder Jimmy Wales said of this administrator's invented persona: "I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it." Following intense scrutiny from bloggers on the internet and internally from Misplaced Pages, Wales later wrote on his Misplaced Pages User talk page, "I have asked Essjay to resign his positions of trust within the community." Essjay retired from Misplaced Pages on March 4, 2007. Shortly afterward, Misplaced Pages stewards, at Essjay's request, deleted most of the content of his user page and removed his account's administrative rights. Essjay also resigned from Wikia, Wales's for-profit company. Reaction from within the Misplaced Pages community was sharp, but mixed with some fellow editors offering complete support while others accused Jordan of "plain and simple fraud."

As a result of the controversy, Misplaced Pages users began a review of Essjay's previous edits and discovered evidence he flaunted his fictional professorship to influence editorial consideration of edits he made.

"People have gone through his edits and found places where he was basically cashing in on his fake credentials to bolster his arguments," said Michael Snow, a Misplaced Pages administrator and founder of the Misplaced Pages community newspaper, The Misplaced Pages Signpost. "Those will get looked at again."

References

^ Schiff, Stacy (2006-07-24). "Know it All". The New Yorker.
^ Zaharov-Reutt, Alex (March 2, 2007). "Misplaced Pages: did one of its admins lie?". iTWire.
Farrell, Nick (March 1, 2007). "Misplaced Pages 'expert' lied about qualifications". The Inquirer.
^ Goldman, Russell (6 March 2007). "Wikiscandal: A Prominent Editor at the Popular Online Encyclopedia Is a Fraud". ABC News. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
^ Wolfson, Andrew (March 6, 2007). "Misplaced Pages editor who posed as professor is Ky. dropout". Louisville Courier-Journal. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
King, Ian (March 2, 2007). "A Wiki web they've woven". Vancouver 24 Hours.
^ Cohen, Noam (March 5, 2007). "A Contributor to Misplaced Pages Has His Fictional Side". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Audio

Misplaced Pages Weekly special episode 12 - "Essjay Edition".

Misplaced Pages

New Yorker interview

Controversy fallout

See also

References

Audio

Further reading

News sources

Primary sources

Essjay's userpage images