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  • Our Mission:
  • We exist to shine the light of scrutiny into the dark crevices of Wikipedia and its related projects; to examine the corruption there, along with its structural flaws; and to inoculate the unsuspecting public against the torrent of misinformation, defamation, and general nonsense that issues forth from one of the world’s most frequently visited websites, the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”
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Nihonjoe Has Been Naughty

By Eddy Landwehr

Bureaucrats are the most trusted users on Wikipedia. There are only 19 bureaucrats for the entire English-language Wikipedia. Bureaucrats have the ability to grant or revoke administrator privileges, so it is important that the Wikipedia community chooses bureaucrats they can trust. Nihonjoe, Wikipedia bureaucrat, is not trustworthy and never has been.

The elephant in the roomThe elephant in the room

Nihonjoe started editing Wikipedia in 2005. In 2006, they became an admin. They became a bureaucrat in 2009, after 3 unsuccessful attempts. When they first applied to become a bureaucrat in 2007, they stated “I think it’s very important to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest”. Those are fine words, but Nihonjoe did not follow them.

Who is Nihonjoe?

To understand Nihonjoe’s conflicts of interest, it is necessary to know who he is outside of Wikipedia. There is an account on Deviant Art that is also named Nihonjoe. That account has posted several times about an art show that is part of a convention called CONduit. The contact for the CONduit art show was Joe Monson of Orem, Utah. Deviant Art’s Nihonjoe’s profile states that they live in “Utahppia”.

In one of their posts, they also mention that “my wife was one of the winners” and included a Heather Monson in that list. Joe Monson of Orem, Utah is married to a Heather Monson. I suppose if one took the time, one could probably find images on the Deviant Art account that were also uploaded to Commons by Nihonjoe. Like this and this.

Joe Monson’s LinkedIn page tells us that he is an “Information Technology Administrator, Inventory Manager at Aquaveo | Managing

…continue reading Nihonjoe Has Been Naughty

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Loses Powers in Admin-Bribery Controversy

by Don B. Louterfist

“I used to call it my ‘cluestick,’ but then I realized it was just a baseball bat,” says Wales

Jimbo “Jimmy” Wales, considered by many to be the “godfather” of Wikipedia, was recently stripped of advanced permissions on the site he co-founded after making false corruption allegations against one of its more respected volunteer administrators.

Here’s an account of what happened.

Origins: Admin for hire (or not)

In early 2023, someone we’re calling “Person X” received a message from an unknown sender. These people haven’t been identified and the contents of this message haven’t been made public, but allegedly the sender claimed to have influence over a Wikipedia admin and could get the admin to post an article on behalf of Person X — for a fee of $15,000. (For the record, you don’t have to be an admin to post new articles on Wikipedia.)

This is a run-of-the-mill scam. The mention of a particular admin’s name in the scam message is no guarantee that the admin is involved with the scheme, or even aware of it. As for what can be done proactively in this situation, Wikipedia recommends e-mailing their “paid-editing hotline.” An inexperienced Wikipedia user might not know about this process, but maybe the site’s founder should know.

Enter Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, who was privately contacted by Person X and made aware of this message. Wales is a co-founder of Wikipedia (though he’s often claimed to be the “sole founder”), and although he hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day operations for many years, he’s still frequently contacted by people wanting to go “straight to the big boss.” His reputation among Wikipedia users is… complicated,

…continue reading Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Loses Powers in Admin-Bribery Controversy

An Open Letter About Tenebrae

By a Frustrated Wikipedia Editor

Dear Arbcom:

It’s been a couple of weeks since Wikipediocracy published what seemed to be a very convincing indictment of Wikipedia editor Tenebrae. Obviously, you are in a tricky position: Tenebrae is an editor who has been around for a very long time, and does a lot of work on BLPs. He has also spent 15 years promoting himself, his wife, his books, his employers, and, worst of all, businesses in which he has a financial interest. So, in hopes that it helps you to come to a decision, this is an open letter urging you to take action against Tenebrae — or clear the way for the community to do so.

The case may appear to hinge on Tenebrae being Newsday writer Frank Lovece. Thanks to the Daily Dot (with whom the primary author of the Wikipediocracy piece collaborated), we know that Lovece denies the identification. The connection between Lovece and Tenebrae is not quite an open secret, but it has been known and discussed on Wikipedia for at least a decade. Admins who are members of the oversight team are well aware of it, since just about every mention of Tenebrae and Lovece in the same discussion has been oversighted.

It’s really a moot point, though. For the sake of argument, let’s take Frank Lovece at his word when he states “I do not know anything about that.” This leaves us with an editor who isn’t Frank Lovece but, for unknown reasons, has been promoting Frank Lovece’s interests for years and is still doing it, as recently as a few days ago. In normal circumstances, this could be addressed on the Conflict of Interest Noticeboard, but again, it appears impossible to discuss the situation without being accused of “outing” and

…continue reading An Open Letter About Tenebrae