Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Loses Powers in Admin-Bribery Controversy

[Midsize Jake]

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Loses Powers in Admin-Bribery Controversy

Dec. 19, 2023

Obviously this is all quite a bit "after the fact," but nobody else in media-land seems to have covered it, and Neil Schon had been on the homepage for a bit longer than we might have liked.

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...

It struck me earlier today that a lot of people out there just assume, based on the fact that he occasionally appears on television, that Jimbo is and has always been personally in charge of Wikipedia. Such people might read this and think it's some sort of fake-news prank, or something like an April Fool's Day joke. And perhaps not coincidentally, I'm not sure yet if the author of this entry wants to publicly take credit for it. (That doesn't have to be decided right away, though... Anyway, it wasn't me, if that's what some of you are thinking.)

[Giraffe Stapler]

This deserved to be written about, late or not. Jimbo has a marginal role on Wikipedia these days, based on his role in starting it and almost nothing else. This episode showed how out of touch he is with the Community and made a few people question his judgment. Also, nice John D. Loudermilk allusion.

[Zoloft]

I liked, commented, and shared the article to some social media. I encourage other people to do this too.