By Eric Barbour
“Civility”. It’s one of Wikipedia’s favorite words, and one of their favorite pretexts for keeping various people from editing Wikipedia (the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit”). Yet there is a well-known journalist who, despite having written scores of feature articles for outlets such as Slate, Ars Technica, and Wired, does not have a biography on Wikipedia — apparently because he made Wikipedians look bad. They bent the meanings of the words “civility” and “notability” into pretzels, specifically to be rid of him.
Almost forgotten today, a partly-unintentional hoax covered by Farivar made the Wikipedians look very silly indeed. Among the most snookered: the ever-annoying Philip “Snowspinner” Sandifer, a former Wikipedia administrator and frequent commenter on Arbitration Committee cases. Farivar only needed to discuss one small hoax article, plus a bio of himself, to start the wrecking ball swinging.
…continue reading Cyrus Farivar And His Hoaxes