Why this Site?

  • 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.”
  • How you can participate:
  •  Visit the Wikipediocracy Forum, a candid exchange of views between Wikipedia editors, administrators, critics, proponents, and the general public.
  • 'Like' our Wikipediocracy page on Facebook.
  •  Follow Wikipediocracy on Twitter!

Press Releases

  • Please click here for recent Wikipediocracy press releases.

Google Search

Eric W. Jepson – the W Stands for “Weasel”

By Eddy Landwehr

Following up on our blog post about Nihonjoe’s conflict of interest editing, we present this as a public service to the Wikipedia community.

Eric W. Jepson edits Wikipedia as Thmazing. If you search Wikipedia for his name, you will find he is named or used as a source in a few articles. Did he add himself to Wikipedia? Yes. Is that allowed on Wikipedia? Good question. It’s strongly discouraged, but not completely prohibited. Most people understand that they probably shouldn’t do this – but then there’s Eric W. Jepson.

Fire in the pastoral weasel

A Wikipedia search for “Eric W. Jepson” only yields three articles, but a search for “Jepson Eric” will get you another four. Then, you sort of have to know that Eric Jepson also calls himself “Theric Jepson” sometimes. So a search for “Theric Jepson” and a search for “Jepson Theric” will return a few more.

Clear Conflict

But this involves more than just squeezing your own name into Wikipedia. Jepson is a long-time member and past President of something called the Association for Mormon Letters (AML). You might think he would have avoided editing an article about something for which he has such an obvious conflict of interest. You’d be wrong. Jepson (as Thmazing) created the article, and edited it dozens of times, including while he was the AML’s President. Jepson is also the editor of the AML’s magazine, Irreantum, so you might think he’d avoid that article, too. Nope!

When Jepson was confronted about his conflict of interest with the AML in December 2023, he brushed it off at first. Then he attacked the person asking about it. When the discussion was resumed in March 2024, he became increasingly combative, even leading to a warning from an admin for some of his comments. He obviously felt that he’d done nothing wrong.

Peculiar Pages

Searching for Jepson’s name in Wikipedia won’t alert you to his most serious conflict of interest, one in which he has a direct financial stake. Jepson owns a publishing company called “Peculiar Pages.” There are currently 10 results from a Wikipedia search on that name. The most interesting one is an article about a poetry anthology called Fire in the Pasture. The only reference for the article is a dead link to an award from the AML. Yes, that AML. In a blog post for the AML, Jepson says, “*Full disclosure: My Peculiar Pages published Fire in the Pasture and it was I who approached Tyler to edit the volume.” No such disclosure is given on Wikipedia. Jepson, of course, created the article and included the book in numerous other Wikipedia articles.

It is remarkable that Joe “Nihonjoe” Monson and Eric W. “Thmazing” Jepson should happen to have such similar financial conflicts of interest. By coincidence, Joe Monson is now on the board of the AML.

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 Editor,

…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…

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