User:Callinus/uk

UK wikipedia COI scandals

There is a major and growing issue with the staffers of politicians editing political BLP articles in a complete violation of policy with no regard for the values of Wikipedia. Massive and longrunning issues with House of Commons IP addresses used to whitewash articles of politicians, especially before elections.


 * Average wikipedian

"The common characteristics of average Wikipedians inevitably color the content of Wikipedia. The average Wikipedian on the English Wikipedia is (1) a male, (2) technically inclined, (3) formally educated, (4) an English speaker (native or non-native), (5) aged 15–49, (6) from a majority-Christian country, (7) from a developed nation, (8) from the Northern Hemisphere, and (9) likely employed as a white-collar worker or enrolled as a student rather than employed as a blue-collar worker."

Most damningly, the UK is one of the regions of the world that is mostly English, has high levels of internet use and education, a well developed media, low rates of corruption and high rankings on press freedom indicies.

If male, educated, internet using editors can't hold political hatchet jobs from Conflict of Interest editors in check in one of the most educated, affluent, secular, Enlightened, post-Christian countries, what hope for the accountability and transparency of articles on politicians in other countries?

There's an op-ed here What made Wikipedia lose its reputation? - "Jimmy Wales explains what many people already know: that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and that it has a systemic bias in favor of white, male, young, and educated individuals... Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written by, for the most part, laypeople. Despite everyone having the title "editor", there is no actual editorial fact-checking process for most articles whose sources are generally filled with journalism, not academia. The most active demographic group is white, young men. Many of its best 'quality' articles face a bias towards recentism or cover topics in pop culture of questionable encyclopedic interest."

Every time new users feel shouted at, they tell their friends about their experiences. Every time bad information gets though by COI editors using IP addresses.

Every time that bad information gets though, and the media reports on it in a deep article, the credibility of the project suffers, but simultaneously editors are pushed to be harder on newcomers.

Conflict of interest/Noticeboard/Archive 37 has a discussion about a guardian article on Wikipedia abuse by IPs from the House of Commons.
 * 2013

Wikipedia Signpost/2015-05-13/In the media "On May 12, Independent reported that the "Demoted Grant Shapps faced awkward first meeting with his new boss, whose Wikipedia page he was accused of editing"."
 * Schapps

Wikipedia Signpost/2015-04-22/In the media

The Telegraph writes that politicians have had pages whitewashed by users connected to the legislature. Also on Indy and IBTimes.