wikipedia purges feminist editors

[consuming negativity]

According to Wikipedia’s statement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Statement), editors are being punished based on their documented conduct on the site, and has nothing to do with the editor’s beliefs or backgrounds.



So far, the committee has agreed to ban affected editors from 11 different topics, including gender-related disputes. The committee’s proposal also imposes at least 40 sanctions because of combative behavior from users on different sides of the GamerGate issue. However, the decision could be revised or voted on before its finalized, Wikipedia said.


But according to writer and Wikipedia editor Mark Bernstein, the editors on the other side of the debate who believe the movement centers on “ethics in gaming journalism,” weren’t sanctioned as harshly.


“No sanctions at all were proposed against any of GamerGate’s warriors, save for a few disposable accounts created specifically for the purpose of being sanctioned,” Bernstein wrote (http://www.markbernstein.org/Jan15/Infamous.html) on his blog. “By my informal count, every feminist active in the area is to be sanctioned.”


Bernstein continues, saying the committee’s decision would allow GamerGaters to rewrite not only the main page, but also make changes to some of the most prominent victims of the controversy. That includes media critic and feminist Anita Sarkeesian, who was driven from her home (http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/08/28/3476787/feminist-video-game-critic-death-threats/) after receiving death and rape threats for her video criticizing female tropes in video games.



GamerGate is made up of small subset of the gaming community that have harassed female media critics, developers and bloggers with violent and graphic death and rape threats. Supporters often characterize it as a movement for improving ethics in gaming journalism after game developer Zoe Quinn’s former boyfriend publicly accused (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/03/zoe-quinn-gamergate-interview) her of cheating on him with a gaming writer. Quinn was also driven from her home because of persistent violent threats.


The movement garnered media attention in 2014 after supporters forced gaming site Gamasutra’s advertisers, such as Intel, to pull its ads. Actress and gaming enthusiast Felicia Day (http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/10/23/3583347/felicia-day-gamergate/) blogged about how she was “terrified” after receiving a deluge of hateful tweets and messages because she sent a reply message to one to the main GamerGate victims.


full article: http://internet.gawker.com/wikipedia-purged-a-group-of-feminist-editors-because-of-1681463331/

[Hrafn]

As expected.

[bricolage]

'Neutrality'

[Rafiq]

There are loads of closet fascists and reactionaries on Wikipedia. If you read Bela Kuns page, baseless, anti-Semitic accusations cited from disreputable sources are present, I.e. that kuns govt made Jewish synogogue janitors commisars of their respective towns, that 95% of the government were Jews while the real number is less than two thirds of Commisars, some 31/49 . I made an appeal to the administrators investigate the sources, with no effect.

[Sewer Socialist]

Holy shit, it actually says Hungarian anti-semitism is because of Jewish communists.

[Mr. Piccolo]

I hate to say it but this is not surprising. The hard right is very active on the internet and the GamerGate issue is like a lighting rod for internet reactionaries.

[Rafiq]

Holy shit, it actually says Hungarian anti-semitism is because of Jewish communists.

Often times I've contemplated trying to organize some kind of collective effort to see his page cleansed - I'm not sure if there are users here familiar with wikipedia - I've simply never gotten around to it.

I don't know where to start, but truly I believe something should be done: Bela Kun is an important figure, arguably a pivotal figure in understanding the stormy years of the October Revolution on a world level.

[The Intransigent Faction]

'Neutrality'

This. At least judging from my admittedly limited experience, Wikipedia's "NPOV" policy lands it on the side of 'mainstream' or commonly accepted narratives. This might immunize it against many conspiracy theorists swarming the pages, but it also glosses over sexist, racist, or otherwise problematic aspects of certain narratives. Judging from this thread, though, it may be even worse than that.

It does seem worth asking: To what extent might Wikipedia fear being targeted in some way by 'GamerGate'?

[Lord Testicles]

Often times I've contemplated trying to organize some kind of collective effort to see his page cleansed - I'm not sure if there are users here familiar with wikipedia - I've simply never gotten around to it.

I don't know where to start, but truly I believe something should be done: Bela Kun is an important figure, arguably a pivotal figure in understanding the stormy years of the October Revolution on a world level.

You could try messaging Sabot Cat, I think she is a wikipedia editor.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Holy shit, it actually says Hungarian anti-semitism is because of Jewish communists.

If you think that's bad, you should see the Croatian Wikipedia, it's like the Internet edition of "The Croat People" (the organ of the Croatian Nazi movement in WWII). I think the English Wikipedia is actually one of the better ones, but even then it tends to attract the Common Basement-Dwelling Objectivist.

That's why there are no articles on some important communist figures, but every person who had an orgasm while reading "Atlas Shrugged" and wrote about it on their blog gets an article.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

The guy who owns wikipedia and constantly begs for money from the community is a wingnut libertarian himself, I don't know if he's an objectivist or not though

[Invader Zim]

I hate to say it but this is not surprising. The hard right is very active on the internet and the GamerGate issue is like a lighting rod for internet reactionaries.

Sadly this is true and all and any actual points worthy of discussion were drowned out by a sea of reactionary tools and their opponents who used those tools as a stick to beat anybody who actually had something constructive to say. The whole thing was a farse.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Wikipedia has a well known bias, that's why I only use conservapedia

Also, looks like tim c has an account:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:TimIsTimisTimIsTim

(Why is liberalism under proletarian state?)

[Yugo45]

If you think that's bad, you should see the Croatian Wikipedia, it's like the Internet edition of "The Croat People" (the organ of the Croatian Nazi movement in WWII). I think the English Wikipedia is actually one of the better ones, but even then it tends to attract the Common Basement-Dwelling Objectivist.

That's why there are no articles on some important communist figures, but every person who had an orgasm while reading "Atlas Shrugged" and wrote about it on their blog gets an article.

Reminds me of how there's four Wikipedia language editions of the same language. We have the Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian wikis. All the same language, yet four different editions. And who knows, maybe even Montenegrin soon. And every Wiki is basically written by nationalists, claiming opposite things than the other wikis etc. Here's just one example:

http://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0_%D0%8B%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B8% D0%BC_%D0%8B%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%9B
http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87
http://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87
http://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87

Serbian Wiki claims that the guy is a Serbian writer. Croatian wiki claims that he's a Croatian writer, and of course, Bosnian wiki states he's a Bosniak writer. Serbo-Croatian doesn't mention his ethnicity, just states that he was born in Bosnia.

Ridiculous stuff.

[Asero]

Why is liberalism under proletarian state?

Cause Obama is a communist, don't you know.

[Sabot Cat]

You could try messaging Sabot Cat, I think she is a wikipedia editor.

I took a look, and somebody already removed the anti-Semitic stuff that Rafiq pointed out. I'm going to watch the page to make sure no one puts it back in.


Reminds me of how there's four Wikipedia language editions of the same language. We have the Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian wikis. All the same language, yet four different editions. And who knows, maybe even Montenegrin soon. And every Wiki is basically written by nationalists, claiming opposite things than the other wikis etc. Here's just one example:

http://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0_%D0%8B%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B8% D0%BC_%D0%8B%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%9B
http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87
http://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87
http://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C4%86azim_%C4%86ati%C4%87

Serbian Wiki claims that the guy is a Serbian writer. Croatian wiki claims that he's a Croatian writer, and of course, Bosnian wiki states he's a Bosniak writer. Serbo-Croatian doesn't mention his ethnicity, just states that he was born in Bosnia.

Ridiculous stuff.

If I could read these I'd try to bring them to accord somehow. Probably by taking the references used in the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian articles and applying them all to each if they're all reliable while making a note of the dispute. Or pruning the unreliable sources and leaving whatever nationality remains. I'll see what I can do though.

It seems like he changed his national affiliation three times during his life [* (https://books.google.com/books?id=f1qUHMl3JfgC&pg=PA125&dq=Musa+%C4%86azim+%C4%86ati%C4%87+Bosnian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ltfLVM_xN4aWyQSP94H4Bw&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Musa%20%C4%86azim%20%C4%86ati%C4%87%20Bosnian&f=false)][* (https://books.google.com/books?id=rqjLgtYDKQ0C&pg=PA136&dq=Musa+%C4%86azim+%C4%86ati%C4%87+Bosnian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ltfLVM_xN4aWyQSP94H4Bw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Musa%20%C4%86azim%20%C4%86ati%C4%87%20Bosnian&f=false)], from Serbian to Bosnian to Croatian. If this could be incorporated into these articles somehow...

[RedKobra]

The guy who owns wikipedia and constantly begs for money from the community is a wingnut libertarian himself, I don't know if he's an objectivist or not though

He's totally open about not just being a common or sewer Objectivist but specifically a Randian. The guy has talked about his love of her fiction and philosophy a ton of times. I have given money to Wikipedia before but after reading this thread and going on and reading some other articles I don't think I'll be doing it again. Its a shame because Wikipedia has been a godsend at times but (to quote Uncle Ben) "With great power comes great responsibility".

[Sabot Cat]

The decision can be found here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Motion_to_close).

The only user who has been banned is Ryulong (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ryulong), who did break the rules of the site quite extensively (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Ryulong).

Now there were ten editors who were topic-banned (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Scope_of_standard_topic_ban) in regards to topics pertaining to Gamergate, gender controversies, or people related to the aforesaid.

Seven by ArbCom:

1. NorthBySouthBaranof (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NorthBySouthBaranof) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#NorthBySouthBaranof))
2. Tarc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tarc) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Tarc))
3. The Devil's Advocate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Devil%27s_Advocate) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#The_Devil.27s_Advocate))
4. Tutelary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tutelary) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Tutelary))
5. Titanium Dragon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Titanium_Dragon)(evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Titanium_Dragon))
6. Loganmac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Loganmac) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Loganmac))
7. Willhesucceed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Willhesucceed) (evidence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate/Proposed_decision#Willhesucceed))

And the other users received topic-bans from the community; I can't find the salient evidence in the ArbCom case file:

1. ArmyLine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ArmyLine)
2. DungeonSiegeAddict510 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DungeonSiegeAddict510)
3. Xander756 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Xander756)

From what's presented in the file, I agree with the actions taken by ArbCom, which did not amount to a blanket ban of feminists or what have you. Nonetheless, I don't know if there was similar misconduct by misogynists that was not remedied, and thus whether or not this decision was even-handed remains to be seen.