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Wikipedia Hoax Author Confesses
cmholm writes "As reported in The Seattle Times, Nashville resident Brian Chase has publically admitted that he edited a Wikipedia entry for John Seigenthaler, making appear that Mr. Seigenthaler was involved in the assassination of JFK. Mr. Chase fessed up after a cyber-sleuth tracked down the business from which he had posted to Wikipedia."
Here's his wiki entry.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
As a comment noted in the previous story on this hoax, the guy would've been less trace-able if he'd posted as ILURVCONSPIRACIES or something instead of being anonymous and allowing a visible IP.
Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
Actually, since its written and not spoken the word would be 'libel'
I've got to love a post where someone says to look up "slander", and they never actually looked up "slander".
You crack me up, dude.
Slander
1 : the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation
2 : a false and defamatory oral statement about a person -- compare libel
-slan£der£ous \-d(-)rs\ adjective
-slan£der£ous£ly adverb
-slan£der£ous£ness noun
(from Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)
Perhaps you meant libel?
Again from Merriams...
Main Entry: 1li£bel
Pronunciation: l-bl
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, written declaration, from Middle French, from Latin libellus, diminutive of liber book
Date: 14th century
Libel
1 a : a written statement in which a plaintiff in certain courts sets forth the cause of action or the relief sought b archaic : a handbill especially attacking or defaming someone
2 a : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b(1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel
I bet he did what I just did.
[fatboy@localhost fatboy]$ host 65.81.97.208
208.97.81.65.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer adsl-065-081-097-208.sip.bna.bellsouth.net.
Bellsouth, like many ISPs, use airport city codes in the RR to show the nearest city. bna is Nashville International Airport.
Go to the IP address in a browser. It returns the simple message "Welcome to Rush Delivery.
Search google for "Rush Delivery" nashville, and there you have it.
No big deal.
--fatboy
There is a chronology of how it was traced at the bottom of this page.
I am no genius. There was one chance in 10,000 that there would be a server on that IP address, and that it would be up when I tried it on impulse (it timed out during nightime hours during all of last week).
Mr. Seigenthaler is very gracious in complimenting me, but I am no genius. Anyone who knows the difference between an IP address and a hot-dog with mustard could have done the same thing. That includes dozens, or maybe hundreds, of Wikipedians. But they didn't bother now, did they?
It was a pleasure to work with Mr. Seigenthaler on this trace. He is an amazing, accomplished person, and I have a huge amount of respect for him. Before his Wikipedia story came out, I wasn't aware of him.
He's the genius, although it is true that I know more about Internet infrastructure than he does. But I know nothing that would impress all the clever Slashdotters reading this, I'm sure.
So, a "reliable" publisher is one that controls its writers to a degree with positive or negative consequences.
I think, therefore I doh.