Academic Credentials and Wikiality

An anonymous reader writes "A prominent Wikipedia administrator and Wikia employee has been caught lying to the media and 'other' professors about his academic credentials. Wikipedia's Essjay has been representing himself as 'a tenured professor of theology at a private university in the eastern United States; I teach both undergraduate and graduate theology. My Academic Degrees: Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies (B.A.), Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.), Doctorate of Philosophy in Theology (Ph.D.), Doctorate in Canon Law (JCD).' His real identity came to light after Wikia offered him a job: It turns out that he is really 24 years old with no degree living in Louisville, KY. Wikipedia's co-founder, Jimbo Wales, says 'I regard it as a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it.' How will this affect Wikipedia's already shaky reputation with the academic world?"

Comments

Re:Stil Full of Shit?

[elrous0]

I think the only creditial he has earned is "Long-time compulsive liar." I've worked with a few guys like that. They would continue to tell obvious lies even after they were called on it. And, the more you ignored them, the larger the lies would grow.

Every compulsive liar will tell you they're a somebody--desperately masking the fact that they're just another nobody.

-Eric

Re:Actual credentials

[ari_j]

This is in response to you and the sibling. I am aware of who wrote it - the reason I didn't cite the source is because I assumed that everyone on Slashdot would know it right away. You don't cite things like "vast right-wing conspiracy"[1] or "in Soviet Russia"[2] jokes for the same reason.

Then again, kids these days may not know, so I will be more careful about citing obvious sources in the future.

[1] - Hillary Clinton
[2] - Yakov Smirnoff

Re:Stil Full of Shit?

[nomadic]

So he must have started the 2 year paralegal school at what? 16 or so? Yeah.

Depends on the jurisdiction, some places you don't need any sort of degree to be a paralegal.

Not only that, his revised Wiki bio now says he was an account manager for Fortune 20 company

It's possible. "Account manager" isn't an especially prestigious title to start with, and he doesn't say what kind of account he was managing. Home Depot is in the Fortune 20, some minor clerical work at a local Home Depot store could count as an account manager.

So working part-time at a law firm after school for a few years, and then a minor clerical job at Home Depot? I can see that.

Re:Wait, what?

[Nasarius]

You managed to get to college (I assume) without realizing that no encyclopedia should be cited in a paper? They even tell you this themselves. You wouldn't cite a textbook either; they're tertiary sources, and mostly useless for getting a deep, accurate view of any topic. They're starting points for research that will give you a broad overview and sometimes a few sources to follow up on. For many topics, Wikipedia is quite appropriate for this role.