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Academic Credentials and Wikiality

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the matter-of-degrees dept.

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?"

4 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. A pseudonym? by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Interesting
    No. Sorry, but no. This is nothing more or less than a profound appeal to improper authority, the authority being the editor in question. I'd like to know how many times his 'credentials' have been called upon as proof in Wiki arguments, or the number of times that people have agreed with him on the false assumption that he was playing things straight.

    His username is a pseudonym. His claimed credentials are a fraud.

  2. Stil Full of Shit? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    His claimed credentials are a fraud.

    Not only that, his revised Wiki bio now says he was an account manager for Fortune 20 company and a licensed paralegal for 5 years before that. The guy is 24. Let's assume he was this account manager for maybe a year? So he must have started the 2 year paralegal school at what? 16 or so? Yeah.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  3. Some background on the controversy by Everyman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Some screen-shot links for those who want more information. (Wikipedia sometimes makes controversial pages disappear):

    Essjay's user page at Wikia, where he "outed" himself:
    http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/gifs/wmessjay.png

    Previous details from an old user page at Wikipedia:
    http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/gifs/essjay5.png

    Essjay brags about how he fooled The New Yorker:
    http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/essjay.html

  4. Re:Leave him alone! by doctorcisco · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It doesn't matter what degrees you have under your belt, it's what you DO that matters.

    I agree. It's what you do that matters. This guy lies.

    If anyone thinks lying about credentials doesn't matter, you're wrong. My Master of Divinity degree required learning to read Latin, German, Koine Greek, and Biblical Hebrew, then basing research conclusions on the linguistic and historical setting of documents written in those languages.

    If we're talking theology, or you read something I've written, you need to be able to trust that I do indeed have those skills, and have used them honestly. Like any other kind of specialized knowledge, it's rather easy to put one over on the non-specialist.

    Come to think of it, that's been the problem in the theological world for a very long time.

    doc