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Jimmy Wales Faces Allegations of Corruption

Posted by Zonk on from the he's-no-jimmy-james dept.

eldavojohn writes "The SFGate site has up an article noting that Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is facing allegations from multiple quarters accusing him of abusing his power. Several people apparently claim he used the foundation to pay for personal expenses, including reimbursement for a $1,300 dinner for four at a Florida steakhouse. Accusations have also been made indicating that he edited the Wikipedia entry of political commentator Rachel Marsden, a woman he was seeing, at her request. In the case of that allegation, Wales replied that 'I acted completely consistently with Wikipedia policy. I did the right thing: I passed along my work to date for other editors to deal with, and I recused myself from the case.'"

3 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Like Volkswagen by provigilman · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What's really sad is that when we talk about the head of SCO or Microsoft, we require much more evil before we start throwing rocks than we do for Google or Wikipedia

    What are you smoking, and can I have some??? This slashdot, the home of "M$". The mere mention of Microsoft or Bill Gates is enough evil for people around here to start slamming them.

    Also, after RTFA, I found myself wondering why this woman had Jimmy's personal e-mail address two years before they started dating... Perhaps he doesn't consider affairs "dating"???

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    "Life's short and hard, like a body building elf." -- The Bloodhound Gang
  2. Conflict of Interest != can't edit it by Dekortage · · Score: 0, Redundant

    According to Wikipedia's conflict of interest (COI) rules, there is nothing to prevent COI edits as long as they maintain Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy. Editors are strongly discouraged from making COI edits because it's really really hard to avoid bias. But, nonetheless, it can be possible for someone deeply involved in something to write a nearly unbiased article, or make unbiased edits.

    Given this, I don't see why Jimmy could not edit Marsden's article, as long as it was an objective edit. The idea that he handled it through other editors suggests that he was trying to hide something.

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  3. Re:This is not news! by sm62704 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    You're absolutely right. Not a single word about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, steroids, or crack! How can it possibly be "news"?

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    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest