"DonorGate" Is Latest Scandal To Hit Wikipedia

MSTCrow5429 writes "In the latest of a long train of scandals to hit Wikipedia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports on an accusation that founder and Wikia President Jimmy Wales traded a multi-thousand dollar donation for an article re-write. Jeff Merkey, formerly of Novell, claims that Wales approached him in 2006 and said that for a fee, Wales would personally see to it that the article on Merkey, which had cast him in a negative light, would be re-written in Merkey's favor. Merkey claims that after he donated $5,000, Wales followed through on this quid pro quo. The Wikipedia edit history does indicate that Wales wiped out the article on Merkey, and then personally re-wrote it. The SMH reports that Wales has called the allegation 'nonsense.'" Merkey filed a harassment lawsuit in 2005 against a number of people and organizations, including Slashdot. Slashdot was removed from the suit on 2005-07-20.

Update: 03/12 00:39 GMT by KD : Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh provided this official statement: "Current allegations relating to Jimmy Wales soliciting donations for the Wikimedia Foundation in order to protect or edit Wikipedia articles are completely false. The Wikimedia Foundation has never accepted nor solicited donations in order to protect or make edits to a Wikipedia article — nor has Jimmy Wales. This is a practice the Wikimedia Foundation would never condone."

Comments

I repeat:

[urcreepyneighbor]

To repeat what I said in the previous Wikiwhatever article (Jimmy Wales Faces Allegations of Corruption), which was modded offtopic and troll:

Welcome to the Real World, fuckers. Ha! I think I'm going to keep this comment handy, since it seems to apply every time there's a news item about Jimbo and/or Wikiwhatever.

Re:wikipedia not a wiki?

[the saltydog]

"Once tempers cool down, the article is unprotected. The problem is: There's a great amount of people who take great pleasure in poking Mr. Merkey with sticks, just so they can get a reaction out of him (the Yahoo SCO Message Board took great pleasure in trying to drive him insane, for example). In the ArbCom case that Mr. Merkey was banned from Wikipedia (again), three of his main annoyances, were also banished."

No, he was already insane - we just got tired of his attention whoring.

(Yes, I was one of his frivolous lawsuit targets, but a timely e-mail to the EFF kind of fucked up that whole ridiculous charade; of course, the idiot blamed it on P.J., but I have the messages to prove him wrong.)

One other thing; is Wikipedia a cult? It sure seems like it. To me, it sounds like an endless meeting of Golgafrinchams...

Re:Where there is smoke... there is smoke & mi

[hey!]

Why does Jeff Merkey rate a Wikipedia page at all?

Because "Jeff Vernon Merkey" is an anagram for "Re: Jerk off envy men." Not that I'd dream of putting that in his Wikipedia entry.