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Editing Wikipedia Helps Professor Attain Tenure

Hugh Pickens writes "Lianna Davis writes in Watching the Watchers that Michel Aaij has won tenure in the Department of English and Philosophy at Auburn University Montgomery in Alabama in part because of the more than 60,000 edits ... he's written for Wikipedia. ... Aaij felt that his contributions to Wikipedia merited mention in his tenure portfolio and a few weeks before the portfolio was due two of his colleagues suggested, after they had heard him talk once or twice about the peer-review process for a Good Article, that he should include it under 'research' as well as 'service.'"

139 comments

  1. Over 60,000? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe this guy needs to list Editing Wikipedia as his primary job and Professor at Auburn University as his 2nd job?

    1. Re:Over 60,000? by Petrushka · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe this guy needs to list Editing Wikipedia as his primary job and Professor at Auburn University as his 2nd job?

      Perhaps, but I suspect this story says more about Auburn University Montgomery than it says about his research profile.

      I had never heard of Auburn University Montgomery before today; given the nature of this story, I don't expect ever to hear of it in any serious context again.

    2. Re:Over 60,000? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah... so most professors should list "Writing Books" and "Publishing Articles" and "Applying for Grants" as their primary job and "Professor" as their secondary jobs then.

      Somewhere below that they can put "actually teaching students instead of letting my grad students do it".

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    3. Re:Over 60,000? by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      at least he's probably doing better than most professors in terms of being useful to humanity in general.
      If his edits are even half decent then more people will read them and actually learn something than ever will from many entire departments.

      Most of them never write anything of worth which isn't behind a paywall.

      an expert contributing his time to an open and free store of knowledge should be lauded.

      It really is amusing though how threatened some professors feel about the whole idea of wikipedia-like systems.
      I had one a while back who was so bitter that he spent time just about every class ranting about how awful it was. "AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO WRITES THESE THINGS!!" meanwhile one of his more gifted masters students is mugging away behind him and mouthing "me".

      On the other hand I had another professor who pointed the class towards a particular wiki entry(and a specific revision) which he'd read and considered to be extremely well written and without error which explained the subject material extremely clearly.

    4. Re:Over 60,000? by Moryath · · Score: 1

      Indeed. From what I've looked up of AUM's college rankings, "Secondary High School" would be a better description of it than "University."

    5. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      at least he's probably doing better than most professors in terms of being useful to humanity in general. If his edits are even half decent then more people will read them and actually learn something than ever will from many entire departments.

      That's assuming one of the "higher ups" doesn't revert his changes for the hell of it.

    6. Re:Over 60,000? by ginbot462 · · Score: 1
      Maybe this guy gets points at good ole' AUM (I saw the moniker on Wikipedia) for spreading the name of such an obscure school (even to Alabamians). I mean, look at these "notable" people:

      John_Veres

      --
      Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story :: Battlefield Earth : Organized Religion
    7. Re:Over 60,000? by HungryHobo · · Score: 2

      if he's written 60K then chances are at least some of them haven't been reverted.

    8. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh look another moron who does not understand that their is a hierarchy in the quality of sources one can use when conducting research.

    9. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      As an Auburn University graduate (Auburn), I can assure you that Auburn University (Montgomery) is basically the 13th grade. Auburn is a fine public institution with a good Engineering school... I'm not sure what AUM is good at.

    10. Re:Over 60,000? by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

      Oh man, my kingdom for a 'so funny but so true' mod right now :)

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    11. Re:Over 60,000? by skids · · Score: 1

      Plainly, you should not argue with these people. If what they are upset about is that their stuff on Wikipedia gets deleted, then probably they are some of the full-of-crap ideologues that come in with an agenda trying to insert bullcrap, and then get all huffed up when someone denies them.

      Eventually more academics will wake up to the calling Wikipedia represents. It is already extremely useful, of course, and will only get more so.

    12. Re:Over 60,000? by microbox · · Score: 1

      at least he's probably doing better than most professors in terms of being useful to humanity in general.

      I agree with that. The future of wikipedia, or sites like it, could serve to be a summary of a particular issue, and a portal into the most relevant peer-reviewed articles. This is an excellent example, and does a much better job of summaries the debate than any of the peer reviewed "scientific" articles in the field.

      --

      Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
    13. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aw, someone sounds jealous.

    14. Re:Over 60,000? by ozbird · · Score: 1

      It was same article, reverted 59,999 times.

    15. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm skeptical. The article didn't list the username, but a quick Google search points to Dr Aaij. According to this tool, his edit count is only 1,475.

    16. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was very fair of you to mention both cases, and I think it points out the real nature of wikipedia. It's a mixed bag. It's often good, with good citations and quality information. Often not.

      So yeah, the bad news is that it's not perfect. But the good news is people care enough about it to keep trying to fix it.

    17. Re:Over 60,000? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      That's well OVER 9000 !

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    18. Re:Over 60,000? by uniquename72 · · Score: 1

      As someone who works in academia and has published a few peer-reviewed articles, I have no problem with his edits being considered "Service" -- after all, he's significantly assisting in the accumulation of knowledge.

      But "Research"? Wikipedia specifically forbids original research!

    19. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe this guy needs to list Editing Wikipedia as his primary job and Professor at Auburn University as his 2nd job?

      Good question, but are you going to put your money where your mouth is and list "copying snippets of code from the web" on yours?

    20. Re:Over 60,000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doing research and publishing articles *is* a professor's job. There are professors who only do research and do not teach, but there are no professors who only teach. In fact, a number of professors work at research institutions which do not even offer classes. While teaching is probably the most publicly visible aspect of a university, the real mission of the university system is to create and propagate knowledge in general.

    21. Re:Over 60,000? by WNight · · Score: 1

      That's actually an interesting idea for moderation. Instead of giving out open mod points all the time give people specific ones, like two 'overrated' and three 'funny'..

      But yes, sadly true.

    22. Re:Over 60,000? by MITguy21 · · Score: 1

      I had never heard of Auburn University Montgomery before today; given the nature of this story, I don't expect ever to hear of it in any serious context again.

      Maybe you forgot? Home of the Prof that censored Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- "The new edition's Alabama-based publisher, NewSouth books, says the development is a "bold move compassionately advocated" by the book's editor, Twain scholar Dr Alan Gribben of Auburn University, Montgomery."
            http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word

    23. Re:Over 60,000? by MITguy21 · · Score: 1

      Well, AUM also employs the Prof that censored Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- "The new edition's Alabama-based publisher, NewSouth books, says the development is a "bold move compassionately advocated" by the book's editor, Twain scholar Dr Alan Gribben of Auburn University, Montgomery."
                  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word
      It's all starting to fit together...

    24. Re:Over 60,000? by bhiestand · · Score: 1

      Doing research and publishing articles *is* a professor's job. There are professors who only do research and do not teach, but there are no professors who only teach. In fact, a number of professors work at research institutions which do not even offer classes. While teaching is probably the most publicly visible aspect of a university, the real mission of the university system is to create and propagate knowledge in general.

      Community colleges... Plenty of universities have part timers who just teach a class or two and may have no real research requirements. The UC system had a proposal recently that would have allowed three tracks: teaching only, research only, and hybrid. I believe that failed, but I imagine it's been implemented somewhere.

      Plus, there's Hogwarts. And I'm not sure the professors at Hogwarts actually teach, seeing as how Harry only knows a handful of spells after how many years?

      --
      SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
    25. Re:Over 60,000? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      If they are only researching-- then go ahead and just put them officially on the corporations payroll.

      Pure research is so rare these days anyway. They are really just researching what big corporations provide funding to research.

      It's not college. It's a corporate think tank.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    26. Re:Over 60,000? by Dabido · · Score: 1

      I had never heard of Auburn University Montgomery before today;

      Oh, come on. Everyones run into at least one of the 60,000 mentions they've had on Wikipedia at some time or another!!! :-)

      --
      Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
    27. Re:Over 60,000? by SpammersAreScum · · Score: 1

      I took that to mean that his Wikipedia editing constituted research into "peer review", not that he did original research into the topic of the Wikipedia articles.

    28. Re:Over 60,000? by uniquename72 · · Score: 1

      Maybe. But at my university, acting as a reviewer is still considered service, not research. Research only refers to original research, or published works for which you've been credited.

  2. OH just GREAT! by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 1

    He makes a reference to wikipedia and gets tenure, but my lecturers threaten with the guillotine if I do the same!

    *humbug*

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
    1. Re:OH just GREAT! by Haedrian · · Score: 1

      "Department of English and Philosophy"

      That's the reason. You don't need to be an expert to make up your own interpretation of some literary works.

    2. Re:OH just GREAT! by WhirlwindMonk · · Score: 2

      Obligatory: http://xkcd.com/451/

    3. Re:OH just GREAT! by Moryath · · Score: 2

      Obligatory:

      The second response is: the collaborative nature of the apparatus means that the right data tends to emerge, ultimately, even if there is turmoil temporarily as dichotomous viewpoints violently intersect. To which I reply: that does not inspire confidence. In fact, it makes the whole effort even more ridiculous. What you've proposed is a kind of quantum encyclopedia, where genuine data both exists and doesn't exist depending on the precise moment I rely upon your discordant fucking mob for my information. - credit: Tycho Brahe, Penny Arcade.

    4. Re:OH just GREAT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It turns out there's a difference between contributing to Wikipedia and citing it in academic research. If he wrote a high school textbook, you wouldn't cite that in a graduate-level assignment either.

    5. Re:OH just GREAT! by vuke69 · · Score: 2

      Schrödinger's encyclopedia?

      --
      Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. ~ Douglas Adams
    6. Re:OH just GREAT! by SomePgmr · · Score: 1

      Oh that's good. :)

    7. Re:OH just GREAT! by St.Creed · · Score: 1

      I can see this becoming a card in Magic the Gathering or a similar CCG :)

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  3. Deleted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    tl;dr... Does it say how many articles he deleted in order to gain tenure?

  4. And rightly so... by Nick+Fel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If he's editing articles in his field, which will be a lot of people's first port of call when learning about it, then he's providing a valuable service to his discipline. If academics want Wikipedia to be a better and more accurate resource, they know what they can do about it...

  5. Any bets... by DataDiddler · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... on what percentage of the edits were to pages on old Star Trek episodes and anime? The over/under is 75%.

    --
    Working...
    1. Re:Any bets... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the sterling work on documenting each and every pokemon.

  6. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 0

    Actually...can that really be called tenure at all? I mean...isnt it more like a job contract for an extended period?
    Seeing that the point of tenure is so you can juggle research and teaching?

    I keep hearing that..."unless he/she touches a child" and some anectode about how lusy their teachers were, but why did they get such protection in the first place?

    A theory of mine is that US high school might have put up some standards upon teacher that Universities use....and the teacher required some tit for tat...but...i dont know...

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
  7. Watching the Waters by yincrash · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure what Watching the Waters is, but this article is an exact copy of what's in the wikimedia blog.

    1. Re:Watching the Waters by Petrushka · · Score: 1

      Oh, so on top of the internal corruption at the university we have wiki-corruption too! ... What a surprise. That's never happened before, naturally.

    2. Re:Watching the Waters by no+known+priors · · Score: 1, Informative

      I don't know either (the site is "Watching the Watchers"), but considering the licence, they have every right as far as I can tell to republish the article in the way they did. The link you provide is linked to from the bottom of the article.
      The licence is Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). I cannot see anywhere on the Wikimedia blog how attribution should be given. My understanding is that in such cases how the WtW site referenced the original is sufficient. The relevant section of the licence is 4.b

      If You Distribute, or Publicly Perform the Work or any Adaptations or Collections, You must, unless a request has been made pursuant to Section 4(a), keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, and/or if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party or parties (e.g., a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution ("Attribution Parties") in Licensor's copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party or parties; (ii) the title of the Work if supplied; (iii) to the extent reasonably practicable, the URI, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and (iv) , consistent with Section 3(b), in the case of an Adaptation, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). The credit required by this Section 4 (b) may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Adaptation or Collection, at a minimum such credit will appear, if a credit for all ...

      ---

      And for the delitionists out there,

      “I’ve written articles in many areas, and in many cases I could show my colleagues what I had done in their field,” Michel says. “I’d like to think that by now most of them have a favorable opinion of Wikipedia. Let’s face it: Guillaume de Dole, now a Good Article, there’s no database entry or encyclopedic article anywhere that compares to the Wikipedia article on that poem (and I realize that that says as much about Wikipedia as about the anywhere else).”

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. The maximum is 120 characters.
    3. Re:Watching the Waters by yincrash · · Score: 1
      Oops. Misread the website name. I did miss the attribution at the bottom of the article. However, I would say that at least, the slashdot summary should relink or not specify that Liana Davis wrote in Watching the Watchers, and at the very most, they didn't accurately follow the attribution clause if Hugh Pickens easily mistook Liana Davis as a writer for that blog.

      You may not implicitly or explicitly assert or imply any connection with, sponsorship or endorsement by the Original Author, Licensor and/or Attribution Parties, as appropriate, of You or Your use of the Work, without the separate, express prior written permission of the Original Author, Licensor and/or Attribution Parties.

  8. Re:And wrongly so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Of course it doesn't actually matter, since any edit by anyone who isn't a 60000+ contributor will automatically be reverted. This is a one-off, with no long-term significance. Wikipedia is phenomenally hostile to anyone who isn't already an established part of the wikiscape.

    To boot, this appointment is almost certainly crooked, but that's a separate matter and has nothing to do with WP directly.

  9. can't help it. by ciderbrew · · Score: 1

    {Citation needed}

  10. Wikipedia irrelevant for Physics positions by StupendousMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We're in a job search right now for two tenure-track professors in a Physics Department. None of the five candidates interviewed so far has mentioned Wikipedia. I'm pretty sure that if one did, he wouldn't gain any credit by doing so.

    Our department made recommendations for a tenure decision earlier this year. No mention of Wikipedia in the supporting materials for that candidate, nor have I ever seen such a mention. I am pretty sure that neither my colleagues nor the administrators involved in granting tenure would give any credit for editing Wikpedia.

    --
    Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
    mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
    1. Re:Wikipedia irrelevant for Physics positions by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

      no one expects that. RIT is a serious institution and physics is a hard science. we're talking relatively obscure institution and the study of english and philosophy

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    2. Re:Wikipedia irrelevant for Physics positions by radl33t · · Score: 2

      That's a shame. Any educator who substantially improves the portal to information about their discipline should be proud. Granted, it shouldn't carry the same weight as research metrics (for a research position anyway), but given two equal candidates I would strongly favor one with 60,000 contributions to publicly accessible physics knowledge, possibly above many other qualities. IMO declaring it irrelevant is simply a sign of the dangerously contagious pointy hat syndrome that we academics develop to guard our section of the ivory tower.

    3. Re:Wikipedia irrelevant for Physics positions by Some+Pig! · · Score: 1

      I prefer Scholarpedia over Wikipedia for physics articles. I wouldn't apply the phrase "guard our section of the ivory tower" to it, either.

    4. Re:Wikipedia irrelevant for Physics positions by SomePgmr · · Score: 1

      I have to ask because I've never seen that process. What kind of information besides employment history, research and publication history goes into those supporting materials? Would one normally include things like, "social work with XYZ organization"? If the process doesn't normally involve the evaluation of unofficial work you do in your spare time, then I'd expect this is a case of just unimportant padding at the bottom, and someone was looking for wiki-related news. If they do, then I'd think being a regular contributor to the wiki would have some (if little) weight. No?

      I'm not qualified in the slightest to argue for or against, I'm just curious.

  11. And in other news... by tverbeek · · Score: 0

    And in other news, a group of gamblers has won tens of millions of dollars in a lottery, a woman has had her 115th birthday, a park ranger has been struck by lightning seven times, and a couple who met on Slashdot are celebrating their 10th anniversary.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  12. Good scholar, good citizen, good "netizen", too by j_f_chamblee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A search of the Auburn Montgomery website, produces several "News & Events" hits which show Dr. Aaij giving public lectures and supporting student scholars. A Google Scholar Search on Michel Aaij shows a regular publication record in peer reviewed journals dating back to the late 1990s, at least. This guy is a good scholar and, from the article, strikes me as a good colleague, even without the Wiki contributions. He deserves tenure. The fact that he found the time for this other form of service/scholarship on top of his other work is very commendable and I'm glad to see it included in his portfolio. The fact that this did make it into his portfolio is better for Wikipedia than it is for Dr. Aaij, who I think wouldn't have gotten tenure no matter what. In any case, I say "Congratulations, Dr. Aaij!"

    --
    The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard Feynman
  13. Supporting Public Institution Vision by digitalloving · · Score: 2

    Well, since he is working for a public university that is subsidized by tax dollars, it is nice to see him giving back to the community at large. I, for example, work at Ohio State and our purpose statement is "To advance the well-being of the people of Ohio and the global community through the creation and dissemination of knowledge." In my humble opinion, I find it hard to see how updating Wikipedia doesn't support that vision.

  14. "providing a valuable service" by oneiros27 · · Score: 1

    In a way, this should fall under public outreach, so yes, I could see this falling under helping tenure. (assuming that he's maintaining pages in his field, and not just his favorite TV shows ... unless his field is pop culture, of course)

    The 'peer review' aspect requires it to have been judged by his peers, and I don't know that other wikipedia editors would be considered academic peers, even if there's a review process.

    Now, there is a need for tenure to be granted on more than just writing journal articles; we (of the data informatics community) have been arguing for years that a scientist who dedicates their career to collecting really good observational data, or processing and curating it for the use of others, if given less credit than the person who writes a bad paper written using that same data.

    And besides:

    Michel expects his academic C.V. was strong enough to support his tenure without his Wikipedia contributions

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  15. Likely had nothing to do with his wiki edits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing in the article suggests to me that his wiki editing helped him get tenure. In fact, it even says: "Michel expects his academic C.V. was strong enough to support his tenure without his Wikipedia contributions". There's no connection between the two. This is like saying that, since his name was also on his C.V., being named Michel helped him get tenure.

    1. Re:Likely had nothing to do with his wiki edits by im3w1l · · Score: 1

      It'sn't impossible that it did help. Since names contain information about gender, class and race it could definitely influence this kind of decision.

    2. Re:Likely had nothing to do with his wiki edits by plcurechax · · Score: 1

      This is like saying that, since his name was also on his C.V., being named Michel helped him get tenure.

      Thanks, I was going to change my name to Michel Aaij to see if it helped me...

  16. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by cavreader · · Score: 1

    The tenure process is supposed to identify good teachers and alleviate job security issues so they can focus on their teaching and provide continuaity to any reaserch they may be working on.Now that does not mean everyone who has received tenure deserves it. It can be a subjective and often political process when deciding to grant tenure. If this guy cared enough about making sure the information on Wikipedia was valid I would include that effort when deciding whether or not to grant tenure.

  17. Re:And wrongly so... by bunratty · · Score: 1

    An edit by anyone who doesn't follow the policies and guidelines or makes an edit that makes an article worse will be reverted.

    FTFY

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  18. Auburn, too bad, not a model program by supercrisp · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It's too bad that this happened at Auburn, as it's often otherwise a negative example. It is, after all, the school where a prof. recently bowdlerized Huck Finn by editing out the word "nigger," a moved decried by people a sensitive to race issues as Ishmael Reed. Now that's "scholarship" you don't want to imitate. I could offer further reasons that no program wants to imitate Auburn, but saying too much would cause problems for friends.

    1. Re:Auburn, too bad, not a model program by ginbot462 · · Score: 1

      Yea, but this is Auburn Montgomery. Sounds like a community college...the Wikipedia article, edited by this professor no doubt, says it isn't even a branch of Auburn (just the board of trustees). So, not even University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) in Huntsville level of dignity.

      --
      Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story :: Battlefield Earth : Organized Religion
    2. Re:Auburn, too bad, not a model program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Auburn Montgomery, not Auburn. Aside from sharing a common structure at the very top, I doubt the two have anything to do with one another.

    3. Re:Auburn, too bad, not a model program by supercrisp · · Score: 1

      Looks like I should have taken the time to read the article before posting....

    4. Re:Auburn, too bad, not a model program by St.Creed · · Score: 1

      Looks like I should have taken the time to read the article before posting....

      Well, that surely would have been an unexpected move from a slashdot reader :P

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  19. It's also good exercise and could improve academia by ciaran_o_riordan · · Score: 0

    It's also excellent writing practice.

    Writing is a good exercise for organising your thoughts, and having to explain some of your edits (and sometimes fight over them), makes you analyse exactly what you are trying to express and makes you check your sources.

    Wikipedia is also ahead of academia in some aspects. On writing source, Wikipedia is usually way more precise. While academia requires that a fact be referenced with "Benkton, J. 2004", which means nothing to most people and not precise at all, Wikipedia requires (or at least encourages) authors to give the authors name, the name of the article/book, and optionally a quote, page number, and other info - and Wikipedia provides ways for readers to question the relevance of sources or ask for more precision.

    Wikipedia will be on my CV, next time I have to write one.

  20. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    but why did they get such protection in the first place?

    Two words, Teacher's Union.

  21. Re:And wrongly so... by AJH16 · · Score: 2

    Hostile much? I have under 4000 edits, almost all of them vandalism removal related and any time I make a content update, it sticks. Even when I was much lower in edits they stuck and I was actively encouraged to edit more with constructive edits than simple removal of obvious vandalism. Did you source your edits? Non-grammatical edits without source from users with low edit counts that haven't been mentioned on the discussion page do tend to be reverted as the volume of edits makes trying to discover information sources very difficult. My guess is not that the community was somehow biased against you, but that you may have been doing something outside of community guidelines (even if unintentionally). Wikipedia editors have a hard job when it comes to sorting out useful submissions from harmful ones and will tend to err on the side of caution.

    --
    AJ Henderson
  22. any evidence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there any evidence whatsoever that his inclusion of Wikipedia-editing made any difference in whether he tenure or not? It's entirely possible that he would've received it had he not included the mention. This is a perfect case for the 'correlation is not causation' crowd that always pops up around here, yet nobody seems to have brought it up yet.

  23. WP:OWN by tepples · · Score: 1

    It appears that a lot of the reverters attempt to exert undue control over an article's text and give Wikipedia a bad name.

    1. Re:WP:OWN by bunratty · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen where this as occurred. People have tried to point me to articles where this happens, but all I see is people trying to keep an article good by reverting bad edits. I'm sure it does happen, but I haven't seen it. What I have seen is people who edit an article for years, participate in many discussions, hone and refine the article, and then when someone comes along and makes an edit that makes the article worse or reverses a decision that was made they revert the bad edit.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:WP:OWN by Moryath · · Score: 1

      You nailed it.

      Here's how wikipedia really works. I've found this to be an incredibly helpful resource in understanding the mentality of the behavior of people on Wikipedia.

      Remember: Wikipedia is about keeping people away to most wikipedians. They see their site as always "under attack." If consensus is changing on an article, they want to STOP that - so they need to get the newcomers to either leave on their own, or ban them. If 10 new editors show on the article over time and all stay, that could cause consensus to change. Run them off or ban them one by one as they arrive, and you can completely control the article.

      since any edit by anyone who isn't a 60000+ contributor will automatically be reverted.

      This one just about sums it up. Make an edit that looks "too experienced"? Be booted out as a "suspected sockpuppet" of whatever the abusive admin of the day's pet target is. Make an edit otherwise? A thousand and one neckbeards wanking off thinking they are "editing" will compete to see who's faster on the button with the automated fucking tools that make it so they don't even have to bother reading and assessing an edit before they zap it.

    3. Re:WP:OWN by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Wikipedia edits are not based on consensus. They are based on providing a citation to a reliable source that verifies the information. If you make such an edit that follows those guidelines and it gets reverted, there are policies in place to resolve the dispute. I have used these, and the disputes do get resolved. More often than not, however, the dispute is resolved by the person who is not following the rules slinking away and complaining about how unfair Wikipedia is. For example, when an article doesn't contain citations as it should, the article is deleted according to Wikipedia's policies (because there is no way to verify the information in the article), and people come to Slashdot an complain about "deletionists".

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    4. Re:WP:OWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have had information removed from Wikipedia because it was "too technical", despite citing the manufacturer's technical brochures.

      The articles on Shorts 330 and 360 airliners used to contain much information about their structure and systems. Now the articles are no better than you'd find in "My First Big Book of Aeroplanes".

      What a pathetic state.

    5. Re:WP:OWN by Moryath · · Score: 0

      Bullcrap.

      Wikipedia edits are not based on consensus. They are based on providing a citation to a reliable source that verifies the information [wikipedia.org]. If you make such an edit that follows those guidelines and it gets reverted, there are policies in place to resolve the dispute.

      Just try to actually follow them as a "new editor" (e.g. less than thousands on thousands of edits proving you have no fucking life outside of Wikipedia). What you'll find in practice is that you are immediately accused of being a "sockpuppet", or will immediately be assaulted as the person removing it calls their buddies in. They'll be completely rude to you, perhaps call you all kinds of names, perhaps worse, then if you respond in kind their pet admin will block you for "incivility."

      Lather, rinse, repeat.

      I have used these, and the disputes do get resolved. More often than not, however, the dispute is resolved by the person who is not following the rules slinking away and complaining about how unfair Wikipedia is.

      But most often, disputes are resolved by someone having their pet admin ban the opposition as a "sockpuppet" or come up with some other excuse for an indefinite block. The merit of the edit never enters into it: the goal is to get rid of the newcomer.

      For example, when an article doesn't contain citations as it should, the article is deleted according to Wikipedia's policies (because there is no way to verify the information in the article), and people come to Slashdot an complain about "deletionists".

      No, the reason people complain about "deletionists" is because they run around screaming to remove things rather than to try to improve them. There are numerous articles which have been deleted despite having citations - either because the webpages providing the citations died, or because the sourcing was necessarily on a subject that did NOT have a lot of web citations.

      Back in the day, I tried to contribute to Wikipedia. I provided several citations on an article (now deleted alas) that went to an older book on the subject. In my citation, I included page number and ISBN number.

      My citations were not deemed good enough because there was, and I quote the fucking neckbeard who waged a war against the article, "no way for other editors to easily verify the content of the quote and citation because book is out of print and not available on web."

      So yeah. That is how Wikipedia really works. It's a tool of the lazy fucking neckbeard who can't even be arsed to go to the local public library to look up a source. According to Wikipedia, if it isn't on the web, it doesn't exist.

    6. Re:WP:OWN by bunratty · · Score: 1

      I have had information removed from Wikipedia because the person was waging some sort of religious war between competing products. I've also had information removed because someone who thought he knew better put in misinformation. I've also had information removed because someone simply kept vandalizing the article. In all cases, I followed the guidelines and policies and got the information back in. If you give up, you have no one to blame but yourself. Some people who edit Wikipedia are dicks. Don't let them win if they're in the wrong.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    7. Re:WP:OWN by Moryath · · Score: 1

      The problem is: the admins, the people running the show, are all dicks. And even the non-admin dicks have admin buddies to call in.

      Get into one argument with them and it doesn't matter about "letting them win." They have the block buttons. They have the control. You can't drag these lying dicks into "dispute resolution" because long before you get there, you will be accused of being a "sockpuppet", you will be blocked repeatedly by their friends on spurious reasons, you will be insulted and lied about, and then when you finally get into the nitty-gritty they'll stand up and say "well on the one hand I'm an admin with 1000000000 edits proving I have no life but wikipedia, and on the other hand you have this guy who has been blocked repeatedly and is guilty of the crime of harassing an admin. I say we ban him. All admins who agree?"

      And of course, ALL the admins will agree, because if they don't, then they run the risk of others not agreeing with them later when they pull the same stunt.

    8. Re:WP:OWN by cforciea · · Score: 1

      If you make such an edit that follows those guidelines and it gets reverted, there are policies in place to resolve the dispute.

      Except that there will be a discussion to come to consensus where you will argue with the same Wikipedia clique, have your replies marked with an indicator that states you have few or no edits on Wikipedia and therefore anything you say can be ignored, and then "consensus" will be arbitrated by another douchebag from the same pool that reverted your edits in the first place.

      In reality, most of us realize that this does not happen in a majority of cases. But if you even hit a few percentage points, by the time a newcomer has hit a couple of dozen edits, there is a significant chance that at least one has been stomped over with little to no explanation and they are treated like idiots when they ask questions about it, given 23 citations of WP:Notability, WP:NPOV, and WP:llamas rather than a concise description of what they need to do to make their otherwise worthwhile edit stick, and sent on their way. Some people edit long enough to get the experience required to correctly navigate wikipedia editing guidelines without running into this problem, but a significant portion get nailed by the wikipedia posse before they ever make it that far and get left with such a bad taste in their mouths about how they are treated that they never contribute again.

    9. Re:WP:OWN by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you could point to an example of this occurring. That would convince me far more than hundreds of Slashdotters claiming it happens without providing any evidence.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    10. Re:WP:OWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Screw that. Fuck the Police -- I mean, the Wikipedia admins!

    11. Re:WP:OWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Based on your civility and impartiality on Slashdot [in previous articles as well] I am supremely glad you are not editing Wikipedia. In fact, I would probably favor you being banned from Wikipedia.

    12. Re:WP:OWN by Moryath · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Well, here's a great case study from the former wikipedia admin I referred you to earlier.

      Most interesting is the old "Enviroknot" case, where an editor whose edit contribution list was nothing but positive got lumped in with two trolls via "secret evidence" and banned... mostly because he crossed an editor named "Yuber", who was a protectionate of the abusive bitch SlimVirgin at the time. They had fun for the next two years accusing dozens of editors of being "Enviroknot" and banning them without any evidence or proof. At one point, an editor named "Dreamguy" who has major [[WP:OWN]] issues concerning fantasy creature subjects (vampires, werewolves, etc) started accusing all his opposition of being "enviroknot"... simply to gain an advantage. As you can see looking at the history of some of the bans (Devilbat, Pukachu, CountPointercount) shows no editing pattern to corroborate, but simply a pattern of abusive users and admins using the accusation as a tool because it was an easy way to get that hair-trigger douchebag David Gerard, one of the worst "editors" ever to disgrace the encyclopedia, to issue a ban.

    13. Re:WP:OWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you feel that downtrodden about Wikipedia then the politics and labors of the actual academic world would truly intimidate you.

      Perhaps Wikipedia editing is just not for you. That is not something to be ashamed of.

    14. Re:WP:OWN by Moryath · · Score: 0

      Wikipedia is its own Catch-22.

      If you are a new editor and you take the time to read the various policies, procedures, manuals of style, etc and then start editing, you will immediately be accused of being a "sockpuppet of someone" because your "edits betray a familiarity with wikipedia."

      Then, the witch hunt will begin. Eventually they'll decide whose "sockpuppet" they want to call you, ban you without benefit of any way to clear your name or argue against their behavior, and that's that.

      On the other hand, if you DON'T read the various policies, procedures, manuals of style, etc and then start trying to edit or learn as you go, you'll see the scenario put up above, get trodden on by the neckbeards who have nothing to do but jack off all day while clicking the automated leveling tools in their great big MMORPG to raise their experience level (aka edit count), and quickly realize that 99% of the dicks who are currently editing wikipedia are the sort of people that nobody wants to be around.

    15. Re:WP:OWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wikipedia edits are not based on consensus

      I guess that might be true, but where does that leave edits/revisions that are completely unrelated to content that can be sited? Back when I thought Wikipedia was editable, I frequently corrected errors of spelling or grammar in articles and had them reverted to their previous (incorrect) state. This happened often enough that I gave up.

      Wikipedia is clearly not "an encyclopedia that anyone can edit" in the literal sense of those words. It's more like an encyclopedia that can be edited by a closed clique, most of whom appear to be sufferers of Aspergers, who have strong narcissist tendencies and control issues, and seem to think that "unbiased" means "agrees with my parochial view of this subject.:

      Others need not attempt to make even the most straightforward corrections.

    16. Re:WP:OWN by WNight · · Score: 1

      Deletionists, especially notability trolls, are the ones who ruin things. Their entire purpose could be solved with an appropriate template such as "Warning - this page is about a very obscure subject, you may want the disambiguation page instead." or "This page's quality is ranked 'Horrible' - if you know about this topic please help fix it."

      And instead they run around deleting things others, actual contributors, have done.

  24. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 0

    Another word.... "Duh"

    I asked for the argument for the practice the that the evil union overlord made.

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
  25. Re:And wrongly so... by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    I have less than a dozen edits. Several are still intact. A few were replaced by more detailed edits. One I disagree with but life goes on.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  26. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I asked for the argument for the practice the that the evil union overlord made.

    Give us more money; it's not yours, anyways.

  27. That's what SHE said by aardwolf64 · · Score: 1

    Of course, he just wrote a script that adds "That's what SHE said" to the end of every article. That's still better than the average Wikipedia edit...

  28. Re:It's also good exercise and could improve acade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While academia requires that a fact be referenced with "Benkton, J. 2004", which means nothing to most people and not precise at all, Wikipedia requires (or at least encourages) authors to give the authors name, the name of the article/book, and optionally a quote, page number, and other info

    You really should try to read a scientific paper from start to finish, just once in your life. At the end, you will find a section called 'references'. Surprisingly, this contains the author's name, the name of the article/book, page number, and even other info.

    Don't bother sending your CV just yet.

  29. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Moryath · · Score: 1

    It IS a subjective and ALWAYS political process when deciding to grant tenure.

    There, fixed that for you.

  30. why I no longer edit by cinnamon+colbert · · Score: 1

    I am a PhD molecular biologists with expertise in areas like gel electrophoresis, PCR, etc
    I no longer contribute to wiki for two reasons:
    1) because of the license, people can take my work and resell it for a profit; I don't mind people reusing it, but the thought of some biz marketing type making (probably a right wing free market wierdo) making money off of my work seems just wrong



    2) I am tired of morons editing my work, and making it worse; for instance, the article "dna sequencing" has gotten worse over the last year or so - things I put in, that were correct, and (immodestly) not to bad, were changed to things that were incorrect and poorly written, wit serious spelling and grammar errors (not like this email which i am dashing off quickly)

    1. Re:why I no longer edit by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Of course, if you tried to fix the bad edits, people would accuse you of owning the article and not letting anyone else contribute. I think that's better than letting the article get bad, but then you also get people coming to Slashdot and claiming that Wikipedia is broken because it's so "hostile" to newcomers.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:why I no longer edit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I seldom refer to Wikipedia at all. I got tired of finding articles that reported urban myths as truth, that mangled facts and cherry picked information for an idealogical slant. It was a great idea, but human nature corrupted it and it's become worse than useless to me.

    3. Re:why I no longer edit by WNight · · Score: 1

      Depends, are you sitting there shooting down any edit you disagree with without making proper notes and without proving your side of the issue? Because if you do, you are acting like you own it.

      I've seen revert battles where one person spells out their reasoning carefully - they're over in no time. Wars only last when someone pulls rank.

  31. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Deus.1.01 · · Score: 0

    Yes i know polemics are fun....but go away.

    --
    My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
  32. You've hit a plagiarist by David+Gerard · · Score: 1

    She did not write that for Watching The Watchers - she wrote it for the Wikimedia Blog and they just took it. Please correct this and link to the original source.

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  33. Discuss such reverts on each article's talk page by tepples · · Score: 1

    In my opinion, undue control over an article begins where a reverter neglects to leave an edit summary beyond the default "(Undid edit by X)" and/or fails to defend a revert on a talk page.

  34. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

    but why did they get such protection in the first place?

    Because of unions.
    And perhaps it is indeed more like a "job contract for an extended period". "extended" meaning "until retirement".

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  35. Cite the secondary sources by tepples · · Score: 1

    If you want to get information into an article, try citing scholarly or mainstream media which in turn cite the first-party "manufacturer's technical brochures". Wikipedia is not about the world; that'd be original research. It's about the reaction of the scholarly and mainstream media to the world.

    1. Re:Cite the secondary sources by WNight · · Score: 1

      Sure, you can replace cable TV with Netflix, but the sports fan living with you might not be amused.

      This means we're letting down the non-techies when it comes to piracy. Torrents should be great for sports because of their time-sensitive windows of interest and bandwidth sharing aspects. If only they streamed.

      If you want to get information into an article, try citing scholarly or mainstream media which in turn cite the first-party "manufacturer's technical brochures". Wikipedia is not about the world; that'd be original research. It's about the reaction of the scholarly and mainstream media to the world.

      Then the appropriate thing to do is take the inappropriate information and lump it into a section called 'Manufacturer's Specs' because they are that.

      Too many people think deleting something will make it better.

  36. ...and to think my wife says i spend too much time by smilnrt · · Score: 1

    on wikipedia...****sending her this article**** :-)

  37. Oh, Good."Gifted Masters Student." We're Saved! by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, for every "gifted Masters student" writing in Wikipedia there are three angry fourteen-year-olds focused like lasers on advancing some social agenda or another.

    1. Re:Oh, Good."Gifted Masters Student." We're Saved! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's OK, the fourteen year olds are only busy arguing over the wording of the Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon articles.

    2. Re:Oh, Good."Gifted Masters Student." We're Saved! by plcurechax · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, for every "gifted Masters student" writing in Wikipedia there are three angry fourteen-year-olds focused like lasers on advancing some social agenda or another.

      Oops, ths software most of drop a word in your comment, let me fix that for you...

      ... there are three thousand angry fourteen-year-olds ...

    3. Re:Oh, Good."Gifted Masters Student." We're Saved! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't believe there is much overlap in subject matter between what a "gifted masters student" would contribute vs. what is relevant to a fourteen-year-olds social agenda.
       
      I'd be more worried about the social agendas of the forty-year-olds.

  38. Changing Academia by Chuckles08 · · Score: 1

    This is good to hear. At the Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org), a website that is aggregating scientific information for all 1.9 million named species, curators are encouraged to edit Wikipedia content where it is appearing on a species page. One challenge, of course, is getting academics to devote valuable time to this type of service work. Institutional recognition for these contributions seems to be on the increase as alternative forms of academic contributions become more widespread. The education group for EOL (education.eol.org) is also encouraging instructors of biology related courses to use the EOL LifeDesk tool as a way for their students to make contributions to science through the writing of species accounts. The species accounts can be published to EOL. This exercise is both motivating and rewarding for students who have a chance to make a real contribution rather than writing a more typical term paper that will likely be thrown out when the course is complete.

    --
    Twenda Learning: Educational Apps that Engage.
  39. Re:While that might happen at University Campuses. by Yaur · · Score: 1
    Without it experienced teachers will be constantly replaced by cheap recent graduates and teaching becomes not a career, but something that you do for a few years after college. The good ones will most likely be able to find work in private schools so the lack of experienced teachers will only effect the poor and middle class who can't afford private schools.

    This in turn leads to less social mobility and increased stratification of society, both of which are bad IMO.

  40. Re:HungryHobo = a /. "ne'er-do-well" STUDENT NOOB! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't really think any sensible person will take the time to follow your "documentation," do you? What with all the random bolding and capitalization it looks like a ransom note.

  41. Re:It's also good exercise and could improve acade by plcurechax · · Score: 1

    What? I keep asking the librarian how to find the book [1] and keep getting told off..

  42. yuppers by MalikBetton · · Score: 1

    ive been telling folks for the longest that wikipedia is credible.

  43. The math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If he spent 5 minutes per edit, the he is claiming to have spent the equivalent of 125 40-hour weeks editing Wikipedia. If these "edits" are comprised of correcting or improving factual information, then 5 minutes is a reasonable estimate for accessing he article, reading the error, possibly looking up some information (on Yahoo Answers probably) and writing his contribution.

    If his contribtution was merely fixing the "there/their" errors as he encounters them, then, that's nice of him but hardly the basis for a promotion.

    Of course, the article only says that he listed his Wikipedia "service;" we don't know that it was a factor in the university's decision.

  44. Re:And wrongly so... by georgesdev · · Score: 1

    I was going to reply that it's not so, but I checked Wikipedia first. And guess what, my last edit (a page creation with references and everything) has been cited as a candidate for deletion. So yes, it seems Wikipedia is becoming a closed circle of 60000+ club

  45. Re:HungryHobo = a /. "ne'er-do-well" STUDENT NOOB! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For those of you who don't know who APK is, he's a rather completely insane person who registered on ars a few years back, tried to spam his worthless do-nothing utility shareware junk, got roundly thrashed, and then started lashing out at anyone he could get his hands on (at one point, he was convinced that I was MWNH, and he thought that I had "stolen" his software, that's an example of how loopy things got. And of course he registered as APK on OSY, got banned, registered again as APK1, got banned again, I emailed Road Runner (his current ISP) about his email abuse, and then things sort of stopped.

    THREE AND A HALF YEARS LATER, I get this in my mailbox:

    From: APK

    Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 3:06 AM
    Subject: Remove this page from your forums due to myself being impersonated there, thank you... apk

    http://www.pegasus3d.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=1&topic=10

    I did not post that, & it's criminal impersonation, which carries legal implications.

    (Thank you for your cooperation, and I am sure you do NOT want that kind of thing on your forums!)

    Sincerely,

    Alexander Peter Kowalski
    apk

    Okay, that is a nearly four year old forum post he's complaining about. And apparently he's forgotten the whole exchange where he was banned from OSY, and he's forgotten about how he thought I was MWNH, and so forth. So I decided to have a little fun with him. If he's complaining about someone "impersonating" him, that opens up a whole neat metaphysical area for jokes at his expense.

    I reply back:

    How do I know you're the real APK and not an impostor?

    About half an hour later, he replies:

    Check my email @ www.ntcompatible.com if you wish, I post there as AlecStaar.

    (Thank-You!)

    Sincerely,

    Alexander Peter Kowalski
    apk

    So, clearly, it's the real APK. But is this any kind of proof of that? And where's the proof that the APK on OSY 1.0 wasn't the real APK? And who would care anyway?

    So let's see if I can't have some fun here. I'll start out all polite:

    Hello,

    I have found this "AlecStaar" poster on www.ntcompatible.com that you are talking about, but I have two problems: 1) There is no email address listed so I have no way to correlate "AlecStaar" with apk4776239@hotmail.com, and 2) There is no proof that "AlecStaar" is in fact the real APK!

    You can see my dilemma. What if this is merely a ruse by an APK impostor to try and get people to delete APK's messages, perhaps all over the web? I can't be a party to such an event!

    Within 15 minutes came the reply:

    Well, ask anybody there if you wish... That's easily done. Many of them know who I am, & also what my email is.

    Perhaps, the best/easiest way to check that is to write the webmaster there:

    Philipp@NTCompatible.com

    He & I often correspond & can verify who I am & what my email is.

    Thanks!

    APK

    P.S.=> Whatever the case may be, my attorney's being forwarded this information just so you are aware of that as well. He is on retainer each year, & I get my money's worth from him each year for said retainer... he is advising me to advise you of this, & also what this is about, etc. apk

    Oh noes! He's got a virtual lawyer on virtual retainer! And he's advising me to advise me of this! What to do????

    The only way to beat virtual lawyers is, of course, with virtual lawyers:

    Well, the question then becomes, how do the fine people at www.ntcompatible.com know that you are the true APK? Perhaps your account history there has been an elaborate ruse, designed to build up a trust which you can then use to deceive people all over the web in order to get them to delete messages from the true APK! I've read up on stories of ident

  46. He must be... by PwnzerDragoon · · Score: 1
  47. Professors DO spend time editing wikipedia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For everyone out there saying that this could only happen because Auburn University Montgomery is not a real university, I happen to that there is at least one Fields' medalist who spends a lot of time editing Wikipedia articles in mathematics (which have gotten very good in the last few years).

  48. Re:And wrongly so... by St.Creed · · Score: 1

    I've never found this so. But ofcourse, I write about technical topics of which I know a lot. Not about stuff I don't know anything about but have strong opinions on.

    --
    Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  49. Re:HungryHobo = a /. "ne'er-do-well" STUDENT NOOB! by HungryHobo · · Score: 1

    oh god this guy is a hoot.
    he's been posting on most of my recent posts and he has even decided that all the other people laughing at him are me using extra accounts and ACing.

    Of course since you are an AC that means you are me as well.

    we're all against him!
    (as are the voices)

  50. Re:HungryHobo = a /. "ne'er-do-well" STUDENT NOOB! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You trolled him and now you're being trolled in return. I read what he wrote and you are only getting back what you started HH. If you don't start none, you get none. Try to keep that in mind the next time you troll somebody I say. I read what he wrote and it seems you started up with he for no reason right out of the blue. Your reaction complete with profanity and name calling isn't helping your case. It's weakening it. He only points to where you started up with he and now he is doing it in return to you. Serves you right and perhaps you can learn by it and improve yourself instead of being the immature 20 something you appear to be when I read the posts he put up. Grow up man, and quit bitching about it. You had it coming I figure.

  51. Re:HungryHobo = a /. "ne'er-do-well" STUDENT NOOB! by HungryHobo · · Score: 1

    actually that's one of a number of posts, he's been stalking me for quite some time.

    others appear to have had similar experiences with him.

  52. Jeremy Reimer LIVES OFF HIS STRIPPER WIFE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, I know who THIS is replying - Hello Jeremy Reimer, you utter noob and KNOWN troll AND SELF-PUBLISHED "LULU LuuuuZer", lol! Known PLAGIARIST is more like it (Doug Engelbart ring a bell?)

    Especially around THIS place (/.)!

    Note the "mod up" on that post? Others KNOW you arseholes are just that & it's FAR from a "1st" with you coming around trolling me or trying to, as you did here:

    http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1300193&cid=28678549

    SO, per my subject-line:

    How's your stripper wife doing? Just think Jeremy - next time you kiss her, when I had her give me head for a couple of bucks (yes, I did this & she took the money, but gives LOUSY head, lol!)??

    You're "tasting me"... lmao!

    (See subject line too... we ALL know you can't get a decent job that pays any good, so you use her as your "meal ticket"... lmao!), Here we go, to dismantle your LIES point-by-point:

    ---

    "And apparently he's forgotten the whole exchange where he was banned from OSY" - by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08, @02:12PM (#35760868)

    Ahem: I NEVER JOINED YOUR SHITTY LITTLE "FORUMS" BOARD JEREMY - you IMPERSONATED ME THERE, and, YOU ADMITTED IT!

    PROOF:

    http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1300193&cid=28685295

    You had to remove all kinds of shit you did to me, like even pictures of myself altered in a "non-flattering way" (talk about CHILDISH)... lol, you LOSE, you FAIL... it is the ONLY THING YOU'RE ANY GOOD AT IN FACT!

    Why no kids Jeremy? Need a "splint" down there, OR just a "dose of viagra"?? LOL!

    ---

    "Anyway the "APK" registered here is just an affectionate clone of the original. In fact I prefer him to the original." - Jeremy Reimer - March 25, 2005

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22OSY%22+and+%22affectionate+clone%22+and+%22Reimer%22&btnG=Search

    ---

    You can't hide the fact YOU impersonated ME on your forums Reimer & all I ever did was ask NICELY that you remove that b.s.!

    In the end?

    Well, you got caught & humiliated for it too...

    Funniest part was FLOORING that fat fool Jay Little on Exchange Server (which he said, verbatim, he was an "expert on exchange") over @ Windows IT Pro where YOU & HE stalked me to no less (alongside Jarrett DeAngelis/starkruzr http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=230833&cid=18830875 ) & YOU ALL lost badly to me!

    (With even your helpers running in Jay Little, & posting "Death Threats" directed MY WAY, which his hosting provider then CrystalTech removed his website for, as well as another such threat on petitiononline.com Jay made)...

    Yes - as shown in the URL above, Jarrett DeAngelis/StarKruzr, was the next person you used, because you don't have enough KNOW HOW/saavy in the computer sciences realm to try to take me on, & he?

    LMAO - StarKruzr/Jarrett DeAngelis ended up AGREEING w/ 99% of what I wrote in fact, & he was a doctoral student ONLY in those days... but far in advance of yourself OR Jay Little, by far, technically.

    What did he agree to? 15 points in favor of memory optimizers not even Dr. Mark Russinovich could dispute OR disprove!

    (Dr. M.R., whom I have worked as a peer with for SunBelt software & I have corrected HIS work before in Pagedefrag.exe also due to his ROOKIE hardcodes used, I couldn't BELIEVE It, but it shows that he is more 'programming oriented' (actually REVERSE ENGINEEING oriented) than a tech/networker. etc.)).

    ---

    Hell, you just did what the police & IS

  53. They similarly were BEATEN easily too (like you) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK: Anyone is free to look @ the link I posted to you before here:

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2071668&cid=35756728

    That cuts YOU, and Jeremy Reimer to shreds (Reimer's now posting here as AC in reply here now, because I have his emails saved here to this day & know whose those are) and I said what I had to, the truth vs. his fictions/lies & worse, here to he -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2074342&cid=35762566 in this very exchange.

    You arseholes from ArseHoleTechnika? You're pitiful!

    HOWEVER: Nearly the ENTIRE INTERNET's ONTO YOUR GAMES, which is WHY Arstechnica is dying... or, is Ken Fisher BEGGING people to come to their forums & take adbanner views not "indicative thereof"?

    See below, & the dirty tricks HE played on arstech users too, no less:

    ----

    An experiment gone wrong - By Ken Fisher | Last updated March 6, 2010 11:11 AM

    http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars

    "Starting late Friday afternoon we conducted a 12 hour experiment to see if it would be possible to simply make content disappear for visitors who were using a very popular ad blocking tool. Technologically, it was a success in that it worked. Ad blockers, and only ad blockers, couldn't see our content."

    and

    "Our experiment is over, and we're glad we did it because it led to us learning that we needed to communicate our point of view every once in a while. Sure, some people told us we deserved to die in a fire. But that's the Internet!"

    Thus, as you can see? Well - THAT all "went over like a lead balloon" with their users in other words, because Arstechnica was forced to change it back to the old way where ADBLOCK still could work to do its job (REDDIT however, has not, for example). However/Again - this is proof that HOSTS files can still do the job, blocking potentially malscripted ads (or ads in general because they slow you down) vs. adblockers like ADBLOCK!

    ----

    Nuff said... & ARSTECHNICA USED A KNOWN "hacker/cracker" trick called a "Web Bug" to do it no less... funny, it didn't stop folks like myself that use HOSTS files, .PAC files, & custom CSS files, instead of AdBlock alone/only though!

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep coming & telling more "tall tales/fibs" (lies as usual)... I'll keep "shooting them down" point-by-point, just as I did yourself, here today:

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2071668&cid=35756728

    Too easy... truth always IS the best route, especially when you can back it up easily, vs. trolls! apk

  54. Re:HungryHobo, replying as AC now? LMAO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am not HungryHobo. I just have no interest in acquiring a nutjob follower such as you, so I posted my comment AC.

  55. Ahem: Bull Shit... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bullshit:

    "I am not HungryHobo. I just have no interest in acquiring a nutjob follower such as you, so I posted my comment AC." - by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 09, @09:33AM (#35766938)

    Bullshit.

    (Also - When you get your PHD in Psychiatry, and a license to practice it professionally, as well as years-to-decades of hands on professional practice alongside a formal examination of myself in professional settings for psychiatric examination? Then, perhaps only MAYBE then, can you make assessments of anyone's mental state... including my own - because until then, you're libelling myself... and you KNOW it, coward!)

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a COWARDLY LITTLE WORM who trolls others and runs like the little bitch you are... period! apk

    1. Re:Ahem: Bull Shit... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a COWARDLY LITTLE WORM who trolls others and runs like the little bitch you are

      Hmmm. Projection much?

  56. HungryHobo the "NE'ER-DO-WELL" Student NOOB! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2071668&cid=35756728

    (LMAO - That shows everyone here reading just how much of a lying, libelling, & trolling stalker + UTTER STUDENT NOOB "ne'er-do-well" that YOU REALLY ARE, HungryHobo!)

    APK

  57. Proof of Reimer's LIES here (Windows IT Pro) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/internals-and-architecture/the-memory-optimization-hoax#feedbackAnchor

    Jeremy Reimer's bullshit above is shot down in flames easily just by reading that exchange & seeing how Reimer IMPERSONATED ME on his own forums, then after being asked nicely to remove it, stalked me along with his friends Jay Little & Jarrett DeAngelis/starkruzr to Windows IT Pro forums (as well as NTCompatible.com in Jay Little stalking me there also & being shot down in flames on Ramdisk usage + IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO regarding device drivers interfaces to hardware & more)...

    APK

    P.S.=> So much for Jeremy Reimer, the self-published "LULU LUuuuuZer", who not only impersonated MYSELF, but also tried to impersonate a Mr. Martin Meszaros, whom I tracked down & had him RIP REIMER A NEW ONE FOR IT, publicly...

    Jeremy Reimer - You're doing yourself in each time you try to troll me with your lies & libel Reimer, but there's no escaping the facts on that page above from Windows IT Pro forums where you and your arstechnica pals tried to stalk & troll me + libel me (and make death threats my way only to have your websites removed by authorities for it)... AND, that you live off of your wife (a stripper, dirt), because you can't hold a decent job (not enough to afford kids apparently, or perhaps its because you need a dose of viagra to do the job of making them (or perhaps a "splint" of some type)? LOL!)... apk

  58. Oh, so CLEVER (not): "ReVeRsE PsYcHoLoGy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "?hcum noitcejorP" - by THE TRUE Anonymous Coward TROLL on Sunday April 10, @02:10AM (#35772268)

    ??

    tl:dr !

    and 'Hmmm. Projection much?'

    (Two can play that game, goof!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Same to you, troll, same to you... and there's no question you're a TRUE 'anonymous coward' as you leave no signature of who you are, as I do @ least. No, You're only proving that you're just yet another little worm who thinks he's "clever", who only ends up proving that WHAT LITTLE YOU "KNOW" (not much)? Is from Wikipedia - nothing more... apk