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German Wikipedia Has Problems With Paid Editing — and Threats of Violence

Posted by timothy on from the next-time-we-leave-the-rest-of-the-horse dept.

metasonix (650947) writes "As German journalist Marvin Oppong learned recently, there are a number of people who work to make articles about certain corporations and trade groups on German Wikipedia 'look better.' And when Oppong published his discoveries, one reaction was an openly violent threat, aimed at him, posted on de-WP's 'Kurier' noticeboard. Just as with English Wikipedia, it is apparently a 'terrible crime' to criticize German Wikipedia, even when Jimbo Wales's 'bright line' rule on paid editing is being violated. Unlike English WP, the Germans will threaten to 'curbstone' people for saying it."

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Reading comprehension by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Original German: "Ein geistiger Tiefflieger, er soll aufpassen, dass er nicht mit dem Kinn am Borstein hängen bleibt".

    Translation: "A mental low-flyer (i.e., low-flying plane), he has to take care that his chin doesn't snag the curb".

    The statement is that this guy's head / brain is flying so low that any obstacle become insurmount-able, even the curbstone. It's a big stretch to see this as a threat of violence.

    1. Re:Reading comprehension by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's what I thought at first. However, see comment above: http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... "You need to know that Oppong is black, and that the editor who made the comment has an 88 attached to his name. 88 is a neo-nazi code for Heil Hitler (HH, the eighth letter of the alphabet, twice). Curbstomping gained notoriety in Germany after neo-nazi youths used the method some years ago to execute a 16-year-old in East Germany." If someone with an 88 at the end of his user name made a comment about my chin hitting the curb after I made some unwelcome comments, I might wonder too what exactly they meant.