Slashdot Mirror
Wikipedia Blocks 'Disruptive' Edits From US Congress
alphatel writes: Wikipedia has blocked anonymous edits from a congressional IP address for 10 days because of "disruptive" behavior. These otherwise anonymous edits were brought to light recently by @Congressedits, a bot that automatically tweets Wikipedia changes that come from Congressional IP addresses. The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies." Mediaite's Wikipedia page was modified to label the site as a "sexist transphobic" publication.
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies."
His unmasking isn't supposed to happen for another 20 years, now our plan is shot to hell.
Damn meddling kids mumble mumble...
I take offense to the idea that Donald Rumsfeld is some kind of racist who only eats Mexican babies. Donald Rumsfeld isn't a racist - he eats babies of all races equally, without taking the color of their skin or their nationality into consideration. Have a little respect for the man!
In the case of Donald Rumsfeld, it should say: "Evil, alien lizard who eats Mexican babies and puppies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:143.231.249.138
I assume this means they're certain he is NOT an alien lizard who eats Mexican babies? I mean, it does seem pretty unlikely, but we should at least check into it.
I hope this is coming from some over zealot unpaid interns, working for the congress. Not from the actual congressmen themselves.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Alien Lizards everywhere are shocked! Shocked I tell you! They are very offended to be tied in any way to Donald Rumsfeld, although there are first hand accounts of the Mexican Baby thing (he threatened them when they caught him feasting, but they told him this was too big and eventually it would leak out). As a normal rule, Alien Lizards never eat Mexican Babies, they only ever had to eat one, once, after a saucer crash, a forced ditch, following a surveillance mission over area 51.
Now if we could only block all of the other disruptive behavior from Congress.
Fuck, with this bunch of chuckleheads, we can't even get roads and bridges maintained.
Looking into this, this ip address has been vandalising Wikipedia for over 4 years now...
Wikipedia does not ban people who repeatedly vandalise their site, over a period of years?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.” - Chris Hedges
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I was amused to see that TFA was a front page BBC article. For comparison I went to CNN and FOX to see what was reported there. Didn't find anything on either of those 2 sites.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
That's an unfair assertion, and completely not supported by facts.
Don Rumsfeld has NOT been proven to be an alien, nor have I seen any evidence that he prefers Mexicans over any other nationality, much less the exclusivity implied by the wiki entry.
Glad they fixed it.
-Styopa
What is really sad is that these congressional staffers show suck a lack of professionalism and honor in doing their jobs.
There used to be a time where you could politically disagree with some but still be great friends, or at the very least amicable colleagues. Nowadays, the other political side is just filled with inhuman enemies that need to be degraded and driven into oblivion.
The concept of a government and laws derived from debate and compromise and consideration of different sides of an issue has been wiped out in favor of "I am right and you are wrong, and since you are wrong you can shut the hell up."
So much of this shit looks like stuff a 3rd grader would come up with to insult their enemies.
the same could be done to block other disruptive acts of congress.
"Out of over 9,000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? " Tell that to voter fraud bills, the claim of "welfare queens" and not allowing female reproductive rights because "some use it to be promiscuous". Not so fun now that it's on the other foot, is it? However, unlike those claims, they do have control of AND responsibility over their entire network. This IP ban is standard practice for IT security. If they can't secure their network, then they don't deserve access to the server. Access to servers are a privilege, not a right.
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
While Wikipedia is varying in quality, I'm actually glad that we have at least some kind of transparency to see who makes the various edits. I wonder what kind of manipulation or shilling has been going on with dead tree encyclopedias or history books?
I owe someone a beer for this. I said the lizard comment wasn't going to make Slashdot.
Some of the edits are funny and the response to the Wikipedia admin from whoever is doing this is also kinda funny
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=617234780&oldid=617214414
Apparently most of the other Congressional staffers editing Wikipedia are transphobic otherkinphobic conspiritard Republicunts shilling for the heteronormative patriarchy. And it seems like a lot the Wikipedia administrators are as well. No wonder this site is so biased. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 18:46, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
I have just been informed that there's a Twitterbot posting all Wikipedia edits from Congress. There have been questions as to exactly which edits are otherkinphobic. The edit calling Donald Rumsfeld and "alien lizard" was clearly intended as a smear against otherkin people. Firstly, we prefer the term "Scalie". The term "alien lizard" is considered a slur. Secondly, if he wants be open about his species identity (if the claims that he's not cisspecies are true) then that should be his decision. People shouldn't be outed for their species identity before they want to come out. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies."
Truth hurts...although I hear Guatemalan babies are much tastier with better spices.
This is going to drive the Area 51 conspiracy theorists crazy...
This edit on this article.
The amount of blatant disinformation in this thread is astounding. I would figure that the /. audience would be better acquainted with the basics of contemporary conspiracy theory. The lizard people outed by noted investigative report Hunter S. Thompson are not aliens, they've been here all along. They're the remnants of the advanced civilization that retreated to their underground cities when the meteor that created the Chicxulub crater caused the mass extinction we refer to as Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Richard Shaver decoded some of their archives left in stone and identified them as deros.
From the article, presumably from a staffer: "Out of over 9,000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? Some of us here are just making grammatical edits, adding information about birds in Omsk, or showing how one can patch KDE2 under FreeBSD."
Sorry, but if you're a congressional staffer, using a computer in a congressional office, why are you making edits about birds in Omsk, or KDE? You want to make those edits, do them from your own home on your own time. There, I fixed it.
GStreamer - The only way to stream!
Was created by a person via that IP address in question;
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/ind...
Curious...
Is it impossible for a congressional computer which is obviously connected to the public Internet to be a botnet slave?
For all we know someone else outside of congress controls this computer/router/whatever (could be multiple infected computers behind a firewall) and uses it mess up wikipedia entries.
""Out of over 9,000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? "
Yes. It may get the attention of the guilty parties. I, for one, want to see the exact identification of that House representative, the office guilty of this ongoing abuse. Name names, cowards!
Bipartisanship is apparently live and well in Washington. I heard that it is actually a form of communism just last week, but I can't reveal my sources in the UK government.
May you die in a fiery car wreck, trapped in the burning, twisted metal and fully conscious until the last ounce of flesh is burned from your bones.
Although Wikipedia doesn't normally block IPs indefinitely, it's not a firm rule and this negligent ISP with a pattern of abuse seems like a good enough justification. If anyone in the government wants to make legitimate contributions they can just apply an IP block exemption - it's not like they have anything to hide, and we have a duty to keep Wikipedia safe from domestic and international vandalism.
If congress doesn't like the actions of Wikipedia administrators then they are free to participate in Wikipedia:Requests for Adminship. If you don't think the RfA process is fair then you should just support a different administrative candidate and stop whining already. If you don't participate in RfAs then you have no right to complain about how Wikipedia works.
All facts/opinions/arguments aside...
I think these insulting/unprofessional edits made from government IPs is a pathetic act. These people who made the edits, or the people that ordered them to do so, deserve to get spit in their faces.
I dont have an opinion on Mr. Rumsfeld. I don't agree nor disagree with anybody, but I think they should be labeled just as bad as they labeled the Secretary.
I expected utmost professional behaviors from people that represent us!!!
""Out of over 9,000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? "
btards have infilmitrated The Beeb
So you're saying an employee of the US Congress has been using taxpayer-supplied hardware and infrastructure to vandalize Wikipedia for over 4 years? Shouldn't that employee be fired?
You should probably look at *all the other edits* to articles made around and during the vandalism spree.
If congressional staff is denied this recreational outlet, they will just find other mischief.
Which can only result in more laws and more spending
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Things are out of balance. We have a Central Intelligence Agency but we do not have a Central Stupidity Agency. Until we do the House of representatives is taking the role and we have people or lizards like Donald Rumsfield and the right wing to help keep our nation well influenced by total stupidity.
Chef: Should we take the bones out?
Donald: If you take the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy
The Mediaite page is still not quite kosher. At the end of the first paragraph:
"There's significant evidence to suggest that they're also inundated with Thetans."
So....yeah.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Corporations are to be afforded the divine rights of human beings! [This article has multiple issues. Please help improvement or discuss these issues in chambers.]
(On the discussion page it looks like all the recent edits are coming from five guys at the Supreme Court.)
Yeah. I mean, trolling /. while you should be working is one thing, but helping KDE users is a new low.
someone needs to control that person
I always thought V the series was fake... Now this Rumsfeld thing... It explains his pet chupacabra...