Jimmy Wales Involved in New Cash for Wiki Scandal
Is somebody out to get Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales? Just a few weeks after being embroiled in an accounting scandal, Wales has been accused of modifying Wikipedia entries in return for donations to the site.
Jeff Merkey, a former computer scientist at Novell, has said that, in return for US$5000 in donations in 2006, Wales agreed to modify Merkey’s Wikipedia entry to make it more flattering. Investigations have revelealed that Merkey did indeed make the donations and that Wales did modify the entry, but Wales is saying that the two things aren’t related.
In any case, $5000 seems like a lot of money to get a Wikipedia entry modified, given that anybody (including Merkey himself) could have made those modifications. We’re pretty sure we could find a few people willing to change an entry for considerably less money (we reckon $50 and a subscription to Playboy Online could probably get it done). [SMH]
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Comments
Sounds like Blackmail/Extortion 2.0! Jimmy Jones Wales. Whatta wanka!
Whilst it’s true that pretty much anyone could edit the article, only someone with as much influence as Wales could edit it and make it stick. For example, not many admins could have just deleted the article and started it over like he did. Probably worth the money to Merkey (who is, I think, pretty wealthy?).
Anyway, I have a feeling more dirt like this will be coming out on Wales in the next few weeks. Everyone else involved in something dodgy with him will be keen to jump in.
http://www.jimmywales.org http://www.jimmywales.net
Ironic isn’t it.