back to article Wales: Let's ban Gibraltar-crazy Wikipedians for 5 years

You could be forgiven for thinking the front-page of Wikipedia is sponsored by the Gibraltar Tourist Board, with the territory given the kind of product placement large corporations can only dream of. Now Wikipedia's self-styled "spiritual leader" Jimmy Wales has publicly stated that he wants the Wikipedians' curious enthusiasm …

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I've sent in a correction...

Instead of a picture of Roger Bamkin, El Reg seems to have used a stock photo of a homeless man in a library...

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Re: I've sent in a correction...

This objectification of men must stop! You wouldn't be commenting on a woman's appearance like this, would you?! His appearance has absolutely nothing to do with the story!

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Re: I've sent in a correction...

"Instead of a picture of Roger Bamkin, El Reg seems to have used a stock photo of a homeless man in a library..."

It's not a homeless man in a library. It's Jim Broadbent *playing* a homeless man in a library.

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Trollface

@Jamie Kitson

......I would.

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Windows

Re: @Jamie Kitson

And, so we come full circle. (tiz almost religious).

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Re: I've sent in a correction...

That wasn't me that downvoted you Jamie.

Anyway, is it just me, or does his expression say, "I just took a wet dump in a Will Self hardback and slammed it shut."

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It hasn't stopped

It hasn't stopped.. 10 "Did You Know" articles on the front page this month so far.

There is a debate about it on Wikipedia itself here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Did_you_know#Gibraltar.2C_again

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Facepalm

D'oh!

Just spent a few moments puzzling over who "the Ayn Rand objectivist in Wales" was crypticly referring to.

Who could that Rand-fixated Welshman possibly be......?

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Re: D'oh!

You're not alone. Every time I see that man's surname in a headline, it takes a minute to parse what's actually being said.

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Facepalm

Re: D'oh!

It think the Reg need to do a readers poll:-

Every time you see a headline mentioning Wales and Wiki do you

A: Think 'Ah this must be referring to that chubby Steve Jobs lookalike'

or

B: Think 'What the hell are the Welsh complaining about now!'

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FAIL

It's like a bloody soap opera over there on wikipedia.

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Wikipants

Whatever happened to the rule that "The first person to quote Wikipedia loses the argument"?

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What a joke...

Wacky-leaks is.

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Anonymous Coward

!

What on earth has this story got to do with wikileaks....do you even know what the article is about?

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Small typo in the article

There is no evidence the user has a commercial relationship with Gibraltar. He may simply be a tit.

Think that's what you meant.

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Do they have a similar deal with Monmouth?

Used to be articles about Monmouth every few days on the DYK bit, until I went on the Talk page and told them to give it a rest.

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Re: Do they have a similar deal with Monmouth?

Yes

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Bloody Spaniards

Why can't they focus on different regions of Spain to spice things up a bit.

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Re: Bloody Spaniards

Gibraltar is not a region of Spain...

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Trollface

* The Register has no way of knowing the user's true identity

Can't you look him up on Wikipedia?

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A possible response to misuse might be that every publicity seeker pitches in. DYK and for that matter the rest of the site are open to this abuse. Wail.

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Not very effective advertising

Wikipedia is my browser home page and I read the DYKs every morning over breakfast. It's usually the most interesting section.

If you had asked me "guess who's spamming DYK with excessive articles?" I would not have said Gibraltar - I would have immediately said the Indonesian Classic Film Society. Because there's something about an Indonesian / Dutch East Indian film or actor every day it seems. There's nothing sinister about this - it means that someone who's interested in Indoniesian film is doing a lot of article expansion and making regular submissions to DYK. Before Indonesian film it was Eurovision Song Contest entrants.

If Gibraltar are paying someone to promote the country via DYK, they should stop, not because it breaks the rules but because they're doing a rubbish job. I've noticed several trends over the years including the two above, and I haven't noticed Gibraltar items at all. Let alone been tempted to visit. 17 articles in a month occupies a tiny amount of space - DYK generally changes all its articles four times a day, meaning each item will last only 6 hours before disappearing forever, and there can be anything from 6-8 articles in each batch. So 17 out of 700-900 articles. Not very effective.

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Gibraltar

The problem with the Wikipedia pages about Gibraltar in the past has been that they have been controlled by a bunch of Spanish editors, some in the employ of the Spanish foreign ministry who gamed the system to show things 'their way' and conspired to get any contentious Gibraltarian editors excluded.

I was banned for a year for insisting that Gibraltar is self governing - which it is.

Mr Bamkin was employed to train a number of unpaid local editors to create pages for Gibraltarpedia in a project sponsored by the Gibraltar museum, as they worked hard and created lots of pages its no doubt been featured heavily on wikipedia.

Naturally the forces of darkness have reacted in the same way Spain seeks to prevent Gibraltar joining UEFA contrary to court rulings. Despite their economic mess they have money to spend on Gib bashing.

I do not edit anything on Mr Wale's dodgy factbook anymore or donate money and free news pictures.

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Anonymous Coward

Re: Gibraltar

"Wikipedia pages about Gibraltar in the past has been that they have been controlled by a bunch of Spanish editors, some in the employ of the Spanish foreign ministry"

Any evidence to back up your claims, Mr. gibnews?

"Mr Bamkin was employed to train a number of unpaid local editors to create pages for Gibraltarpedia"

Did you just say he's been *paid* to train people to edit pages in Wackypedia?

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I once visited Gibraltar

It was a day trip and really effing dull. Don't bother. It sucks.

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This post has been deleted by its author

Why Bother

So some buffoon in a burst of desperation for money abuses his position with Wikipedia, get's caught and fired. Who expects Wikipedia to be perfect, who expects anything to be perfect. What is important here is abuse was discovered coming from a trustee and the board moved forward appropriately and removed that trustee, that's what proper governance is all about.

Not some foolish expectations of perfection, it just don't happen but sound corrections in management when problems are discovered.

The crazy right babble that has infected right wing talking points that everything must be perfect, you can never disclose problems, is getting out of hand.

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