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obvious reason for his temporary detention. "I recognised the page at once," Akcam says. "The still photo and the text beneath it comprised my biography in the
English language edition of Knowledge (XXG). For the last year ... my Knowledge (XXG) biography has been persistently vandalised by anonymous 'contributors' intent on labelling me as a terrorist. The same allegations has been repeatedly scrawled, like gangland graffiti, as 'customer reviews' of my books at Amazon."
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personal level, and I think this is the right thing to do. If anyone else feels that they need or want a personal apology, please ask him for it. And if you find it to be sincere, then I hope you will accept it too, but each person must make their own judgments. Despite my personal forgiveness, I hope that he will accept my resignation request, because forgiveness or not, these positions are not appropriate for him now.
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In
February, in a chilling case of the consequences of Knowledge (XXG)'s prominence, an historian was detained by Canadian and later by American authorities after his Knowledge (XXG) article was vandalized, claiming that he was a terrorist. The story first gained attention in April: On the way to a
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Overall, the number of articles across all
Wikipedias grew 52.76%, to over 9.25 million articles. The number of articles is expected to break 10,000,000 around March. Meanwhile, the total number of edits grew 88.63%, to 411,875,822 at the end of 2007 (this number is expected to break 500,000,000 in
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In late
October, a French case against the Wikimedia Foundation, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy, was dismissed. The three plaintiffs sued over a page that identified them as "gay activists"; these claims were introduced by an anonymous editor and were later removed. The judge did not
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Different people played different roles. I do not have time to sort it all out today, so I am referring most of it to the ArbCom. I have instantly desysopped
Yanksox, though, because he's basically begging for it. I have temporarily desysopped Geni and Freakofnurture pending the ArbCom thinking it
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The
Canadian immigration officer, Akcam says, was "courteous" - but promptly detained him at Montreal's Trudeau airport. Even odder, the Canadian immigration officer asked him why he needed to be detained. ... the Canadian officer showed him - at Akcam's insistence - a piece of paper which was the
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overtook the
English Wiktionary on November 26; at the end of 2007, the French Wiktionary contained about 45,000 more entries than the English Wiktionary (about 7.3% more). This is the first non-English Wikimedia project to overtake its English counterpart, though this is not the first time it has
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Knowledge (XXG) is built on (among other things) twin pillars of trust and tolerance. The integrity of the project depends on the core community being passionate about quality and integrity, so that we can trust each other. The harmony of our work depends on human understanding and forgiveness of
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I only learned this morning that EssJay used his false credentials in content disputes. I understood this to be primarily the matter of a pseudonymous identity (something very mild and completely understandable given the personal dangers possible on the
Internet) and not a matter of violation of
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I have asked EssJay to resign his positions of trust within the community. In terms of the full parameters of what happens next, I advise (as usual) that we take a calm, loving, and reasonable approach. ... On a personal level, EssJay has apologized to me, and I have accepted his apology on a
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Last month marked the end of 2007, and the end of the biggest year (and perhaps the most controversial year) that
Knowledge (XXG) has seen. Over the last year, the Wikimedia Foundation's reach and influence grew, both within the Board and the office. Along the way, quality improvements were
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I know how these things go. Some of the people involved were trying to calm things down. Others were merely trying to cause more disruption and fighting by engaging in inflammatory actions designed to outrage the other side. It is hard to sort it all out. This is why wheel warring is so
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I am referring this case directly to the ArbCom to look at possible remedies for all parties involved up to and including desysopping, blocking, etc. I have absolutely no opinion on the actual content question (Should we have an article about him? I don't care) but is a
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rule on whether the statements were defamatory, but instead ruled that any damage was mitigated by the removal of the material from
Knowledge (XXG). He concluded that Wikimedia "acted promptly to cease giving access to the content once it became aware of its character."
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Is it fair to characterize Taner Akçam as being "controversial"? While googling the term "controversial historian", the main hits I got were for people who have been criticized by mainstream academics rather than people who have upset nationalists and governments.
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s 2007 in review continues, with Foundation decisions, numerous elections, technical features, interviews, organizations for deletion, bureaucracy, private correspondence, corporate editing, and a chilling coincidence yet to come.
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sued a Miami-based educational consulting firm after an IP address reportedly belonging to the company posted defamatory statements to his biography. The edits, which were deleted in December 2006, were made by
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ruled that Henrygb had used sockpuppets to double-vote on adminship and deletion discussions. Henrygb was also banned indefinitely, until the user confirmed that no additional sockpuppetry was taking place.
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found that he had used sockpuppets to "game the system". Eyrian was also banned from Knowledge (XXG) "until he provides the Committee with a satisfactory explanation regarding this matter."
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This year, twelve administrators were desysopped, and seven administrators resigned under what the Arbitration Committee or bureaucrats deemed "controversial circumstances". In February, a
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grew more popular, the number of images on individual Wikipedias rose by only 20.28%, while Commons media files grew by more than 110%, from about 1.06 million to about 2.25 million.
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As the vandalism was two months old, and had been reverted quickly, Akçam suspected that a political enemy may have forwarded a copy of the vandalized article to the
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people's trust. I want to make it perfectly clear that my past support of EssJay in this matter was fully based on a lack of knowledge about what has been going on.
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The French Wiktionary was also larger than the English Wiktionary for a time a couple of years ago, so this is technically not the first time it has happened. --
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overshadowed by corporate and government editing, and vandalism, with one case resulting in the temporary detainment of a Turkish academic. This week, the
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Freakofnurture's sysop privileges were restored before the case was finished, but Yanksox and Geni were formally desysopped by the Committee;
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Essjay resigned his positions shortly after this message and left Knowledge (XXG) altogether, and later resigned from Wikia.
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two days later; he was allowed to leave, but cautioned not to travel until the situation was sorted out with customs.
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I use the term literally; he has been the source/target of some controversy due to his comments about the genocide.
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Legal issues related to Wikimedia projects continued to be a problem this year. In February, professional golfer
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ranked 12th in article growth (37.58%) and 8th in edit growth (86.97%). The top Knowledge (XXG) by far was the
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was desysopped after it was revealed that the account was one of many used by a puppetmaster, including
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reported last December that Zoeller dropped the suit after failing to identify the perpetrator.
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prior to his travel. Akçam was again detained for about an hour when returning to the
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Wikipedias experienced marked growth in 2007. Of the top 15 Wikipedias, the
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begins to take a look back at the year that was 2007 in Knowledge (XXG).
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involving his use of sockpuppets to support himself in a dispute.
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university lecture, Turkish historian, sociologist, and author
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Jimbo Wales initially supported Essjay's actions, telling
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Robert Fisk: Caught in the deadly web of the internet
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836:If your comment has not appeared here, you can try
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355:was desysopped after deleting and vandalizing the
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855:Characterization of Taner Akçam
576:"Statement on EssJay situation"
832:add the page to your watchlist
558:Michael Snow and Andrew Lih.
297:was also banned for ten days.
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232:Canada Border Services Agency
219:Trudeau International Airport
885:12:50, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
870:18:34, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
851:10:37, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
899:delivered to your talk page
761:Roll 'em back, move 'em out
643:Roll 'em back, move 'em out
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195:Miami-Dade County, Florida
320:for a July 2006 article.
138:Knowledge (XXG) Signpost
236:University of Minnesota
154:Volapük Knowledge (XXG)
150:English Knowledge (XXG)
34:Special: 2007 in Review
829:. To follow comments,
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310:Louisville, Kentucky
252:over the article on
197:on 13 February. The
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848:Cherry blossom tree
791:Features and admins
673:Features and admins
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160:April or May). As
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801:Arbitration report
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302:Essjay controversy
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57:PDF download
933:Suggestions
901:each month?
823:transcluded
781:In the news
766:Apple leak?
663:In the news
648:Apple leak?
384:RachelBrown
270:Jimbo Wales
215:Taner Akçam
107:X (Twitter)
561:New Yorker
365:Shreshth91
361:Wonderfool
351:In April,
169:Wiktionary
45:Share this
40:Contribute
22:2008-01-14
927:Subscribe
827:talk page
771:WikiWorld
653:WikiWorld
600:Ral315.
519:Ral315.
489:Ral315.
444:Signpost'
438:Next week
378:In June,
357:Main Page
353:Robdurbar
277:disgrace.
248:wheel war
172:done so.
129:and Staff
945:Category
922:Newsroom
917:Archives
896:Signpost
786:Tutorial
701:archives
699:Signpost
668:Tutorial
463:Jared.
295:Gaillimh
283:through.
211:Montreal
97:Facebook
87:LinkedIn
77:Mastodon
20: |
411:Henrygb
395:Husnock
388:Newport
380:Runcorn
344:errors.
258:Yanksox
877:Ral315
862:Andjam
427:Eyrian
306:Essjay
264:, and
144:Growth
127:Ral315
117:Reddit
67:E-mail
912:About
314:Wikia
16:<
907:Home
881:talk
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415:case
369:El C
289:bad.
262:Geni
189:and
268:by
125:By
42:—
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