WO press effect

After only 2 years of its existence, WO had proven itself repeatedly, by placing stories with mainstream news media. The stories tended to reveal major instances of Wikipedia corruption, incompetence and untrustworthiness. The following list was compiled in May 2014 by Andreas Kolbe, with a few updates added in October 2014 and thence in 2015.

• Inclusion criteria:
• 1. Stories at least one WO regular pitched or contributed to
• 2. Follow-up articles to such stories
• 3. Stories that mention or link to WO

Quality

The college Wikipedia prank that left a top British judge red-faced (The Daily Dot, 6 Dec 2012)

After a half-decade, massive Wikipedia hoax finally exposed (The Daily Dot, 1 Jan 2013)

War is over: Imaginary ‘Bicholim Conflict’ page removed from Wikipedia after five years (Yahoo! News, 4 Jan 2013)

Hoax article on India-Portugal clash in Goa history fools Wikipedia for 5 years (The Times of India, 7 Jan 2013)

Plus dozens of other stories all over the world sparked by the Daily Dot article on the Bicholim conflict hoax.

How vandals are destroying Wikipedia from the inside (The Daily Dot, 18 Jan 2013)

Wikipedia editors accuse professor of administering plagiarism (The Daily Dot, 4 Apr 2013)

The greatest movie that never was (The Daily Dot, 25 April 2013)

Don't trust Wikipedia on Anselm (Baltimore Sun, 24 Sep 2013)

Despite what Wikipedia told you, there's no 'Breast Touching Festival' in China (The Daily Dot, 30 Dec 2013)

Does Wikipedia need a medical disclaimer? (The Daily Dot, 1 Jan 2014)

How One Man Made Himself Into an Aboriginal God With Wikipedia (Gawker, 19 March 2015)

Aussie’s Jar'Edo Wens prank sets new record as Wikipedia’s longest-running hoax (Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 2015)

The story behind Jar’Edo Wens, the longest-running hoax in Wikipedia history (Washington Post, 15 April 2015)

Hustling, corruption, ethics

Chairman of Wikipedia charity banned after pornography row (The Telegraph, 31 Jul 2012)

Wikipedia chairman banned after pornography row (The Daily Dot, 31 Jul 2013)

Wikipedia charity chairman resigns after pornography row (The Telegraph, 2 Aug 2012)

Wikimedia U.K. chairman resigns amid pornography controversy (The Daily Dot, 3 Aug 2012)

Corruption in Wikiland? Paid PR scandal erupts at Wikipedia (c|net, 18 Sep 2012)

Conflict-of-interest scandal could imperil Wikimedia charity status (The Register, 20 Sep 2012)

Influence-peddling scandals rock Wikipedia (The Daily Dot, 20 Sep 2012)

Wikimedia UK trustee quits amid conflict-of-interest row (The Register, 25 Sep 2012)

Wikipedia charity faces investigation over trustee 'conflict of interest' (The Telegraph, 2 Oct 2012)

Wikipedia parent launches ethics probe into influence peddling scandal (The Daily Dot, 3 Oct 2013)

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales breaks silence on resurgence of influence-peddling scandal (The Daily Dot, 25 Oct 2012)

Wales: Let's ban Gibraltar-crazy Wikipedians for 5 years (The Register, 26 Oct 2012)

Wikimedia UK trustees have been 'too involved' to effectively govern charity (Civil Society, 8 Feb 2013)

Review urges major overhaul of governance at Wikimedia UK (Third Sector, 8 Feb 2013)

Review finds Wikipedia UK board needs major leadership overhaul (The Register, 13 Feb 2013)

Wikipedia's Gibraltar 'moratorium' - how's it going? (The Register, 18 Feb 2013)

Wikimedia makes changes after promotional scandal (The Daily Dot, 21 Feb 2013)

PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients (The Daily Dot, 8 Mar 2013)

BP accused of rewriting environmental record on Wikipedia (c|net, 21 Mar 2013)

BP Has Nothing Better to Do Than to Rewrite Its Own Wikipedia Entry (BetaBeat, 21 Mar 2013)

For Over a Year, BP Has Worked Hard to Clean Up Its Wikipedia Pages (Motherboard, 21 Mar 2013)

Much Of BP's Wikipedia Page Allegedly Written By Company Employee Arturo Silva (Huffington Post, 21 Mar 2013)

BP edited its own environmental record on Wikipedia (Salon, 21 Mar 2013)

Big Oil's Wikipedia cleanup: A brand management experiment out of control (ZDNet, 27 Mar 2013)

Winners of Wikipedia's biggest award still haven't received prize money (The Daily Dot, 26 Apr 2013)

Is Wikipedia's front page for sale? (The Daily Dot, 7 Jun 2013)

Are plastic surgeons nip/tucking ads into high-profile Wikipedia articles? (The Daily Dot, 20 Sep 2013)

Wikipedia Sends Paid Editors Cease-And-Desist: Sockpuppet Account Morning277, Not Wiki-PR (International Business Times, 22 Nov 2013)

Of Wikipedia, IIPM & Pay for Play (Next Big What, 12 Dec 2013)

Wikimedia staffer loses job over edit-for-cash scandal (The Daily Dot, 9 January 2014)

"Wiki-paid-ya?" (Times of India, 12 Jan 2014)

Belangrijkste sponsors Wikipedia schrijven hun eigen artikelen (Express, 12 Mar 2014)

Wikipedia staffer at center of latest sockpuppet scandal (The Daily Dot, 12 Mar 2014)

Wikipedia considering rule change to expose paid editors (The Daily Dot, 14 Mar 2014)

Major Wikipedia donors accused of conflict-of-interest editing (The Daily Dot, 21 March 2014)

One of Wikimedia's largest donors accused in paid editing scandal (The Daily Dot, 14 April 2014)

I’m glad that net neutrality is dead (The Kernel, 2 May 2014)

PR Tackles Wikipedia (or tries to) (O'Dwyer's, 2 Jun 2014)

Jimmy Wales pledges $500k UAE award to human rights causes (The Daily Dot, 15 December 2014)

What's Jimmy Wales going to do with $500k from the UAE? (The Register, 22 December 2014)

Manipulating Wikipedia to Promote a Bogus Business School (Newsweek, 24 March 2015)

Wikipedia bans editor for consistent bias in favour of Arindam Chaudhuri's IIPM (Scroll.in, 25 March 2015)

维基管理员擅改条目为印度野鸡大学做公关 (Jandan.net, 26 March 2015)

The web app that made information free (The Hindu, 3 April 2015)

Misogyny

Does Wikipedia's sexism problem really prove that the system works? (The Daily Dot, 1 May 2013)

In UK, rising chorus of outrage over online misogyny (The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Aug 2013)

¿Por qué las mujeres no escriben en la Wikipedia? (El Confidencial, 2 Sep 2014)

Perché Wikipedia non è un posto per donne, almeno per ora (Pronews, 3 Sep 2014)

Les informations personnelles de militants « antiféministes » publiées sur le Web (Le Monde, 11 Sep 2014)

GamerGate pushes Intel to pull ads over feminist articles (The Daily Dot, 2 Oct 2014)

Child protection

What should we do about Wikipedia’s porn problem? (LarrySanger.org, 29 May 2012)

Keen On… Larry Sanger: Does Wikipedia Need To Be Censored? [TCTV] (TechCrunch, 5 Jun 2012)

Porn still No. 1 on Wikipedia, co-founder Larry Sanger warns (Fox News, 5 Jun 2012)

Does Wikipedia have a porn problem? Dad investigates. (YouTube, by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, 6 Jun 2012)

This Wikipedia Cofounder Thinks The Site Has Too Much Porn, And He Doesn't Regret Quitting (Business Insider, 6 Jun 2012)

Wikipedia co-founder releases video of site's 'porn problem' (Digital Trends, 11 Jun 2012)

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger’s screencast of the online encylopedia’s porn problem (The Next Web, 11 Jun 2012)

Loads of porn on Wikipedia, warns co-founder (Life Site News, 12 Jun 2012)

Exclusive: Wikipedia ignores solution to rampant porn problem (Fox News, 10 Sep 2012)

Fox News misses the point about Wikipedia and porn (The Daily Dot, 13 Sep 2012)

How Wikimedia Commons became a massive amateur porn hub (The Daily Dot, 25 Jun 2013)

Wikipedia abandons efforts to purge porn from online encyclopedia (Fox News, 17 Sep 2013)

Activism, Balkanisation

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales restricts discussion of Tony Blair friendship (The Telegraph, 24 Dec 2012)

Wikipedia's odd relationship with the Kazakh dictatorship (The Daily Dot, 25 Dec 2012)

Kazakhstan Wikipedia Controversy Raises Questions About the Crowd (Eurasianet, 27 Dec 2012)

On Kazakh-language Wikipedia, Crowdsourcing Meets Crowd Mentality (Registan, 27 Dec 2012)

Critics question neutrality of Kazakh Wikipedia (Net Prophet, 8 Jan 2013)

The bizarre Wikipedia edits of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik (The Daily Dot, 2 May 2013)

Is a U.S. senator trolling Snowden's Wikipedia page? (The Daily Dot, 3 Aug 2013)

The smile that says I'm free: Edward Snowden pictured beaming as he leaves Moscow airport after more than a month stranded at the terminal (Mail Online, 4 Aug 2013)

Wikipedia Editor Traced to U.S. Senate Changes Snowden's Bio to 'Traitor' (Mashable, 6 Aug 2013)

How pro-fascist ideologues are rewriting Croatia's history (The Daily Dot, 1 Oct 2013)

Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine (Eurasianet, 2 April 2015)

Wikipedia Founder Distancing Self from Kazakh PR Machine (Silk Road Reporters, 2 April 2015)

Wikipedia founder thinks twice about Kazakhstan (New Europe, 6 April 2015)

Malicious biography

Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia (Salon, 17 May 2013)

The unmasking of a troll, and Wikipedia’s Achilles’ heel (Washington Monthly, 18 May 2013)

Revenge is Best Served On Wikipedia (PolicyMic, 18 May 2013)

What Should We Do About Wikipedia? (talking writing magazine, 20 May 2013)

A Novelist's Wikipedia Revenge, Roberto Bolaño's Popularity, and More (Poets & Writers, 20 May 2013)

Nobel Tweets, and Other News (The Paris Review, 21 May 2013)

Wikipedia cleans up its mess (Salon, 21 May 2013)

Wikipedia’s anti-Pagan crusade (Salon, 24 May 2013)

Literary feuds in the digital age get ugly (The Rumpus, 24 May 2013)

Biased Editing at Wikipedia Causes Concern Over Accuracy (Santa Cruz Patch, 25 May 2013)

Revenge Editing and Wikipedia (Digitopoly, 26 May 2013)

Wikipedia and the scourge of “revenge editors” (New Zealand Listener, 5 Jun 2013)

危机中的维基百科:网络乌托邦在水军围攻中挣扎 (Xinmin Weekly, 5 Dec 2013)

Wikipedia editors hit with $10 million defamation lawsuit (The Daily Dot, 24 Jun 2014)

Canadian businessman sues Wikipedia editors for defamation (Metronews, 25 Jun 2014)

WMF

Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you? (The Register, 20 Dec 2012)

Sue Gardner, who oversaw Wikipedia's rise, is leaving (The Daily Dot, 28 Mar 2013)

Wikipedia says its staffers are not vandalizing Wikipedia (The Daily Dot, 23 Apr 2013)

Wikipedians say no to Jimmy's 'buggy' WYSIWYG editor (The Register, 1 Aug 2013)

Revolting peasants force Wikipedia to cut'n'paste Visual Editor into the bin (The Register, 25 Sep 2013)

Wikipedia faces revolt over VisualEditor (The Daily Dot, 24 Sep 2013)

Wikipedia Foundation exec: Yes, we've been wasting your money (The Register, 8 Oct 2013)

Where does your Wikipedia donation go? Outgoing chief warns of potential corruption (The Daily Dot, 17 Oct 2013)

Class war! Wikipedia's workers revolt again (The Register, 18 Aug 2014)

Wikipedia is revolting (Fudzilla, 22 Aug 2014)

Cracking copyright law: How a simian selfie stunt could make a monkey out of Wikipedia (The Register, 24 Aug 2014)

Jimbo tells Wikipedians: You CAN'T vote to disable 'key software features' (The Register, 3 Sep 2014)

Wikipedia won't stop BEGGING for cash - despite sitting on $60m (The Register, 1 December 2014)

Annual Wikipedia fundraiser raises community hackles (The Daily Dot, 5 December 2014)

Wikimedia Foundation stays quiet about 2 recent—and rare—'global bans' (The Daily Dot, 8 January 2015)

Uptick in global bans sparks backlash from Wikipedia users (The Daily Dot, 22 February 2015)

Other

Wikipedia pot article loses bongs, gets OK'd in Russia (The Daily Dot, 9 Apr 2013)

Wikipedia co-founder Wales asks for info on Snowden edits (IT Pro, 26 Jun 2013)

Jimmy Wales causes trouble in Wikipedia paradise as he hunts for Snowden (Tech2, 26 Jun 2013)

Jimmy Wales Thinks Snowden Is 'An Innocent Party' And 'A Hero'; Wants To Know If He Ever Edited Wikipedia (TechDirt, 26 Jun 2013)

Jimmy Wales sucht Edward Snowden (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26 Jun 2013)

Spurensuche im Lexikon: Wikipedia-Gründer sucht nach Edward Snowden (Der Spiegel, 26 Jun 2013)

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Wants to Know If Edward Snowden Ever Edited the Site (Softpedia, 26 Jun 2013)

Jimmy Wales vows to resist PRISM, wonders if Snowden edited Wikipedia (The Daily Dot, 27 Jun 2013)

Plus many other reports on the Snowden story sparked by Greg Kohs's Examiner piece.

This is the likely online alias of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza (The Daily Dot, 1 Jul 2013)

Black Twitter on Wikipedia? Thanks, but we need to define ourselves (The Daily Dot, 5 Sep 2013)

After Chelsea Manning row, Wikipedia bans transphobic editors (The Daily Dot, 26 Oct 2013)

Is Google accidentally killing Wikipedia? (The Daily Dot, 8 Jan 2014)

Google stabs Wikipedia in the front (The Register, 13 Jan 2014)

Google eating into Wikipedia page views? (Times of India, 20 Jan 2014)

Plus stories in multiple other countries sparked by Greg Kohs's Wikipediocracy blog post on the Google Knowledge Graph

Wikipedia's 10,000-word war over the word 'f*ck' (The Daily Dot, 3 Feb 2014)

Civil servants behind 'sickening' Hillsborough slurs identified (The Telegraph, 21 May 2014)

Hillsborough Wikipedia posts: Suspected civil servant a Merseyside resident (The Independent, 21 May 2014)

Civil servant fired after Telegraph investigation into Hillsborough Wikipedia slurs (The Telegraph, 17 Jun 2014)

How The Telegraph identified the Hillsborough Wikipedia vandal (The Telegraph, 17 Jun 2014)

Wiki slurs civil servant is sacked but won't be named (Liverpool Confidential, 17 Jun 2014)

Civil servant sacked for offensive Wikipedia edits on Hillsborough (The Guardian, 17 Jun 2014)

Civil servant, 24, fired for posting offensive comments about the Hillsborough disaster on Wikipedia from government computers (Daily Mail, 17 Jun 2014)

Civil Servant Sacked For 'Sickening' Edits To Hillsborough Wikipedia Page (Huffington Post, 17 Jun 2014)

Civil servant fired over Hillsborough abuse on Wikipedia (The Times, 17 Jun 2014)

Hillsborough Wiki Entry Civil Servant Sacked (Sky News, 17 Jun 2014)

Worker sacked over online Hillsborough slurs (ITV News, 17 Jun 2014)

Hillsborough Wikipedia slurs: Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude's full statement as civil servant is sacked (Daily Mirror, 17 Jun 2014)

Plus reports in many other UK publications.

Government issues new Wikipedia rules for Whitehall staff after civil servant posted Hillsborough slurs (Liverpool Echo, 20 October 2014)