Paul Staines AKA Guido Fawkes has admitted to editing his own wikipedia entry.
Zelo Street has the story.
Whether editing your own Wikipedia entry is A Bad Thing or neither here nor there depends on who you are and what edits you are making.
What is A Bad Thing is bullshitting about why you’re editing your little claim to fame.
Paul Staines has been, so he says, long been invited to edit his own entry by the editors. So that’s ok then.
But really? Did Staines really get an email asking for help. I wonder how it went…
Dear Mr Fawkes,
Your entry in Wikipedia is in such a mess and so full of inaccuracies that it really needs a good tidy up.
Seeing as it is in such a mess, and it is about you and you’re soooooo important and brilliant in all walks of life, from journalism to high finance, would you do us the honour of gracing our webpage and having a clear out. We just know you’ll do a sterling job at keeping it impartial, too.
Please? Pretty please?
Your loyal subjects,
The Editors
I do wonder how many other people have edited their own entry though, at the invitation of ‘the editors’.
Wikipedia isn’t just a free-for-all. It has some guidelines, as you’d expect.
Take this one for instance…
Dealing with edits by the subject of the article
Subjects sometimes become involved in editing material about themselves, either directly or through a representative. The Arbitration Committee has ruled in favor of showing leniency to BLP subjects who try to fix what they see as errors or unfair material. Although Wikipedia discourages people from writing about themselves
Small edits by the subject of an article may be over-looked, but the key phrase “Wikipedia discourages people from writing about themselves” certainly doesn’t sound like they offer invitations like the one Staines claims he got, especially to people that in the scheme of things, aren’t very big, famous or significant in any way.
Charlie Flowers once claimed to be doing the work of Nadine Dorries. No, he didn’t claim to be a researcher, but a thug harrassing and threatening Tim Ireland. Nadine has said nothing about it.
Well, it seems someone else has decided to join in on the action, not against Tim, but someone else Nadine sees as a mortal enemy, Ms Humphrey Cushion.
. @humphreycushion Enjoy your day tweeting. Remember Nadine and I might be watching you! ;) (closely) and oh lastly FUCK OFF #blocked
(source)
It’s not as if @DarkblondAngel is unknown to Nadine, infact the tweets between each other I’ve seen between them, before Nadine quit Twitter (again) could be described as quite chummy. Will Nadine denounce this latest bit of imtimidation and bullying like she didn’t with Charlie Flowers? Probably not.
At least these people aren’t hired thugs, but I’m guessing this isn’t an example of the ‘Big Society’ the Tories’ will be trumpeting.
I’m getting a hell of a lot of comment spam at the moment so I’m closing comments on any post over 14 days old. If that doesn’t slow down the amount of ‘awaiting moderation’ emails I’m getting then I’ll have to close them for a while. I really can’t be arsed with over 100 emails a day.
I’ve you desperately need to tell me something about an old post, which you probably won’t, you can get me on simosthoughts [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
There’s a new site on the block – Counterfire.org.
It has been set up by many of those that resigned from the SWP a month or two ago and goes a little like this…
News and theory publication Counterfire was launched today with a plethora of reports and essays focusing on the crisis in capitalism, imperialism and war and popular culture.
The website is being launched on International Women’s Day with a 60 strong team including an investigations team, an industrial unit, arts reviews and peer reviewed publications.
Lindsey German, author of Material Girls, Women, Sex and Work and convenor of Stop the War said: “We live in a world of growing conflict, crisis and inequality and Counterfire is a much needed new voice calling for fundamental change.”
Adrian Cousins, editor of the new site, said: “Counterfire includes snappy news articles alongside expert analysis of the most important issues today with original design, photography and video. There is a blog aggregate so those interested in the movements know where to come.”
John Rees, broadcaster and author, said: “The journalism and analysis on Counterfire will provide a welcome alternative to the discredited and failing policies of the political elite.”
Elly Badcock, women’s officer at SOAS and women’s editor, said: “It’s fantastic that on the 100th International Women’s Day this powerful new site which uses the latest technology is providing a platform for the new feminism of the 21st Century.”
The site features daily news from the movements including articles on protests, petitions and campaigns alongside theory analysing the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and campaigns against the BNP and the English Defence League.
Go have a look round.
The #kerryout campaign to unseat Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy is hotting up, but it’s a load of old bollox, really.
Tory-Politico…
Tomorrow [that’s today, now] will see the launch of the #KerryOut campaign, which is being coordinated by some of the top Tory bloggers, and is designed to support Conservative PPC, Adeela Shafi, in her battle to unseat the disgraced MP.
I’m at work at the moment and because of restrictions on my computer can’t show you how those top tory bloggers are showing the nice side of the Conservatives on Twitter. I may do later if I remember/can be bothered.
There are a coup of things about this campaign that make it stand out as shit. The first is that Kerrys’ Bristol seat is a safe one, I gather, and so is unlikely to be lost, making all the effort and money spent wasted when, as the Tories should be concentrating their efforts on seats they have a chance of winning.
The second load of crap about this campaign is, what the fuck is it actually about? As far as I can tell, it’s about the way Kerry has embraced social media…
Labour’s self appointed ‘Twitter Tsar’, Kerry McCarthy, believes in the power of online media, so much so that following the Sun’s endorsement of David Cameron she tweeted “Labour doesn’t need the Sun – we’ve got Twitter!”
‘Self appointed Twitter Tsar’? Don’t give me that shit. Kerry is Labours’ online media capaign co-ordinator (or somesuch title). Last time I looked ‘online’ encompassed more than just fucking Twitter and the very fact the she is Labours’ campaign co-ordinator rules out the self appointed comment as, I’m fairly certain, Kerry isn’t the only member of the Labour Party.
That comment about not needing the Sun? For fucks sake. It’s tongue-in-cheek, a bit of rabble rousing. With a sense of humour failure like that, these cunts could pass as lefties.
Kerry has apparently been spending £400 a month on food, and I think, £400 on a new bed. Whoopy fucking do. Because of that Kerry is labelled ‘disgraced’. I’m not commenting directly whether it is right or wrong, but how about these petty Torie fuckers going after they’re own party memebers that have been feathering their nests.
The Independent…
Kerry McCarthy registered second home in Bristol in 2005. Claimed £117 hotel while claiming £600 in rent, refused by fees office. Bought house in London, claimed £3,657 for stamp duty and moving costs
Ok. That might seems a bit dodgy, might not look to good. How about removing ‘disgraced’ Tory MPs that have been troughing? Removing Theresa Villiers might make the Tory bunch of cunts more electable…
Theresa Villiers claimed almost £16,000 in stamp duty and professional fees on expenses when she bought a London flat, even though she already had a house in the capital.
or David Davis…
David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, who grew up on a council estate, spent more than £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on home improvements in four years.
or Greg Knight…
Greg Knight, an MP with a collection of classic cars, claimed £2,600 in expenses for repair work on the driveway at his designated second home as part of a £21,793 bill to the taxpayer for maintenance and security.
or James Clappison…
A shadow minister who owns 24 houses claimed more than £100,000 in expenses, including thousands for gardening and redecoration.
or… well, you get the picture.
The thing that is missing from this campaign is real reasons for getting rid of Kerry. Has she bolloxed up her constuency? Has she spouted a load of shite in commons debates, like her arch nemesis Nadine Dorries? I don’t know because #kerryout won’t tell me.
It’s just a childish, vindictive load of shit.
Fucking grow up you bunch of twats.
Democracy Club…
In elections these days, all major candidates have a huge team of volunteers behind them, helping them produce and distribute leaflets, get publicity in the local news media, raising their profile and painting a generally rosy picture of them.
But the public gets no such help. They are given election leaflets, party election broadcasts, newspaper interviews with candidates, but they are not given solid, factual information, or simple unbiased analysis of the truth value of these publicity campaigns, especially not at a local level.
We feel that the public needs its own team of volunteers to help them. We want you to be one of those volunteers: gather information on candidates, their leaflets, and local news coverage of them; or publicise vote analyses in local papers around the country; or do other tasks we haven’t even thought of yet.
With your help, we can give the public the same support that the candidates already get.
Batholemews Notes on Religion has the latest on the Glen Jenvey affair (for background start here, also see here, here and here and here…
Since then, a lot has happened – and the most unexpected development has been Jenvey’s own conversion to radical Islam. Jenvey has now confessed his authorship of the “Abu Islam” posts in a message to a moderator at Ummah.com, the forum where this all began. I have had some private correspondence with Jenvey myself, and I can confirm the authenticity of this message:
Brother i’m sorry for the Allan Sugar story plant. I’m retired now from spying on Muslims. I saw a chance to install fear back in Jews who were killing Muslims.I was wrong to use you and your site.If you need any thing to help you in any way in the name of Allah just ask.
But yes the Sun did not know who posted it.I say sorry to you from my heart. if you want show the police and get me arrested. but with the first ramadaam coming i want to clear my past sin’s before i start my fasting and pray.
I would write this on your forum but im blocked out. may Allah reward you for your good work you do.Ameen
Omar Hamza Jenvey
aka
Glen Jenvey
Go and read the rest of the post.