Talk:Virgil Griffith

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An individual covered by or significantly related to this article, Virgil Griffith, has edited Wikipedia as Romanpoet (talk · contribs)

[edit] Scanner at Wired's Threat Level

"Wikipedia hired him [2] to create the Wikipedia Scanner, a tool to analyze anonymous edits being made to Wikipedia."

The Wikimedia Foundation did not hire Virgil to create Wikipedia Scanner. Vishal-WMF 12:58, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Do you have a source? I have a source that says that they did. Unless there's a source to oppose that, I'd say that sourced information is more accurate than unsourced claims. 123.2.168.215 13:56, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs By Kevin Poulsen ←Ben^B4 14:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Slashdotted. :) -Elonka 19:10, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Virgil's powerspinner mousetrap makes BBC, with decent mentions. [1]. Go team! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Surrogate Spook (talk • contribs) 19:19, August 15, 2007

I added the Shameful spin part to the scanner entry. Slashdot is merely commenting on it, and isn't newsworthy in this case. 123.2.168.215 12:46, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Was Virgil hired by Wikipedia to create the Wikipedia Scanner?

This is a rather extraordinary claim. As such it requires a strong source. OhMyNews in Korea is not a sufficient source for this claim because it is self-described as a community written newspaper. There no indication of fact checking. Those who disagree may start a discussion at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. Please don't edit war. Thanks. - Jehochman ^Talk 15:03, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

The removal by a WMF employee has been added to Wired's list of most shameful Wikipedia spins. It is currently listed as the number 1 most shameful. See here: http://wired.reddit.com/wikidgame/ It seems that it was a bad idea to remove that link. 123.2.168.215 17:04, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Just came here from Wired... why did the Wikipedia employees like this Mr. Vishal take out real news articles from here? Is that allowed? Sorry I didn't know that they controlled content over others, if so please disregard this question. Thanks... 88.198.180.61 17:24, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Because the source isn't reliable. If this information were true, it is interesting enough that it would be published some place reliable. OhmyNews allows anyone to publish any crackpot theory. - Jehochman ^Talk 17:30, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Ludwig put his name to it, and he didn't state it as a theory, he stated it as fact. If it is false, then WMF should sue him for libel. Why isn't WMF suing him? Why would he state something as fact, putting his name to it, if it was false? Ludwig has a very high reputation for being very accurate. 123.2.168.215 17:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

You could ask Ludwig whether he'd put his name to a rumor and call it fact. - Jehochman ^Talk 17:59, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Reliable sources people, please. Is there any indication that the writer of the ohmynews article is an expert in the subject area or has sources that we don't know about? Reliable publications are those with an established structure for fact-checking and editorial oversight (from Wikipedia:Reliable sources). --- RockMFR 20:52, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, let me get this straight: a user on a web site says that the WMF hired Virgil Griffith. The WMF says they did not hire Virgil Griffith. But we're supposed to rely on the user's statement as the source of fact? That sounds fishy to me. User:RockMFR could say I work for Google, but that wouldn't make it so. Rstandefer 20:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

123 was blocked as the sock of a banned user. - Jehochman ^Talk 21:00, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Virgil himself has said that he was not hired - http://virgil.gr/31.html, near the bottom. 86.130.75.236 07:46, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Penny Arcade

This comic is obviously about Wikipedia Scanner... But, is it relevant enough to link?[2] --Elonka 21:38, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

The scanner in popular culture? It's been all over the press for the past week ... - David Gerard 14:27, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, I hadn't noted the scanner had its own article ... it'd belong there, not here IMO - David Gerard 14:29, 23 August 2007 (UTC)