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Bad news for Wikipedia today it seems one of the senior staff, with the username “Essjay”, was a fake who claimed to be a private university professor of religious studies when in fact he’s just a 24 student. The senior editor had edited over 20,000 times on several articles with controversial topics. Even the New Yorker fell for it when it quoted him as an expert.

Ryan Jordan had been using books such as Catholicism for Dummies to pass his false identity. Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales asked him to resign his Editor position and called for every senior staff at wikipedia to reveal their identities and rove their credentials.

Ryan feels sorry for what he did and Jimmy Wales mentioned:

“From the moment this whole thing became known, EssJay has been contrite and apologetic. People who characterize him as being “proud” of it or “bragging” are badly mistaken.”

This is one of those few incidents that prove the fact that Wikipedia’s open door policy can take a wrong turn. Either way I’ll continue using their articles as this must be one isolated incident.

Thank You