Church of Scientology banned from Wikipedia!

ID:70821
 
May 30 2009, 3:00 am
Wikipedia editors have caught on to the fact Scientology members have been editing their own articles, removing negative criticisms and adding positive information which promotes church activity.

Contributors to Wikipedia, the free, online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, have voted to block the Church of Scientology from editing the encyclopedia. The arbitration committee voted to block the Church with 10 supporting the ban and 1 against it.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses," a statement on Wikipedia's website explained.

The ban comes after an arbitration case that lasted six months, beginning in December 2008. The case was opened after contributors discovered that the Church had been editing Scientology-related articles and removing or adding information to promote the Church's studies.

"[The Church has been] openly editing [articles related to Scientology] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities," added Wikipedia. The committee says that the edits were damaging Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy. So far, the Church has not released a statement.

A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were also banned from working on Wikipedia's Scientology-related articles. The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with the encyclopedia's articles on living persons among the "worst casualties".

[source]

May 30 2009, 4:47 am
May 30 2009, 7:02 am
Finally!
May 30 2009, 7:07 am
Yash 69 wrote:
Finally!
May 30 2009, 8:32 am
It's too bad they've got an army of brainwashed zombies that will be more than happy to take up the banner and make the same edits from non-banned machines...
May 30 2009, 11:41 am
YES!!! FINALLY
May 30 2009, 5:56 pm
This could be a bad thing. They might argue that they are actually the correct religion now because they are being "persecuted". Really they're just being morons.
May 30 2009, 5:59 pm
Fugsnarf wrote:
This could be a bad thing. They might argue that they are actually the correct religion now because they are being "persecuted". Really they're just being morons.

I can't wait to see them flee the country and go to some random uninhabited island claiming that they're "escaping religious persecution". :P
May 30 2009, 9:06 pm
SuperSaiyanGokuX wrote:
It's too bad they've got an army of brainwashed zombies that will be more than happy to take up the banner and make the same edits from non-banned machines...

Nah, they wouldn't leave it up to them. Think about it, you'd be asking them to edit away the very stuff you don't want them to see. Instead they'll probably just get around it like any other troll would.
May 31 2009, 7:55 am
DarkView wrote:
Instead they'll probably just get around it like any other troll would.

You can't troll Wikipedia administrators, they're the master trolls of the internet.
May 31 2009, 9:32 am
SuperAntx wrote:
DarkView wrote:
Instead they'll probably just get around it like any other troll would.

You can't troll Wikipedia administrators, they're the master trolls of the internet.

Unless you're the GNAA