Congress Banned From Editing Wikipedia After Wild ‘Disruptive Edits’
Wikipedia has imposed a 10-day ban on all edits made anonymously from the House of Representatives IP address, for making what Wikipedia has described as wild “disruptive edits,” Ars Technica reports. In total, 9,000 House staffers have been banned from editing anonymously.
Ars Technica reports:
Wikipedia editors explained their castigation for the IP address 143.231.249.138 on the user talk page. The 10-day edit ban follows a one-day ban imposed earlier this month, which apparently didn’t do the trick.
Not long after the website Mediaite wrote a story about @congressedits, Mediaite’s Wikipedia entry was changed by someone in the House, calling the site a “sexist transphobic news and opinion blog” that “automatically assumes that someone is male without any evidence.” That change was cited by the Wikipedia admin who imposed the ban, reported earlier today by The Hill.
“Out of over 9000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three?” said one House user in response to the ban. “Some of us here are just making grammatical edits, adding information about birds in Omsk, or showing how one can patch KDE2 under FreeBSD.”
One House user said, “I have [an account], but I don’t sign into [it] with my password at work. Theoretically people could find out who I am, but good luck, I’m behind seven proxies. Haters gonna hate.” Do people still say “Haters gonna hate”? I am so uncool.
To my knowledge, you can’t get behind seven proxies but again, I’m totally uncool.
H/T: My BFF @ComgenKDT with thanks.
Image: DirkenCenterProjects
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By: Anomaly100
30 responses to Congress Banned From Editing Wikipedia After Wild ‘Disruptive Edits’
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Teddy Simon July 27th, 2014 at 18:23
9000 house staffers ?? Why can’t people in congress do their own work ? I can see them each having a few but come on .
Teddy Simon July 27th, 2014 at 18:23
9000 house staffers ?? Why can’t people in congress do their own work ? I can see them each having a few but come on .
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 18:38
To be clear, Congress has no clue how to edit Wikipedia – hell, some don’t even know it exists. However, the little paid interns would. Sheesh, you would think we could have higher expectations from these folks.
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 18:45
Actually the Virginia delegation is quite computer savvy. Rob Whitman, who is my congressman once fixed my son’s smart phone that had been locking up and since then it never locked up again. It was like magic. I almost felt badly voting against him in the election two weeks later because he was running unopposed, but he’s a Republican so I wrote in my neighbor’s dog, who probably doesn’t know a smart phone from a water bowl.
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 19:42
I have Roy Blunt. Is any further explanation really necessary? :-)
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 19:46
My deepest sympathies. Does he even know how to use indoor plumbing?
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 20:08
I do not have those details, but he’s real good at cashing those farm subsidy checks.
M D Reese July 27th, 2014 at 19:54
You made the right choice. Being good at one thing does not mean that they are good at everything.
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 18:38
To be clear, Congress has no clue how to edit Wikipedia – hell, some don’t even know it exists. However, the little paid interns would. Sheesh, you would think we could have higher expectations from these folks.
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 18:45
Actually the Virginia delegation is quite computer savvy. Rob Whitman, who is my congressman once fixed my son’s smart phone that had been locking up and since then it never locked up again. It was like magic. I almost felt badly voting against him in the election two weeks later because he was running unopposed, but he’s a Republican so I wrote in my neighbor’s dog, who probably doesn’t know a smart phone from a water bowl.
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 19:42
I have Roy Blunt. Is any further explanation really necessary? :-)
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 19:46
My deepest sympathies. Does he even know how to use indoor plumbing?
Carla Akins July 27th, 2014 at 20:08
I do not have those details, but he’s real good at cashing those farm subsidy checks.
M D Reese July 27th, 2014 at 19:54
You made the right choice. Being good at one thing does not mean that they are good at everything.
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 18:39
I lost all faith in Wikipedia once they stopped letting me use my own blog as a reference. lol.
Cosmic_Surfer July 27th, 2014 at 19:07
You can go over to conservapedia – they let people cite nonexistent sources and their own blogs…
But then you would have to be a Creationist and only site Mr Hurlbut
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 19:12
Who is also their only reader.
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 18:39
I lost all faith in Wikipedia once they stopped letting me use my own blog as a reference. lol.
Cosmic_Surfer July 27th, 2014 at 19:07
You can go over to conservapedia – they let people cite nonexistent sources and their own blogs…
But then you would have to be a Creationist and only site Mr Hurlbut
Eric Trommater July 27th, 2014 at 19:12
Who is also their only reader.
mea_mark July 27th, 2014 at 18:54
What’s the big deal, they can still edit. They just can’t cheat as easily now. Make the ban permanent. If you want to try and rewrite history, put your name behind it or shut-up.
mea_mark July 27th, 2014 at 18:54
What’s the big deal, they can still edit. They just can’t cheat as easily now. Make the ban permanent. If you want to try and rewrite history, put your name behind it or shut-up.
shocktreatment July 27th, 2014 at 20:02
The House of Representatives has been ripping irresponsible for how long now? A ten day ban? I would trust very few of ’em to paint my porch without close, direct supervision.
Ban them entirely
shocktreatment July 27th, 2014 at 20:02
The House of Representatives has been ripping irresponsible for how long now? A ten day ban? I would trust very few of ’em to paint my porch without close, direct supervision.
Ban them entirely
Kino July 28th, 2014 at 10:36
I’d ban the IP address on a permanent basis. If Congressional staffers want to make edits they can do it from home or a coffee shop like…well, I was gonna say “normal people” but there’s very little normal about this idiocy.
Kino July 28th, 2014 at 10:36
I’d ban the IP address on a permanent basis. If Congressional staffers want to make edits they can do it from home or a coffee shop like…well, I was gonna say “normal people” but there’s very little normal about this idiocy.
Schmuddel July 28th, 2014 at 11:48
Birds in Omsk? Patching KDE2 under FreeBSD? Those are some particularly specific examples.
Schmuddel July 28th, 2014 at 11:48
Birds in Omsk? Patching KDE2 under FreeBSD? Those are some particularly specific examples.
Rusty Shackleford July 29th, 2014 at 01:00
Seven proxies and haters gonna hate? We’re breaking out some classic internet memes up in here. Do they count as retro or vintage yet?
Rusty Shackleford July 29th, 2014 at 01:00
Seven proxies and haters gonna hate? We’re breaking out some classic internet memes up in here. Do they count as retro or vintage yet?