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WIKIPEDIA Censorship Issue
Wikipedia is a powerful concept. Six percent of all netizens use it. It draws upon the collective intellectual resource to create something with huge potential. Sadly, in order to deal with attendant issues such as inaccuracy, vandalism and malicious intent, operationally it has become an impenetrable, incomprehensible labyrinth populated by control freaks who rule over imaginary fiefdoms while hiding behind screen names. Wikipedia has acquired too much power to operate in this way. It needs to change.
Furthermore, Wikipedia is vulnerable to direct government interference. A “consensus” of a few “Administrators” is all that is needed to remove an article which is not to the liking of some element within government. "Administrators" can be planted and affect content, block users and who knows what else. The Wikipedia page for the emerging field "Exopolitics" was removed by Administrators who know nothing about the subject. It will be put up again shortly. If it is removed again, it will be started again ad infinitum. PRG is not without sympathy. Wikipedia, like everyone else, is a victim of the government imposed Truth Embargo. Status report below:
Status
First Google deletes/blocks listings from the top of search returns, now after two years an Administrator at Wikipedia has removed the "Exopolitics" article. This from a publication with huge articles on Britney Spears, the Incredible Hulk and Mr. Ed (the talking horse). Efforts to get the article reinstated were rebuffed, and essentially impossible, given the absurd complexity of the process.
Wikipedia is a powerful concept. Six percent of all netizens use it. It draws upon the collective intellectual resource to create something with huge potential. Sadly, in order to deal with attendant issues such as inaccuracy, vandalism and malicious intent, operationally it has become an impenetrable, incomprehensible labyrinth populated by control freaks who rule over imaginary fiefdoms while hiding behind screen names.
The Administrator in this instance who deleted the "Exopolitics" article goes by the screen name "Sandstein." His home in Wikiworld is located at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Sandstein#Exopolitics He has no knowledge of exopolitics, its history or the attendant issues and his "decision" was derived from a mock consensus of a dozen other Admins who know even less.
Google deletes the Open Letter to Senator Hillary Clinton listings at or near the top of the search returns going into the key Indiana and North Carolina primary elections, which miraculously reappear a few days after the elections are over. Now Wikipedia has deleted the "Exopolitics" article which had been in place for over three years.
It is important to understand that given the manner in which Wikipedia operates, it is very vulnerable to direct government interference. A “consensus” of a few “users” is all that is needed to remove an article which is not to the liking of some element within government. "Administrators" can be planted and affect content, block users and who knows what else.
In any event, every time censorship of exopolitical issues by non-governmental entities takes place PRG is going to point it out and name names. Truth embargos remain in place because people and organizations not only believe government propaganda, they step up to help enforce it. Neither government suppression nor censorship by the likes of Google or Wikipedia will prevent the inculcation of exopolitics into the mainstream or the end to the truth embargo regarding a non-human intelligence engaging the human race.
UPDATE (6/30): Administrator "Sandstein" has responded to the challenge to Wikipedia in a predictable manner. He blocked PRG executive director Bassett from being able to post to the "Sandstein" page or to Wikipedia. He also deleted Bassett's Wiki User page. The basis for this? He felt Bassett's User page was too much about, well, the User. They delete articles, they delete Users. One is reminded of Joseph Stalin's apparatchiks working in the Kremlin's back rooms erasing "undesirables" from thousands of photos - making them disappear from history. Wikipedia has acquired too much power to operate in this way. It needs to change.
UPDATE (7/18): The Administrator in question, Sandstein, is Thomas M. Fischer of Bern, Switzerland, a 20-something attorney or law student. While he has developed a reputation for being arrogant and insular, he is not the exception to the rule. Wikipedia has lost its way. If no one used it, it would not matter. Tens of millions use it, so it does matter.
UPDATE (7/19): Some articles and web pages hinting at the problems at Wikipedia.
www.americanchronicle.com/articles/11109\
www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/18/the_wikipedia_paradox/
www.pcmech.com/article/trouble-at-wikipedia/
http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/~jmm/archives/2007/01/wikipedia_is_in.html
www.clicks.ws/forum/oh-dear-wikipedia-trouble-t6237.html?s=af8f79662bbf7909404635f433621c83&
UPDATE (8/23): Wikipedia administrators
have taken the further step of forwarding search requests for
"Exopolitics" to the European rock group, Muse. While the
exclusion of the "Exopolitics" article will in time be seen as one of
Wikipedia's more jackass moments. I am happy to see that at least the
term, which has 252,000 page returns on Google and 782,000 page returns
on Yahoo, is now forwarded to the band Muse. I am a big fan of Muse and
very much like their song Exo-Politics. All encyclopedias are, by
construction and intent, maintainers of the status quo. Sadly,
when the status quo is based in government propaganda and the people
behind the encyclopedia fail to see this, they become enablers of state
supported reality. It's a disgrace, of course, but not one that
isn't shared. Ultimately every person in a society is a victim
when the state gets in the reality shaping business. I believe in
time Wikipedia will find its way, but not before many of the current
administrator are replaced by individuals with much stronger
intellectual constitutions and greater insight.
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