Investigating Wikipedia Part #2
This is a follow up to my article on Wikipedia Censorship and Everipedia.
"... I'm very active at deletion review and have participated in more than half the debates that took place since June 2009 ... When it comes to deletion, I can show that my attention has always been focused on the marginal discussions and the corner cases; and that's how I would mainly use my hypothetical admin tools..."
-- S. Marshall, August 2017
After writing my last article I became curious about the mechanics of how censorship works on Wikipedia. So I decided to research the user who originally seems to have reported the recommendation for deletion:
Delete and possibly salt because deletion would be in Wikipedia's best interests and in deference to the subject's wishes. If Michael Aquino were more notable than this, I'd think there was a case for keeping it--but his notability really is relatively minor and courtesy is important. I note that Michael Aquino is a wikipedia contributor.
I also think this article is being used as a platform to make thinly-veiled attacks against a minority view, and I think it'll continue to be used in that way if we keep it.
I also think the closing admin should consider whether to salt, in the circumstances.--S Marshall Talk/Cont 09:18, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
It's interesting that he notes the subject of the article is a "wikipedia contributor" and that is in 2008. Is that financial contributions or edits, if edits I'd love to find his username.
Here is the profile of S Marshall:
A long time Wikipedia editor going all the way back to 2004. Though he didn't become a power-user until 2008, the year of the missing entry.
I also found an interesting quote from Marshall where he brings up his involvement in deletions:
By itself, that's surmountable. I can give a clear and robust answer to that. I'm very active at deletion review and have participated in more than half the debates that took place since June 2009 ---- I have many thousand edits to DRV subpages. When it comes to deletion, I can show that my attention has always been focused on the marginal discussions and the corner cases; and that's how I would mainly use my hypothetical admin tools ---- to view deleted pages and to implement decisions at DRV.
Another mention of deletion from February 2017. It's an entry for something I've never heard of Islamic Revolution Document Center.
Doesn't sound controversial. The page still exists but has most information and the original citations removed.
Here is Marshall's request for deletion (full log):
(cur | prev) 21:45, 30 January 2017 S Marshall (talk | contribs) . . (1,696 bytes) (+29) . . (Requesting speedy deletion with rationale "[p[". (TW)) (undo)
I'm not sure what he means by the code. It seems he wanted a full deletion but instead the article was reduced in size.
I guess the idea is that because the information was relying on information from the source it wasn't reliable. When it comes to something like whether Ayatollah Khamenei founded it or not. A Google search of Ayatollah Khamenei + Islamic Revolution Document Center seems to indicate that it is generally known that Khamenei's regime founded the institution.
Not sure what to make of it. Seems a little strange but I can't say anything conclusive.
- What is rationale "[p["?
- Did Marshall report this as an issue or did someone make the request to him?
- Is there a deeper history to this user and deleting articles?
Not sure what to make of it yet.
I'll try to find some more time later to dig a bit deeper and see if we can find anymore deletion history.