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Paul Wehage
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9/10/2007 4:27:03 AM
---- Updated 9/10/2007 5:13:20 AM
Something to read BEFORE you decide to add your band to Wikipedia....
Wikipedia is the "online encyclopedia that anybody can edit" and since it's a top 10 website, it's pretty tempting to want to jump on that bandwagon to get some of that free publicity. However, there is a couple of big problems with Wikipedia: 1. Since anybody can edit your article, they can add negative things as well as positive---especially since the tone of the articles is supposed to be "neutral". and 2. since you're releasing your contributions under a license called the GFDL, you can't ever take them back and you can't erase anything.
Wikipedia (or WP) is made up of a community of editors, who are all theoretically equal, but there are also people who are given extra bits of powers (to delete articles, to ban problem users, to see hidden information in the system, to make judgments about other editors' behavior and suggest disciplinary action etc) who are named administrators. If you're not on the good side of these people (ie if you're just coming in and adding the article about your band), they use their power to get rid of you.
What this effectively means is that if the WP community of administrators decides that your article is "notable" and needs to be kept, you can't ever get rid of it and what you think about what's said doesn't matter to them. If they decide to delete it, there is then a page which is indexed by Google which gives all of the reasons why your article should be deleted. People sometimes say things like "completely bogus, another shitty garage band, laughable etc etc" and it's all indexed on Google next to your name or your bands name. Sometimes you can get these pages "courtesy blanked" but only if somebody at Wikipedia thinks that it's important enough to do so. Otherwise, you can't get rid of them....theoretically ever.
I'm bringing this up because there is a situation with a musician named Lee Nysted which merits discussion here. This is from a site called Wikipedia Review which is a "watchdog" site examining the Wikipedia phenomenon.
As is becoming the increasingly wearisome habit on these pages, another cause has come to our attention, or into our lap so to speak. Yet another poor soul has found himself battered and bruised by the mob of juveniles making the key decisions on that so-called encyclopedia. And again, it looks like we're going to have to try and clear up a mess made by Der Jimbo's hopelessly irresponsible folly.
(Cue music)
Meet Lee Nysted of the Lee Nysted experience. Demon guitarist in a John Mclaughlin style, and - we have to admit - somewhat of a shameless self publicist. Here's what happened when "The Lee Nysted Experience" was confronted by the "Wikipedia Experience".
Lee did what a lot of people have done when they've come across Wikipedia, and he innocently created an article on his band. The band are briefly detailed in AMG, and you get the music on Amazon. They include a guy who used to be in Styx, and a couple of other semi-notables. Lee's own site boasts that he is a "world class guitarist", and although the sounds are just not my bag, it would be hard to disagree with the assessment based on his obviously virtuoso technique.
Pretty soon, Lee's puff piece article faced the deletionists at wikipedia. They had a point. Perhaps Lee shouldn't have created the articles. It's not really the done thing. And not only that, but Lee created an article on himself, and Nysted music. As the main afd (my note - Article for Deletion,
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9/10/2007 8:40:34 AM
Thanks for the heads up Sir, we'll beware - V
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Eric Steffensen
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9/10/2007 11:25:55 AM
This isn't surprising, given previous encounters I've had with this guy on the internet before. To say he is a shameless self promoter is an understatement...he's got one of those online personas that combined with his promotion in inappropriate places can (and has) quickly made him a lot of enemies.
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LyinDan
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9/10/2007 12:58:59 PM
Hey. Any publicity is good publicity. Well done. Almost the way I would do it.
Anyway, not putting up a page yourself is no guarantee someone else won't put one up for you.
(Looking forward to seeing my Wiki page. Thanks!)
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LyinDan
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9/10/2007 1:53:52 PM
Yes, it is.
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LyinDan
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9/10/2007 1:54:35 PM
Lemmee know, and I'll put yours up, Larree
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9/10/2007 3:32:33 PM
Sounds to me like some bbs communities. Territorial administrators, you don't know what kind of a hellhole you're getting into. Interesting stuff Paul.
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Bat Lenny
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9/10/2007 5:25:18 PM
I find this very interesting. Reading the entries that are linked here makes me wonder if the guy had enemies or if he was just breaking the rules and got called on it. Either way it's a mess.
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Tony Vani and Debbie Hoskin
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9/10/2007 7:01:02 PM
That's very scarey.............
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Paul Wehage
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9/11/2007 4:31:17 AM
It is pretty scary and shouldn't be approached lightly.
You aren't supposed to write your own entry, but you can have other people do it for you (a lot of famous people have their PR people write and police their wikipage, but they won't ever admit it.)
If you don't write your own page (and they believe you), you'll have a much better chance of getting the nasty stuff off of your page. They have a policy on "biographies of living people" that's supposed to take care of this kind of thing, but sometimes it doesn't work....
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/17/2007 3:56:40 PM
What is really scary is that a guy from Clear Channel wrote the article. He was banned and deleted as my sock puppet. He tried another profile and that was banned. What a riot! I check in there every once in a while to see how many sockpuppets I have.
I live in Illinois part of the time; Aruba part of the time.
Todd Sucherman still tours with STYX. He plays on the whole album, Whispers Of Wisdom. He is a good friend.
Keep up the great work!
Lee Nysted
Tierra del Sol, Aruba Dutch Caribbean 9-17-07
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/17/2007 4:00:49 PM
One other thing: do not always think the person you think is writing something is the actal person. Unless it is an official blog that cannot be tampered with, I say take everything with a grain...
Ciao,
WOW
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Paul Wehage
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9/18/2007 7:49:52 AM
Hi Lee,
I'm really sorry about all of the hassle you went through. I hope that they do the right thing and get rid of your pages. I didn't even know that you were here on IAC. Sheez, everybody's on IAC these days!
Keep your chin up!
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Stegor
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9/18/2007 2:06:06 PM
One thing's for sure, a lot more people know Lee Nysted because of this than otherwise would. I for one.
Also be aware that you can make enemies without doing anything wrong. Sometimes doing right can make enemies.
-Stegor
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/18/2007 8:15:26 PM
Thank you for caring.
In the U.S., the internet is much like a combination of the wild west and the Al Capone Chicago mob days at the turn of the 20th century.
I have witnessed many people learning to be heartless and ruthless without the consequences of law or order. I try to teach my children a far different path, albeit it is not an easy undertaking.
The Wikipedia crowd is not a good place for me. The landscape there presents an atmosphere of very lttle wisdom accompanied by mostly teens and college-age "kids" that "know it all". The rules and truth change every few seconds and, frankly, the default end result will always be toward the mean/average and mediocre.
Thanks again for pointing out one of the hot spots to avoid. A good new book on the topic is written by Andrew Keen.
Lee Nysted
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/18/2007 8:16:10 PM
Thank you for caring.
In the U.S., the internet is much like a combination of the wild west and the Al Capone Chicago mob days at the turn of the 20th century.
I have witnessed many people learning to be heartless and ruthless without the consequences of law or order. I try to teach my children a far different path, albeit it is not an easy undertaking.
The Wikipedia crowd is not a good place for me. The landscape there presents an atmosphere of very lttle wisdom accompanied by mostly teens and college-age "kids" that "know it all". The rules and truth change every few seconds and, frankly, the default end result will always be toward the mean/average and mediocre.
Thanks again for pointing out one of the hot spots to avoid. A good new book on the topic is written by Andrew Keen.
Lee Nysted
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/18/2007 8:16:10 PM
Thank you for caring.
In the U.S., the internet is much like a combination of the wild west and the Al Capone Chicago mob days at the turn of the 20th century.
I have witnessed many people learning to be heartless and ruthless without the consequences of law or order. I try to teach my children a far different path, albeit it is not an easy undertaking.
The Wikipedia crowd is not a good place for me. The landscape there presents an atmosphere of very lttle wisdom accompanied by mostly teens and college-age "kids" that "know it all". The rules and truth change every few seconds and, frankly, the default end result will always be toward the mean/average and mediocre.
Thanks again for pointing out one of the hot spots to avoid. A good new book on the topic is written by Andrew Keen.
Lee Nysted
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WhispersOfWisdom
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9/18/2007 8:16:51 PM
Thank you for caring.
In the U.S., the internet is much like a combination of the wild west and the Al Capone Chicago mob days at the turn of the 20th century.
I have witnessed many people learning to be heartless and ruthless without the consequences of law or order. I try to teach my children a far different path, albeit it is not an easy undertaking.
The Wikipedia crowd is not a good place for me. The landscape there presents an atmosphere of very lttle wisdom accompanied by mostly teens and college-age "kids" that "know it all". The rules and truth change every few seconds and, frankly, the default end result will always be toward the mean/average and mediocre.
Thanks again for pointing out one of the hot spots to avoid. A good new book on the topic is written by Andrew Keen.
Lee Nysted
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LyinDan
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9/19/2007 11:03:25 AM
You can say that again.
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