I'm a bit late to the party with this one, but am highly amused to learn that David Boothroyd has had to resign from the "Wikipedia Supreme Court". David Boothroyd is a Labour councillor in Westminster who comments on a number of right wing blogs including this one. He has an anally retentive insistent on this blog of referring to me by my full name for some reason.I mentioned this simply because he's had to resign after admitting to having multiple identities on Wikipedia - spending most of his time editing David Cameron's page it seems. He also used
Now, I don't actually have a problem with using multiple identities online. Alter-egos (alts) have been a standard practice bit of fun on messageboards for years. I have been known to argue about politics viciously with myself when thoroughly drunk and bored on forums - sad huh?
Of course that was many moons ago, since when I've only been quite so sad once, using the identity "sockpuppet" in blog comments to wind up Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads when he starting his campaign against their use on political blogs a couple years ago.
To be honest though, on the matter of David Boothroyd, I'm not sure which is sadder. The fact that he felt the need to have multiple identities to let him edit the page of the Tory leader; or the fact that he actually has a Wikipedia account.
I wonder if he wrote his own page in the first place? Personally I think you have to have serious delusions of grandeur to put yourself on Wikipedia. Anyhow, I digress, all hail the Westminster councillor who got stuffed. Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.
Oh yes, his Wikipedia page is now a candidate for deletion. Infamy doesn't let him stay?
Update: He gone!
15 comments:
Is he a councillor because he is unemployable out in the real world.
He looks like a chap I was at school with, frightfully good at passing exams but no mates and used to wander round the playing fields muttering to himself.
I try and edit pages to see how long they last. Edited Harry Redknapps to include some truthful joshing and it lasted less than 20 minutes.
No fun these agents.
A pal of McBride?
LOl it's alrerady been deleated.
I hope the picture you've got up wasnt used in any of his campaigning, its frankly terrifying.
His wiki page is now defunct. How tragic.
For someone with a loose grip o online reality, Mr Boothroyd is however an expert on election results.
A strange man - hope he keeps up the polling data - very useful for betting purposes!
The real concern is his total lack of ethics.This guy is an elected representative - surely his actions reflect his psyche? Unfit for office, to my mind.
It's not just David Cameron's page. Other conservative members of parliament also had their pages edited by "Dbiv", "Fys", and "Sam Blacketer" (the sockpuppet accounts used by David Boothroyd). Amongst the most serious is the vandalism on the Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox article in which "Sam Blacketer" actively blocked other users from removing libellous comments from that page.
"I have been known to argue about politics viciously with myself when thoroughly drunk and bored on forums - sad huh?"You mean like a Socratic Dialogue?
"Is he a councillor because he is unemployable out in the real world."
Don't be daft, most councillors have jobs. Who employs DB can easily be found on the internet.
DB didn't create his own wiki article and actually asked for it to be deleted a few years ago.
In what way did he use "his multiple identities to get himself elected to the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee"?
Ask him, the statement is based on the article on the Register which says:
"A Labour councillor for London's City of Westminster resigned from Wikipedia's supreme court at the weekend, after admitting he gained election to the site's ruling body using a false name."
PS DB's job is mentioned in The Register article
It means he gained "election" under a false name (ie, as Sam Blacketer rather than as David Boothroyd). He only ever appears to have had two identities on Wikipedia, and I can't see how he used them to any advantage, though he should have been open about the fact when he ran for the Arbitration thing.
While the Wikipedia drones have swarmed in to "protect their own" and have deleted David Boothroyd's encyclopedia article, they seem to forget that it was released to the public under the terms of the GFDL open license. Therefore, the article is bound to show up somewhere else on the Internet.
Indeed, it already has:
http://www.mywikibiz.com/Directory:David_Boothroyd
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