German Wikipedia Has Problems With Paid Editing — and Threats of Violence 55
metasonix (650947) writes "As German journalist Marvin Oppong learned recently, there are a number of people who work to make articles about certain corporations and trade groups on German Wikipedia 'look better.' And when Oppong published his discoveries, one reaction was an openly violent threat, aimed at him, posted on de-WP's 'Kurier' noticeboard. Just as with English Wikipedia, it is apparently a 'terrible crime' to criticize German Wikipedia, even when Jimbo Wales's 'bright line' rule on paid editing is being violated. Unlike English WP, the Germans will threaten to 'curbstone' people for saying it."
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
One person said something mean in a comment thread. Shocking! This is not the climate of the family-friendly internet I grew up with!
Seriously, a death threat is only relevant if it was specific and realistic threat.
But oh my gosh! (Score:2, Insightful)
Wikipedia: when you want to say you fact checked , but you don't have time to do it properly.
Over generalisation, much ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah because all german are like that. *eyeroll*. Or alternatively one or two scums doing it for paid money saw the danger of their revenue evaporating, or even more likely, one or two idiot thought it to be fun to threaten that guy.
Threats of violence? (Score:5, Insightful)
The 'threats of violence' thing appears to be a naive misunderstanding of German, if not an intentionally sensationalist one: have a look at the comment by user "Required" following the article, which explains the original German idiom.
The actual "curbstone" quote in question is:
"Ein geistiger Tiefflieger, er soll aufpassen, dass er nicht mit dem Kinn am Bor[d]stein hÃngen bleibt."
It's not a threat to curbstomp anyone, but a colorful insult that loosely translates as "someone with such a low-flying intellect, they have to watch out for curbstones lest they hit their chin on one". Indeed, Google auto-translates it as:
"A spiritual low-flying aircraft, he should be careful that he does not hang with the chin on the curb."