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Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

wikiwho.ailef.tech

21–30 of 96 posts

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#21
post #20

Of course, this only catches the relative "amateurs". Proper professionals change IP address before making their edits, or they register a "volunteer" account (this also prevents routine disclosure of the IP address, but still makes the IP address potentially discoverable by higher-ranking Wikipedia functionaries).

Yes, this is unfortunately a very big issue and one of the reasons I didn't develop it further.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#22
post #6

I have to say, this is depressing to see just how corrupt brands and institutions are to protect their own bullshit. Nevertheless, great work and a very useful project.

You really want to feel depressed? Look up Unusual Whales [1], a day trading app focusing on investment flows in the markets who does an annual report on insider trading by US officials, including Congress and SCOTUS. Even went so far as to create a congressional ETF. The focus is US pols, but no reason to suspect other jurisdictions are any better. There's a reason both parties put a HUUGE emphasis on culture war -…

What is one to infer from these? That congresspeople, like others that are afforded the right, also execute trades?

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really want to feel depressed? Look up Unusual Whales [1], a day trading app focusing on investment flows in the markets who does an annual report on insider trading by US officials, including Congress and SCOTUS. Even went so far as to create a congressional ETF. The focus is US pols, but no reason to suspect other jurisdictions are any better. There's a reason both parties put a HUUGE emphasis on culture war -…

What is one to infer from these? That congresspeople, like others that are afforded the right, also execute trades?

The inference is that they use insider information

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#25
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely lost trust in Wikipedia once I realized recent history is literally being rewritten by biased editors. For one, check the edit history of anything Russia/Ukraine war related, it's a complete shitshow.

History was always written by the victors, we only see it happen in real time now.

And with revision log.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#26
post #3

One of the Navy Network Information Center (NNIC)'s top edits is the Subic rape case.[0] Predictably and, unfortunately, it's essentially all edits trying to play down the case or cast doubt I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years now (mostly botany-related pages) and I've been quite the pessimist about the platform for almost as long. But browsing this website has gotten me really demoralized to be honest. Many…

I completely lost trust in Wikipedia once I realized recent history is literally being rewritten by biased editors. For one, check the edit history of anything Russia/Ukraine war related, it's a complete shitshow.

> For one, check the edit history of anything Russia/Ukraine war related, it's a complete shitshow.

I went and checked randomly a few edits. I’m not seeing anything I would describe as a “complete shitshow”. Can you please provide examples and tell us what you find objectionable?

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really want to feel depressed? Look up Unusual Whales [1], a day trading app focusing on investment flows in the markets who does an annual report on insider trading by US officials, including Congress and SCOTUS. Even went so far as to create a congressional ETF. The focus is US pols, but no reason to suspect other jurisdictions are any better. There's a reason both parties put a HUUGE emphasis on culture war -…

What is one to infer from these? That congresspeople, like others that are afforded the right, also execute trades?

That congresspeople use insider information gained from sitting on various committees to execute suspiciously-timed trades [1], such as:

-heavy buying of semiconductors in the lead up to passage of the CHIPS act

-mass sell-off by members and their families within the day of the first briefing on the coming COVID policy mandates

-purchase of defense stocks by members who were briefed on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One member was particularly brazen, purchasing Lockheed Martin a day before the invasion, then tweeting "War can be profitable" in an attempted swipe at media [2]

-regular returns exceeding 100% on companies that directly stand to benefit from policy decisions made by Congress people, on purchases usually executed shortly before public policy votes are held

This is not normal

[1] https://unusualwhales.com/politics/article/conflicts

[2] https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-bought-defen...

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely lost trust in Wikipedia once I realized recent history is literally being rewritten by biased editors. For one, check the edit history of anything Russia/Ukraine war related, it's a complete shitshow.

History was always written by the victors, we only see it happen in real time now.

...and to a much greater degree then people realize, really. As a simple example, WW2. There where several polls over the decades in Germany which country contributed the most to the fall of Nazi Germany.

In the beginning, it was mostly attributed to Russia (something like 80%) with the USA mostly protecting Europe from getting integrated into Russia after the fall. But over time this opinion has been overturned to being mostly the USA with Russia playing a minor role... And the fact that Russia could've likely just taken over Europe completely has been forgotten entirely.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#29
I'm not sure why people are so downhearted by this kind of thing. It's well known that anything controversial on Wikipedia is going to have a lot of edit warring and people trying to control a narrative. What Wikipedia is best at is non-controversial topics. And that has always been the case. Even for controversial topics it's honestly surprising how more or less correct the articles tend to be.

Wikipedia is not where you read up on the war crimes that may have or may not have been committed by some country or the views of a politician on immigration. Wikipedia is where you read up on Mars's atmosphere or how solar wind works.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#30

I am surprised how many people goof off at work writing wikipedia pages about their favorite TV shows. Especially you, Canadians... lol: http://wikiwho.ailef.tech/organization/46a20a0820d609f90314e...

Someone is a fan of Madonna in there.
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