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NEW YORK - Wikipedia has been thrown into one of its biggest crises after a twenty something student from Kentucky posed as a professor of religious studies and made more than 20,000 alterations to controversial topics on the online encyclopaedia.
Using the pseudonym "Essjay", the fraudster had become one of Wikipedia's most prolific "editors", trusted to adjudicate on factual disputes and charged with keeping the site free from vandalism.
He had even been immortalised in an article in the New Yorker, which took his claims to be an expert in canon law at face value.
Now, though, he has been unmasked as Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old who had weaved an entire false identity, claiming to be a tenured professor at a private university, but who in fact relied on books such as Catholicism for Dummies when correcting articles on religious dogma.
"He holds no advanced degrees," the New Yorker admitted in a shamefaced editor's note.
"He has never taught."Although anyone can alter the site's 5.3 million articles, some 75,000 people are regular contributors, gaining more privileges to adjudicate on disputes as they gain the respect of their peers.
This loose affiliation of 75,000 obsessives and techno-nerds, who typically hide behind online pseudonyms, has been thrown into turmoil by the scandal.
While many users defended Mr Jordan, saying his editorial judgment had never been questioned, others expressed their sense of betrayal.
Over the weekend, Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, asked Essjay to resign his voluntary position, and now he is suggesting that senior editors be forced to reveal their identities and prove their credentials.
"I have an MA in finance," Mr Wales said.
"I could fax a copy of the degree to the office."
Mr Jordan made a final posting late on Saturday.
"I hope others will refocus the energy they have spent the past few days in defending and denouncing me to make something here at Wikipedia better."
- INDEPENDENT
