4 ms·

Most of these are pretty harmless; updates to sports figures, university pages for alumni, celebrities, etc. I didn't see any revisionist history edits like I w

by jbob2000 9y ago

Most of these are pretty harmless; updates to sports figures, university pages for alumni, celebrities, etc. I didn't see any revisionist history edits like I was expecting.

tectec 9y ago
That's what I thought too until I noticed they added a Nazi to the list of alumni. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804058727&oldid=803389733 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804058727&oldid=80...
- throwanem 9y ago
  What fails the sniff test about a German having studied abroad at a US university before WWI - when no significant enmity between the two nations yet existed - and, over the next few decades, following a course in life that led him to join the NSDAP and the Waffen-SS? Uncommon, sure. But implausible? (When and by whom was the same information edited into the article about Lombard?)
  - throwawayjava 9y ago
    My reaction was the same as yours initially -- weird thing for congressional staff to be spending their time on, but yeah that is a notable alumni (and actually kind of interesting). But the same user added Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash to the List of University of Missouri alumni article. All of that could of course could be a coincidence. But it'll be interesting to see whether any of Missouri's representatives start pushing a "universities create evil villains" narrative in the next cycle ;-)
marcelluspye 9y ago
There was Joe Barton's summary paragraph edited to remove mention that he told someone at a town hall meeting to "shut up," and replaced with what was essentially an ad, which only cited his own website. Seems to have changed back, with the addendum that the guy told to shut up later said he "deserved it." :\
vollmond 9y ago
Right; Wikipedia policy is just that you can't update the entry for yourself or your own organizations, right?
- Gaelan 9y ago
  Strongly discouraged, IIRC
  - throwawayjava 9y ago
    And indeed some of the edits are very reasonable -- e.g., removing errant commas from the names of subcommittees.
ch4s3 9y ago
Not to be overly pedantic, but you're using revisionist history to mean a false rewriting of history, negationism, or denialism. The phrase historical revisionism actually means reinterpreting history based upon new evidence or new methods of analysis. The incorrect use seems to have entered the popular imagination following the war in Iraq.
- chimeracoder 9y ago
  That's not true. There are plenty of uses of the word "revisionism" with the pejorative connotation that predate the war in Iraq: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism But even if that weren't the case, it wouldn't really matter, because it's clear what meaning the world has today, both in the general case and in the context of OP's comment.
  - ch4s3 9y ago
    > There are plenty of uses of the word "revisionism" with the pejorative connotation that predate the war in Iraq Sorry, I meant in colloquial American english. I don't recall ever hearing the word spoken aloud prior to maybe 2005, though I could be misremembering. You can certainly find the pejorative use(which I maintain is still incorrect) in the early 80s with respect to some books that were published at the time about the Vietnam War. I think prior to that the term was entirely academic, though again, I could be wrong.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

Most of these are pretty harmless; updates to sports figures, university pages for alumni, celebrities, etc. I didn't see any revisionist history edits like I was expecting.

tectec 9y ago

That's what I thought too until I noticed they added a Nazi to the list of alumni. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804058727&oldid=803389733 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804058727&oldid=80...

throwanem 9y ago
What fails the sniff test about a German having studied abroad at a US university before WWI - when no significant enmity between the two nations yet existed - and, over the next few decades, following a course in life that led him to join the NSDAP and the Waffen-SS? Uncommon, sure. But implausible? (When and by whom was the same information edited into the article about Lombard?)
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  My reaction was the same as yours initially -- weird thing for congressional staff to be spending their time on, but yeah that is a notable alumni (and actually kind of interesting). But the same user added Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash to the List of University of Missouri alumni article. All of that could of course could be a coincidence. But it'll be interesting to see whether any of Missouri's representatives start pushing a "universities create evil villains" narrative in the next cycle ;-)

marcelluspye 9y ago

There was Joe Barton's summary paragraph edited to remove mention that he told someone at a town hall meeting to "shut up," and replaced with what was essentially an ad, which only cited his own website. Seems to have changed back, with the addendum that the guy told to shut up later said he "deserved it." :\

vollmond 9y ago

Right; Wikipedia policy is just that you can't update the entry for yourself or your own organizations, right?

Gaelan 9y ago
Strongly discouraged, IIRC
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  And indeed some of the edits are very reasonable -- e.g., removing errant commas from the names of subcommittees.

ch4s3 9y ago

Not to be overly pedantic, but you're using revisionist history to mean a false rewriting of history, negationism, or denialism. The phrase historical revisionism actually means reinterpreting history based upon new evidence or new methods of analysis. The incorrect use seems to have entered the popular imagination following the war in Iraq.

chimeracoder 9y ago
That's not true. There are plenty of uses of the word "revisionism" with the pejorative connotation that predate the war in Iraq: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_revisionism But even if that weren't the case, it wouldn't really matter, because it's clear what meaning the world has today, both in the general case and in the context of OP's comment.
- ch4s3 9y ago
  > There are plenty of uses of the word "revisionism" with the pejorative connotation that predate the war in Iraq Sorry, I meant in colloquial American english. I don't recall ever hearing the word spoken aloud prior to maybe 2005, though I could be misremembering. You can certainly find the pejorative use(which I maintain is still incorrect) in the early 80s with respect to some books that were published at the time about the Vietnam War. I think prior to that the term was entirely academic, though again, I could be wrong.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]