Mar 8, 2007 / 10:05 am
One of Wikipedia’s foremost contributors and editors resigned last week after it was learned that his supposed credentials as a professor of Religion with a PhD in Theology and a degree in Canon Law were fake, reported The Age.
The editor, who called himself Essjay, was recruited to work on the online encyclopedia’s arbitration committee, a team of “expert administrators” who vet content. But it seems no one vetted his credentials.
According to The Age, Essjay was found out after The New Yorker magazine referred to his estimated 20,000 contributions to the site and how he would spend up to 14 hours a day editing, "correcting errors, and removing obscenities".
However, afterwards a Wikipedia critic later told The New Yorker that Essjay’s biographical information was untrue.
Essjay is really Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old college drop-out from Kentucky, who used texts such as “Catholicism for Dummies” to correct articles on religion. The New Yorker admitted to not knowing Essjay’s real name at the time of publication.
In a statement, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said he Essjay was asked to "resign immediately."
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