Wikipedia Bans and Boots Church of Scientology

In what I consider to be a major “win” for Wikipedia, the site has banned contributions from any IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology.

This decision by Wikipedia goes into effect immediately.

While Wikipedia has banned certain people in the past who have been a little indulgent with their edits, this is the first time they have officially banned edits from such a well-known organization.

According to evidence turned up by admins in this long-running Wikiland court case, multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” Leaning on the famed WikiScanner, countless news stories have discussed the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs, and some site admins are concerned this is “damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for neutrality.”

One admin tells The Reg that policing edits from Scientology machines has been particularly difficult because myriad editors sit behind a small number of IPs and, for some reason, the address of each editor is constantly changing. This prevents admins from determining whether a single editor is using multiple Wikipedia accounts to game the system. In Wikiland, such sockpuppeting is not allowed.