Wikipedia administrator
Tony Gonzalez
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
By trade, Bobak Ha'Eri is a 28-year-old attorney, but his hobby is editing Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia administrator has worked on several thousand pages, including the Hillsdale College article.
"I came to this article with no background on the college whatsoever," Ha'Eri said.
He said he remembers hearing the college's name in a list of most conservative colleges, so he visited it, like others on the Princeton Review college ranking lists. He found the Princeton ranking information already present on Hillsdale's page, so he performed minor maintenance.
"Minor" means exactly that for Ha'Eri, who began his university article editing by creating, from scratch, pages for all of the universities of Azerbaijan.
"It's sort of a dorky thing to think of," Ha'Eri admits.
Now Ha'Eri keeps watch on a list of about 1,200 pages, meaning his attention isn't always especially focused. Although granted the power to edit, delete and defend entries, he focuses on pages of the most interest to him and skims others under his watch.
"I've gotten to the point, where without even looking at the changes…Sometimes if I see the right combination [of username, IP address and size of revision]…I know somebody went in and vandalized," he said.
Ha'Eri said Michigan State University was the first major university to become a feature article on the site, meaning it met high standards. Compared to the Hillsdale page's three references, Michigan State's article has 177.
"The person who will turn the Hillsdale College page into something bigger will be a student or an alum," Ha'Eri said. "For better or worse, it's awaiting for its champion."
The page could use some images and more references, and better organization. But reorganization involves a greater time commitment. He said the article could benefit from following the WikiProject Universities template.
Ha'Eri noted the Hillsdale article's calm history of vandalism and said the article has been relatively free from "brochure-like" editing, which plagues the objectivity of some universities.
"Very rarely do we find a hand in the cookie jar, and we'll check the IP address," Ha'Eri said, explaining how Wikipedia edits are traceable to computers. Although he found IP addresses from the Hillsdale campus in the page's edit history, he said the edits were likely from students on campus computers.
"I'd be extremely shocked to see any major university, including Hillsdale, do [such editing]," Ha'Eri said.
Vandalism timeline
8 April 2003
The first Hillsdale entry appears at 272 words.
12 Sept. 2004
"Neoconservative" is added to President Larry Arrn's name.
7 July 2005
Edit: "Tensions between conservatives, neoconservatives and libertarians, or 'classical liberals,' run high. It now hires and promotes faculty and grants student scholarships based on religious ideology and membership in the Republican Party. Hillsdale no longer has any denominational affiliation, but is very intolerant of non-religious individuals and Democrats."
10 April 2006
An aggressive edit was removed in a minute, but not before the following statements were added:
"campus contains…5,000,000,000 Greek houses, an beer pong complex, dark hall, arts center…two state of the art outhouses, Wasserman and Gaylord Halls, were completed in December 394 B.C…"
"As of 190 B.C., Hillsdale's student body consists of nearly 4 students…the college currently has less than 8 time faculty and offers a variety of smoking hot arts majors, professional drug selling programs, beer bonging education program, and a Gaylord Farms certificate program. Hillsdale's most popular major is Ecstacy."
s "Hillsdale College's committment to discrimination again came under fire in the [[1769]] following the enactment of [[The Boston Tea Party]] legislation."
Varsity sports were changed to include cricket, tractor pulls, lawn bowling, beer Olympics and curling, among others. Other edits included racist, sexist and sexually explicit remarks.
9 Aug. 2006
Edit:?"More Recently, student complaints have centered around the business practices of the college with regard to its dining services."
9 Oct. 2006
Edit: "It is dedicated to...using the Republican party and the coersive powers of government to extend those controls over the American people."
28 March 2007
The page was nearly completely erased for less than a minute, in which the entry only read: "Don't ever go here."
8 April 2007
Edit: "Aaron Petersen, DSP '95, Dean of Men, Roman Catholic, father to 7 wonderful children, talented at shutting down fraternity parties, strives to be the next saint mentioned in Hillsdale's core liberal arts classes by the time he retires."
27 Sept. 2007
Edit to notable alumni: "Jacob Douvier, Philosopher Extraordinaire, bishop of niedfelt."
27 Sept. 2007
Edit: "The Niedfeldt Dorm is generally viewed as the best men's dormitory on campus. Funded by Phyllis Niedfeldt and built in 1994, the dorm is very small. It holds about 50 students, and thus provokes a very tightknit community. Every fall semester, Mrs. Niedfeldt makes a visit to campus and takes the yound men who inhabit her dorm out to a steak dinner. The men of Niedfeldt generally tend to be the smartest on campus..."
13 Feb. 2008
Edit: "Hillsdale college also has an ideaology that is completely crazy. The school is in love with Ron Paul and it would marry him if it could."
"I came to this article with no background on the college whatsoever," Ha'Eri said.
He said he remembers hearing the college's name in a list of most conservative colleges, so he visited it, like others on the Princeton Review college ranking lists. He found the Princeton ranking information already present on Hillsdale's page, so he performed minor maintenance.
"Minor" means exactly that for Ha'Eri, who began his university article editing by creating, from scratch, pages for all of the universities of Azerbaijan.
"It's sort of a dorky thing to think of," Ha'Eri admits.
Now Ha'Eri keeps watch on a list of about 1,200 pages, meaning his attention isn't always especially focused. Although granted the power to edit, delete and defend entries, he focuses on pages of the most interest to him and skims others under his watch.
"I've gotten to the point, where without even looking at the changes…Sometimes if I see the right combination [of username, IP address and size of revision]…I know somebody went in and vandalized," he said.
Ha'Eri said Michigan State University was the first major university to become a feature article on the site, meaning it met high standards. Compared to the Hillsdale page's three references, Michigan State's article has 177.
"The person who will turn the Hillsdale College page into something bigger will be a student or an alum," Ha'Eri said. "For better or worse, it's awaiting for its champion."
The page could use some images and more references, and better organization. But reorganization involves a greater time commitment. He said the article could benefit from following the WikiProject Universities template.
Ha'Eri noted the Hillsdale article's calm history of vandalism and said the article has been relatively free from "brochure-like" editing, which plagues the objectivity of some universities.
"Very rarely do we find a hand in the cookie jar, and we'll check the IP address," Ha'Eri said, explaining how Wikipedia edits are traceable to computers. Although he found IP addresses from the Hillsdale campus in the page's edit history, he said the edits were likely from students on campus computers.
"I'd be extremely shocked to see any major university, including Hillsdale, do [such editing]," Ha'Eri said.
Vandalism timeline
8 April 2003
The first Hillsdale entry appears at 272 words.
12 Sept. 2004
"Neoconservative" is added to President Larry Arrn's name.
7 July 2005
Edit: "Tensions between conservatives, neoconservatives and libertarians, or 'classical liberals,' run high. It now hires and promotes faculty and grants student scholarships based on religious ideology and membership in the Republican Party. Hillsdale no longer has any denominational affiliation, but is very intolerant of non-religious individuals and Democrats."
10 April 2006
An aggressive edit was removed in a minute, but not before the following statements were added:
"campus contains…5,000,000,000 Greek houses, an beer pong complex, dark hall, arts center…two state of the art outhouses, Wasserman and Gaylord Halls, were completed in December 394 B.C…"
"As of 190 B.C., Hillsdale's student body consists of nearly 4 students…the college currently has less than 8 time faculty and offers a variety of smoking hot arts majors, professional drug selling programs, beer bonging education program, and a Gaylord Farms certificate program. Hillsdale's most popular major is Ecstacy."
s "Hillsdale College's committment to discrimination again came under fire in the [[1769]] following the enactment of [[The Boston Tea Party]] legislation."
Varsity sports were changed to include cricket, tractor pulls, lawn bowling, beer Olympics and curling, among others. Other edits included racist, sexist and sexually explicit remarks.
9 Aug. 2006
Edit:?"More Recently, student complaints have centered around the business practices of the college with regard to its dining services."
9 Oct. 2006
Edit: "It is dedicated to...using the Republican party and the coersive powers of government to extend those controls over the American people."
28 March 2007
The page was nearly completely erased for less than a minute, in which the entry only read: "Don't ever go here."
8 April 2007
Edit: "Aaron Petersen, DSP '95, Dean of Men, Roman Catholic, father to 7 wonderful children, talented at shutting down fraternity parties, strives to be the next saint mentioned in Hillsdale's core liberal arts classes by the time he retires."
27 Sept. 2007
Edit to notable alumni: "Jacob Douvier, Philosopher Extraordinaire, bishop of niedfelt."
27 Sept. 2007
Edit: "The Niedfeldt Dorm is generally viewed as the best men's dormitory on campus. Funded by Phyllis Niedfeldt and built in 1994, the dorm is very small. It holds about 50 students, and thus provokes a very tightknit community. Every fall semester, Mrs. Niedfeldt makes a visit to campus and takes the yound men who inhabit her dorm out to a steak dinner. The men of Niedfeldt generally tend to be the smartest on campus..."
13 Feb. 2008
Edit: "Hillsdale college also has an ideaology that is completely crazy. The school is in love with Ron Paul and it would marry him if it could."
Be the first to comment on this story