Paper Round: WikiScanner and Missing an Open Goal

Now look, I like a good old fun-up as much as the next moderately fun person. So don’t get me wrong- the story of the someone in the CIA adding “Wahhhhhh!” as a preface to Wikipedia’s description of the Iranian President’s presidential plans is a good one. Perhaps equally pleasing was the news that someone in Conservative Central Office decided to helpfully add to the store of world knowledge regarding baby warthogs by pointing out that ‘they also smell of poo’. Meanwhile we discovered that somebody in the Vatican is tending to Gerry Adams’ profile.

I’m not going to complain about these delights, uncovered by the newest weapon in the fight against tedium WikiScanner, or that they were all reported in the Irish newspapers. Any news story that can fit baby warthogs, the CIA, the Vatican and Conservative Central Office within its confines deserves to echo ’round the world.

What I do complain about was the failure to go after the obvious local angles. For example, WikiScanner tells us that amongst the matters concerning people working on computers with IP numbers belonging to the Irish Law Library are the Reunified Fourth International [how unified it is may be hinted at by the accompanying argument on its discussion page “I know what dubious means thanks. The claim is not remotely credible.”], the legal fees owed to unfortunate barristers by the Clerkinwell Crime Syndicate, the renumeration of Hardiman J, an in-depth exploration of the history of Guinness stout and, most recently, the addition of the helpful, if unsupported assertion that newly elected NUI Senator Ronan Mullen BL is a member of Opus Dei.

Surely at least one of these might have been worth looking up and adding to the Irish reports on WikiScanner.

After all its news attention, the WikiScanner is suffering from overload at the moment. But when things ease off, I’ll see if I can add any other fun Irish edits that catch the eye.