Categories
BlogSchmog Of Course

Cuban missive crisis

One of my new interests is the effect of press coverage on wiki editing. It would be an interesting study, I think, to look at references to Wikipedia pages in mainstream media, such as the Stephen Colbert “Word” segment on Elephants (), and measure the impact it has on that wiki community. Although it isn’t mainstream coverage here, Mark Cuban’s blog is pretty well-read, by both fans and foes. He’s had a fued on the Wikipedia turf with a journalist who has been critical of some new company called ShareSleuth. Depending on who you read, ShareSleuth is either a free-press kind of whistle blower sharing bad practices of corporations, or a rumor mill of bad press intended to drive down prices so Cuban can get deals on good investments.

The battle between Cuban and Weiss (and others) takes place in part at Cuban’s wiki article. Of specific interest is the following paragraph:

In July 2006, Cuban financed creation of Sharesleuth.com,[50] which will set out to uncover fraud and misinformation in publicy traded companies. Cuban’s disclosure that he will take positions in the shares of companies mentioned in Sharesleuth in advance of publication has raised controversy. Some wonder at the appropriateness of shorting a stock prior to making public pronouncements which are likely to result in losses in that stock’s value, while Cuban and others insist that it perfectly acceptable in view of his full disclosure.[51][52][53] Forbes’ The Insider, however, wondered about the hoo-rah, finding the first ShareSleuth article to be old news.[54]

That’s how it stands at the moment, of course. There were 19 edits on the page by 15 different authors between August 1-21. Then came Mantanmoreland on August 22. Over the next three days, 61 edits were made by 17 different authors (not including the 16 anonymous edits in that span). 27 of these edits were adjustments to the ShareSleuth paragraph added by Mantanmoreland.

  • 21:46, 22 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (adding sharesleuth)
  • 23:43, 22 August 2006 216.220.208.229 (→Fines)
  • 23:50, 22 August 2006 216.220.208.117 (→Sports)
  • 23:50, 22 August 2006 Dina m (Reverted edits by 216.220.208.117 to version 71272817 by 216.220.208.229 using VP)
  • 23:56, 22 August 2006 216.220.208.232 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 23:59, 22 August 2006 216.220.208.116 (→Personal)
  • 00:38, 23 August 2006 Mcuban (→Early years)
  • 00:40, 23 August 2006 Mcuban (→Business success)
  • 00:41, 23 August 2006 Mcuban m (→Personal)
  • 00:58, 23 August 2006 Mcuban (→Sports – incorrect information)
  • 01:19, 23 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (rv links)
  • 02:49, 23 August 2006 71.231.78.109 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 02:49, 23 August 2006 Tawkerbot4 m (BOT – rv 71.231.78.109 to last version by Mantanmoreland)
  • 02:53, 23 August 2006 71.231.78.109 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 03:24, 23 August 2006 208.120.16.191 (→External links)
  • 04:14, 23 August 2006 BlueCarp (→Media and entertainment)
  • 04:20, 23 August 2006 FCYTravis m (grammar)
  • 10:21, 23 August 2006 RichardBennett (→Sports – restore the Steve Nash business that Cuban personally deleted.)
  • 12:50, 23 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (→Media and entertainment)
  • 13:04, 23 August 2006 Fred Bauder (→External links – http://www.sharesleuth.com/)
  • 13:56, 23 August 2006 Fred Bauder (→Fines)
  • 14:19, 23 August 2006 Snelson66 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 14:22, 23 August 2006 146.126.51.51 (→Early years)
  • 14:27, 23 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (reverting changes by meatpuppets of MCuban)
  • 15:12, 23 August 2006 68.94.231.21 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 15:48, 23 August 2006 Scottcmu m (→Business success)
  • 15:56, 23 August 2006 Btball m (Correcting spelling: prouncements->pronouncements)
  • 18:57, 23 August 2006 Btball (clean up Typos: roomates → roommates, using AWB)
  • 19:04, 23 August 2006 65.174.46.6 (→Media and entertainment)
  • 19:08, 23 August 2006 Mantanmoreland m (→Media and entertainment)
  • 21:01, 23 August 2006 66.7.225.34 (→Media and entertainment – remove redundancy about shorting ShareSleuth stocks)
  • 21:39, 23 August 2006 Softwarenerd (→Media and entertainment)
  • 22:13, 23 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (→Media and entertainment)
  • 02:16, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Added citations)
  • 02:52, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Early years – added citations)
  • 02:58, 24 August 2006 Softwarenerd m (Elaborate reference to non-Cuban positve commentary on ShareSleuth)
  • 03:14, 24 August 2006 Mantanmoreland (cite needed from notable source)
  • 03:18, 24 August 2006 216.207.246.230 (→Early years)
  • 03:19, 24 August 2006 216.207.246.230
  • 03:21, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Business success – adding citations)
  • 03:42, 24 August 2006 68.249.236.123
  • 03:50, 24 August 2006 Subwayguy (→Trivia)
  • 03:52, 24 August 2006 Subwayguy (→References)
  • 03:54, 24 August 2006 Subwayguy m (→Sports)
  • 03:54, 24 August 2006 Subwayguy m (→Fines)
  • 04:16, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Sports – adding citations)
  • 04:23, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Fines – adding citations)
  • 05:17, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Media and entertainment)
  • 05:20, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Talk | contribs)
  • 05:22, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Talk | contribs)
  • 05:23, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Talk | contribs)
  • 05:26, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Talk | contribs)
  • 05:52, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Personal – adding citations)
  • 05:56, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Business success – Adding citations)
  • 05:57, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Personal – adding citations)
  • 06:15, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (→Trivia – adding citations)
  • 06:27, 24 August 2006 ClairSamoht (Talk | contribs)
  • 10:52, 24 August 2006 Badlydrawnjeff m (→References – better tag)
  • 07:24, 25 August 2006 Delta x (→Sports – slight rewording.)
  • 12:34, 25 August 2006 66.54.206.209 (mark cuban is satan)
  • 12:37, 25 August 2006 Mike Rosoft m (Reverted edits by 66.54.206.209 to last version by Delta x)
  • 16:19, 25 August 2006 199.67.138.84 (Added space after period)

What would be interesting to parse out of this particular edit war is whether it would have been exponentially larger if it has been mentioned by Stephen Colbert, or if the longer-term impact of these blog posts appearing in Google searches will help perpetuate the battle over this paragraph? Or, is it possible to conceive of a day when this Wikipedia page does not have a reference to ShareSleuth? Is the bigger statement here that Weiss has managed to get that topic on record?

By Kevin Makice

A Ph.D student in informatics at Indiana University, Kevin is rich in spirit. He wrestles and reads with his kids, does a hilarious Christian Slater imitation and lights up his wife's days. He thinks deeply about many things, including but not limited to basketball, politics, microblogging, parenting, online communities, complex systems and design theory. He didn't, however, think up this profile.