There's something about Bigpedia

Over at SenseUp (which has declared Get On Board!PRT to be "brilliant"), the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist trotted out this new little trial balloon (crossposted at Dump Mark Olson). We might call it Help, I'm Being Suppressed, Poor Me:

There's something called Bigpedia that uses a lot of the material from the Wikipedia PRT page… [ellipses in original] but also includes facts that PRTistas like ATren have kept out of the Wikipedia page including links to skeptical sites like mine and Light Rail Now... Source (what SoundPRT thinks about Light Rail Now)

Bigpedia? 'About 3 pages of hits on Google' Bigpedia? Notice that he actually posts three variations on the same theme between 5:39 and 5:44pm (1, 2, 3) -- two beginning identically with "There's something called Bigpedia." At this rate he'll soon drive Bigpedia's hits through the roof!

Bigpedia's one of those sites that copies Wikipedia content, presumably in order to attract hits. In this case, two year old content about PRT, as A Transportation Enthusiast so ably points out in this response:

What [MN anti-PRT propagandist] doesn’t tell you is that this is a verbatim copy of a 2 year old version of the Wikipedia page! See the corresponding Wikipedia version - it’s from April 2005!

Why are those links gone from Wikipedia now? Because they were found to be unreliable! In fact, many of the "disadvantages" you cite were removed by the consensus of multiple editors, when it became clear that there were no reliable sources to support them.

Here's another interesting tidbit: also in April 2005, [MN anti-PRT propagandist]basically junked that version of the Wikipedia article for his own propaganda-laced version, which was promptly reverted by another editor. So, [MN anti-PRT propagandist], two years ago you saw the need to replace this entire text with your own version, yet now you are promoting it? Why did you change your mind?

And here's the kicker: do you want to know where the link to [MN anti-PRT propagandist]'s website came from? He added it himself! Check out this edit from 2004, where IP address 208.42.19.234 adds the link to [MN anti-PRT propagandist]'s PRT pages. Now, browse to the contribution history for that IP address, and you will find this other edit in which [MN anti-PRT propagandist] identifies himself with a byline!

So, let’s review: (1) the Bigpedia article is a verbatim copy of the Wikipedia article from 2 years ago, (2) an article with which [MN anti-PRT propagandist] himself was so unhappy that he replaced completely, and which (3) contained links back to [MN anti-PRT propagandist]'s anti-PRT site that were added by [MN anti-PRT propagandist] himself, and which (4) also contained skeptical claims that at least half a dozen other Wikipedia editors agreed to remove because they were unsupportable.

Thanks for that link, [MN anti-PRT propagandist], and for once again proving my point that almost all anti-PRT sentiment on the net can be traced back to you.

Source

In, as the kids say, yo' face!



gPRT
She says, hey babe, take a walk on the Ken Avidor