Thursday, November 5, 2009

Wikipedia adding and deleting

As regular readers of The Racquetball Blog will know, we've been adding racquetball information to Wikipedia. A curious thing has been happening with one of the entries over this past week. Some of the information has been deleted three times now.

What racquetball information does someone not want you to know? (the deletion has been anonymous, as person(s) doing the deletion is (are) only identified by the computer's IP address; two of the three times have been from by the same IP address) It's the following that we wrote in the entry for Kane Waselenchuk:
"Waselenchuk would have won a fourth [Canadian] title in 2006, but following the final match in which he defeated Mike Green, Waselenchuk tested positive for "metabolites of both cannabis and cocaine."[3] That positive test led to a two year ban from racquetball, so Waselenchuk did not play in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 IRT seasons." (the [3] references the quote, which is from an article that appeared in The Globe & Mail).

It seems that someone does not (or some people do not) want any reference to Waselenchuk's suspension on Wikipedia. We have reinstated the information each time it's been deleted, and our rationale for doing so is there has to be an explanation of why Waselenchuk did not compete for two years. This paragraph provides that explanation with a reference. Omitting it denies it happened, which is wrong.

The Wikipedia entry makes no judgment about the suspension and its cause, and we're not doing so here. But it happened. It's a fact.

The Racquetball Blog has stopped mentioning Waselenchuk's suspension this season when reporting his performances, because it's old news now. But an encyclopedia entry of a person should mention the significant events in the person's life, especially if those events relate to the achievements in the person's profession. Waselenchuk's suspension was a significant event in his racquetball career, so we believe it should be mentioned.

Here's hoping it's not deleted again.

Follow the bouncing ball....

4 comments:

Mark Frohman said...

I agree, the comments should not have been deleted. Having said that the suspension did not fit the crime..... Additionally he was playing in an amateur event to qualify for the Pan Am Games. For the IRT to recognize the suspension showed pour judgement. Having said that, I think it put a fire into Kane.. He is now in phenomenal shape. I am not sure if he will lose a match this year or maybe even the next 3 years..

Unknown said...

Keep fighting the good fight TRB. Censorship has no place on Wikipedia.

The Racquetball Blog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Racquetball Blog said...

Thanks for the support. The deletion is continuing to happen. I've just undone the deletion again.

For the record, the 2006 Canadian Championships were in Edmonton, Waselenchuk's hometown and at his home club. He hadn't played in the Canadian Championships since 2001, but promised people in Edmonton that he would compete if Edmonton hosted the championships (prior to that Edmonton had only been the host city in 1988), so his participation was the fulfillment of that promise.

Racquetball Canada hoped that he would qualify for their National Team and compete in the 2006 World Championships. Unfortunately for them that didn't happen.

Follow the bouncing ball....