Fun with 'Wikipedia'

[Flyvåpnet]

Wikipedia's pages on Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann have contained numerous inaccuracies and misleading statements regarding Yoko Ritona, no doubt promulgated by anti-Yoko editors who have set up camp there.  It's always been futile to attempt using logic and reason with them.

So, just for a bit of satisfaction, I decided to bypass the discussion route and simply went to the character page and edited the Yoko section -- which is quite small to begin with.  Bear in mind Nia and Viral have entire pages devoted to them; yet the original leading female character, who pulls all the lead male characters' cajones out of the fire on more than one occasion, is confined to a few paragraphs.  Balance and fairness?  I think not.

Here below, if you click on the image, you can see that page's table of contents.  It shows Yoko's proper surname restored to her, if only for a few days.

Below, you can see (if you click on the image) the changes I made to the narrative.  The anti-Yoko editors chose to ignore the reason behind Yoko's critical remarks toward Kamina, the fact he had made disparaging and sexist remarks about her from the outset even as she was trying to save his life; and it further chose to ignore the fact he had given aid and comfort to the enemy by deliberately blocking Yoko's line of fire as she was about to destroy the Gunmen.

Those editors further ignored Kamina's sexist decision to forbid Yoko access to any mecha, as well as his dictate that she always follow to the rear of any men when on combat patrol.  Furthermore, those selfsame editors implied Simon's lack of concentration during his first mecha mission was the fault of Yoko because he'd seen Kamina kissing her.  Circumspection and logic certainly escape those editors!

Also, those editors imply Yoko had simply fallen into a teaching job during the time skip.  They fail to mention the fact she founded the school!  Continuing on, those editors use the word "aged" or "aging" to describe Yomako in the series' epilogue.  "Older" seems a much more appropriate and fair word to me.

Of course, I knew from the outset that my edits would quickly be discovered by the anit-Yoko clique and changed back to the inaccurate and misleading assertions they'd been before I showed up.  But my edits lasted for three whole days, which is two more than I expected!  No, I'm not going to play commando and keep returning there to put things right.  Once an anti-Yoko clique takes over any Web page or Web site, they render the entire page or site permanently mendacious and beyond hope of recovery.

I've not been back there to see the damage restored, but today I received an electronic-mail message indicating that page had been re-edited by someone else.  In the event, it was both fun and satisfying to tweak those editors' feeble little minds for a few days.  Perhaps during that brief time several people, seeking accurate and fair information, happened to view the page with my edits still intact.  In that case, I'm happy.

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[Hikaru]

way of the wiki:
1) read the rules.
2) learn the rules.
3) violently accuse others of violating the rules.

and don't use the phrase "fair and balanced" =.=
it's not the same anymore..

[Flyvåpnet]

Those steps you describe do indeed comprise the status quo ante at Wikipedia, Hikaru:  rules are cited, discussions occur, yet inaccuracies and misleading statements remain firmly in place.  It's not enough to say, "Screen the anime then tell me thus-and-such did not happen."  I'm reminded of that old chestnut about scholars failing to agree on how many teeth horses have, whilst at the same time rejecting the suggestion they look in a horse's mouth.

You're correct, there is no such thing as "fair and balanced" anymore.  It's become, rather, a matter of "might makes right."  In the event, I just wanted to take some of the shine off those editors' smugness by demonstrating their agenda is not untouchable.  But the easier way, which I intend to employ in future, is simply to ignore Wikipedia altogether.



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[0235]

oh... should have said spoiler, oh well. and ithink that what is said is perfectly true, but due to this being based on seomthing that isnt real, as in the sense you cant interveiw characters etc, facts are hard to come across, but its not the, sorry for saying this, worst wikipedia war. i came acros one wheter its    Halo 2 or halo.2, and that went on for years.

[Captn' Red]

Actually its Failo 2.

Lol well this is the reason I rarely use wiki, info there just cant be trusted.

[0235]

only info that can be trusted, is info you put on there yorself...

[Flyvåpnet]

I believe you, 0235, about there being much worse editing wars at Wikipedia than the one involving Yoko Ritona and, to a lesser extent, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann in general.  Anything dealing with the Middle East, for example, will inevitably entail an acrimonious and lengthy editing war.  But what gets me is that, in this day and age, there are still unenlightened people who firmly believe in male superiority and spread their misogynistic sexism around the Web by attacking Yoko.



Red, as you can see, I've returned after my own brief time-skip hiatus.  I used to appreciate and recommend Wikipedia, until its editors chose Yoko as their target for destruction.  She used to have her own page, just like (if you can believe this) Nia and Viral still do; and the narrative was objective, comparatively free from mendacity and anti-Yoko propaganda.  But that all changed, beginning about one year ago, with the ascendancy of the idiotic anti-Yoko mob.  So, yeah, I've no use for that Web site anymore and no longer refer people to it.



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[Aurix-kun]

The greatest rule is CITE EVERYTHING.

Then when jerks decide to cut your sentence they can get the wiki banhammer. So stick a citation mark.

I've only made one edit to Wikipedia in my entire life; it was on Nausicaa, and mentioned Bernard Evslin.

[Flyvåpnet]

Thanks for your well-taken advice, Aurix-kun.  What I'm wondering is, what do I cite when the talking point is distributed throughout the anime itself and nobody has ever remarked on it elsewhere?  (See the horses' teeth reference earlier in this thread.)

For example, Wikipedia asserts Yoko "bad mouthed" Kamina all the time; but if you watch the anime it's perfectly clear she was driven to do that:  first by Kamina's unwelcome advances, then by his personal and sexist insults, then by his having deliberately blocked her line of fire as she was about to take out a Gunmen, then by his unprofessional sexist decisions such as restricting her to rear-guard duties and  prohibiting her access to mecha, then by his reckless disregard of effective military tactics in favor of fatal grandstanding which Yoko repeatedly advised him against.  That all goes unmentioned because, apparently, Kamina can do no wrong.  "Let's blame everything on Yoko!"

So what would I do, cite the anime itself and say "See Episodes 1 through 7" or something like that?  I honestly don't know.



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[kryss]

The greatest rule is CITE EVERYTHING.

Then when jerks decide to cut your sentence they can get the wiki banhammer. So stick a citation mark.

I've only made one edit to Wikipedia in my entire life; it was on Nausicaa, and mentioned Bernard Evslin.

I spent time accurately translating the synopsis of the Animal Crossing movie, for someone to then replace it with a Google translation...That was when I said f*ck it.

[0235]

@ Flyvapnet.
good point, i have only read the manga, the ones on this site to download, so it doesnt realy show it as much, but the very first thing shown of Yoko is how brave she is, she jumps in from the ceiling and shoots a huge Gamen with a rifle, and then Kamina tries to take credit.

and also the "move your fat arse" in the tunnel but when they are escaping, where Kamina blames yoko, so if anyone is "bad moutherd" its Kamina.

and why was Yokos page removed, can you make your own one? its a bit unfait.

[Flyvåpnet]

Kryss, I'm sorry to learn your efforts to provide an accurate translation were nullified by some daft editing-gatekeeper and replaced by a lame corporate translation.  Yeah, it would seem wikis leave much to be desired; and the biggest problem, in my view, is the lack of supervision by knowledgeable and objective editors to whom one can appeal directly.



Congratulations, 0235!  You're one of very few people who has acknowledged Yoko's bravery and Kamina's sexism.  I've nothing against Kamina apart from the manner in which he treats Yoko; and for me, his treatment of her is so reprehensible as to surpass any redeeming qualities he may otherwise possess.  Some think this behavior of his toward Yoko is humorous.  I do not.  I went through the women's-rights battles of the 1970s and have an abiding hatred of misogyny and sexism.

Yoko's page was removed from Wikipedia by the prevailing editing clique which controls all things Gurren Lagann.  It's part of the anti-Yoko mob, a group which began to gain power at anime/manga-related Web sites in late 2007.  You can recognize its presence by noticing who makes disparaging remarks about Yoko ("doom bitch" and "star tits" being two favored cliches) or fails to note her humanity and valor.  Take Chapter 4 of the high-school manga, for example:  read through the comments and notice that she's rarely mentioned, even though her defeat of Adiane in one-on-one combat in defense of her friends was the highlight of that chapter.  To the anti-Yoko mob, Yoko does not exist -- unless something bad happens, in which case every possible far-fetched excuse is sought in an effort to blame Yoko for whatever went wrong.



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[0235]

doom bitch? as they say in spain QUE? or as they say in England WTF?!

unfortunately, due to me not seeing the tv episodes i dont know much about it, but as said in a quote from the game "damnation" "you gota admire a gal who is brave enough to jump into battle with little on top and only a rifle"

and to tell the truth, you got to realy hate people to be anti yoko, i never even knew it was possible.

just realised, didnt koko cause the gammen to fall into the city in the first episode, so without her, they never would have got to the surface.

[Captn' Red]

You'll have to wait untill chapter 15 before you know what they mean by that.

Dont spoil guysss >_>

[Flyvåpnet]

I like the way you think, 0235!  Without giving anything away (as a favor to you and to prevent Red from shooting me on sight) let me just say the "doom bitch" moniker was created by the anti-Yoko mob of cretins.  What it's based upon is something so far-fetched and ludicrous as to be laughable, were it not so widely disseminated as a propaganda weapon wielded against Yoko.   Of course, "bitch" is a sexist word when applied to humans; but the anti-Yoko mob is, after all, a mob -- much like inner-city gangs -- so using the vocabulary of illiterate thugs is right up its alley.

Yes, you really do have to hate people to be anti-Yoko.  You've hit that nail squarely on the head!  The anti-Yoko types are akin to iconoclasts, insofar as they derive pleasure from destroying that which others treasure.  They're de facto misogynists due to their demonstrable hatred of women -- even though at least half of them are female -- and they're sexists because they base a woman's value as a person entirely upon her physique and wardrobe.

As far as "marching orders" are concerned, they leave it up to a clique at 2chan to determine what they're supposed to think of anime/games/manga characters.  Anti-Yoko dogma flows from 2chan and is gleefully soaked up either by those incapable of thinking for themselves or by those who fear going against dictates of sub-culture trendiness.  They're also the sort who, through a combination of nature and nurture, love to hate.

You bet, I'm not making any friends via my assessments of anti-Yoko types!  But so be it.  When the anti-Yoko mob attacked me at LiveJournal's gurren_lagann community, it created a determined and permanent enemy.  It's rather like the anti-war scene at university ages ago:  I was active with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War; and one of the verities we learned was that a beating by police makes an instant radical out of even the most conservative person.



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