Word War III

He uploaded his résumé, telling the world: "If you have a job for me outside Iran, please leave me an email."

AHMADINEJAD'S UNEXPECTED VICTORY kicked off a full-blown Wiki spat. Thirty-four comments were posted on the discussion page by nine different users over two days. At issue was a snippet of background information someone had added to the article: namely, that only Muslim men approved by the cleric-packed Council of Guardians are eligible to run for president. The Canadian admin scratched the addition, claiming it was biographically irrelevant. His heavy hand prompted

"Barneygumble" -- an American mechanical engineer of conservative bent, according to his Wiki bio -- to sarcastically inquire, "How exactly does whitewashing the 'election' provide NPOV?"

That marked an escalation of sorts. The whitewash bomb had been dropped. It's a favorite Wiki weapon, but not the only one. Almost 20 years ago, Mike Godwin, the Wikipedia Foundation attorney, made a pithy observation about rhetorical excess on the Internet. Godwin's Law gained notoriety and eventually a page in Wikipedia. It asserts that "as a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches" 100 percent.

In early October 2005, Godwin's Law caught up to Ahmadinejad when Wikipedia poster "Osprey39" declared on the discussion page, "Ahmadinejad is a cross breed between Stalin and Hitler."

A couple of weeks later, Ahmadinejad threw gasoline on his own Wiki fire. The occasion was a speech at the World Without Zionism conference in Tehran, during which he quoted Ayatollah Khomeini, the bearded holy man who led the 1979 Iranian revolution and famously denounced the United States as the "Great Satan."

"As the Imam said," Ahmadinejad parroted, "Israel must be wiped off the map." That inflammatory statement was dissected worldwide. Were Ahmadinejad's words translated correctly? Was he talking literally about destroying Israel and/or Jews? And hadn't Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust? The discussion about Ahmadinejad's Wikipedia entry grew increasingly tense as assorted editors pressed to brand him an anti-Semite . . . or, conversely, to block those attempts.

Ahmadinejad "used a euphemism, transparent to everyone but toddlers and whitewashers . . . Calling for the destruction of the Jewish state is antisemitism," argued Wiki user "Humus sapiens."

"Incorrect, calling for the destruction of the Jewish people is antisemitism," countered "Irishpunktom."

"Under no circumstances should this discussion be deleted, let it remain as a testament to the stupidity of the vocal few and so Wikipedians know who the morons and anti-Semites are," replied someone with the handle "Battlefield."

Wikipedia has a two-track system for handling intractable disputes. Complaints about member misconduct go to arbitration; disagreements over article content qualify for mediation. (There are about a dozen volunteer arbitrators and mediators. Periodic Wiki elections are held to fill arbitration posts. Mediators are subject to approval by the mediation committee.) In either procedure, civility is usually an early casualty.

"A lot of people take what they do in this community very seriously," explains Mark Pellegrini, a doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware who refereed dozens of verbal fisticuffs when he served on the arbitration committee. "Is it surprising people get as emotional as they do? No!"