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Someone at Microsoft Has Been Editing the Wikipedia Article on the Xbox 360 Hardware Problems

Tonight I edited the Wikipedia article Xbox 360 technical problems to clarify some points about my interviews on the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death. I suspect the cacophony that is Wikipedia will probably take issue with this since I was actually involved and did original research and the hive minds at Wikipedia frowns on stuff like that. But it ends up I am not the only one to edit that article.

I ran the article through the Wikipedia Scanner and I found a user at Microsoft in Redmond has been making edits to the article over time.

I mean come on guys. If your going to edit Wikipedia for PR purposes at least don't do it from a computer that is going to register as a Microsoft IP. If there are anyone at Microsoft PR reading this tell the user at the IP "131.107.0.73" that they need to be a little more discrete about their removal and alteration of a heavily controversial article such as "Xbox 360 technical problems". The Wikipedia user edited the article at work on a Microsoft.com network on 2007-08-03 and 2007-08-02. They have also made several edits on a variety of articles so I doubt that this user is a press relations agent. I don't think it's a deliberate conspiracy but the appearance of a conflict of interest is there.

Basically if your at work I would suggest staying the heck away from articles about problems with products that your company makes especially if your going to allege that there were "weasel words" in the article that conflict with the official PR line from your employer.

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Icon of JakeJake at March 6, 2008  Nerd

Comments

Yeah... They should not hide the truth from the public. I am working for Microsoft at TX and we are always getting calls regarding the Three Red of Lights.

Posted by: Ayshin07 at March 10, 2008 7:39 AM

all i can say is fuck you microsoft... with your overrated everything from vista to 360 to that rediculous fucking zune go to hell

Posted by: rick at March 10, 2008 8:50 AM

Ummmm,
Why is this even news? Did you even look at the edits that the lowly Microsoft employee was making? Not a single thing was a major change to the article, they were all simple grammar fixes.
There's nothing to see here, no big conspiracy and definitely nothing to get upset about.

Posted by: Kushan at March 10, 2008 8:55 AM

You work, there?
What a coincidence, me too. The difference is that I truthfully know they don't have that much calls.

Posted by: john232 at March 10, 2008 8:59 AM

Ofcourse if found out the guy will be bashed by MS he may be MS employee but just think of second Wikipedia is open source and you can yourself go and edit thing in there if you want even without having a account in Wikipedia.
So if they really wanted to edit they could have done at their home or better at a cybercafe so no one could have caught them. The articles might mean that some MS employee are becoming fanboys.
Anyways still people will find nuisance and leave the real part.

Posted by: Richdad at March 10, 2008 10:17 AM

Kushan is right. The edits made to the xbox 360 section are for grammar only. There are no sweeping changes made.

Posted by: Simon at March 10, 2008 11:55 AM

ban Microsoft IP's on wiki!

Posted by: jouda at March 10, 2008 12:07 PM

wow i work there too!!!! Simply amazing!!!!

Posted by: brendan at March 10, 2008 2:00 PM

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