Wikipedia: Vanity publishing for minor slebs

I see that Wikipedia has put up a health warning on Nicholas Coleridge's self-authored vanity entry. And now a learned reader writes ...

Hello Madame,

I enjoyed your piece on Nicholas Coleridge writing his own Wikipedia entry but actually it's hard to find a minor celeb, or a person who's so determined to become a minor celeb, who hasn't.

Have you seen:
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ click here
...whereby you can look to see who at the Daily Mail, Telegraph, etc is writing their own entries.

Check out Christopher Hitchens' version of himself here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Clockback click here

I checked them out a few weeks ago so can't quite remember now, but Tristram Hunt's and Andrew Rawnsley's profiles had been boosted by someone on the Guardian's server, Daniel Hannan by someone on the Telegraph's server etc etc.

And, here rather sweetly, you can see how James Purnell's girlfriend, Lucy Walker, not only wrote her own entry but amended his to take the nasty bits out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/ClareCat click here

Keep up the good work.

Miss Elvira

Arcati + Wikipedia + VLSmithBook = Grudge?

The Madame Arcati entry on Wikipedia appears to have been written by two journalists known as VLSmithBook. I suspect they have used Arcati to draw attention to a purported book project. They explain: "In autumn 2006 we were commissioned by a UK publisher to write a celebration of the life and work of [sic] Victor Lewis Smith (provisionally entitled The Private Life of [sic] Victor Lewis Smith)." I thought his surname was hyphenated. Other contributors object to this self-promotion and even suggest that the two journalists may bear a grudge against Lewis-Smith (recently departed scabrous TV critic of the Evening Standard, and a Private Eye contributor, among other things).

VLSmithBook write: "We've added a page on Madame Arcati as she seems important." This is a good call. But given that this is the free-for-all of Wikipedia, I am sure not one likely to go unchallenged.

Madame Arcati on Wikipedia

Someone has gone to the bother of writing a short piece about the Madame Arcati blog on Wikipedia. It could have been more exciting - I have broken quite a few stories, y'know - but I suppose we all start out on a spermatazoan dream. [click here]