#Wikipedia #CultureWar
"Why Editing Wikipedia Is Becoming More Dangerous
An armed man at a conference for the website’s volunteers is just the latest reminder: Editing the internet’s encyclopedia has never been riskier.
When a man suddenly stormed the stage during the keynote speech at last weekend’s Wikipedia conference in New York, the audience of well over 100 volunteer Wikipedia editors was confused. Some thought the man was protesting the website’s nonprofit parent organization because the disruption came in the middle of remarks by Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander. Others wondered if this might be a bizarre but potentially harmless display of performance art.
'We have so many haters on Wikipedia,' Molly Stark Dean, a Wikipedian and conference organizer who was sitting in the front row, told Slate. 'I was like, Which corner of the internet is this guy from?'
Then they saw his gun.
(. . .)
The man waved the gun—at his head, at the ceiling—until a man sporting a blue 'Wikipedia Editor' baseball cap and a prominent beard wrapped him in a bear hug from behind. A second volunteer rushed the stage, grabbing the man’s arm and prying the weapon from his fingers. A senior law enforcement official later confirmed that the gun was loaded.
Richard Knipel and Andrew Lih, the two men who averted the potential bloodshed, weren’t cops or professional security guards. Until Friday, they were known for their many volunteer contributions to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, where they edit as users Pharos and Fuzheado, respectively."
https://slate.com/technology/2025/10/wikipedia-editors-conference-gunman-culture-war.html