Wikipedia
“ | I ONLY WISH TO TELL THE TRUTH AND SPREAD IT ON THE INTERNET. | ” |
Chris |
On 1 May 2009, for reasons that only GodJesus knows, Christian Weston Chandler registered on Wikipedia as ChrisChanSonichu. He did this almost solely to create a user page that is to record one of the most in-depth autobiographical accounts of his life.[1]
A user page is not a proper article, and therefore not subject to the same strict guidelines as an article, but as biographical and personal an article as Chris's was a flagrant violation of Wikipedia policy. The Wikipedia community tends to frown on use of the user pages as web space;[2] the user pages should usually be reserved for purposes somehow related to the Wikipedia project, and user pages for users who don't contribute anything to the articles frequently get deleted. Chris, of course, made it abundantly clear that he's not interested in actually editing the project
Chris's user page was deleted by a Wikipedia administrator, who believed it to be the work of a troll. Sadly, the details show that this was the real deal.
The only other thing Chris did was add his name to the article on high-functioning autism, under the list of "famous individuals that may have had many different variations of autism along with HFA."[3][4] The kicker is that he put himself right next to Michelangelo. Again.
To date, the "Christian Weston Chandler" article on Wikipedia has been created by trolls four times and deleted each time: 15 February, 26 March, 28 April and 3 May 2009.[5] It has consequently been "salted" or protected so that it cannot be re-created under that title. Chris's account was also blocked indefinitely; even though it was owned by Chris himself, and not a troll (as the admin believed), he violated many rules on it anyway. The page on Ruckersville, Virginia is also locked to non-autoconfirmed users to prevent people from adding mentions of Chris.
To this day, discussions still regularly appear on Wikipedia debating over whether Chris is notable enough to be included on Wikipedia, with users ranging from weens, to fans, to even normal Wikipedians. So far, no such page has been created.
May 2009 drama
In a video on 3 May, Chris makes a case for his worthiness and rallies his True and Honest fans to restore his biography. He also posted the following on his Wikipedia discussion page:
Dear Sir/Madam,
LOOK, I do not have the appropriate calm state of mind to make time to READ those numerous upon numerous small-print details, much less memorize them. I have had a LOT of SLANDEROUS TWISTS OF MY OWN WORDS done unto me in the past SOO MUCH, it is HARDEST for me to get a job in a place that does background checks, only to find that cursed E.D. Page those EVIL TROLLS created against me at the TOP of the list. I started my OWN Wikipedia page to hopefully counter that and better the people's General Understand of the Noble Gentleman I truly am. I SPENT HOURS, recalling MEMORY after MEMORY to type up the HONEST-TO-GOD TRUTH. I DO NOT CARE about the erroneous listings or false information listed on other pages; I ONLY WISH TO TELL THE TRUTH AND SPREAD IT ON THE INTERNET. Plus, I have Vanessa Anne Hudgens as an honest, very close Gal-Pal, and you know very well how powerful she is as a STAR. I have created a video on YouTube respectfully asking to leave my Wikipedia ALONE with MY HONEST TRUTH from MY OWN High-Functioning Autistic Head; my LOYAL FANBASE will be sending you letters. UNDO YOUR DELETION, PLEASE. --Christian Weston Chandler (talk) 01:25, 4 May 2009 (UTC) |
In short, Chris doesn't give a shit about contributing to Wikipedia, only wanting free PR.
Mainspace articles involving Chris
On 13 August 2010, a new article on Mr. Chandler was created under the name Christian W. Chandler. The article consisted of the following:
Christian Weston Chandler (born Christopher Weston Chandler on 24 February 1982) is an illustrator from Charlottesville, Virginia. He is known mainly as the creator of Sonichu, a fan fiction comic based off the Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon franchise. He was also featured in the May 2004 issue of Nintendo Power for his documentary, the April 2005 issue of Nintendo Power, and the community college newspaper for Piedmont Virginia Community College.
Christian Weston Chandler's birth name was, in fact, Christopher. It took a chance encounter with Leonard Bearstein in Regency Square Mall for his current name to be bestowed upon him. Aged 11 at the time, Chris and his father were in the mall for holiday shopping when Chris came across Leonard and engaged him in conversation. The man behind the microphone, mishearing the name "Christopher", addressed the young boy as Christian, a name that struck a chord within the young Chandler's heart. All it took was one legal name change for Christian to assume the identity he carries with him to this day. He acknowledges jokingly that it was as if God spoke through the bear to give him the name he always wanted. |
The article used Chris's two Nintendo Power appearances, as well as the writeup in the PVCC Forum and the IT TOOK A TALKING BEAR TO GIVE THE NAME A YOUNG BOY LOVES as references. Only a day later, this article was also nominated for deletion; it got deleted less than an hour-and-a-half later after the author requested it be deleted.[6] Further inspection showed that the article creator was a sockpuppet of a user who had previously been banned from Wikipedia.
On 21 April 2016, an article was created under the title Sonichu (Comic) and soon nominated for deletion; the article without the (Comic) qualifier was already protected from creation. It read, as of 22 April 2016:
Sonichu is the comic created by Christian Weston Chandler, which combines the Pokémon, Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog. THe comics contain several references to Chris's real life and he has also created numerous custom Pokemon cards featuring Sonichu and other characters from the series. Sonichu is a recolor of Sonic the Hedgehog in Pikachu yellow, and he travels with a human companion named Chris, who is based on the real-life author. You can see many of these cards as well as a more detailed biography of the character at this link: http://sonichu.com/cwcki/Sonichu_(character) |
Other Wikipedia edits of note
In January and February 2010, Megan Schroeder (or a person pretending to be her) removed references to Chris from the Wikipedia articles on Manchester High School and Cole Smithey.[7] Her edit summaries both ended with "that was either put there by vandals or by Christian under the assumption he is important enough to be mentioned (he is mentally handicapped)." Less than a day later, her edit summaries were struck out.
The articles' histories indicate that both mentions of Chris were added by anonymous users who most likely are not Chris, as the genuine article would have been far more verbose and rambling. One editor cited this very wiki as a reference, running afoul of Wikipedia's policy on reliable sources. As our own Wwwwolf put it, "Sorry, but Chris can't be mentioned here either unless there are reliable sources for this. That means actual publications. Also see Biographies of Living Persons on why sourcing stuff in biographies is such a big deal. This is not CWCki or ED; please remember Wikipedia's rules." Skimming through the talk page and edit history of any article even remotely connected with Chris reveals large amounts of petty vandalism from weens.[8] This has led Wikipedia to set their edit filter to prevent users from making edits with Chris related phrases.[9]
On 22 February 2010, the article on Cole Smithey was placed up for deletion.[10] The first two votes in the discussion both called for deletion of the article, and both made explicit mention of Chris; the second one read, "Strong delete unless somebody wishes to write a sourced, neutral article about him. Otherwise, this serves as cannon fodder for the ChrisChan Sonichu fanatics over at Encyclopedia Dramatica." The article was deleted on 1 March.
It should also be noted that an account with the name Cole Smithey edited the Wikipedia article on Cole, and spammed film articles with links to his reviews. Whether or not this is the real Cole (who is known to be rather egotistical) remains to be seen.
On 26 January 2017, a Spanish-language article about Chris was added to the Spanish Wikipedia. It can currently be seen at wikipedia:es:Christian Weston Chandler and is quoted below:
Christian Weston Chandler (Charlottesville, Virginia, 24 de febrero de 1982) es un vlogger de YouTube y creador del webcómic Sonichu. En 2007 Christian se convirtió en objetivo de troleo por parte de Encyclopædia Dramatica y 4chan debido a pobre calidad de su trabajo, su comportamiento inusual y sus reacciones extremas a la hostilidad. Christian fue arrestado en el 2014 después intentar remover la carátula del juego Sonic Boom en GameStop y atacar a un empleado antes de salir forzosamente. |
Translation:
Christian Weston Chandler (Charlottesville, Virginia, 24 February, 1982) is a YouTube vlogger and creator of the webcomic Sonichu. In 2007 Christian became a target of trolling by Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan due to the poor quality of his work, his unusual behavior, and his extreme reactions to hostility. Christian was arrested in 2014 after trying to remove the cases from the game Sonic Boom at GameStop and attacking an employee before leaving forcibly. |
It uses the Know Your Meme page about Chris, as well as a site reporting on his 26 December 2014 arrest, as sources. An archive copy is linked here. The page was deleted on December 3, 2017.[11]
Sources
- ↑ User talk:ChrisChanSonichu, Wikipedia
- ↑ Wikipedia:User pages#Excessive unrelated content
- ↑ User contributions for ChrisChanSonichu, Wikipedia
- ↑ High-functioning autism, Wikipedia
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Christian_Weston_Chandler
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Christian_W._Chandler
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Meganshroeder
- ↑ Articles infected with Chris related vandalism include Sean Marshall, Ruckersville, Charlottesville and Jimmy Hill, among others.
- ↑ For more info see the filter log of filter 257 - Sonichu and other repeat vandalism. The phrases "Christian Weston Chandler" and "Sonichu" are disallowed by this filter.
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Cole_Smithey
- ↑ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consultas_de_borrado/Christian_Weston_Chandler
See also
- User:ChrisChanSonichu profile, a facsimile of the deleted Wikipedia userpage
- A mirror of his talk page in case it gets deleted from Wikipedia too
External links
- Chris's edits
- Chris's talk page before it got locked, complete with gherkins
- Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard, where admins talked about Chris
- User talk:slakr, where an admin called us special for taking "pot shots at some poor guy suffering from apparent mental disability"