Wikipedia rules!

For those of you who are gay and don't follow college football this may not make a lot of sense to you, but as the communal editing practices of Wikipedia has been a subject of discussion previously here at Scienticians Gone Maniacal, I thought I'd toss this out with an explanation. One of the components of the BCS system used to rank college football teams for the purpose of determining who will play in the Nat'l Championship game is the Harris Interactive Poll, voted on by a number of people of varying relationships to college football, ranging from former coaches and players to avid viewers. With Ohio State being the lone undefeated team from a major conference and solidly ranked first, the second spot was going to either Michigan or Florida, depending on the final voting Sunday. In order to boost Florida's position in the Harris Interactive Poll, and therefore the BCS standings, voter Jim Walden ranked Florida first (12-1, lucky the SEC sucked this year) ahead of Ohio State (12-0, will kill Florida and pee on their corpses), being the only voter in the three major polls (AP, Coaches, Harris) to give Florida a first-place vote.

Walden, being a former head coach at Washington State and Iowa State, has just enough notability to warrant a Wikipedia entry, created in September of 2006 and finalized in November:

"Jim Walden (born ca. 1938 in Aberdeen, Mississippi) was the head football coach at Washington State University from 1978 to 1986. During his tenure there, he compiled a 44-52-4 record. At Washington State, he coached the 1981 team to the school's first bowl appearance in 51 years. At one point he had also won three of the last five Apple Cups against the University of Washington. In 1981, he also earned the title of Pac Ten Coach of the Year. He also served as the head coach at Iowa State University where he compiled a 28-57-3 record. Since retiring from Iowa State, Walden served as a radio color commentator, first for the Iowa Barnstormers of Arena Football and later for Washington State football. He still hosts a Sunday evening radio show in Iowa on WHO called 'Two Guys Named Jim.'"

Within hours of national recognition for his decision to rank Florida ahead of Ohio State, people with far more free time on their hands than I have (which is saying a lot) went to work on Walden's Wikipedia entry. An anonymous contributor added this:

"He must die for picking Florida 1st.

Kill him Kill Him Kill Him"

Two minutes later, the vandalism was removed. Four minutes after the correction, this appeared:

"Somehow, this idiot thought it was a good idea to vote a 1 loss Florida team over an undefeated Ohio State team in an attempt to get Flordia into the national championship game. The old Southern coot got his wish, as he screwed over Michigan."

Over the next 20 hours, over 100 edits and revisions would occur before the entry was finally locked. Some highlights:

"Being born in Mississippi accounts for him being retarded." Truly.

"Jim Walden is actually an insane old coot, possibly even older and cootier than Ted Stevens." Cootier? Awesome.

He still hosts a Sunday evening radio show in Iowa on WHO called "Two Guys Named Jim," or what some may call "One Guy Named Jim and One Guy Named Urban Meyer's Bitch!" An alternate title was suggested as "Two Guys Named Mo and Ron."

"Jim Walden is a good man with a mind for rational thought. He realizes that the SEC is tougher than the Little-10. Michigan fans are like double-pronged dildos." I don't know how Michigan fans are like double-pronged dildos. I'm not going to try to figure it out, either.

Mr. Walden most likely sits down to go number one and two. In fact, when arranging his final Harris poll ballot, Mr/s Walden inexplicably tucked his genitals between his legs as if to say, "Hey, look at me, now my man boobs don't look so out of place! Did I mention I hate Michigan?" That's...fucked up.

You can see the entire history here, although most of the other edits are just reposting the same changes which were quickly reverted to the original entry.