Last year's long New Yorker article about Wikipedia relied heavily on a Wikipedia contributor and administrator who goes by the handle of "Essjay." He had been recommended to the writer by Wikipedia management, and his bio described him as "a tenured professor of religion at a private university" with "a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law." Unfortunately, it turns out that Essjay is actually 24-year-old Ryan Jordan, a gent who has no advanced degrees and has never taught canon law or anything else.

Jordan has lately been hired by Wikia, the for-profit incarnation of Wikipedia, and continues to hold his Wikipedia administrative positions. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has no problem with any of this, saying he regarded the Essjay persona and bio as a "pseudonym" (he even appointed Essjay/Jordan to Wikipedia's arbitration committee last week). Wales has shown a casual attitude toward altering one's own biography in the past, but this seems a little much. Further revisions may make everything okay, however!