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Somebody keeps trying to slice up the Upper Crust entry on Wikipedia
By adamg on Sat, 02/16/2013 - 3:44pm
Bit of an editing war going on on the people's encyclopedia about the local once-and-future pizza chain: The current owners of the name keep trying to delete references to past Labor Department investigations into the chain's treatment of immigrant workers and Wikipedians keep putting them back in.
Here's the entire Upper Crust entry you would have seen at 5:39 p.m. yesterday, after somebody claiming to be from the current ownership was done editing:
The Upper Crust Pizzeria is a Boston, United States based chain of pizzeria restaurants. Founded by Jordan Tobins, the first location opened in Beacon Hill in 2001. It has won local accolades such as "Best Gourmet Pizza" (Boston magazine) and "Boston's Best Pizza". (The Improper Bostonian) By May 2009, the chain had grown to 14 locations and 17 by July 2010. In April 2011 the Upper Crust opened its 21st location, and its first outside of New England, in Washington, D.C. and announced plans to open additional restaurants in the DC area over the next five years.
In 2012, the company went through a reorganization, and the company now plans to expand the brand nationally over the next several years.
Whoever made the changes wrote in the "history" area of the page:
Took out libelous material as the company is under new ownership. ... For questions, please contact UC Acquistion Co LLC's attorney, Christopher Panos. This page is being monitored for libel, and the new ownership will take appropriate steps to address those contributing to libeling the new company ownership.
Exactly three minutes later, a Wikipedian restored the prior entry, which had a long section about "Department of Labor findings and subsequent lawsuits and investigations," along with a link to a Wikipedia page about working through the site's dispute-resolution process before threatening a lawsuit.
Whoever took out all the lawsuit stuff returned about 50 minutes later and again deleted all the lawsuit stuff. The Wikipedian put it back. This went on for a couple of hours. The deleter had his or her IP address blocked from Wikipedia editing for 24 hours for violating a rule against repeatedly "reverting" the work of other editors.
More Wikipedians poured in overnight to discuss the whole thing, including whether to include material from a Globe article that one editor could not find - but which another editor promptly did. As of a few minutes ago, the Upper Crust entry still has a section on the Department of Labor and the lawsuits.
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Comments
Until the entry is full of
Until the entry is full of 'in popular culture' references to anime characters, graphic novels, obscure bands and video games, it's not a real Wikipedia page.
Huh? What color is the internet on your planet?
I know you are all about representin' for the curmudgeonly class, and for sure Wikipedia isn't as tightly edited as the Encyclopedia Britannica - but I'm wondering if you've ever actually read it if you think the typical entries are filled with pop culture refs?
Secondary source
At best.
I adore Wikipedia. Use it at least weekly. Have found it a useful resource professionally. Have never mistaken it for a primary, or reliable-on-its-own, source. The ability for anyone to contribute to Wikipedia makes it an amazing source for arcana, but the ability to edit it given to everyone makes it automatically a source requiring skepticism and additional confirmation. When using it for research a look through the editing logs is both an absolute must as well as being educational. Being aware of this does not make one "curmudgeonly", but rather an educated researcher.
re: secondary source
You may want to check Wikipedia for the meaning of the terms "primary source" and "secondary source". Those words to not mean what you think they mean. Wikipedia, by the way, is technically a tertiary source.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_source
Yes, by all means Atty Panos..
Let's keep the rest of the world from knowing what every man woman and child in the Greater Boston area knows: Jordan Tobins and his two ex-partners were, are, and always will be scumbags.
If Upper Crust owners are going to use Wikipedia
They should look up "suicide" instead of editing the Upper Crust page.
Reputation
Why don't the current owners focus on improving their image, instead of attacking current criticism?
Seriously
It's time to get over it and just make pizza.
Interesting timing. I noticed
Interesting timing. I noticed people working inside the South End Upper Crust over the last two days, I wasn't sure if they were moving out or what. I searched for UC Aquisitions and found this Globe article:
Boston Globe: Lawyer files objection to Upper Crust bidder that allegedly has ties to founder of bankrupt pizza chain
The South End store is one of 4 that was purchased by this group. A lawyer who was involved in the employee lawsuit claims that Tobins has ties to this group.
From the article:
"A lawyer for UC Acquisition, Christopher J. Panos, insisted Tobins is not a part of the bid, and that the offer was made “in good faith.” However another executive involved in the proposed purchase acknowledged that Tobins may be engaged as a consultant or employee of UC Acquisition."
They need to shovel
If they are working there, then they need to shovel their sidewalks better, both on Tremont and W. Newton.
It has come to my attention
that pretty much all the 'high class' and 'hip' areas of town leave much to be desired in the sidewalk shoveling department. It would seem the prevailing attitude in these neighborhoods is they're too good to pick up a shovel and clear snow and ice off their sidewalks. Maybe they're waiting for the sidewalk fairy or some central Americans to come along and do it.
Central Americans FTW!
I grew up in an upper-middle class town where everyone hired South American day laborers to do most of their yardwork (lawnmowing, hedge clipping, snow shoveling, gutter cleaning, etc.)
If you did your own yardwork (my family tended to do all they physically could), the neighbors would drive by slowly and stare, then make comments to you after about how sad it was you couldn't afford to pay someone to (hang your Christmas lights, clip your shrubs.) If the day laborers didn't come around after snowstorms, people just would shovel the bare minimum to get their car out of their driveway and wait for it to melt. White people don't DO manual labor.
Those snobs will be the first to die in the zombie apocalypse.
The only South Enders hiring
The only South Enders hiring South Americans were the Upper Crust
And yes, the sidewalks in the neighborhood have been terrible.
I'm white,do maual labor around the house
and did it for $ as a teenager and young adult during the summer. I particularly remember doing yard-work on a hot summer day in Chestnut Hill, while a kid my age watched me from his air conditioned bedroom window, lying on his bed with his headphones on. When the job was completed, the woman homeowner haggled over the price we had already agreed to.
RICH / upper middle class people of all races generally don't do yard-work like cutting grass and shoveling snow. That's OK I suppose, this means at least people who need the $ can get some work, but many times they don't even hire laborers or landscapers and just neglect their property and sidewalks.
Maybe Joe Kennedy
could provide Venezuelans to shovel? Chavez has thrown them under the bus for everything else.