There was an interesting series of edits and counter-edits on Governor Shumlin’s Wikipedia page in late June. The vast majority of the page is straightforward; the editorial battle concerned the infamous Jeremy Dodge land deal. Here’s what the WikiPage says about it — as of right now, early afternoon, July 2:

In 2013 the Governor was widely castigated for a real estate transaction in which he took unfair advantage of a poor, retarded neighbor. The neighbor was the owner of a house on 16 acres of land adjacent to the Governor’s property. The neighbor’s property was assessed at $233,000. The neighbor owed $18,000 in back taxes and was told that he would lose the property in a tax sale. The Governor reportedly bought the property from the neighbor for $58,000. The neighbor is trying to void the transaction.

I pause briefly to note the inartful, offensive use of “retarded.” Not to mention inaccurate; Jeremy Dodge is a troubled soul, but “retarded”? Don’t think so.

This passage (or some version thereof) triggered a flurry of activity on Shumlin’s WikiPage. Its author, identified as “Genedolan,” originally posted the passage on June 20. It was the first time “Genedolan” had ever edited a Wikipedia page. (If anyone knows who that is, feel free to say so in the Comments.) That post also included a second paragraph that ended with:

The transaction was legal but was clearly unethical bullying by the most powerful individual in the state.

Three days later, that part of Genedolan’s post was removed by a user at IP address 76.200.213.197, located in Wallingford, Connecticut. Ol’ number 76 had never before edited a Wikipedia entry, as far as I can tell.  

25 minutes after that, Genedolan struck back, adding a less pejorative close:

Shumlin offered him $58,000 and the neighbor took the offer. Later he regretted the decision, especially because he made the transaction without benefit of a lawyer.

The following day (June 24), a user named “Moe Epsilon” deleted those last two sentences. “Moe” is a frequent Wikipedia editor whose real name is David Stevenson. He apparently removed the passage using a Wikipedia software tool for detecting “vandalism.”

Since then, Genedolan’s little gem has gone unchanged. Which surprises me a little; I’d think someone on the Shumlin team would be periodically monitoring his WikiPage and removing politically harmful material.

More surprising to me: all these back-and-forth edits, and somehow “retarded” survived them all. Strange.