Essjay controversy

The Essjay controversy was an incident in which Ryan Jordan, a Wikipedia editor who went by the username "Essjay", falsely presented himself as a university professor of religion from 2005 to 2007, during which time he was elected to top positions of trust by the community, including administrator and arbitrator. In July 2006, The New Yorker published an article about "Essjay", and mentioned that he was a university professor of religion. The New Yorker later acknowledged that they did not know his real name.

The controversy came to involve Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales who, after initially defending Jordan, eventually asked for his resignation in March 2007. Jordan was eventually shown to have lied about his credentials, which he occasionally used as an argument to gain an upper hand in some discussions. The incident led to a critique of anonymity on Wikipedia, and a distrust of self-professed, anonymous experts among the Wikipedia community.