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A long-running spat between the Church of Scientology and Wikipedia has been resolved after a committee of 11 Wikipedia arbiters voted to ban accounts used by Scientologists from being allowed to edit the online encyclopaedia.
Image: Wikipedia.
The arbiters voted 10-0 with one abstention to ban multiple addresses believed to be used by members of the church as well as those used by opponents of Scientology.
The editing conflict between the two sides resembled a "battlefield," the committee said.
"Each side wishes the articles within this topic to reflect their point of view and have resorted to battlefield editing tactics, with edits being abruptly reverted without any attempt to incorporate what is good, to maintain their preferred status quo," it said in a statement.
"The worst casualties have been biographies of living people, where attempts have been repeatedly made to slant the article either towards or against the subject, depending on the point of view of the contributing editor," the statement continued.
The decision, the longest-running mediation in Wikipedia history, also gives Wikipedia administrators tighter control over the editing of entries.
One of the main accusations brought against members of the Church of Scientology and its critics was that both sides were in an ideological struggle and resorted to continually editing pages with opinionated and poorly sourced material to reflect their respective points of view.
According to a report on The Register, account holders representing both sides were using multiple accounts in an effort to evade detection.
A Church of Scientology spokesperson claimed the church welcomed the online encyclopaedia's decision.
"Do Scientologists care what has been posted on Wikipedia? Of course," said Karin Pouw. "Some of it has been very hateful and erroneous. We hope all this will result in more accurate and useful articles on Wikipedia."
The Wikipedia ruling is the latest in a series of ideological battles between the church and an activist group known as 'Anonymous' which has challenged the group's teachings and refers to it as a misleading cult.
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