Wikipedia still sucks

I just happened on the "credit counseling" entry on Wikipedia for the first time in over six months. I created that page initially, and I stand behind my first version as the only objective and accurate entry on the subject. It didn't take long for bankruptcy lawyers to find the page and start injecting their opinions, then collection agents, BAPCPA opponents, etc. I gave up pretty soon on the project.

Well, it just kept getting worse after I left it alone. The page as it is supplies a completely one-sided, incorrect, and misleading take on credit counseling, with virtually every sentence offering an unsupported attack on the subject. My favorite recent act of stupidity on that page is this addition, to the "history of credit counseling":

NFCC was really started as a collection agency for Sears and J.C. Penney, along with other major creditors, to help recover money lost to bankruptcy.

This is an encyclopedia?

Not only is it a terrible sentence, but it gets things precisely wrong. It represents things exactly in reverse of the intent of the NFCC. The NFCC was the creditors' way of "giving back" and trying to improve their image. Sure they stand to recover funds owed to them, but they voluntarily funded a nationwide network of counseling services to help people avoid bankruptcy. If they just wanted collection agencies, they could have dispensed with the non-profit counseling and just hired collectors.

And hold your fire on accusing me of shilling. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I think the creditors are evil and I criticize the NFCC all the time; I hate the way it's currently being run. But I think an encyclopedic entry on the history of the organization can be objective and informative without the author venting his/her biases and turning the thing into a useless pack of lies.

I've long since stopped relying on Wikipedia for anything, but my revulsion at this failed experiment is totally reaffirmed.

Comments

[Brian Blackwell]

I previously worked in the credit industry and agree with most everything you say about it.