In 2009 ones online presence isn't a matter to be taken lightly. The importance of ones on-line identity have being popping up all over the place over recent years often in a negative view. People have lost jobs or even have been charged with academic misconduct often because of items in the on-line world that were perceived to be benign by the negatively effected people.

For this reason, the recent case of Wikipedia defamation I was recently involved with was a matter of significant importance and was likely a heart racing event for the victim. The unfortunate part is that it was quite difficult to figure out what to do.

The first and most important step is to immediately remove the offending material out of the main article. This can be done by editing the content of the article by clicking the appropriate edit link in the article and updating the section.

wikipediaEditLink

Or by "undoing" the offending entry by clicking the "undo" link of the offending "Revision History" entry located on the history page .

wikipediaHistoryUndo

The "Revision History" section of the article which can be accessed via the top links of the article.

wikipediaHistoryLink

Once this is done the most important part is done. However, there will still be evidence of the defaming content in the history section. Unfortunately, but rightfully so, the "Revision Histories" cannot be easily removed. Even though the inability to easily remove history is an important aspect of Wikipedia it presents us with a problem in terms of riding the internet of the offensive material in question. Luckily there is a way. In order to remove/hide defaming material from the "Revision History" section one must make a "Request for Oversight". This can be done via email or IRC chat. All the information needed including the email address, IRC addresses and the rules regarding these requests can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requestsforoversight One should include the "diff" page URL that highlights the offending material. This "diff" page link can be found on the "Revisions History" page. The relevant  "diff" page  will have to be selected by clicking one of the "prev" links from a list of many.

wikipediaDiffPageLink

Doing so will give you a page such as this