`   {| class=``infobox`` style=``font-size: 90%; width: 25%;`` ! style=``background:#CCCCFF;`` | Timeline |- | * February 8, 2005: Essjay account registered. * 2005–2006: Essjay states on his Wikipedia user page that he teaches graduate theology, with doctorates in Theology and Canon Law. A public viewable version of this claim as dated 2006 is visible on the Internet Archive . (Please note that if you click on the above link and you have an IRC client installed on your computer, either your client will open, or, if you already have your IRC client open, new tabs/channels will be opened.) * July 31, 2006: The New Yorker publishes an article on Wikipedia, written by Stacy Schiff, which features an interview with Essjay. * January 2007: Essjay is hired by Wikia. * January 7, 2007: Essjay posts autobiographical details on his user page at Wikia, giving his supposed real name (Ryan Jordan), age, and previous employment history from age 19, and his positions within various Wikimedia Foundation projects. These details differ sharply from previous assertions on Essjay's Wikipedia user page about his academic and professional credentials. * January 2007: Daniel Brandt contacts the author of the article about discrepancies in Jordan's biography.Ian King,  * February 2, 2007: Another Wikipedia editor challenges Essjay on his talk page about the discrepancy and he responds with an explanation. * February 23, 2007: Jimmy Wales announces the appointment of Essjay to Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (ArbCom). Wales later asserts that the appointment was ``at the request of and unanimous support of`` ArbCom. * February 26, 2007: The New Yorker publishes the correction for its July 31 issue, which appears in its The Mail section of its print version. It is picked up by online sources within the next day. * March 3, 2007: Wales asks Jordan to resign his ``positions of trust``. Jordan promptly retires from Wikipedia altogether and later resigns from his position at Wikia. * March 5, 2007: Story covered by the The New York Times. * March 6, 2007: Jordan's hometown newspaper publishes an article casting doubts about his January 2007 claims on his Wikia userpage that he had worked for the United States Trustee Program and had been a Kentucky paralegal.Wolfson, Andrew. ``Wikipedia editor who posed as professor is Ky. dropout``, The Courier-Journal, March 6, 2007 * March 7, 2007: Story covered in an Associated Press article. * March 8, 2007: Story appears in two-minute segment on World News with Charles Gibson. * March 12, 2007: The New Yorker publishes a formal apology by Wales in its March 19 The Mail section..  |}  The Essjay controversy related to a prominent Wikipedia administrator and salaried Wikia employee, Essjay (later self-identified as Ryan Jordan). In February 2007, Essjay was found to have made false claims about his academic qualifications and professional experiences on his Wikipedia user page and to journalist Stacy Schiff during an interview for The New YorkerSchiff, Stacey. ``Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?``, The New Yorker, July 24, 2006.Cohen, Noam. ``After False Claim, Wikipedia to Check Degrees``, The New York Times, March 12, 2007.Finkelstein, Seth. ``Read me first``, The Guardian, March 8, 2007. and to have exploited his supposed qualifications as leverage in internal disputes over Wikipedia content. The issues highlighted within the controversy included his falsifying of a persona and qualifications, the impact of this deception on perceptions of Wikipedia (and its policies and credibility), and the quality of decisions made in his promotion, support, and employment.  Reactions to the disclosure were diverse, encompassing commentary and articles in the electronic, print, and broadcast media; the Wikipedia community researched Essjay's article edits to check for errors and debated proposals to improve the project's handling of personal identification. In his activities as an editor, Essjay had spent less time editing the content of articles and more time addressing vandalism and resolving editorial disputes.  Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales initially supported Essjay's use of a persona, saying, ``I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it.``Ratcliffe, Mitch (March 5, 2007), Wikipedia: Why does Essjay need to ``protect himself``?, Zdnet.com. Retrieved March 7, 2007. Later Wales withdrew his support and asked for Essjay's resignation from his positions with Wikipedia and Wikia.Cohen, Noam. ``Wikipedia ire turns against ex-editor``, International Herald Tribune, March 6, 2007 Wales stated that he withdrew his support when he learned ``that EssJay used his false credentials in content disputes`` on Wikipedia.  ==The New Yorker interview== Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist writing for The New Yorker, interviewed Essjay as a source for an article about Wikipedia (``Know It All``; July 31, 2006) after he was recommended to her by a member of the Wikimedia Foundation. According to The New Yorker, Essjay ``was willing to describe his work as a Wikipedia administrator but would not identify himself other than by confirming the biographical details that appeared on his user page.``   During the interview, Jordan told The New Yorker and had previously stated on his Wikipedia user page that he held doctoral degrees in theology and canon law and worked as a tenured professor at a private university. It was later discovered that he was 24 years old and had dropped out of community college with no qualifications.  The New Yorker published a correction in February 2007, which brought the issue to broader public attention.  The article said that Essjay spent some 14 hours or more a day on Wikipedia but was car