{"id":1699,"date":"2023-05-04T18:11:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T18:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/the-openwaterpedia-investigation-why-wowsa-went-dark-2\/"},"modified":"2024-11-19T18:23:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:23:58","slug":"the-openwaterpedia-investigation-why-wowsa-went-dark-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/the-openwaterpedia-investigation-why-wowsa-went-dark-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Openwaterpedia Investigation: Why WOWSA Went Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In February, I found conclusive evidence that WOWSA co-owner Steven Munatones vandalized Openwaterpedia, one of the organization\u2019s sites, to make Diana Nyad\u2019s best-swimmer-of-the-1970s fantasy appear legitimate. Shortly after I wrote about that evidence<\/a>, the organization announced they\u2019d look into it:<\/p>\n

WOWSA takes these allegations seriously and has initiated an investigation to determine the veracity of these claims. To the extent any of these allegations are found to be true, appropriate action will be taken. (\u201cAn Update About Openwaterpedia,\u201d<\/a> 4 Mar 2023)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was two months ago. WOWSA hasn\u2019t posted a word about it since, nor have they taken any public action, appropriate or otherwise.<\/p>\n

(NOTE:<\/strong> Minutes before I published this post, WOWSA uploaded, \u201cProgress Through Change: WOWSA Restructuring.\u201d<\/a> Though it doesn\u2019t directly address the Openwaterpedia investigation, I detect investigation-related activity between the lines.)\u00a0<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

If WOWSA has access to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of Openwaterpedia editors, which I\u2019m almost certain they do, the organization likely finished its investigation soon after it began. IP addresses would have pinpointed the vandal\u2019s computer and the person operating it.<\/p>\n

The investigation could have come to only three conclusions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Munatones had nothing to do with the vandalism.<\/li>\n
  2. The results were inconclusive.<\/li>\n
  3. Munatones vandalized Openwaterpedia.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If it was one or two, WOWSA would have said so by now. So, the organization\u2019s silence acknowledges that Munatones vandalized Openwaterpedia. I\u2019ll take a not-so-wild guess that WOWSA has spent most of the last two months wondering what to do about that.<\/p>\n

    ><((\u0317(\u0302(\u00b0>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\u00b0))\u0302)\u0316)><<\/p>\n

    Munatones didn\u2019t just engage in vandalism. He also lied about that vandalism early and often. He began by at least April 16, 2019. That\u2019s when swimmer Helen Beveridge<\/a> emailed him after noticing damage to her Openwaterpedia entry. \u201cPlease can you tell me,\u201d she asked, \u201cwhy user Jolyn12 would want to make numerous malicious erroneous changes to the information on my Openwaterpedia page?\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cI do not know who Jolyn12 is,\u201d Steven responded a few hours later, \u201cand why they want to make changes. It is weird and I blocked this anonymous user. I do not understand when people like this want to hurt publicly available information that is on Openwaterpedia.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In fact, he may be the only one who does<\/em> understand.<\/p>\n

    Munatones waited until July to acknowledge the vandalism publicly. He did so in \u201cShameful, Simply And Sadly Shameful\u201d<\/a> (21 Jul 2019), a blog post that sounds as forced and insincere as his message to Beveridge. Munatones begins with a tribute to Openwaterpedia that takes up almost half the article. Further on, he repeats the lie he told in April: \u201cWe have no idea why someone would do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Eventually, Steven made a show of mending a handful of pages, but even those remained partly damaged. He let Ned Denison, director of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF), do most of the repair work. While Denison fixed hundreds of pages, Munatones created and edited entries for people only tangentially involved with the sport. For instance,<\/p>\n