On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 9:50 PM, Anthony <wikimail(a)inbox.org> wrote:
On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 8:32 PM, Tony Sidaway
<tonysidaway(a)gmail.com> wrote:
And for the avoidance of doubt, I was referring
to Anthony's decision
to drag in a reference to pointless blog discussion thread about Jimmy
Wales' birth date.
I guess one person's "pointless blog discussion thread" is another
person's "proper source".
(
http://blog.jimmywales.com/2007/08/08/my-birthdate/)
Or, if you need the whole story:
In 2004 Wales says his birthdate is August 7
(
http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Board_of_Trustees&diff…)did=406).
In 2006 he posts a message to Talk:Jimmy Wales asking for changes to
be made to his article, stating among other things, that "My date of
birth is not August 8, 1966."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Jimmy_Wales&diff=6324691…)3223187).
Then, in 2007 he tells a reporter that the Wikipedia given date of
August 7 is incorrect, that "They [Wikipedia] got it from
(Encyclopedia) Britannica," "and Britannica got it wrong."
(
http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2007/07/on_wikipedia_and_its_found…)
He then posts to his blog that "for the first time the world has a
proper source", linking to that reporters blog.
(
http://blog.jimmywales.com/2007/08/08/my-birthdate/) Then, in 2010,
he posts to Talk:Jimmy Wales that "I was born on the 7th of August,
according to my mother. My legal paperwork all says 8th of August, due
to an error on my birth certificate."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&…)
The point being that trusting Jimmy Wales when it comes to seemingly
trivial matters is not a good idea, because Jimmy Wales lies about
seemingly trivial matters. And putting unsubstantiated statements
made by Jimmy Wales into a Wikipedia article, without properly
attributing them to him, is also a mistake, for the same reason.