On 01/03/07, Stan Shebs stanshebs@earthlink.net wrote:
Erik Moeller wrote:
I agree. I find Ryan's behavior unacceptable and unconscionable.
I find myself looking on it as "foolish" rather than "unacceptable". There *are* stalkers and freaks who go after WP editors, and our attitude has generally been that if it's not happening on WP itself, it's not our problem. So I can understand why Essjay thought of the false identity idea as a way to protect himself, and I might well have done it myself when I was his age, not thinking through all the possible ramifications. And he's not violating any WP policy, right?
I was most amused to see Daniel Brandt ranting about it, considering that avoiding Brandt's blatant stalking and harassment of editors was one of the main reasons for Essjay doing it.
I'm not even sure we *could* write a policy requiring truthfulness on WP user pages. What if I said I worked at a job until 1993, and somebody out to get me calls the company and they report my last day as 4 Jan 1994? Should that be a bannable offense? Do we want to get into whether my intent was to misrepresent, or simply a faulty memory? In any case, somewhere we should counsel that deliberately providing false personal info on oneself is a Very Bad Idea, with all sorts of possible consequences, and that it's better to not say anything at all.
I occasionally have to remind myself that not everyone is me. Having tangled with the Church of Scientology (who have tried to find out where I work and get me fired more than once), I laugh off a pissant like Brandt. Others may not be so cavalier.
- d.