On Jun 27, 2007, at 11:05 AM, The Mangoe wrote:
If we think that Wikipedia is important, then
Essjay's sins are
important. Either it will be an important crisis that we got past, or
it will be the first major outbreak of a problem we never learned to
deal with. Either way, people ten years from now who write about
Wikipedia are going to mention the incident.
I'm skeptical. Why don't we wait ten years and add the article if
you're right?
Seriously. We're the sixth Google hit on Essjay's real name, and the
first one related to him. For all his errors, he was a good member of
the community. He wrote good articles, and was generally a fair, nice
guy. He made a mistake not on Wikipedia but in talking to a reporter.
And despite his false credentials, he also didn't fuck those articles
up with nonsense.
Nor did he set up a vendetta site after be was found out. If the
article had been left alone it would likely have quicly faded into
obscurity. The more we argue about the article, the more it remains in
the public eye.
Ec