On 3/1/07, Stan Shebs stanshebs@earthlink.net wrote:
My hypothesis is that it depends on whether the information influences other people in course of our work.
That's a good way of framing it. I'm sure some obsessive or extremely curious person will go and pick through all of Essjay's interactions on talk pages on Catholic-related articles, and edits there, looking for evidence of negative effect.
But basically what seems to be upsetting people most is not that Essjay established the persona, but that he stayed in character when approached by the press.
Really, it's the New Yorker that should be embarassed here; they didn't fact check the identity of someone they only knew online. Lots of people make that mistake, once.