On 3/1/07, Stan Shebs <stanshebs(a)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.
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--jpgordon ∇∆∇∆