NO information keeps the crazies away just as well or better. That's the part of this whole thing I just don't get. WHY in the name of all that is holy (or the lack therof) would anyone create a false identity? Just don't give out identity information, period. It's much easier.
I think we should officially discourage "disinformation", plainly and clearly. Instead, we encourage not giving ANY personal information about yourself online, and being smart about it. For instance, if I join the WikiProject Oklahoma, I think I might also join WikiProject Vermont and Montana too, just to disguise where I live. I'm not giving misinformation, but I'm deliberately obscuring the truth.
Philippe ----- Original Message ----- From: William Pietri To: English Wikipedia Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 11:55 AM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] [Wikipedia-l] Accountability: bringing backa proposal I made nearly 2 years ago
Slim Virgin wrote:
I think we could just as easily introduce a culture of strongly discouraging people from saying anything about their academic or professional backgrounds unless they're prepared to give sufficient personal details on their user pages to allow others to check if they want to. In other words, if you're not prepared to say a lot about yourself, say nothing; don't drop uncheckable hints.
I like that a great deal. It does seem to fit better with the current culture, and would be a lot easier to manage.
It's obviously not something I'm worried about, but how would you address Essjay's "disinformation keeps the crazies away" argument?
Thanks,
William
-- William Pietri william@scissor.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri
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