On 3/6/07, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
I think that this is really the crux of the disagreement, so let's state it clearly. There are some people here who think that it is reasonable and appropriate for Wikipedians to deceive other Wikipedians about their biography, while others find this unacceptable.
By deceive I mean more than "maintain anonymity" or "use a pseudonym." Let's be clear about this, because confusion on this point was evident as early as Jimbo's (now-retracted) statement that Essjay's false credentials were "a pseudonym and I don't really have a problem with it."
Was Jimbo's statement retracted? His "retraction" seemed to focus on the fact that Essjay was using his credentials to gain authority. As far as I know he hasn't stated he was wrong in suggesting that it's ever OK to lie about your credentials on your userpage.
Which makes this whole proposal rather hypocritical to me. Is it OK to lie about your degrees on your userpage, as long as you don't mention those fake degrees in content disputes, or not?
Once again: false credentials (or other biographical falsifications, for that matter) are NOT a pseudonym.
Jimbo knew that Essjay made up false credentials when he made the comment that they were a pseudonym, and he has not to my knowledge retracted that statement.
Anthony