On 3/9/07, K P kpbotany@gmail.com wrote:
IMO, the problem with the Essjay mess (of which I read very little) is that someone, the news media, thought his credentials mattered--apparently as much as he did. Shouldn't the content of what he was writing have spoken for itself? Do we have to buy into the news media putting so much into his credentials?
Yeah, a whole bunch of false assumptions instantly get created and spread around with stories like this:
- an "editor" is a priviledged position at Wikipedia (very common, presumably because "editor" has such a strong meaning to journalists) - editors with PHds are treated differently to those without - Wikipedia is written by so few editors that losing one would matter - Most editors edit under their real name - EssJay was an exception.
Would using the term "contributor" instead of "editor" help?
Steve