Anthony wikilegal@inbox.org wrote:
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.
Since Wikipedia does not currently have a policy stating that users should be honest on their user pages, Jimbo's statement was consistent with current policy. The question now is, how should we deal with that? By bashing Jimbo? Or by fixing the policy?
And once again, for those who missed the point in my previous comment, saying that users "should be honest" does NOT require anyone to stop using anonymity, pseudonyms, humor, etc. on their user pages. It draws a bright line between those practices and falsehoods intended to deceive.
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On 3/6/07, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
Anthony wikilegal@inbox.org wrote:
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.
Since Wikipedia does not currently have a policy stating that users should be honest on their user pages, Jimbo's statement was consistent with current policy.
The inconsistency I was referring to is between Jimbo and himself, not Jimbo and current policy.
The question now is, how should we deal with that? By bashing Jimbo? Or by fixing the policy?
I don't think policy is broken just because it doesn't explicitly state that users should be honest on their user pages. Mentioning "oh, by the way, don't lie about credentials on your user page" wouldn't hurt, but I think it goes without saying.
What needs to be dealt with is the fact that Jimbo apparently knew Essjay was lying on his userpage about being a professor, yet he hired him, put him on the arb com, and told the New Yorker that he had no problem with it.
And if this policy is installed, do we even trust that it's going to be run honestly? Or is it just going to lead extra credence to these false credentials?
Another thing that needs to be dealt with is that we have to stop deleting all the evidence pertaining to the situation.
Anthony