G'day Michael S,
Mark Gallagher wrote:
G'day Daniel S,
(And in the legal world there are also phenomena
such as jury
nullification and rogue judges...)
We have them on Wikipedia, too. Witness the Jack Thompson OFFICE
action and certain admins.
Pardon me, but what exactly are you referring to here?
The Jack Thompson OFFICE action was an incident that occurred not too
long ago. Some background (I don't know if you already know this stuff,
so bear with me if you do): the American Jack Thompson is a professional
lawyer and talented amateur wowser, famous amongst a small subset of
gamers. The reason he's well-known to hardcore gamers is because the
target of his wowserism is violent video games. Since hardcore gamers
typically enjoy playing violent video games above all else[0], this is
not a match made in heaven by any means.
Through a curious quirk of the Internet, hardcore gamers are far more
likely to contribute Wikipedia than American attorneys. In particular,
strange though it sounds, hardcore gamers are far more likely to
contribute to an article about Mr Thompson full of such improperly
sourced, utterly trivial, and of course totally biased nonsense that the
only reason I can't describe it as a "hatchet job" is because the phrase
"embarrassment to Wikipedia" leaps far more readily to the tongue.
When the Secret Wikipedia Puppet Government, aided by the Men In Black,
finally pulled the plug on this hatch--excuse me, this embarrassment to
Wikipedia, a thousand thousand gamers rose up in complaint. "That
asshole Thompson wins again!", they cried. "Wikipedia under the control
of a Secret Wikipedia Puppet Government, aided by the Men in Black!",
they cried. "I credit my 'blog. That's enough for me to argue that
Thompson is a Satanist, right?", they cried. "Ow, I just stood up for
the first time in seventy-two hours and my knee joints cracked!", they
cried.
This seems to me a good case of "jury nullification": we asked for an
opinion, we got utter bollocks in return, we said, "actually, let's not
do what they said after all."
[0] Although I know a few people who obsess over Transport Tycoon or
Championship Manager, and there's even a few Tetris tragics out
there.
--
Mark Gallagher
"What? I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse