dpbsmith(a)verizon.net wrote:
One of the characteristics of being a fan is that one
has a sort of illusory
personal connection to the object of one's admiration. Let's suppose,
hypothetically, that I were a fan of Arlo Guthrie. I would feel almost as if
Arlo Guthrie were a close friend.
Now, suppose I were to insert an fawning article on his latest album, "Live
in Sydney," pointing out the neutral and objectively true encyclopedic fact
that it's terrific and everyone should buy one or two copies. Hypothetically.
For only twenty-seven hypothetical U. S. dollars.
It's a bit like asking Eric Bogle to sing Bob Dylan.
I don't get a cut of the profits, and I'm not
hired by Rising Son Records to
promote this album, so I can say truthfully that it is not advertising.
But, it sort of is. Because even though I don't get _money_ out of the deal,
I do get the warm fuzzy feeling that I'm helping my close friend Arlo. (Even
though he's not really my friend). And that I'm validating my fandom by
increasing the number of fans.
So, it's deliberate _promotion._
It's not vanity, because Arlo Guthrie didn't write the article himself.
But, it sort of is, because a close friend of Arlo wrote the article. Or,
someone who has the illusion of being a close friend of Arlo wrote the
article.
You can get anything you want at the Wiki Restaurant. :-)
Of course, wanting to "help" or promote the
topic area on which one is
writing is probably the commonest motivation for writing articles for
Wikipedia, and up to a point it's legitimate.
I'd like to redefine "vanity" as meaning "an imbalanced mix of motives
in
which serving the needs of the contributor outweights serving the needs of
the reader."
Riight! Who's to judge whether that applies. Let's not make things
more complicated than they need to be.
Ec