It's quite different than your Australia example actually.
I have acknowledged that it makes no particular difference to me either way, but as I said I favour a policy of full disclosure.
The biggest difference is is that Australia is recognised by most Australians even to have been founded by convicts and those who worked to support the prison system, while Jimbo steadfastly denies what I have said.
He has told me how shocked he is that I'd say something like that, how wrong I am, how I shouldn't say things when I don't know what I'm talking about, and has even said that I have accused him publicly of being a pornographer.
Yet, while telling me how wrong I am and that I don't know what I'm talking about, and how he's shocked that I would say such things, he quietly sits not divulging exactly how it's wrong and what the right version is, and until such time as he does so I see no reason to not tell people the same old story over and over - without an explanation, why should I believe that what he says is real? As I said before there is an undeniable connection that Jimbo seems to want to deny: Bomis sells porn (although it gets "less than 10%" of its revenue from it), and Bomis was involved in the beginning of Wikipedia. That doesn't mean Wikipedia is a pornographic encyclopedia, or an encyclopedia of porn, or an encyclopedia founded by pornographers and supported mostly by money from porn sales - all it means is just that: the company that was the primary involved party in the beginning of Wikipedia, and in which Jimmy Wales still plays a large part, does have a "premium" website where it sells access to pornographic images. That doesn't mean anything about the objectivity of Wikipedia, on the contrary Wikipedia (at least en:) seems to be turning into Wikipedia - The Prudish Encyclopedia.
Mark
On 25/04/05, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Mark Williamson wrote:
Anyhow back to my point. Wikipedia is somehow related to Bomis historically, right? This is a well-established fact, no? It says it pretty much everywhere.
Jimbo himself admits that Bomis deals in porn (although it accounts for less than 10% of their revenue).
Thus, I don't see where he gets the idea that the things people are saying are wrong. And why did he just say "you're wrong" instead of explaining, even after Ant asked him for an explanation? He has sent me increasingly rude private e-mails as well rather than discuss it calmly on the list.
One needs to make a distinction between the historical past and its consequences.
I have no personal knowledge of the underlying facts, but for the sake of argument I'm willing to accept that what you say is all true. It then comes down to a matter of "So what?"
At the rate you're going we shouldn't be recognizing Australia as a country because it was established by convicts.
Ec