On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 8:47 AM, wikipedia-l-request@nupedia.com mailto:wikipedia-l-request@nupedia.com wrote:

Message: 11 Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 08:08:08 -0700 From: Jimmy Wales jwales@bomis.com To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Lir and Christopher Columbus Reply-To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com

Or, we could just relax and let the article be wrong for awhile. In a day, maybe everyone will feel better.

If some particularly vicious argument goes on for weeks at a time, then we can start thinking about alternative solutions. But, usually, people get tired of it.

Lir has been at it for about 3 weeks since the day she joined. Her hallmark is to edit artcles either using unsubstantiated, outlandish claims, all- caps exclamations and/or political rants at the top of entries, childish entries (see Iowa State history, for example: "common pastimes (at Iowa State) are smoking, tripping, complaining..."), changing other user's and her own comments in talk pages, removing references to herself that seem unflattering or challenge her and accusing other users of being racist if they don't abide by her ridiculous edits.

Was Columbus a slave trader before coming to the New World? Maybe, I don't actually know. But I do know that it's the sort of claim that needs some documentation. Maybe the guy who wants to say that can provide documentation, OR someone who doesn't want to say that can provide counter-documentation.

Maybe, but is the onus on us to provide counter- documentation to speculative claims? More importantly, would it matter to lir? She quoted a dean at Iowa state with an outlandish quote. I emailed the dean and he flatly denied making such a quote. I posted that to the talk page and was immediately attacked by lir and she promptly ignored my evidence and reverted her quote.

In the meantime, edit wars just make us all unhappy.

--Jimbo

A lot of people seem very concerned about lir's feelings and her possible positive contributions down the road. That's kind of wierd considering that she has already wasted a considerable amount of other user's time and energy with her combative, irrational tirades; time that could have been spent making wikipedia better. I, for one, have severly curtailed my contributions out of disgust and weariness. So, if you think that maybe we should"just relax and let the article be wrong for awhile", you'll probably get your wish. People like lir have worn me down and her edits certainly won't be disturbed by me anymore.

dave