Steve Block wrote:
David Gerard wrote:
Steve Block wrote:
I think they were advocates rather than experts, weren't they?
This is not the case and does them a great injustice. Though it's possible such an assumption of bad faith from outsiders was behind the dedicated attempts to drive them off.
That's not a bad faith assumption. Eric Burns is, on one level, a blogger who writes about webcomics. Are we suggesting any blogger is a reputable expert on a given field?
No, we're not, but in the field of webcomics, it's quite plausible for the reputable experts to come from the world of blogging. Perhaps after we've dealt with irrational prejudices against webcomics, we can move on to the problems caused by irrational prejudices against bloggers.
There's a real problem with deciding the reliability and reputability of online content. Eric Burns is also still an advocate on wikipedia. The history of webcomics has not yet been written, so how can he be anything but? And given his involvement in the webcomics field, how does one determine whether he is a partisan source?
If the history of webcomics has not yet been written, that would be a good reason to write it on Wikipedia. Someone who understands the field well enough to write a proper history can figure out who's a partisan source, what information they're still useful for, and how to balance their partisanship with other sources. It just requires critical thinking and editorial judgment.
--Michael Snow