[WikiEN-l] Attack Site Wars, Episode VII... The Return of the Essjay

[Todd Allen]

ElinorD wrote:
>
> It doesn't entitle him to special consideration, Kurt. Wikipedia is becoming
> increasingly sensitive towards all human beings of borderline notability,
> whose lives may be adversely affected by the existence of a Wikipedia
> article about them. I don't think there's anyone who is arguing in favour of
> deletion who would not argue in favour of deleting a similar article about a
> non-Wikipedian of similar borderline notability. Certainly Phil Sandifer
> didn't argue that Essjay deserves special consideration because he's "one of
> our own"; you read it into his words.
>
> What age was Essjay when he joined? Twenty? Twenty-one? Twenty-two? Many
> people would consider that he *was* a kid.
>
> Did he invent that persona with the intention of becoming an an
> administrator, a bureaucrat, a checkuser, an oversighter? I doubt it very
> much. I doubt if he even knew there were such things when he started.
>
> It sounds to me like an immature kid, just out of his teens, finding it fun,
> as an insignificant new user, to tell a few whoppers about being a Professor
> of Theology, then, as a result of some genuinely good qualities, becoming
> popular on Wikipedia, becoming an administrator, rising still higher, and
> finding himself trapped in the lies that he had started as before he ever
> suspected that he was going to rise to power. Obviously it was wrong, but it
> wasn't a scheming, calculating, plan to gain positions of trust. As far as I
> know, he gained those positions by being friendly and helpful, not by saying
> that he had two doctorates.
>
> Like Phil, I'm uncomfortable with having an article that puts Essjay's real
> name at or near the top of Google. A mention of the event in the article on
> [[Criticism of Wikipedia]] shows that we're not sweeping it under the
> carpet. Essjay is only notable (and not even particularly so) because of a
> single event, and the tendency at Wikipedia is to discourage articles about
> non-notable people who became notable from being in the news over a single
> event.
>
> I wonder how many people on this mailing list never told lies between the
> ages of twenty-one and twenty-four. What Essjay did was wrong, but it seems
> that his punishment is out of proportion.
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>   
I don't believe there's any form of "punishment" here. This issue turned
out to be a pretty major one, reported on by quite a few reliable
sources, so we have an article on it. That's not a punishment, it's what
we do.

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