[WikiEN-l] Correction to New Yorker Article

[Gwern Branwen]

William Pietri <william at scissor.com> writes:

> Thomas Dalton wrote:
>>> I find myself looking on it as "foolish" rather than 
    "unacceptable".
>>> There *are* stalkers and freaks who go after WP editors [...]
>>>     
>>
>> While that is all absolutely true, it doesn't explain why he 
   chose a
>> fake identity with a PhD and a tenured professorship. I can't 
   see any
>> reason for that other than to get people to respect him more, 
which is
>> rather disappointing, to say the least. I take anything someone 
   says
>> about themselves under a pseudonym with a pinch of salt, but I 
   still
>> wouldn't expect that kind of deception.
>>   
>
> That's a great point.
>
> Does anybody have numbers handy on his areas of contribution? If 
  he 
> never worked on the articles that he claimed false credentials 
in, then 
> it would be a different thing for me.
>
> William

Hard to say. He doesn't do too much in the main namespace, and 
most of that is reversion or related to administrative tasks (see 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&limit=500&target=Essjay&namespace=0>); 
if one wanted to find that sort of thing, one can look at his 
early contributions 
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&offset=20050803105743&limit=500&target=Essjay&namespace=0>) 
where quite a few edits related to ecclesiastical articles are 
listed.  This of course in no wise proves that he abused his faux 
authority or anything - but on that note, a subpage of his 
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Essjay/Letter>) makes for 
interesting reading.

-- 
Gwern
Inquiring minds want to know.