[WikiEN-l] Correction to New Yorker Article

[Jeff Raymond]

stvrtg wrote:

> 4. If Essjay misrepresented himself in any substantial way in arguments
> related to his claimed expertise, how is it that noone qualified in that
> area suspected he wasnt a Phd/Thd?  I suspect the reason is because his
> ventures into misrepresentation were quite limited to the cantankerous. I
> suspect also that this fact might bother people who might have thought they
> could tell just by looking at someones pixels.

Because, generally, we don't expect people to lie about their academic 
credientials.  How many editors in that area who would know if he were 
making it up do we even have?  And, again, Essjay was (yes, the word is 
now was) a very trusted member of the community - he kept the charade up 
enough where few, if any, would bother questioning him anyway.  That's a 
problem, and it's disturbing that you don't recognize it.

> 
> 5. We edit for different reasons (some of us even while naked), and I
> suspect that the real reason people are upset is because they have a feeling
> of being deceived, finding that theyve somehow based their respect on a
> claimed credential, not on Essjays actual work. Disappointing, perhaps, but
> disappointment carries some elevated expectation. What was the expectation?

You suspect incorrectly.  We're upset because he lied about having a 
high degree of education, used that high degree of education as 
leverage, and quite possibly lied regarding why he created the 
trumped-up persona as well.  Not that he ever had to trump up his creds 
to achieve the same goal, of course, which is the other problem.

-Jeff