[WikiEN-l] Accountability: bringing back a proposal I made nearly 2 years ago

[Sheldon Rampton]

Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:

> Jimbo knew that Essjay made up false credentials when he made the
> comment that they were a pseudonym, and he has not to my knowledge
> retracted that statement.

Since Wikipedia does not currently have a policy stating that users  
should be honest on their user pages, Jimbo's statement was  
consistent with current policy. The question now is, how should we  
deal with that? By bashing Jimbo? Or by fixing the policy?

And once again, for those who missed the point in my previous  
comment, saying that users "should be honest" does NOT require anyone  
to stop using anonymity, pseudonyms, humor, etc. on their user pages.  
It draws a bright line between those practices and falsehoods  
intended to deceive.

--------------------------------
|  Sheldon Rampton
|  Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org)
|  Author of books including:
|     Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities
|     Toxic Sludge Is Good For You
|     Mad Cow USA
|     Trust Us, We're Experts
|     Weapons of Mass Deception
|     Banana Republicans
|     The Best War Ever
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