[WikiEN-l] Trust vs. Credentials (was Re: Accountability:

[David Gerard]

On 11/03/07, William Pietri <william at scissor.com> wrote:

> Well, there is also the problem of a Wikipedia administrator writing to
> professors as a fellow professor. That was pretty bad in my mind, and
> could have also led to a public black eye even if the media had checked
> credentials.


This is a falsehood on the part of the person writing the email. This
is not a problem that can be addressed with any sort of credentialing
system on the site itself.


> For completeness, some also see using false credentials in an editing
> dispute as a problem. Personally, I haven't yet seen a case where it
> actually ended up harming the articles.


It's hard enough to get editors to listen to experts when they damn
well should be smart enough to. "Actually, the opinion you came to by
a process of anal revelation is not in fact as good as the opinion of
this here famous expert on the matter." "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU
TELL ME! DELETE THE EXPERT AS NON-NOTABLE!"


- d.