[WikiEN-l] Getting hammered in a tv interview is not fun

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

This is the best comment in this thread I read so far. :)

On 3/30/07, Sheldon Rampton <sheldon at prwatch.org> wrote:
>
> Stan Shebs wrote:
>
> > Isn't it interesting how nobody ever complains
> > about inaccuracies in articles other than the ones about themselves?
> > Egos, geez...
>
> Actually, people *do* complain about inaccuracies in other types of
> articles. Moreover, there are good reasons other than ego for people
> to notice the inaccuracies in articles about themselves. For one
> thing, we all know our own biographies in a lot more detail than
> other people. I'm willing to bet that no one on WikiEN-l other than
> myself knows off the top of their head what city I was born in or my
> date of birth. If someone other than myself were to read that I was
> born in 1961 in Toledo, Ohio, it's unlikely that they'd know it was
> incorrect, whereas I'd notice the error immediately.
>
> In any case, the people who complain about inaccuracies in articles
> are doing Wikipedia a favor, not a disservice. Complaints help
> Wikipedia learn about errors and improve. It may be momentarily
> embarrassing for Jimbo to have an error pointed out to him during a
> TV interview, but that's a small price to pay for useful feedback.
>
> Slim Virgin wrote:
>
> > The other solution is to stop publishing biographies of living
> > persons, or at least to offer subjects deletion on request.
> >
> > By hosting living bios, and by inviting anyone in the world to edit
> > them, we're encouraging bad editing in a quantity we have no hope of
> > controlling.
>
> Actually, hosting living bios probably helps improve fact-checking
> and accuracy more than publishing other types of articles. If there's
> an error in an article about some dead guy, he's NOT going to point
> out the error. Without the feedback from live people, Wikipedia would
> know less than it knows now about the accuracy of its articles and
> the validity of its editorial policies.
>
> --------------------------------
> |  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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