Wikipedia Sucks!

That is the question.

We start with this new VICE article, which actually isn't a hit piece:

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... win-online

This is what makes ED so fascinating as a case study, a record of social media's awkward adolescence before it was marketed to more mainstream users as closely-monitored and Zuckerbergian. This is why, as a journalist, I cannot defend Encyclopaedia Dramatica, but I cannot wholly condemn it either. Without this record, writing about the history of internet culture would often be impossible.

That's basically what I was saying years ago. I said, over and over, that ED could not be simply dismissed as a "troll haven" because it still held some of the only remaining traces of ugly Wikipedia squabbles from the early years. Not to mention ancient Livejournal crap and assorted long-deleted idiocy from DeviantArt, 4chan, YouTube, Something Awful, Twitter, FB etc. No one listened to me.

I'd post this on Wikipediocracy and rub their noses in it but they are so far gone up their own asses they'd probably delete it and pretend it didn't happen......and that is why ED is a "necessary evil". The web today is chopped up into creepy little empires that censor themselves constantly. It needs a "sort-of neutral archive" (and I don't mean the Internet Archive). As you know, WO people accused me of "evil" for daring to update some of ED's badly dated Wikipedia content. I don't see THEM doing much to document WP history anywhere--all they seem to want is to get back into Wikipedia to diddle it like a giant clit.

Not that any of this matters--ED will probably go under thanks to the lawsuit (and Zaiger's chronic inability to pay the bills for whatever reason). Many of the admins have been doxxed by pissed-off nerds in the past few years; they can't hide anymore. It is possible to be dickish to people, but you have to document it and be ready to defend it. That was why I rewrote their miserable FBI article with "actual facts". It's easier to mock power abusers that way. The facts are plenty bad enough. (Go ahead, ask some FBI employees about Ted Gunderson. I can almost guarantee they will change the subject.)

ericbarbour wrote:That is the question.

We start with this new VICE article, which actually isn't a hit piece:

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... win-online

This is what makes ED so fascinating as a case study, a record of social media's awkward adolescence before it was marketed to more mainstream users as closely-monitored and Zuckerbergian. This is why, as a journalist, I cannot defend Encyclopaedia Dramatica, but I cannot wholly condemn it either. Without this record, writing about the history of internet culture would often be impossible.

That's basically what I was saying years ago. I said, over and over, that ED could not be simply dismissed as a "troll haven" because it still held some of the only remaining traces of ugly Wikipedia squabbles from the early years. Not to mention ancient Livejournal crap and assorted long-deleted idiocy from DeviantArt, 4chan, YouTube, Something Awful, Twitter, FB etc. No one listened to me.

I'd post this on Wikipediocracy and rub their noses in it but they are so far gone up their own asses they'd probably delete it and pretend it didn't happen......and that is why ED is a "necessary evil". The web today is chopped up into creepy little empires that censor themselves constantly. It needs a "sort-of neutral archive" (and I don't mean the Internet Archive). As you know, WO people accused me of "evil" for daring to update some of ED's badly dated Wikipedia content. I don't see THEM doing much to document WP history anywhere--all they seem to want is to get back into Wikipedia to diddle it like a giant clit.

Not that any of this matters--ED will probably go under thanks to the lawsuit (and Zaiger's chronic inability to pay the bills for whatever reason). Many of the admins have been doxxed by pissed-off nerds in the past few years; they can't hide anymore. It is possible to be dickish to people, but you have to document it and be ready to defend it. That was why I rewrote their miserable FBI article with "actual facts". It's easier to mock power abusers that way. The facts are plenty bad enough. (Go ahead, ask some FBI employees about Ted Gunderson. I can almost guarantee they will change the subject.)

Gunderson is such a joke. He was into the Satanic Ritual Abuse conspiracies.

I read ED when I was starting to learn more about the Wikipedians who are prominently criticized. It's a repository. You had to edit it if you wanted to preserve history. Where else could you put it?

I wonder if WO might allow you to become an admin there at this point. Nearly everyone seems to hate it now, including Zoloft. I think tarantino might have been the person looking for names to expand the staff. Vigilant appears to have taken his leave of the place again as do HRIP7 and Tippi. Hillbillyholiday aka Smiley was admitted to the Campaign Room briefly prior to the latest explosion.

ericbarbour wrote:That is the question.

Not that any of this matters--ED will probably go under thanks to the lawsuit (and Zaiger's chronic inability to pay the bills for whatever reason).

Then we need to start copying the stuff that is useful (if certain people here haven't already) and stick it in the Wikipedia_POV wiki so that people can get it for research. I hope this suit is dropped.

ericbarbour wrote:I'd post this on Wikipediocracy and rub their noses in it but they are so far gone up their own asses they'd probably delete it and pretend it didn't happen......and that is why ED is a "necessary evil". The web today is chopped up into creepy little empires that censor themselves constantly. It needs a "sort-of neutral archive" (and I don't mean the Internet Archive). As you know, WO people accused me of "evil" for daring to update some of ED's badly dated Wikipedia content. I don't see THEM doing much to document WP history anywhere.....

Abso-lutely Goddamned right; tarantino is sitting on metric tons of stuff (or knows where the bodies are buried). As does Steve McGeady and Wee Billy Burns. Wikipedia needs a great myth-deflater in the tradition of The Sorrow and the Pity* or Videograms of a Revolution**, a book that lays out who did what and why the reader should care.....because I see a lot of the hubris of Wikipedia in the 2002-2008 period in the "disruption" mentality of these Silly Valley start-ups of the post-2007 period, and people need to be warned of all the mistakes, stupidity, and scams of the first generation of Internet businesses and non-profits.

Flip_Flopped wrote:I wonder if WO might allow you to become an admin there at this point. Nearly everyone seems to hate it now, including Zoloft. I think tarantino might have been the person looking for names to expand the staff. Vigilant appears to have taken his leave of the place again as do HRIP7 and Tippi. Hillbillyholiday aka Smiley was admitted to the Campaign Room briefly prior to the latest explosion.

They would never let that happen, because they know he would let me back in to kibitz, and I would push for people like Rome Viharo to be there.

__________________________


Trailer for The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)


Snippet of Videograms of a Revolution (1992)


How you could do a Wikipedia movie: make it have filmed Brechtian theatrical bits
as in Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977)

I think they'd let Viharo back with no problem. At this point I think there's a chance they'd let you back. If Barbour showed up saying he wanted to save the place, they really should let him have a shot at it.

Strelnikov wrote:

ericbarbour wrote:Not that any of this matters--ED will probably go under thanks to the lawsuit (and Zaiger's chronic inability to pay the bills for whatever reason).

Then we need to start copying the stuff that is useful (if certain people here haven't already) and stick it in the Wikipedia_POV wiki so that people can get it for research. I hope this suit is dropped.

I've already saved things of importance, like the original history of the Rachel Marsden article, complete with that asshole "Bucketsofg" cheerfully trying to find ways to defame Marsden. That fucking asshole should be desysopped and banned--but no, he's still an admin, just doing as little work as possible to avoid desysop. Piece of Canuck shit. Very few surviving admins are as openly politically biased and abusive as he is, and no one ever talks about him.

Most of the rest is already saved on the book wiki. If ED went down permanently it would not greatly affect the POV book project--but it would take away one of the few places where disgruntled Wikipedia editors can learn how broken Wikipedia really is.

tarantino is sitting on metric tons of stuff (or knows where the bodies are buried).

HE is the one guy who should be publishing. But he refuses to tell anyone anything now. It's like he wants to use his database for "bragging rights" on forums like WO, and to hell with Wikipedia itself. Since WO started to decline in 2015 he's gotten even more close-mouthed. I do NOT get what motivates him. Maybe he's waiting for everyone to die before doing a public reveal....in which case he will probably die first. And everything will be lost. Can easily picture his surviving family tossing the hard drives in the trash.

Flip_Flopped wrote:I wonder if WO might allow you to become an admin there at this point.

They would never let that happen, because they know he would let me back in to kibitz, and I would push for people like Rome Viharo to be there.

Agreed. All that's left is Burns, McGeady and Kohs and a few of their "camp followers". It's burned down otherwise. Rome wants to do a series of videos, I can give him a PDF set of certain articles to refer to but don't have time for anything else.

Perhaps at some point in the future when you are less busy you and Viharo might consider having him interview you on video.

So tarantino thinks he's a WP criticism batman who responds to relevant situations with information and that's it. I wonder if he feels overwhelmed with the prospect of documenting what he knows. He is anachronistic.

ED is currently the only place that explains the whole "Spanking Boy Scouts" fiasco involving Wikia years ago.

https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Spanking_Art_Wiki

I was very strongly against ED on old WR and wanted Michael Squarez banned simply for being a prominent poster there. Then Alison and few others I deeply respected were found to have posted there. Most ended up banned or desysopped for defying Zaiger or Blu Aardvark for one reason or another. Now I'm wondering if I can get into contact with an ED administrator to give me a copy of that page should the site be taken down by that Monserrat (sp?) guy. It encapsulates the whole conflict we fought on old WR.

And if you look at the "Boy" WP article right now, guess which picture they use to illustrate boys? Yep, the same Boy Scout photo that set off the whole darn fiasco nine years ago. It's ridiculous. And if ED does go down, that piece of Internet history Jimbo, Wikia, and even WP would like to forget will go down the drain. Selina's WR with the relevant threads won't last forever.

The End wrote:ED is currently the only place that explains the whole "Spanking Boy Scouts" fiasco involving Wikia years ago.

https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Spanking_Art_Wiki

I was very strongly against ED on old WR and wanted Michael Squarez banned simply for being a prominent poster there. Then Alison and few others I deeply respected were found to have posted there. Most ended up banned or desysopped for defying Zaiger or Blu Aardvark for one reason or another. Now I'm wondering if I can get into contact with an ED administrator to give me a copy of that page should the site be taken down by that Monserrat (sp?) guy. It encapsulates the whole conflict we fought on old WR.

And if you look at the "Boy" WP article right now, guess which picture they use to illustrate boys? Yep, the same Boy Scout photo that set off the whole darn fiasco nine years ago. It's ridiculous. And if ED does go down, that piece of Internet history Jimbo, Wikia, and even WP would like to forget will go down the drain. Selina's WR with the relevant threads won't last forever.

Archive.org has a copy of the early article history from .com, as well as a few captures. It looks like JuniusThaddeus started the page about six months before .com was shut down.

If you need a copy, most browsers will let you save a page, or you can paste it into a .pdf file. Also you can now submit pages to Archive.org and other archiving services like Archive.is. Let me or Junius know if you need anything.

(edited)