Some Wikipedia Editors Need to Grow Up
Wikipedia is a treasure-trove of information. Being such a rich source is due to the many people writing and editing entries. Much credit is due them. However, there are some Wikipedia editors who need to grow up and understand their “information wants to be free” philosophy can have detrimental consequences.
For months while a NY Times reporter was held hostage in Afghanistan Wikipedia administrations played a cat-and-mouse game to keep the news of the kidnapping under wraps. An anonymous editor griped after the reporter escaped , “Is that enough proof for you [expletives]? I was right. You were WRONG.” In this case being factually right before David Rohde’s escape could have made his situation worse. It’s easy for a Wikipedia editor in Florida to scream about the free flow of information. They didn’t have anything at stake, unlike the NY Times and Rohde’s family.
“Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia“
Yes. That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that Jimmy Wales had hundreds of ways at his disposal to keep this information from getting out. He could have frozen the page completely via an Office Action. He could have simply removed it.
Better yet, he could have caused it to seem that there was some sort of unresolved formatting glitch. This would have stopped this whole back-and-forth bullshit cold.
Of course it would have also made Wikipedia look bad. Temporarily. Can’t have that, so instead of sucking it up and taking the heat caused by their own internal secret decision, they villanized some editor doing EXACTLY what a good Wikipedia editor should be doing - adding properly sourced material to an article.
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Way to go, Jimbo. I applaud your intent. I disdain your method.