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Valleywag
For a province of California, Silicon Valley can be strangely puritan at times. That made it an uncomfortable locale for libertine Libertarian Jimmy Wales, the less-than-saintly founder of Wikipedia. Wales told ex-lover Rachel Marsden, the Canadian controversialist, that he wanted to move to New York to be closer to her. Their affair is over — ended, fittingly, via a posting on Wikipedia — but Wales has relocated to New York all the same. The likely reason has to do with work, or the appearance of work. Although Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, is located in San Francisco, and his ostensible employer, for-profit wiki venture Wikia, has itsheadquarters in a suburb to the south of the city, Wales is charged with running a search-engine project for Wikia which is based in New York.
Not that Wikia is likely to get much more of Wales's time. He told the company's board that he would spend 10 percent of his time on Wikipedia, and 90 percent on Wikia, a promise he swiftly broke. There's no reason to expect that a change in scenery would change Wales's ways.
His domestic life is in no better a state. His wife, Christine, whom he is divorcing, has banned him from staying at their St. Petersburg, Fla. house on his infrequent visits to see his young daughter, we hear. A wise move on her part, since Wales conducted some of his obscene sex chats with Marsden from the guest bedroom.
"Everything with Jimbo is the creating of an illusion," says a source who knows Wales. "The illusion of being a good husband, the illusion of working everyday, the illusion of having ideas."
Which makes New York the perfect venue for Wales. From the theatricality of Broadway to the fanciful financial vehicles of Wall Street, New York is a manufactory of make-believe. The island of Manhattan increasingly resembles one large stage set — an artifice of a city. This is a man who's made his career on pretense, on cajoling others to labor for him. Jimmy Wales has come home. San Francisco will not miss him.
(Photo by Mary S. Butler, on a previous Wales visit to New York)
Comments
Cue crazy bat-shit comments from Marsden in 5...4...3...2...
Not sure I can add to that. This should be in his Wikipedia Bio. A grand summation of the life of a Grand Fraud.
The banner behind Jimmy, "Where the World Wakes Up."
Indeed: Wake up world! This is your humble savior of the internet exposed.
The long-distance relationship with Julia wasn't working out.
Or, maybe he's there to start up a new Wikidickia.
I hear from a very credible source that he moved to N.Y.C. for one reason only: TO FUCK CHICKS. Any and every chick that he can fuck.
@mediawhoremeow: Duh!
Where is Rachel Marsden with her commentary? She's the preeminent expert on Jimbo.
What in the world is wrong with divorcing? Are we all Puritanical. I don't recognize any substance to these allegations of phoniness. And I love wikipedia. Haters.
@TuesdayCramer ... if you actually read what Jimbo says, it's that he is a family man. What a load! His entire story/life is smoke & mirrors. One can only hope that one of these days, all of the details will actually come out and Jimbo will be held up to the public for inspection.
@Figaro: Inquiring minds want to know.
@Troll_2.0: She Lives in NYC, bet she's shacked up with JimbHo again.
You can be a "family man" and still get a divorce. I just cannot imagine this same vitriol being applied to every person who has children but gets a divorce. It has to be something else making people so angry with Wales. If he had just been a business person, out to make a profit with Wikipedia from the start, would anyone care? Is it because he was trying something different? He really should have just started a business and not something free-- maybe then he would not be getting these odd attacks.
@TuesdayCramer: That's right, you can be a family man and still get a divorce. Unfortunately, you are disqualified from "family man" status if you send naked pictures of the mother of your children to your friends, if you cheated consistently on the mother of your children and if your entire career is a result of you co-oping the work of others.
a paragraph for the history books. in case you missed it through your own illiteracy, here it is again:
"Which makes New York the perfect venue for Wales. From the theatricality of Broadway to the fanciful financial vehicles of Wall Street, New York is a manufactory of make-believe. The island of Manhattan increasingly resembles one large stage set - an artifice of a city. This is a man who's made his career on pretense, on cajoling others to labor for him. Jimmy Wales has come home. San Francisco will not miss him."
Can't you just see that charlatan doing magic tricks, charming kids and their mothers with intrinsic wonder. Wales is like the Adam Smith of a cult.
Rather than Jimmy moving to NYC to bang Rachel, I have a new hypothesis, Jimmy wants to expand his horizons to wit: Bessemer Ventures and Jeremy Levine are trying to reel Jimmy in. Good luck on that one, buddy. Hey, Jeremy, maybe you can wear your faggot-ass Yelper belt buckle and go to XES Lounge with Jimbo. He's a randy bugger, he'll probably enjoy the hook-up with you and your pretty mouth.
@Troll ... what have you got against Jeremy? If he made a mistake with Jimbo, he still has an employer to face. As for Rachel, my guess is that she is not shacking up with Jimbo ... remember he hired a bodyguard that was supposed to "protect" him from her. Too bad he can't protect himself from his own over-inflated ego.
@Ltic: The mistake was obvious long ago, and Jeremy is financing this assclown, so that makes him Jimmy's butt-pirate. Enough for ya? Wait, wait there's more! Ever think that Jimmy may have a thing for big, strong, greasy pony tailed ex-Linemen for the New York Giants?
I wasn't able to comment earlier, as I'm still overseas until late tonight.
@Troll: Correct - I am unmarried and, as such, have never "shacked up" with any man. Ever.
@Ltic: As I understand it, the "bodyguard" for that particular event (at which, of course, I wasn't even in attendance, and had zero interest in being) was due to one particular rabid longtime female "groupie" of his - a divorced mother of two who lives in San Francisco and follows him to events. It's a situation with which I am familiar. He encourages it and enjoys the attention he attempts to create and the drama he constantly tries to generate - with this and other things.
@Troll ... I don't know that many people outside of a VERY small group knew what a tool Jimbo was in November 2005 when Bessemer made their investment into Wikia. And once they were in it and saw who Jimbo is ... they demoted him and brought in others to actually try and make something work from their investment. So, how does that make him a "butt-pirate"?
@Ltic:until I read Bessemer Ventures and Amazon.com kick Jimmy Wales to Curb, they're assclowns in my book.
Lest any of my comments here be misconstrued, I have zero animosity towards Jimmy. And I would certainly not say that we are on bad terms.
I have, however, always been honest with him and said, repeatedly, that Wikipedia is a pure, unadulterated stream of hot, golden rat piss. It sets stunningly low standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.
I have no comment whatsoever about Jimmy's professional life - nor is it any of my business. However, I am absolutely confident that he is carrying out his duties to his entire satisfaction.
@Ltic: Looks like someone wants to protect Wikia and let Jimmy twist in the wind.....
Now what is that 800 number to turn in tax cheats? I have a fake 501(c)(3) that needs to be turned in.
@Rachel Marsden: "I have, however, always been honest with him and said, repeatedly, that Wikipedia is a pure, unadulterated stream of hot, golden rat piss. It sets stunningly low standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."
Sounds like the US Congress under Pelosi
@Troll -- That toll-free tip line is 800-829-0433. And remember, if you report and money is owed, you might be eligible for a percentage of what is collected.
@Rachel Marsden -- LOL!!!! I am sure that Jimmy always does things to HIS satisfaction with little concern for anybody else.
@Ltic: "@Rachel Marsden -- LOL!!!! I am sure that Jimmy always does things to HIS satisfaction with little concern for anybody else."
Are you in my head? And thank you for the tax tip, I promise to share my windfall with you and buy you a Starbucks Latte in the Jimmy Wales cup. Hopefully not the cup he uses in the gym.
@Troll_2.0: He does not work out, dear. At least not in the traditional, vertical sense.
@Rachel Marsden: And today is, "Hump," Day!
I know a chick who fucked Jimmy Wales a few times and she knows other chicks who have fucked him. She said his dick is shaped kinda like a cheese wheel..wears gray briefs..spends only like 10 secs in the shower.. likes the left side of the bed.. and he gets drunk real fast and snores.
She said he pours sweat all over his fuckmates too. Sweats like a stuck pig and has long curling toenails like Confucious.
@mediawhoremeow ... would you dial it down a notch? It is very clear that you have an obsessive hatred of Jimbo. And while I concur with most of your views, the vitriol with which you attack is really overkill. Thanks.
@Ltic: Talk to some of the people he's fucked physically and in business and you will feel the same way.
[fakesteve.blogspot.com]
Fake Jimbo, peep at Fake Steve.
Rachel-- if you released your correspondence to Wales to the media-- and he is still on good terms with you-- I think he is a saint.
And I have trouble understanding what your dislike for wikipedia has to do with your anger over the break-up.
@TuesdayCramer: Dear sweet Tuesday, the reason JimbHo wants to stay on good terms with Rachel are twofold. 1) He does not want any more stuff leaking to the media and 2)Rachel is capable of sucking a golf ball through a garden hose and JimbHo misses that very, very much.
@mediawhoremeow ... I have and I am. 'nough said. I find that extreme rhetoric usually turns people off from the message and the message is what really matters ... Jimbo is an arrogant con artist that should be the subject of ridicule not admired.
@Troll_2.0: You think he's news to me? We have beers every Friday, when the Fake 250 meets at Fake Mooses.
@TuesdayCramer: Oh dear, it would seem that you missed the catalyst for everything at the very outset, despite it being well-reported: Jimmy's attempt to blackmail me into keeping our relationship a secret by threatening me with (of all things) deportation, and his subsequent announcement of our breakup on Wikipedia (so as to cover his ass in relation to a very clear conflict of interest in his direct editing of my "bio").
Honey, if there's anyone involved here who should be nominated for sainthood for subsequently keeping things on relatively good terms, frankly it's me.
@TuesdayCramer: Wikipedia is a crap website. Period. This fact is quite separate and has nothing to do with my relationship with Jimmy. Jimmy courted me while I was repeatedly telling him how much his website sucked.
Rachel the songbird: do, re, mi, me...me...Me...ME, ME, ME!!!
@gitahne-o: Damn straight.
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