At one point, Rachel Marsden was like many so-called "notable" living individuals - an unwilling victim of Wikipedia's unaccountable, anonymous, unethical, and irresponsible culture of "edit warring" and cheap revenge. The article about her on Wikipedia was little more than an amateur hatchet job, written by one of her personal enemies who, while he no doubt felt perfectly justified in his actions based on Ms. Marsden's past indiscretions, nevertheless took cynical advantage of Wikipedia's consistent protection of user anonymity over the interests of the site's biography subjects to attack her, with almost total impunity. If she had chosen to do so, she could have become a leading advocate for the rights of biography subjects on Wikipedia to simply "opt out" and have her articles deleted, something that even the worst spammers on the internet allow for as a matter of course. Instead, she chose to cultivate a sexual relationship with Mr. Wales, presumably as a means of (among other things) manipulating him into whitewashing her article - with predictable results. Their tawdry affair is now over, but Wikipedia biography subjects continue to suffer under the set of incoherent half-measures known as the "Biography of Living Persons Policy," and ultimately, Ms. Marsden's biography on Wikipedia will probably be an even worse hatchet job than it was originally.

The least Ms. Marsden can do now would be to donate the proceeds of her auction of Mr. Wales' clothing to charity, as many of our members have suggested (along with former Wikimedia Grants Coordinator Danny Wool). Meanwhile, it's easy for two people conversing via IM to dismiss Wikipedia's critics as "lunatics," while at that very moment reading a prediction of their behavior that had already proved to be completely accurate - but the truth is that the percentage of "lunatics" on The Wikipedia Review is really no greater than that of Wikipedia itself. (Admittedly, that may not be saying much!)

The difference, of course, is that The Wikipedia Review's "lunatics" don't generally feel compelled to have sex with people like me just to get a fair hearing. (If anything, my reputation for charm, good looks, and personal integrity makes the whole issue rather academic.)

Somey

Oh, that silver-tongued Jimbo; a class act all the way!

bricology

ThatKid

Kounji

Wikianon

Ted Dziuba

Rock tha Hizzee

SarahHeartburn