Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: SB_Johnny

Just curious here: what exactly could Jimbo actually do to fix problems like BLPs, porn, the horribly broken social structure, the elitism in the bureaucracy, and the shady side of the WMF/Wikia relationship? Can he redeem himself, or is it too late? Would anything short of getting a quiet day job be satisfactory?

Posted by: Text

What should Obama do to fix unemployment rates, poverty (around 30% of the families in USA live with poverty wages), excess taxes, poor healthcare system and the rest? A new world war, perhaps?

Come on, Jimbo is just a wandering shadow now, who lives while being paid in money by the media every time he speaks at press conferences.

To solve X, delete X.

X has to be eraseable though. You can't do that with people's narcissism, its need for e-hate, and general silliness and irresponsible behavior.

Posted by: Milton Roe

I have no idea how much power Jimbo has left. But the WMF board could:

*Outlaw all BLP. It can go in a special file, retrievable 1 week after the subject dies. We could discuss a special dispensation for the 1000 most famous living people on the planet. But you know where that would lead. Best not to go there at all. It's work and drama and it's not worth it.

*Offer adminship to all editors with more than 1 year and 5000 non-simple edits (vandal reversion would not count-- content needs to be added and thought needs to be demonstrated). However, for the adminship to activate, admins must agree to edit under their birth name or something linked to a bank account, however, checked by wire transfer donation of $1 dollar to WMF. If Jimbo and David Gerard can do it (edit under their own names), I see no reason why anybody can't do it. At least from the point of personal danger.

*Protect all articles based on prior history of vandalism. Semi-protection does not have to be all-or-none, it can be "dial-a-level". Articles never vandalized would remain IP editable. Each vandalism earns a new level of sprotection (edit count and time editing) along with a comparable and commensurate timelength block of the vandal account (IP accounts included).

* Accounts tracable to schools, libraries, etc, should be automatically soft-blocked in a way to prevent IP editing, but still allow nameuser account creation. So, anybody can edit-- if you don't mind ripening a username for weeks and weeks, even months, only to lose it all, when you vandalize something.

* Any image not PG-13 goes in a separate sections of COMMONs. There might even be R- and X-rated sections as well. There images would simply not show to IP users. Name users would have to have an email address and indicate their age > 13 or 17 or whatever, in order for viewing to be enabled when they view articles that link to these images. IPs and nameusers who haven't done this, would see the same article (the text would be fine), but the image would simply be redacted as "not available to your account". To see the X-rated stuff you have to do the $1 wire-transfer. Good luck with that if you're a minor.

* Something similar would happen to entire articles with a topic of explicit sexual content like bios of porn stars and descriptions of sex acts. On the other hand, the straight medical and anatomical stuff can be left alone for view by anybody. The nudist colony rule: let anybody of any age look at 1000 penises or breasts. Erect human penis photos would be PG-13 at least.

That's a start.

Posted by: Cock-up-over-conspiracy

Let's face it, after the WP:FAIL of Wikia, Jimbo is not going to attract another run of venture capital funds, is he?

What is his future?

I suppose he might surf on as a board member of various NPOs. His current status as token celebrity geek will fade but he may experience a second resurrection close to death when he is wheel out as the man that started Wikipedia (remember that?).

It depends how much of a hopeless joke, or rather the public's perception of the Wikipedia as a hopeless joke, the Wikipedia becomes.

What should he do? How about, "go back to trading", retrain as a medic and join Médecins Sans Frontières, or take the high road to Damascus and change to doing some real voluntary/development work?

Just don't expect folks to give him 1,000 resurrections.

Posted by: EricBarbour

Don't be too certain that he'll just "fade away". It takes a LOT to embarrass the true egomaniac
into giving up on his pursuit of fame, fortune, and loose women. I daresay Jimmy qualifies.

Remember Mike Milken? Despite spending 2 years in prison and coughing up more than $1 billion in
fines and settlements, today "he is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 458th richest person in the world.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken"
AND he runs major NPOs involved in the health-care field. Even founded http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_Cancer_Foundation.

Posted by: Emperor

One tiny little step Jimbo could do is to ask Wikipedians to unprotect his own biography. Say something like, "Unless all BLP's are protected, I don't want mine to be." or "You can edit this page right now. Wikipedia should be open to IP editing. That's my stand.".

Posted by: Milton Roe

Yep. And the Carolyn Doran BLP, excruciatingly well-sourced from public documents, would be fascinating. And the Wales Marsden public affair deserves one all its own, like the Mel Gibson drunk incident.

Posted by: thekohser

He could also just die, and then we hope for more responsible and effective leadership to fill the vacuum. I'm kind of figuring his sitting around in that pizza shop with his daughter, reading the Cat Warrior series, is maybe shaving a few months off his lifespan. The added inches around his gut are certainly showing up now.

Posted by: TungstenCarbide

The Jimbo leadership has sailed. Seven years ago he could do whatever he wanted at WP. Now he can't even delete porn at commons, thereby proving; "Its not my fault, man". Probably a good defense if he ever gets sued.

Wikipedia has planet sized inertia. It's reached critical culture mass - a culture that Jimbo had a large part in shaping. Most suggestions to make Wikipedia more responsible will get shouted down and the stomped by this culture. There really isn't anything Jimbo can do anymore to reshape the project. He'd be more effective forking it.

Posted by: Michaeldsuarez

Agreed, Jimbo can't even get everyone to agree on Pending Changes / Flagged Revisions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pending_changes/Straw_poll_on_interim_usage. There's a very vocal opposition group.

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

It is impossible to say how much Mr. Wales expressed concerns (BLP, pornography) are real but constrained by the realpolitik of WP and public relation concerns and how much is simply his trying not to look irresponsible and uncaring. He should walk away from all leadership positions like Dr. Sanger did at CZ. Then he should get an anon WR account and post his unvarnished concerns about the direction WP has taken free from any need to be concerned about his status, public relation concerns or on wiki politics.

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

Then — after 2 or 3 minutes of doing that — he could join The Village Of The Permabanned here.

Jon

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

Think of it as penance. 10,000 post on WR would be good for his soul. Maybe he could employ some help:

Posted by: Emperor

Come on. That's a little over the line, and it debases the legitimate criticism that you and others have made on this site.

Posted by: Somey

I agree - at Jimbo's age, added inches around the gut are almost inevitable, no matter what children's books you read or where you read them.

Posted by: thekohser

Do you seriously believe that any event other than death will pry Jimbo willingly from his WikiMonster? As for SB Johnny's initial question about "what can he do to improve the situation" -- you and I both know that Jimbo lacks the fortitude, talent, and tact to effect any significant improvement in Wikipedia.

By the way, thanks for getting my back, Somey. The Warrior Cats 'n' pizza meme has got a lot of legs left in it. It would be a shame if guys like Emperor stunted its potential.

Posted by: SB_Johnny

Well, let's hope the guy lives long, prospers, and gets to spend lots of time bouncing his grandpups on the knee.

Seriously, though: to "fill the vacuum" would be almost impossible without an independent cult following at least as large and loyal as Jimbo's. Assuming Barack Obama isn't going to volunteer, I'm thinking this is Jimbo's bed to make. And yeah, he'll need to change the sheets.

Back on topic (rare for me, I know): I think it might do wonders if he spoke publicly and frankly about the problems that aren't so obvious to the passersby. Sue Gardner's sunshine campaign needs a bit of counteraction.

Posted by: thekohser

Honestly, I think it would help matters if he would just stop lying to the public.

Posted by: Milton Roe

And then, one day, when he's chasing a grandkid through the garden in a game ("Life is so beautiful"), bada-BOOM, the Big One hits.

And it's not long after that, any reader of his bio on WP will find out that he secretly liked to suck donkey dongs. His power gone, nobody will even bother to revert. It will be like one of those deathbed scnes where the relatives have left with the silverware, before the coroner is even called.

Posted by: CharlotteWebb

His attitude toward flagged-revs is a matter of heated dispute.
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=28799

(Note: that thread probably belongs under "the Jimbo phenomenon" but said sub-forum didn't exist at that time.)

Posted by: TungstenCarbide

Flagged revisions is a joke. It's a watered down version of a shadow of a quality system. It mostly gives obsessive wanks the opportunity for thousands of more button clicks.

For the better part of a decade the mantra was "software, we need software to do this kind of thing", which is complete bullshit. An infinite number of sane revision/release systems could have been implemented the moment page protection was available. Wikipedia is simply not interested in creating durable quality - its main interest is drawing people to edit, no matter how crazy they are.

Here's something Jimbo might try ... institute a Veropedia like trial project under the WMF. Who knows, Google might like encyclopedia pages that aren't at the mercy of every nutcase on the net. He might even get some qualified editors to volunteer time, given that their work isn't instantly shit on.

Posted by: Emperor

Don't forget to keep using the "I hope you die", "You're fat", and "Let's talk about your family" memes. They're hilarious.

Posted by: Kelly Martin

Jimbo doesn't lie, he just has a special relationship with the truth that us "unimportant" people are incapable of understanding.

Posted by: thekohser

That's just offensive. I have never "hoped" for someone to die. I'd call Jimbo "pudgy", but not "fat". And he's the one who's publicly introduced his family's reading and eating habits to the online discussion.

Just who are you, "Emperor"?

Posted by: Zoloft

I believe Emperor is one of the http://www.two4u.com/pizzacats/.