Jimbo Wales vs. Oliver Kamm, ...get your popcorn Options Rating

[thekohser]

Step 1:
Read this guest column in the Times of London:

Step 2:
Read Jimbo's response on the WikiEN mailing list:
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:23:55 -0400
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales@wikia.com>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Times article (London)
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org>

> "The notion that a false claim to knowledge is wrong is not part of
> Wikipedia's culture."

This is preposterous.

> "It combines the free-market dogmatism of the libertarian Right with
> the anti-intellectualism of the populist Left. "

Nonsense.

It is hard to know how to coherently respond to ignorant ranting which
appears to make no attempt to even connect at any point with the facts
of reality.

--Jimbo

Step 3:
Sit back and watch how Oliver Kamm (a noted radical intellectual and financial expert who has sparred with Noam Chomsky) tears open Jimmy Wales in the next few weeks. Pop some popcorn!

[Kato]

Der Jimbo's WikiEN-l response to Kamm's "ignorant ranting" has been added to the Kamm article! (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)

Kamm will certainly read this. And if I know Kamm, he'll make it his business to follow it up with a heap of mud and arrows aimed at Der Jimbo's direction. Kamm's also someone who knows his way round a courtroom, and likes a challenge. I couldn't imagine a better match. Kamm vs Der Jimbo. Two of the most detestable internet "celebrities" flapping at each other for our pleasure. It's a no lose situation. Long may it continue and flourish.

By the way, is it me or is Der Jimbo getting more and more intolerant?

In case noone noticed Grace Note aka Dr Zen commented on Kamm's article.

I commented too, mentioning BADSITES and WR. Probably really infuriated the clique, if they saw it.

I spotted it before you mentioned it here, so good work.

[thekohser]

Der Jimbo's WikiEN-l response to Kamm's "ignorant ranting" has been added to the Kamm article! (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)

Kamm will certainly read this.

Strange, the night of Jimbo's WikiEN-l comment, I copied and posted it as a comment on the Times Online article itself. For some reason, the Times didn't post my comment. Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe they rejected it as hearsay, since I was purporting what Jimbo had said.

Greg

[Kato]

Der Jimbo's WikiEN-l response to Kamm's "ignorant ranting" has been added to the Kamm article! (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)

Kamm will certainly read this.

Strange, the night of Jimbo's WikiEN-l comment, I copied and posted it as a comment on the Times Online article itself. For some reason, the Times didn't post my comment. Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe they rejected it as hearsay, since I was purporting what Jimbo had said.

Greg

It appears that Kamm has seen Jimbo's response somewhere (presumably his WP article) and has registered it on his blog. Kamm provides the same link as yourself Greg, so as the first external poster of the link, you should take some credit for it eventually arriving on Kamm's lap. Kamm's response is underwhelming, and I'm hoping for more vitriol in the future.

Kamm:
In my Times column yesterday I described Wikipedia as a pernicious influence on intellectual life. You can read here the response of Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder and guru, to my argument.

Typically, Kamm is such a loathed figure that various bloggers have leapt to Der Jimbo's defence, here, here, and here.

[Cedric]

Typically, Kamm is such a loathed figure that various bloggers have leapt to Der Jimbo's defence, here, here, and here.

It may be, as Kato indicates, that these blog responses were predictable, but "Skipper's" comments are so asinine that I could not let it go by without comment:

Uhmmmmm--you have NEVER found anything you knew to be "wrong" on Wikipedia?? EVER??? Obviously, you have spent rather little time on WP, or you restrict your viewing to a very particular type of article (Pokemon articles, perhaps). I was active as an editor on WP for some 16 months, and in that time I often found things on WP I knew to be wrong, or so incomplete as to be quite misleading. I may not have found such things every day, but certainly often enough that it was in no wise unusual. My suggestion would be that the next time you are possessed of an urge to plant a wet one on Jimbo's ass, you at least familiarize yourself with what you are commenting on.

--Cedric

It's up on the blog now (Greg Kohs has the comment ahead of mine). Let's see how long they stay there. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/tongue.gif)