User Tisane, this could end badly Options

[tarantino]

The Libertarian candidate in 2008 for Virginia's 1st congressional district and and one of Abd's former mentors [1] had another account blocked August 11 2010.

He recently spent 14 months in prison for threatening to kill the president, and has just now decided not to comply with his conditions of supervised release.

His autobiography is here, and the letter sent to his probation officer is here.

[1]

I had some good mentors early on, most notably an editor known by many names, a long-term Wikipedian who, for his own reasons, kept dropping accounts and starting up new ones, though under (originally) no sanctions. He never used two accounts simultaneously, never went back to old accounts, and all were acknowledged or blatantly obvious, far from concealed. One of the names was Sarsaparilla, it's not hard at all to find another going back about two years before I met him. Older accounts he never revealed even to me, and he had real-life reasons to avoid disclosing them, he claimed.

[Somey]

As if further proof was needed, this incident clearly illustrates what Jack Handey has been telling us all along: Friendly and considerate though he may seem, the court-appointed psychiatrist is not necessarily your "friend."

Presumably, the same goes for the friendly US Attorney, the friendly Secret Service agent, the friendly warden at the friendly Federal Penitentiary, the friendly members of the Parole Board, and so on.

[Subtle Bee]

As if further proof was needed, this incident clearly illustrates what Jack Handey has been telling us all along: Friendly and considerate though he may seem, the court-appointed psychiatrist is not necessarily your "friend."

Presumably, the same goes for the friendly US Attorney, the friendly Secret Service agent, the friendly warden at the friendly Federal Penitentiary, the friendly members of the Parole Board, and so on.

Just consider the word - "friend" -ly. Not actually a friend, just like a friend, superficially. Friend-ly.

If you don't get it, you deserve what you get.

[Somey]

If you don't get it, you deserve what you get.

Well, life is like a box of chocolates... (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/mellow.gif)

I realize this probably isn't what Mr. Tarantino intended or hoped for with this thread, but I was just thinking, if I were to be asked what I consider the "typical Wikipedian" to be like, I'd probably say a male, in his 20's, with varying degrees of narcissistic tendencies; fairly opportunistic though distrusting of formal authority; in possession of decent (but not spectacular) writing skills; reasonably well-educated but almost certainly not as smart as he thinks he is; leaning towards a libertarian (or maybe "libertarian-ish") sociopolitical ideology, but not as affluent or well-off as one would expect from someone espousing such an ideology... This User:Tisane feller would be such an extreme example of those things, you'd have to say that guys like him make it very difficult for the other WP'ers to push the median/stereotype in a different (and I would say preferable) direction.

And in this case, it's difficult to say "I'm sure he's a really nice guy if you meet him in person" - it's probably just the opposite, IOW he's much nicer on the internet than he is in reality. Wikipedia is the perfect place for him, to be frank - and I suspect that's why he keeps coming back.

[EricBarbour]

.........if I were to be asked what I consider the "typical Wikipedian" to be like, I'd probably say a male, in his 20's, with varying degrees of narcissistic tendencies; fairly opportunistic though distrusting of formal authority; in possession of decent (but not spectacular) writing skills; reasonably well-educated but almost certainly not as smart as he thinks he is; leaning towards a libertarian (or maybe "libertarian-ish") sociopolitical ideology, but not as affluent or well-off as one would expect from someone espousing such an ideology...

In short, just the kind of guy who would have a dog-eared copy of Atlas Shrugged prominently displayed on his coffee table......

And in this case, it's difficult to say "I'm sure he's a really nice guy if you meet him in person" - it's probably just the opposite, IOW he's much nicer on the internet than he is in reality. Wikipedia is the perfect place for him, to be frank - and I suspect that's why he keeps coming back.

That is probably one of the most damning things one can say about Wikipedia.
Also one of the most accurate.

Worse still, it also well-describes any number of user-content-generated
websites, from 4chan to Something Awful to Fark to Mixx to you name it.

The World Wide Web: just like Usenet before it, a dreamland for the libertarian troll.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[Seurat]

The World Wide Web: just like Usenet before it, a dreamland for the libertarian troll.

Or the other way around!

The Internet is no more and no less than what is made of it. The only thing that distinguishes it from the analog world is the ease with which one can acquire and stand upon one's soapbox.

This does both wonderful things and terrible things. Imagine the number of artists who would have kept all their work in a private scrapbook 20 years ago, and then look up some of the things that you can find online. Works in various stages of completion, of various levels of quality, but all visible for the curious. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

The unfortunate part is that the undesirables, the crazies, also have a shorter road to broadcasting their insanity. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/rolleyes.gif)

I don't think that it is correct to indict the Internet because some of those it brings to light are crazy; the crazy people probably would have been crazy without the Internet. The Internet is simply a microscope for looking at things that were previously too small to notice, a lens that makes them look bigger. Some of those things and people are good, and some are bad, but they would have been there anyway.

We don't necessarily know the consequences of the Internet on these issues. Could the crazy ones work up a frenzy through their online activities that leads them to real and serious action? On the other hand, might it act as a safety valve, one that channels the crazy into annoying but harmless "TL;DR" rants online?

I can't help but imagine an alternate timeline with today's Internet in the past, where Kennedy is spared because his would-be-killer stays home blogging, or where young people in Guy Fawkes masks get arrested while demonstrating against the Vietnam War. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/evilgrin.gif)

You can discuss just about anything on the Internet, whether you're talking about art, baseball, sexual deviancy, (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/confused.gif) wingnut politics, (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/frustrated.gif) or Wikipedia. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wtf.gif)

[Herschelkrustofsky]

The Internet is no more and no less than what is made of it. The only thing that distinguishes it from the analog world is the ease with which one can acquire and stand upon one's soapbox.

But then the question becomes, does one have a substantial audience. Therein lies Jimbo's great achievement: he figured out how to mate with Google.

[Milton Roe]

The Internet is no more and no less than what is made of it. The only thing that distinguishes it from the analog world is the ease with which one can acquire and stand upon one's soapbox.

But then the question becomes, does one have a substantial audience. Therein lies Jimbo's great achievement: he figured out how to mate with Google.

Fleas are known by their coupling gear. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/mellow.gif)

No, that's literally true about fleas. They have dicks like swiss knife attachments, and each species is different. See the Wikipedia article. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wink.gif)

[Zoloft]

The Internet is no more and no less than what is made of it. The only thing that distinguishes it from the analog world is the ease with which one can acquire and stand upon one's soapbox.

But then the question becomes, does one have a substantial audience. Therein lies Jimbo's great achievement: he figured out how to mate with Google.

Fleas are known by their coupling gear. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/mellow.gif)

No, that's literally true about fleas. They have dicks like swiss knife attachments, and each species is different. See the Wikipedia article. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wink.gif)

I always thought Wikipedia was more like a tick, hanging on and engorging with the contributions of others...