World's foremost WP & WMF critics Options Rating

[thekohser]

Note that there are two questions in this poll. One about critics of Wikipedia, and the other about critics of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Note that "foremost" could be described as the "most famous person" who criticizes Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. Or, "foremost" could be described as the "most dedicated critic", regardless of fame. Or, it could easily be described as the "most effective or influential critic". How you choose is up to you.

The voting will remain open until the end of Sunday, April 3, 2001.

[EricBarbour]

My worthless 2 cents: Colbert isn't a valid "critic" of WP, because he's a comedian,
and people don't necessarily take him seriously. He mocked WP admins and
Arbcommies for being basement dwellers, and pointed out the foolishness of
letting random mutants edit an "encyclopedia", but those are easy cheap shots.
He and the Daily Show are still occasionally having Wales The Questionable
on as a guest--and lobbing very soft balls at him. Jon Stewart, executive
producer of both shows, seems to like Jimbo.

Larry Sanger has been criticizing the WMF, recently. But not very much.
He hasn't made a multiyear campaign out of it. And I wish he would.

I would personally give the top ratings to Greg and to Daniel Brandt,
because they are dedicated, and because they are intensely hated by
WP's inner circle of toads--to an extent that almost no one else "enjoys".

Not sure about Danny Wool---he gave up on his blog more than a year ago,
and has pretty much dropped out of sight since then.

I'd rather see this poll started over, with a smaller list.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[Milton Roe]

I would personally give the top ratings to Greg and to Daniel Brandt,
because they are dedicated, and because they are intensely hated by
WP's inner circle of toads--to an extent that almost no one else "enjoys".

That was more or less my thinking. The more WMF hates them, the better they must be. Kohs deserves honorable mention and the silver medal, but Brandt and his Hivemind admin RL list has clearly hit them where they're tender. And done so in that ineffably-satisfying "scratch-where-it-itches" way that we recognize as "poetic justice": they have been punished by being forced to gag down a very large dose of their own medicine, hoist by their own petard, etc., etc., choose your own metaphor. Nobody has ever lobbed stones at WMF's glass house, quite like Brandt.

The amazing part of this, as I've said many times, is that WMF has learned NOTHING general from it (and the only specific thing they've learned is not to mess with Brandt). But even that fact says something about THEM. One cannot punish a person who does not recognize, by reason of total self-centeredness, that they've done anything wrong; the most you can do is hurt them.

But it sure feels good to the rest of us, to watch.

(IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)

[Herschelkrustofsky]

Kohs deserves honorable mention and the silver medal, but Brandt and his Hivemind admin RL list has clearly hit them where they're tender. And done so in that ineffably-satisfying "scratch-where-it-itches" way that we recognize as "poetic justice": they have been punished by being forced to gag down a very large dose of their own medicine, hoist by their own petard, etc., etc., choose your own metaphor. Nobody has ever lobbed stones at WMF's glass house, quite like Brandt.

I must say that on this point, I agree with you even more than I usually do.