Who is Essjay?, Probably he's Ryan Jordan Options

[Nya]

It's been 6 months, right? Any bets on who Mr Jordan is now in the wikimasquerade?

I've been wondering that on and off since he "retired", since I find it hard to believe that a 15+ hours a day editor could have quit just like that. I suppose he always could have shifted over to Wikiquote or something, but I always had the impression that Wikipedia was his first love. At the very least, I doubt he took the HighInBC/H/1==2 route. If he's back, he started from the ground up.

[Jonny Cache]

It's been 6 months, right? Any bets on who Mr Jordan is now in the wikimasquerade?

I've been wondering that on and off since he "retired", since I find it hard to believe that a 15+ hours a day editor could have quit just like that. I suppose he always could have shifted over to Wikiquote or something, but I always had the impression that Wikipedia was his first love. At the very least, I doubt he took the HighInBC/H/1==2 route. If he's back, he started from the ground up.

What a rube!

I think it's far more likely that he maintained a veritable host of wikipupae already warming up in the incubator.

Jonny

[Joseph100]

It's been 6 months, right? Any bets on who Mr Jordan is now in the wikimasquerade?

I've been wondering that on and off since he "retired", since I find it hard to believe that a 15+ hours a day editor could have quit just like that. I suppose he always could have shifted over to Wikiquote or something, but I always had the impression that Wikipedia was his first love. At the very least, I doubt he took the HighInBC/H/1==2 route. If he's back, he started from the ground up.

What a rube!

I think it's far more likely that he maintained a veritable host of wikipupae already warming up in the incubator.

Jonny

Tis you, who is in league with with thou evil SOX. Thou art stand accused of the villainous high crime of "SOCKISM" by thee congregation of the Holy Jimbo Wales. Complaint hath been made unto thee by ole consecrated admin arthou a SOILED SOX.

Upon notice, ye ole admin, with wisdom on loan from the LORD JIM him self, shall consider evidence, which Thine may not see, as such holy words of lord Jim and his priests only can viewed by only the
consecrated. You are guilty as a SOX

As the priests light the match and thow said match on the well oiledfaggots and repent so the flames of banning thou not sent ye to hell but to the bosom of the Holy Wales.

[Somey]

Hey, using the "Darko" skin, available only to members, the white-colored text used for the word "faggots" literally looks like it's leaping out of the sea of red text on the dark steel-blue background, creating a cool 3-D effect!

Yet another reason to register an account, eh?

[everyking]

It's been 6 months, right? Any bets on who Mr Jordan is now in the wikimasquerade?

I've been wondering that on and off since he "retired", since I find it hard to believe that a 15+ hours a day editor could have quit just like that. I suppose he always could have shifted over to Wikiquote or something, but I always had the impression that Wikipedia was his first love. At the very least, I doubt he took the HighInBC/H/1==2 route. If he's back, he started from the ground up.

Essjay was really all about power. He didn't work on content, except a little during his early phase, when he was shoving his weight around with his made-up credentials and his copy of "Catholicism for Dummies". He spent his WP time on admin stuff. As a newbie, with no adminship, with none of his fraudulently acquired respect, how attractive would WP be, especially after the beating he took from everyone? He couldn't have taken the HighInBC or Gallimh route; someone would have noticed, even if there was somebody crazy enough to enable that in the first place. I used to think he'd start over, but now I tend to doubt it.

[Nya]

Essjay was really all about power. He didn't work on content, except a little during his early phase, when he was shoving his weight around with his made-up credentials and his copy of "Catholicism for Dummies". He spent his WP time on admin stuff. As a newbie, with no adminship, with none of his fraudulently acquired respect, how attractive would WP be, especially after the beating he took from everyone? He couldn't have taken the HighInBC or Gallimh route; someone would have noticed, even if there was somebody crazy enough to enable that in the first place. I used to think he'd start over, but now I tend to doubt it.

Very true. It's really not that hard to get an account adminned though - all it takes is a few months of vandal fighting with only occasional content contribution. I would be surprised if Essjay didn't know that.

[BobbyBombastic]

If I were Essjay I would be cursing the day I ever heard of wikipedia. Would you come back under a new name if you were him? I know that is not a good way to judge what another person would do in any given situation, but it is interesting to think about. But then again, I don't fully appreciate the wiki-addiction that people describe because I have never experienced it myself. I can only assume that it is like any other addiction though and it would be hard for someone like him to give up on the social networking aspect of it that he seemed to enjoy the most, in my opinion.

Someone creative should do a "Where are they now" thread with some of the more notable Wikipedian departures.

[Nathan]

I remember being afflicted with that exact addiction, once upon a time.

These days, I have better things to do, like beat the hell out of WordPress.

[BobbyBombastic]

I remember being afflicted with that exact addiction, once upon a time.

These days, I have better things to do, like beat the hell out of WordPress.

That's much healthier, I think! But in all seriousness (like a lot of people I guess) I've had my share of addictions, most of which I have kicked without much thought, except cigarette smoking. Still working on that one. I'd actually like to read more about the wiki addiction that people describe. Why they are/were addicted, how they became addicted, etc. That would be interesting to me.

[Nathan]

I used to smoke also, many moons ago. It was something I used to do when I was either bored or stressed out. Apart from that, my brain was unable to form the addiction (lucky me) so I ended up quitting "cold turkey".

Getting back on topic...

I don't think Essjay would be lurking anywhere on Wikipedia. If you've noticed, he had a very specific style of editing.

[blissyu2]

By the way, when this post was first made, it said "Who is Essjay?" subtitle "Probably he's Ryan Jordan". The subtitle has recently been changed to "Easy: He's Ryan Jordan", which I think changes the whole context of this investigation. Given that it took a year to prove, I think that suggesting that it was "Easy" is somewhat misleading. Can it go back to what it originally said?

[guy]

Given that it took a year to prove, I think that suggesting that it was "Easy" is somewhat misleading. Can it go back to what it originally said?

I'll change it, but now it's an easy question to answer and it might be misleading to sugges tthat it isn't.