Dead lawyer NOT DEAD, Andrea James strikes again Options

[EricBarbour]

The self-serving Boing Boing post sums it up well.

Psychology Wiki, like the unrelated Wikipedia project, requires a reliable source for any disputed fact, but that is one of those things that's very hard for people outside of wiki-world to understand. Wikipedia's policy is verifiability, not truth. This simple rule is a cornerstone policy, one of the five pillars.

Well, Andrea, they HAD a "verifiable fact". The "fact" said that Rubin died in 1997.

Instead of fixing an error in a printed book, Wikia chose to repeat an error. That's the major
problem with Wikia, and by extension Wikipedia: "facts" are difficult to challenge, esp. when
they are wrong. Try to correct it, and some officious bastard comes along and re-creates
falsehood. And yet, she still loves WP, after having a Wikia-induced headache.

Have I pointed out a few of the cases of Wikia material ending up on WP and vice versa?
Here ya go, cut-pasted from the "private area":

There's a Wikia wiki dedicated to Azumanga Daioh.
There's a Wikia wiki about One Piece.
There's a Wikia wiki about K-On.
There's a massive Wikia wiki about Babylon 5.
And there's a monstrous Wikia wiki about Buffy.

Much of the content is cut-pasted from or to Wikipedia.
The difference: Jimbo makes money from the Wikia versions, of course!

And people wonder why Jimbo is obsessed with encouraging WP participation........

Plus....The talk page on the Psychology Wikia is a laff-riot.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Tue 15th March 2011, 4:28am

[carbuncle]

I enjoyed this part of the WP bio of Rubin created by Jokestress/Andrea James:

Rubin was listed as having died in 1997 in the 2001 edition of The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology.[11] Rubin then attributed this error to "the internet" after it had been included in a Wikia profile about him.[12]

Although he didn't in fact do that, it fits James' story better.

Rubin's humorous New York Times oped piece should be added to the introductory reading list here.

[lilburne]

The self-serving Boing Boing post sums it up well.

Psychology Wiki, like the unrelated Wikipedia project, requires a reliable source for any disputed fact, but that is one of those things that's very hard for people outside of wiki-world to understand. Wikipedia's policy is verifiability, not truth. This simple rule is a cornerstone policy, one of the five pillars.

Well, Andrea, they HAD a "verifiable fact". The "fact" said that Rubin died in 1997.

To be fair they also had the fact that in 1997 he was Zick.

This post has been edited by lilburne: Tue 15th March 2011, 12:41pm

[Gruntled]

Ah well, it could have been worse. Suppose WP had wrongly had the date of death for (to pick something at random) a notable skater because someone had found a death notice for someone else with the same name.