Matthew White: The Finale, The mass media can take it from here, he says Options

[Somey]

About three months ago, Matthew White posted this to his Wikiwatch blog page, under the heading "Finale":

My job is done here; there's nothing further to say... Happily, it appears that Wikipedia has officially jumped the shark.

And it appears that he really has stopped posting new blog entries, or at least there's nothing since then. The "Finale" also includes this observation, as part of his justification for... uh, "retirement":

"Checking Wikipedia" has become the information equivalent of "stopping at McDonald's". It reeks of apathy and superficiality. When I started this blog, the media was uniformly in love with Wikipedia. Now, not so much.

It was fun picking on Wikipedia when I was the only one doing it, but now Wikipedia is becoming the butt of jokes all across the mainstream media. Complaining about Wikipedia will soon become as common as complaining about AOL.

It's true that the media has turned against Wikipedia, though I wouldn't quite call it a complete reversal - more of a general trend. But this does raise an interesting question: Does increased participation by the mainstream media in pointing out WP's flaws and inadequacies really change the roles, rules, and realities for people who have been hammering away at them since the beginning, or at least since it became clear that WP wasn't just going to go away?

[JohnA]

I wished Matthew White had continued, and got himself a proper blog as well.