Rachel Marsden: The Fundamental Schizophrenia of BLP Options

[gomi]

I am amused and befuddled by the current ArbCom case re Rachel Marsden. The ArbCom has come down with a bunch of tough-minded words about BLPs.

On the one hand, I can see that the article would be embarassing and damaging to Marsden, resurfacing a 10-year-old false date-rape case and more recent criminal harassment charges. Marsden has apparently complained in person to Wales about this. While not finding any material unsourced, the ArbCom case says that the article is "too negative" and anyone can essentially blank it. Does this apply to Brandts article? To all BLPs?

On the other hand, the statements in this article, while negative, were well-sourced, and all the information remains in the article history.

Finally, and perhaps most bizarrely, SlimVirgin is the one who has stubbed and full-protected the page -- she isn't ArbCom and has not thus far been involved.

[gomi]

Sorry, just yankin' yer chain ...

Now, to add something substantive: Slimey has just gone through another purge of her talk page (nothing new here),. Of more interest, in a perverse way, is her incessant addition of "barnstars" and other pseudo-awards to her personal page, like this. Beside the obvious approval-seeking, what is the psychology of this. It seems distrubed to me: she takes a variety of unpopular positions, quite publicly, frequently castigates other editors and admins, for actual misdeeds or because of raging hormones (who knows?), but collects these silly trinkets. A disturbed mind, if you ask me!

This post has been edited by gomi: Fri 8th December 2006, 6:47am

[AV Roe]

Sorry, just yankin' yer chain ...

Now, to add something substantive: Slimey has just gone through another purge of her talk page (nothing new here),. Of more interest, in a perverse way, is her incessant addition of "barnstars" and other pseudo-awards to her personal page, like this. Beside the obvious approval-seeking, what is the psychology of this. It seems distrubed to me: she takes a variety of unpopular positions, quite publicly, frequently castigates other editors and admins, for actual misdeeds or because of raging hormones (who knows?), but collects these silly trinkets. A disturbed mind, if you ask me!

It's quite absurd considering the fact that the barnstars are meaningless and just individual expressions by individual editors, a circle of self-congratulation and ego-stroking. A number of editors have had the good sense to minimize the barnstars either by putting them on a page other than their main user page (an "awards" page) or by reducing their size so as not to be ostenatious. Slim seems to take them seriously and is committed to displaying them in as vainglorious a manner as possible - much like a senior flunky in a dictatorship displaying rows of ribbons and trinkets on his chest. See here I am, she's saying, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it people like me."