I talked to someone who knows her, and this person said that it was Linda Mack (aka SlimVirgin).


I don't know where the pic came from. It was uploaded by a mysterious user on ED six days ago. No unkind remarks or cheap shots will be tolerated in this thread, otherwise I'll delete it. We're not ED.

I would say that the "chain of custody" here is weak, but that is probably par for the course. We need a road trip to Swalwell!

She's quite good-looking, actually!

(Whoever it is...)

Stop the presses! This is the first significant advance on this front in some time.

My guess is that if it is actually her, the photo was taken maybe ten or more years ago. I think that her personality has now evolved to a point where her image will not register on cameras, or in mirrors.

We know pretty well how old Linda Mack is. It thus seems plausible that the photo is a few years old, though mabe she just looks good for her age!

Well, I don't think it's her. I mean, what is that, a Nike "swoosh" logo on the light blue tank top? Slimmy would never be caught dead in Nike apparel - not to mention the fact that that's probably a sports bra underneath it.

Besides, this image looks kinda manipulated, like someone removed the background from it and masked the rest... Maybe I'm being too skeptical, but I'm not taking the life-size poster of Morticia from the Addams Family down from my wall until I see some provenance here.

It might not be her. She may not even be Linda Mack. SlimVirgin may be in her 20s like Essjay.

The origin is suspect and the photo is probably manipulated. She graduated from a university right? In that case there should be graduation or year book photos publicly available although you'll have to go there in person to check the archives.

That picture could be anyone. There's two different names for SlimVirgin, Sarah and this other one. Even if the pic is Sarah, maybe Sarah isn't slim.

Maybe the picture is just random.

Knowing, ED's lack of reliability, someone will upload a nude version with that same woman next.

That's why I did what I could to confirm it independently of ED. Maybe, maybe, maybe. How old are you? Everything you said about the Sarah pic could be said of Essjay. Maybe that pic of Ryan Jordan isn't him. Maybe his name isn't Ryan Jordan (he once said his initials are S.J.). Maybe you are Essjay's sockpuppet.

If you want to compose a requiem for Essjay, his blog is at http://blog.essjay.org/ --oops he put his whole domain into park status within the last couple of hours, sorry. But they're accepting tearful comments on his talk page still (anything non-gushy gets edited out). They'll love you there.

I've spent about 20 times more hours on SlimVirgin research than I did on Essjay research, and I'm saying she is Linda Mack, aka Sarah McEwan, and there's a 95 percent chance that this is her picture. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm open to any better evidence that you have lying around.

That may be true in the US, but not in the UK. There are no such photos of me.

Speaking as a former ED'er, on issues like this, ED is scary reliable. I have few doubts that the photo is legit.

The poetry in my sig as of now is just goth poetry off the internet -- I looked for a whiile to find the best one, althought I'm still unhappy with it. (Note: Anyone who sees this post a month after I wrote it, my sig will have something else by that time.)

Well, what I never got was the two names thing. Did she really use two aliases in real life or are the researchers not sure which one she is?

For the pic, well I often got the impression she's older, like hair just starting to gray and has somewhat of a refined sense. But then with the essjay thing, maybe she is actually college age. I've heard on WR about how she's sometimes edited Wikipedia for 36 hours without a break and that sounds like someone young as an older person would have kids and all these responsibilities.

Also, interesting diff http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=112573156

*grimace*

Why is having her picture so important? Honestly?

I've asked that myself on occasion. The whole point of exposing certain admins, etc., is to make them feel more accountable, and psychologically speaking, seeing your actual face staring back at you from a web page makes you feel vastly more accountable than just seeing your name, age, and location. For one thing, it gives you a lot less deniability among your real-world associates, particularly if someone who knows you finds the page on Google and might otherwise think he's got you mistaken for someone else.

To some extent, though, it could have the opposite effect if the photo really is of someone else... In other words, it might make the person feel even less accountable than they would otherwise. Take me, for example - I don't feel accountable for what I do here at all!

It's an interesting problem, actually... The other thing is that web pages without images are boring, and nobody really wants to read them! Which reminds me, would you like me to host an avatar for you?

My understanding is that she claims that her name is Sarah McEwan, but we believe that her real name is Linda Mack.


There are ummarried and childless people in their 40s!

Yearbook photos of me would date back to the mid 90's. I have no such photos of me floating around the net either (and it's a good thing too, those pics are horrible!).

Hi, everyone. First post.

I can think of at least one way Daniel Brandt could easily verify this... and those of you who have been around here for any time should know. So, my noob vote is that he is right about this.

Also, this picture really does complement some of the details in the background story. So thanks for putting it up. And being civil about it.

And it does look like those drawn awards on her talk page, doesn't it?

I'm convinced that this photo is the opposite of the Portrait of Dorian Gray...as that it stays young while she ages due to her nasty attitude....