Hacker News Reader

Wales admitted he was wrong to me through a mutual friend. I don't think he ever publicly recanted, though.

That is rather disturbing. Well, as PG says, there's still room to do to Wikipedia what Wikipedia did to Encyclopedia Britannica.

I don't find it disturbing. I think it's very much in Wales' character; starting out in soft porn, co-founding Wikipedia, and then passing himself off as founder, rather than co-founder. Every time I see his face at the top of a Wikipedia page, it sickens me, and similarly every time I see him described as "founder". Thus, the Wikipedia banner sickens me twice.

AdBlockPlus element hiding rule: wikipedia.org###siteNotice

Thanks for the AdblockPlus rule!

For what it's worth, here is a thread I started on the Wikipedia mailing list in May 2005, which I believe was the first public debate about this:

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111502457428025

There are a ton of interesting posts from Jimbo, SJ, et al. Here are a couple of key comments by Jimbo about where his beliefs came from:

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111503845405275&w=...

http://marc.info/?l=wikipedia-l&m=111521774525655&w=...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com