The Mezzanine Floor

Well, Essjay has stepped down; Jimbo has apparently ordered him to do so. It’s a pity, as he really was an extraordinarily prolific editor… although that was a rather large deception he perpetrated.

Hmm… a tragic hero with a fatal flaw… what do you do with such a person? Why, write a Greek epic tragedy about him, of course! Look out for “The Essjaiad”: coming soon to a blog post near you.

And Essjay has resigned,
For Jimbo changed his mind…

One last thing: so we shouldn’t viciously attack people when they do wrong. That doesn’t just apply to hard-working Wikipedia editors… *coughcomputergeeksattackingBillGatescough* and *coughpeoplerunningdownParisHiltoncough*. That doesn’t mean that you have to accept what they’re doing (especially in Bill’s case )… just, please, remember to treat people with agape.

You might have seen the recent news coverage about Wikipedia administrator/bureaucrat/checkuser Essjay. I’m not going to make a statement about whether or not I believe his actions were justified. However: good grief, people, don’t go off on someone for lying. How many shady secrets do you have in your history?

Alright, to contradict my earlier statement, I’m not happy about what’s happened (even though he is one of the best contributors), partially because I’m a Wikipedian myself, but overwhelming someone’s talk page with abusive comments is not the proper way to go about dealing with things. As Ryan Chappelle would say, “There’s a thing called due process; it’s why we have juries and judges and courts”.