My strained relationship with Wikipedia

[c_elisa]

It all started almost two years ago when I was writing What Is Kept and was trying to get Storm and Rogue to talk about sexual orientation without, you know, actually talking about it.* Being thorougly stuck, I started trying to figure out what Rogue might have picked up from her parents, which led me to realize that Mystique and Destiny's ideas

Comments

[corinna_5]

A battle for good! I fixed some canon errors in an article on a mystery writer I liked who died young -- it made me feel, oddly, like I was doing something on her behalf. I can imagine it gets pretty addictive.

Also, I read Steward's first Toklas-Stein mystery, as a fan of Stein and mysteries (as was Stein herself, in both cases). I would never have guessed what a varied life he lived, though as I recall the bio on the book mentions his other pseudonym. Thanks for the pointer!

[c_elisa]

I read that one too! It's how I first heard of him. I remember nothing about it except that he tried to respond to a scene from A Movable Feast and it was very odd.

[vagabondsal]

(featuring the photo in which Natalie is sad because somebody has put whipped cream on her hat)

*snort*

Generally, reading Wikipedia's more controversial/vandalized articles just reinforces my belief that there ought to be a general aptitude exam held before you can participate in the human race, but with stalwarts such as yourself holding back the tide, who knows, eh? There might be hope yet. At any rate, Wikipedia is a fascinating cultural experiment, and you are braver than me by far for delving so deeply into its depths.

[c_elisa]

I mostly hang out in the quiet backwaters, though. The big controversial articles where people are constantly fighting just depress me. Though I might eventually try to do something about this section of the bisexuality article.

[vagabondsal]

...oh, dear. Any article that starts by equating bisexuality with pederasty needs some judicious scalpel-wielding, is all I've gotta say.

[ion_bond]

Well, for every stupid person out there, there's a smart person, and the good intentions of Wikipedia users outweigh the bad (or so I'd like to believe.) It may not be reliable, but it's certainly interesting.

Thank you for your good work.

[c_elisa]

I think that people who actually stick around -- as opposed to drive-by vandals -- overwhelmingly have good intentions. Unfortunately, I also think Wikipedia deals with vandals far better than it deals with well-intentioned idiots.