Jimmy Wales Changes Position on Essjay
After considering the new facts that have come to light, Jimmy Wales has changed his stance in the Essjay Affair. Before, Wales had said in his Talk page:
“EssJay has always been, and still is, a fantastic editor and trusted member of the community…He has been thoughtful and contrite about the entire matter, and I consider it settled.â€
He has since posted this to his Talk page:
I have been for several days in a remote part of India with little or no Internet access. I only learned this morning that EssJay used his false credentials in content disputes. I understood this to be primarily the matter of a pseudonymous identity (something very mild and completely understandable given the personal dangers possible on the Internet) and not a matter of violation of people’s trust. I want to make it perfectly clear that my past support of EssJay in this matter was fully based on a lack of knowledge about what has been going on. Even now, I have not been able to check diffs, etc.
I have asked EssJay to resign his positions of trust within the community. In terms of the full parameters of what happens next, I advise (as usual) that we take a calm, loving, and reasonable approach. From the moment this whole thing became known, EssJay has been contrite and apologetic. People who characterize him as being “proud” of it or “bragging” are badly mistaken.
I will post shortly about how there is still a “third” transgression that is perhaps the most serious of all.
March 3rd, 2007 05:24
Jimbo was fully aware of Essjay misdemeanors, long before now. In fact Essjay is still lying. The “facts” on Essjay user page indicate that he, a “24 year old”, has an 12 year long career of working as a paralegal, studying at college, working on wikipedia etc. Meaning he left high school at 12 years old.
But it’s Jimbo Wales who should be resigning.
March 4th, 2007 17:51
[...] Turns out the Wikipedian who calls himself “Essjay” interviewed by Stacy Schiff in the New Yorker article that you read for class was not the person that he claimed to be. His dishonesty with the Wikipedia community and with the media has sparked a new round of soul-searching in the Wikipedia community. Andrew Lih has the most thorough updates here, here, and here. [...]
March 10th, 2007 22:53
Mr. Wells is, at best an idiot or at worst a liar himself.