Imprecations
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:17 pm
Do you ever feel worried that all your favorite Psalms are the imprecatory ones? You know, the ones where David or whoever says: "See that guy over there, God? GET HIM!!!"
For several months I've been editing anime-related pages (and a few non-anime ones) on Wikipedia. I like to think I've made some decent contributions in my small way. But after today I'm seriously questioning whether I'll ever do anything on Wikipedia again.
Two days ago I spent a couple hours out of my day writing a summary of the first episode of The Big O for Wikipedia. This morning I discovered that some guy is claiming I plagiarized it from a summary of the same episode on his site. This is, of course, completely untrue. I had never even looked at his episode summary. I didn't know it even existed.
For your edification, here's my summary in the Wikipedia page history, and here's the one on his site.
He claims parts of my summary were "lifted verbatim" from his. As they are both detailed, scene-by-scene recaps of the same episode of the same series, there are of course similarities in content, but as far as I can see there's not a single sentence the same aside from diologue quotes. Apparently this guy thinks he's the only one capable of writing a detailed, coherent summary of the episode and anyone else who manages it must have ripped him off.
But my protests were to no avail. A wikipedia staff member apparently decided this guy was right. He doubtless has no knowledge whatsoever of the material in question and, after glancing at the two pages for thirty seconds tops, saw that they contained similar information and made up his mind.
I was still fighting it, but I've decided it's not worth it. I told his individual that he wins, he can have the whole Big O section as his personal feifdom for all I care. I know I didn't copy anything from his site, my conscience is clear, and I gain nothing from a futile effort to convince him otherwise.
(Note, just for the record, that this guy's first edit is the 4th of August and his contribution list is a fraction the length of mine - and mine would be longer except I used to use a different account.)
This has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don't feel like ever contributing to Wikipedia again. It's not worth putting time and effort into something only to have it wiped out in the blink of an eye by self-centered bullies and get called a liar and a thief and just have to take it.
A lot of people run Wikipedia down because they say the information isn't accurate because anyone can contribute. I've never taken such a pessemistic view. I've always felt Wikipedia was a noble, enjoyable endeavor and a good resource for specialized information, if a bit idealistic and unavoidably flawed. In my experience, the pages about important stuff are more likely to be correct, because more people look at them and will notice and errors or intentional fabrications and they're more likely to require specialized knowledge, cutting down the pool of potential contributors to those who actually know what they're talking about. It's in the back alleys of Wikipedia, pages about pop culture and entertainment and other trivial stuff, that Wikipedia is at its worst. There you find the poorest pages (and some very good ones, to be sure), the worst behavior from users, and the most clueless action from staff.
In short, I'm just a little more cynical and jaded today than I was yesterday. I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, which is why I decided to walk away from the situation, but it irks me to have to take this kind of crap (if you'll pardon my language). I ended up reading imprecatory Psalms to help calm down. I know my problems don't compare to David's, and I don't want God to leave this guy's wife a widow and his children beggars, etc. etc., but it's nice to know even David felt like the whole world was out to get him sometimes.
OK, I'm done. Thanks for listening.
For several months I've been editing anime-related pages (and a few non-anime ones) on Wikipedia. I like to think I've made some decent contributions in my small way. But after today I'm seriously questioning whether I'll ever do anything on Wikipedia again.
Two days ago I spent a couple hours out of my day writing a summary of the first episode of The Big O for Wikipedia. This morning I discovered that some guy is claiming I plagiarized it from a summary of the same episode on his site. This is, of course, completely untrue. I had never even looked at his episode summary. I didn't know it even existed.
For your edification, here's my summary in the Wikipedia page history, and here's the one on his site.
He claims parts of my summary were "lifted verbatim" from his. As they are both detailed, scene-by-scene recaps of the same episode of the same series, there are of course similarities in content, but as far as I can see there's not a single sentence the same aside from diologue quotes. Apparently this guy thinks he's the only one capable of writing a detailed, coherent summary of the episode and anyone else who manages it must have ripped him off.
But my protests were to no avail. A wikipedia staff member apparently decided this guy was right. He doubtless has no knowledge whatsoever of the material in question and, after glancing at the two pages for thirty seconds tops, saw that they contained similar information and made up his mind.
I was still fighting it, but I've decided it's not worth it. I told his individual that he wins, he can have the whole Big O section as his personal feifdom for all I care. I know I didn't copy anything from his site, my conscience is clear, and I gain nothing from a futile effort to convince him otherwise.
(Note, just for the record, that this guy's first edit is the 4th of August and his contribution list is a fraction the length of mine - and mine would be longer except I used to use a different account.)
This has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don't feel like ever contributing to Wikipedia again. It's not worth putting time and effort into something only to have it wiped out in the blink of an eye by self-centered bullies and get called a liar and a thief and just have to take it.
A lot of people run Wikipedia down because they say the information isn't accurate because anyone can contribute. I've never taken such a pessemistic view. I've always felt Wikipedia was a noble, enjoyable endeavor and a good resource for specialized information, if a bit idealistic and unavoidably flawed. In my experience, the pages about important stuff are more likely to be correct, because more people look at them and will notice and errors or intentional fabrications and they're more likely to require specialized knowledge, cutting down the pool of potential contributors to those who actually know what they're talking about. It's in the back alleys of Wikipedia, pages about pop culture and entertainment and other trivial stuff, that Wikipedia is at its worst. There you find the poorest pages (and some very good ones, to be sure), the worst behavior from users, and the most clueless action from staff.
In short, I'm just a little more cynical and jaded today than I was yesterday. I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, which is why I decided to walk away from the situation, but it irks me to have to take this kind of crap (if you'll pardon my language). I ended up reading imprecatory Psalms to help calm down. I know my problems don't compare to David's, and I don't want God to leave this guy's wife a widow and his children beggars, etc. etc., but it's nice to know even David felt like the whole world was out to get him sometimes.
OK, I'm done. Thanks for listening.
)