Chapter Two: Gwen gleans, wending keen by the wikirindle
Wikirindle? WTF is a wikirindle? Though the above quote comes from Gwen Gale's userpage, I'll assume Gwen didn't really mean a gutter, as that would be too Freudian to even contemplate. Unfortunately, that's the least puzzling thing about Gwen and Wackipedia, as we'll soon see.
As I summarized in Chapter One, Gwen (AKA Heidi Wyss, "notable"--at least in her own mind--Swiss "author"--of a self-published e-book) started editing on Wikipedia as User Wyss. After a rather tumultuous tenure there, including several "Wikibreaks," she returned for a short while and then stormed off, supposedly with her Wikiball when she didn't get to completely control gameplay, to play elsewhere. Imagine the community's surprise when she returned in the depth of night as Gwen Gale.
Gwen actually seemed to have learned a thing or two from Wyss' frequent mishaps. Gwen was at least a bit less contentious, though she stormed right back into one of the range of articles that got her into trouble to begin with, namely "Lesbian" and its exciting subarticle, "Lesbian Sexual Practices." Now for anyone wondering how Gwen, as Wyss, could routinely get people blocked by her host of Admin friends because they had expertise in any given subject shouldn't be subject to that same blocking since she is, by her own admission, a "radical separatist lesbian"--well, you haven't been around Wikipedia long enough. There's one set of rules for the common-folk, which is most likely you, and another one for those who have managed to "wend keen" into the depths of the "wikirindle." That would be Gwen, in case you're wondering.
Things chugged along quite nicely for Gwen until she decided to run for Adminship. Within seconds, a coterie of people descended and had the audacity to ask her about her former user name, both on the Admin question page and her own user page. That really got Gwen's goat, but since she was being so carefully watched, she finessed the problem as best she could (which wasn't very well, truth be told), watching her nomination go down in flames. But that didn't stop a keen wender like Gwen for very long. She got her Admin ducks (or should I say lemmings?) in a row and reapplied a few months later, finally achieving her heart's desire by being able to indiscriminately block any and everyone who posed a threat to her POV. Yes, yes, you're right, Wikipedia supposedly espouses NPOV (neutral point of view), but, again, that's for them (meaning you), not us (meaning Gwen and her many alternate usernames and anonymous IPs).
Gwen went on a blocking spree virtually unparalleled in the frontier town known as Wikipedia. About the only good thing about Gwen's zealotry in blocking other users is it at least kept her from introducing inaccuracies into actual articles, something she perfected as Wyss and later refined as Gwen Gale. In January 2007 Gwen's preening ambition made a major blunder, however, when she decided to create two articles about herself (that would be Heidi Wyss) and Heidi's exciting not-quite-a-bestseller-yet e-book, something not only in direct contradiction of Wikipedia's supposed principles, but something which Gwen as an Admin regularly took others to task over. No one really took notice (actually, several did, but waited patiently for the chips to fall) until fall 2008. That's when things really got interesting.
Coming soon....
Chapter Three: Gormglaith--isn't that some kind of foot disease?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Gwen Gale = Heidi Wyss, a Wackipedia Fable
Chapter One: Wyss
The internet(s) (to paraphrase a certain addlepated President) are not for the faint of heart. Witness the long, strange trip of self-described Swiss "author" Heidi Wyss, a "radical feminist separatist" who first started editing on Wikipedia several years ago under the name Wyss. Wyss would go along for actual minutes at a time doing some useful edits, and then, as if undergoing some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde metamorphosis, would suddenly erupt in fury and bombast at some poor hapless teen (one must assume that most of Wikipedia is manned/womanned by the young and idealistic, musn't one?).
The charming and lovely Wyss got involved in one "edit war" after another (for those of you unfamiliar with Wikipedia's rather arcane "in-speak" and unbelievable assortment of acronyms, stay tuned--I'll provide Wyss' user space at Wikipedia where you'll get a lesson and a half), several "blocks" (meaning she wasn't permitted to edit for a while) and even a "ban" or two (meaning she was forbidden--yes, forbidden, ladies and germs, I know you must be aghast--from editing certain subjects).
Along the way, Wyss managed to get involved in rather heated arguments with several scientific experts and historians who were quite knowledgeable about their various fields, but that didn't pass muster with Wyss. No, Wyss actually maintained that these people, due to their expertise, were more likely to push "POV" (point of view for you infidels), and therefore Wikipedia was better off with your basic uninformed and thereby more "neutral" editors who could make Wikipedia the egalatarian place it was destined to be. Facts may be stubborn things, but they never dissuaded Wyss from arguing that it was consensus (by which she usually meant agreeing with her) that should dictate the final copy in any given Wikipedia article, made even more apparent by her frequent addition of outright inaccuracies into scores of articles. That wild and wacky Wyss, you must be thinking, and that puts you at least two steps ahead of most Wikipedians--you're thinking.
It all came tumbling down quite unexpectedly one day when Wyss, after having disappeared a time or two, optioned her RTV (right to vanish--how can you not know these things, people?) and zoomed off into the starry Swiss night, leaving behind a rant of epic proportions about Wikipedia and its failings. One might have concluded (and/or hoped) that the story would have ended there.
(Cue eerie music). But then something so horrifyingly gothic and, dare I say, Grand Guignol-esque happened that it will take me a day or two to collect my thoughts before posting:
Chapter Two: Gwen gleans, wending keen by the wikirindle
The internet(s) (to paraphrase a certain addlepated President) are not for the faint of heart. Witness the long, strange trip of self-described Swiss "author" Heidi Wyss, a "radical feminist separatist" who first started editing on Wikipedia several years ago under the name Wyss. Wyss would go along for actual minutes at a time doing some useful edits, and then, as if undergoing some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde metamorphosis, would suddenly erupt in fury and bombast at some poor hapless teen (one must assume that most of Wikipedia is manned/womanned by the young and idealistic, musn't one?).
The charming and lovely Wyss got involved in one "edit war" after another (for those of you unfamiliar with Wikipedia's rather arcane "in-speak" and unbelievable assortment of acronyms, stay tuned--I'll provide Wyss' user space at Wikipedia where you'll get a lesson and a half), several "blocks" (meaning she wasn't permitted to edit for a while) and even a "ban" or two (meaning she was forbidden--yes, forbidden, ladies and germs, I know you must be aghast--from editing certain subjects).
Along the way, Wyss managed to get involved in rather heated arguments with several scientific experts and historians who were quite knowledgeable about their various fields, but that didn't pass muster with Wyss. No, Wyss actually maintained that these people, due to their expertise, were more likely to push "POV" (point of view for you infidels), and therefore Wikipedia was better off with your basic uninformed and thereby more "neutral" editors who could make Wikipedia the egalatarian place it was destined to be. Facts may be stubborn things, but they never dissuaded Wyss from arguing that it was consensus (by which she usually meant agreeing with her) that should dictate the final copy in any given Wikipedia article, made even more apparent by her frequent addition of outright inaccuracies into scores of articles. That wild and wacky Wyss, you must be thinking, and that puts you at least two steps ahead of most Wikipedians--you're thinking.
It all came tumbling down quite unexpectedly one day when Wyss, after having disappeared a time or two, optioned her RTV (right to vanish--how can you not know these things, people?) and zoomed off into the starry Swiss night, leaving behind a rant of epic proportions about Wikipedia and its failings. One might have concluded (and/or hoped) that the story would have ended there.
(Cue eerie music). But then something so horrifyingly gothic and, dare I say, Grand Guignol-esque happened that it will take me a day or two to collect my thoughts before posting:
Chapter Two: Gwen gleans, wending keen by the wikirindle
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