[WikiEN-l] Improve quality by reviewing all new articles

Fri Dec 16 19:10:24 UTC 2005

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>>I also read the USA Today article, and the paragraphs that were quoted
>>were not obvious mistakes.  "John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant
>>to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960's. For a brief
>>time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy
>>assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever
>>proven."  "John Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1971, and
>>returned to the United States in 1984," Wikipedia said. "He started
>>one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly
>>thereafter."
>>
>>None of those mistakes are obvious. 
>>    
>>
>
>Anthony, I'm not normally one to state harsh opinions.  But frankly, if
>you don't find those errors to be blindingly obvious, you need to find
>another hobby.  Writing an encyclopedia is quite frankly beyond you.
>  
>
This was not (except in retrospect) obvious to me either, because I am 
not an expert in the Kennedy assassination.  I have a vague recollection 
that it took a long time to come up with the official determination of 
what happened, so for all I know there may have been hundreds of 
suspects in the earlier stages of the investigation, and I do not know 
offhand all their names, or whether Mr. Seigenthaler was one of them.

Quite frankly, if you have nothing better to do than insult Wikipedians 
and tell us we are not fit to participate in your project, I should 
think we need new leadership.

-Mark