Sunday, March 02, 2008

Wiki hath no fury worse than a woman scorned



"I don't really pay much attention to it anymore. It's pretty ridiculous. I view it as a giant graffiti board for people with axes to grind — or for guys named Jimbo Wales who want to dump their girlfriends."—Rachel Marsden, right wing pundit and failed relationship participant speaking out about former boyfriend Jimbo Wales and his contribution to the world of on line publishing, Wikipedia.
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Ah, yes, as Neil Sedaka once said, "Breaking up is hard to do!"
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The gloves are off and Wikipedia has been drawn into the middle of a rather nasty relationship break up, as the websites founder Jimbo Wales (that’s how he goes by) and former BC resident Rachel Marsden, exchange un-pleasantries after their apparently short relationship came undone.

Marsden who it seems wishes to aspire to Ann Coulter like status among the right wingers of both the US and Canada, (be sure to peruse her collection of articles) has posted an entry on her eBay account which tries to sell off some of Jimbo’s belongings after he posted details of their short but unsuccessful relationship on the Wikipedia site.

Wales as part of what seems to be a Wikipedia protection squad had previously intervened to correct Ms. Marsden’s Wikipedia entry. That when he and his fellow wiki guardians apparently decided that her wiki entry did not meet the on line sites standards.
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The on line intervention took place after Ms. Marsden had contacted Wales to complain about her treatment at the hands of the wild west wonks of Wikipedia, who have taken a rather active interest in her numerous and very colourful relationship and professional troubles on both sides of the border.

It would appear though that the two discussed more than the nasty words that wiki enthusiasts had posted on her agenda, it seems that as things can go, one thing led to another and they developed a personal relationship, one which the tech blog Valleywag recently outlined in tawdry detail complete with past and more recent Instant Messaging transcripts which may lend an air of authenticity to the claims that Jimbo may not have been just protecting the reputation of Wikipedia.

With the credibility of Wikipedia suddenly up on the radar, Wales decided to come clean and dismiss Ms. Marsden via his own on line reference source and in the old fashioned ways, well old fashioned by today’s standards now we guess, as he Instant messaged her with the sad news that it was all over between them.

As history has shown, relationships both work and personal have been troublesome for her and the fallout hasn’t always been received well by the right wing pundit, so she’s fired back with her own blasts through her now famous eBay account.
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She also has her own personal website and apparently a facebook page should she wish to further vent on the latest developments in her always exciting and frequently in the news lifestyle.
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Ms. Marsden has also been quick to the email outbox, with some fine quotes made useful by the Canadian Press among other news services, not to mention the many curious bloggers of the world, such as Mashable who has taken the story and run with it.

It may be the first indication that the once private world of the geeks and wonks is truly more emotional than we all may have thought; it’s a new and not so happy world wide web where wiki meets eBay and the broken hearts are laid bare for all to see.

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