20070225 Timothy Noah of Slate is being Wiki-Whacked

Timothy Noah of Slate is being Wiki-Whacked

I'm Being Wiki-Whacked - washingtonpost.com.

February 25^th, 2007

H/t: “Answers.com”

OMG – Way too funny. This is the winner of this week’s Dayhoff Dr. Pepper Award.

Apparently, Timothy Noah, who writes the "Chatterbox" column for Slate, the online magazine at www.slate.com, “is facing wiki-deletion on the basis of lack of notability.”

But ya can be sure that Anna Nicole Smith is in Wikipedia. Yep, sure thing – find her here. On second thought, why bother. (By the way, Tom McLaughlin is the real father of her baby…)

I now feel so much better that I am not listed. At least I don’t think that I am in Wikipedia? Phew: “No results found (for “Kevin Dayhoff”.) For help on searching within…”

Recently one of my editors issued an edict that he will not accept any cite or reference to Wikipedia in any of our columns. Well, this broke my heart… Okay, I’m over it, moving on here…

In the case of Mr. Noah, “Answers.com” called to our attention, “Timothy Noah of Slate pokes fun at Wikipedia's "notability" requirement by, among other things, calling it rococo (ridiculously elaborate). Note: The writer is facing wiki-deletion on the basis of lack of notability...

“Wikipedia already maintains rules concerning verifiability and privacy. Why does it need separate rules governing 'notability'? Wikipedia's attempt to define who or what is notable is so rococo that it even has elaborate notability criteria for porn stars. A former Playboy Playmate of the Month is notable; a hot girlfriend to a famous rock star is not. Wikipedia's stubborn enforcement of its notability standard suggests that... we limit entry to the club not because we need to, but because we want to.”

Writing in the Washington Post, Sunday, February 25, 2007, on page B02, Mr. Noah remarks, “Pardon me if I seem a little blue. My Wikipedia bio is about to disappear because I fail to satisfy the ‘notability guideline.’ ”

What follows is a fun read, find it here: “I'm Being Wiki-Whacked”

Mr. Noah, we feel your pain.

Kevin