How hard is it to prove online that you are who you say you are? Author Philip Roth had to publish a letter in The New Yorker to satisfy the editors of Wikipedia
Wikipedia succeeds by “not doing the things that nobody ever thought of not doing”. Specifically, Wikipedia does not verify the identity or credentials of any of its editors. This would be a transcendentally difficult task for a project that is open to any participant, because verifying the identity claims of random strangers sitting at distant keyboards is time-consuming and expensive. If each user has to be vetted and validated, it’s not practical to admit anyone who wants to add a few words to a Wikipedia entry.
Philip Roth and Wikipedia
“Roth’s open letter is at best the (justifiably) aggrieved and confused ramblings of a man ignorantly discussing what he does not understand or remember, and at worst a deliberately malicious act inspired by nothing more than a misguided desire to flip us the Vs and maybe get paid by the New Yorker on the way”–Oliver.
Oliver makes his case here:
http://quominus.org/archives/979
People miss the basic point
To guarantee an entry staying the same on Wikipedia you need printed or official citations to act as evidence.
Roth saying something ON Wikipedia doesn’t cut it. You put it on your own official website and then you link that citation in Wikipedia. That’s what everyone else does in these situations. It’s not hard.
Does he think he’s better than everyone else?