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A Day In The Life

From Wikitruth

[edit] A Day in the Life of Jimbo

Let's all be clear here: It ain't easy being Jimbo. He just wants to edit a nice encyclopedia, jet around, and convince the world that Wikipedia has a firmer grip on reality than, say, a comic book. He wants to chat with people, tell them his troubles, troubles only the closest of allies need share, which he can let out in a blast of stress and then get "back to work".

All he wants is a little time with his close buddies, to be able to talk online without getting it quoted.

Oh well.

This chat log showed up at the Wikitruth Gmail account. We're going with it, but can't guarantee it's real. But it sure sounds like the world-weary sadness of a man who won't be left alone.

Please, remember the pain behind the Jimbo smile, the wince behind the grin.

It ain't easy being Jimbo.

-jwales> Can lots and lots of people help me with Paul Barresi
-jwales> ?
-jwales> a good editor has adopted it
-jwales> and is working on sources
-jwales> So, Barresi, you see, has my cellphone number
-jwales> barresi just called me at home... he's a nice guy but
-jwales> he is tormented by the information about him on the net
-jwales> jokestress used, for example, luke ford as a source
-jwales> but luke ford is not a reliable source at all
-jwales> so those bits probably need to come out
-Cyde> jwales: At the same time though, you can't run away from your past, especially not
       if it's verifiable.
-jwales> he is fine with that
-jwales> but it is not verifiable, he says, because it is not true
-jwales> we are running into a problem with using the net for a source, because the net is
         full of crap basically
-Cyde> jwales: You saw that crazy Merkey site about you, right?
-jwales> This is the bit I really want to look at, because he's really mad about this part:
-jwales> Jim Mitteager, a former New York City police officer, taped his phone conversations
         while Los Angeles bureau chief of tabloid The Globe. Mitteager died of throat
         cancer in 1997, and his wife gave the tapes to Barresi seven years later. Barresi
         told reporter Drew Griffin "Mitteager indicated to the person who gave them to me
         that I would know what to do with them," and Barresi made a deal with KCBS-TV to air 
         them in a multi-part
-jwales> series in 2004. 
-jwales> he says he never did a deal with KCBS
-jwales> the problem is, our source is a tv show
-jwales> I do not know where Jokestress got it
-jwales> but probbaly she did not watch the show
-jwales> but rather took the source from another source or something
-freakofnurture> hmm... hope it's not 60 minutes
-jwales> so probably that needs fixing somehow
-jwales> for tonight if someone would just remove those bits .. bits sourced to
         luke ford, bits sourced to things we can't check right now
-jwales> this discussion between nicholasT, Vigilant1 and merkey (waya) is pretty depressing
-Cyde> Where is this discussion taking place?
-jwales> Cyde, yes, but we are wikipedians, not lunatics. We should not sink
         to the level of lunatics, no matter what the provocation.
-jwales> merkey quotes it on this apge
-jwales> "(NicholasT) Jimbo is a 7.3 on the bacon meter. He might like
         to see them too, just to be certain"
-jwales> what is a bacon meter?
-Cyde> Man this only reinforces my current behavior of NOT talking in #wikipedia.
-Cyde> I don't want my random rantings going out everywhere.
-jwales> so anyway back to Barresi
-jwales> the issue is I am trying really hard not to edit controversial things myself
-jwales> because the stupid media watches everything I do now
-jwales> Andrew Orloski is a Legitimate Journalist for the UK Guardian (a respected newspaper)
-jwales> believe it or now
-jwales> not
-jwales> I am just passing along what he screamed in my ear
-jwales> he is a nice guy
-jwales> but he was pretty wound up
-jwales> oh! freak this is really really important, the category things!
-jwales> He is quite insistent that he is NOT a 'gay porn star'
-jwales> oh yes
-jwales> no problem with that
-jwales> and he was in some gay movies

So remember, the next time Jimbo talks about the work and the effort of Wikipedia, it's not some pie in the sky thing for him. He's in the trenches every day, asking people to edit things (so the changes aren't linked to Jimbo), fixing up the entries (so that anybody with the special scream-in-Jimbo's-ear application process gets heard), and generally feeling the hurt we all feel.

We feel for him.

We really do.

It ain't easy being Jimbo.