Ryan Lomonaco wrote: > Forwarded per request. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Joseph Reagle <[email protected]> > Date: Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 6:45 PM > Subject: Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] "The problem with Wikipedia..." > To: [email protected] > > On Thursday, June 17, 2010, phoebe ayers wrote: > >> Actually, the other way around, as others have stated. >> >> Now that you mention it, I've seen that quote attributed to Gareth >> Owen before, so that may actually be the origin of it. I think it's >> quite a bit older than 2006 though. >> > > A wonderful question and one I've been interested in since I think such > aphorisms have an interesting normative power (e.g., some others include > [a]). Of course scholars, at least, like it so much because it shows that > the theory is incomplete and hence is grist for their mills, i.e., new > theory! :-) > > I can't provide a provenance any more specific than already noted (i.e., > appearing on Gareth Owen's user page) and I always found it ironically apt > that such a prominent statement about Wikipedia is attributed to an > anonymous. (If anyone knows Owen, please ask!) However, here's a bit of a > time-line, I think it certainly spread as a meme in wider circles thanks to > Cohen at the NYT. > > 20060120: Gareth Owen's user page [1]. > 20060321: Raul654's adds it to his laws [2]. > 20070423: Noam Cohen reference in NYT [3]. > 20070501: Quoted in Wikizine [4]. > 20070613: Sage Ross refers to it as old hat a few months later in response > to popular Britannica blog entry [5]. > 20080106: Cohen references it again [6]. > >
I would suggest that if anyone has a good set of logs of the various IRC channels, grepping the pre 20th of January 2006 logs might suggest an earlier usage. Or it might not. Yours, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
