Over at Wikipedia, the skeptics erased many days of patient work by
Pierre Carbonnelle. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> What a shame! Here
are some messages he & I exchanged:
Pierre Carbonnelle wrote:
I'm about to give up on wikipedia, to be honest.
That's understandable. I gave up on it long ago.
I think I need to take a step back for a while.
Good idea.
The other option would be to go to the arbitration committee and ask
them why perfectly sourced statements can be deleted so
easily. This needs to be carefully thought out though, and I don't
know that procedure very well.
I do not know the procedure either. I have heard that it seldom
works. However, I urge you to try it before you expend any more
effort on the web site, because otherwise the opponents will only
sweep away your work again. I hate to see you work like Sisyphus,
forever doing the same task again and again. It isn't worth it. If
the Arbitration Committee will not give you some protection, I think
you should stop trying.
The main thing to tell the Committee is exactly what you said: these
are "perfectly sourced statements" from mainstream, peer-reviewed
scientific journals. That's the important part.
I suggest you also tell the Committee something along these lines:
"I and others have worked long and hard on this article, and each
change and addition we made was carefully discussed and approved by
moderate people on both sides of the debate. I consulted with experts
in cold fusion and they agreed that the article was technically
correct. Then the hardline skeptical opponents unilaterally swept
aside my work without consulting me or compromising. I do not want to
do all that work again, because I fear they will erase it again.
Unless you can offer some protection, I do not feel it is worth my
time to work on it. The article will be left out of date, and
unfairly biased against the cold fusion researchers."
- Jed
