Steve and Vortex,
About a year ago, I think it was, the Wikipedia "cold fusion" haters
blacklisted New Energy Times because I added some links to - heaven forbid
- the NET site which I thought would be useful. You know, the Internet is
good for Wiki, it's good for NET too - we're both vehicles that ride on the
same highway, founded on the same principles of open information, I thought.
Not so, apparently. Somehow, the Wikipedians think they're the smartest
cats on the Internet. (Shhh....let them keep thinking that.)
The strange thing is - since OR (Original Research) is verbotten on
Wikipedia, you have to ask, well then, where do they get their facts from?
Answer: They take (steal) it from other people who have done OR. But they
reword it so it doesn't appear to be plagiarism. Nifty, eh?
Also, so long as OR is verbotten on Wiki, it will ALWAYS been behind the
leading edge as other publications who do use OR diligently will maintain
the leading edge. That's where it's at for me.
I ended up interviewing ScienceApologist (perhaps the most destructive
"contributor" to the cf page) a while back and was planning on publishing a
comprehensive investigation. My sense after tracking him (Joshua Schroeder,
Columbia Univ. student), watching a video of him conducting one of his
science-hating meetings and speaking with him on the interview (yes, he
consented and we both recorded it) was that I was dealing with someone who
was hell-bent on a censorship and book-burning crusade. Real scary siht. I
won't make any analogies here - use your imaginations. I've not compiled
and pub'd the investigation yet...fortunately I've had better and more
important things to do.
So after the blacklist, I said, enough - these clowns are hopelessly
immature and any efforts on my part to help them will be just wasted. I
didn't even bother asking them to remove NET from the blacklist. Someone
else eventually ended up doing that, I think ABD. He's a noble
warrior. Wikipedia is too easy for aggressive, singular-interests to
manipulate. It is also often used as a last-ditch battleground for losers
of conflicts in the real world. I'm all for the progress of science and
communication and I don't have a 20-year axe to grind like some of these
players. So playing cat and mouse with the Wikipedia losers is pointless
for me. Jed is right, let them fester in their own cess. This way the gap
between Wiki and reality will stink so bad, grow so wide, the dysfunction
of Wiki will become ever more self-evident.
I watch the Wiki CF page and the discussion page now and then to see what
is going on. The most prolific and aggressive recent Wikipedia editor on
the "cold fusion" page lurks on this (Vortex) list and is probably reading
all of these messages. If he weren't such a coward he would uncloak. He
probably couldn't withstand the (mostly) intelligent scrutiny that he would
have to subject himself here. If he wants to control the Wiki cf page with
his POV, he can go ahead knock himself out. He and his heels-in-the-mud
buddies can have Wikipedia.
Me, I'll put my attention and efforts in real encyclopedias and
peer-reviewed journals thank you very much have a nice day.
Steve
