Email from Jimbo Wales (and a book?)

[ltbdl]

just received this email.

Hi, I found you on Clovermoss's survey and was particularly interested in your answer here: "Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
honestly? vandalism"

I'm working with a collaborator, [[Dan Gardner]] on a book.

We are writing a book about the Wikipedia story which will explore why so many volunteers have given so much of their time and effort to produce what has become a globally trusted information source. Would you be willing to do a short interview with us about your experience?

We would ask you a very little biographical information – age, work, where you live – and explore why you got involved with Wikipedia, why you continue, how you get along with others, that sort of thing. Specific stories about experiences you had – good or bad -- are particularly valuable to us.

Would that be possible?

--Jimbo

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[Midsize Jake]

Does anyone think it's possible Jimbo would admit, in a book no less, that vandalism has long been a WP recruitment strategy?

I forget if it was me or Kelly Martin who first suggested that, way back during the ol' Wikipedia Review days, but I'm pretty sure nobody connected with Wikiland management (WMF or Jimbo himself) has ever agreed with that notion in a public forum.

I'd say it's much more likely that they'll pretend it "never even occurred to them" and was "really surprising," assuming they include your answer in the book at all.

[Vigilant]

They'll cherry pick the 'data' and come up with whatever narrative they wanted to come up with.

Reminds me of their A/B testing for the VisualEdsel.

[Zoloft]

Removed some guano. Carry on, now. No shitposting.

[Beeblebrox]

I can't say I haven't made the same error of forgetting that internal wikilinks don't work in emails, but even if they did, Dan Gardner (T-H-L) is a dab page identifying two individuals,. one is a 34-year-old English football player and the other is a 66-year-old lobbyist for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Assuming those are both the wrong person, there is also Dan Gardner (T-C-L), an editor who made 340 edits between August and October of 2004. Probably not.

Looking off-wiki, I believe I have found the intended subject of the misplaced link at https://www.dangardner.ca/

Prior to becoming an author, Gardner was a newspaper columnist, talking head, and investigative journalist who won or was nominated for every major award in Canadian newspaper journalism

From what I can tell he's a "co-author for hire".

[Emptyeye]

Given that people both on-and-off-wiki rightly raked Jimbo over the coals for falling for a pretty obvious joe job with regards to BradV, my initial response here was to say "Are we certain that it's actually Jimbo sending these e-mails?"

Looking on his talk page, it seems to be the real deal, which, weird.

Guess he needs to periodically remind people he's The Wikipedia Guy[1], since he's basically been run off of Wikipedia itself.

[1] Yes I'm aware he's not The Sole Wikipedia Guy, much as he tried to convince everyone he was even before The Other Wikipedia Guy went completely off the deep end.

[Beeblebrox]

I suppose it is only natural that the guy who -didn't- become a tech billionaire despite being instrumental in founding one of the most popular websites on the planet would be looking for some other way to get paid, having failed at every other venture he's involved himself in.

However, as Clovermoss points out in that talk page message, "who are you and where are you" are terrible ways to start a conversation with people who have chosen to post under a pseudonym, the cluelessness of it actually reassures me it is Jimbo.

I filled out the same survey, but <checks email>for some reason Jimbo hasn't reached out to me.

[Giraffe Stapler]

Dan Gardner's frequent co-author is someone named Bent Flyvbjerg (T-H-L). It appears that maybe Flyvberg is not unfamiliar with Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Sonderbro.

Dan Gardner wouldn't happen to be related to Sue Gardner, would he?

[Midsize Jake]

Dan Gardner wouldn't happen to be related to Sue Gardner, would he?

Well, they're both Canadian, so...

During a quick look at Mr. Gardner's Substack I found this piece from November 2023 entitled "The History of Technology is Most Relevant," in which he "teases" what is almost certainly this book after a few paragraphs on the importance of technological development in shaping world events and what-not:

What I’m Working On

Now, all that said, I have to admit I am biased.

I’ve been studying this stuff for years. And — dramatic pause — my publisher just handed me a contract to write a book about it. So, yeah, I think this is fascinating and important. And I really hope you agree.

I also hope you’re patient. It will be years before that book is available at fine stores near you.

That’s because I’m slow.

But it’s also because I just started a new collaboration which I expect will take up almost all my time for a year.

This other book will appear — if the Lord is willing and the crick don’t rise — in 2025ish.

What is this other book? With whom am I collaborating? I can’t discuss that now. All I can say is my co-author is a wonderful person who did something very good for the world. The themes and ideas have deep personal resonance for me. And the book is urgently needed.

Presumably he couldn't "discuss that now" because someone else might come along, steal the idea, and publish before 2025 rolls around. Sales of the book could conceivably drop from the expected hundred or so to as few as 20, or even less, not counting promo copies and such. (I guess secrecy is the price of attaining deep personal resonance?)

[Beeblebrox]

Hehe. I saw something like this in real life, only it was reality itself that screwed this guy's book up.

I was a field supervisor and co-led a training for the census in which he was a student. Then he was assigned to be on my first field team. He called me up and said he had just gotten the edit back on his manuscript sooner than expected and he wanted to go over it and provide feedback to the editor, and so he couldn't make the trip. My boss told me to just let him go (they routinely hire more people than they actually expect to use due to the high attrition rate at such jobs). So, I went to his house to get his stuff, he was super chill about it, clearly did not need the money, and he invited me in for coffee and explained that the book was very timely and needed to go out soon as it contained his predictions of the immediate future of the US economy.

This was in January 2020, maybe two weeks before we ever heard of what we all now know as COVID-19. So, all his theories were worth exactly nothing two months later. I don't think it even got published.