You can’t write your own Wikipedia page. It’s not allowed.
Understandably.
Its purpose is not to simply publish the endless droning of a braggart, who, as it turns out, never actually walked on the moon (I’m looking at you, Sting!).
But the tech-savvy members of Generation B S, have found an easy and obvious way around that, a way to beat the system.
You hire someone else to write it for you.
And you do it because there’s a great pay-off – a large part of the population may actually believe everything they read.
You do it because you think you deserve to be in Wikipedia, at great length, and on your own terms, and preferring to “frame” your many accomplishments using your own words.
It’s unethical, and defeats the purpose of a great project like Wikipedia. But to Generation B S, it’s more important to be clever, than to be honest. It’s not a matter of participating honourably in a project to benefit the world. It’s a matter of how much you can get away with.
Wikipedia works on the honour system, and it has rules. But for today’s revolutionaries, rules were always meant to be ignored or broken. That’s what a rebel would do, right?
For example, here’s one rule …
Wikipedia:Verifiability
“The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true.
This is strictly applied to all material in the mainspace—articles, lists, sections of articles, and captions—without exception, and in particular to material about living persons”
It’s surprising (then again, maybe not) how many people who claim to be hip and plugged-in, and even that they know better than you and I, have apparently not looked closely, if at all, at the guidelines of Wikipedia.
Take Tod Maffin, for example.
There is not one citation on Tod’s Wiki page.
And no mention of his date of birth or what schools he attended.
But, there’s a link to his web page!
Guess we’ll just have to take his, I mean, somebody’s word for all the fascinating details of Tod’s life that are enumerated on that page.
Jian Ghomeshi’s page, however, is totally in the clear. That’s because virtually the entire contents of his page, word for word, has “already been published by a reliable source”.
The CBC.
7 Comments
Just thought of something … can’t we post that the “Do you think Jian tweets because he is lonely” thread surpased over 1000 comments on TeaMakers to his Wikipedia page ?
At least this is something that actually happened, since he can not get away with embellishing his accomplishments anymore.
I used to have respect for Jian, but now I don’t & it’s kind of sad. There is nothing authentic or genuine about him. He is ALWAYS selling himself, like those stereotypes of people in L.A. – he is fake. He’ll do anything for attention. He’ll flirt with any woman or man. He has no boundaries or respect for himself. Nothing he says can be believed.
What is “Q”?
It’s a late night TV talk show shot in the confining staging of a small radio studio (in a backwater broadcast facility, as Jian will tell you is what Billy Bob was really thinking).
A TV show for that pirate specialty channel, Bold. A TV show that hasn’t heard of lavalier microphones, and how they would allow the guests and host to lose the headphones, elbow-arm mounted mics and the desk.
It’s an hour and a half of air time to a national audience.
It’s a group of people who get together and think of interesting people to get as guests that will impress a reasonably educated and informed audience. Or any celebrity passing through town selling something. Any university student, or not, could pull this show together. All they need do is say the phrase “CBC”, and it’s good to go. The more staff the better. Wardrobe, please! And call Heather at Indigo and ask her who she’s bringing in for book signings that we can get as guests!
The host is without question the smarmiest ass-kisser and phony wannabe intellectual you will ever encounter in current media anywhere. He doesn’t even have a voice for radio, and when he speed-talks through prepared copy his inflections and punctuations and seeing how far he can read before running out of breath make you want to grab his throat like Homer with Bart. It’s phoniness that is so evident and so thick you could cut it with a dull knife.
Everyone truly dislikes Ghomeshi’s personality, largely because he just plain tries way too hard. This is a man who has no business being on the radio, except in between records. On TV, the effect is actually worse, inducing immediate boredom. There’s no apparent reasonable explanation for why an attractive, fairly intelligent and responsible person who likes to entertain and be liked in return, is such a disaster in the audio-visual medium. But he is. Being in print would actually be the best format for him but only if he made it the priority. No one will be remotely surprised when he issues his first book “What It’s Like To Be On The Radio With Famous, Smart People And Hear Them Say This Stuff Here”.
“Q” is one of the easiest, cheapest and most likely to get attention type of shows to do for either TV or radio. And it’s fun to see and smell famous people up close even if you’re just a flunkie member of the crew, and for whom it’s really a toss up whether they do what they do for The Hour or Q because it’s totally the same show doing the same thing and pretending each to themselves that their show has quirky stuff interspersed during the telecast that people enjoy, but man are they delusional if they think anyone has any interest in the marginal talents of either of the hosts.
“Q” is a show that would be immensely improved by parachuting in on a permanent basis any of the people who have guest-hosted on the show – Bambury is always on the verge of being amazing, to name just one, and when it’s brent instead of Jian doing the show it’s like someone pulled open huge curtains and here comes the sun. “We are free!” are the words shouted from the souls of all who listen to the radio at that time of day.
“Q” is a radio show that could be beaten in the ratings in any market if just one radio producer went for it. A slam dunk, presuming a good host is found.
“Q” is unlistenable every second that Jian is speaking, but audiences grit their teeth and endure because any moment Eddie Izzard will start talking and that’s the only reason why anyone is paying attention to this show.
“Q” is a show that thinks no one else could figure out to avail themselves of Eddie Izzard being in town, when the only thing that gives that show any clout and an obvious advantage is that it speaks to a “potentially sizeable” national audience.
“Q” is a show that if Jian and his support staff left tomorrow would be highly likely to be even better received by the public.
Apart from those things, it’s a pretty good show.
The show could be better without Jian. It’s successful despite him, not because of him.
With the variety of guest hosts filling in for Jian while he runs around the world chasing LIGHTS, does it really take that much talent to do what he does?
Because I personally think that Jian is quite talented. His verbal skills surpass those of John Hasllett Cuff (who?), and the CBC has invested hugely in enhancing the credibility and stature of brand Jian.
Just last night PoonGirl asked me (at a distance, lest you get the wrong idea) “who’d you rather … spoon with? Jian or Tod Maffin?”
Why Jian, of course.
CBC refers to Jian as “Talent” how come you didn’t call them out on that.