Recent developments (the SlimVirgin scandal, almost immediately followed by the Wiki Scanner), on top of funding issues has led to the possibility that Wikipedia could fall apart, and cease to exist. After all, it costs a lot of money to run Wikipedia, and they rely on donations, which in turn relies on a positive public perception. If the public perception is poor enough, they will cease to be (unless they can figure out some legitimate revenue raising method). Perhaps they might still exist in some form, but they would stop being what they are today.

Which then leads to another question: What should we (Wikipedia Review) do with ourselves?

Should we shut down Wikipedia Review?

Should we keep this open, purely as an archive? (It's not exactly free to maintain this site, so who would agree to pay to keep this open if it is only as an archive?)

Should we move back to a free server, such as ProBoards, and store everything in an archive there?

Should we continue to remain open, just to make sure that nothing similar to Wikipedia opens in the future?

Should we expand to commenting on other similar projects? Such as Citizendium, New World Encyclopedia wiki, H2G2, Everything2, etc?

Should we expand to open criticism on anything? Or on truth changing?

Anyway this is something I've been thinking of lately. This site is, after all, basically a piggy back site. We only exist because Wikipedia exists. If Wikipedia ceased to be, then we cease to be.

Well, we're getting closer to that objective, but we're not quite there yet.

The first thing that I would suggest doing is to throw an enormous party (inviting everybody on the losing side too, just to be polite) and get completely plastered!

Take up a collection, buy the Wikipedia.org domain and put up a tombstone...

_.---,._,'
/' _.--.<
/' `'
/' _.---._____
\.' ___, .-'`
/' \\ .
/' `-. -|-
| |
| .-'~~~~~~~~`-.
| .' `.
| | R I P |
| | Wikipedia |
| | B 1-16-01 |
| | D 4- 01-08 |
| | KILLED BY |
| | THOSE |
| | WHO HATED |
\\/ \\ | THE TRUTH |//
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If it goes down, will wikipedia-watch's hivemind go down?

Lemme see if I can fix the pix …

It would be pennies a month to keep the site as an archive, and it's conceivable that this information might be of use to somone for something in the future. Archive.org would probably take it.

It would be nice to have a farewell thread open for a month or so where people could say things that they couldn't say while Wikipedia was still up.

Yeah, it'd be good to keep it up as an archive in some form. Free sites would do it. We wouldn't need the fancy software we got if it was just an archive.

As for who to invite, well, you'd have to invite Jimbo, Angela Beesley, Eloquence, Raul654, Snowspinner, David Gerard, David Gerard's wife, David Gerard's girlfriend, David Gerard's wife's girlfriend, David Gerard's boyfriend, David Gerard's boyfriend's wife, David Gerard's wife's girlfriend's husband, Kelly Martin, Ambi, Essjay, Brian Chase (who started the rot, remember?), and we could hold a special plaque and a "guess who" for SlimVirgin and Jayjg, who wouldn't be able to come. Could also invite Larry Sanger, with special guests the Bomis babes, who could perform "portal" entertainment for everyone.

Please explain

Sorry, but Wikitruth exposed the truth about David Gerard. He doesn't hide it. He is a bisexual cross-dressing goth, with a wife, girlfriend and boyfriend. It's not really relevant to criticism, but it was fairly amusing when we found it out. Everything that David Gerard does outside of Wikipedia talks about it, quite openly. But on-wiki he pretends to be straight-laced.

I agree though it's his personal business and nothing to do with him on wikipedia. But still I'm curious, you said his wife has a female lover?

That might need to be updated, but as at when Wikitruth ran their expose, the situation above was accurate. Actually, it appeared as if David Gerard had gone beyond having an open relationship, and was closer with his girlfriend than with his wife (appearing in Wikipedia functions with his girlfriend on his arm, for example).

It is kind of a joke, that it is amusing that some of the most influential people on Wikipedia include:

Jimbo Wales, who made all of his money from Bomis, an "adult portal", which is pretty close to porn
David Gerard, a cross-dressing bisexual goth with a wife, girlfriend, and boyfriend
Essjay, who lied about his credentials
Kelly Martin, a transsexual
Ambi, a transsexual
Jayjg, who is paid to edit Wikipedia (we think)
SlimVirgin, who is a former MI5 agent

About the only one who seems to be clean is Angela Beesley and her husband Eloquence.

Is this indicative of the internet in general or just of Wikipedia?

I think SlimVirgin may be paid to edit, too.

Coincidentally, Angela Beesley and Erik Möller both don't have checkuser.

Anyway back to the issue.

Let's all pick our top 5 people to invite (no overlaps - if they're already invited, pick someone else):

My list:

Jimbo
Larry Sanger
Angela Beesley
Essjay
Brian Chase

I can't believe that anyone here is worried what to do with themselves without Wikipedia.

And personally, I can't think of people I'd less rather have drinks with than the Foundation staff.

Seriously you guys.

Not worried about what to do with ourselves, more wondering what to do with Wikipedia Review. I'm sure that we can all go back to doing whatever we were doing beforehand.

Disillusioned Lackey said it best: There's nobody I'd rather not have drinks with than the Foundation staff.

But I'd want to invite Jimbo just to throw it in his face that his pet project failed.

Larry Sanger
Angela Beesley
Essjay

^yes, them as well.

I'd invite a few other people I know from a few other wikis just so they can witness the events.

I'd love to have a drink with Jimbo, I've a feeling we'd get on pretty famously - we probably have much more in common than we have differences.

I'd want...

Lir with Larry Sanger
MONGO with Cplot

That sort of thing.

I believe his wife is disabled.

Then that's cruel to a disabled wife.

I think she's OK with it actually.

DG Dogg pimps hardcore, word up.

Ahh

Yeah, David Gerard is a legend. Just imagine having a wife to do the cooking and wash the dishes, a girlfriend to hang out with, a boyfriend for when you swing that way, your wife has her own girlfriend so you don't need to worry about entertaining her. He's got everything, including crabs!

He's "breaking the rules" and making every other bisexual person look bad, but you don't need me to tell you that.
Yeah well ok, polygamy and all that...

No he's not. He's living a polygamous life. He's a hero!

Except that you'd want to make sure to see his STD tests before you considered having anything to do with him, or anyone who had ever had anything to do with him.

Heck, who needs the Bomis babes, just bring along David Gerard's "family" to entertain us.