Jimmy Wales loves to talk about "transparency" and "a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." Unless it's about his scandal-prone girlfriend. Wales, who is divorcing his second wife Christine, has been secretly seeing conservative TV commentator Rachel Marsden since last fall, friends say.

These chats turned my "stub" into a full wiki page

Meanwhile, abusive sockpuppeteer JoshuaZ - who previously used his secret account to help keep Marsden's BLP - fights the Jimbo corner to keep this new tale off WP as long as possible.

Meanwhile, abusive sockpuppeteer JoshuaZ - who previously used his secret account to help keep Marsden's BLP - fights the Jimbo corner to keep this new tale off WP as long as possible.

There isn't the slightest chance that stuff is legit.

Is there?

Marsden was next charged with criminally harassing former Vancouver radio host Michael Morgan in 2002. According to the statement of facts in the case, Marsden and Morgan met in 2001; soon after, he called the police

I remember how, in Mexico City, Bono explained to us how the band leaves the arena after a concert by running through a long plastic tunnel stretching from the stage to their limos. "I need one of those," Jimbeau responded, "because I am like a rockstar too." That may be. He certainly gets to have sex with groupies. It is just unfortunate that for the longest time, some of this was funded by well-meaning donors, who really thought that their $5.00 would pay for hardware and bandwidth.

This has got to be close to Jimbo's worst nightmare.

It needs to be the end of his association with the WMF.

I see there is now a thread on Wales' page, started by Cla68, mentioning that Wales supposedly commented on the sooper seekrit mailing list that he:

"felt unable, because of COI reasons, to participate in the BLP of certain Canadian journalist"

Why should we believe that JzG and JoshuaZ did not merely act as his proxies in fixing the article according to Wales/Marsden's preference?

Most recently, a tipster tells us, Wales "sent a mass email to a 'special' Wikipedia list of admins at the beginning of February, right before he was set to spend the weekend with Marsden in DC. Said he wanted her page cleaned up.

I don't understand why everyone is so SHOCKED, SHOCKED that he cheats on his wife, cheats with a journalist, or even (heaven forfend!) sends sexy chat msgs.

He was a porn dealer for God's sake.

And if those listserver msgs are correct, he was more or less bragging about his affair, so he's probably not all that upset it is public. Hey, if it eclipses his bad Wikia press, it's gotta be good news... (with regrets for his poor wife. I hope she gets a decent settlement, and he doesn't rip her off)

Anyways, why would this render him liable to removal?

I'm thinking the lost funds might be grounds (gold washingmachine? Go Florence!).

But even then, I doubt it.

Anyways, why would this render him liable to removal?

And as Danny Wool notes all this gallivanting meant that "At one point he owed the Foundation some $30,000 in receipts, and this while we were preparing for the audit." Meaning a...

MISUSE OF FOUNDATION FUNDS?

So Jimbeau cancelled an upcoming trip to Italy, Serbia, and Croatia, and got to work finding receipts. I helped process them. Subway ticket in Moscow: $0.50. Massage parlor in Moscow: priceless. Some were accepted; others were not, like the $650 spent on two bottles of wine during a dinner for four at Bern's—I remember that one because he submitted it twice, once with the tip scratched out. I wonder if the students who gave up their lunch money to donate to Wikipedia would have approved of that expense. In the end he reached a deal with Brad—details unknown—and paid the Foundation about $7000 in two checks. I don't know what happened with the rest, but the checks can be found in the list of donors.

Danny best be careful and back this up with evidence. It's borderline libel territory, if untrue. If true... well, shit. Bye-bye contributions, bye-bye Wikipedia.

Is this for real?

I wouldn't be shocked if it's true that he had any sort of dealings with Marsden - while "juicy," that's not the issue.

The issue is that Marsden got preferential - and quite possibly unfair, given my suspicions about the ArbCom case and her alleged relationship - treatment due to her, no pun intended, position.

Poor Jimmy. If only he'd read the uncensored Rachel Marsden article he would have known he was heading for serious trouble.

I find it quite funny and unsurprising that there is not yet any mention of this on WikiEN-l or the Foundation-l mailing lists.

Would you all say that's because the moderators are deep-sixing it before it's posted, or because they're all terrified to even bring up how this is going to be a nuclear detonation in another day or two?

Greg

Statement of Jimmy Wales

March 1, 2008

Over the last few days, a few gossip websites have decided that my personal life is somehow of interest to people and, against my wishes, are publicizing details about a brief relationship I had with Rachel Marsden. While, typically, this would not warrant a response, because my role with Wikipedia is being dragged into it, I felt the need to set the record straight on a couple of issues.

First, while I find it hard to imagine that anyone really cares about my sex life, the facts are: I am separated from my wife. I considered myself single at the time of my one meeting with Rachel Marsden on February 9th, 2008. I am no longer involved with Rachel Marsden. Gossipy stories suggesting that I have been in a relationship with her "since last fall" are completely false.

The second, and far more important, issue is this false notion which is being peddled that I intervened inappropriately to redraft her Wikipedia biography. The facts are that, in Wikipedia, I work closely with a team called "OTRS," which handles email complaints and works hard to address concerns relating to the biographies of living persons. Rachel Marsden first approached me via email two years ago with complaints about her bio. We had never met. I subsequently reviewed her bio and I found it not to be up to our standards. My involvement in cases like this is completely routine, and I am proud of it.

I decided to meet Rachel Marsden in person for the first time in early February of this year. Accordingly, three days before that meeting, to avoid any appearance of a potential conflict of interest, I disclosed my plans to OTRS and further disclosed that it was a personal matter. I recused myself from any further official action with respect to her biography.

I care deeply about the integrity of Wikipedia, and take very seriously my responsibilities as a Member of the Board and as a member of the Wikipedia community. I would never knowingly do anything to compromise that trust.

The facts are that, in Wikipedia, I work closely with a team called "OTRS," which handles email complaints and works hard to address concerns relating to the biographies of living persons.

When will the [[Jimmy Wales]] article get updated with the separation from his wife and the encounter with Marsden? I imagine his article is super-protected, though, right?

Greg