I'm tempted to change Jimbo's userpage from saying that he is the sole founder of Wikipedia to saying that he is the co-founder, as the articles "Jimmy Wales", "Wikipedia", and "History of Wikipedia" all clearly state that the project was founded jointly by Jimbo Wales and Larry Sanger, yet for what ever reason, Jimbo's own userpage seems to insist on claiming that he is the sole founder, contrary to what the encyclopedia presents as fact. I'm not sure how much control Jimbo has over what's put on his userpage, but to have that statement there makes it appear like he's selfish and wants to take all the credit for the project for himself. Somehow, though, I have a feeling that changing it is not a very good idea, and I'm not sure that I out to go through with it. Any suggestions?

I've seen some IPs try to change it and get reverted as "vandalism".

Well only if you don't mind being banned.

Better not do it then, eh.

And yeah, they were banned for a week.

The attention is dying away eh, UR?

Jimmy Wales the article correctly states he's co-founder. User:Jimbo Wales is Jimbo's userpage, and as such he can say whatever he likes on it. (PG, I seem to recall protecting your userpage when someone was making edits you didn't like to it...)

The only edits made to my userpage by other users were blatant vandalism (e.g. replacing my page with goatse). Currently Jimbo's page, if not an outright lie, is deceptive, to say the least, and I recall it once even specifically using the words "sole founder". I guess this was changed since it would be without a doubt contradictory to what is stated in the articles.

Some windmills are not worth tilting at.

Besides, leaving it there shows the Sole Flounder for the self-promoting liar he really is -- on the "neutral point of view" "encyclopedia that anyone can edit" (as long as you don't mind being banned, reverted, or vilified).

I agree the fact that it's Jimbo warps things somewhat, but there's no rule against claiming to be something you're not on your userpage. (Although, as Essjay can tell you, claiming expertise in something you're not an expert in can backfire fairly impressively.) The current text ("Welcome! My name is Jimbo Wales and I founded Wikipedia in 2001. Since 2006, I have been Chair Emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation, which I founded in 2003. Along with Angela Beesley, I am the co-founder of Wikia. Wikia is a completely separate organization. Wikia is working on a search engine project unrelated to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.") seems reasonable enough, to be honest; Nupedia was founded by Bomis (Jimbo's pornsite guy orientated website), with Sanger as an employee (albeit an employee with virtually total control).

I left a comment on Jimbo's talk page asking why the page says that when it's not true, and I think I'll leave it at that (I won't be at all surprised if I get accused of trolling for just this, however). I've already caused enough drama there with the whole Encyclopedia Dramatica incident (which actually resulted in the article on ED being recreated in case anyone hasn't been paying attention).

Could it be construed as WP:SOAP? (rightly or wrongly.)

Eh, he also sez he's the sole flounder on his fundraising videos, interviews, and speeches.

Even though Jimbo may not be paying attention to his own user page, his evil flying monkeys are, and are more than ready to swoop in and pluck pretty girls, and others, who dare to correct that lie off to the wicked-wiki prison.

..scary.. <shudders>

Rather than leave a message that asserts which of two versions is the ground truth, I would have noted that there is a discrepancy between the two versions and ask him which one he considers more accurate, and why.

Yes, this could happen.


Don't rush in where angles fear to thread, you may lose the "friendship" of the cult hivemind!

It's generally impolite to change anyone else's User page.

Of course, Jimbo replaced mine on October 5, 2006, with a "message" to any enterprise who sought to do business with me, that they would be taking a very inadvisable risk. Of course, recall that this was the same business model that Jimbo himself had recommended for me, and had described publicly in August 2006 as something he "brainstormed about as a nice mutually beneficial ground".

You might say Jimmy first prescribed my business, then he proscribed it.

So, that's how respecting one another's User pages works.

Really would achieve zero.

== Much Ado About Nothing

Gotta agree with this.