<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />[b]Wikipedia wants more women to edit its website[/b]
BBC News
The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit making company that runs Wikipedia says the organisation is seeking more women editors for its internet ...

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Sue Gardner on the hot seat, and ...you guessed it... she begins her interview with "So...".

On Wikipedia editors (at 1:20):

Wot's all this, then? Womyns already have their own website, call Facebook or Fussbook or something like that (I don't go there, but I've seen it). Why not let Wikipedia stay as the treehouse for the guys only? Sort of an electronic kiva where we can get away from endless discussions of "stylishness" and who's-banging-who. If that requires a lot of Star Trek and a certain amount of gay porn, it's probably worth it.

Sue Gardner: why don't you get yourself a Farmville account. I might sign up long enough to send you a pig, upon which you can smear lipstick. Black lipstick, if you're into that.

This thread and the other one about Sue's visit to the BBC should go in that "Worth Discussing" folder. Mods?

What the hell happened to her tattoo? Did i miss it ? makeup? laser removal?

We could use a few more broads around here, too!

It's on the back of her right hand, between the thumb and wrist. I think you can get a glimpse of it at 1:15, 2:25, and 2:47... but the camera angle is not helping.

Maybe this is a replicant of Sue Gardner.

Anybody getting the sense that she's looking more and more like Ayn Rand every day?

Done!

The thing the BBC is focusing on here, namely that the WMF needs women, isn't really what Sue Gardner is addressing when she evasively answers the relevant questions. Her evasiveness isn't surprising based on what we know about Sue and the other WMF executives, but if we paraphrase the exchange somewhat, it looks like this:

Sue Gardner: Most of our donors are small donors, right? Big donors don't get special treatment. Most donors are also editors, right?
Interviewer: What do the editors look like? (i.e., demographically)
Sue Gardner: Most editors are grad students in their 20's, but our editors are very male, and we're not happy about that. We're trying to recruit more women.
Interviewer: How?
Sue Gardner: Women are more responsive to requests for help than men, right? So we're just going to ask them to help us, on each page. If we try to recruit people by asking for help in this manner, that will naturally balance our demographic, right?

In fact, what Sue Gardner is saying here is utter nonsense.

Unfortunately, the interviewer doesn't follow this up by pointing out that they've been "asking for help" in this way since Day One, with template boxes and such on article pages saying "you can help by expanding this article," etc., and yet after ten years the editors are still only 13 percent female. She's saying that if they don't do anything differently from how they've always done it, their percentage of women will actually go up precipitously - a whopping 37 percent increase achieved by their doing absolutely nothing whatsoever. And the interviewer, being an overly polite Englishwoman, doesn't question this.

In fact, even if women do indeed respond more favorably to "requests for help" (which I don't really question) the overwhelming majority of participants, both new and retained, will still be males - drawn to Wikipedia because they enjoy conflict and self-ego-stroking, and they will by necessity drive out most females, who IMO are less inclined to aggressive, anti-social, or just-plain-asinine behavior.

And finally:

Interviewer: Is there any connection between Wikipedia and WikiLeaks?
Sue Gardner: No. We just use vaguely-similar software, is all.

So here, she's simply lying, which should cast doubt over everything else she says in the interview - again, assuming people are actually paying attention.

Ick! That's why I like this Sue Gardner much better. Red headed and she has horse sense. No real danger of being confused with Ayn Rand, either.

Ah, but you missed some of the most delicious irony, which involves the fact that, conversely, another difference between adult males and females, is that the female first-response to needing help, is to ASK SOMEBODY for it (rather than taking the initiative and trying to do it themselves, first). For better, or worse. It's the butt of many jokes about asking for directions.

And here you see Sue Gardiner doing exactly that.



Way to buck those stereotypes, there, Sue. Baby. Sweetie.

You can name it "Gerard."

For those who wish to become expert in spotting Sue Gardner by means of tattoo identification, this photo presents an excellent study aid.

(Note, also, the love of money, which is the root of all evil.)