wikipedia error

[Patti]

I was just reading some things people wrote about Gordie's so called personal life on wikipeedia. It only mentions 4 of his children. What about the others? I think it is very disrespectful to them and to their mothers that there is no mention of them. I don't know if it is anyone from corfid that wrote it. Whoever it was, was inconsiderate, and most likely has too much pride to make the necessary changes.

[charlene]

You can go in and make whatever changes you want. That's why Wikipedia is never used to cite facts. Maybe the person who wrote it doesn't know about the other two kids..and the omission was totally innocent and they are not inconsiderate or disrespectful at all? NOt all fans have the full details of Gordon's life - they only think they do...
I have no idea who wrote the bio but feel free to re-write it, that's how Wikipedia works, anyone and everyone can post what they want regardless of it being true, factual or not..

[Patti]

I thought you might say that. Change it yourself. You're the expert. If I changed it, someone would probably just change it back.

[charlene]

I'm NOT the expert so I won't change it. Maybe it won't be changed back if it is corrected to reflect his other two children.

[Patti]

Ok, I'm sorry I called you the expert. Maybe we could get together on it and change it.

Also, will you please change the date on the Greenbelt Harvest thread title from Sept. 1st to Aug. 31st?

[Patti]

:) Alright.
One suggestion that I have along with including the names of all his children and their mothers is that the part where someone has said that he was alone for 16 years, I think that should be taken out.

Another thing that should be taken out, is where someone quoted him on his excuses for his infidelity, along with his generous offer. Hopefully he doesn't feel that way anymore.

Could you work with Wikipedia? I never have, and not sure how to go about it. Thanks much.

[Rob1956]

Could I suggest you just let it go? Wikipedia is garbage for bio type stuff. If you want to know the mass of the sun or how the space shuttle worked, it's fine. Biography based material, go to a real encyclopedia.

[charlene]

Any interviews he gives or news is posted here and other places online..
WIKIPEDIA is full of errors because anyone can post anything they want..while much of what is posted is cited and taken from other sources there can be a lot of misinformation/opinion included. Schools/colleges/universities tell students to NOT use Wikipedia for info..and not to cite it as a resource.

[Sundown17]

Good advice Rob. The thing with wikipedia is that if you edit whatever you don't like or is lacking on their site, someone, anyone, can come along and re-edit. So not worth the time. And as Char says, not a reliable source for info. Wikipedia is almost the National Enquirer of the internet. lol

And personally I'd feel a little icky about listing the names of his (or anyone's) children and their mothers on such a public and non-monitored site.

Sorry Patti, I don't mean to offend your feelings, but I don't think you thought this through. It's a knee jerk reaction when any one of us true fans reads or hears something about Gord that is wrong or uncomplimentary, but I think we need to pick our battles. Wikipedia just ain't worth it.

[johnfowles]

Sally Lightfoot
Last week I came across a reference to one Sally Lightfoot
who whilst being unlikely to be another offspring has I felt an interesting story behind her
We had our television tuned to a local PBS station, and although I was busy in another room I could hear the program that was running.
It was an episode of a travel series about South America by Richard Bangs describing the natural wonders of the volcanic Galapagos Islands
see:-
http://http://www.richardbangs.com/media-projects/tv-film (http://http://www.richardbangs.com/media-projects/tv-film)
in particular how many years the native turtles live and how Charles Darwin studied the variety of, for example, different species of finches which later led to his famed Theory of Evolution, but what really made my ears prick up.entirely understandably, was a reference to Sally Lightfoot crabs, including a delightful story of how they got that name.
(I had several times seen "Sally Lightfoot" crop up in the google search results for Lightfoot items so it was good to find out why)
so here Boys and Girls is today's Natural History lesson
Firstly a splendid sample image of one of these colourful creatures



dang no reasonably sized image will display here so look at the pretty videos below instead.
Later see the attachment
and that name??
According to:-
http://http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_Sally_Lightfoot_for_whom_a_crab_and_a_sail boat_class_were_named (http://http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_Sally_Lightfoot_for_whom_a_crab_and_a_sail boat_class_were_named)Answer
According to antique seamen's lore, Sally Lightfoot is a night club dancer in the Caribbean. Although wearing hardly anything to cover her divine body, her dress is bright and colourful, red, orange and yellow. By profession, her movements are light and swift. A quick step sideways to avoid the odd hand snatching is her specialty. After months at sea and rounding Cape Horn, sailors anchor at the Galapagos Archipelago to take in fresh water. Brightly coloured crabs, red, orange and yellow, abound at the beach. High on their legs they move swiftly sideways. There is no doubt in any sailors mind; this is Sally Lightfoot,

A number of YouTube videos have been uploaded and here are three that I hope you will enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7WGqmUj2U4
　
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h7bp6NGxBA
　
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RoWTOaqd2Y
　

[Rob1956]

A couple of stories about Wikipedia. I got a call in Sept of 2010 from a professor I once had while at Loyola University of Chicago. He asked me to update the Wikipedia entry for Loyola's radio station, WLUW. It had a ton of mistakes. I did so, since I knew the real story of its inception, etc. It was returned to its original, incorrect form not long afterward.
Secondly, a city in Indiana is named after a great, great, great uncle of mine who was in the meat business and helped invent the refrigerated railroad box car. The Wiki entry about him was way off base, and I corrected it, but it was overwritten and returned to its previous, incorrect entry. From then on, I swore off Wikipedia for any correct source of info, except for, as I mentioned before, cold, hard facts like the space program, mathematical concepts, etc that can't be misconstrued or misrepresented, like....people...

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

I must confess, I never imagined Gord to be the football playing type. He did pole vaulting as well.

[Patti]

I just checked, and saw that you or someone added Eric Lightfoot's name. That makes five children, but I know I heard him saying in a recent interview that he has six children with four different women. So, if he cares for them, why should wikkipedia say any different?

I usually avoid wikkipedia when I look up anything, because I heard that it isn't very accurate, and that it is less accurate now than it used to be. I'm not sure why that is.

--Sundown17, it wasn't a knee jerk reaction. I really do think that it's a serious matter when you leave someone's children's names off a bio. I don't think we can totally blame wikkipedia. ...and it's not my feelings that matter here.

I'll bet Adam and Eve didn't even get a marriage license. So then, none of their children, grandchildren, etc. count either.
:)

[Andy T.]

The Wiki entry about him was way off base, and I corrected it, but it was overwritten and returned to its previous, incorrect entry. From then on, I swore off Wikipedia ...


ME TOO - I've made a number of corrections and additions there over the years, but it seems the more intensive they are, the more likely that someone will come and rip them out and change them. Grrrr...

[Sundown17]

Does anyone here watch the HBO Original Series "The Newsroom"?

This week they had a side story where the wikipedia bio on the executive producer is wrong (had her getting her degree from the wrong school) and when she asked the in house internet guru to correct it, he was less than thrilled at the idea, saying that he's corrected wrong info on wikipedia before only to have it changed back the next day.

I thought of our little discussion here.

Too funny.

[charlene]

If by 'YOU' you mean ME, I'll tell you now that I did not, have not and will not add/delete or change ANY thing at all on Wikipedia.
I don't care enough about Wikipedia and it's content on any subject be it right or wrong, to waste my time.
I hope that makes my position clear.
Feel free to make corrections/additions as you see fit.

[niffer]

Does anyone here watch the HBO Original Series "The Newsroom"?

This week they had a side story where the wikipedia bio on the executive producer is wrong (had her getting her degree from the wrong school) and when she asked the in house internet guru to correct it, he was less than thrilled at the idea, saying that he's corrected wrong info on wikipedia before only to have it changed back the next day.

I thought of our little discussion here.

Too funny.

I love The Newsroom, and I thought of this discussion during that episode too!

The character, Neal, was trying to change his boss's wiki page and was told by the administrator that he couldn't do so on her behalf because wiki has a policy of not allowing the subject of a page to do any editing of that page.

I will check wiki for basic info, but that's the extent of it, and I have never tried to do any editing either. Just not worth the bother.

[Sundown17]

I love The Newsroom, and I thought of this discussion during that episode too!

The character, Neal, was trying to change his boss's wiki page and was told by the administrator that he couldn't do so on her behalf because wiki has a policy of not allowing the subject of a page to do any editing of that page.

I will check wiki for basic info, but that's the extent of it, and I have never tried to do any editing either. Just not worth the bother.

LOL, I forgot about that part...that wiki won't let the subject, or a representative of the subject, of the page make any changes. If true, that alone would make me never depend on wiki for info, if I didn't already.

Thanks for reminding me about that hilarious repartee between Neal and Mac. :)