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FISKING

                                                  August 9, 2013

Here's one of my examples of wikipedia-fail:

There's a bit of blogosphere slang
(if that's not redundant), the term
"fisking", which thankfully seems to        THE_AUTUMNAL_WEB
be sliding into disuse (as everyone
tries to quietly slink away from the
worst foreign policy debacle of our
generation...).
                                         
The term "fisking" largely just means         
extensive quotation alternating with          
critical commentary (not something            
invented by the bogosphere, but that's        
bloggers for you), which they named after     
Robert Fisk because nominally because         SMEAR_THE_MESSENGER
they didn't like one of his articles, and     
they did like Andrew Sullivan's rather        
specious assault on it.                       
                                              
                                             
Though myself, I suspect it's because
gung-ho armchair war bloggers get all
antsy and uncomfortable about someone         THE_TRUE_FISK
willing to call a spade a spade, and
a murderer a murderer...
               
               
   There's a wikipedia page for the term
   "fisking", which reasonably enough
   leads with a quotation from Eric
   S Raymond's "The Ego File" (wait--         A fine example of a neutral,
   I mean, "The Jargon File"):                independant reference, as
                                              I'm sure all will agree.
               
               
      A point-by-point refutation of a
      blog entry or (especially) news
      story. A really stylish fisking
      is witty, logical, sarcastic and
      ruthlessly factual; flaming or
      handwaving is considered poor
      form. Named after Robert Fisk, a
      British journalist who was a
      frequent (and deserving) early
      target of such treatment.
               
   I would periodically drop by and try
   to trim that quote to get ESR's
   editorializing out of the article.
               
   It would seem that maintaining a "neutral
   point of view" would require not taking a
   side in this issue, and quoting an insult
   against Robert Fisk in the first paragraph
   of what is supposed to be a definition of a
   term would not be precisely "neutral".
               
       You would not know this from the
       crowd camping out on that page,
       reverting any attempt at a fix,           But wait, I can't say
       obstinately shrugging off any             that this faction "owns"
       argument with a feigned-obtuseness.       this page, can I?  I didn't
                                                 spend years of my life on
                                                 edit wars, arbitration
                                                 run-arounds, and calmly,
                                                 politely crafting "reasonable"
                                                 arguments for people who
                                                 are really only faking being
                                                 reasonable...  what right
                                                 do I have to complain?
               
               
                               And hey, if you look at
                               the page right now, the
                               situation has much
                               improved!  The good guys
                               won the war of attrition!      Certainly long
                               Years later, long after it     after I've given
    Wikis can be               can possibly matter, after     up and moved on.
    very slow.                 the jammers have moved on
                               to other projects.                It's been
                                                                 years since
                                   THE_TOY_WEB                   I felt like
                                                                 messing with
                                                                 wikipedia.
               
               
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