4 ms·
There is a long history here, and if you are looking at just the WikiProject and the community ban discussion, you are missing a Hell of a lot. Very short back
by JdeBP 4mo ago
There is a long history here, and if you are looking at just the WikiProject and the community ban discussion, you are missing a Hell of a lot.
Very short background:
Larry Sanger left Wikipedia in 2003.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Diff/707321 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Diff/707321
Sanger went on to set up Citizendium, a wiki encyclopaedia project organized the way that xe thought one should be organized, with an extensive rulebase and 'constables'. Sanger's edits on Wikipedia were sporadic from 2004 to 2023, and were almost exclusively focussed on Jimmy Wales's account talk page, the articles on Sanger and Wales, the article on Citizendium, and the articles on the history and criticism of Wikipedia. There was also a whole debate on whether Sanger was a co-founder or an employee.
Citizendium died 15 years ago. (Yes, you can see it now. It was resurrected in 2022, everyone having to start from scratch with new accounts.) I actually thought of getting an account there in its early years, but for several years prior to its effective death it sported an announcement that the new accounts process was temporarily not in service, come back later. The writing was on the wall for a long time.
Sanger re-gained interest in Wikipedia in 2025, but still far more interested in how an encyclopaedia should be governed, which motivated the creation of Citizendium in the first place, than in actually writing one. In the intervening years, xe had done a lot of punditry from the sidelines, concentrating everything through a lens of U.S.A. politics.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- spidercat 4mo agoMaybe not particularly relevant, but I'm noticing you using "xe" pronouns for Sanger. Why is that? Just wondering if I am missing more context.
- fatata123 4mo ago[dead]
- moralestapia 4mo agoLarry Sanger is very clearly a man and has never expressed any desire to be treated differently than that. JdeBP is misgendering him on purpose, which is a very serious offense and even illegal in many parts of the world. We'll see if this is allowed to stay here.
- mghackerlady 4mo agoCould also be a typo. Unlikely on QWERTY, but if JdeBP uses Dvorak or especially Workman that's more likely than JdeBP going out of their way to misgender a man with an obscure neopronoun
- moralestapia 4mo ago[flagged]
- jrflowers 4mo agoYou’ll give that poster ten thousand dollars if they post they made a typo? Do yuo give money for all typos
- spidercat 4mo agoSounds like a great opportunity to get the original commenter in on the scam. "Psst. Say you indeed made a typo, and I'll split the spoils with ya!" It wouldn't truly be The Internet without a little bit of Tough Guy Posturing, I suppose. :)
- jrflowers 4mo agoI would love to get paid for my terrible posts
- moralestapia 4mo agoI've made people do a lot of things for like $100. I'm sure you'd do that and much more for $10k, lol!
- IshKebab 4mo agoOh thanks I thought "xe" was some Chinese character in the story that he had forgotten to introduce! How dumb.
- Hugsbox 4mo agoYep. Occasionally people shoehorn it into conversations thinking it's more inclusive (it's not) when in reality it just confuses people unnecessarily.
- mghackerlady 4mo agoat least stallmans "pers" makes sense and is grokable after seeing it a few times
- Hugsbox 4mo agoTrue, but even that I really just can't see catching on.
- pwdisswordfishq 4mo agoJdeBP is surely referring to https://xeiaso.net/ https://xeiaso.net/
- xena 4mo agoIt ain't me. I have no connections to Wikipedia and have a "only look, never touch" rule when it comes to interacting with it.
- hitekker 4mo agoThe GP (Jonathan Pollard) has been using the “Xe” pronouns on other people since about 2015. I think he’s also edited/argued for unusual pronouns on Wikipedia as late as 2025. I don’t think he’s ever explained his intentions with "Xe" on HN. My guess is that forcing “Xe” somehow gives him pleasure, neverminding the misunderstanding it incurs.
- spidercat 4mo agoHuh. I mean, if you're gonna go that far to Make A Point with gender-neutral pronouns, might as well go the Stallman route with per/pers: https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html (I'm not necessarily endorsing his screed here... but it is one of my "favorite" bits of Stallmanism. His first entry in the "subsequent notes" section makes me laugh every time.) edit: oh, this user actually has a similar piece on xe/xem pronouns on his website! excellent. this pleases me greatly (no sarcasm).
- FireBeyond 4mo ago> Sanger re-gained interest in Wikipedia in 2025, but still far more interested in how an encyclopaedia should be governed Oh no. It's not like a fairly large swathe of admins (and their clingers on) haven't been credibly accused of speed running their contributions just to try to get admin/bureaucrat status. My own Wikipedia history has dozens and dozens of "No" votes on people who either had a serious chance of, or were, elected, who had a contribution history of 80%+ in the WP: namespace, rather than, as you say "than writing an encyclopedia".