User:PeterBrooks

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What? Oh, is this thing on? Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, 4...

I guess I'm supposed to say something about who (or what) I am.

Hmmm. That's going to take some doing. Let somebody else have a go while I think about it...

March 4, 2005 - and I'm still thinking about it...

While you're waiting patiently, you could always scan my creative writing website: http://www.story-lines.com

Now here's a thing. Maybe I'm being paranoid (Christmas is coming, etc., etc) but there's a small part of me that can't quite shake off the feeling that the timing of the recent (Nov-Dec, 2005) complaint about Wikipedia's editorial controls seems a little too close to the announcement that Microsoft also intend to create something akin to Wikipedia - only theirs will be tightly controlled by a group of "experts" appointed by the company. No public contributions allowed unless the cabal approve.

The nice thing about Wikipedia is that it allows/allowed Joe Blow to make a contribution without demanding approved credentials first. Yes, there's the risk that some mentally deficient troll will deface the database by adding crap or changing existing material to make it suspect, but I'd expect the system to be self-healing (even if it took a while). Maybe that says more about my trusting nature than the level of criminality inherent in society in general...

IMHO, laws arise when even one person proves him/her-self (themself?) to be untrustworthy.

Which is one thing the Internet is bringing home - just how many people out there either are already, or are willing to become, criminally minded. A good deal more than I would ever have guessed. Scary in some respects, but a revealing litmus test otherwise. At least Life's negative contributors are making themselves known to the rest of us, even if they think they're successfully hidden from view.

A strange thing just happened. I signed an edit, and instead of PeterBrooks, the system labeled me AncientBrit (which is OK - I've used that moniker in the past, but why the sudden change?).