Στα σχόλια φιλοξενείται η παρακάτω εξήγηση για τον τρόπο που λειτουργεί η Wikipedia, και για αυτό που φαίνεται σαν παραλογισμός σε πρώτη ματιά. Ωστόσο, με την ευκαιρία αυτή μάθαμε μερικές λεπτομέρειες για την ιστορία που ενέπνευσε το εξαιρετικό βιβλίο του Ροθ (ο οποίος δεν αξίζει την επιθετική έκρηξή σου — θα του μιλούσες έτσι αν τον είχες μπροστά σου;).
While I understand your frustration, as a writer, surely you understand the importance of secondary sources when it comes to disputed information? Imagine that I wrote a book. In this book I claim to be the true King of the United Kingdom. Would you take me for my word, or would you require that independent historians and genealogists confirm my claim first before republishing it elsewhere? Furthermore, given the open nature of Wikipedia as a volunteer community, there is virtually no way of confirming the identity of any one user. Let me give an example of a hypothetical article about a famous man named Bob. What if one day, a user suddenly edits most of Bob's article claiming to be Bob himself. Changing numerous facts taken from other sources, claiming that these were simply wrong. Should Wikipedia just throw in the towel and say, "oh! This guy says he's Bob, so it must be true!"? What if later on, the real Bob comes across it and sues Wikipedia? That's why it's important for the information to be VERIFIABLE elsewhere. Anyone, especially the reader, must be able to verify the information on their own. Primary sources are acceptable for noncontentious information, but even then primary sources need to be accessible, to be PUBLISHED. And lastly, like most people, you seem to misunderstand how Wikipedia works. Wikipedia is edited almost completely by hundreds of thousands of volunteers from all over the world. They do this thankless job for the desire to build a compendium of information accessible by anyone from anywhere. Except for the handful of Wikimedia Foundation employees who mostly concern themselves with the programming and fund-raising end, all of the other users do this for FREE. None of them are getting paid. It's perhaps one of the largest volunteer undertakings ever, and while it might not work as well as it should in some circumstances, for the most part it works in delivering information to people who might not have access to it for whatever reason. There are also no "official interlocutors". There are "Wikipedia Administrators", but these are simply users with additional tools, they hold no authority over any other user, including you. In fact, a more accurate term for them would be "janitors" or "maintenance workers", as that is what they usually do. Every user, however have to follow the policies of Wikipedia that were designed to protect YOU, the subject. That "Administrator" was merely pointing out the policy, not giving a ruling. It's unfair and dispiriting how so few people truly understand the nature of the project, content in believing the media hysteria every time an article gets it wrong. The comment by Quixote2 for example, sounds like a conspiracy theory.