Last week I clicked on a link in a Candleblog entry and read this Wikipedia article about what Bill Simmon called "the infamous Goatse image". Infamous it may be, but I had never heard of it before -- or, thank Peep, seen it. After I nearly herniated myself laughing, I commented that I thought this was a perfect example of the type of thing you would never find in Encyclopaedia Britannica. I am not joking when I say that's a reference gap, and that this information is worthwhile culturally, no matter how disgusting or trivial traditional historians might find it.

Today I logged in to Wikipedia to check up on my pet pages. I am a Wikipedia author (user name JLeland), and I've edited, and even created, a few pages in my time. Not long ago, I added a page for my high school, Kimball Union Academy. I didn't have much inspiration or information, so it was pretty bare bones. To my surprise, when I loaded the page today I saw that it was a lot longer. A quick once-over led me to think a staff member at the school had cut and pasted most of the text straight out of some informational brochures. Strange. The admissions office either hadn't known or hadn't cared enough about Wikipedia to even have an entry six months ago. What gives? I wondered.

So I used the history tab. That's when I struck pure gold.

» Continue reading this entry...