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by ericfontaine 4109 days ago
Yes, so what? So were many others. But you don't see everybody who created a wikipedia article make ego-boosting comments on HN whenever their article is mentioned. Nor do you see everyone involved in nurturing bitcoin comment on HN whenever bitcoin is mentioned.

Honestly, the reason I did research was I was hoping you were one of the cool people I used to chat with on the early days of bitcoin forums. I was curious to read your early comments and eager to ask you about your experience or how you first came across bitcoin. But all I found by searching for you username on bitcointalk was someone else's post "Paying homage to Pratyeka of Wikipedia for Bitcoin's inclusion." https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99437.0 featuring this bravado quote from your wikipedia profile of "particular contributions that your proud of":

"I argued bitterly for the restoration of the Bitcoin article from the evil hands of the deletionists, and have since been vindicated in my judgement as Bitcoin's rise to prominence has continued."

Your quote sounds like it is from a Middle Earth fantasy epic, and is just asking to be signed something like:

"-First Knight Pratyeka 'The Clairvoyant' of Wikipedia, The Creator of the Bitcoin Article, and The Protector of the defenseless Bitcoin community from the Void of Obscurity, The Hero entrusted with the Power of Wiki-Influence who rose during The Challenging Times and singlehandedly defeated the onslaught of The Deletionists."

I'm exaggerating, deliberately to give you an idea of what impression your comment and wiki profile imparts on others. I know many of us all like to speak like that on the internet in good humor, but after I combined your wiki profile quote with your HN comment, the picture of you in my head was another internet personality with a little too much ego that needs to be dampened. I'm imagining that in real life when you overhear strangers in public talk about bitcoin, you approach them to tell them that you created the bitcoin article.

Your comment feels just like the cliché first comment phenomenon that typical on sites like youtube. It offers nothing of substance or insight itself. Yes, everyone knows about the butterfly effect and how little things do make a difference. But this means every little bitcoin transaction, every little bitcoin bug report, every little bitcoin commit, every time someone explained bitcoin to their friends, everybody who made a bitcoin for ______ service, and every little anonymous wiki edit deserves some bit of credit for bitcoin's rise. And the blunt reality is that the reason the wikipedia article was reinstated was because these little interactions gradually increased the market price, causing more news sites started taking notice, so there were more 3rd party sources which is precisely what the article needed to survive. That was due to everyone's little contributions. And regarding your initial "creation", had you not made the initial stub, someone else would have made it a couple weeks later.

The good feeling of advancing human knowledge and understanding by creating and editing Wikipedia articles should be the reward itself. Posting on internet forums that you were the "first" just seems like your seeking attention or praise. And even worse, as another commentator kiro said earlier, your comment sounds like you take credit for the whole Wikipedia Bitcoin article. Regardless of the truth that factually and technically you did indeed "create" the initial stub, did a few edits, and argued to keep the article up, a humbler comment that offered insight wouldn't have provoked such a strong negative reaction.

Regardless, I am appreciative of Wikipedians like you for contributing and defending against The Deletionists.

1 comments

Yes. I stopped contributing to the article because it turned in to this sort of thing, and had achieved my immediate purpose of making it exist and stay existing. I suggest you also learn to manage your time, as your posts while impressive and reasonable do not represent a healthy degree of interest to display in a passing piece of minutiae. Sarcasm can be hard to pick up, but at least you got the RPG/fantasy reference. :)
:)

It is not minutiae when someone phrases their posts in a manner that may imply they're taking credit for other people's work.

I didn't mind spending a few minutes because I respect all wikipedians who created and maintained the bitcoin article.

I wanted to help you understand, but now see it is futile. I would hope that the Wikipedia personality whose name is the abbreviation of the enlightened Pratyekabuddha ("a lone buddha", "a buddha on their own" or "a private buddha" [1]) would understand, but apparently I am talking to the personality "contingencies".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyekabuddha