The Cathedral Builders (IF Wiki finis)
I got the folks over at the IF Wiki to remove my real name. There are a lot of reasons this brings me angst, but at the core of it, it’s because I really don’t want the attention. I don’t want the spotlight. I have no desire for fame, even the droplets of fame that being on a wiki in interactive fiction can bring.
I have had the constant waking dream of being a builder of cathedrals — great men who did great things, but who never signed their names to their creations. That has always struck a deep chord with me, and that is what I want to be online. Their rewards were eternal and their names are known to the Great Architect. They were rewarded in secret for what they did without names. In a similar way, the private praise of those whom I have helped or whom I help is more than enough; if that were not present, just knowing that I helped would be enough.
I won’t fight a public listing of my works and contributions because I think that is “fair use” to borrow a journalistic term. I think there is a limit to what you can ask for without looking like a real tool, and that’s it right there. In any case, this skirmish is over.
Return of the Stalinists (IFWiki Sux Redux)
Privacy-stealers annoy me to no end; they are vile human beings, like little miniature dwarves, chipping away at your sanity and hauling away pieces of it until you are nothing more than a bunch of raw nerve endings. Paparazzi and many journalists form these ranks. Oh, and also, keepers of the IF Wiki.
Looks like the little Stalinists are at it again. They not only deleted the work I did under my other ID, but purged the ID completely from the system, and put my real name up there instead of my pseudonym. Who did this? I could nail down the individual person, hiding behind their own anonymous ID, but what would it matter? It makes no difference to know the name of the dwarf that did this or that; they are all have the same worldview and share the the mindset of the rapist.
In the blogosphere, there is something of a code of honor. One of its tenants is that you never expose someone who wishes to remain anonymous, for you never know what their situation is. Could they be hiding from someone? Could they be located in an repressive country? Do they want to keep their professional life and personal life separated? Do they just like their privacy? In that world, you don’t reveal the real name of even someone who taunts you and defecates on your blog. I’ve been there and revealing their names, where they worked, and so forth was something I would never do. It crossed my mind only a handful of times, if that.
Yet here, the sanctimonious, and freaking holier-than-thou Stalinists have decreed “no respect but for the Politburo”. Very well. I’ve logged in to their system and will blank my page over and over again until it stays down, or they figure out how to stop Tor (in case they try banning my IP), or I get them taken off the Net. I’m taking this fight straight into the dragon’s maw.
