Bum Scoop On Wikipedia.de - An Apology, and More.

First of all, a resounding OOPS to everyone who got the bum scoop yesterday about the Wikipedia.de being shut down. And an apology to everyone involved. I thought that when I checked, the site simply wasn't down yet... BUT... I was wrong. Thus, when I am wrong, I put a cute picture of myself up so that you don't beat me up too much. Mea Culpa.

Wikipedia folk especially.

But, it's still going - and it's beginning to bug the hell out of me as well.

How I found out was like a ton of bricks. First, there was a comment from Jon - pointing me to information on his site. OK, while I'm doing the editing and getting the updated version up - I get an email from Andy Carvin - a forward from Jimbo. So I fixed the reflection DigitalDivide.net, responded to everyone, and lost what I thought would be a good entry for a weblog that is to be announced.

Jimbo had already ranted on David Weinberger's blog - and, of course, Technorati, Google and various RSS feeds didn't catch THAT. It's enough to make Wikipedians start locking tapioca pudding away in their refrigerators.

When you consider how inordinately stupid we are to rely on a trusted news source instead of the Evil Bad Horrible Wikipedia... well, shucks. What are we to do? At least we could have fixed this in the Wikipedia. We could have fixed it so fast. But when a trusted news source carries a story, it gets reflected to hell and back (and back to hell), the ricochets around the blogosphere are hard to control.

Now, my stuff was updated as SOON as I found out I had bum scoop. Let's hear a retraction from Associated Press - or an apology. Word has it that the name of the reporter is Matthew P. Moore.

Dude, do your research! I don't like posting bum scoop! I expect AP to be a trusted news source, especially if it runs stories about how untrustworthy the Wikipedia is.

Sure, I propagated a mistake, but I *fixed* it. That's what you're supposed to do! Where's the AP story to clarify?

Does AP need a Wiki to publish the news with? I know a few people who could consult with you on that...