John Byrne vs. Wikipedia

Warning: Dork Related

For those of you who don't know who John Byrne is, he's a rather famous comic book artist and writer. Among other things, he is largely responsible for making Superman and the X-Men what they are today (read: incredibly popular franchises that make obscene amounts of money).

Even though he is mostly known only to dork like myself, his work is prolific and its influence extends far beyond the realm of comics.

He's also known as a bit of an ass. In an industry where most of the insiders seem to just be happy to be recognized, Mr. Byrne seems to be the type of who might be offended if you didn't recognize him. He often refuses to sign trade paperbacks or reproductions of his work and has been known to be otherwise abrasive to some of his fans.

I've never met the guy personally, so I can really vouch for that, but his recent dealing with Wikipedia seem to reinforce the rumors.

Mr. Byrne was apparently unhappy with his biographic entry in Wikipedia and set upon a campaign to control its content. That'd be fine if the his wiki was libelous in any sort of way, but apart from conveying the general sentiment of fans, it was almost entirely factual.

Anyway, you can read about the whole ordeal here, but the gist of it is that he and his message board complained so vehemently, that the head of Wikipedia, himself, actually amended and lock the entry to Mr. Byrne's specifications.

That may not sound like a big deal, at first, but think about the implications to Wiki. What kind of precedent does this set for a communal knowledge encyclopedia? If this type of thing becomes the norm and Wiki bends to will of annoyed readers, what the hell good will it be a factual and impartial reference tool?

Eh, we'll see, I guess.

Picture jacked from byrnerobotics.com.