Wikipedia break-up causes web stir March 3, 2008 JJ O'Donoghue
Breaking-up - some do it with a text, others with a letter, the brave in person, but Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, used the online encyclopedia to dump his girlfriend.
But the jilted one-time Fox News pundit Rachel Marsden is having her revenge and suitably enough it's online.
Right now anyone who cares enough – or cares too much – can own a little bit of this virtual saga. Marsden has put items of clothing belonging to the Wikipedia founder, universally known as 'Jimbo', on the auction site eBay.
Marsden can be seen modelling the dark coloured T-shirt on eBay. She claims he was wearing it when they met. Bidding is heavy and is expected to pass the $500 mark by this evening.
Explaining her unruly hair in the photograph of her in Wales's T-Shirt she wrote at the bottom of the page: "PS: Sorry that my hair is such a mess - I'm in break-up mode right now and really couldn't be bothered."
The couple first met online a couple of years ago after Marsden complained about her Wikipedia biography, with which she disagreed. Wales said that they have only met in the flesh once, on 9 February this year.
Wales issued a statement via Wikipedia after details of the couple's relationship, including instant messaging (IM) chats, appeared on gossip websites.
In one exchange carried on the Valleywag blog, the pair discuss broadband services around the world and Wales complains at the miserly download speed offered in America. "When you talk about megabits and broadband, you have no idea what that does to me," she replies provocatively.
Jimmy Wales is the co-founder of Wikipedia, the online encylopedia written and edited by its users. It now contains nine million articles in 253 languages.
Marsden is a Canadian columnist and right–wing TV pundit who flirts with controversy. In 2004, she was given a conditional discharge with one year's probation for criminally harassing a Vancouver radio host following their break-up.
Wales refutes claims that he "intervened inappropriately to redraft her Wikipedia biography".
In his statement Wales said: "I reviewed her bio and I found it not to be up to our standards. My involvement in cases like this is completely routine, and I am proud of it."
Welcome to Web User magazine's online home, where you'll find
news, reviews and a buzzing forum.
For the best websites, practical advice and the latest music and film downloads every fortnight, get Web User,
the UK’s best selling internet magazine.