PATIENTS' THERAPY WILL SUFFER SIGNIFICANT SET-BACK IF ENCYCLOPEDIA ADOPTS SANITY REQUIREMENT FOR CONTRIBUTORS, SAYS DOCTOR NEW YORK - For the past year, a group of patients confined to Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward, many in strait-jackets, have acted as "contributing editors" to Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia written by anyone with access to a computer, as part of their long-term therapy. Dr. Miles Sinclair says that the patients are "disappointed" that in the wake of pranksters making phony entries to the encyclopedia, Wikipedia requires contributors to register, and they are hoping this does not lead to the encyclopedia limiting who can be a contributor. They are especially concerned that a sanity requirement might be imposed.
Jimmy "Jingo" Bang, a resident of Bellevue for twenty years, doesn't want anyone to interfere with his work for Wikipedia. Bang's specialty is Napoleon Bonaparte, and Dr. Sinclair explained that Bang is able to crank out article after article about Bonaparte because he believes he is Bonaparte. Bang says simply that his work "is all for the glory of France."
Dr. Sinclair said that the patients' long-term therapy would suffer a significant setback if Wikipedia imposed a sanity requirement. Such a decision, Sinclair said, would be "crazy."
