Well I thought we where doing a good thing over the years by encouraging people to help wikipedia improve their maritime posts… but it seems that we (both myself and a number of well intended forum members) crossed the line along the way and linked to gCaptain too many times. Their editors thought we where not real mariners but spamers…
[I][B]So they blacklisted us.[/B][/I]
I can’t plead 100% innocence (I personally have linked to meaningful gCaptain post on wikipedia), and I can sympathize with their problem (we get hit with a ton of spam at gCaptain and sometimes accidentally ban a “good apple”) I only wish they had visited our contact page to warn us. But they didn’t, so be it.
But there is a silver lining… in my opinion the shear fact that so many of you thought it was important to share gCaptain links on wikipedia page shows the value of our community. It shows that you guys care enough to share your knowledge with others. It also shows our growth as this seems to happen to other blogs that reach critical mass.
The other good news is that we’ve got a supporter in Maritime Wikipedia extraordinaire HAUS, who has been a voice of reason in this mess.
And we are fighting back (you can follow the discussion HERE) and need your help. Here’s what you can do:
- Do not provoke them, they have a valid point.
- If (and only if) you are, or you know, an established wikipedia editor who can vouch for this site, please send him this link… he will know what to do to help.
- Let’s help those who help us… I do not know who he is but I do know that HAUS is an American mariner (a 2nd mate) and he has done an incredible job building maritime related articles and posts… let’s help him by editing maritime topics and filling in details about ships you have worked on.
Whether they realize it or not… each of you know that the bottom line is that both the maritime guys at Wikipedia and gCaptain both have the same goal… to support and inform mariners. Hopefully they see this and remove the ban but, if not, gCaptain will continue to support their efforts.
-John