User:Freshmutt

Hello. I'm a frequent user and infrequent contributer. All of my posts are accurate, though many get deleted by other users for unfounded reasons. I have also been a victim of vandals who have pasted my real name along with obscenities in random articles. Despite these bad experiences, I still think Wikipedia is the most valuable page on the web (even more so than Google).


 * A Story

A certain road has a posted speed limit of 15 mph. Due to a lack of enforcement, drivers habitually speed down this road. I was driving along at 30 mph, when all of a sudden a cop shot out my left front tire. I veered off the road and the man approached. "You were going 30 in a 15, son. I had to take action." While he was talking, several cars sped by in excess of 70 by my reckoning. "What about them?" I protested.

"Irrelevant," he replied. "Their actions don't change the fact of your illegal speed. Now fix your tire and I'll let you go."

The next day I was driving the same road at what I thought was an acceptable rate, when the same thing happened again. Though other drivers were passing me at breakneck speeds on the wrong side of the road, the cop singled me out and fired at my left front tire. "You were going 18 mph back there," he said.

"My gauge read 15 on the nose," I said.

"I go by the radar gun," he countered.

"That's not a radar gun - that's a supermarket price scanner!"

"Calm down, son, and fix your tire. I'll let you go with a warning."

Not having another tire, I was forced to call for a tow. The next day I slowed to 10 as I approached the cop. Angry drivers behind me began honking and passing me - some on the shoulder. The cop ignored them but drew his weapon and took aim at my left front tire. I attempted to pull over and stop but he still blew out my tire. Before he could say anything, I asked him, "Why do you keep shooting at me? Can't you just pull me over and write a ticket?"

"I'm not a police officer, son, just a volunteer with the neighborhood watch."

In reality, this never happened, but it's a pretty good approximation of what it feels like to edit Wikipedia.