Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/Book review


 * Smallbones was the editor-in-chief of The Signpost from March 2019 through April 2022 and now writes the Disinformation report column and also contributes to In the media. Disclosure: he received an electronic review copy of the book.

Stephen Harrison is a journalist who writes about Wikipedia and is likely the favorite such journalist of many of the editors of this encyclopedia. He knows his subject. He knows our complicated rules, our sometimes vicious politics, and the importance of getting to know the people involved.

His work has been published in Slate, the Washington Post, the The New York Times, and other media outlets.

It's not the first work of fiction about Wikipedia, but it is the first I’ve seen that is not science fiction, speculative fiction, nor likely to be seen as overly literary. Harrison is writing for normal curious readers about the actions of Wikipedians dealing with an extraordinary - but not unimaginable - situation.

The novel's encyclopedia is called Infopendium, and has slightly different rules than Wikipedia. But people who have never edited Wikipedia, or even thought of what goes on behind the article pages, will learn about how the Wikipedia community works.

The Editors is a suspense novel and is a real page-turner. At 412 pages you might be tempted to finish it in one or two days. If you take this book to the beach, be sure to take along a big bottle of SPF 50+ sunscreen.

Despite the fast paced story, Harrison’s ability to develop interesting characters - much of it done on-the-run - might be his most surprising skill. Several of his black-hat editors are presented very sympathetically; the careful reader can understand their motivations. Perhaps this is to keep the reader guessing about how the action will be resolved. Perhaps it's due to the influence of Wikipedia's oft repeated principle "assume good faith". Perhaps he just recognizes that all editors, like all individuals, are flawed mixtures with different cultural backgrounds, beliefs, interests, abilities, experiences and blind spots.

I'll also note that all book reviewers are flawed and have different experiences. This review has turned out to be a very personal experience for me as there are several situations in the book that feel familiar. Other reviewers may draw on their experiences of other situations.

Wikipedians might see reflections of themselves in the book and of people they know, as well as situations they have worked in.

But make no mistake, the novel is not a disguised version of a specific event or of a specific editor's actions, or a roman à clef where a simple key will unlock the meaning of the whole story. Rather it is about situations such as the pandemic - that many editors have participated in over long periods - or situations such as conflict of interest editing that occur every day.

The characters are not cheeky portrayals of real individual editors, though you might wonder for a couple of pages after they are introduced, until the same character reminds you of a different editor you know. They might be a combination of several editors who have acted in similar ways in similar situations, or even just Harrison playing with the idea of "what would a character like User:Real Person do if their interests, beliefs, or experiences were different?"

I’ll only reveal the seemingly apparent identity of one such real world editor. Jimmy Wales, the founder of the encyclopedia in both the novel (as User:Prospero) and in real life, gives a keynote speech at the annual conference. But after the speech, Prospero’s actions will surprise almost any Wikipedian who thought they knew Jimbo. Harrison keeps you guessing.

Wikipedians have, however, seen many of the situations that pop up in the novel, for example a young editor struggling through a request for adminship or attending the annual Wikimania conference.

Paid editing happens nearly every day on Wikipedia. Every active long-time editor has seen how Wikipedia reacted to the pandemic. We’ve all seen news items covered here, especially celebrity deaths. Regular readers of The Signpost should know how billionaires attempt to rewrite Wikipedia.

The novel’s action starts right from the first sentence of the prologue. Harrison has reported on this phenomenon called "deaditing". A very notable person dies and editors compete to report the death, revise the article, and just change "is" to "was".

Pay close attention here! Almost all the major characters in the novel are introduced in these seven pages, as well as several of their sockpuppets (multiple deceptive accounts used by a single editor).

The first six chapters introduce a freelance journalist who is both a hard-bitten experienced dedicated hack and a flighty young woman worried that she can’t make a career in the dying newspaper business. While she might represent the entire industry, she doesn’t strike me as a copy of any journalist that I’ve met. Perhaps it’s her indecisiveness. She meets one of the heroes of the prologue, as well as the "editor of the year" and many others at the Global Infopendium Conference.

The conference is thrown into chaos during Prospero’s welcoming speech by a hack of the conference’s computer system while the editor-of-the year is insulted on everybody's screens. A black-hat editor is reintroduced to readers, as is a newly minted billionaire.

And then the action really starts as the very existence of Infopedium is at risk. There's a wild road trip across North America, some gunplay, a break-in, some government intimidation of editors. There are even a couple of romances. It’s not our usual routine by any means.

You might think that editors would never engage in gunplay. You’d be wrong. Do governments intimidate editors? Unfortunately it’s fairly common. Long road trips are also fairly common, especially among photographers. Yes, the situations are all within the realm of possibility.

Casual Wikipedia readers, newbies, and disinformation journalists will learn more from this novel than from any edit-a-thon, instructional video, or how-to-edit manual. Experienced Wikipedians will enjoy the fresh view of ground they know well and of editors they feel like they might know.

According to two interviews, Harrison has begun working on a new novel, about the U.S. Federal Reserve where he formerly worked. I expect it to be similarly well researched, grounded in reality (if not specific facts), as his epigraph modestly suggests, "This is a reported work of fiction."

He explains this sentence to the first interviewer with an example. He wants to write "a story based on themes that we're finding in our lives. Some of the fiction that I've always admired the most would be Tom Wolfe. 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' is deeply reported."

He quotes William Faulkner to the second interviewer: "The best fiction is far more true than any journalism." In that sense, this is a very good piece of fiction.

Many Wikipedia editors will likely have their own personal reactions to the novel, but please remember that the book is not about you, it’s not about me. It’s about us, the editors, the Wikipedia community.

Enjoy!