“Reliable Sources: The Story of David Gerard” by TracingWoodgrains

Jul 11, 2024

01:30:21

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This is a linkpost for https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/reliable-sources-how-wikipedia-admin, posted in full here given its relevance to this community. Gerard has been one of the longest-standing malicious critics of the rationalist and EA communities and has done remarkable amounts of work to shape their public images behind the scenes.

Note: I am closer to this story than to many of my others. As always, I write aiming to provide a thorough and honest picture, but this should be read as the view of a close onlooker who has known about much within this story for years and has strong opinions about the matter, not a disinterested observer coming across something foreign and new. If you’re curious about the backstory, I encourage you to read my companion article after this one.

Introduction: Reliable Sources

Wikipedia administrator David Gerard cares a great deal about Reliable Sources. For the past half-decade, he has torn [...]

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Outline:

(00:55) Introduction: Reliable Sources

(06:00) Gerard's Standards for Reliable Sources

(13:48) Who Is David Gerard?

(16:49) The Early Romantic Years

(27:52) Gerard's fling with LessWrong in the twilight of the old internet

(37:44) The bitter end

(45:19) The Vindictive Ex

(49:53) LessWrong