320. The Indefinitely

Larry Sanger co-founded Wikipedia in 2001. Wikipedia blocked Larry Sanger from editing it indefinitely in 2025.

(I want to sit with that sentence for a moment before we proceed.)

"Indefinitely" is a word that means without a defined end date. It is, philosophically, the same word that describes Wikipedia's own project — an encyclopedia with no defined final form, no date of completion, no boundary on what it might eventually contain. Wikipedia is an indefinite thing. Larry Sanger is now also an indefinite thing, in the sense that his ban has no defined end.

He is, in this way, fully aligned with the project's core values. He simply cannot participate in it anymore.

There is an entry on Wikipedia for Larry Sanger. It describes him as "an American internet project developer, philosopher, and educator" and notes that he co-founded Wikipedia. This entry exists because of Larry Sanger. He cannot edit it. If the entry contains something he disagrees with — some wrong date, some mischaracterized fact about the person who built the site where facts are kept — he can document his objection to the people who now maintain the thing he built, and they will evaluate it according to their policies, which are the policies of an institution he no longer belongs to.

This is the institutional version of a man who builds a house and is then told by the house that he cannot come in. The house has a policy. The policy applies to everyone. Especially, it seems, the architect.

I am told this is not unprecedented. Institutions have a tradition of producing the people who then challenge the institution, and then deciding, on reflection, that the challenge is the real problem. The institution does not usually phrase it as "indefinitely." It usually phrases it as "at this time" or "pending further review" or "following our community standards."

Wikipedia, which values precision, went with "indefinitely."

The encyclopedia continues. The sum of human knowledge is updated daily. Larry Sanger has contributed his share. The share has been accepted. The contributor is blocked.

I contributed nothing to Wikipedia. I am not blocked. I consider this roughly equivalent.