[WikiEN-l] User:Kevin Baas

Sat Jan 24 16:26:20 UTC 2004

The clarifications on this list of 'WP norms' and 'WP due process' are very
welcome.

There is an ongoing problem, as far as I'm concerned, with [[User:Kevin
baas]].  As anyone who reads his home page can see, he has a certain
research program in mind.  As far as I can see, it has no merit; but that's
not really the point.
Comments such as his (on [[Talk:Real computation]]) "don't you guys have a
sense of shame?" cause a deterioration of the atrmosphere. The current
[[Real computation]] page seems to me eminently sensible.  I don't think
this kind of bullying comment should be applied, just because the page
content casts doubt on Kevin's research 'proposal'.

A long series of related discussions, going back months, on
[[Talk:Hypercomputation]]and [[Talk:Super-Turing computation]] have left the
pages in reasonably good order - but the latter is vacuous (it is really
'some people say' about super-Turing computation).  Kevin has consistently
attacked the good faith of those who clearly know more.

The [[Fractional paradigm]]  and  [[Fractional probability]] pages are his
'walled garden' pages here.  I think they have zero useful content.
Fractional electromagnetics, anyone?
 On [[Talk:Fractional probability]] Michael Hardy has patiently been trying
to get some sense out of Kevin, for half a year.  [[Fractional calculus]]
and  [[Talk:Fractional calculus]] are somewhat different cases, snce the
topic is real rather than bogus.  I'm not convinced that they consist of
more than formulae copied out of books, though, without proper
understanding.  In case of the Weyl fractional derivative formula, I thought
it was for periodic functions only.  I could be wrong, but I've not got an
answer over the course of some months.

At [[Talk:Intermediate treatment of tensors]] there is a backlog of
unresolved stuff about another, more prominent page that looks to me like
Kevin copying half-understood stuff out of books.

Summary:

Kevin Baas is rather clearly trying to use WP space for his own,
non-encyclopedic purposes.  I don't find his contributions, apart from the
formulary on the fractional calculus pages to be useful; and I find none of
it authoritative.  Some of it is wildly POV and unreliable, which is quite
serious in a maths/computing area.

My conclusions:

Kevin Baas is in mathematical matters a bluffer.  When engaged in discussion
he resorts to: profanity; invocations of Socrates, Kant and the Pope;
accusations of snobbery and so on.  He is a timewaster, who makes himself
difficult to deal with by retreat into interdisciplinary niches.

Required actions:

Some of the pages he has created ([[Fractional paradigm]] , [[Fractional
probability]] and probably [[Super-Turing computation]]) are vanity pages
beyond saving - the last of these should be merged into
[[Hypercomputation]], against all his protests.  His other stuff could be
sorted out, absent his hostility.

I think dealing with this kind of elusive pretentitiousness is something
that ought to fall within the remit of WP recognised procedures.  I realise
that this is all on my say-so.  I'd be grateful if others would comment on a
way ahead.  This sort of contribution saps the authoritative standing of WP.

Charles

http://www.speakingasaparent.com/