[WikiEN-l] Indefinite Bans with No Oversight

Wed Sep 14 16:42:00 UTC 2005

>From: <slimvirgin at gmail.com>
>
>On 9/13/05, Zephram Stark <zephramstark at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > It is not usually my nature to bring others into my problems, but I 
>think this has gone too far.  People are effectively being banned 
>indefinitely without any oversight, in order to associate their misdeeds 
>with me.
>
>
>Zephram Stark is trolling and everyone's tired of him, except for his
>many anonymous fans around the world who instinctively know when to
>turn up to revert to his preferred version.
>
>At [[Terrorism]], he inserted a bunch of made-up and bizarre
>definitions of terrorism, claiming he'd been working on that version
>(the consensus version, as he called it) for over a month with other
>editors, none of whom he could name; and when he was reverted, used
>several sockpuppet accounts and about a dozen open proxies to keep
>reverting, which he then cited as evidence that ordinary readers from
>around the planet supported him. Jpgordon protected the page, but the
>trolling continued on the talk page,  with him holding forth,
>organizing polls, insulting people etc. He was opposed by Carbonite,
>Commodore Sloat, Jayjg, Calton, Humus Sapiens, Brandon Yusuf Toropov,
>Smyth, and others, and Smyth filed an RFC about him, which 17 editors
>have certified or endorsed.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Zephram_Stark
>
>Ed blocked him twice on Sept 4 and 5 for personal attacks and legal
>threats, then I blocked him on Sept 8 for three hours for disruption,
>after which he made an edit to his talk page with the summary: "This
>place is a joke. It's too bad, because it had possibilities before all
>you fucking Jews came along ..."
>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AZephram_Stark&diff=22814466&oldid=22814157
>Trilobite blocked him for 48 hours for that comment. During the block,
>Zeph created [[User:Go Cowboys]], who starting posting the same
>nonsense at [[Talk:Terrorism]], so I blocked that account indefinitely
>and extended Zeph's block by 48 hours for block evasion. Then
>[[user:Felice L'Angleterre]] turned up on several pages, including
>[[Talk:Terrorism]], claiming to be a major publisher and the editor of
>two newspapers which were investigating Wikipedia.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ATerrorism&diff=23063599&oldid=23031192
>It was clearly Zeph, so Felice got blocked too. Zeph's block was
>extended by another 48 hours, and I've told him if he does it again,
>I'll block him indefinitely.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AZephram_Stark&diff=23073044&oldid=23061910
>
>That's about it, but it's hopefully enough.
>
>Sarah

Well, almost enough.  In addition to Sarah's cogent summary, I should add 
that Zephram Stark has been at this for over two months now, and that David 
Gerard was consulted regarding "Go Cowboys" and "Felice L'Angleterre", and 
he stated that the technical information available to him also confirmed 
their obvious sockpuppet status, and expressed support that they be blocked.

Jay.