[Wikipedia-l] The last word on RK

Sat Oct 4 23:06:56 UTC 2003

I don't want to dig up the dreaded RK issue again, but as I was knocked off 
the wikilist and so have come on with a new email account, I haven't had a 
chance to comment.

1. Abe made a very useful and thought-provoking point about the useful of 
having RK on wiki, if only because his virtual waging of war on anyone who 
disagreed with him tended to lead people to be restrained in what they wrote 
on the Israel-Palestinian issue. Unfortunately RK went way to far. Far from 
being a useful restraining force he became a destructive individual who 
scared people away from wiki.

2. For me the last straw was seing Robert's mucking up of the [[Mel Gibson]] 
article. Robert had done it before; taken articles that were on individuals 
and overloaded them with the issue of anti-semitism. But in the case of 
Gibson, it hit farcical proportions. Gibson is an actor. He is known as an 
actor. People would come to the page to read about the actor. But Robert, as 
usual, turned the entire article into a polemic rant about Gibson's views on 
jews. Yes, Gibson has what I personally regard as anti-semitic views. And 
homophobic views. His views make my skin crawl. But that is no justification 
whatsoever for turning the article into one big expose of Gibson's opinions 
on jews, much less turning much of it into a rant about his father's views 
as a Holocaust denier. As a gay man I would love to give Gibson right 
rollicking over his homophobia but if I was to turn the article around so 
70% was about his views on gays I would be actively disgracefully. Gibson's 
personal views on any issue, no matter how repulsive, warrant no more than a 
paragraph in an article primarily focused on the broad view of who Gibson 
is, what his career is, what his film career is like etc. But then Robert 
did this in article after article after article. And true to form, given his 
hypersensitivity being such that he would read anti-semitism into the wrong 
location of a comma, Robert accused everyone who tried to turn the Gibson 
back into a proper balanced encyclopædia article, of being anti-semitic and 
trying to cover up the truth.

Eloquence's actions in banning Robert were 100% correct. I thought a 
temporary ban was right, but having read Robert's ''nazipedia'' rant that 
followed, I cannot see any reason why wiki should take Robert back. He has 
caused too much offence, too much chaos, made too many outrageous personal 
attacks. I don't know of a single other user whose behaviour was so 
continually outrageous, who treated people so badly and yet was allowed to 
go on, unbanned for so long. Wikipedia needs to ensure that no-one is ever 
allowed to behave that way again. And that no-one is shown so much 
tolerance. The tolerance he was shown amounted to a slap in the face of 
everyone else who was bullied by him, who had to clean up his polemics, and 
deal with the regular wars he triggered. He should have been dealt with 
months ago. His behaviour caused more damage to wiki, and drove away more 
good people, than any troll. That scale of blank cheque tolerance to one 
user, and by implication toleration of his disgraceful treatment of everyone 
else, must never be shown again.

JT

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