[WikiEN-l] 24

Tue Oct 14 06:54:43 UTC 2003

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>I tried.  I let him come back as EofT for as long as we could take it.
>
>Part of the problem is that he will not email me, he will not join the
>mailing list, he will not take part in dialog.  He calls people
>racists and control freaks.  He postures about being interested in
>policy, but then he always makes it perfectly clear that he intends to
>ignore any policy that he doesn't agree with.
>
>More than once, he has frightened people, including me, by making
>remarks implying a personal level of intimidation.  He likes to speak
>of death for people who disagree with him, and says things like "There
>is no co-operation with such people." "They were warned."
>
>More than once, he has been accused of writing things that were
>tantamount to death threats.
>
>But this guy, well, he's in a category all his own, I'm sorry to
>conclude, and I think there is very little chance of him learning how
>to behave in a civilized fashion.
>
What has left me pissed off in this whole episode is not the simple fact 
that EofT or his multiple incarnations were banned.  Before the 
User:Mediator page happened, my association with him was never more than 
casual.  I had no basis for either supporting or opposing his ban, 
 though I did respond to what seemed like speculative accusations until 
I was satisfied that he had been properly identified.  In the 
discussions about the User:Mediator I was more concerned about the 
obfuscation from the lawyer games that Alec was playing; these seemed to 
be an attempt to kill the idea by introducing unnecessary complications. 
 I do, nevertheless, allow for the likelihood that User:Mediator might 
have in due course proven himself disingenuous.

I visited the article on Ed Poor's recommendation on the mailing list. 
 Pursuant to the idea that it was a "role account" I added my idea in 
goood faith, as did several others.  The page has its own reason for 
existence quite apart from the identity of the person who started it. 
 Martin and his vengeful colleagues have been so blinded by their hatred 
of User:142... that they completely ignore anyone who contributed there, 
and the whole subject of the discussion.  It is clear that for them who 
says something is a lot more important than what is said.

Ec