The strange webs one gets caught in with time on one's hands....

Geez - what an afternoon.

Having heard of some of the stories mentioned below previously, I decided that I wanted to work out for myself what I thought had gone on. Here's my take on a famously heated, bitter and vituperative episode - which I've also posted to wikback.com.......


Welcome, Wordbomb to the wikback!

I know this is a chat forum, but having spent longer than I ever intended trying to work out what the heck's going on with Wikipedia, Overstock, Wordbomb, SlimVirgin, Pan-Am 103, and probably the Knights Templar, I've dusted of my 'NPOV' gloves, and I thought I'd post a bit of background from a hopefully neutral perspective. I confess to have ploughed through this mainly for my own clarity and edification - and I've probably got heaps of stuff wrong, so in the same spirit as your post, all should feel free to chime in;

You're Judd Bagley, alias Wordbomb, and you're banned from Wikipedia. Also, you work for Overstock.com whose CEO is Patrick Byrne.

Patrick Byrne has been fiercely critical of something called 'naked short selling', and at this point a journalist called Gary Weiss becomes involved - I think because he's either written about Patrick Byrne, or because he supports naked short selling, or says it doesn't exist (or something). Sorry to be unclear on this point.

You believe to that you've shown, amongst other things, that the editors 'Mantanmoreland' and 'Samiharris' are in fact said journalist Gary Weiss. You assert that there's a fairly straight forward abuse of 'sockpuppets' going on.

I think that's the meat of your situation, but there are a few unique side stories to this one, which are worth noting;

You report that Patrick Byrne may have met Slimvirgin in real life as a student, and recalls the interest in and personal relationship to the Pan Am 103 disaster of the woman he belives to be Slimvirgin. An amazing coincidence - but not really relavent, except......

When you were getting into troubled waters at wikipedia, you believe Slimvirgin acted unfairly and improperly, specifically you allege that you have evidence that private emails you sent to Slim were forwarded directly to Gary Weiss (I think).

I think even you would categorise your reaction to your troubles on wikipedia as aggressive; and some wikipedians assert that you have harassed / stalked / abused / 'sock'ed violently and vehemently ever since. For whatever reason, several fairly well known editors have been quite closely involved - these include;

* Jayjg, who you assert used the oversight tool inappropriately, and has used checkuser in your case
* Fred Bauder, who may have been aware of a 'sock' issue but not addressed it to your satisfaction
* David Gerard, who in dealing with what he perceived to be disruption / vandalism blocked an IP range as an 'open proxy' - it transpires that it's actually a Utah town!!
* JzG, whom you assert has used a 'sockpuppet', and who has been fairly vocally critical of you and your methods.
* Many other editors have put forward strong opinions that you are not to be trusted

Surpisingly, through the fog of the broo ha ha, I'm not sure if anyone has specifically said that your claim that Gary Weiss = Mantanmoreland = Samiharris is complete nonsense, or not - and having ruminated for a little while, I think I'm coming to the conclusion that that's really the most important question.

Thoughts?

busy doin' nothing.....

ah january. so what's been going on?.....

arbcom have shooed me away, I've been chatting away at wikback, I'm hoping the CU ombudsfolk will get back to me fairly soon, and I got a little involved in a rather erm... controversial wiki.

Oh - and my user talk page was unprotected after some discussions about whether or not it was supposed to be. I did find it weird that my userpage was never protected, but my talk page was.....

other than that I remain on the naughty step, and will do for just over a month. I hope they'll let me have toilet breaks.

'checkuser' tools at wikipedia

I've getting a clearer and clearer picture about the goings on in the private office labeled 'checkuser' - and it's pretty erm.. interesting stuff.

I think there's a serious problem there - with fairly rampant abuses currently passing under the community's radar. Basically, checks have been made for political reasons, and some checkusers have had no compunction sharing information which ought to be far better protected.

Prod me if you wanna know more, or witness my futile attempts to rattle a cage or two at wikback.com. I'd lay good odds for some sort of controversy prompting fairly large scale reform over this process, and would like to encourage stakeholders to address the issues before this point......

maybe someone will publish the logs?

I'd say there's a few dirty paws that need a pretty good wash for the good of all.......

wiki wheels keep on turning...

This poor neglected corner of blogger has been rather ignored for the last little while - so let's have a bit of a catch up.....

I continue to post over at Wikback.com - although the Giovanni thread was first closed, and then deleted as a legal concern (fair enough, but plus ça change, no?). So Jimbo's comments have left the record - the only thing I can really remember from the conversation is that Jimbo was saying that my Sock use, and editing to 'Jonathan King' were the real problems, whilst Guy gaily contradicted him, claiming my edits to Giovanni were the only problem - like a 'bull in a china shop'. Any fule kno that I'm a much more interesting creature!

Anywhoooo - the wikback seems to be bubbling away fairly nicely - without quite reaching tipping point yet, and it'll be interesting to see how that goes.....

Mercury has popped up over there, and is chatting away - and has even put a motion before the arb.s to repeal my ban! I think Mercury would be a great involuntary mentor! (well I suppose I would be the involuntary mentoree... i kinda like that - it's got a sing song lilt!)

So my days in the wilderness continue, and the wheels keep on turning...I'm not sure if they're carrying me home to see my kin though - maybe more a kind of slow moving industrial accident....

Jimbo at wikback.com

Jimbo's activities have been well and truly on my radar for the last couple of days, having made the comments referred to at the Giovanni article - they're having a wonderful effect, and the article is much better.

It is interesting though that in our brief chat over at www.wikback.com Jimbo seems to be saying that my take is inflammatory nonsense - which is both a little harsh and inaccurate in my view.

I sent my appeal in to the Arb Com recently (haven't heard back) - but I'm singularly failing at keeping my head down, which is probably foolish. The urge to try and calmly set out my positions and get my point across is strong, and I hope it doesn't bite me too painfully.....

I feel like my posts contain only mild criticisms, but important ones - at this stage I'm more confused than upset that they would be mischaracterised. I don't think they are inflammatory nonsense, obviously - but more importantly I can't really understand how Jimbo arrives as that conclusion except as an instinct to 'attack the attacker' - which has the effect of suppressing dissenting voices if applied more globally.

Hey ho - interesting times.......