FT2 accuses Arbcom Options

[Peter Damian]

A long question to Coren from FT2 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arb...Coren/Questions , accusing Arbcom of 'gaming' the elections this time last year.

Actually he is right, as I have pointed out elsewhere http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=34246 .

An arbitrator has just emailed me to say that he found the whole thing problematic all along (yes but why didn't you say so at the time).

This post has been edited by Peter Damian:

[Peter Damian]

We know that Arbcom successfully forced FT2 to stand down exactly this time last year at the last elections. Risker was behind that.

However, I don't know much about what happened in January, March and May of this year, months which FT2 specifically refers to in his diatribe.

An arb wrote to me on 4th February this year "the bullets are loaded for the symbolic wiki-execution of FT2 and all that he stood for in the next few weeks, for one thing ... he needs to be publicly booted out by Arbcom, and publicly refused appeal by Jimbo and co, to show that Wikipedia is serious about setting its house in order."

Why the 'execution' never happened I didn't find out. I suspect FT2 convinced them that he really did have senior support in WMF for his earlier actions, and they backed off. What a mess.

[gomi]

Why the 'execution' never happened I didn't find out. I suspect FT2 convinced them that he really did have senior support in WMF for his earlier actions, and they backed off. What a mess.

Isn't it possible that FT2 threatened to release (even more) detrimental information about Arbcom if they did ban him? Honestly, I can't keep this while FT2 thing straight without a scorecard. I'll have to go back and review the threads.

[that one guy]

Why the 'execution' never happened I didn't find out. I suspect FT2 convinced them that he really did have senior support in WMF for his earlier actions, and they backed off. What a mess.

Isn't it possible that FT2 threatened to release (even more) detrimental information about Arbcom if they did ban him? Honestly, I can't keep this while FT2 thing straight without a scorecard. I'll have to go back and review the threads.

I'm confused myself as to why he got booted off ArbCom to begin with.

[Peter Damian]

Why the 'execution' never happened I didn't find out. I suspect FT2 convinced them that he really did have senior support in WMF for his earlier actions, and they backed off. What a mess.

Isn't it possible that FT2 threatened to release (even more) detrimental information about Arbcom if they did ban him? Honestly, I can't keep this while FT2 thing straight without a scorecard. I'll have to go back and review the threads.

I'm confused myself as to why he got booted off ArbCom to begin with.

He resigned on 15 January 2009 after an RfC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Req...for_comment/FT2 in which he was implicated of lying.

But that is a separate issue. Here is the story surrounding his current complaints. On 13 September 2008, FT2 sent an 'Anvil' email to a prolific sockpuppeteer. It contained some bloodcurdling threats, including contacting his wife's employers, his parents, other people, with some really embarrassing information. He copies Cary, Vandenberg, Aphaia, Jpgordon, Rlevse, David Gerard, and Thatcher. He references this in the diatribes linked to above.

The sockpuppeteer lost his job. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

A year passes.

In August 2009, the sockpuppeteer sent the 'Anvil' email to Thatcher, who copied it Cool Hand Luke.

CHL sat on it for a bit (don't know why), but finally published on the Arbs mailing list in Feb 2010. CHL says : “Reading his explanation, it sounds like *Heart of Darkness*. FT2 is Agent Kurtz way up the river, operating beyond any civilized control or oversight. We executives in Amsterdam just have no idea what it's really like out there, and we cannot judge him for his acts.” Coren disagrees, but the other Arbs are horrified.

Hersfold says “Even if he was acting on behalf of the Foundation, does that excuse what reads as threats and blackmail? With all the crap we keep having to deal with from Usher and Amorrow - some of which has directly impacted two members of our Committee already - I'm certainly not willing to condone such behavior, no matter who rubber-stamps it.

Coren “Not unlike Jimmy, I think this was a reasonable attempt at giving him an "out". (Jimmy defended FT2's actions, although at the same time denied ever being consulted about them. Wise man).

CHL to Coren: “If you are telling me that you *supported *the use of blackmail (in the casual sense, although I'm not certain than it was not blackmail in the legal sense as well), then I severely question your judgment.” “Even if FT2 had to prove that he had [the sockpuppet's] number, the overt threats were entirely surplus, and his demands were far beyond what was necessary to protect our project. "

The committee does nothing.

Nov 24 2010: FT2 emails Arbcom about his election statement. “I would appreciate if any arb could double check I haven't included any factually incorrrect or misleading statements or significant factual omissions.” This is one of the mails that FT2 is referring to in the diatribes linked above.

The arbitrators wonder why they didn't do anything 10 months before and cast around for reasons to stop FT2 getting a seat in the election. Risker drafts a notice that summarises the issue.

I'm not sure what happened then, but I think Risker then emailed a bureaucrat (WJBScribe) to use another nasty piece of information about FT2, forcing him to resign. I emailed Risker a couple of times but she replied, saying "If I say anything, you will publish it on Wikipedia Review". Well, of course I will, that's all part of public disclosure and transparency. That's what Wikipedia Review is for. Are you suggesting I keep your dirty little secrets?Why would I?

In January 2011 I got a series of emails from different arbcom members saying that FT2 was about to be publicly executed and stripped of all honours, site-banned etc. It was strongly suggested that I would be unbanned after this.

However, as usual, nothing happened.

This post has been edited by Peter Damian:

[Ottava]

It was strongly suggested that I would be unbanned after this.

However, as usual, nothing happened.

I think this is a common tactic. I don't really know why a few Arbs do it - perhaps they are getting our hopes up, or are merely doing it to manipulate us and have us do their dirty work.



By the way, entrenched admins on Wikipedia use the threat to harass co-workers, family, etc. all the time. A Horse got banned for contacting a school, yet FT2 clearly does far worse. SB Johnny also did quite a lot and no one cared. It is all about who is part of what group. Wonderful stuff. WR should be proud of giving such a Wiki insider and abuser moderator status. They should top it off by giving FT2 that status also.

This post has been edited by Ottava:

[Somey]

...SB Johnny also did quite a lot and no one cared. It is all about who is part of what group. Wonderful stuff. WR should be proud of giving such a Wiki insider and abuser moderator status.

We are proud, actually, since apparently the only person he did that to was you! (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

Anyway... in retrospect, the language FT2 used to try and intimidate you-know-who into giving up his Wikipedia-related activity once and for all certainly does seem over the top. But I personally recall that it didn't seem quite so over-the-top at the time, and even I thought that it had to be tried, in the same way that you have to try telling your neighbor you're going to call the cops on his teenage son who's been trying to kill your dog before you actually call them.

It pains me to say this, but if I really fault FT2 for anything here (other than being a Wikipedia mucky-muck in the first place), it's not that he got nasty with Poetguy - it's actually that he explicitly stated at the time, including in the e-mail itself, about his willingness to accept the consequences on Wikipedia (and elsewhere) of his having sent such a strongly-worded e-mail to Poetguy. And now he's quite clearly reneging on that statement and that willingness. It doesn't really surprise me, but I suppose it's a bit disappointing, even coming from him.

[Peter Damian]

But I personally recall that it didn't seem quite so over-the-top at the time, and even I thought that it had to be tried, in the same way that you have to try telling your neighbor you're going to call the cops on his teenage son who's been trying to kill your dog before you actually call them.

Of course, a lot of people on Wikipedia Review supported this. It happens to be against UK law to send threatening emails, but anyway that's not the point. The point is that with one exception the arbitrators were horrified by the sockpuppeter's actions, yet they did nothing about it, and when they realised they had to, and it was too late, they resorted to other blackmailing tactics. Kirill writes on Nov 30 last year

We should also consider the possibility that we will be asked why we did not
strip him of functionary status; I don't know that we have a good answer,
but we really need to have one ready before we publish anything.

Risker then prepared a statement given a sort of explanation of why they had not stripped FT2 of functionary status.

However, when an opportunity to blackmail FT2 into resigning was found, they chose that, and did not publish this statement. That was dishonourable, and is what Wikipedians call 'misleading the community'.

From risker.wp at gmail.com Tue Nov 30 03:15:14 2010
On 24 February 2010, FT2 contacted the Arbitration Committee by email to
request return of Checkuser permissions for the purpose of participating in
a specific sockpuppetry investigation. At that time, an email written by FT2
came to the attention of the entire Arbitration Committee. The email was
addressed to an abusive sockpuppeter who had been banned from English
Wikipedia and some other WMF projects as a result of a cross-wiki
investigation in which FT2 played a significant role. In the email, FT2
threatened to contact family members of the sockpuppeter directly, and laid
out a series of conditions including those external to Wikipedia with the
threat of contacting employers, government agencies, and others about the
nature of the socking. It was known at the time this email was disclosed to
the Committee ''en banc'' that the conditions outlined in FT2's email had
not been met, and there was concern that he might proceed with the actions
he had threatened in the email.

FT2 confirmed that the text of the email was
correct and implied that the content had been vetted in advance by a WMF
staff member and a WMF board member. Both denied having read the email at
any point. FT2 was also asked to provide further details of that particular
investigation, which he had refused to share with at least one sitting
member of the arbitration committee at the time of the investigation. The
discussion was largely abandoned about six weeks later. No formal decision
had been made because the Committee had not yet received the further
information requested.

In May 2010, FT2 advised the Arbitration Committee that he had now returned
from his wikibreak and requested both checkuser and oversight tools. He
acknowledged that he had not responded to the prior requests, and promised
to do so promptly. He did not provide that information to the Committee or,
to the best of our knowledge, any Committee member, from that point
forward. Because the Arbitration Committee never received the requested
information, and thus our investigation was incomplete, there was never a
formal vote on whether or not to reinstate FT2's checkuser and/or oversight
permissions. However, over the course of the two separate discussions, a
minimum of seven Arbitration Committee members expressed serious concerns
and/or outright opposition to returning checkuser to FT2.
[...]

This post has been edited by Peter Damian:

[Ottava]

But I personally recall that it didn't seem quite so over-the-top at the time, and even I thought that it had to be tried, in the same way that you have to try telling your neighbor you're going to call the cops on his teenage son who's been trying to kill your dog before you actually call them.

Of course, a lot of people on Wikipedia Review supported this. It happens to be against UK law to send threatening emails, but anyway that's not the point.

Why not make it the point?

A Horse was banned for contacting a school. ArbCom put a clear precedence but yet ignores it when it came to FT2, and, as I pointed out, others who happen to be in their favor.

As you stated, his action was criminal, as with many other people in power. The people running Wikipedia are basically aiding those who are wielding power to harass. Bad, no?

But you are filing a complaint about WMUK, which is connecting themselves to this. This is a power structure that the WMUK claims to be able to work with yet is endorsing criminal activity. They also sat back and did nothing as thousands of images were looted. So harassing people online (now a big offense in the UK), taking lots of UK copyrighted images, allowing people to violate UK law by pretending to be other people for various ways of harassing an enemy (not just Poetlister, but how about Sam Blacketeer and the guy who edited articles on his journalist rivals?), etc.

You have a pattern of endorsed criminality that is almost the culture itself. Then there is the little note I sent you via email which has a lot of ramifications - if the servers are subpoenaed, there will be some interesting findings about a lot of money that may have just "vanished".

And the people who have been Arbitrators for more than a year are all culpable in some way for this culture of illegality, which is verified by the many leaked emails. Hell, look at their stance on copyright infringement - there was proof that 7 of the Arbs were plagiarist, yet it took a year and some before one finally got banned. It is amazing that it took so long for Rlevse to be dealt with when I sent emails to many people, including SandyGeorgia, 6 months after my ban.

This post has been edited by Ottava: