Ironholds Feels Unappreciated, a rant about Wikipedia Options

[tarantino]

From a blog entry today.

All this takes a lot of my time, and some of my money. I. am. a. student. I do not have a job, because I’m too busy doing this, looking after two small children (not mine, thank fuck) and finishing off my law degree to hold one down. At the time of writing, I have been awake for 24 of the last 40 hours, and 20 of the last 24, the latter because I was feverishly working away at a project for, you guessed it, the WMF. And yet despite all this work, all this time and the fact that I am, to quote the mighty Julie Potash, as broke as a joke in the month of may…

I have been unable to secure a Scholarship to Wikimania.

600 articles, 168 supports, three presentations, one panel, one fellowship application and two ongoing unpaid projects for the WMF. Add £150 to the statistics as well, because that’s the current amount of money in my bank account (give or take a few pence). And yet according to the WMF’s Scholarship Review Committee, I am not either (a) hard working enough or (b) poor enough to qualify for some kind of assistance to get to the conference where I am meant to be speaking for an hour. This is made slightly more hurtful by the fact that my father has just announced that the family is massively indebted and may have to sell the house – and the fact that at least one member of the Review Committee knew that. I. Have. No. Money. I work my arse off for the community and for the foundation and this is the first time I’ve ever asked anything in return. Exactly what do you people want?

Why don't you stop by, Oliver? We'll leave the light on for you.

[Kelly Martin]

I didn't get a scholarship to Wikimania 2006 despite being both a round table facilitator and a panel member. The determination of who gets Wikimania scholarships is based mainly on how much the controlling committee likes you. They also tend to disfavor Americans and English Wikipedians, because Wikimedia's community (which controls Wikimania) in general exhibits strong anti-American and anti-English attitudes.

I managed to make it to WM 2006 on the strength of a private donation of enough money to pay for (rather unsatisfactory) housing, and another private donation of enough air miles that I didn't have to pay for airfare. Still, it's a hobby; if you can't afford the hobby, then too bad for you. Whining when you don't get the handout you wanted is just lame.

The fact that Wikimania doesn't waive the registration fee for speakers is bad pool, though.

[EricBarbour]

From a blog entry today........And yet according to the WMF’s Scholarship Review Committee, I am not either (a) hard working enough or (b) poor enough to qualify for some kind of assistance to get to the conference where I am meant to be speaking for an hour. This is made slightly more hurtful by the fact that my father has just announced that the family is massively indebted and may have to sell the house – and the fact that at least one member of the Review Committee knew that. I. Have. No. Money. I work my arse off for the community and for the foundation and this is the first time I’ve ever asked anything in return. Exactly what do you people want?

Evidently they don't want you. Sorry.

Try 4chan, they love whiners very much more.

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Mon 28th March 2011, 12:17am

[Somey]

If his father still has the house now, then as far as the WMF is concerned he's doing fine, right? They probably figure he can sell the house, give some of the proceeds to Mr. Ironholds for the Wikimania trip, and then give the rest to the WMF as a "charitable donation." Besides, if he's finishing off his law degree, that means he'll be super-rich soon, right? All lawyers are probably seen as super-rich by default, from the WMF perspective.

[A Horse With No Name]

Why don't you stop by, Oliver? We'll leave the light on for you.

Can you please confirm that this is, indeed, Oliver? (Not the guy who sang "Good Morning, Starshine" or "Jean," of course)?

[thekohser]

I would hesitate to employ anyone who would write "thank fuck" about not having children, who is charged with looking after children.

[A Horse With No Name]

I would hesitate to employ anyone who would write "thank fuck" about not having children, who is charged with looking after children.

I can excuse that. Oliver is obviously undergoing a lot of stress and he is using the Net (perhaps not in the wisest manner) to let off steam.

This post has been edited by A Horse With No Name: Mon 28th March 2011, 2:23pm

[tarantino]

Why don't you stop by, Oliver? We'll leave the light on for you.

Can you please confirm that this is, indeed, Oliver? (Not the guy who sang "Good Morning, Starshine" or "Jean," of course)?

And now, a rant about Wikipedia
"I was elected with 167 supports and only 8 opposes."

Requests for adminship/Ironholds 5
"Final (167/7/8). Closed as successful by WJBscribe at 23:02, 8 January 2011 (UTC)."

Hippies with guns: how ideological conflict shapes Wikipedia and what we can learn from it

Author of the submission
Oliver Keyes/Ironholds
Personal homepage or blog
http://quominus.org/arguendo/

[A Horse With No Name]

Why don't you stop by, Oliver? We'll leave the light on for you.

Can you please confirm that this is, indeed, Oliver? (Not the guy who sang "Good Morning, Starshine" or "Jean," of course)?

And now, a rant about Wikipedia
"I was elected with 167 supports and only 8 opposes."

Requests for adminship/Ironholds 5
"Final (167/7/8). Closed as successful by WJBscribe at 23:02, 8 January 2011 (UTC)."

Hippies with guns: how ideological conflict shapes Wikipedia and what we can learn from it

Author of the submission
Oliver Keyes/Ironholds
Personal homepage or blog
http://quominus.org/arguendo/

Okay, good - at least we're not shooting at the wrong targets.

Oliver seems to be hurting a lot and he is unwisely using the Net to express his frustrations over a variety of issues. Cut him some slack for now, okay? I am sure that we can make fun of someone else...anyone got some Lar jokes to share?

[melloden]

Why don't we watch the drivel go by on his Twitter feed?

[EricBarbour]

Why don't we watch the drivel go by on his Twitter feed?

Do we have to?

[carbuncle]

At the time of writing, I have been awake for 24 of the last 40 hours, and 20 of the last 24, the latter because I was feverishly working away at a project for, you guessed it, the WMF.

He sleeps 16 out of every 40 hours? No wonder they don't want to give him funding! He would probably have to be put down for a nap in the middle of his presentation.

[SB_Johnny]

Oh c'mon now. The WMF can barely afford travel and luxury hotels for the paid speakers. How could they ever afford cheap seats, youth hostels, and door fee for one of those pesky volunteers?

[JohnA]

Yet another Wikiaddict in the terminal stages of addiction and withdrawal. He's discovering that his dealer and his fellow addicts don't really love him.

[melloden]

Oh c'mon now. The WMF can barely afford travel and luxury hotels for the paid speakers. How could they ever afford cheap seats, youth hostels, and door fee for one of those pesky volunteers?

The WMF is willing to pay for a lot of travel expenses unrelated to Wikimedia, actually. Remember that ambassadors thing? The application to become one says

The Wikimedia Foundation is planning to hold the mandatory three-day Campus Ambassador training event in early January 2011 (location TBD). What dates in early January would work for you?

_____________________________________
(Note: the Wikimedia Foundation can cover Campus Ambassadors’ travel expenses for this training event)

This is mostly for, mind you, students who are complete strangers to Wikipedia, much less the authors of 40 GAs and 19 FAs or whatever Oliver was bragging about.

This post has been edited by melloden: Mon 28th March 2011, 1:43pm

[A Horse With No Name]

Why don't we watch the drivel go by on his Twitter feed?

This is actually a lot sadder than the silly blog -- if the Twitter feed is any indication, he has few friends and fewer interests outside of Wikipedia.

[thekohser]

At the time of writing, I have been awake for 24 of the last 40 hours, and 20 of the last 24, the latter because I was feverishly working away at a project for, you guessed it, the WMF.

He sleeps 16 out of every 40 hours? No wonder they don't want to give him funding! He would probably have to be put down for a nap in the middle of his presentation.

Yeah, until you put it that way, it is hard to imagine someone getting 8 hours of sleep per night, in less than a 2-day span!

[A User]

Why don't we watch the drivel go by on his Twitter feed?

This is actually a lot sadder than the silly blog -- if the Twitter feed is any indication, he has few friends and fewer interests outside of Wikipedia.

He seems quite fond of the four-letter word and I dont mean feed. Given the uncontrolled outbursts, I somehow don't think he will have a long career in law.

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

He seems quite fond of the four-letter word and I dont mean feed. Given the uncontrolled outbursts, I somehow don't think he will have a long career in law.

It's a British Thing ... and a fucking good one too. Usually best done with a "posh" Hugh Grant type accent just to assert that one does sufficient vocabulary and education to know alternative but dashing style enough not to care. It's a often a bonding thing.

Ironholds ... can you see it now? You're an unpaid serf. A slave to your own mental addictions. It's not a community. It's not work. It's not even voluntary work. They are not friends. They have only come to occupy those parts of your emotions normally set aside for work, friends and community as any cult would do.

They get paid, you don't. You never will. The abuse won't stop. It's a waste of time. Your trapped in a co-dependent relationship.

For God's sake, invest in the children instead.

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy: Tue 29th March 2011, 9:56pm

[Shalom]

Good news, Wikimedia fooled another contributor who is now pissed off and likely to quit. I know the feeling only too well. I never dealt with the jerks in San Francisco, but the treatment from editors at RFA was bad enough. By the way, the number of support votes at RFA has nothing to do with Ironholds' case, and he conveniently forgot to mention his previous dramatic RFA fails.

Anyway, I'm sure Wikimedia has much better things to do with their ridiculous budget surplus than to help Ironholds fly to Haifa for Wikimania since he's already prepared to speak and given gobs of volunteer time and yielded written products. Seriously, Wikimania, where are your brains?