User:Chase me ladies, I'm the cavalry, Another member of the military moonlights as an admin and makes a fool Options

[Doc glasgow]

Giano is correct - all this has a perfectly natural and human explanation, and the horrid bullshit on this thread does nothing but show the meanness and lack of perspective of those posting it.

Since when did pretending on the internet make you a "pathological liar"? Do those using the term even know what "pathological" means? It would appear not.

In any case, putting disinformation on one's userpage is nothing new.

There is a clear difference here from the Essjay fiasco, because Essjay actually repeatedly used the fake credentials to his advantage.

But even then, what was Essjay about? A young man went role-playing on the internet. He then grew up and decided he wanted a job. Got offered the job (on the basis of his real CV and assessed abilities), and then found the childish roleplaying game bit him hard on the arse. A salutary lesson to all - but hardly evil incarnate.


See my analysis of Essjay here...

This post has been edited by Doc glasgow: Wed 19th January 2011, 9:27am

[thekohser]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

[Doc glasgow]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

That tactic may or may not be justified. The point is that there was solid evidence that Essjay flaunted his bogus credentials to gain advantage - there is no evidence that The Cavalry did any such thing.

Yours,

Admiral of the Fleet, Rt Honourable and Most Excellent, Dr Sir Scott MacDonald, 1st Earl MacDonald of Glasgow, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS (Wikipedia Administrator)

This post has been edited by Doc glasgow: Wed 19th January 2011, 1:02pm

[lilburne]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

That tactic may or may not be justified. The point is that there was solid evidence that Essjay flaunted his bogus credentials to gain advantage - there is no evidence that The Cavalry did any such thing.

Yours,

Admiral of the Fleet, Rt Honourable and Most Excellent, Dr Sir Scott MacDonald, 1st Earl MacDonald of Glasgow, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS (Wikipedia Administrator)

Agree.

Servalan

[taiwopanfob]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

That tactic may or may not be justified. The point is that there was solid evidence that Essjay flaunted his bogus credentials to gain advantage - there is no evidence that The Cavalry did any such thing.

Yours,

Admiral of the Fleet, Rt Honourable and Most Excellent, Dr Sir Scott MacDonald, 1st Earl MacDonald of Glasgow, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS (Wikipedia Administrator)

God save the Queen

Mr. Macdonald, do not be naive. Heat has this dead on right. At an ArbCom election, would you vote for (say) an unemployed janitor or a military officer showing the colors?

He also had a choice to remain completely wiki-silent on his real-world situation. Honestly, puffing yourself up or down to protect yourself is spectacularly stupid. Silence would have achieved the erstwhile security goal far, far, better. Furthermore, and as discussed before in other cases, people who have security issues (be it their own, or others) to deal with should not be editing Wikipedia at all.

CML should be shit-canned for this, if only for this display of extraordinarily poor judgment -- an amazing outlier even by the norms of ArbCom! His continued activity at other aspects of the project, despite sitting on ArbCom, goes further to his lack of judgment.

[carbuncle]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

I was waiting for some variation of the "because of the stalkers/for my personal safety" justification to be trotted out. The particular variant makes no sense to me. For starters, "security threat to the British military"? What does that even imply? Is someone targeting military editors on WP? Wouldn't it make more sense to identify yourself as having nothing to do with the military, then?

Let's assume there is something to his justification, even f I can't imagine what that would be. The sensible thing to do would then be to leave it as is when called out on WR, since it would continue to provide the same magic protection on WP so long as those unnamed people threatening the "British military" in unknown ways did not also read this thread on WR.

Some people here either knew or have long suspected that Chase Me was a poser. Chase Me's reaction to this recent discussion was to change his userpage and delete the revisions which showed his fabrication. When this action was exposed here, they switched tactics and communicated with theKohser. Their message to theKohser contains more prevarications.

If this is someone who has made a "youthful misjudgment", they do not seem to have matured very much. I don't wish to attack Chase Me unnecessarily, but I see two separate yet intertwined issues here. Claiming ranks not earned is something that military personnel take very seriously, and someone who is in the naval reserves is certainly aware of that. As this relates to WP, ArbCom is the closest thing WP has to an official body - it shouldn't be this difficult to find a handful of people out of the thousands of editors who aren't tainted by such things. Is the entire WP population made up of people with such ethical shortcomings? Is it really such an intrusion to check that this small body has at least not claimed credentials which they do not possess?

Frankly, I do feel sorry for Chase Me. He is likely regretting what seemed like a very exciting opportunity in the form of that interview, and seems ill-equipped to deal with this fallout. At this point, I wold hope that, at the very least, he comes clean with the WP community. I believe he should resign from ArbCom immediately. Giving up his admin rights and going through another RfA would give him a chance to judge how the WP community feel about this. I don't know what the outcome would be, but it wold be a chance to clear the air.

[Doc glasgow]

Mr. Macdonald, do not be naive. Heat has this dead on right. At an ArbCom election, would you vote for (say) an unemployed janitor or a military officer showing the colors?

He also had a choice to remain completely wiki-silent on his real-world situation. Honestly, puffing yourself up or down to protect yourself is spectacularly stupid. Silence would have achieved the erstwhile security goal far, far, better. Furthermore, and as discussed before in other cases, people who have security issues (be it their own, or others) to deal with should not be editing Wikipedia at all.

CML should be shit-canned for this, if only for this display of extraordinarily poor judgment -- an amazing outlier even by the norms of ArbCom! His continued activity at other aspects of the project, despite sitting on ArbCom, goes further to his lack of judgment.

Me, I'd probably plumb for the unemployed janitor - he's probably better read and has certainly got more time to devote to it. But honestly, I'm not stupid enough to consider unverified off-wiki credentials when choosing candidates.

As for stupid, that's wasn't a crime, nor a breach of some Wikistatute last time I looked.

Yours

The Grand Mufti, Wikiproject Squarepants

[Kelly Martin]

Chase Me's reaction to this recent discussion was to change his userpage and delete the revisions which showed his fabrication. When this action was exposed here, they switched tactics and communicated with theKohser. Their message to theKohser contains more prevarications.

Seems that he's learned well from the Master. Arbcommies always do take after the Holy Jimbo. Must be especially hard for Ira, who is subject to a code of ethics that precludes such things.

[A Horse With No Name]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

He could have just as easily said nothing. Instead, he openly and repeatedly lied that he was naval officer.

And unless I'm mistaken, wasn't he pointedly asked (by Iridescent, I think) about his on-duty military status during the Arbcom election -- about whether or not he would have the time to handle Arbcom duties. At the time, no one knew that he had tons of time to play games on Wikipedia.

[Ottava]

The point is that there was solid evidence that Essjay flaunted his bogus credentials to gain advantage - there is no evidence that The Cavalry did any such thing.

I asked repeatedly for any proof of content disputes where it mattered and no one has provided any yet. Either it doesn't exist or I am being ignored. I expected content related mattes in this thread instead of just personal life bashing, but I see none.

Even Coren's real life porn connection matters because of a pornopermissive culture that exists, but I see no real point except to out someone and then ridicule. So many people mock him for not having a job but we don't know their real life info - I see that as hypocritical.

There are plenty of Arbitrators that have plagiarized and committed other abuses. Why not spend this amount of effort digging through that? After all, Rlevse was knocked out that way, and there is more problematic material on some of them than there was on Rlevse.

[carbuncle]

Picture uploaded 25 June 2010 by Chase Me:

Added to Royal Navy uniform 11 January 2011 by Chase Me

Chase Me/Richard Symonds, 19 January 2011: I don't like putting pictures of me in a uniform online because my job in the reserves obviously leaves me open to real-life attacks, not to mention stern words from my CO about 'security' and so on and so forth.

[Zoloft]

My tuppence (just to be Brit-friendly) is to agree with Ottava and Doc glasgow that his exaggeration is No Big Deal, and that we're raking CMLITC over the coals too enthusiastically.

I don't care so very much about Arbs anymore - didn't even vote in the election. I don't take admins or arbs seriously any more. I stopped participating in RfAs. I've become a wiki-slacker.

[Doc glasgow]

It is all utter nonsense.

The "officer claim" was not made before his RFA, so didn't influence that. He removed it two years prior to the arbitration election - so hardly used to bolster him there. Besides he clearly uploaded images of himself in a ratings uniform - so not a big attempt to deceive.

So, what have you got?

Only carbuncle finding a remark that he had concerns about uploading an image, and then SIX MONTHS later he changed his mind.

This is just the worst of Wikipedia Review's conspiracy nuttery. Wikipedia has many evils - many problems - many areas needing explored and exposed - this just isn't one of them.

(But then by posting this "defence", I'm obviously just a biased cultist. So, ignore me and just carry on).

[Heat]

Chase Me told me that the reason he provided a different rank and branch to the public was to throw off those who might pose a security threat to the British military. He didn't say it was to puff up his credentials.

Signed,

Colonel Kohs

Did he explain how posing as an officer could possibly do that?

I can see people, for privacy reasons, not disclosing what they do for a living or putting up misinformation to protect yourself eg you don't want your online activities to get you in trouble at work or for trolls to start calling your boss so you say you're self-employed or a taxi driver instead of a school principal but to embellish your position in order to make yourself look more important than you are is something else entirely..

Is this evil? No. Walter Mitty-esque is more like it, but if your embellishment serves to give you more credibility in, say, an arbcom election then it's wrong and you should either disclose it before the vote or be disqualified.

As for his removing the false claim two years ago, I thought he only did that a few days ago? Even so, many people at WP (and here) were under the impression that he was an officer due to his earlier claim and he did nothing to dissuade people of that until Auntie Beeb knocked on his door.

This post has been edited by Heat: Wed 19th January 2011, 5:36pm

[victim of censorship]

WTF? so much for privacy.

I'm sorry - I'm suppressing that edit and emailing the guy. Please don't spread that around - it's not his personal info

So many nutjobs, so little sanity on wiki. Proof positive why Wikipedia is a cesspool.

[victim of censorship]

Picture uploaded 25 June 2010 by Chase Me:

Added to Royal Navy uniform 11 January 2011 by Chase Me

Chase Me/Richard Symonds, 19 January 2011: I don't like putting pictures of me in a uniform online because my job in the reserves obviously leaves me open to real-life attacks, not to mention stern words from my CO about 'security' and so on and so forth.

This is symonds night job

[carbuncle]

It is all utter nonsense.

The "officer claim" was not made before his RFA, so didn't influence that. He removed it two years prior to the arbitration election - so hardly used to bolster him there. Besides he clearly uploaded images of himself in a ratings uniform - so not a big attempt to deceive.

So, what have you got?

Only carbuncle finding a remark that he had concerns about uploading an image, and then SIX MONTHS later he changed his mind.

This is just the worst of Wikipedia Review's conspiracy nuttery. Wikipedia has many evils - many problems - many areas needing explored and exposed - this just isn't one of them.

(But then by posting this "defence", I'm obviously just a biased cultist. So, ignore me and just carry on).

Doc, you might want to check your dates. The picture was uploaded 6 months ago, but Chase Me added it to an article eight days before wrote that message to theKohser.

So he is concerned about images of himself in unform because of the dangers of "real-life attacks" but he puts a picture of himself in full uniform on the fifth most popular website in the world. Also, there is a picture of him in uniform, on his userpage, which is likely the first place anyone trying to track him down would look. It just doesn't add up, which makes me question his credibility and therefore look at his actions with a jaundiced eye. (No offence intended to anyone with actual jaundice.)

Since Chase Me deleted previous versions of his userpage, I don't know how long the Royal Navy lieutenant version was up, or if it was there before his RfA.

[Giano]

It is all utter nonsense.

The "officer claim" was not made before his RFA, so didn't influence that. He removed it two years prior to the arbitration election - so hardly used to bolster him there. Besides he clearly uploaded images of himself in a ratings uniform - so not a big attempt to deceive.

So, what have you got?

Only carbuncle finding a remark that he had concerns about uploading an image, and then SIX MONTHS later he changed his mind.

This is just the worst of Wikipedia Review's conspiracy nuttery. Wikipedia has many evils - many problems - many areas needing explored and exposed - this just isn't one of them.

(But then by posting this "defence", I'm obviously just a biased cultist. So, ignore me and just carry on).

Doc, you might want to check your dates. The picture was uploaded 6 months ago, but Chase Me added it to an article eight days before wrote that message to theKohser.

So he is concerned about images of himself in unform because of the dangers of "real-life attacks" but he puts a picture of himself in full uniform on the fifth most popular website in the world. Also, there is a picture of him in uniform, on his userpage, which is likely the first place anyone trying to track him down would look. It just doesn't add up, which makes me question his credibility and therefore look at his actions with a jaundiced eye. (No offence intended to anyone with actual jaundice.)

Since Chase Me deleted previous versions of his userpage, I don't know how long the Royal Navy lieutenant version was up, or if it was there before his RfA.

In order to be open and honest, he has since restored the page's history fully. It's my view that he's been a silly prat, but I do think he's been a harmless prat and he will have learned from this. Compared to some of the villains editing Wikipedia, this is a non-story. He's not the only twit on the Arbcom and he's young enough to benefit from the experience. He's had his knuckles well and truly rapped I don't see the point of going for his blood over a foolish action that's actually only harmed him.

Giacomo

This post has been edited by Giano: Wed 19th January 2011, 6:31pm

[A Horse With No Name]

And while we are speaking of the Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea -- is this his blog? http://chasemeladies.blogspot.com/

[Doc glasgow]

And while we are speaking of the Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea -- is this his blog? http://chasemeladies.blogspot.com/

Obviously, not.