Ottava leaves Wikipedia Options

[A Horse With No Name]

I think "Pastor Ottava" has a nice ring to it, and it looks like it's available!

A Catholic zealot like Ottava would do better as Archbishop Rima.

CardinalSin has already been taken.

UtterlyPretentious is still available.

How about Fourth Man on the Trinity? Is that taken?

[the fieryangel]

UtterlyPretentious is still available.

They've reserved that one for you.

Man I can't believe it : they think that this has more teeth to it :

Moreschi admonished

2.1) Moreschi (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log) is admonished for posting editor-specific information that directly leads to the private identity of pseudonymous editors.

There is no difference between this and the other one. Moreschi needs to be dessysoped and banned, as he's done much worse than anything OR has done. Folantin needs to be banned as well.

[the fieryangel]

The fact that this person is a teenager needs to be factored into comments such as this :
And Folantin is still playing tagteam...

This is rather ironic, given the context...

For their own good, this child needs to be desyssoped and then both of these children need to be banned. It's a matter of strict comment sense.

[dogbiscuit]

Wizardman has now posted the proposed decision here.

And what utter stupidity, too! "If you cannot work with others on a wiki, then there is nowhere on the site for you, no matter how good your content work may be." So is the W-man going to start banning the other resident malcontents on the site (including Mr. Gerard, Mr. Sinclair, and Mr. Chapman, to start with), or is this just a convenient way for him to pick apart the guys he personally dislikes?

And for being "banned" -- really, even W-man's fellow arbitrators openly acknowledge there is no way to enforce such stupidity.

Well, in principle, banning someone who is genuinely disruptive is quite a sensible thing. The trouble is that they rarely seem to be able to tell the difference between disruption and sheer frustration at the daily stupidity to be tolerated and the likely results of that, and as you rightly point out, they have been magically blind to the disruption of some of the old guard.

In fact in terms of disruption to the project, who has done more harm, Ottave Rima or Peter Damian, who may be difficult to deal with but ulitmately are individual nuisances to the project, or the old guard of Gerard, SlimVirgin and so on who have consolidated the dysfunctional organisation of Jimbo's vision of Wikipedia and whose influence is enmeshed in the fabric to the extent it is proving impossible to reform.

[A Horse With No Name]

Well, in principle, banning someone who is genuinely disruptive is quite a sensible thing.

In principle, I agree. In reality, it is not happening. No one is "banned" -- an account is disabled, that's all. When everyone stops pretending otherwise, we might be able to have some degree of progress in making WP work.

The trouble is that they rarely seem to be able to tell the difference between disruption and sheer frustration at the daily stupidity to be tolerated and the likely results of that, and as you rightly point out, they have been magically blind to the disruption of some of the old guard.

If that was the case, then David Gerard, FT2 and a host of other losers would have been booted ages ago. Arbcom is playing kiddie games -- they have no control over the site and, sadly, they know it. This is just shabby pantomime, not serious administrative functioning.

In fact in terms of disruption to the project, who has done more harm, Ottave Rima or Peter Damian, who may be difficult to deal with but ulitmately are individual nuisances to the project, or the old guard of Gerard, SlimVirgin and so on who have consolidated the dysfunctional organisation of Jimbo's vision of Wikipedia and whose influence is enmeshed in the fabric to the extent it is proving impossible to reform.

Ottava and Petey don't have the friends to back them up, hence their pariah status with some WP people. Giano, for example, should have been booted ages ago if we were to apply the same standards, but he is still there.

[TungstenCarbide]

In fact in terms of disruption to the project, who has done more harm, Ottave Rima or Peter Damian, who may be difficult to deal with but ulitmately are individual nuisances to the project, or the old guard of Gerard, SlimVirgin and so on who have consolidated the dysfunctional organisation of Jimbo's vision of Wikipedia and whose influence is enmeshed in the fabric to the extent it is proving impossible to reform.

Ottava and Petey don't have the friends to back them up, hence their pariah status with some WP people. Giano, for example, should have been booted ages ago if we were to apply the same standards, but he is still there.

I don't consider Giano disruptive ... He participates in due process to resolve grievences, asks for accountability of people he believes treated him unfairly and who are bad for the project, and speaks truth to power as the saying goes. He's motivated by what's good for the project and the community. I consider that leadership, not disruption.

A skeptic might make the argument that Giano's motivation is to attract attention to himself and stir up trouble, and that he picks just causes to do so. But that doesn't hold up when you consider he was a quiet and productive contributor before that asinine 'hate speech' block.

[Somey]

So... Ottava seems to be claiming that this is "goodbye," in which he lists all of his many featured articles and so on on his user page.

If it helps keep Ottava out of Wikiland for good, and hopefully the interwebs in general, then I'd just like to point out that his stellar contributions to Wikipedia will be shining examples to the rest of us for years, even decades to come, showing the true potential that can be reached when extraordinary talent is combined with true, selfless dedication to an ideal. I think I can speak for all of us when I state (categorically, of course) that without Ottava, Wikipedia will be an empty, cold dark place, completely lacking in moral, ethical, or editorial standards (though admittedly, that's been the case all along). Ottava was truly the wind beneath our wings, the cream in our coffee, the codpiece in our rubber Batman suit. He will be missed, for as long as he's gone, which I expect will be about 3 days.

Anyway, I guess it's back to watching old Morrissey videos on YouTube!

[The Joy]

So... Ottava seems to be claiming that this is "goodbye," in which he lists all of his many featured articles and so on on his user page.

If it helps keep Ottava out of Wikiland for good, and hopefully the interwebs in general, then I'd just like to point out that his stellar contributions to Wikipedia will be shining examples to the rest of us for years, even decades to come, showing the true potential that can be reached when extraordinary talent is combined with true, selfless dedication to an ideal. I think I can speak for all of us when I state (categorically, of course) that without Ottava, Wikipedia will be an empty, cold dark place, completely lacking in moral, ethical, or editorial standards (though admittedly, that's been the case all along). Ottava was truly the wind beneath our wings, the cream in our coffee, the codpiece in our rubber Batman suit. He will be missed, for as long as he's gone, which I expect will be about 3 days.

Anyway, I guess it's back to watching old Morrissey videos on YouTube!

What's funny is the comments on the Proposed Decision talk page with people exclaiming "But if OR is banned for a year, that means he'll eventually come back in a year. What are we going to do when that happens? Panic! Panic!"

So, don't feel bad, Ottava. Even while banned or in self-imposed exile, people will still feel your presence. When an IP corrects a Catholic-related article, the Persian Empire, the Lucy Poems, or any 18th-century British Literature article, they will speak in hushed but fearful whispers "Is that just someone helping out... or... OTTAVA RIMA! "

[EricBarbour]

Ottava was truly the wind beneath our wings, the cream in our coffee, the codpiece in our rubber Batman suit.

Can we agree on one thing: call him "The Rubber Codpiece" henceforth?
Because I am going to vomit if I have to read any more of his ravings.
Perhaps mockery will keep him off the 'pedia, and my puke off the keyboard?

Actually I don't know which is worse, his ravings, or Arbcom's attempts to "make policy",
using Ottava (cough cough) Codpiece as a whipping boy.

And yeah, Moreschi deserves a similar fate. So, Arbcom misses 2 birds with one stone.

(I will fuck off now, thank you very much.)

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Mon 14th December 2009, 5:44am

[everyking]

And what utter stupidity, too! "If you cannot work with others on a wiki, then there is nowhere on the site for you, no matter how good your content work may be." So is the W-man going to start banning the other resident malcontents on the site (including Mr. Gerard, Mr. Sinclair, and Mr. Chapman, to start with), or is this just a convenient way for him to pick apart the guys he personally dislikes?

Obnoxious and hostile people are a dime a dozen, but there's only one Ottava.

[Mathsci]

On the other hand he can get on with writing his Ph.D. dissertation, from which wikipedia can only have been a distraction. The rigid format of the wikipedia articles on poems that he has been helping to produce can hardly have been useful for that purpose. By the nature of wikipedia, it was plagiaristic - there was no room for originality. I hope for his sake that he has not been as petty, stubborn and disrespectful with his thesis advisor as he has been with editors on wikipedia. The normal rule in RL is that graduate students are forgiven such misdemeanours if they reform. Either that or they change supervisor and sometimes university.

This post has been edited by Mathsci: Mon 14th December 2009, 10:57am

[SB_Johnny]

So... Ottava seems to be claiming that this is "goodbye," in which he lists all of his many featured articles and so on on his user page.

I don't know how people can write those "goodbye messages" without being horribly embarrassed by it. Or keep a straight face while acting in Adam Sandler movies, for that matter.

On the other hand he can get on with writing his Ph.D. dissertation, from which wikipedia can only have been a distraction. The rigid format of the wikipedia articles on poems that he has been helping to produce can hardly have been useful for that purpose. By the nature of wikipedia, it was plagiaristic - there was no room for originality. I hope for his sake that he has not been as petty, stubborn and disrespectful with his thesis advisor as he has been with editors on wikipedia. The normal rule in RL is that graduate students are forgiven such misdemeanours if they reform. Either that or they change supervisor and sometimes university.

He could also go the "transwiki route" and import the stuff to wikibooks or wikiversity and work in a quieter atmosphere. I somehow suspect he prefers the drama though.

[A Horse With No Name]

I don't consider Giano disruptive ...

The guy is like a porcupine in a nudist colony. Granted, he is hilarious -- but in the scheme of things, you know a dust storm is coming whenever Giano shows up.

Obnoxious and hostile people are a dime a dozen, but there's only one Ottava.

Anyone who clones Ottava will get a horseshoe in the chops!

On the other hand he can get on with writing his Ph.D. dissertation,

Yes, we've had enough of Mr. O.R. Hyde -- let's see Dr. O.R. Jekyll.

[Milton Roe]

Yes, we've had enough of Mr. O.R. Hyde -- let's see Dr. O.R. Jekyll.

Alas, while every Dr. Jekyll has a Mr. Hyde, unfortunately not every Mr. Hyde has a Dr. Jekyll. The reasons are still being ellucidated, but it apparently has something to do with MCAT and GRE scores.

[everyking]

I just hope the ArbCom follows through and imposes the ban even though Ottava says he has left. If they dropped the matter, he'd be back in no time.

[A Horse With No Name]

I just hope the ArbCom follows through and imposes the ban even though Ottava says he has left. If they dropped the matter, he'd be back in no time.

Meh. No "ban" is being imposed -- if the O.R. account is disabled, our hero can simply start another one and pick up where he left off. It will probably be better for him, considering the baggage he is already carrying.

[everyking]

I just hope the ArbCom follows through and imposes the ban even though Ottava says he has left. If they dropped the matter, he'd be back in no time.

Meh. No "ban" is being imposed -- if the O.R. account is disabled, our hero can simply start another one and pick up where he left off. It will probably be better for him, considering the baggage he is already carrying.

Of course, it would quickly become obvious because he wouldn't be able to keep from making his trademark irrational attacks. I think almost everyone (aside from a few of the most dogmatic "banned means banned" types) would be happy to have an Ottava sock that edited productively while also engaging with others like a rational human being, but I don't think it will happen. Most likely he only did his productive work in order to increase his own life expectancy as an editor, knowing that if all he did was attack people without doing content work he'd be banned quickly. As a sock, he'd have to edit quietly to survive, and that would leave him no incentive to contribute.

[wikademia.org]

all i have to say is "good ridance"

i am not sure how OR contributed positvely to Wikiversity.

But i hope if OR can find ways to contribute positively, then he returns. yay.

and I don't mean all that entirely. i mean it in a nice way. I think I have turned into one of those cold jerks that I used to opine Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation was full of. unforunate. oh well.

[carbuncle]

all i have to say is "good ridance"

i am not sure how OR contributed positvely to Wikiversity.

But i hope if OR can find ways to contribute positively, then he returns. yay.

and I don't mean all that entirely. i mean it in a nice way. I think I have turned into one of those cold jerks that I used to opine Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation was full of. unforunate. oh well.

Do you think you could turn into one of those people that uses capital letters at the beginning of sentences? That would be nice.

[wikademia.org]

all i have to say is "good ridance"

i am not sure how OR contributed positvely to Wikiversity.

But i hope if OR can find ways to contribute positively, then he returns. yay.

and I don't mean all that entirely. i mean it in a nice way. I think I have turned into one of those cold jerks that I used to opine Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation was full of. unforunate. oh well.

Do you think you could turn into one of those people that uses capital letters at the beginning of sentences? That would be nice.

Perhaps. Thanks for the feedback.