Piperdown block review, ...very interesting & The Usual Suspects Chime In Options

Well, this has been a very interesting read. Check out the WP:AN board for the discussion that was started from my request here about my Overblocked scam pulled by Carpet Bombing Gerard on WP.

People I never heard of are actually using their brains and saying "WTF?" when reading the reasoning of my block.

Unlike the Usual Suspects declaring me odious, but for very vague reasons they cant quite explain, I haven't even sent one email, or one canvass, about any of this. Just a simple talk page post and a mention here.

Props to those who are analyzing the facts in the case. An obvious vested few of the following people should recuse themselves, but they just cant quite help themselves.

Thatcher - see my WR sig, lol
Slim - OMG. someone whip out the Pierre Salinger and Patrick Byrne archives. Black kettle city. Mark Devlin is spinning in his wikigrave too i'd bet. and all the others that slimmy banned before. Who walked in and out WP's door. Cue the Iglesias.

Sami - OMG. Gary, just STFU for once and stop embarrassing yourself, and your socks selves. How many times does your sock show have to be visited by backstage passes.

Guy - Yeah, when my dad dies, I hop right on the internet, claim it, and start arguing with strangers about trivial bullshit. Someone in his family needs to remind him what is important in life and someone at WP needs to give him an involuntary wikibreak. For good. I've had loved ones die, go crazy, get rich, get arrested, get famous, while I've edited WP, WR, and other bullshit medias. I don't mention personal tragedies to gain sympathty and excuses for transgressions. Bad form.

For those who are able to critically analyze things and present their reasoning for others to review (sounds like what WP should be, right?), I thank you for chiming in:

Alison - you rule. Yes, this is all as crooked as it looks. Your aim is still true.

Cla68 - funny guy, man. Yes, you've stuck your wikineck out 10 times as far and not been banned. You're right. Thanks for the mentions. There's going to be more, keep reading WR. You rock.

There's a few fresh fellas I've never wikiheard of chiming in. The wizard throwing out diffs is just breaking the surface. It gets much better, Wiz. Keep reading those piperdiffs.

And someone please ask, again and again, how my sub /1 page was any different than Mantansockmaster's /1 page. Please. Alison did, and isn't getting any answers. People don't like to answer when they're in the wrong. Emails to Gerard, Slim, Jayjg (polite ones all) received crickets last summer. Lol. Cold stone wrong. When those sort of people are removed from WP it might have a chance. The responses from NPOV contributors has been inspiring so far, keep it up, it all gets much more interesting the more you follow the diffs.

And Cla68, I started many articles, not just 1.

Sorry about the lack of links in this post, start from my talk page link on my WR profile to the right, and follow the links to the WP discussion as linked from there by cla68. If the WR moderator wants to merge this post with the thread I started on Bureaucracy about it, that would prolly help WR'ians follow this.

And again, I've never even been to Utah, never met Patrick Byrne (oh, but that would be cool. Man's got a spine and has certainly elicited some very interesting actions from professional journalists in all sorts of venues), Wordbomb (the most feared man in the history of WP, lol!), never had any vested interest in Overstock.com of any kind. Feel free to read my WP User Page (see my sig) for my disclosures. I'm an open book, except for my real name of course. The Columbia Review Journalist getting mobbed up has inspired me to keep piperingdown, and I am no one of any importance. I just read an article on Essjay one day, and later while editing WP, saw a Bloomberg piece on Patrick Byrne. If people from Overstock do want to send free foam pads, cash, juicy discoveries about the usual suspects, then I can't say I wouldn't accept them, like a boring old housewife devouring true crime. It's been entertaining that is fo' sho.

This post has been edited by Piperdown:

I'm confused - which noticeboard? Can you give a link? This sounds like an interesting discussion.

WP:AN

#Review of indef block of piperdown

Hmm, like six users in favor of something modest like "reviewing the block" (including 2+ known WR personalities) vs. SV, Thatcher, and Georgewilliamherbert who claim the block is for sockpuppetry COI harassment meatpuppetry of an "extremely banned user" WP:DUCK!

I think those three are worth 10.5 normal admins. You stay blocked.


Edit: To avoid duplicated labor, please provide links, eh?

This post has been edited by One:

WP:AN

I finally found it, thanks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Adm...ck_of_Piperdown

Georgewilliamherbert forgets to pretend that administrators and others are equal:

And non admins don't get to come to AN and insist that admins comply with their idea of justice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=186715178

Thatcher appears to taunt Bstone for not being an administrator (am I reading this correctly?):

"Tell you what, as soon as Piperdown agrees to stay off the topic, you can personally unblock him, as long as you are willing to be responsible for his edits. Oh wait..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=186655318

This post has been edited by Proabivouac:

Link

Seems a good time to note what an unmitigated, scrotum-headed, flaming f***ing a**hole David Gerard is. Why in the world does that f***tard have any authority at all, let alone all the bells and whistles they've given him at Wikipedia? The boy has a full-blown personality disorder, either anti-social or narcissistic (it might depend on the day of the week). He's a sick f***, and he's almost the face of Wikipedia in Britain. You couldn't make s*** up like someone like that d*** being a high-holy at Wikipedia.

GWH is still trying to find some sort of way to prove I'm Judd Bagley.

Georgie boy, ask Slim. Ask Gerard. Ask Jayjg. Ask any other admin who CU'ed me last year. I always edit from the same state, from the same regular joe ISP, and it ain't in Utah, it ain't a mobile phone IP, it ain't a proxy, it's very very ordinary.

I edited my talk page the other day. Please perform a CU. It's the same IP pool as I always edited from last year. It's my residence. Unfortunately I'm not Judd Bagley. Smarter, better looking, less prone to cussin' and drankin', and much better at the internets than moi. Oh well, there's always next time.

That tried old truism that it's not the crime but the cover up that provides the most interesting part of the story is once again holding its own. I think there's white smoke now coming out from some smoky back rooms, is it a new Pope or just some truth leakin' out? The Doth Protest Too Muchers are going to have more to doth about if my smoke sniffing abilities haven't completely given me a second hand TomStonered out buzz.

Such salty language, salty. Gerard's Block Accuracy Average is well below the Mendoza Line. Even below the Durova Line. He's just not very good. But fear of angering the WP Gods makes one's edicts more believable, don't it? Get back in line or you'll get a good rap across the knuckles, young wikipedian, and don't you dare question authority (giggle). But I'm sure he's a perfectly nice fella to have a pint with. Most of the Wikityrants prolly are. We all get a little haughty on the nets.

I must say, that Overstock and Byrne must be really bad. All the best admins say so. Something about a duck.

Sami the uncool cat is having a fit all over Byrne's BLP again. Nah, there's no obsession there to make everyone googling Mr Byrne get a full shit sandwich about how "bizarre" (to quote several admins, lol) the man is. And I'm sure the people doing that are completely NPOV and not in any legal tussles with the Byrne. Lol.

It's a pity, still occasionaly wince when I read WP BLP's. 80%+ of them read like a child's book report for school. I know American pre-university education is an embarrassment, and to blame for a good deal of WP, but since WP seems so UK-centric, you'd think its superior (cough!) o-levelers would be so much more literate in their editorializing of the UK's shining star BLP's. Instead it's mostly trainspotting and fanboys. I think you're right about WP, badlydrawnjeff, maybe its more useful as a heaping pile of possibly true b.s. than an encyclopedia.

Or a propaganda tool for those vested in what pops up at the top of a google search.

This post has been edited by Piperdown:

To answer a couple of points being raised in the AN thread on WP:

1) If anyone bothered to read my WP userpage disclosures, they'd notice a disclosed that at the time of my edits to a particular company's article, I was a shareholder at that time of that company. That company's stock was and still is on the "Reg SHO" list. It was not Overstock. My edits to that company's page were quite docile. My interest in "naked shorting" started with that company's stock, not Overstock's, and my interest in the issue was further piqued by a show on Bloomberg TV about it. I was in no way affiliated with that company either, other than being a shareholder of Dendreon's stock in mid-March 2007 at the time I edited that crap excuse for an article. Kohser could really do a job on company's articles on WP, they are even worse than BLP's.

2) Again, I have no association with Overstock or any of its representatives whatsover. I bought a watch from them once, and would buy more around the holidays, but they don't do gift wrapping. Get on that please, Patrick, and I'll cheat on Bezos. His laugh is a unbearable, and your O Chicks are hot.
Like their CEO says, I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy his stock in the current environment of non-regulation of securities on the USA. Invest in mutual funds folks, and only if you can hold for 20 years.

3) WP Admins know what IP's, home, mobile, and proxy, that Bagley, and apparently all other Utah'ns edit from. I don't represent anyone but myself. I don't represent a firm being sued by the object of my editing, I don't edit WP by night with my own quotes from my publication or books I write by day. I don't take cash from interested parties in legal battles to push POV's on WP. I don't even post evil WP:OR shit about my old boss and have my Oversight buddy delete it later. I don't take out revenge on WP in settling old scores on their BLP's. But unlike the Doth Protest Too Muchers, I'll stop protesting that I'm not some sort of sooper sekrit Overstock agent. I might get the witch-duck test again.

4) I don't "dislike Gary Weiss". Don't know the guy. I do hate sockpuppeting, bullying, lying, power tripping, and hyprocrisy. Samiharris, Mantanmoreland, TomStoner, and LastExit sure don't seem to like Patrick M. Byrne. I guess it's all in the eye of the adminbeholder caught with his n's her hands in the wikijar though.

This post has been edited by Piperdown:

I don't know if anyone's considered this, but if he's editing productively, does it even matter if the person behind the account was Wordbomb? Yes, I know what WordBomb did. But that would assume the two are one and the same, and I am unconvinced - the "evidence" provided for Piperdown being a sock of WB is really shitty evidence, and Piperdown should be unblocked. By all means keep an eye on his editng and if he acts up, take action then. Neıl ☎ 10:55, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Krimpet implies that this block forced you into the poisonous coven of WR. Kinda reminds me of the argument that prisons breed criminality--and that you might have been unjustly convicted.

I'm surprised at the level of woodwork support.

Very reminiscent of the Poetlister debate. Good, productive editor; evidence against her weak. All we need is Durova to close it.

Without a doubt, the best part of this whole episode is the restoration of Piperdown/1. I presume many more people are reading the info you compiled now than ever would have had the block not occurred.

Viridae had the right idea when he asked for examples of WordBomb edits that resemble yours. Let's see if GWH can come up with anything. I'm betting he won't.

By the way, folks, I now have proof positive that Samiharris = Gary Weiss. I'm open to suggestions on the best way to present the evidence.

Everything GeorgeWilliamHerbert writes anywhere is so comically clueless it should be accompanied by the Laurel and Hardy theme tune. His performance on the ANI is one of the best. Read him and weep... or just Guffaw!

That's what the Duck test definition is, pretty much. It's established policy.

"The Duck Test..." Established Policy?

Without a doubt, the best part of this whole episode is the restoration of Piperdown/1. I presume many more people are reading the info you compiled now than ever would have had the block not occurred.

Viridae had the right idea when he asked for examples of WordBomb edits that resemble yours. Let's see if GWH can come up with anything. I'm betting he won't.

He's already decided that you are the only person in the world interested in Overstock.com and opposed to naked short selling. From what I've gathered, editing those articles and holding your opinion about naked short selling is considered more than enough evidence to block.

Everything GeorgeWilliamHerbert writes anywhere is so comically clueless it should be accompanied by the Laurel and Hardy theme tune. His performance on the ANI is one of the best. Read him and weep... or just Guffaw!

That's what the Duck test definition is, pretty much. It's established policy.

"The Duck Test..." Established Policy?

I'm not going to speculate as to what's motivating GWH right now, but you can't deny the following:
Gary Weiss (Mantanmoreland/Samiharris) always has a "big brother" sticking up for him until that figure's nose gets bloodied to the point that they back away, only to be replaced by another.

Initially is was SlimVirgin, who was eventually shamed out of the role. Then it was Jayjg, who went into hibernation and has since avoided Weiss. Then it was David Gerard, who created the most collateral damage and has been/is profoundly embarrassed by his actions, on a broad scale. Then it was JzG, who is busy at the moment.

GWH appears to be the next guy in the batting order, but also the least equipped to carry the load.

The truth is, I don't think the guy even comes close to believing what he's saying. But he's obligated by something. Again, I'm not going to speculate what that is, but it's something odd and unnatural.

So in some ways, I feel sorry for GWH. But more than that, I feel happy for Piperdown, whose good name will soon be restored.

Of course, we all know that Weiss's ultimate big brother protector is Jimbo, who, I'm predicting, will find occasion to step in and perform one of his mind-boggling moves before this is over.

And that, it shall be written, will be when the Revolution moves from the fringes to the fore.

This post has been edited by WordBomb:

You missed this crucial bit:

And also being an active Wikipedia Review participant?

That's the real grounds for blocking, isn't it?

Reading that, I feel really intimidated, they're fixed on Wikipedia review checking editors. Is kicking people out no enough they have on top of that follow editors here?

You missed this crucial bit:

And also being an active Wikipedia Review participant?

That's the real grounds for blocking, isn't it?

For someone having some thinking skills, regular participation here is against ground for blocking. Those on WR instead of posting here would register several accounts to scrap wikipedia instead of criticising it, if they had some real bad intend.

Isn't it an unwritten Wikipedia rule that anyone who on that site criticizes any of the Gary Weiss socks or shows an agreement with WordBomb on Gary Weiss related issues gets a ban?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=186936013

Figure this diff should be read by as many people as possible (including Piperdown) as soon as possible.

And again, I've never even been to Utah, never met Patrick Byrne (oh, but that would be cool. Man's got a spine and has certainly elicited some very interesting actions from professional journalists in all sorts of venues), Wordbomb (the most feared man in the history of WP, lol!), never had any vested interest in Overstock.com of any kind. Feel free to read my WP User Page (see my sig) for my disclosures. I'm an open book, except for my real name of course.

Have you met Julian Robertson?

By the way, folks, I now have proof positive that Samiharris = Gary Weiss. I'm open to suggestions on the best way to present the evidence.

Sounds newsworthy to me.

In that thread, SlimVirgin supports sock puppetry:

You see, this is exactly the point of this entire thread. If Piperdown simply wants to edit Wikipedia, all he has to do is power down his modem to get a new IP, and create a new account. If he edits well, no one will know it is him.
But instead what is really wants is a giant fuss. The people who know the background can do one of two things: either we keep quiet, in which case he and his supporters get to rewrite history. Or we speak up, and we end up being targets of more abuse.

On an older thread some other people said Wikipedia and especially SlimVirgin does that because then they can ban anyone they want as a sock puppet of a blocked user just for sharing the same opinion.

In that thread, SlimVirgin supports sock puppetry

I suppose Piperdown could follow her advice and start a new account, so later he could get checkusered and blocked by JayJG for being a banned editor evading his ban. Then the next time his unblock review came up, SlimVirgin could say things like, "He used sockpuppets to evade his ban! He clearly has no respect for our rules." Fairly typical tactics for her. Thankfully more and more people are seeing it for the B.S. that it is.

Soon she'll start being disappointed in everyone in the discussion. "It's disappointing that so many of our admins support harassment and banned users. I'm so disappointed." It's part of her manipulative tactics; after all, no one wants someone to be disappointed in them! Just like Mommy and Daddy used to say when you did something naughty. She's so disappointed.

zing!

I have an idea. Why don't we do a checkuser on everyone in this thread and see who is using sockpuppets and who isn't? What do you say, Mantanmoreland? —Viriditas | Talk 05:29, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

To put my point more systematically, here's a numbered list. Apologies in advance to people who object to the terminology:

1. Is Piperdown a meatpuppet?
2. If so, does proxying for a banned user for a while make it okay?
3. If not, was the account's conduct okay in other ways?

I'm not sure about no. 1, although I have a hunch there's merit to it. No. 2 is demonstrated by the arbcom decision I cited. As for 3 - I think the ban was merited. As a standard rule I'll support an unblock after six months if an editor doesn't evade a ban on socks and refrains from bashing Wikipedia at offsite fora. Sometimes I've reduced that on good faith when I see evidence that the person has turned over a new leaf. The leaf hasn't turned. And I ask both sides to turn down the heat on this discussion. DurovaCharge! 05:38, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Maybe someone should remind Durova that by their own admission, the Arbitration Committee doesn't set precedents.

This post has been edited by Castle Rock:

By the way, folks, I now have proof positive that Samiharris = Gary Weiss. I'm open to suggestions on the best way to present the evidence.

A ha! This is perfect...Weiss apparently read my earlier post (noting that I had proof that he's Samiharris), likely retraced his steps and realized how I did it, quickly squatted out a blog post denying it, but is now back to using Mantanmoreland, anyway.

Sorry to go OT on y'all. I just love watching Weiss get all frantic and silly like this.

Oh dear, now SlimVirgin is edit warring on WP:AN to keep reinserting material imported from WR. How incredibly hypocritical. Doesn't she always tell us how that information could be privately emailed if needed? She'd better be careful, I'd hate to see her blocked by ElinorD or Crum375. That would be so disappointing.

Now Crum375 has stepped in to tag team with Slim on her edit warring. Shocking, I know.

This post has been edited by Aloft:

Apparently Jehochman has learned nothing from the Durova case; he's now declared that complaints must be directed to Arbcom.

It's hard to follow all this palace intrigue without a libretto and a copy of Cliff's Notes.

Speaking of Cliff Notes, can I get a plot refresher from someone?

Was SlimeVinegar interested in the Overstock/Weiss/etc. matter solely because Patrick Byrne unwittingly mocked her switch to a British accent at Cambridge so many years ago? I think that's entirely possible: for Slime, everything is personal, and her Wikipedia participation seems to have been informed largely by events from that time of her life. But is there something else? Some path that a more normal, more healthy person might have followed into the dispute?

This interested me from the discussion :

Cla68 mentions how SlimVirgin accused him of being a puppet of Wordbomb in the past. If you check the diff in question, Slim ends with the statement :

Also, I forgot to say earlier that, judging by some of Cla's edits, he appears to be based in the same state as Wordbomb.

Cla68 lives in Japan.

Similarily, I remember JohnA saying that an IP address which located to Basingstoke in England was blocked as "it seems quite clear to me from your comments here that you are at least affiliated in some way with Bagley".

The whole thing was an absurdity.

Speaking of Cliff Notes, can I get a plot refresher from someone?

Was SlimeVinegar interested in the Overstock/Weiss/etc. matter solely because Patrick Byrne unwittingly mocked her switch to a British accent at Cambridge so many years ago? I think that's entirely possible: for Slime, everything is personal, and her Wikipedia participation seems to have been informed largely by events from that time of her life. But is there something else? Some path that a more normal, more healthy person might have followed into the dispute?

Here's how it happened...
On January 23, 2006 Gary Weiss began an assault on Patrick Byrne and others who oppose illegal naked short stock trading. This attack took place on various fronts, including Weiss's blog and book, and anonymously on stock message boards and Wikipedia. (To understand his apparent motive, you can read this)

By Summer of 2006 I had figured out, among other things, that Weiss was Wikipedia editor Mantanmoreland: the primary author of Weiss's article autobiography on Wikipedia. I made, as WordBomb, an admittedly clumsy effort to get the matter dealt with and Mantanmoreland banned from Wikipedia on COI grounds, which involved revealing Mantanmoreland's identity.

Weiss, who had been actively collaborating with SlimVirgin on an effort to get Martin Luther labeled an anti-Semite, ran to her for help. She summarily banned WordBomb.

While searching for more information on this strange SlimVirgin character, I found Wikipedia Review, and learned that SV was thought to be Linda Mack -- an alum of King's College with a personal connection to the bombing of Pan Am 103.

A month or so later, I was telling Patrick Byrne about the strange things I'd encountered on Wikipedia, and mentioned, in passing, details of the person who basically enabled Weiss to maintain control of the articles on naked short selling, Overstock.com and Byrne himself. He told me the Linda Mack/Julian Benello story sounded strangely similar to that of a couple he knew while at King's.

Five minutes later, we both realized that this might be the strangest coincidence either of us had ever heard of.

And as far as I'm concerned, that's all it is...a wildly unlikely coincidence, mostly because, with the exception of the very brief participation of a likely Slim Sock (Irishpunktom), she's had nothing to do with any of these articles before being dragged into things by Weiss.

Fast-forward one year...

On August 22, 2007 I published on AntiSocialMedia.net proof that SlimVirgin had abusively used sock puppets and Jayjg had abused Oversight to cover it up. This caused a bit of a stir, you might say. In response, the Cabal apparently decided to force the issue to ArbCom (as the infamous BADSITES debacle) by first creating an article on me. This happened on September 7.

In order to ensure that they could print whatever irresponsible lies about me they wanted, a monumental and extremely damaging effort was undertaken, which included blocking any IP I might use to edit (including my employer and the entire town of Traverse Mountain, Utah) and indefbanning any editor who might be on hand to correct the record. Because I'd not edited anything on the Wikipedia mainspace in many months, I wasn't affected at all.

On September 8, one of the victim's of Gerard's reign of terror was Piperdown...someone I don't know but suspect would be very agreeable were we to meet. He apparently came over to the anti-naked shorting camp as a shareholder of some non-Overstock.com victim of the practice (there are hundreds, by the way).

So that's the ultra-high level version of how we got here, and why Piperdown is the center of so much attention.

Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my extreme admiration for Cla68. That guy has integrity we can all learn from.

This post has been edited by WordBomb:

And as far as I'm concerned, that's all it is...a wildly unlikely coincidence, mostly because, with the exception of the very brief participation of a likely Slim Sock (Irishpunktom)

Just for the record : Irishpunktom is as likely a Sock of Slim as User:Daniel Brandt, Wordbomb.

On September 8, one of the victim's of Gerard's reign of terror was Piperdown...

... which was a purely political move without any due process. By this point, admins weaned on role playing games, sci-fi and goth music were completely out of their depth with the complexities of the case, and were enforcing rogue justice on anyone who walked past.

Weiss, who had been actively collaborating with SlimVirgin on an effort to get Martin Luther labeled an anti-Semite, ran to her for help.

Just so we're clear on this one point, the issue was the insertion of Nazi references in the Luther article itself (in the intro, no less). Nobody is seriously claiming that Luther wasn't anti-semitic - he was, as was most of European society at the time. (He was also anti-Catholic, if I recall correctly.) What we've been saying is that while it may be somewhat acceptable to mention Luther in the article on Nazis, strictly for context, it's not acceptable for the Nazis to be mentioned in the article on Luther. Why not mention all the Protestant denominations and non-Catholic Christian cults and political movements that came into existence after the 16th century too, while you're at it? Not enough space? Hmm. Just because you can find some people (including Lyndon LaRouche!) who make a spurious and nasty claim doesn't make it acceptable to put it in the intro of a major article on a major religious figure on a major website.

Five minutes later, we both realized that this might be the strangest coincidence either of us had ever heard of.

It's only a strange coincidence that Slimmy was a high-ranking WP admin at the time Weiss started participating in WP. Once you get past that, the fact that she'd be interested in Byrne's biography and related articles isn't really a coincidence at all - she would have almost certainly noticed what was going on even without being contacted, and she would have acted according to her pre-existing opinion of Byrne and anyone on WP who might have supported him.

Somey, as always, hits the spot. Your WR is suddenly not an unmentionable source on WP any more. Funny how that works, eh? This is indeed a very provacative site, even Slimmy collects (stalks? lol!) my posts from it.

NYB - just remove the ban, delete the subpage, leave the user and talk pages in tact as there is nothing there against WP rules, and I'll place a Retired noticed at the top of both pages, scramble the account password, and begone from WP and WR. I want nothing to do with volunteering my efforts for the profit of the WMF or the sort of people representing it on WP at this time. Pretty clear i think.

For the record, below I willl post all of my emails made to WP administration during the summer of 2007 before and during my ban. Enjoy. There were no responses except from Fred, who as many others on WR, I actually like and have some admiration for, although his sense of humour is, like mine, lost on many.

From: Piperdown
Sent: Tue 3/27/07 2:24 PM
To: <christofurio>
Subject: Wikipedia e-mail

Your edit(s) in the Nocera entry talk page show that you forget to login in on your first post at 1120, then update the post with a link to msn 2 minutes later.

The first post shows you are posting from a Reuters computer. Would you care to disclose this conflict of interest on your user page?

Thanks

piperdown
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from Piper Down
to christofurio
date Mar 27, 2007 1:32 PM
subject Re: Wikipedia e-mail

Thanks. So you work for Reuters and "Lipper Hedgeworld"?

I didn't know Reuters employed correspondants who also work for hedge funds. I must be assuming something wrong.

Thanks <christofurio> for the speedy reply.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from Piper Down
to <christofurio>
date Mar 27, 2007 1:45 PM

Thanks, for some reason you're a lot more intelligent in email than you are on wikipedia. Thanks for clearing up my quick take on your hedge fund themed publication.

Do you have any published articles that can be googled? I'd be happy to update any article with cites from any articles you have.

Nocera has a fantastic journalism career, that someone is using his biography to grind an axe against byrne is pretyy obvious. Perhaps I'll update the Nocera entry with more of his controversial comments, like how Cramer's giving out advice on Mad Money, Clemens is a choke artist, etc. Get my point? He makes a lot of controversial statements. It's what he does, especially to a polarising figure who is targeting certain journalists in the press. Nocera is a stand up guy and he stands up for his friends. We all do.

Just trying to help, there is a group of journalists trolling wikiepedia semi-anonymously in retaliation against Byrne, and I'd hope that any ethical journalist would be fair and objective about the matter, or recuse themselves for COI.

Looking forward to reading your work, cheers.
-piperdown
---------------------------------------------------------------------
from Piperdown
date Apr 16, 2007 8:26 PM
subject Copy of your message to Jayjg: Wikipedia e-mail
mailed-by wikimedia.org

hi Jay,

I'm not "wordbomb" or a "meatpuppet", or even an "aldebaer".

But I do know how to use Google, and how to trace IP addresses on wikiepedia edits, and how to determine sock puppets too. I don't have access to wikipedia checkuser, but thankfully some sloppy editors take care of that anyway by forgetting to log in before editing, as Matanmoreland sometimes does.

So I find it interesting that Wikipedia is allowing Gary Weiss to

a) Create his own biography
B) sockpuppet under names "TomStoner" and "LastExit"
c) Push his books under all 3 or more aliases in wikipedia edits
d) Have his actions protected by an admin with a grad school grudge against his enemies.

I'd think this would make an even more interesting "outing" than Ryan Jordan, don't you? Looking at Jimbo Wales's pre-Essjay cover up of this, I'd say he would find it embarassing as well.

What do you think? I see you're SlimVirgin's checkuserer, so surely you ran the checkusers on Mantanmoreland last year, and surely you were completely honest in your findings with Jimbo, right?

Oh, by the way, Matanmoreland sometimes posts from the DTCC. I find that a COI with editing articles that mention lawsuits against the DTCC, don't you? There's about a dozen more COI's that you and Gary's other handlers know about.

Checkuser is quite a privilege. Could you tell Gary to remember to login before he edits from now on, and please ask him how his "uncle" LastExit, who posts from the same PC he does is doing. I'm worried about him, he hasn't Wikipedia'ed since his nephew announced him.

Keep up the great work, Jay.
-------------------------------------------
from Piper Down
to fredbaud@waterwiki.info,
date Apr 16, 2007 10:03 PM
subject Re: Wikipedia e-mail

What's "over-doing it", then Fred?

Linda and above have banned people for sock puppetry. They've banned them for editing their own bios. They've banned people for spamming. They've banned people for POV-pushing. They banned people for putting real names of wikienemies on their user pages. Gary has done all of those and more.

And for people who care about Wikipedia, they're lucky that Gary Weiss hasn't been Essjay'ed already. The hubris he shows and the guard dog tactics from Linda and "Jay" have only angered people more about the hypocrisy.

And thanks for being willing to use your real name on wikipedia and not having your diff showing that Gary posted as both TomStoner and Mantanmoreland around the time he lied about his "uncle" LastExit.

He's Essjay in the making, Fred, and the in-your-face-ness of his behaviour is appalling. Since Jimbo's on record as being OK with Gary, there's no backing down from his friends all the way up the ladder, is there?

By the way, there's several journalists besides Gary in on his act, some of which have emailed me. They consider themselves beyond wikirules mainly in part to how the Gary Weiss situation has been handled by Jimbo, and that's just plain dangerous to the integrity of wikipedia.

This time, it isn't a weekend in India that prevents Jimbo from getting the full Essjay story to respond properly, it appears to have been almost a year from the diff files I have seen.
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more in next post

This post has been edited by Piperdown:

NYB - just remove the ban, delete the subpage, leave the user and talk pages in tact as there is nothing there against WP rules, and I'll place a Retired noticed at the top of both pages, scramble the account password, and begone from WP and WR. I want nothing to do with volunteering my efforts for the profit of the WMF or the sort of people representing it on WP at this time. Pretty clear i think.

This is a reasonable offer. If WP did not block sadistically,
but for the protection of their 'encyclopaedia', they would
take you up on it.

Blocking / banning someone who is willing to leave, or who
has already left, of his or her own free will is pure sadism.


This post has been edited by AB:

from Piperdown
date Apr 30, 2007 6:40 PM
subject Copy of your message to Jpgordon: Wikipedia e-mail

I object to a vendetta smear by RFCU by Mongo to paint me as "wordbomb".

ever notice a pattern by certain editors, namely Mongo, Mantamoreland (also known as Tomstoner and LastExit before he was asked to stop but not banned), and SlimVirgin among others, to have editors banned from Wikipedia using the Wordbomb lie?

I'm not Judd Bagley and have no affiliation with him or Overstock.

I do expect further harassment from the above mentioned editors, though.

Can I expect more frivoulous checkuser requests from any editor that I make the mistake of opining on one of their RFC's, or just the bold ones who think they have a carte blanche to bully based on who their wikifriends are?
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from Piperdown
date May 27, 2007 3:17 PM
subject Copy of your message to SlimVirgin: Wikipedia e-mail
mailed-by wikimedia.org

I don't have sock puppets. Unlike User:Mantanmoreland/Tomstoner.

I also don't have converstations with myself on wikipedia article talk pages as the above does.

So why the sockpuppet slander?

There is going to be some WP:COI action on that front whether you like it or not. You can either be on the right side of that when it happens, the wrong side, or stay out of it. I'd hope you'd choose to be on the right side of the topic of editors of using socks in conversations with themselves.

I do know how to use google on editors that try and railroad me while blatant WP:PA'ing me about how I'm having a "nervous breakdown". And I do know how to trace IP addresses on edits when they forget to log in.

Did you know that editor Mantanmoreland has posted from a DTCC computer according to his edit history on a church in NYC?

He also edits entries concerning topics and legal oppponents of the DTCC.

Don't you find that interesting? I'm sure a WP:COI review will too.

Cheers,
Piper
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from Piperdown
to dgerard@gmail.com,
date Sep 8, 2007 11:46 AM
subject hello, found your email on the mailing list site

care to explain your lying about me on wikipedia that i am a puppet for overstock and/or anyone who works for it?

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<crickets>

This post has been edited by Piperdown:

By the way, folks, I now have proof positive that Samiharris = Gary Weiss. I'm open to suggestions on the best way to present the evidence.

A ha! This is perfect...Weiss apparently read my earlier post (noting that I had proof that he's Samiharris), likely retraced his steps and realized how I did it, quickly squatted out a blog post denying it, but is now back to using Mantanmoreland, anyway.

Sorry to go OT on y'all. I just love watching Weiss get all frantic and silly like this.

Out with it already, word! You're driving us all wacky in anticipation. Give me closure on the sockshow that ran me off WP, and closure for all WP'ians who have long wondered how some people are more equal than others when it comes to gross violations of everything WP is supposed to stand for.

Out with it! WR is apparently the best place for WP truth-telling, even WP agrees.

In that thread, SlimVirgin supports sock puppetry

I suppose Piperdown could follow her advice and start a new account, so later he could get checkusered and blocked by JayJG for being a banned editor evading his ban. Then the next time his unblock review came up, SlimVirgin could say things like, "He used sockpuppets to evade his ban! He clearly has no respect for our rules." Fairly typical tactics for her. Thankfully more and more people are seeing it for the B.S. that it is.

Soon she'll start being disappointed in everyone in the discussion. "It's disappointing that so many of our admins support harassment and banned users. I'm so disappointed." It's part of her manipulative tactics; after all, no one wants someone to be disappointed in them! Just like Mommy and Daddy used to say when you did something naughty. She's so disappointed.

She got called on that. Wizardman posts, says the same thing, within moments, FeloniousMonk is in, warning /him/, not SV (who has said that same thing at least half a dozen times), that he'd 'better not be encouraging a user to avoid a block with a sockpuppet'. I'm kinda curious what his answer will be (if any, of course), as to why Wizardman got that warning, not SV.

And for further fun, anyone care to comment on Crum375's "do you let a psychopath who has violated your mother and sister move into your house and wait for him to violate your wife too"?

crum's a bit sensitive on the matter of slimmy (assuming he/she is not slimmy herself, which is still in question - I'd have to hear what word has to say on that these days) because I caught Crum pulling a fast one on SV's talk pages.

When someone posts something really offensive on SV's page, which prolly happens once a day, Crum sweeps in and does an Oversight By A Non-Oversighter workaround.

While doing that, he/she seizes the opportunity to also remove any edits made by SV herself to her own page that aren't something she's proud of. Like callling me a sockpuppet, then blanking a query to ask for an explanation about why.

Convenient, that delete and restore tool is.

Like SV's regular deletion and restoring of subpages that collect "evidence" on people that she is working on banning. During all this, it's come to light that such subpages are verboten, but that doesn't stop her and Manny Moresocks from doing it anyway. And yes my subpage was a direct answer to MM, and that's what these sort of people count on - getting the camera to catch the reactions and not the provocations. Makes for great evidence in a kangaroo WP court.

Odd. I replied a few times to the thread this morning. And I could have sworn there was no purple archiving box around it, though now I look, I see it in the history.

Amusing, though not improper in itself, that who else should revert all post archive comments, but Mantanmoreland.

Nice to see he fails miserably at AGF, and instead goes with "When they say closed, they mean it."