Recently, some pointed accusations have been directed at this board. Some users are upset about the recent departure of Katefan0 (and rightfully so - she was an excellent admin), and are blaming Wikipedia Review for this.
First of all, allow me to make clear that Wikipedia Review did NOT out Katefan0. Daniel Brandt outted Katefan0 on his hivemind page, and on Wikipedia, before anything was posted about it here. I wasn't even aware of the conflict until Katefan0 had already left the project. Why? Because I have something called a "real life", and I wasn't even at my computer during the time the situation developed.
Now, some Wikipedians are arguing that, because we didn't do something about Brandt's behaviour, we have aided and abeted in the stalking of a Wikipedian. Allow me to sum this up in one phrase - bullshit. Brandt located and identified Katefan0 without our assistance. He outted her without our assistance, both on Wikipedia, his private website, and by email contact with the "victim". I do not know how Brandt did so, nor is it any concern of mine.
This should be common sense to you trolls (Yes Ambi, I'm talking to you), but I'll spell it out for you. We do not assume responsibility on this forum for the actions and opinions held by our members. The opinions expressed by our members do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff and moderators of Wikipedia Review.
Now, some of you may ask - what action is being taken against Brandt for disclosing information about an admin? The answer is simple - none whatsoever. I regret that a fine, nuetral contributor to Wikipedia has left the project due to a conflict with Brandt, but that has nothing to do with this board. If you have an issue with Brandt, take it up with him.
On a different note, I would like to thank Linuxbeak for his nuetral attempt to reach a compromise between myself and Wikipedia. Sadly, I do not think that Wikipedia is willing to accept such compromise, as I can clearly see your fine admin Cyde libelling me on WP:ANI, and admins I have never interacted with jumping into the fray at the apparent behest of such trolls.
Oh, and Cyde? By Godwin's law, you lose.
If there is something wrong with what Daniel Brandt did, it was exposing that Katefan0 was a professional journalist working for Congress, and stating her name. In retrospect, we probably should have wiped her name from here, since we have a policy not to allow someone's real life name to be allowed on the board. I don't have access to be able to do this, and I actually didn't notice anyway, and I presume that nobody else really noticed it either. Daniel Brandt is free to do this on his own board if he wants, but probably not on here.
But anyway of course the argument is that if you are going to lose your job for editing Wikipedia, perhaps you shouldn't be editing Wikipedia? And certainly not to the level where you get to be administrator?
Katefan0 wasn't actually hurt. She chose to quit over it. So I am not so sure that we should take the blame over this. However, I would urge those that do have the power, to wipe her real name from all posts, to be replaced by ***. Since Daniel Brandt likely either didn't know that policy of ours, or else had forgotten it, it is probably not appropriate to warn him.
Naturally, people who state their real life name on Wikipedia, or else are public figures, are exceptions to this rule.
After reading WP:ANI once more, and having a "discussion" with Ambi (who seems to think that simply being an admin on this forum is justification for banning me from #wikipedia), I would like to add to my above statement/rant.
I do not mean to have the appearance that I am gloating at Katefan0's departure. It is a shame that this exceptional admin left the project over her dispute with Brandt. However, the harsh truth is that the only person responsible for her choice to leave wikipedia is Katefan0. Brandt's actions may have prompted her, true, but the only person responsible for Brandt's actions is Daniel himself. I urge you to take up your gripes with Mr. Brandt on this issue, rather than using this forum, and the adminstrators of it, as scapegoats.
I do not condone stalking of admins, regular editors, or anyone for that matter, as some (Read: Rebecca) have alleged. I tolerate Brandt's behavior because he appears to be well within his rights with his actions. This doesn't mean I agree with his actions, and I still often fail to see the point of the hivemind pages, but I understand and respect his reasoning for doing so. Whether or not I or another admin on this board took action against him, however, would not stop Brandt from continuuing to focus on collecting data about adminstrators.
Besides, Brandt collects his data on Wikipedia Watch. Wikipedia Watch is considered a notable website, and has it's own article on Wikipedia. This forum is, as often described by editors of Wikipedia, a non-notable troll board. Which really had the larger effect?
As for other editors who have decided to leave Wikipedia, again, they are old enough to think for themselves. Nobody here forced SlimVirgin, or FloNight, or Katefan0, or any other Wikipedia admin to leave Wikipedia. (I am not entirely convinced that SlimVirgin's departure is sincere, but will not comment further on it at this time). I did not work with FloNight, although (s)he did raise a good question towards me on WP:ANI. I was not intending by that post to encourage Amorrow to continue to harrass MusicalLinguist or other admins. First of all, I had a misconception was that it was amorrow that was being harrassed. And I also have an interest, of a sort, in seeing whether or not admins look at what they are reverting before they revert it. In retrospect, however, I can see that first of all, Amorrow was rightfully banned from Wikipedia, for harrassing and bullying many users. And second of all, my comment was innappropriate to post in that form, and publicly. I do not see a problem with encouraging admins to look before they rollback, but I did not intend to encourage a troll to harras the admins.