The discourse on Mantanmoreland's RfAr has veered into the realm of importing real world fights into WP. I thought it would be useful to review how things actually began.

Gary Weiss started his blog on January 19, 2006.

His first few posts were about general business topics, but on January 22, he changed course.

Beginning that day, Weiss's blog transformed into a vehicle for attacking critics of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) role as an enabler of illegal naked short selling -- Patrick Byrne in particular.

I can tell you with certainty that prior to that time, Byrne had never even heard of Gary Weiss.

On January 26, 2006 Weiss, editing as IP 70.23.85.112 made sweeping changes to the article on Naked short selling.

• His first edit removed several external links to media sources that cast Byrne in a positive light (including podcast interviews created by me).
• His sixth edit added a link to a two-year-old BusinessWeek column, espousing the virtues of naked short selling, written by...guess who...Gary Weiss.
• His seventh edit added a link to a press release issued by the DTCC three days before...the same release that, three days before, Weiss dedicated a blog post to praising.
• His 11th edit claimed that Patrick Byrne is the subject of "widespread derision" for his stance against naked short selling.
• His 15th edit added a link to a press release issued by the DTCC the day before...which Weiss also blogged about.
• His 17th edit added a link to the DTCC page dedicated to obfuscating that organizations' responsibility for empowering criminal naked short sellers.

After edit waring with a handful of IPs and encountering 3RR trouble, Weiss discards 70.23.85.112 and creates Mantanmoreland. That account's first act was not to delete vandalism, as he claims, but to revert the article to how 70.23.85.112 left it.

From that day forward, roughly 90% of Weiss's blogging has focused on attacking Patrick Byrne and Overstock.com, while defending illegal naked short selling and promoting Weiss himself. Similarly, 90% of edits by Mantanmoreland, Samiharris, Tomstoner and Lastexit have attacked Patrick Byrne and Overstock.com, while defending naked short selling and promoting Weiss himself.

And to think...there are people out there who claim that I am responsible for bringing a real-world conflict to Wikipedia.

At this point, the obvious question is how to explain Weiss's motive.

I believe the answer can be found in this edit history. Keeping in mind the substance of Weiss's first several edits on Wikipedia, I challenge you to look for yourselves and tell me what you can deduce from it.