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_ Admin retirements _ PHG leaving

Posted by: Peter Damian

I haven't seen any threads about this guy (please merge if there are). All the signs are that he actually isn't leaving. He leaves obligatory message on Wales talk page

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=267644173#Hi

with a link to an enormous rant on his arbitration page

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_arbitration/PHG/Proposed_decision&oldid=267643230#I_think_I_am_leaving

Yet the sentiments he expresses are those we can all share:

QUOTE

I started in 2004 with the dream of generously sharing all knowledge with the rest of the world, and end-up in 2009 feeling like I am trying to contribute within the politics and proceedures of a police state. Administrators are increasing drastically in numbers, while editors are dwindling and running away (Signpost article). Control is good, over-control and repression of volunteer enthusiams is not and may probably be driving away the very energy that helped develop this project in its initial stages. Given the statistical trends, and given the atmosphere around here, I would be surprised if Wikipedia wasn't deserted two years from now. This is really sad.


QUOTE

"A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement."


What's the story on this arbitration?

Posted by: Eva Destruction

Very brief version based solely on my experience with him, which is undoubtedly missing some of the background: he wrote a lot of historical articles, but had a pet theory (that the Mongols, and not the Europeans, captured Jerusalem during the Crusades, and that history has been rewritten to cover the fact up). He deliberately cited "sources" in dead languages such as Aramaic and mediaeval Mongolian that few people are able to check, so a lot of his stuff went unchallenged. Eventually Elonka spotted him and started to pull him up on it and verify sources elsewhere, and they turned out to say nothing of the sort; however, although she was right on this occasion, because of her less-than-stellar reputation a lot of people assumed that she was throwing her weight around again and that PHG was being bullied. User:Abd then donned his "self-appointed defender of the masses" mantle and started egging PHG on to "fight the power", eventually culminating in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/PHG. You can dig up most of the background just by reading http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&limit=500&target=Franco-Mongol+alliance&namespace=4 page for "Franco-Mongol alliance".

Posted by: Peter Damian

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Sat 31st January 2009, 5:07pm) *

Very brief version based solely on my experience with him, which is undoubtedly missing some of the background: he wrote a lot of historical articles, but had a pet theory (that the Mongols, and not the Europeans, captured Jerusalem during the Crusades, and that history has been rewritten to cover the fact up). He deliberately cited "sources" in dead languages such as Aramaic and mediaeval Mongolian that few people are able to check, so a lot of his stuff went unchallenged. Eventually Elonka spotted him and started to pull him up on it and verify sources elsewhere, and they turned out to say nothing of the sort; however, although she was right on this occasion, because of her less-than-stellar reputation a lot of people assumed that she was throwing her weight around again and that PHG was being bullied. User:Abd then donned his "self-appointed defender of the masses" mantle and started egging PHG on to "fight the power", eventually culminating in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/PHG. You can dig up most of the background just by reading http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&limit=500&target=Franco-Mongol+alliance&namespace=4 page for "Franco-Mongol alliance".


Ah yes I remember that. Yes, a plague on both their houses.

Posted by: Kelly Martin

A stopped clock is right twice a day; similarly, Wikipedia's broken governance system does sometimes make the right decisions, even if it often does so almost entirely by random chance.

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Sat 31st January 2009, 3:34pm) *

A stopped clock is right twice a day; similarly, Wikipedia's broken governance system does sometimes make the right decisions, even if it often does so almost entirely by random chance.


Well, you're ½ right, but Wikipedia operates on a 24-hour clock.

Ja³

Posted by: Bottled_Spider

QUOTE(Peter Damian @ Sat 31st January 2009, 5:43pm) *
Ah yes I remember that. Yes, a plague on both their houses.

Which two? PHG, Abd, Plonka? The Europeans, Jerusalemites, Mongols?

Anyway, the joke's on the lot of them. It was the Mayans that captured Jerusalem. They sailed over from Yucatan on reed boats, took the city, looted it, then pissed off back over the Atlantic. Common knowledge.

Posted by: Son of a Yeti

QUOTE

"A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement."


Been there. Done that.

Sadly unhappy.gif