Sunday, September 13, 2020

"Wikipedia, We Have A Problem" Blog Vanishes Off The Internet

Rome Viharo was a user of the first version of the Wikipedia Sucks messageboard, he had a blog at Wikipedia, We Have a Problem and now that blog (which had stopped updating sometime in 2019) is dead, with the URL for sale.  We have not heard from Rome Viharo on the new Wikipedia Sucks board, so the assumption is that he has given up, and that's awful. You should never let David "I'm an expert on blockchains now!" Gerard and his crew of STEM dropouts have the final word.

A Short Recitation of The Facts As We Understand Them

You can get a warped picture of Viharo from RationalWiki's page on him, a page he objected to and tried to edit in his own defense in late 2013. It has been rewritten multiple times and the version up now seems to be the most mean-spirited. The capsule history of Rome Viharo on Wikipedia was that he tried to edit the Rupert Sheldrake BLP under the handle Tumbleman (good luck finding the evidence, they cut him out of the revision history) after he joined on April 17, 2013. The skeptical types sitting on Sheldrake's biography (and there was a long edit-war over the article) took a dislike to Viharo quickly, found out his real name, an article was up on RationalWiki by November 2013. According to Craig Weiler's PSI blog (and the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki, which states he did 497 edits in total), Viharo was given the boot in early October. After that he started his blog, giving us such posts as "Do Some People Just Deserve It?" and "A Skeptical Inquiry - This Whole Mess Needs To Be Cleaned Up". He was fighting a two-front war against Wikipedia and RationalWiki (mostly against the latter) because of their stupid page on him. We were never told why he just didn't "lawyer up" and have an attorney write a letter to whichever RationalWiki manchild did legal seven years ago, I suspect he felt he could appeal to their "rationality."

Because the first version of the Wikipedia Sucks! messageboard was deleted by ProBoards, I don't have easy access to when he joined that board. but he was harassed by a couple of troll accounts the administrators would delete as soon as their true purpose was revealed. Some of the photos from the RationalWiki article were used in these attacks. Around that time the still-existing attack site wikipediawedonthaveaproblem was started by Oliver D. Smith. Smith created a lot of drama for both versions of the board, and I am sure he will come back for more, he's a master at it.

Not a Conclusion

Viharo has really tried to put his time with Wikipedia's thought police  and being hit by RationalWiki (their article is the first thing that comes up when you type in his name) behind him - he has a business to run and no time for their nonsense, which means no time for our nonsense as well. If he wishes to come back, he is welcome.


 


                                Viharo on the Skeptico podcast in 2015. This is the YouTube version.

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