As somebody who was not there and not an ex-Wikipedia editor, this is one of those stories you find in The Notes, a copypasted Wikipedia Review thread of Somey discussing Anomymous Wikipedian's "break ya fingas" bullying of A. B. "for the good of Wikipedia", which is insane if you remember that the Anvil email mess happened the year previous. Anonymous Wikipedian may or may not still be involved with Jimbo's Jungle, they became an Administrator and stopped editing by 2011; they might also be the abandoned account of somebody who changed names and became another person on Wikipedia. These emails mention the now-forgotten Wikback forum, one of the competitors of Wikipedia Review. We are keeping all of Somey's spelling and line spacing as it was and refraining from using bolds for websites and handles.
From: Somey Mon 25th February 2008, 12:24am
I'm putting this here mostly because I don't know where else to put it. I'd also like to apologize in advance for the length of this post, probably the longest post I've ever made, which is saying quite a lot considering my already-excessive average post length.
Some of you may recall some rather angry statements made by member AB [the Wikipedian A.B., she used a handle with different typography - S.], both here and on wikback.com (indirectly referenced by Wikback user Charles Mathews here), to the effect that threats of violence had been made against her by one or more persons associated with the en.wikipedia.org website. After some consideration, I've decided to let the proverbial cat out of the bag and post a full account of the affair here, in hopes of ending any speculation or confusion that might have arisen from her references to these threats. (Also, because the whole thinh (sic) is really quite entertaining, if you don't mind how lengthy it is.)
It all began two months ago, with this e-mail to AB from someone calling himself, or herself, "Anonymous Wikipedian."
QUOTE
From: Anonymous Wikipedian anonymouswikipedian@gmail.com Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:34:26 +0000 Subject: Stop harassing admins
To: AB So, [name redacted] is a good friend of yours, and yet a look through ... edits shows you two have hardly interacted on Wikipedia.
I am willing to bet you know each other in person.
Whether or not you use TOR, I can still find out who you are.
I want you to stop posting on Wikipedia Review and delete all of your posts there.
Do not post anywhere else on the internet about Wikipedia either.
No more attacks against Wikipedia admins.
You are being very foolish.
Wikipedia Review might let you get away with it, but it is still harassment.
You have picked the wrong people to mess with.
Since I'm not sure how often you check your email, I will be generous and give you a week.
Otherwise, I will find you and you will pay.
It was immediately obvious to me (i.e., Somey) that this was either a really stupid joke, or else an attempt to get User:Durova in trouble by making preposterous threats while pretending to be her. After all, everyone knows there's no way to effectively obtain a geolocation on a person who consistently uses Tor proxies.
However, since AB took the threat to make her "pay" (despite quite-favorable exchange rates) very seriously, I offered to intercede on AB's behalf, so as to transfer the person's hostility from AB to me. (I just love it when people are hostile towards me, as is well known.)
QUOTE
From: Somey Date: 12/17/07 Subject: Re: Fwd: Stop harassing admins
To: anonymouswikipedian@gmail.com
Mr. Wikipedian! Since Wikipedia Review imposes a limit on members' ability to "blank" or edit their
own postings after 7 days, our member "AB" has asked me to intercede in this matter on her behalf. (At
least I've been assuming it's "her," anyway!) Unfortunately, the time limit is a global setting, not a per-
user setting. (Someday I'll have to fix that...) In accordance with your wishes, AB has now agreed to stop
participating in our forum. Indeed, her posting volume had already decreased dramatically (oops, there's
that "D-word" again!) even before this incident, so this is hardly an imposition, really. As for her posts,
I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of deleting the majority of them, since most are actually in defense of
the Wikipedians we tend to criticize most heavily - and in particular are in favor of respecting their
anonymity, where applicable. (It's all rather silly, don't you think?) She (at least I've been assuming it's
"she") only seems to be critical of those administrators who don't respect the anonymity of others, though
admittedly she also seems to oppose punitive blocking. (I don't read every post, I'm sorry to admit!) So,
no great loss for us, eh? Nevertheless, could you send us links to specific postings of hers (At least I think
it's "hers") that you wish to have deleted? And perhaps explain why those specific postings are
objectionable? Otherwise the burden of labour on us would simply be unreasonable, since there's also
quoted material, copyrights, and thread integrity to consider. Alternatively, if you insist that all of AB's
postings be deleted without exception, please let me know, and I'll relay that to the other staff admins and
moderators. (And, assuming I have your permission, the rest of the membership, as well as the general
public.) Just out of curiosity, are you intending to begin this campaign of yours against AB regardless of
what happens on Wikipedia Review? That seems to be the Wikipedia standard procedure... so if you are, I
must say that I personally believe AB does not live in Europe at all - that seems to be some sort of clever
ruse on her part. Tor exit nodes are pathetically simple to re-anonymize via techniques like protocol-
centric addressing (not that I would ever do such a thing myself), but nevertheless I believe she (at least I
think it's "she") lives in Mogadishu, Somalia, or possibly East St. Louis, Missouri, USA (the IP ranges are
surprisingly close, oddly enough). The Medellin region of Colombia is also a strong possibility, along
with parts of northern Sierra Leone... Your efforts to physically locate and intimidate her on Wikipedia's
behalf might most effectively begin there.
Thanks, Somey,
Volunteer Staff Administrator
Wikipediareview.com
QUOTE
From: anonymouswikipedian@gmail.com Date: 12/18/07
To: Somey
Are there tools available to do protocol-centric addressing?
This, of course, had been an attempt to gauge the person's level of technical understanding. I actually
have no clue as to how one would go about identifying someone who is using Tor proxies. In fact, I'm
not even sure I could identify myself in a mirror, if someone were deliberately trying to confuse me by
standing me next to actor Brad Pitt. Luckily, I'm fairly good at "bullshitting," at least when it comes to
computers. (Also, claims regarding my personal appearance.)
QUOTE
From: Somey Date: 12/18/07
To: anonymouswikipedian@gmail.com
Define "tools"...? The principle is fairly simple - it's based on the old Napster file-sharing model, whereby
you set up what amounts to a "botnet cooperative" that takes your various HTTP packets and randomly
distributes them to other machines in the net, which presumably would be made up of groups of like-
minded people - all using Tor to begin with, of course. In addition to AB, we have a member named
"[redacted]" who's been doing it, I'm fairly certain of that. Or else he literally power-cycles his DSL every
15 minutes, and manages to get on yet another Tor exit node right away, just in order to post some
comment or other... Too much trouble, IMO. We even thought he was Gary Weiss at first!:^D It's all very
clever, and too much trouble for someone like me regardless... so I could be wrong on some of the details,
but the main point is that the operators of these co-ops don't let just anybody in, and their code is all
custom stuff, uses military-grade encryption, etc. So I guess the short answer to the question is "no." Most
of these people are East-Europeans, Russians and Chinese, plus a few M.E. terrorists I suppose... and I'd
presume they do it for the usual reasons - cracks, identity theft, hiding financial transactions from the
NSA, things of that nature. But there are also some who do it strictly for privacy's sake, like AB. Hmm,
maybe I shouldn't have said it was "pathetically simple"... It's simple once you're "in," but that's not quite
the same thing. ~Somey from WR
(post under construction.)
No comments:
Post a Comment