Thursday, February 4, 2016

Vladimir Mozhenkov: an Overview

Unlike my sources, I don't want to get in too deep with Mozhenkov, whom I will mostly refer to by the Russian diminutive "Vova" (though he deserves the title "Prestupnik") because it's shorter. On Wikipedia he was Beta m, then Beta M, signed things "VolodyA! V Anarhist" - as far as I know, he is the only anarchist child porn enthusiast on Wikipedia. Or possibly besides Hakim Bey, who has never been a Wikipedian so far as I know.

Background

Vladimir Mozhenkov is a Russian national who once attended Montana's Carroll College in the late 1990s; in 1999 the exchange student was arrested for collecting child pornography using the college computers he was lab monitor over. He was sentenced to 51 months in 2000, but only served 23 months, a fact that shocks my source, but my response is: the Feds were far more worried about Islamic terrorism than a Russian nonce they were going to deport anyway, which they did in 2002. Vova had left the Motherland under the bleary-eyed Boris Yeltsyn; he came back to the new Russia of the other Vova, Vladimir Putin. In 2003 he was writing about his prison time on a forum called PrisonTalk (he made 73 posts), in 2006 he was a fan of the defunct "Pedologues" podcast run by Rookiee (Damian Roberto Andres Cole; we will get to that guy, don't worry.) Then came his time on Wikipedia....

Living in Jimbo's Jungle

Vova started on Wikipedia in 2004, three years before the "Essjay affair" badly wounded the Project. Like at the Catholic college, he began packing WikiMedia Commons with all the non-copyrighted porn (possibly because he was afraid of starting legal issues between the WMF and the claimants, or between the claimants and himself) he could suction off the 'net. He also constantly propagandized for allowing child pornography on Commons, besides importing tons of anarchist podcasts and recording himself pronouncing names of Russian historical figures into Ogg Vorbis sound files for various Wikipedia articles. After involving himself in a number of "Wikipedia cannot be censored" anti-deletion/change fights (Sukumizu Girl image, Donkey punch image, Simulated Forced Fellatio in Bondage Scenario* images, etc.) Geni (true name unknown) blocked him on the 6th of March, 2012 because Tarantino (ditto) leaked Beta M's history on the Wikipedia Review forums. There was a lot of drama that spring, in the middle of which Vova created the "Hot sex barnstar" (NSFW) for his friends who supported his pornification of Commons, along with asking if Wikpedia could expand it's BDSM coverage. I kid you not.

The end came on the 16th of March with a "global lock" handed down by the WMF office and posted in ANI/U by Robin de la Motte (Rd232), who had been involved since Tarantino's disclosure (there was some side-stupidity involving mattbuck.) After the decision came down, there was a lot of squealing and screaming and teeth-gnashing, but it went nowhere. In 2015 the lock became a global ban, and Vova was truly exiled. He joined Demiurge1000, Dcoetzee, Amarrow, Leucosticte, Poetlister/Quillercouch, Russavia, Meco, Irada, Francis Kaswahili, and Scalhotrod as part of the list of globally banned users, the ten people not even Wikipedia could stomach anymore.

Don't cry for me, children in kiddy porn....

Unlike Daniel Brandt, Mozhenkov has been able to make his case unhindered online, he has two YouTube channels, one where he teaches people computer software tricks in Russian, the other with this rant on it from 2011. He also has a porn site called "freedom porn" (dot org), and he is involved in the anarchist wikipedia, Anachopedia. Speaking of which, the following is something he wrote on that wiki in 2008:

Pedophilia (or paedophilia, originally Greek παιδοφιλια; paidophilia) is a sexual attraction to pre-pubescent children. While the exact definition varies by context, it commonly refers to the medical definition defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. The correct term for an attraction to adolescents is ephebophilia.

Those who meet the criteria set above are classed as pedophiles. Common usage do not follow the strict medical definitions of an adult or teen who is attracted to prepubescent children, but often refers to any adult who is attracted to, or has sexual contact with, any person under the age of consent, or the age of majority (often 16-18 in most western countries).
In many societies and cultures, the term pedophile is highly stigmatized and represents an image of an evil, callous monster. This spurs many self-identified pedophiles to adopt names such as boylover, minor-attracted adult, girllover, and childlover, among others, to assist in differentiating themselves and their values from this stereotype.

While pedophiles have made great contributions to past societies, their influence is often ignored or their attraction to children is greatly played down.

One of the dearest fantasy held in the paedophile sub-culture is that of the fantasy island - the secluded island community where paedophiles and children roam free, enjoying total sexual freedom. The idea behind this fantasy is the suggestion that away from the oppressive teachings of these organised religions, those who feel a sexual attraction towards the pre-pubescent can indulge their basest desires and, in doing so, also achieve some form of enlightenment... that the freedom to establish their much maligned and negated altruism will result in some kind of mass overhaul of opinion amongst the general population.

However, that's why it's called a fantasy. Because it'll never happen. The irrational hatred felt towards paedophiles is something that few are prepared to even acknowledge as being irrational, let alone try to combat.
He always was single minded.

Completely off topic, but this website has now had 30,215 views. My thanks to the readers within the Russian Federation, who kept the views up in January. Спасибо товарищи!

 ________________________

* Actually from a  dot net website called "Adorable Teens", this was a photoset of a young-looking actress and actor doing what the title describes. The images are no longer available from that website, they probably leaked onto Tumblr if they were pleasing enough to the bondage-lovers.

Yes, that last section title is a mockery of that song in Evita.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Some Fun Charts and Graphs; Zzuuzz Catches On

I was passed a link with all these charts; here are the interesting ones.

This is a Wikimedia chart drafted by Erik Zachte of page views of the English Wikipedia; it's all broken lines because of the web-crawler traffic which they no longer count. Notice that the solid lines from March (?) of last year are plunging like a flight club Cessna after the gas ran out. Notice also that the mobile site numbers have plateaued with a slight rise around the end of last year. Remember, these are all official numbers.

Active editors, 2003-2015. Notice that most of the editors are very casual, under twenty edits in total, and that group peaked in 2007. I would guess that a lot of these people are now paid editors. The hardest of hard-core editors are a tiny cadre of maybe 1000 people, probably doing most of their edits by 'bots now. This is not a picture of a stable setup; it reminds me of the Ingsoc Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The minority of editors are in the Thought Police or the true leadership cadre, the 25+ people are the rest of the Inner Party, and the casuals are the Winston Smiths of the Outer Party.

Of course I could be wrong about the 'bots. Notice how they have been muddling along at 30-25,000 articles and slowly dropping since 2010. I don't know what they count as a "new article" and if the "reg" users are counted as "regs" if they use 'bots. Erik Zachte needs to be talked to, to find out what the hell he meant.


I put the crappy red circle around number two because they were talking about "event logging" at this WMF meeting a few years ago. What that means is they want to track users and kick out IPs of people they don't like. Their only problem is that the Wikipedia Alexa score would drop if they started scanning IPs against a digital shitlist (the site would slow down), so for the Almighty Standings they only go after the editors they don't like and leave the readers alone. That might change if the method of counting views shifts. Which might be never.

***

From Drmies talkpage:

Hi Drmies, is this [6] (off-wiki) harassment? Seems to be pretty recent (last Dec)? Actually the entire blog seems to be anti. Horseless Headman (talk) 17:44, 24 January 2016 (UTC).

Yeah, typical. One of those people with nothing better to do. Unless we figure out who this is there's little we can do, of course. Zzuuzz, you have a fan out on the internet. For the record, Zzuuzz is one of those cats who has done more to keep this website running than a lot of people I know. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 03:04, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks both. My fan club. I must be improving - I've had entire blogs dedicated to me in the past. -- zzuuzz (talk) 07:59, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

I do kind of need to know if the fan club is official or not--I'm trying to figure out if I can add it to the EL section of your article. Drmies (talk) 15:35, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Wow zzuuzz, please keep up the good work! Even if that means having fans out there :-( Horseless Headman (talk) 15:15, 25 January 2016 (UTC).


Let me say that is really cute, the line "[u]nless we figure out who this is there's little we can do....", like they are willing to go on a DDOS crusade to knock this website down, not realizing that the information can be mirrored over and over again. That also shows their true contempt for even the most casual level of journalism; if I really wanted to get Zzuzz I would be using detective techniques and online blackhattery. I will give Drmies this one clue: I was never on Wikipedia, not even as an IP. Go at it Hercule Poirot!

Sunday, January 10, 2016

The 2011 Wikimedia Foundation Secret Donor List

We have Greg Kohs to thank for this one, indirectly; this is the list of donors that Wikimedia Foundation software developer Ryan Faulkner (rfaulk) accidentally published to mediawiki.org on March 10th of that year. He tried to clean up his mess, somebody noticed before he did, and the 7 and 1/2 page list was Google-cached. Kohs noticed the list on Google, put it on his MyWikiBiz website, then made a news story out of it. Big names are on this list: ex-president Jimmy Carter, Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com founder), Warren Buffet, David Filo and Jerry Yang (co-founders of Yahoo.com) plus Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Steve "the Woz" Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computer), Michael Dell (Dell Computer), Caterina Fake (co-founder of Flickr), George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker of Facebook, Vinod Khosla the venture capitalist and his wife, Gil Penchina (former Wikia CEO), even Bono under his true name (Paul Hewson.) Beyond those, there are also names from the founders of Sun Microsystems, the Google principals and people from their Tides Foundation, Gabe Newell the gamer hero/walking meme, and Jimbo Wales future wife Kate Garvey. There are also a number of other big players from Silly Valley on the list; this collection of names is why Wales and his gang feel invulnerable. Notable or bizarre (as in "why are they there?") names have been bolded.



The secret donor list

[MediaWiki-CVS] SVN: [83679] trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv

rfaulk

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:44:01 -0800
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/83679
Revision: 83679 Author: rfaulk Date: 2011-03-10 23:43:49 +0000 (Thu, 10 Mar 2011) Log Message: ----------- Removing major donor names from the repository in compliance with the provacy policy. Removed Paths: -------------
trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv/Rebeccas_Contacts_Donation_Alerts.csv
trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv/Rebeccas_Contacts_Donation_Alerts_mod.csv
Deleted:
trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv/Rebeccas_Contacts_Donation_Alerts.csv
trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv/Rebeccas_Contacts_Donation_Alerts.csv 2011-03-10 23:31:20 UTC (rev 83678) +++
trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv/Rebeccas_Contacts_Donation_Alerts.csv 2011-03-10 23:43:49 UTC (rev 83679) @@
-1,258 +0,0 @@
-Internal Contact ID, Sort Name,First Name,Last Name,Contact Type
-120842 ,Abramowicz, David,David,Abramowicz,Individual
-507392, Abu Sulayman, Muna,Muna,Abu Sulayman,Individual
-512403, Altarescu, Howard,Howard,Altarescu,Individual
-512415, Anderson, Chris,Chris,Anderson,Individual
-507470, Andreessen, Marc,Marc,Andreessen,Individual
-507462, Arlene and Arnold Goldstein Family Foundation,,,Organization
-507393, Arnott, Robert,Robert,Arnott,Individual
-512407, Avanessians, Armen,Armen,Avanessians,Individual
-507394, Babcock, John,John,Babcock,Individual
-507395, Bader, Lars,Lars,Bader,Individual
-507396, Bahles, Shanda,Shanda,Bahles,Individual
-507397, Banister, Scott,Scott,Banister,Individual
-507471, Battelle, John,John,Battelle,Individual
-507398, Bauer, Alan,Alan,Bauer,Individual
-507399, Bechtolsheim, Andreas,Andreas,Bechtolsheim,Individual
-507400, Benenson, Bruce,Bruce,Benenson,Individual
-507401, Benenson, Frederick,Frederick,Benenson,Individual
-507402, Benenson, Lawrence,Lawrence,Benenson,Individual
-507403, Benhamou, Eric,Eric,Benhamou,Individual
-507405, Bezos, Jeff,Jeff,Bezos,Individual
-301203, Bharatwaj, Sandeep,Sandeep,Bharatwaj,Individual
-507472, Birch, Michael,Michael,Birch,Individual
-507406, Birch, Xochi,Xochi,Birch,Individual
-196176, Bistransin, Cat,Cat,Bistransin,Individual
-507407, Bjelic, Milonja,Milonja,Bjelic,Individual
-512393, Blouin, Louise,Louise,Blouin,Individual
-507409, Blumenthal, Betsy,Betsy,Blumenthal,Individual
-507410, Bowes, William,William,Bowes,Individual
-507412, Branson, Richard,Richard,Branson,Individual
-507413, Brin, Sergey,Sergey,Brin,Individual

-509395, Bronfman, Edgar,Edgar,Bronfman,Individual

-507416, Bronfman, Sara,Sara,Bronfman,Individual
-505536, Buer, Eric,Eric,Buer,Individual
-96072, Buffett, Warren,Warren,Buffett,Individual
-220954, Burdick, Edward,Edward,Burdick,Individual
-248668, Burdisso, Riccardo,Riccardo,Burdisso,Individual
-13198, Burt and Diana Cutler Family Foundation,,,Organization
-78643, Cabot, Blake,Blake,Cabot,Individual
-146945, Cakanj, Andor,Andor,Cakanj,Individual
-467956, Campbell-White, Annette,Annette,Campbell-White,Individual
-96074, Carter, Jimmy,Jimmy,Carter,Individual
-246810, Casey, Charlie,Charlie,Casey,Individual
-346257, Cenedella, Marc,Marc,Cenedella,Individual
-262880, Chopra, Parveen,Parveen,Chopra,Individual
-97235, Christopher Ruddy,,,Household
-96340, Coleman, Bill,Bill,Coleman,Individual
-94, Community Foundation Silicon Valley,,,Organization
-96039, Conrad, Tom,Tom,Conrad,Individual
-244618, Conway, Ron,Ron,Conway,Individual
-133365, Cook, Courtney,Courtney,Cook,Individual
-96040, Cook, Scott,Scott,Cook,Individual
-245034, Craigslist Charitable Fund,,,Organization
-40092, Crnkovic, Cedomir,Cedomir,Crnkovic,Individual
-492085, Cummings, David,David,Cummings,Individual
-478475, Cunniff, Richard,Richard,Cunniff,Individual
-246939, Davidson, Jim,Jim,Davidson,Individual
-319720, Day, Adrian,Adrian,Day,Individual
-249250, De Felici, Lucio,Lucio,De Felici,Individual
-96042, Dell, Michael,Michael,Dell,Individual
-505437, Deutsch, Donny,Donny,Deutsch,Individual
-167158, Devi, Gayatri,Gayatri,Devi,Individual
-14253,Diamant, Michael,Michael,Diamant,Individual
-96273, Dikshit, Anurag,Anurag,Dikshit,Individual
-505438, Dobron, Albert,Albert,Dobron,Individual
-800180, Doctorow, Cory,Cory,Doctorow,Individual
-96078,Doerr, John,John,Doerr,Individual
-784599, Domino, Mark,Mark,Domino,Individual
-475963, Donovan, Mary Ellen,Mary Ellen,Donovan,Individual
-518254, Durst, Douglas,Douglas,Durst,Individual
-245257, Dyson, Esther,Esther,Dyson,Individual
-512446, Eckstein, John,John,Eckstein,Individual
-96139, Fake, Caterina,Caterina,Fake,Individual
-248667, Ferrero, Michele,Michele,Ferrero,Individual
-248669, Ferrero, Pietro,Pietro,Ferrero,Individual
-248666, Fieber, Jon,Jon,Fieber,Individual
-96080, Filo, David,David,Filo,Individual
-493055, Fink, Max,Max,Fink,Individual
-455457, Fox, Saul,Saul,Fox,Individual
-240341, Frank and Denise Quattrone Foundation,,,Organization
-244619, Gallanter, Sandy,Sandy,Gallanter,Individual
-166387, Gardner, Loraine,Loraine,Gardner,Individual
-491866, Garland Foundation,,,Organization
-97484, Garnett, Katrina,Katrina,Garnett,Individual
-505440, Garvey, Kate,Kate,Garvey,Individual
-505535, Geisert, Chris,Chris,Geisert,Individual
-96082, Gilmore, Jon,Jon,Gilmore,Individual
-505442, Glocer, Thomas,Thomas,Glocer,Individual
-248678, Godhwani, Anil,Anil,Godhwani,Individual
-244455, Goldhaber, Nat,Nat,Goldhaber,Individual
-240356, Goldstein, Arnold,Arnold,Goldstein,Individual
-498677, Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund of Tides Foundation,,,Organization
-13021, Graphics Press, LLC,,,Organization
-100310, Greenspun, Daniel,Daniel,Greenspun,Individual
-97487, Grimes, Michael,Michael,Grimes,Individual
-248682, Gurley, Bill,Bill,Gurley,Individual
-500357, Hammerschlag, Cheryl,Cheryl,Hammerschlag,Individual
-491733, Harnisch Foundation,,,Organization
-512462, Harnisch, Ruth Ann,Ruth Ann,Harnisch,Individual
-493628, Hatch, Jonathan,Jonathan,Hatch,Individual
-512401, Hatkoff, Craig,Craig,Hatkoff,Individual
-96087, Hearst, William,William,Hearst,Individual
-252707, Heiferman, Scott,Scott,Heiferman,Individual
-499654 ,Heising Simons Fund,,,Organization
-506388, Heising, Mark,Mark,Heising,Individual
-173620, Heldring, Gretchen,Gretchen,Heldring,Individual
-245238, Hellman Family Foundation,,,Organization
-96346, Hellman, Warren,Warren,Hellman,Individual
-246809, Hewson, Paul,Paul,Hewson,Individual
-512457, Hidary, Murray,Murray,Hidary,Individual
-116729, Hirsch, David,David,Hirsch,Individual
-244614 ,Hirsch, Ken,Ken,Hirsch,Individual
-96044, Hoffman, Reid,Reid,Hoffman,Individual
-15829, Holbrook, Adam,Adam,Holbrook,Individual
-505443,Holz, Claudia,Claudia,Holz,Individual
-248701, Hornthal, Jim,Jim,Hornthal,Individual
-260654, Howard, Cheryl,Cheryl,Howard,Individual
-512405, Hsu, Fred,Fred,Hsu,Individual
-248705, Huffington, Arianna,Arianna,Huffington,Individual
-506675, Hunt, Jolie,Jolie,Hunt,Individual
-481190, Isaac, Paul,Paul,Isaac,Individual
-110868 ,Ito, Joichi,Joichi,Ito,Individual
-47227, Jaeckel, Howard,Howard,Jaeckel,Individual
-100414, Jarvis, Jonathan,Jonathan,Jarvis,Individual
-96136, John and Frances Beck Foundation,,,Organization
-421728, Joo, Eungie,Eungie,Joo,Individual
-96045, Joy, Bill,Bill,Joy,Individual
-50917, Kahle, Brewster,Brewster,Kahle,Individual
-466004, Kaphan Foundation,,,Organization
-96047, Kapor, Mitch,Mitch,Kapor,Individual
-244427, Karlin, Alison,Alison,Karlin,Individual
-96048, Khosla, Neeru,Neeru,Khosla,Individual

-96141, Khosla, Vinod,Vinod,Khosla,Individual
-501528, Knuth, Jill,Jill,Knuth,Individual
-245480, Koch, David,David,Koch,Individual
-239206, Konya, Andras,Andras,Konya,Individual
-238991, Lamb, William,William,Lamb,Individual
-408923, Landau, David,David,Landau,Individual
-487974, Lars Bader Charitable Trust,,,Organization
-413214, Lee, Jenny,Jenny,Lee,Individual
-71222, Levchin, Max,Max,Levchin,Individual
-136310,Levy-Hinte, Jeffrey,Jeffrey,Levy-Hinte,Individual
-96093,Lilly, John,John,Lilly,Individual
-862070, Little, John,John,Little,Individual
-96096, Luczo, Stephen,Stephen,Luczo,Individual
-483033, Macomb, Edward,Edward,Macomb,Individual
-168381, Marian L. Freeman Foundation,,,Organization
-241658, Mark Heising and Elizabeth Simons,,,Household
-499284, Maurice LaCroix,,,Organization
-512320, Mayer, Marissa,Marissa,Mayer,Individual
-96050, Mayfield, Ross,Ross,Mayfield,Individual
-509264, McCorvie, Lisa,Lisa,McCorvie,Individual
-512468, McCorvie, Ryan,Ryan,McCorvie,Individual
-494621, McFadden, Carol,Carol,McFadden,Individual
-283995, McGrath, Faye,Faye,McGrath,Individual
-512455, McGreevy, Maura,Maura,McGreevy,Individual
-96051, McNamee, Roger,Roger,McNamee,Individual
-96099, McNealy, Scott,Scott,McNealy,Individual
-120086, Meeker, Mary,Mary,Meeker,Individual
-96135, Merit, Richard,Richard,Merit,Individual
-247787, Microsoft Corporation - Bing,,,Organization
-60232, Minor, Michael,Michael,Minor,Individual
-100052, Mitchell Kapor Foundation,,,Organization
-326216, Moorhead Family Fund,,,Organization
-233179, Moorhead, Rodman,Rodman,Moorhead,Individual
-491550, Mordechai, Sony,Sony,Mordechai,Individual
-237264, Moynihan, Jon,Jon,Moynihan,Individual
-303813, Narins, Joshua,Joshua,Narins,Individual
-96102, Negroponte, Nick,Nick,Negroponte,Individual
-506389, Neilson, Trevor,Trevor,Neilson,Individual
-505450, Neville-Manning, Craig,Craig,Neville-Manning,Individual
-517770, Newell, Gabe,Gabe,Newell,Individual
-96103, Newmark, Craig,Craig,Newmark,Individual
-129683, Newsmax Media Inc.,,,Organization
-96052, Nilekani, Nandan,Nandan,Nilekani,Individual
-512419, Novogratz, Jacqueline,Jacqueline,Novogratz,Individual
-512270, Ojha, Purnendu,Purnendu,Ojha,Individual
-505419, O'Kelley, Brian,Brian,O'Kelley,Individual
-203210, Okrent, Daniel,Daniel,Okrent,Individual
-96104, Omidyar, Pierre,Pierre,Omidyar,Individual
-240385, One Nation/One California,,,Organization
-512436, Orbison, Barbara,Barbara,Orbison,Individual
-163878, Osher, Bernard,Bernard,Osher,Individual
-96105, Overdeck, John,John,Overdeck,Individual
-96054, Page, Larry,Larry,Page,Individual
-96055, Papadopoulos, Greg,Greg,Papadopoulos,Individual
-509394, Parker, Sean,Sean,Parker,Individual
-505453, Parvaneh, Amy,Amy,Parvaneh,Individual
-96106, Patrick, John,John,Patrick,Individual
-96270, Penchina, Gil,Gil,Penchina,Individual
-509776, Pomirska, Julia,Julia,Pomirska,Individual
-327117, poulter, Martin,Martin,poulter,Individual
-146485, Prabhala, Achal,Achal,Prabhala,Individual
-60473, Pritzker, Joseph,Joseph,Pritzker,Individual
-481982, Pritzker, Rosemary,Rosemary,Pritzker,Individual
-505459, Pritzker, Tal Hava,Tal Hava,Pritzker,Individual
-506390, Riccitiello, John,John,Riccitiello,Individual
-512453, Rijhsinghani, Kiran,Kiran,Rijhsinghani,Individual
-320044, Riordan, Neil,Neil,Riordan,Individual
-97489, Rosensweig, Dan,Dan,Rosensweig,Individual
-506391, Ruddy, Chris,Chris,Ruddy,Individual
-96056, Saal, Harry,Harry,Saal,Individual
-512452, Sacks, Oliver,Oliver,Sacks,Individual
-436996, Sagalovskaya, Anna,Anna,Sagalovskaya,Individual
-96057, Sandberg, Sheryl,Sheryl,Sandberg,Individual
-266383, Sandis, Eva,Eva,Sandis,Individual
-96142, Sandler, Herb Marion,Herb Marion,Sandler,Individual
-96058, Sandler, Marion,Marion,Sandler,Individual
-512460, Schonfeld, Reese,Reese,Schonfeld,Individual
-172452, Schrader, Jacob,Jacob,Schrader,Individual
-209350, Shah, Devesh,Devesh,Shah,Individual
-422451, Shemel, Mark,Mark,Shemel,Individual
-96109, Shriram, Ram,Ram,Shriram,Individual
-96061, Sifry, Dave,Dave,Sifry,Individual
-245525, Sillerman, Laura,Laura,Sillerman,Individual
-108520, Silverman, Marc,Marc,Silverman,Individual
-14825, Simons Foundation,,,Organization
-506387, Simons, Elizabeth,Elizabeth,Simons,Individual
-96275, Simonyi, Charles,Charles,Simonyi,Individual
-294082, Smeal, Benjamin,Benjamin,Smeal,Individual
-307408, Smollett, Sara,Sara,Smollett,Individual
-250098, Sobieski, Ian,Ian,Sobieski,Individual
-238885, Social Relations of Knowledge Institute,,,Organization
-205299, Sokoloff, Audrey,Audrey,Sokoloff,Individual
-44, Sorensen, Jeffrey,Jeffrey,Sorensen,Individual
-96062, Soros, George,George,Soros,Individual
-239655, Souza, Shelley,Shelley,Souza,Individual
-248467, Spencer, Bill,Bill,Spencer,Individual
-96347, Steyer, Thomas,Thomas,Steyer,Individual
-505605, Strassen, Tyko,Tyko,Strassen,Individual
-153701, Stresemann, Andreas,Andreas,Stresemann,Individual
-492863, Tanimoto, Yoh,Yoh,Tanimoto,Individual
-613570, The Gasper Mary Takach Charitable Trust,,,Organization
-506392, Tidwell, Brandon,Brandon,Tidwell,Individual
-289522, Totty, Brian,Brian,Totty,Individual
-327173, turner, jedediah,jedediah,turner,Individual
-13016, Two Sigma Investments LLC,,,Organization
-243589, Universal City Studios, LLP,,,Organization
-240342, Unz Foundation,,,Organization
-96063, Unz, Ron,Ron,Unz,Individual
-115843, Valenstein, Adam,Adam,Valenstein,Individual
-246615, Violet Mauray Charitable Trust,,,Organization
-443668, Vogelmann, Melody,Melody,Vogelmann,Individual
-505460, Vogelstein, Barbara,Barbara,Vogelstein,Individual
-96118, Waters, Alice,Alice,Waters,Individual
-248680, Weekes, Gage,Gage,Weekes,Individual
-505454, Wenig, Devin,Devin,Wenig,Individual
-188854, Whelan, Anne,Anne,Whelan,Individual
-173873, Williams, Barrett,Barrett,Williams,Individual
-241849, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati Foundation,,,Organization
-213255, Wolf, Jerry,Jerry,Wolf,Individual
-4368, Wozniak, Steve,Steve,Wozniak,Individual
-96124, Yang, Jerry,Jerry,Yang,Individual
-490031, Yardi Systems, Inc.,,,Organization
-248911, Zack, Howard,Howard,Zack,Individual
-505461, Zinterhofer, Eric,Eric,Zinterhofer,Individual
-163900, Zuckerberg, Mark,Mark,Zuckerberg,Individual
-509396, Zuckerman, Mort,Mort,Zuckerman,Individual

MediaWiki-CVS mailing list MediaWiki-CVS@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-cvs[1]
[MediaWiki-CVS]
SVN: [83679] trunk/fundraiser-statistics/fundraiser-scripts/csv rfaulk


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Monday, December 28, 2015

Zzuuzz: Example of a Minor Threat

One of those "evil patrollers" my source notes are shot through with, Zzuuzz (yes, that is his Wiki-handle) is mostly used to block the living hell out of any IPs (internet protocol numbers) that might be spamming or hoaxing articles. Zzuuzz's true name is unknown; my sources think he is a gamer kid from London, England. He showed up on August 3rd, 2005 and was reverting vandalism manually by August 9th....my sources believe he is a sockpuppet of some insider, which puts him in good stead with a number of those people. It's now 2015 and Zzuuzz is still doing the patrolling and article-gnoming he was doing ten years ago.

We are bringing up this clown because his successful Request for Adminship in 2007 marked the point where the "patroller" types were held in higher regard then the people who actually wrote new material. Zzuuzz had tried to get an RfA going in September of 2006 - he was shot down:

Final (55/16/7) Ended Sat, 17 September 2006 21:54 (UTC)
Zzuuzz (talk · contribs) – A solid vandalism reverting user who has been serving the wiki community in an exemplary manner for over a year now. I must admit when I saw that he wasn't an admin I had (a first for me) the cliched 'oh, he's not one?' thought. The user has already been entrustd with Vandal Proof and Zzuuzz's regular speedy-article tagging, 3RR and vandlaism reports indicate a thorough familiarity with policy.
Put simply, a perfect example of a dedicated user who would serve the community as a civil, intelligent vandal-busting admin. Robdurbar 09:59, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I do, thanks. -- zzuuzz (talk) 09:36, 10 September 2006 (UTC) Thank you all for your comments. I am withdrawing this nomination. -- zzuuzz (talk) 21:54, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate
Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia in this capacity. Please take the time to answer a few generic questions to provide guidance for voters:
1. What sysop chores, if any, would you anticipate helping with? Please check out Category:Wikipedia backlog, and read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.
A: I will mainly continue the battle against vandals by helping with AIV, which I already monitor - I like to have all the vandalism reverted by the time the user is blocked :) I will also help with the speedy deletion backlogs, PRODs, page move/merges, and category renaming. I would like to get more involved with determining and removing copyvios - it is quite inefficient to get involved as a non-admin, but it's something I have an interest in. I will also help with open proxies and closing xfDs. Basically, any backlogs and processes I have the ability to help with.
2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?
A: I am very pleased with all the little edits. I have created only a handful of articles (egs [1] [2]), but stubbed many. And prodded quite a few too. I often trawl the trashier categories and special pages, sifting the junk, wikifying, and dampening the POV, introducing newbies to the way of the encyclopaedia. My work on vandalism and preserving the integrity of Wikipedia is obviously a key thing - I am pleased with whichever contributions it was that prompted my RickK barnstar[3]. I am especially pleased with every reference I have added (I am a verifiabilist, but they are also great for helping with POV and vandalism), and some of my talk page contributions have been quite helpful too.
3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?
A: I don't think I get into conflict, or get stressed - but I see most editing as a process of negotiation. If people have a point of view it will usually have to be catered for eventually (subject to NPOV and verifiability etc), so I tend to make corrections and balance POV in small stages and over the longer term, using references and the talk pages. I am of the opinion that the vast majority of disagreements can be overcome with reliable references and that is how I generally approach things.
There was one episode which once caused me to despair a little. This edit was never really going to stick. I tried discussing it on the talk pages (before and after) but no one was convinced. I will leave it to readers to see if they can spot the problem I was addressing. Though I think I had policy, encyclopaedic values, and common sense in my favour, I had consensus against me. If I had pursued it further I would probably have put in a RFC and/or summoned some independent third parties, but after some effort I just gave up on it. I have worked on quite a few religion/statistics articles, and gradually got used to the idea that some of them are just full of unverifiable numbers. I have to admit I am not that bothered by it now - there are worse things, and I usually have better things to do than continually try and convince people that that you can't just make up numbers and make whole populations appear and disappear. Unless it's vandalism or I have support of course. I usually just put the verifiable facts on the talk page [4], safe in the knowledge that encyclopaedic standards will prevail one day. 

Then the second RfA happened:

Final (42/1/1); Ended 03:28, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
Zzuuzz (talk · contribs) - This user is yet another great user who would be an asset to the administrator community. He contributes strongly to all areas, and has improved since his last RfA, which may have passed if he didn't withdraw. He's great at vandalism-patrolling, he also contributes quality disussion to AfD, and he has improved his article-writing, which was the reason for most opposes last time. Definitely deserving of the tools. Wizardman 04:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept thanks. -- zzuuzz(talk) 21:40, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Questions for the candidate
Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia in this capacity. Please take the time to answer a few generic questions to provide guidance for participants:
1. What sysop chores do you anticipate helping with? Please check out Category:Wikipedia backlog and Category:Administrative backlog, and read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.
A: I will mostly use the sysop bit to help with the backlogs at AIV and CAT:SPEEDY. I have much experience of cleaning up vandalism which has given me a good idea who needs blocking to prevent further damage and who doesn't. I will probably also help with protection where appropriate, and I anticipate assisting in other areas with frequent backlogs such as copyvios and open proxies.
2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any with which you are particularly pleased, and why?
A: I am pleased with all the contributions I have made to cleaning up Wikipedia, improving its quality, and helping others improve their contributions.
A2: In light of some requests, I will try and expand this answer. I've improved thousands of different articles and I'm pleased with just about all of it. I don't really focus on improving the coverage of subject x or topic y, or adding significant text to any particular article. I prefer to focus instead on introducing elementary encyclopaedic standards across a broad range of articles. There are many articles I revisit of course, and slowly improve over time. The list of articles I have edited most (as mentioned below) contains some of the following... I help a bit with the MySpace article, both in the article and the talk page. The article is a magnet for vandalism and original research. But I can't take too much credit for that. I help to maintain the List of Internet slang phrases which is one of the most-edited and best-referenced articles on Wikipedia, though you will either love it or hate it (or try and transwiki it). The List of London School of Economics people is another list I have edited frequently, along with quite a few of its sub-articles. The United Kingdom, England, and London articles get their share of vandalism removed by me, but I have also improved them in some other ways. I have also helped a fair bit with CAT:NOCAT and Category:Lists, as well as numerous articles within Category:United Kingdom and its sub-categories. My article creations include the notable Clara Furse and the significant Sandy Gall. I will also take credit for rescuing Ray Moore (broadcaster) recently, and I have created an article for Roncq which still needs a bit of work before it reaches featured standard. I've removed libel from literally hundreds of articles, especially but not exclusively from school articles, several hundred of which I have been helping to clean up over the last few months. I've removed a further load of copyvios, hoaxes, spam, vanity, abuse, and fake deterrent protection templates which were all quite embarrassing to the encyclopaedia. My favourite AfD recently was Fecal vomiting which was headed quickly for a rather unpleasant end before I contributed. I also take a small amount of credit (rightly or wrongly, probably wrongly) for the first eight words of the Northern Ireland article, which are now stable following an extensive debate about them into which I interjected. I have contributed significantly to our knowledge of which statistics we lack about English people, and for that matter, Irish people, Cornish people, and perhaps also to some extent Asian (people). I contributed stability to the year of establishment of the term chav, and I have added some good references to the article about Wanker. I have also been active at the Help Desk and at the other end of the {{helpme}} tag, assisting many other editors with their questions and problems to help them contribute what they can. I help a fair bit with new pages and new users in a similar vein, and I obviously assist to quite a large extent in the effort to help vandals find the right path. These are a few of the various things I have worked on, and I take pleasure in it and credit for it to varying degrees.
3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or have other users caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?
A: I don't really get into conflicts over editing. I generally only add material that is well referenced and NPOV, and I find this is a good ingredient to prevent and even resolve conflicts. If there are disagreements of opinion or fact then I will normally open or join a discourse and attempt to negotiate a suitable narrative within the editorial guidelines.

Supposedly there was a lot off-wiki arm-twisting in the first RfA, paving the way for the "success" of the second. Since winning, he has been known to ban the IPs of entire colleges to shut down one troll; he has blocked nearly 14,000 users (mostly by 'bot) and others have had to unblock more than 1000 users he has shut down. He is also as clumsy in chasing suspected socks, which is hilarious if he actually is one. Zzuuzz deserves to be unmasked and kicked out.

Because Ian Frasier "Lemmy" Kilmister died today, some music:



You will be missed.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Guest Post by Mutineer: "Is Jim from Wikipediocracy Wikipedia's James Alexander?"

Below is an untitled article from Mutineer. Consider it a Christmas present, or a really late Chanukkah gift.
 
There are reasons to believe the WMF's Trust and Safety Manager James Alexander engages in sockpuppetry on Wikipedia. There is a reason to believe James Alexander, prominently shown at his WMF employee page, is not his real name. "Sockpuppetry" is an Internet term for deceptively making use of different accounts to create the appearance of support or resistance for a particular matter of debate. It can also be for harassment of someone the sockmaster dislikes, for example one has been in an online argument generating personalized antagonistic feelings, and so the sockmaster creates the new account to attack his or her enemy as if it were some new person coming fresh to argument. The James Alexander question can be organized like this:
 

 
1) WMF employee James Alexander openly points to his previous unpaid Wikipedia account of Jamesofur. He leveraged it when he sought employment. He said his advanced community rights indicated his value. Jamesofur passed an RFA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Jamesofur#Questions_for_the_candidate), and has OTRS rights.
 
2) Wikipedia user Begoon had very sporadic and mainly non-verbal activity, but sounded off angrily when Jamesofur failed his RFA, basically saying it was a stupid system and so forth. Begoon angrily retorted a person that questioned why someone with an handful of edits would show up so vociferously in an RFA. Begoon fired back that the person should not be so uncivil and suspicious, that this was exactly why Wikipedia was unfriendly to newbies, that he, Begoon, had just been watching for a while. With this theme, he was speaking like someone well-versed in Wikipedia's administrative workings. It was a Shakespearean "methinks thou dost protest too loudly" moment. In his comments protesting the RFA down-vote of Jamesofur, Begoon hand-typed the signature "Jim." (Https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Jamesofur&diff=prev&oldid=356234568.)
 
3) A Wikipediocracy participant Jim in his avatar's undertitling identifies himself as Wikipedia editor Begoon. (Http://www.anony.ws/image/JfhR.)
 
4) Wikipediocracy's Jim has asserted that he has personally communicated with the WMF's former Community Relations Director Philippe Beaudette. Beaudette led James Alexander's WMF work section, and was James Alexanders' immediate superior. (Http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6424.)
 
So, in drawing this thesis together, I've shown, solidly or inconclusively, a daisy chain connection from Begoon to Jamesofur to James Alexander to WO's Jim to Begoon. The obvious supporting clue is of course the name "James," which is commonly shortened to "Jim." A review of Begoon's editing history is rather startling. It doesn't seem a natural progression of an editor. It's actually a little bizarre, sort of mechanized and incredibly sporadic in its first years of edits. It makes a bit more sense if considered as an alternate account of some other user, who goes to Begoon now and then for particular administrative edits. This would fit in with the idea that Jamesofur is the sockmaster. Jamesofur edits in his own hand, and makes use of Begoon now and then, such as in the complaint at Jamesofur's RFA failure.
 
The broader question begged by this example of James Alexander is whether WMF employees should be allowed to list themselves as pseudonyms on the WMF's official organizational profiles. Another WMF employee, whose name is either Karen Ingraffea or Karen Brown, communicates on the official Wikimedia-l mailing list under a pseudonym.
 
Let us examine momentarily the contributions of Begoon. On first looking, his edits appear to reveal something of a strange fish. Begoon contribution history overview:
 
Very first edit is on 13 September 2009 to "Pole dance." He deletes a reference, claiming it is "commercial." However leaves the article text that was said to have been supported by it. Second and third edits less than 45 minutes later appear to be, not sure, automated rather than manual edits, marked as "creating" the user and user talkpages, but they don't say anything.
 
Comes back after about two weeks and fourth and fifth edits appear to be, what, looks like bolding or upscaling "==User Page: Begoon==" the labels on the the talk and userpages. Comes back for sixth and seventh and eighth edits no less than six months later and is back at Pole Dance article, again removes a references on basis "commercial link," he's removing some text as well now.
 
Okay I'm speeding up, comes back 11 days later in an RFA on Jamesofur. Begoon speaks! So which way does he go on the nominee? No way! What, he complains that the process is absurd, and is miffed when questioned how a person with nine edits happens to show up there. How uncivil and suspicious and mean to a new user, he says. Here, I'll quote a sample:
 
 
"I don't really blame you for wondering - however, The answer is yes, I have a grand total of 9 edits. Please explain how that makes my opinion invalid, or even, failing that, less valid than yours. As to how I found this page - well it's a high profile page, and I was interested in how this wikipedia stuff works. You can assume I have some kind of motive, or you can take my remarks at face value. I can't see any reason to care what you think after such an uncivil reaction to the first attempt of a new user to involve himself. Jim...."
 
Okay, now he's editing more frequently. Just spot checking now. Some edit where he puts... lines? on a talkpage discussion regarding edit filters. An RFA again, this time he opposes HJ Mitchell's second RFA. Something at his talkpage. Something at "Cubelurker's" talkpage regarding a message. RFA stuff. WP:AN/ANI! I knew Begoon was going to end up there as a sneering regular constantly maneuvering for blocks.
 
Minor administrative changes at Chamberlain Memorial, Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, Millersburg Township, JP1 remotes. Begoon's into remote controls. Uploads an image of an emblem for "Vanatuatu Girl Guides Association," okay. Seems to be doing the same for a bunch of Girl Guides Associations. Templates an editor for, the template says, "apparent vandalism." I looked at the edit, yeah it was vandalism of the goofy sort. Really skipping now.
 
Templates (w. Twinkle!) an editor with "final warning vandalism." It's all sort of like this. There's a lot! If there's a content *addition* anywhere as opposed to tag or revert or something, I haven't seen it. Skipping 250 at a time now. An SPI, says doesn't know but the alleged sock edits look similar. Good gosh, there's so much. Skipping to 2013. Same sort of stuff, I guess it's more advanced because the bit counts are higher. Begoon seems to have made friends now, WP:AN/ANI captain Dennis Brown seems to be one, Christmas greetings etc. RFA, RFA, RFA. Ah! Some block philosophy worth quoting:
 
 
"But, see, there's the problem, in a nutshell... The history of this talk page, its archive, the Fort Lee talk page, the welcomeg template, the ANI discussion etc., all say the very same thing. A succession of experienced editors come to you to give advice or discuss problems with edits you have made. Your response is invariably a massive rant about why you are right, and they are all of them wrong, every one, they're not "assuming good faith", they are picking on you, "denigrating" you, "deriding" you - rinse and repeat (and, boy, do you repeat...) Your analysis of all this is ''"The overwhelming body of my work and experiences has been decidedly positive"''... Can you see the disconnect here? That's what you're being asked to do, because if you can't, the amount of other editors' time you insist on wasting with your repetitive wikilawyering, pointless arguing, and assertions of unfair treatment has been judged too costly in wasted time and effort to permit. Nobody can make you see it, but you now need to if you want to continue to edit.17:01, 28 April 2014 (UTC)"
 
This is absolute classic WP:AN/ANI pontificating where the gangs of sharks have picked their prey, and set the stage for the ritualized slaughter. It remains but to mute the content editor, keep sneering and mischaracterizing, and wait for the LCDA (lowest common denominator administrator) to press the block button. Begoon is bonding and socializing with his fellows at WP:AN/ANI. Block of victimized content editor equals victory and someone for them to feel superior to. He continues this behavior in other examples.
 
In conclusion, this article has made the case that, while not 100% certitude, there is reason to believe that the WMF's James Alexander sockpuppets Wikipedia under the Begoon handle and is part of the abusive administrative culture that derives satisfaction from targeting, hounding (often in a group), and blocking potentially good content editors.

Monday, December 21, 2015

The End-of-the-Year "Where Should We Go?" Post

It's been an interesting year and a quarter here at Wikipedia Sucks! - Wikipediocracy began it's final slide into irrelevance, major Wikipedia assholes were named and shamed (though Beyond My Ken will not bend and admit the game is done), and the eternal truth that Wikipedia is a doomed enterprise was promulgated. However, the shadows are falling on this enterprise:

My information is getting older. The information that was leaked to me was a few years old when I got it, and it's aging faster still. I want to talk about new fiascoes beyond whatever tomfoolery Jimbo or one of the "name" WMF'ers is involved with, but I'm noticing a lot of the stuff discussed online has to do with GamerGate and it is this blog's opinion that GamerGate is a cul-de-sac. It's "interesting" for the drama but utterly pointless in the end, like a split in a Trotskyist group. So what I need is to be clued into the non-GamerGate drama in the remaining cadre of Wikipedians. But those guys lead into point "B" which is....

I don't want to write about WikiPedos. But I will be forced to do so because I'm the only one with a working blog with the information on them - it was a real cottage industry last decade to name these people in now-abandoned blogs that I keep stumbling across.....Encylopaedia Dramatica is also a great source because they have chunks of the lawyered-to-death "Evil-Unveiled" copy-pasted and buried inside the website. The only reason I would "want" to name-shame these clowns is that they are there on Wikipedia not to get the facts straight, but to pick up young boys. It needs to be done, but it distracts from what I thought was going to be my bread and butter....

Nerd crimes. I'm talking about illegal rings of Warez traders doing their business inside Wikimedia Commons, hacker/cracker/script kiddies shooting the breeze in talk pages, late-stage phone phreakery discussed in the early 2000s version of Wikipedia.....I'm sure it happened, but I can't find traces, thanks to the Secret Collapse of 2007. I'd rather talk about technocrime or bizarro cults or UFO believers involved in technocrime-accomplishing cults rather than discussing Matthew Buck.

So this is where we are going, probably: more dumping of old scandals written in a way so that outsiders can understand them, research into new scandals to keep relevant, occasional posts on the child porn/child-molesting scum Wikipedia is shot through with, alongside the regular features of the blog. With any luck I will run out of the old material in two years.

I would like to thank all the readers for boosting our views from zilch to 21,940. I would especially like to thank all the German readers over the last month who showed up over 3Apes and SearchBastard thanks to that recent heise.de article on the subject of Wikipedia's prehistory. Vielen Dank. I would also like to encourage anybody who speaks African languages to translate these posts and send them around to African websites, and the same with Chinese ideograms. The people sailing into the sea that is the English-language internet need to be warned of the rocky shoals out there.