Fram blocked by User:WMFOffice for 1 year

[Mason]

Seems to be coming out in drips every day.

[Kumioko]

SilkTork seems to say that, according to the T&S report, the only objectionable thing Fram did after being warned was his "fuck ArbCom" comment. I don't think we knew that.

I strongly suspect that they are starting to realize just how thin the 'evidence' is for any type of enforcement here.

When the Laura Hale/Maria Sefidari Huici debacle inevitably goes up like ASASSN-15lh, ARBCOM is going to look really stupid.
Trust and Safety is going to look complicit.

Honestly anyone who is shocked about the WMF basing their ban of Fram on weak evidence at this point isn't very smart. That is how the WMF got many of their bans implemented including mine, Birills. Again, the ONLY reason this is an issue at all is because Fram is an admin and because the ban was limited duration and specific to ENWP. Had they permabanned him, site wide, this would have been a far smaller issue.

The bottom line is the WMF T&S section is incompetent and if the other sections at the WMF that reviewed the ban didn't see these as problems then they are incompetent as well. Every single one of them should be shown the door!

[Poetlister]

SilkTork seems to say that, according to the T&S report, the only objectionable thing Fram did after being warned was his "fuck ArbCom" comment. I don't think we knew that.

He says "So in effect we would be desysopping Fram for saying Fuckyou ArbCom." If that was the T&S logic, it would be absolutely horrific for them to do such a thing without telling ArbCom. Do they really think so little of ArbCom that they think it's incapable of dealing with such a thing itself? I don't think that even many people here have quite such a low opinion of it!

[Randy from Boise]

What is the over/under on the number of days until the portfolio leaks?

Arbcom is a pretty small group without any noticeable loose cannons. So the only reason this would leak would be if WMF leaks it, and i don't see how they are clever enough to make political hay out of a controversial tactic like that.

t

[Vigilant]

What is the over/under on the number of days until the portfolio leaks?

Arbcom is a pretty small group without any noticeable loose cannons. So the only reason this would leak would be if WMF leaks it, and i don't see how they are clever enough to make political hay out of a controversial tactic like that.

t

At what point can we just say that the effective contents of the hapless 'dossier' are already publicly known.
If there were a silver bullet in there, someone would have said so to get to the desired result.

The Venn diagram of 'Trust and Safety evidence' and 'nothingburger' is now a circle.

[Vigilant]

Ooof.
linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =914877215[/link]

@Mkdw: Thank you for the response. The issue now, from my analysis, it is very likely that you all have become a vehicle for harassment of Fram. Surely not by intent, but as of now, by effect. Many of you are making bald statements then waving to evidence that you, yourselves, acknowledge you have not been allowed to view in evidentiary form. I challenge the claim made by Jan Eissfeldt that discussion of the person who the prior T&S warnings named and who put a big edit notice on her talk page is harassment. Not when there is so much behavior in her wiki-career which would have been questioned if she had brought a normal case. The claims that LH is not central to this and the outcome are simply not credible. Fram got warned specifically not to examine her edits by T&S. Sure, I can credit others complaining as well, especially now that you have said the dossier contains complaints from before and after the ban. There is also past evidence that in disputes re LH and Fram that the same group of editors from the Paralympic History job showed up to defend her. Did they make complaints to T&S? If they did did they say they worked with LH? This makes me and others question the integrity of that evidence especially if they will not let Arbcom, who all commonly handle sensitive information re harassment without incident, examine it.

What I and others have asked as a compromise is really very simply. If Fram has indeed been so bad re ADMINCOND then there are surely diffs of this behavior not traceable to the T&S document -- I mean there are lots of votes to desysop on the public evidence so where are the diffs? I get confidentiality but I also know, as should all of Arbcom, that there are people who habitually abuse the process and I am confident that anyone who has been paying attention to this drama could make at least a private and likely a public case for such a circumstance. The reason LH has become a focal point in this is because, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, we know from T&S that the March warning was specifically about her -- but for her complaint I doubt T&S would have been motivated to try out this newly claimed power. Beyond that we it has now been said that there was no precipitating event between that March warning and the desysop/ban beyond the "Fuck ARBCOM" event.

We know from the public evidence that Fram complained about her DYK's, BLP violations and poor translation. We know that Raystorm, a board member and now chair and her (Redacted), came to her defense, offered to help with translations - "ping me if you need help" - and said FRAM was harassing LH by checking her edits. All the while seemingly holding out to be just some independent editor expressing her opinion. Same with some of LH's partners on the history job. (I'd link to the diffs but, oddly LH's username has been scrambled and talk page has been deleted then moved making it a pain in the ass.)

Now, with all of that and more, you all can say with a straight face that it is not about her??!! When you all also say that all bad behavior was on-wiki but after allowing for anonymous evidence all that is presented is a copy-paste from a single ANI. Come on. You say there is enough to sanction Fram yet no one will show it. If the bulk of the case is not about LH please just show the diffs you all say are public and justify the sanction. I'll say thank you and drop it.

I get the pressure for a Solomon solution. I get this is a hard case and you all are just volunteers under a great pressure. Many of you have said some really good things that show that you really are trying but none of that will count. Credibility is built slowly and spent quickly. From what I have heard this year Arbcom's balance is nearing overdraft. Why spend more when it is so easy to earn some with diffs?

A bunch of you voted for a FoF that said there was no desysop worthy conduct and then changed the FoF because it was inconsistent rather than leaving a record of it and adding a new FoF with the adjusted wording -- I mean the two versions, one now hidden in the page history, are materially different. Sure mistakes happen in a high pressure venue like this, I sure I would make some and I can AGF that the facts were not being altered intentionally to match a preferred outcome. Not providing tangible evidence to support that outcome though just assertions and waving a compromised 'secret' document of which the full context is "unknowable"... now that is sketchy. Jbh Talk 00:03, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Will ARBCOM realize where they are and do the right thing?

[Beeblebrox]

I can't say who on this committee would have the guts to do it, but yeah, a leak would be more than morally and ethically justifiable at this point.

[Poetlister]

I can't say who on this committee would have the guts to do it, but yeah, a leak would be more than morally and ethically justifiable at this point.

Whoever does it would have to cover his or her tracks. Maybe it could be sent to a former arb, say one who has an account here, who could then pass it on to someone else here to post as a WO blog.

[MrErnie]

SilkTork gives a little more away on meta, that turns out to be quite a huge reveal:

The Foundation received two complaints in late 2018. The names are redacted, but looking at the dates and the incidents and the wording, it is clear that the complaints were from two different people, though both were about your attention to one particular user.

So there were a few people, with undisclosed COI's towards a particular user, who made complaints to T&S about Fram's behavior towards that user. We need to see this document.

Then:

The complaints in 2019 all relate to ArbCom. Four complaints.

There we have it. The cat is out of the bag. Fram's administration towards Laura Hale drew the initial attention from the WMF, and the behavior towards Arbcom gave them the final justification. Shameful.

[Carcharoth]

SilkTork is revealing quite a lot, isn't he (it may be relevant that he intends to resign from ArbCom after the case due to workload, but it's not like they can remove him for what he is saying).

Fram has it wrong that this means BURob 13 went to T&S (though he may have done over other matters) as SilkTork has also said that this was "an incident that was not raised in the T&S document, nor in the community material". My view is that an arb and another editor clashing on an arbitration page like that is a storm in a teacup. There is no way it should make "a significant impression" on SilkTork (or indeed BURob13). Of all the 'complaints' about Fram, this is the most petty of them all.

(If an arb takes an action on a case page in the absence of a clerk, it should always be presumed that they are effectively acting as a clerk and/or authorising themselves to take some action - just reverting them is silly, but equally getting upset about it as an arb is also silly.)

Four complaints relate to ArbCom. All about one incident, or is that four separate incidents?

[Mason]

SilkTork is revealing quite a lot, isn't he (it may be relevant that he intends to resign from ArbCom after the case due to workload, but it's not like they can remove him for what he is saying).

Fram has it wrong that this means BURob 13 went to T&S (though he may have done over other matters) as SilkTork has also said that this was "an incident that was not raised in the T&S document, nor in the community material". My view is that an arb and another editor clashing on an arbitration page like that is a storm in a teacup. There is no way it should make "a significant impression" on SilkTork (or indeed BURob13). Of all the 'complaints' about Fram, this is the most petty of them all.

(If an arb takes an action in the absence of a clerk, it should always be presumed that they are effectively acting as a clerk and/or authorising themselves to take some action - just reverting them is silly, but equally getting upset about it as an arb is also silly.)

I may be misremembering but I seem to recall Rob saying that being reverted (and not getting sufficient backup from the committee about it) made him feel unsafe to be an admin. If true it suggests he'd had a very sheltered wiki-life. I've been reverted plenty of times and haven't felt the need to build a panic room.

[Moral Hazard]

I can't say who on this committee would have the guts to do it, but yeah, a leak would be more than morally and ethically justifiable at this point.

In general, NDAs should be honored unless doing so would entail involvement with a crime. Do not sign NDAs unless you are committed to honoring them.

An arb who finds that an arbitrator, e.g., Joe or GorillaWarfare, is acting with malfeasance or misfeasance should object privately and give a day for an honest correction. Then an honest arbitrator may state an objection on a public page (following a private complaint), indicate briefly a reason, and demand a resolution of the problem in private (so honoring the NDA).

[Carcharoth]

My guess is that the 'Fram reverting BU Rob' incident made a big impression on SilkTork (and other arbs) because BU Rob kicked up a massive fuss about it on the mailing list. Quite possibly other arbs told him he was over-reacting.

[Moral Hazard]

I may be misremembering but I seem to recall Rob saying that being reverted (and not getting sufficient backup from the committee about it) made him feel unsafe to be an admin. If true it suggests he'd had a very sheltered wiki-life. I've been reverted plenty of times and haven't felt the need to build a panic room.

Mr. Fred Rogers encouraged children and parents to discuss and deal with their feelings, which seemed like a useful contribution the nurturing of children in day care.

After day-care, children should learn that their feelings are not the center of the universe.

Alas, the therapeutic culture has hegemony.

Phillip Rieff (T-H-L), The Triumph of the Therapeutic (T-H-L)
https://books.google.se/books?id=GhOOI4N-XLkC

[TheElusiveClaw]

My guess is that the 'Fram reverting BU Rob' incident made a big impression on SilkTork (and other arbs) because BU Rob kicked up a massive fuss about it on the mailing list. Quite possibly other arbs told him he was over-reacting.

Probably - BURob was a nasty little bastard with an agenda and, like many who "felt he was harassed", was lying. Harassed my arse: he was an admin and an arb with ehough clout to do what he wanted, but if he kept peddling the harassment line he knew he'd get his own way in the end.

Such complaints are going to rise massively now.

[Vigilant]

Silk Tork on Fram's meta page
linkhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? ... d=19365175[/link]

Thanks for the above, and sorry for delay. I'm looking again closely at the T&S document for incidents after the 2018 warning.

It has dawned on him that this thing stinks.
They are in the proposed decision phase, that theoretically should have closed on Sep 7(three days ago), and ARBCOM is reexamining the evidence they've had for some months.
They know this case is fucked and that Trust an Safety gave them a bag of shit.

The Foundation received two complaints in late 2018. The names are redacted, but looking at the dates and the incidents and the wording, it is clear that the complaints were from two different people, though both were about your attention to one particular user.

Swami Vigilant makes a prediction:
Complainant 1: Laura Hale
Complainant 2: Maria Sefidari Huici

I'd take longer odds that it was Roger Bamkin or one of Laura's other lesser vampire consorts.

T&S examined the complaints and while there was some concern that you were continuing to breathe down the neck of that particular user, there was both sufficient justification for your concern about that user's edits and sufficient doubt that you hadn't deliberately targeted that user that the complaints were logged but no action taken.

There's no way that's not Laura Hale.
Did anyone on Trust and Safety look at "that particular user's" payment sources for editing?
I'm going to go ahead and guess that Trust and Safety did ZERO DUE DILIGENCE here.

We need not discuss that any further - I raise it here in the interest of completeness and openness in examining your behavior and complaints about your behaviour since the warning. I am now clearing away from my consideration all behaviour prior to the warning, and am interested only in behaviour after the warning. The prior warning behaviour will now only be considered in relation to any infringements of the warning. So if there are no infringements the prior behaviour is no longer significant. I'm stressing this both in terms of clarity as to where I am (I am now looking only at your behaviour since April 2018), and that we need not muddy the water by churning up discussion of any person involved prior to the warning.

The above text says that these two users reported this to Trust and Safety in LATE 2018...
That's AFTER April 2018 on most of our calendars...

The complaints in 2019 all relate to ArbCom. Four complaints. I think we should examine that in detail.

You're telling me that four speshul snowflakes cried like little bitches to Trust and Safety over Fram saying, "Fuck ARBCOM"??
And that's an incident?
Or is that four incidents, since each person's feefees were grievously wounded at separate times when they read the horrific and evil "Fuck ARBCOM".
Or, were they all from the same person?

Also, an incident that was not raised in the T&S document, nor in the community material, but which made a significant impression on me, and for which I'd like to get your viewpoint. I have mentioned it before, so you may be aware of it. And it may be helpful to get that one out of the way first. In the Rama case you used your admin tools to edit through full protection on an ArbCom page to revert a sitting arbitrator: [69]. Can you talk me though your thinking on that - particularly why you chose to do the revert yourself rather than either raise the concern with the arb in question, or notify the Clerks? SilkTork (talk) 11:28, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

There's no way that editing through protection to fix someone else's editing through protection results in a desysop.
That's just a garbage charge.

[Alex Shih]

My guess is that the 'Fram reverting BU Rob' incident made a big impression on SilkTork (and other arbs) because BU Rob kicked up a massive fuss about it on the mailing list. Quite possibly other arbs told him he was over-reacting.

There are a lot of former arbs in the current batch, and I am pretty sure they were the vocal ones on BU Rob's antics in trying to exert control and manipulate public opinion.

[Randy from Boise]

My guess is that the 'Fram reverting BU Rob' incident made a big impression on SilkTork (and other arbs) because BU Rob kicked up a massive fuss about it on the mailing list. Quite possibly other arbs told him he was over-reacting.

There are a lot of former arbs in the current batch, and I am pretty sure they were the vocal ones on BU Rob's antics in trying to exert control and manipulate public opinion.

Please expound upon this. What was the game that Rob was playing? What exactly was he trying to do and how did he try to accomplish it? Why did he abruptly leave?

tim

[Vigilant]

Looks like I'm not the only one who reached this conclusion.
linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =914978423[/link]

Details come out on Meta
For those of you not following meta:User talk:Fram SilkTork has provided some information relevant to my questions above which gives us a bit of a timeline to work from

"I'm looking again closely at the T&S document for incidents after the 2018 warning. The Foundation received two complaints in late 2018. The names are redacted, but looking at the dates and the incidents and the wording, it is clear that the complaints were from two different people, though both were about your attention to one particular user. T&S examined the complaints and while there was some concern that you were continuing to breathe down the neck of that particular user, there was both sufficient justification for your concern about that user's edits and sufficient doubt that you hadn't deliberately targeted that user that the complaints were logged but no action taken."[4]

While these were "logged as no action taken" T&S issues Fram with a "request" that "in the spirit of Laura’s own request on her talk page, we would like to ask that you refrain from making changes to content that she produces, in any way (directly or indirectly), from this point on" but took pains to say; {{green|"To be clear, we are not placing an interaction ban between you and Laura at this time." Considering the prior statement about staying away from LH's edits that sounded odd when I first read it. Now, knowing of the "no action" finding it is clearer -- There are probably specific criteria at T&S for issuing an "interaction ban" that were not met but a "reminder" would be OK.

We also know from the same diff as above:

"The complaints in 2019 all relate to ArbCom. Four complaints."

So Fram had complied with the earlier "warning" and "reminder". We also know that from late 2018 the only issues raised with T&S re Fram were regarding Laura Hale and the words "fuck ARBCOM".

I now feel confident in saying that Laura Hale and her editing is the central issue in this case. Everything else (other than the "fuck ARBCOM" and, seriously, who has not said or thought similar??) has already been examined by the community and Arbcom and you all declined to act.

Now you have it. Laura Hale and a friend complained about Fram to T&S. T&S gave Fram an interaction ban that was not an interaction ban (probably because they could not justify even that by their guidelines) Fram says "fuck ARBCOM" and then T&S bans Fram because they can shoehorn that into a TOU violation. That is evidence of some foul and underhanded shit right there. Jbh Talk 14:36, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

[Vigilant]

The natives are restless
linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =914992581[/link]

Comments by Sebthepleb

I haven't been around Wikipedia in so long that I don't even remember my old username. And yet.. it still seems to be the same toxic place? Because after spending the past month going through all the diffs here, this is the sequence of events that I see:

* Someone named Laura Hale was barely competent as an editor, and probably had undisclosed COIs
* An admin named Fram was tidying up after her, and wasn't always polite (to her or others)
* ArbCom has repeatedly declined to even hear a case about Fram, let alone ban and/or desysop them
* Laura Hale is involved either professionally, romantically, or both with someone high up at WMF with connections to T&S
* magically T&S bans and desysops Fram
* ArbCom asserts itself to review the case, and despite agreeing that there were no grounds for either the ban or the desysop has decided to let the desysop stand?

(I'm ignoring the SOOPER TOPP SEEKRIT EVIDWENCEE because it's been stated repeatedly that it's all on-wiki)

Like, am I wrong here somewhere? Someone who was borderline unable to edit constructively has connections to someone at WMF and used those connections to get Fram banned and desysopped, and ArbCom's response wasn't "bugger that for a game of soldiers, you're unbanned and here's your bit back"???????

WTF. I hope IAR still exists (on preview, it does) and a crat has the fortitude to do what ArbCom is clearly too cowardly to do. Sebthepleb (talk) 16:16, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Adding: tldr what Jehochman and Jbhunley said above, basically. This is a shockingly sad tale, a shockingly poor set of decisions by ArbCom, and boy howdy is it a good thing that elections are coming. I believe I'll be qualified to vote, and I will a million percent be doing my best to turf out as many Arbs who supported this obvious star chamber/kangaroo court as possible. Sebthepleb (talk) 16:21, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Another addition: "If the community had accepted a 1 year ban on an admin - it would be expected that they had lost the trust of the community, and I expect some sort of desysopping would have happened." (posted by WTT in the section above, idk what the newfangled quoting templates are)

...the community clearly did not accept a 1 year ban on an admin. ArbCom did not accept a 1 year ban on an admin. And yet you're allowing the desysop to stand. This is shameful, both in terms of sham-trial-grotesquerie and in the assault on basic principles of logic. Sebthepleb (talk) 16:24, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

It's becoming clear to 'the man on the street' that this whole case is rotten to the core.

ARBCOM, Prepare to receive fire.

How long before the WMF gets involved?

[Moral Hazard]

Silk Tork on Fram's meta page
linkhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? ... d=19365175[/link]

We need not discuss that any further - I raise it here in the interest of completeness and openness in examining your behavior and complaints about your behaviour since the warning. I am now clearing away from my consideration all behaviour prior to the warning, and am interested only in behaviour after the warning. The prior warning behaviour will now only be considered in relation to any infringements of the warning. So if there are no infringements the prior behaviour is no longer significant. I'm stressing this both in terms of clarity as to where I am (I am now looking only at your behaviour since April 2018), and that we need not muddy the water by churning up discussion of any person involved prior to the warning.

Avoiding discussing LauraHale (T-C-L) and es:María Sefidari (T-H-L) (Maria Sefidari) is a hard constraint (T-H-L).

I would bet that SilkTork received "legal guidance" from the WMF but does not have independent legal counsel.

"This guy must be protected from up on high by The Prince of Darkness" Arbcom acts like a cult of Maria and the disability tar-baby
Commons File:Virgendecandelariacamarin01.jpg

[Vigilant]

Oh dear...

Evidence

Can Arbs please at least start an FoF stating their evaluation of the evidence upon which they do base the desysop decision? --Dirk Beetstra T C 16:45, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Show your work, fuckers.

[Vigilant]

JBHunley (T-C-L) continues to nail this corruption to the wall.

Just to make everything explicit. We see from my statement above that one of the metrics the AOC had for the AOC History Project was "Wikipedia articles about every member of the 2018 Australian Paralympic Team (T-H-L) and 2018 Australian Commonwealth Games Team (T-H-L)". Coincidentally Fram gets warned about challenging Laura Hale's poor article writing/editing in first in April 2018 (2018 Winter Paralympics (T-H-L) closed March 18) So there is that. If there is further evidence that the members of the AOC History project were using article creation and/or Did-you-know, Good/Featured Article status as a performance metric for the APC, well that would be damning. It would, in my strong and considered opinion, be grounds to open a case into all editors involved in the APC History project. The need to meet writing goals would certainly explain the creation of several Paralympic BLP's in an assembly line fashion resulting in many with identical birthdates etc, as presented elsewhere in the evidence.

Yep... getting a sense of things now and, whether or not Fram (T-C-L) is a jerk, it is becoming apparent that FRAMGATE is likely, in great part, the result of a group of COI editors protecting their niche project. Jbh (T-C-L) Talk 18:11, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Happy?

APC history project

References within that section.

"Australian Centre for Paralympic Studies Oral History Project". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

"APC to secure Australia's paralympic history". Australian Paralympic Committee News. 21 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013.

Run

"hale" site:paralympic.org.au

through google and you get one page, titled Australian Paralympic Committee : 2017/18 Annual Report : Covering the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.

Search for Laura Hale in that doc and you get.

Under 'Knowledge Services'

Patricia Ollerenshaw, Greg Blood, Ross Mallett, Laura Hale and Graham Pearce remain major individual contributors to the Project.

This scam, this unreported paid conflict of interest editing, is clearly show to have been active during the time when Laura Hale was complaining about Fram and having her little gang show up to help her out.


Who's who:
* Laura Hale is/was LauraHale (T-C-L) now Vanished_user_adhmfdfmykrdyr (T-C-L)
* Graham Pearce is Laura Hale's friend and constant protector Graham87 (T-C-L)
* Ross Mallett is Laura's former friend, protector and landlord Hawkeye7 (T-C-L) who is also scared to death of Laura Hale

Who are these good people:
* Greg Blood
* Patricia Ollerenshaw

[Moral Hazard]

Jbhunley (T-C-L)
linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =915012568[/link]

I should have power-of-attorney to edit posts!

[Vigilant]

Jbhunley (T-C-L)
linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =915012568[/link]

I should have power-of-attorney to edit posts!

Dude.
I was getting to it.
*sigh*

[Moral Hazard]

JBHunley (T-C-L) continues to nail this corruption to the wall.

Just to make everything explicit. We see from my statement above that one of the metrics the AOC had for the AOC History Project was "Wikipedia articles about every member of the 2018 Australian Paralympic Team (T-H-L) and 2018 Australian Commonwealth Games Team (T-H-L)". Coincidentally Fram gets warned about challenging Laura Hale's poor article writing/editing in first in April 2018 (2018 Winter Paralympics (T-H-L) closed March 18) So there is that. If there is further evidence that the members of the AOC History project were using article creation and/or Did-you-know, Good/Featured Article status as a performance metric for the APC, well that would be damning. It would, in my strong and considered opinion, be grounds to open a case into all editors involved in the APC History project. The need to meet writing goals would certainly explain the creation of several Paralympic BLP's in an assembly line fashion resulting in many with identical birthdates etc, as presented elsewhere in the evidence.

Yep... getting a sense of things now and, whether or not Fram (T-C-L) is a jerk, it is becoming apparent that FRAMGATE is likely, in great part, the result of a group of COI editors protecting their niche project. Jbh (T-C-L) Talk 18:11, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Happy?

APC history project

References within that section.

"Australian Centre for Paralympic Studies Oral History Project". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

"APC to secure Australia's paralympic history". Australian Paralympic Committee News. 21 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013.

Run

"hale" site:paralympic.org.au

through google and you get one page, titled Australian Paralympic Committee : 2017/18 Annual Report : Covering the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.

Search for Laura Hale in that doc and you get.

Under 'Knowledge Services'

Patricia Ollerenshaw, Greg Blood, Ross Mallett, Laura Hale and Graham Pearce remain major individual contributors to the Project.

This scam, this unreported paid conflict of interest editing, is clearly show to have been active during the time when Laura Hale was complaining about Fram and having her little gang show up to help her out.


Who's who:
* Laura Hale is/was LauraHale (T-C-L) now Vanished_user_adhmfdfmykrdyr (T-C-L)
* Graham Pearce is Laura Hale's friend and constant protector Graham87 (T-C-L)
* Ross Mallett is Laura's former friend, protector and landlord Hawkeye7 (T-C-L) who is also scared to death of Laura Hale

Who are these good people:
* Greg Blood
* Patricia Ollerenshaw

This may well be your masterpiece!

[Vigilant]

What an interesting document

Wikimedia Paralympic history project - Wikimedia Australia

* The success of the project in attracting editors with a disability supports diversity within the Wikipedia
editing community. These editors include Melissa Carlton, Elizabeth Edmondson and Graham Pearce.

* Approximately half of the editors involved in the Paralympic history project are female, including new
editors Tara McPhail, Melissa Carlton, Patricia Ollerenshaw, Rebekka Wake, and Elizabeth Edmondson.

In addition, experienced editor Laura Hale has been the most prodigious contributor to the project.

Existing editors

* The project has engaged with experienced existing editors. By supporting them, providing resources,
feedback, and opportunities for collaboration and recognition, the project has sought to enhance their
involvement with Wikipedia and to regenerate their interest.

* Editors such as Laura Hale, John Vandenberg, Graham Pearce, Ross Mallett, Toby Hudson, and Robert
Myers have made major contributions to the project by creating and editing articles, taking photos of
events, doing interviews, writing Wikinews stories and training and mentoring new editors.

* Existing editors have seen sufficient value in the program that some of them have spent large amounts
of their own money to attend events in Australia and overseas. For example, in November 2013, Ross
Mallett travelled from Canberra to Bangkok to cover the Asia-Oceania wheelchair basketball zonal
championships, and John Vandenberg travelled from Jakarta to Bangkok to for the same event.

A library of Paralympic sport images.

* Since the project commenced, 1,763 images have been uploaded into Wikimedia Commons for use in
Wikipedia articles about Paralympic sport.

* These images have been used extensively across the different language versions of Wikipedia to
illustrate articles about Paralympic sport. For example, this image of Priya Cooper appears in three
English language articles as well as articles in six other language versions of Wikipedia.

* One of the aims of the project is to make available 35,000 images from the APC‟s collection.

Making most of these contributions entirely suspect...

A precedent of editing and reporting at the Paralympic Games

Wikimedia Australia and the Australian Paralympic Committee combined to fund the first media
accreditations of Wikipedia editors at the Paralympic Games, when they sent two editors to the London
2012 Paralympic Games under the “Wikimedians to the Games” (W2G) project.

The two Wikimedians who attended the Games published 69 Wikinews articles during the Games,
conducted thirteen interviews, uploaded a number of images to Wikimedia Commons and updated
Wikipedia articles about the Games and the Paralympic movement. The report of the W2G project is
contained in Attachment B.

Expanding this concept internationally, one of the W2G Wikimedians, Laura Hale, will take a team of
accredited Ukrainian Wikinews reporters to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Because Ukrainian Wikipedia lacks a great deal of Paralympic content and in preparation for Sochi, Laura and her team are working on creating a way to bulk create articles as many Paralympic medallists and world record holders as possible. Laura has also talked to people involved with four other language Wikipedia projects who have indicated their interest in bulk creating articles about Paralympic medallists if a standardised data file is available to allow ease of translation.

The Australian Paralympic Committee is keen to support Wikimedians to attend the 2016 Paralympic
Summer Games in Rio.

Game over, right there.
Laura Hale bulk produced shit articles for pay.
Everyone knew what was going on an protected her.


Here's her status report to her employer.

ATTACHMENT A: W2G
A report on the Wikimedians to the Games project
Adapted and including tabular data from a report written by Laura Hale
CC-BY http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/File:H ... ympics.pdf

Enumerated tasks from her employer

Laura Hale conducted a Wikinews workshop in London August 2012 in the lead-up to the Games.

Upon nomination as one of the W2G, Laura Hale worked with the APC and other HoPAu editors to:
• create articles about all 161 Australian 2012 Summer Paralympians;
• place pictures of every 2012 Australian Paralympian on Wikimedia Commons and in their Wikipedia
article;
• create an extensive set of articles about as many Paralympic classification classes as possible (127
created);
• publish articles on Wikinews in lead-up to London Games;
• donated images taken by the Wiki community of Australian Paralympic sport to Wikimedia
Commons(more than 250 images); and
• Upload Paralympic related interviews to Wikimedia Commons (10).

ProTip: You guys got screwed. The articles were garbage.


These articles all need to be rereviewed in light of the conflict of interest editing

12 HoPAu supported articles have earned Good Article status. Of these, 10 are about London
Paralympians: Angie Ballard, Jennifer Blow, Meica Christensen, Ellie Cole, Nicole Esdaile, Jessica Gallagher,
Rachel Henderson, Michelle Rzepecki, Tyan Taylor, Teigan Van Roosmalen. Of these, 6 achieved their status
a month before the start of the Games.

Ah, Commons got extensively shit in as well.

Wikimedia Commons

In the lead-up to London, the Australian Paralympic Committee uploaded more than 600 images to
Wikimedia Commons, an image sharing resource which is part of the Wikimedia project. In addition,
images were uploaded by people involved with the project, including LauraHale and Bidgee, who
photographed at events in Australia in the lead-up to the Games. One image taken by a participant was
used in a television broadcast about the men‟s wheelchair basketball team in the lead-up to London.

Wikinews, a Laura Hale creation from whole cloth was also involved. No surprises there.

Wikinews

Table 3 summarises the Wikinews articles by sport published in the Paralympic period. Table 4 breaks down
the articles according to the country of the subjects of the stories. During the Games, articles were written
about athletes from 29 different countries.

A list of the involved

Attachment B

Project contributors

To date, the Paralympic history project has been very successful in harnessing the contributions of a large
number of people and providing the opportunity for them to contribute according to their interests and
areas of expertise.

This attachment illustrates the breadth of the input to the project from more than 30 people, most of who
continue to be involved in some way.

Not all contributors edit Wikipedia.

Facilitators

In the early stages of the project Leigh Blackall and Professor Keith Lyons from the University of Canberra
were instrumental in developing the project concept and initial strategies and making the introductions to
representatives of Wikimedia Australia which were crucial in establishing the project.

Leigh Blackall has been involved in Wikimedia for a very long time, but with low level of contributions outside
of his own professional activity. He was a key organiser of RecentChangesCamp Canberra which WMAU
supported. He envisaged Wikimedia having a role to play in the Paralympic history project, and wrote the
tender for the written history component of the project. He was instrumental in gaining the support of
WMAU. During this time, Leigh ran Wikipedia workshops in Australia, with libraries and education institutions.
Leigh set up the project blog and the Google Group which is the main communication tool for the project.

Existing editors

The project has been fortunate to attract extensive input from a group of experienced editors. Some of
them have made extensive time and financial commitments to the project. They have also played a
significant role in assisting and mentoring new editors.

* Laura Hale had minor Wikimedia roles in the past, and was also a key organiser of
RecentChangesCamp Canberra, but it was the Paralympic history project that pulled Laura into the
Wikipedia world, and under this project she was engaged as Australia's first 'Wikimedian in Residence'. It
had rocky times, and didn't fit the mold of other Wikimedian in Residence, but she is a content creation
machine, and this was a critical component of the project. The 'Wikimedian in Residence' mould has
since been broken a few times with the Open Science and Consumer Reports WIRs.

Laura Hale has been a 1000+ edit per month contributor for over 24 months. Laura was sent to the
London Paralympics through the Wikimedians to the Games project. She continues to contribute to
Paralympic topics, and has taken some of the project concepts to Spain and Ukraine.

* John Vandenberg is now heavily devoted to the HOPAU project, both in his time and has spent over $10,000 of his own money on this project since 2011.

* Ross Mallett is now heavily devoted to the HOPAU project, both in his time and has spent over $10,000 of his own money on this project since 2012. Ross Mallett was sent to the London Paralympics through
the Wikimedians to the Games project. He attends Paralympic events in Australia and internationally and has created a number of articles about Paralympic sport in countries in the Asia Pacific region.

* Graham Pearce has contributed significantly to the HOPAU project, doing radio interviews, copyediting and polishing hundreds of articles, constantly monitoring the content for changes, and working closely with subjects to help them contribute to Wikipedia through him, and usually these contributions are adding quality rather than quantity - getting the small details right.

* Toby Hudson has photographed events and edited a number of articles, including the Wikipedia page "Disability in Australia" created in September 2013, which is 2,555 words of prose.

* Steven Zhang expanded “Amanda Fraser” and guided it onto the front page of English Wikipedia as a “Did You Know?”. Steven put a lot of time into the wording of this article, and was thanked by Tony
Naar and the subject‟s family for delicate handling of a touchy subject.

* Robert Myers (Bidgee) has attended many Paralympic events, contributing photos to the project and editing articles relating to the events.

New editors

The project has attracted a number of new editors from within the Paralympic movement and others who
had previously not had an active role in Paralympic sport. As with the existing editors, for some of these new
editors, the project has been a vehicle for their engagement with Paralympic sport.

Paralympians editing Wikipedia

* Elizabeth Edmondson was a Paralympic gold medallist at the 1964 and 1968 Paralympic Games. She attended the first project‟s workshop in Perth and has continued to edit and contribute to the project in
other ways since that time.

* Melissa Carlton is a Tasmanian swimmer who attended the first Brisbane workshop and became an active editor, with a specific interest in Tasmanian athletes, coaches and officials.

* User: Sportygeek is a current female Paralympian who commenced editing Wikipedia in January 2013 and has amassed 1,056 edits in her first year of editing, mostly improving Paralympic topics, and has
created several new articles.

Other new editors

* Tara McPhail was told about the HOPAU project by occasional editor Chris Gould (who was introduced to the project through her role at the National Sports Information Centre), who was a neighbour. Tara thought it would be a good project to volunteer for and attended the classification workshop in Canberra. Inspired by the topical area, and challenged by the laissez-faire nature of wikis, Tara threw herself into the tasks at hand in the HOPAU project, including creating flyers, transcribing audio, uploading photos, etc. Tara was a highly active editor for almost 12 months, has participated in meetups, spoken about the project at the national librarians‟ conference, and continues to edit occasionally.

* Greg Blood had retired from the National Sports Information Centre at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and was interested in using Wikipedia to assist in gathering material to write a book about the history of the AIS. He was recruited to the project by Tony Naar, who manages the project for the APC. Greg decided to start an account and give it a try in January 2012. He has since written more than 30 articles, has been an active editor every month, and is often a „very active‟ editor, and has 5,111 edits in less than two years of contributing. Since the 2102 Paralympics he has continued to edit Wikipedia, widening his interests to include drugs in sport in Australia, the organisation of sport in Australia, sport and the 2013 Australian federal election and the AIS.

* Vicki Epstein is the wife of Paralympian Ray Epstein and has written a book on the history of the disability sport in Queensland. Her interest is in Queensland athletes and she is an active contributor to the HOPAU email group.

* Tony Naar manages the Paralympic history project for the APC.

* Rebekka Wake works in the communications division of the APC.

* Patricia Ollerenshaw has been an active volunteer with the APC since 2001 and currently focuses on sourcing material for the history project. She has attended two workshops and written articles about
people who have been missed by other editors.

* Graham Pearce's mother, Linda, contributes enormously to the HOPAU project indirectly, assisting and
supporting Graham in many varied ways. Graham's work in this project is described above. As just one
example, Linda has searched newspaper article scans for reliable sources.

* Stephen Townsend is a post-graduate student at UQ and has become involved in editing through the involvement of UQ. He has written a Wikipedia article (at the SLQ workshops), published academic articles about Wikipedia, and fixed an error identified as part of his research.

* User: Lucky102 (Ireland and Sydney) began editing Wikipedia during the 2012 Paralympic Games, working on Paralympic topics relevant to the ongoing Paralympic Games. They have made more than 1,500 contributions in 1.5 years and have created 34 articles.

Non-Australian

* Courcelles has reviewed many of the disability sport articles, and participates in the HOPAU discussions. He supports the HOPAU project however he can.

* Roger Conroy has been a disability sport contributor for a long time and has also joined the HOPAU project team, and has seen the benefits of HOPAU to the entire Paralympics area. He continues to support the project.

* User:Axid in France has been writing articles about the Paralympics and Paralympians for a long time. In 2011 and 2013 he has expressed his support for the project and helps whenever he can.

* Brian McNeil from the UK is another editor who supports the program.

* Siska, Kartika, Ivonne, Revo and Risky attended the 2012 Paralympics workshop in Jakarta.

* Kartika and Ivonne have uploaded batches of images to Wikimedia Commons.

Other project contributors

I deleted the non-wikipediots.



This is a conspiracy to edit wikipedia for cash.
* One of the named participants, Laura Hale, is the wife of Maria Sefidari Huici, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation.
* Another of the named participants is Courcelles who is married to Karen Brown on the Trust and Safety gang.

[MrErnie]

At the end of this I think we can all agree that Vigilant deserves a Wikipulitzer Prize for doing the legwork a professional journalist ought to be doing on this topic. This stuff is incredible.

[Moral Hazard]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

Delicious!
Congratulations!

[Midsize Jake]

Who are these good people:
* Greg Blood
* Patricia Ollerenshaw

Oops, too late, you've already answered this yourself...

Greg Blood is User:Aussiesportlibrarian (T-C-L), who has been working on WP articles about Australian sportspeople for many, many years - you'll find a lot of interaction between him and Dr. Hale going back to the beginning (i.e., 2012). Ms. Ollerenshaw is User:Dawn Renshaw (T-C-L); she's a volunteer researcher for the Australian Paralympic Committee - seems nice enough. If anything, we should sympathize with these two for having their WP activity disrupted by this mess, probably through no fault of their own whatsoever. (Or course, as soon as I post this, someone will find something contradicting this position... I guess it's possible they knew that some edit-for-pay was going on and didn't say anything about it, not that they would necessarily be expected to.)

Apparently lots of people are interested in promoting the Paralympics (and sports in general) in Australia, and I doubt they're getting paid. In addition to the HOPAU website they have a Facebook group and their own Google group, stuff like that, in which they ask each other for assistance or whatever. Occasionally Dr. Hale and others would engage in borderline canvassing there, but that's typical of such groups - there's nothing there I would call "blatant."

[Vigilant]

The questions that need to be asked and answered is:

* "Did Maria Sefidari Huici know that Laura Hale was a paid SPA?"
* "Who else on the Board of Trustees knew?"
* "Who on Trust and Safety knew?"
* "Did legal know?"

And, most importantly,

* "Did Katherine Maher know?"

All of these people signed off on the Trust and Safety action.
All of these people are culpable.

[Vigilant]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

Delicious!
Congratulations!

I am at work and digging deep into a novel MCU safety processor architecture.
Anyone who wants to make a blog out of this is free to do so with my blessing.

[Midsize Jake]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

I think we're working on that, but every time new info comes in, whatever's written has to be changed, so...

To me, the big problem with this part of the story getting picked up is that it's the Paralympics, not... I dunno, the Koch Brothers or Wal-Mart. Even if the focus is squarely on the WMF putting their thumb on the scales for the Board chair's wife's paid project, news outlets are still going to be pretty squeamish about referring to it as "corruption" when the ultimate beneficiaries are Paralympic committees and Paralympic athletes. No matter how big a business the Paralympics are, they'd probably still see it as similar to burning down an orphanage or something.

I'm not saying we shouldn't cover it; I'm just saying don't get your hopes up.

[Moral Hazard]

Does she who must not be named (on Wiki) ever identify herself as disabled?

Some disabilities would explain the trouble with writing or talking coherently or with her impatience and thin-skin.

[Poetlister]

There we have it. The cat is out of the bag. Fram's administration towards Laura Hale drew the initial attention from the WMF, and the behavior towards Arbcom gave them the final justification. Shameful.

As I say, they must hold ArbCom in contempt if they think it's unable to look after itself when someone attacks it. If Arbcom decides not to tske any action, who are T&S that they can decide that action is needed? And this doesn't explain why thet only banned him on ENWP. If his behaviour was so outrageous, it must justify a general ban across all WMF sites.

[Moral Hazard]

Among The Fallen, The Devil's Advocate (T-C-L), could write up an article for Breitbart (T-H-L), which could mention Fram (T-H-L)'s blog-post on WikiData (T-H-L) being used to slander/libel/ Melania Trump as a "whore".

In the hierarchy of angels, the watcher Dânêl may be able to pitch a story for media on the center-left.

[Vigilant]

Lest anyone think this is happenstance that a bunch of interested amateurs happened on to Paralympic articles.

Professor Macdonald Letter

Sadly, this is a pdf that doesn't appear to be text at its root.
I have roughly transcribed it here.
Bolding mine.

4 December 2013

Mr Steven Zhang
President - Wikimedia Australia
steve.zhang@wikimedia.org.au

Dear Mr Zhang

As Head of hte School of Human Movement Studies, I am writing to commend to you the Wikipedia project underway in conjunction with The University of Queensland (UQ), Wikimedia Australia and the Australian Paralympic Committee, which investigates the history of the Australian Paralympic Movement. The project partners collaboratively developed and submitted the project to the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant program and were delighted that it was successful. They look forward to your support for a final sign-ff on the ARC Linkage contract so that this exciting and highly original project can proceed without further delay.

This project exemplifies the community engagement that Universities see as crucial in the contemporary digital world. It bring together two iconic partners; the Australian Paralympic Movement that supports and showcases the struggles, challenges and successes of sportspeople with a disability and Wikipedia, with its global reach and incredible volunteer contributors. This grant is the first in Australia that formally acknowledges the status of Wikimedia in the University sector. In many ways, the ARC Linkage grant reinforces the views of Burdick (2012) who recognizes the virtues and achievements of Wikipedia in her internationally acclaimed book Digital_Humanities. She advocates: 'At this moment, in its short life, Wikipedia is already the most comprehensive, representative, and pervasive participatory platform for knowledge production ever created by mankind. That is worth some pause and reflection'.

The ARC Linkage Grant will enable the scholars at The University of Queensland (Associate Professor Murray Phillips and Dr Gary Osmond) to expand an already established relationship with Wikimedia Australia. Associate Professor Phillips and Dr Osmond have engaged in several Wikipedia workshops and helped generated(sic) articles, as well as presenting papers at National and International Conferences(odd capitalization), have published a journal article and have a book to be released next year, all of which examine Wikipedia. The ARC Linkage Grant will enable these opportunities to expand. The funding provided by the ARC will support Research Assistants(odd capitalization) to develop, organise and make available materials for Wikipedia workshops around Australia with the goal of generating more articles and improving the quality of existing articles on the Australian Paralympic Movement. Part of this initiative will introduce new volunteers to Wikipedia which will increase the number of editors contributing to the online encyclopedia. In addition, the ARC Linkage Grant provides funding for a PhD student whose work will focus on Wikipedia and the thesis will have the capacity to contribute to understanding the global Wikipedia phenomenon.

In conclusion, The University of Queensland, the School of Human Movement Studies and Associate Professor Phillips and Dr Osmond are thrilled about the opportunities to work with Wikimedia Australia on this worthwhile project pending the completion of formal documentation.

Your sincerely,


Doune MacDonald, PhD
Professor and Head of School

Someone needs to ask who got that PhD student funding...
I think I have a pretty good idea.

[Vigilant]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

I think we're working on that, but every time new info comes in, whatever's written has to be changed, so...

To me, the big problem with this part of the story getting picked up is that it's the Paralympics, not... I dunno, the Koch Brothers or Wal-Mart. Even if the focus is squarely on the WMF putting their thumb on the scales for the Board chair's wife's paid project, news outlets are still going to be pretty squeamish about referring to it as "corruption" when the ultimate beneficiaries are Paralympic committees and Paralympic athletes. No matter how big a business the Paralympics are, they'd probably still see it as similar to burning down an orphanage or something.

I'm not saying we shouldn't cover it; I'm just saying don't get your hopes up.

Skeevy Grifters within Wikipedia prey on the Paralympics committees.

[Vigilant]

There we have it. The cat is out of the bag. Fram's administration towards Laura Hale drew the initial attention from the WMF, and the behavior towards Arbcom gave them the final justification. Shameful.

As I say, they must hold ArbCom in contempt if they think it's unable to look after itself when someone attacks it. If Arbcom decides not to tske any action, who are T&S that they can decide that action is needed? And this doesn't explain why thet only banned him on ENWP. If his behaviour was so outrageous, it must justify a general ban across all WMF sites.

Simple.
Laura Hale wasn't contributing on all sites...

[Moral Hazard]

BTW, SilkTork (T-C-L) announced his resignation from ArbCom.

linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... ode=source[/link]

[Midsize Jake]

Among The Fallen, The Devil's Advocate (T-C-L), could write up an article for Breitbart (T-H-L), which could mention Fram (T-H-L)'s blog-post on WikiData (T-H-L) being used to slander/libel/ Melania Trump as a "whore".

I hate to keep raining on your parade like this (sorry!), but TDA won't even post here in the forum, much less link to us on Breitbart, ostensibly because we still carry a blog post from 2014 that doxxed a couple of Gamergaters. I doubt it would even help for us to delete the blog post in question at this point, since they've got material going back years that mentions it. We can't be linked to on Reddit for the exact same reason.

Not that I'm all that worked up over our not being mentionable on Breitbart... Reddit, though, that would be a nice one to overturn someday.

Anyhoo, back to our regularly-scheduled topic.

[Vigilant]

Another letter in the funding chain.

Letter from a Member of the Australian Parliment

I had to transcribe this one too. Sigh

The Hon Dr Craig Emerson MP
Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research
Minister for Trade and Competitiveness
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Asian Century Policy


26 June 2013

Dr Murray G Phillips
c/o Research Office
The University of Queensland


Dear Doctor Phillips

Linkage Projects for funding commencing in 2013
Project ID: LP13011031 Creating histories of the Australian Paralympic movement: a new relationship between researchers and the community

I am pleased to advise you that I have approved this project for funding commencing in 2013, under the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects scheme. Details of the funding to be provided for this project are attached.

The Linkage Projects scheme supports the collaborative work of innovative researchers and builds Australia's knowledge base and research capacity .

The scheme is integral to the Australian Government's innovation agenda: Innovation to move Australia forward, which supports increased collaborations between public researchers and private industry.

I warmly congratulate you and wish you every success with your research.

Yours sincerely


Craig Emerson

Makes me wonder how Mr Emerson would react if shown the conspiracy to grift behind his 'partners'...

[Midsize Jake]

Someone needs to ask who got that PhD student funding...
I think I have a pretty good idea.

I don't think there's any question. I guess all I'm saying is that we shouldn't tar all the HOPAU participants with the same brush just because one of their number was being paid, and they didn't immediately report it to the CoI noticeboard.

At the same time, I don't necessarily see the Australian Paralympic Committee as victims, either - they brought on a Ph.D. student and paid that student to promote them and their athletes on WP, which was not quite "in the spirit of the movement," assuming one cares about such things. Then she did sloppy work, which caused an admin to notice and raise a fuss over it, which was hardly ideal from their perspective, and later it all blew up into what we're seeing now... but they made the original mistake. Like I said earlier, it's the Paralympics so it's not like they're a nefarious organization to start with, but that was still a screwup on their part.

[ArmasRebane]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

I think we're working on that, but every time new info comes in, whatever's written has to be changed, so...

To me, the big problem with this part of the story getting picked up is that it's the Paralympics, not... I dunno, the Koch Brothers or Wal-Mart. Even if the focus is squarely on the WMF putting their thumb on the scales for the Board chair's wife's paid project, news outlets are still going to be pretty squeamish about referring to it as "corruption" when the ultimate beneficiaries are Paralympic committees and Paralympic athletes. No matter how big a business the Paralympics are, they'd probably still see it as similar to burning down an orphanage or something.

I'm not saying we shouldn't cover it; I'm just saying don't get your hopes up.

Yeah realistically no one would care. It's not Scientology, it's not the gender gap, it's not some hot-button issue. No one would have cared about Gamergate either, except Mark Bernstein has pull with tech journos (no one wrote about him getting banned, for instance.) It lacks a great story that's easy to grasp for the non-acquainted.

It's important in the sense of Wikipedia's community and the actions of some charities, but it's not world-ending and doesn't have any real resonance. (Which I suppose could describe many a Wikipedia spat.)

[Moral Hazard]

Laura Hale has been a ParaWikipedian.

[The Adversary]

Make this a blog now!

I predict that within 3 days it will be picked up by a major news-service and then in another 3 days Jimbo will force out Maria and announce new policies about COI editing and T&S. Banns of COI editors may soon be announced.

I think we're working on that, but every time new info comes in, whatever's written has to be changed, so...

To me, the big problem with this part of the story getting picked up is that it's the Paralympics, not... I dunno, the Koch Brothers or Wal-Mart. Even if the focus is squarely on the WMF putting their thumb on the scales for the Board chair's wife's paid project, news outlets are still going to be pretty squeamish about referring to it as "corruption" when the ultimate beneficiaries are Paralympic committees and Paralympic athletes. No matter how big a business the Paralympics are, they'd probably still see it as similar to burning down an orphanage or something.

I'm not saying we shouldn't cover it; I'm just saying don't get your hopes up.

Midsize Jake: do you think it is by chance that Laura Hale targeted the Paralympics?
Hell, no.
If their coffers are filled, they will always be targeted by grifters. And "good causes" are wonderful in that "good people" do not want to criticise them. And one problem about "good causes" is that often real idealist are involved in running them: that is: idealist who thinks that everyone else getting involved is an idealist, too! Alas, when coffers are filled: that is not so.

One NGO I worked for was historically dirt poor, then during a time in the early 2000s: it suddenly got a lot of money.
It nearly destroyed this NGO: lots of people suddenly started fighting over money....
Luckily, in the early 2010s the money ran out, and NGO went back to "normal" workings... no more fights over money, as there was no money to fight about.

I have seen it again and again.....I recall that when my country (greatly) expanded the amounts given to developing aid projects, some of my countrymen/women applied (and got!) funding for the most insane projects....as long as they included certain buzz words in the application ("This project is targeting women, with the goal of their empowerment", bla, bla,).

Oh, and including minorities is compulsory, which can be brought to rather absurd ends: a local comic came up with a question:
"But have the Sami, lesbian, Paraplegics- group been included"????
If not: sorry, we cannot fund you!!

When I read that Laura Hale targeted the Paralympics (a lesbian targeting the disabled: 2 out of 3)...my first thought was: isn't Laura Hale a representative of the Native Americans (T-H-L), too? Or the Aboriginal Australians (T-H-L)?

Hmmmpf: Seriously, Laura: only two out of three: that will not do!

[Earthy Astringent]

Lest anyone think this is happenstance that a bunch of interested amateurs happened on to Paralympic articles.

Professor Macdonald Letter

Sadly, this is a pdf that doesn't appear to be text at its root.
I have roughly transcribed it here.
Bolding mine.

4 December 2013

Mr Steven Zhang
President - Wikimedia Australia
steve.zhang@wikimedia.org.au

Dear Mr Zhang

As Head of hte School of Human Movement Studies, I am writing to commend to you the Wikipedia project underway in conjunction with The University of Queensland (UQ), Wikimedia Australia and the Australian Paralympic Committee, which investigates the history of the Australian Paralympic Movement. The project partners collaboratively developed and submitted the project to the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant program and were delighted that it was successful. They look forward to your support for a final sign-ff on the ARC Linkage contract so that this exciting and highly original project can proceed without further delay.

This project exemplifies the community engagement that Universities see as crucial in the contemporary digital world. It bring together two iconic partners; the Australian Paralympic Movement that supports and showcases the struggles, challenges and successes of sportspeople with a disability and Wikipedia, with its global reach and incredible volunteer contributors. This grant is the first in Australia that formally acknowledges the status of Wikimedia in the University sector. In many ways, the ARC Linkage grant reinforces the views of Burdick (2012) who recognizes the virtues and achievements of Wikipedia in her internationally acclaimed book Digital_Humanities. She advocates: 'At this moment, in its short life, Wikipedia is already the most comprehensive, representative, and pervasive participatory platform for knowledge production ever created by mankind. That is worth some pause and reflection'.

The ARC Linkage Grant will enable the scholars at The University of Queensland (Associate Professor Murray Phillips and Dr Gary Osmond) to expand an already established relationship with Wikimedia Australia. Associate Professor Phillips and Dr Osmond have engaged in several Wikipedia workshops and helped generated(sic) articles, as well as presenting papers at National and International Conferences(odd capitalization), have published a journal article and have a book to be released next year, all of which examine Wikipedia. The ARC Linkage Grant will enable these opportunities to expand. The funding provided by the ARC will support Research Assistants(odd capitalization) to develop, organise and make available materials for Wikipedia workshops around Australia with the goal of generating more articles and improving the quality of existing articles on the Australian Paralympic Movement. Part of this initiative will introduce new volunteers to Wikipedia which will increase the number of editors contributing to the online encyclopedia. In addition, the ARC Linkage Grant provides funding for a PhD student whose work will focus on Wikipedia and the thesis will have the capacity to contribute to understanding the global Wikipedia phenomenon.

In conclusion, The University of Queensland, the School of Human Movement Studies and Associate Professor Phillips and Dr Osmond are thrilled about the opportunities to work with Wikimedia Australia on this worthwhile project pending the completion of formal documentation.

Your sincerely,


Doune MacDonald, PhD
Professor and Head of School

Someone needs to ask who got that PhD student funding...
I think I have a pretty good idea.

Who? Speaking of which, who paid for Hale’s grad school? Getting someone else to pay the tab isn’t something you just discover one day. It’s a learned behavior.

[Vigilant]

Someone needs to ask who got that PhD student funding...
I think I have a pretty good idea.

I don't think there's any question. I guess all I'm saying is that we shouldn't tar all the HOPAU participants with the same brush just because one of their number was being paid, and they didn't immediately report it to the CoI noticeboard.

At the same time, I don't necessarily see the Australian Paralympic Committee as victims, either - they brought on a Ph.D. student and paid that student to promote them and their athletes on WP, which was not quite "in the spirit of the movement," assuming one cares about such things. Then she did sloppy work, which caused an admin to notice and raise a fuss over it, which was hardly ideal from their perspective, and later it all blew up into what we're seeing now... but they made the original mistake. Like I said earlier, it's the Paralympics so it's not like they're a nefarious organization to start with, but that was still a screwup on their part.

And WMAU knew and was complicit.
And Maria Sefidari Huici knew and was complicit.

Who knew what and when did they know it?

[Vigilant]

Here's SportyGeek (T-C-L), an actual Australian Paralympian, GUTTING the classification articles that Laura Hale fucked up beyond all recognition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =782447312
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =782447085
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =782446376
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =782446590
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =782445984

Damning.

[SixOClock]

Had they permabanned him, site wide, this would have been a far smaller issue.

Core of the issue. Not related to your ban, not related to admin bit really. There would not be issue if the ban was global.