Another WMF employee, er, admin, bites the dust

[Mancunium]

The Ryan Kaldari incident has now been memorialized by the mainstream media.

Thanks, yet again, Gregory. This creep, and his tax-free employer, really need to be exposed for what they are. It's a pity (but understandable) that there's no link to this thread from the Examiner story, so people can see the horror for themselves.

[Kelly Martin]

By the way, have we noted that Kaldari has taken down his old blog, AngelBlade.com?

Did he take down his livejournal yet? Frankly, I found the angelblade blog kinda boring. But honestly Ryan seems like a fairly boring sort of dude; the main thing I took away from his blog is that he's led a life of unabashed white male privilege, and that he has a predisposition toward trolling. I'm thinking here of the incident where he and some friends went to a Tennessee honky tonk club in drag, and his protesting at the RNC convention in 2004, and the whole snuffster thing. Perhaps this was just "youthful excess" (that was ten years ago, after all), and I haven't found anything at all from him on the social networks that is newer than 2006, other than his 2012 reactions to being pilloried to being used on the Wikimedia fundraising messages (which do not generally reflect well on him). He certainly doesn't come across as a "no drama" sort of person, despite what his former supervisor at the WMF has to say about him.

[Vigilant]

Interface editors are a very select group. Currently, there are only 11. Note that the page about the right is still only a proposed policy.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interface_editors

Nice to see that TWO of the members of that group have been desysoped for abusively sockpuppeting to get back at a rival.

Way to manage your employees WMF!

[enwikibadscience]

Interface editors are a very select group. Currently, there are only 11. Note that the page about the right is still only a proposed policy.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interface_editors

Nice to see that TWO of the members of that group have been desysoped for abusively sockpuppeting to get back at a rival.

Way to manage your employees WMF!

Who is the other one?

[Kelly Martin]

Nice to see that TWO of the members of that group have been desysoped for abusively sockpuppeting to get back at a rival.

Way to manage your employees WMF!

Who is the other one?

Oliver Keyes, also known as Ironholds (T-C-L).

[enwikibadscience]

Nice to see that TWO of the members of that group have been desysoped for abusively sockpuppeting to get back at a rival.

Way to manage your employees WMF!

Who is the other one?

Oliver Keyes, also known as Ironholds (T-C-L).

In brief, what was he desysopped for? I have seen both names.

I notice RK unprotected, mildly admitted it was only a mistake, and asked for protection of his talk page from a user who posted there twice.

Please, someone save him!

"18:30, 8 March 2014 Kaldari (talk | contribs) removed protection from "User talk:Kaldari" (hist)"

[Vigilant]

Nice to see that TWO of the members of that group have been desysoped for abusively sockpuppeting to get back at a rival.

Way to manage your employees WMF!

Who is the other one?

Oliver Keyes, also known as Ironholds (T-C-L).

In brief, what was he desysopped for? I have seen both names.

Abusively sockpuppeting on Ottava Rima's talk page.
Talking about murdering women on IRC.
Being a douchebag to the detriment of the image of wikipedia.

[TungstenCarbide]

... I still can't get over his LinkedIn recommendation, from his former WMF supervisor, claiming that he's "zero drama".

Heh, maybe it's relative.

[Duke Olav III]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Sock_puppetry_by_an_admin (T-H-L)
Seven subsection in over 24 hours, and where are we? Apparently not far from where we started, despite the massive amount of foul excrement uncovered in this thread.

[Kelly Martin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Sock_puppetry_by_an_admin (T-H-L)
Seven subsection in over 24 hours, and where are we? Apparently not far from where we started, despite the massive amount of foul excrement uncovered in this thread.

Are we really surprised? He's a white male hipster. The community is going to be inclined to give him the best possible interpretation of his actions and statements, and he's already resigned his adminship so no further punishment is required. It's not like he's a woman or something, he's entitled to the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights, and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

[enwikibadscience]

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

[tarantino]

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

There wasn't any fallout when it was reported that then arbitrator Coren (now a wmf employee) administrated the domain that hosts a collection of bestiality erotica, or wikipedia spokesman David Gerard hosted "lemon party" and many other shock sites on a server he controlled.

[enwikibadscience]

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

There wasn't any fallout when it was reported that then arbitrator Coren (now a wmf employee) administrated the domain that hosts a collection of bestiality erotica, or wikipedia spokesman David Gerard hosted "lemon party" and many other shock sites on a server he controlled.

So much vile hatred for women among WMF employees, and they can't get women editors at Wikipedia.

Could there be a connection? A company run by nasty mysoginists and perverts creates a hostile editing atmosphere for those who just want to edit science, literature and arts?

[Malleus]

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

There wasn't any fallout when it was reported that then arbitrator Coren (now a wmf employee) administrated the domain that hosts a collection of bestiality erotica, or wikipedia spokesman David Gerard hosted "lemon party" and many other shock sites on a server he controlled.

So much vile hatred for women among WMF employees, and they can't get women editors at Wikipedia.

Could there be a connection? A company run by nasty mysoginists and perverts creates a hostile editing atmosphere for those who just want to edit science, literature and arts?

What a radical idea!

[enwikibadscience]

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

There wasn't any fallout when it was reported that then arbitrator Coren (now a wmf employee) administrated the domain that hosts a collection of bestiality erotica, or wikipedia spokesman David Gerard hosted "lemon party" and many other shock sites on a server he controlled.

So much vile hatred for women among WMF employees, and they can't get women editors at Wikipedia.

Could there be a connection? A company run by nasty mysoginists and perverts creates a hostile editing atmosphere for those who just want to edit science, literature and arts?

What a radical idea!

I have been accused of having those.

[enwikibadscience]

Did he give up the bit or not?

And now it turns out he not only abused his global rights, he misused one he was not authorized to have.

So, no, don't block him, like other WMF employees, he's showing respect for the rules. (Not.)

21:11, 8 March 2014 QuiteUnusual (talk | contribs) changed global group membership for User:Kaldari from editinterface to (none) (Expired. Granted during the rollout of vector for a limited task. Long since past the need expired)

And to continue

He was NOT allowed to use it on en.Wikipedia once he was desysopped.

Global interface editors can use their rights by default, provided they have not previously had the administrator right removed at the English Wikipedia. If removal has previously occurred, they must request and be granted admin locally by an English Wikipedia Bureaucrat. Furthermore, any English Wikipedia bureaucrat can ask a global interface editor to stop using their global power if what they deem to be misuse occurs, and the global interface editor must comply with such a request. Such a decision by a bureaucrat can be appealed to the wider community. Failure to comply may result in a block. Interface editors are reminded that some interface pages, such as the watchlist, require notice or discussion prior to use.

Removal of rights

A user who abuses their global rights by knowingly or recklessly using their global rights on the English Wikipedia in contravention of this policy should be reported to meta:Steward requests/Permissions or #wikimedia-stewards immediately, where the stewards will determine whether an emergency removal of tools is required. An indefinite block may also be placed on the account locally during this period if necessary to prevent further abuse (see the above section).

[EricBarbour]

By the way, have we noted that Kaldari has taken down his old blog, AngelBlade.com?

Did he take down his livejournal yet?

It's gone now. I took screenshots of some essential items, Ryan.

[enwikibadscience]

OMG, it's the stupidity defense.

Status:    Done
Global user: Kaldari (SULinfo • edits • CA • global groups • crosswiki-ness • crossactivity)
I believe we should remove of Kaldari's global edit interface rights. They were granted in 2010 as a volunteer and should have expired years ago. In light of recent events (twice used on enwiki outside of the intended purview of the rights - the protect right is there to edit cascading protections, not to act as local admin after you've been forced to resign) and admitted use of single purpose sockpuppets. Even if we don't take into consideration the fact that the rights are long expired and that they have been abused, surely operating sockpuppets is a breach of trust significant enough to warrant establishing whether community trust still exist for the rights. Snowolf How can I help? 19:31, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
Granted 3 years ago solely to deal with Vector roll out bugs. Need long since expired. QuiteUnusual (talk) 21:13, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

@QuiteUnusual: The first use on en.wiki was accidental and the second use was to revert myself. I was not aware that edit interface allowed you to change page protection. Since the option was available after my local admin rights were removed I assumed that all users had the right to protect their own talk page (which would be reasonable, IMO). You have to remember that I was an administrator for 9 of the 10 years I've been on en.wiki, so I have very little experience with acting as a regular editor. As you can see, I'm active across a large number of wiki projects besides en.wiki, and frequently help smaller wikis with their site JS and CSS issues. Here are some examples from last year[9][10][11][12]. As far as my "breach of trust", I used one sockpuppet account to make one edit in violation of the policy (in an effort to report incivility anonymously). I reported myself for the violation, apologized to all involved, and immediately resigned my administrator rights. I really don't see how that would lead the global community to lose trust in my ability to edit site JS and CSS. Kaldari (talk) 21:34, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

This right has to be applied for yearly. All other interface editors have had to do that, for some reason nobody noticed you hadn't done so that that your right expired 3 years ago. You are free to re-apply at any time. Snowolf How can I help? 21:38, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

"I was not aware that edit interface allowed you to change page protection. Since the option was available after my local admin rights were removed I assumed that all users had the right to protect their own talk page" It is not humanly possible to be that unaware of one's surroundings. 198.89.122.80 21:55, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

@Snowolf: Then why did you feel it was necessary to make it sound like I was purposefully abusing the tools and was no longer a trusted user of the rights? Kaldari (talk) 22:08, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I endorse the removal. Considering your positions, it seems incredible to me you thought "all users had the right to protect their own talk page", though I understand that some people might lose their common sense whilst in situations of stress, because I can't possibly see how it could be useful to allow users to protect their talk pages. On most projects, I don't know what it's like on enwiki, talkpages must remain open for users to be able to comment, and are only protected (shortly) in cases of heavy vandalism/attacks. Nevertheless, the recent issues only point up an issue regarding your global right, which is that your global editinterface rights should have been removed, as the reason for granting those rights over three years ago which doesn't seem to be valid anymore. Additionally, considering the recent issues on enwiki, I would like to allow the global community to voice itself about whether they still trust you with this right. As for your activity, aside from the 5 edits on the common.css on hak.wiki, I have only found edits in the MediaWiki namespace last year on it.wikivoyage and meta (where you already are a local admin). I personally do not feel this shows a continued need for the right. Cordially, Savhñ 22:12, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

As a procedural note, I have notified the other interface editors in the expired category, and will be removing their rights in a week if they do not respond. --Rschen7754 22:23, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Link.
The stewards aren't really buying the "I am too stupid to know how to be an administrator" defense. I wonder if he ever protected talk pages while an en.Wiki admin.

[Kelly Martin]

The fact that his global rights have been revoked makes things more interesting. I was not expecting that. It'll be interesting to see if Beaudette gets involved here. I got the impression that Ryan believes that he needs those rights to maintain some projects he is responsible for, and if that's actually the case it could cause him some problems with his job at WMF. Then again, his primary role (like that of everyone who works for the WMF) is to be a cheerleader for the WMF. It remains to be seen whether he can effectively continue to do so after being embarrassed like this. Still too soon to tell; I will say that the abuse of editinterface rights (de minimus as it was) has brought another whole dimension into this dispute.

The irony here is that Ryan's decision to sockpuppet was originally intended to shield him from drama, and it has had the effect of stirring up all sorts of hornet's nests. I've noticed a couple people (Resolute, Giano, among others) trying to raise the "dramacopters on perpetual standby" issue, but nobody seems interested in taking that bait.

[enwikibadscience]

The fact that his global rights have been revoked makes things more interesting. I was not expecting that. It'll be interesting to see if Beaudette gets involved here. I got the impression that Ryan believes that he needs those rights to maintain some projects he is responsible for, and if that's actually the case it could cause him some problems with his job at WMF. Then again, his primary role (like that of everyone who works for the WMF) is to be a cheerleader for the WMF. It remains to be seen whether he can effectively continue to do so after being embarrassed like this. Still too soon to tell; I will say that the abuse of editinterface rights (de minimus as it was) has brought another whole dimension into this dispute.

The irony here is that Ryan's decision to sockpuppet was originally intended to shield him from drama, and it has had the effect of stirring up all sorts of hornet's nests. I've noticed a couple people (Resolute, Giano, among others) trying to raise the "dramacopters on perpetual standby" issue, but nobody seems interested in taking that bait.

(Bolded by me.)

I was not expecting it either.

The "I hate women so much I pay for a website where they can be degraded by the same people who mock murdered children and Holocaust victims" cheerleader coming right up, brought to you by the WMF!

Yes, some ANI regulars are chumming the waters, but Kaldari brought this whole mess.

That and favoritism. If he had been blocked, it would have been less disgraceful.

[Kelly Martin]

The stewards aren't really buying the "I am too stupid to know how to be an administrator" defense. I wonder if he ever protected talk pages while an en.Wiki admin.

I've been mulling the notion that his statements about Snuffster were Jimbolike fabrications calculated for maximal tactical advantage with no regard to the truth and relying on the unfalsifiability of the claims to avoid being called out. But I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. But this defense is garbage. Not only is he a long-term administrator (he's been one since 2005) but he's also a MediaWiki developer. He knows, or ought to know, that regular editors do not have the authority to protect their own talk pages, and claiming otherwise is just not credible. Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus means that all his other claims are now thrown into question; I can no longer give him the benefit of the doubt on the Snuffster claims.

He is digging his own wikigrave now by fighting with the stewards. The stewards, as a rule, hate Wikimedia staffers, and will take any opportunity presented to them to stick it to one of them if they can do so without risking their own standing. A staffer broke a rule, the punishment for which is revocation of a right that stewards control. They're going to revoke it, and pillory the guy responsible. And enjoy every last minute of it.

[TungstenCarbide]

The accumulation of a bunch of things, each with unique sleaze, adding up. Sockpuppeting, false accusation at arbcom, hypocrisy, a feeble snuffsite, poor judgement and cluelessness using page protection, doing all this while an administrator and WMF employee. Did I miss anything? The whole sums to more than its parts.

[Kelly Martin]

The accumulation of a bunch of things, each with unique sleaze, adding up. Sockpuppeting, false accusation at arbcom, hypocrisy, a feeble snuffsite, poor judgement and cluelessness using page protection, doing all this while an administrator and WMF employee. Did I miss anything? The whole sums to more than its parts.

You missed abuse of global rights. The English Wikipedia is not fond of global rights.

[TungstenCarbide]

The accumulation of a bunch of things, each with unique sleaze, adding up. Sockpuppeting, false accusation at arbcom, hypocrisy, a feeble snuffsite, poor judgement and cluelessness using page protection, doing all this while an administrator and WMF employee. Did I miss anything? The whole sums to more than its parts.

You missed abuse of global rights. The English Wikipedia is not fond of global rights.

thanks

Overall, this is juvenile behavior, not professional. Sorry to say.

[enwikibadscience]

The accumulation of a bunch of things, each with unique sleaze, adding up. Sockpuppeting, false accusation at arbcom, hypocrisy, a feeble snuffsite, poor judgement and cluelessness using page protection, doing all this while an administrator and WMF employee. Did I miss anything? The whole sums to more than its parts.

You missed abuse of global rights. The English Wikipedia is not fond of global rights.

thanks

Overall, this is juvenile behavior, not professional. Sorry to say.

It turns out, looking at policy, that his reasons for requesting protection are not within the allowable, so policy favoritism

User pages
User pages and subpages can be protected by simple request from the user; this does not apply to the main user talk page. This is common for retired users and talk page archives.

The bureacrat who protected his talk page cited this policy about user pages, a policy that specifically excludes user talk page. Maybe stupidity is credible.

[Malleus]

The irony here is that Ryan's decision to sockpuppet was originally intended to shield him from drama, and it has had the effect of stirring up all sorts of hornet's nests.

That is indeed interesting. Obviously a not very bright boy, who let's also remember forgot about the snuffster web site he set up and paid the fees for.

[Vigilant]

urgent email
Mail-message-new.svg
Hello, Kaldari. Please check your email – you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{YGM}} template.

Beeblebrox (talk) 22:30, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Always a good sign.
I get the feeling that ARBCOM has been given some new incriminating information about Ryan Corbett Smith.

I wonder where that might have come from...

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it's taken them this long to act.

[Vigilant]

The irony here is that Ryan's decision to sockpuppet was originally intended to shield him from drama, and it has had the effect of stirring up all sorts of hornet's nests.

That is indeed interesting. Obviously a not very bright boy, who let's also remember forgot about the snuffster web site he set up and paid the fees for.

Who could forget?
I have screenshots of every single page and all of the "unlinked unless logged on" pictures.

He really, really doesn't understand website security.
I wrote a small python program that iterated over the range 1..10000 for photos and userpages, wgetting them if found.
Some very, very surprising things are found when you connect the usernames to real life people.
Some pretty vile shit when looking through the photos.

As the terminator says in T2, "I have extensive files..."

[TungstenCarbide]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

[SB_Johnny]

urgent email
Mail-message-new.svg
Hello, Kaldari. Please check your email – you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{YGM}} template.

Beeblebrox (talk) 22:30, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Always a good sign.
I get the feeling that ARBCOM has been given some new incriminating information about Ryan Corbett Smith.

I wonder where that might have come from...

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it's taken them this long to act.

Given that it's Beeblebrox, it's probably safe to assume that this is a "hi talk page stalker, the cabal is on this so shaddup or we'll ban you" email notification.

I look forward to the arbcom-l leaks for late 2013 through 2014, where we'll see Jimbo begging and pleading for them to make him look good.

[Malleus]

I get the feeling that ARBCOM has been given some new incriminating information about Ryan Corbett Smith.

I get the feeling that there's plenty of new incriminating evidence yet to be found.

[Kelly Martin]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

[Vigilant]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

It's an excellent question to which I do not have a good response.
If you could program for shit, you'd be working for someone who paid you bank...especially in silicon valley right now, which is hopping.

I turn away 3-4 recruiters a week.

[Malleus]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

[Kelly Martin]

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

Sarah was fired because Jimbo said she wasn't an employee, and so it was necessary to adjust the record to conform with the Founder. Jimbo hasn't said anything about Ryan, so it's not necessary to fire him. On top of that, he's a guy, and therefore entitled to a job. Sarah, as a woman, is not.

[SB_Johnny]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

He'll probably be fine as long as it doesn't get reported in the press. The only way to get fired from the WMF is doing something that makes the WMF or Jimbo look bad.

[EricBarbour]

In that vein, does anyone know a reliable way to search all DNS records for a registrar by name, address or phone?

[Malleus]

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

Sarah was fired because Jimbo said she wasn't an employee, and so it was necessary to adjust the record to conform with the Founder. Jimbo hasn't said anything about Ryan, so it's not necessary to fire him. On top of that, he's a guy, and therefore entitled to a job. Sarah, as a woman, is not.

Jimbo has commented on the honourable(!) way in which Kaldari resigned his admin status, but that's about it. Maybe he's trying to think of something "thoughtful" to say, for the first time in his life.

[Malleus]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

He'll probably be fine as long as it doesn't get reported in the press. The only way to get fired from the WMF is doing something that makes the WMF or Jimbo look bad.

If snuffster hits the press they'll have a hard time defending that.

[Lukeno94]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

He'll probably be fine as long as it doesn't get reported in the press. The only way to get fired from the WMF is doing something that makes the WMF or Jimbo look bad.

If snuffster hits the press they'll have a hard time defending that.

Greg, this is probably the time to write an exposé.

[Vigilant]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

He'll probably be fine as long as it doesn't get reported in the press. The only way to get fired from the WMF is doing something that makes the WMF or Jimbo look bad.

If snuffster hits the press they'll have a hard time defending that.

Greg, this is probably the time to write an exposé.

Lead with the Jon Benet Ramsey pic. The comments are horrific.

[The Adversary]

In that vein, does anyone know a reliable way to search all DNS records for a registrar by name, address or phone?

Well, from the whois Kaldari was associated with just one other web-site, which of course was angelblade.com.

In addition, he used to have Tnimc.org, (Tennessee Independent Media Center) link: no longer active.

....

In fact, I think the snuffster thing will be used as proof that he's being persecuted for exercising his free speech rights,

Already been taken care of.

and will be dismissed as such when he reapplies to be an administrator in three months or so.

Probably.

There wasn't any fallout when it was reported that then arbitrator Coren (now a wmf employee) administrated the domain that hosts a collection of bestiality erotica, or wikipedia spokesman David Gerard hosted "lemon party" and many other shock sites on a server he controlled.

Good point.

[thekohser]

In brief, what was he <Oliver Keyes> desysopped for?

The mainstream media also deftly handled the Oliver Keyes fiasco.

[thekohser]

Greg, this is probably the time to write an exposé.

Do you mean something like this, exposing the Ryan Kaldari fiasco? That story's been mentioned a couple of times in this thread already.

[Notvelty]

Greg, this is probably the time to write an exposé.

Do you mean something like this, exposing the Ryan Kaldari fiasco? That story's been mentioned a couple of times in this thread already.

Thank you, Greg. That was a good read.

From a purely technical point of view, the piece does somewhat mix News and Feature styles of writing. That is, it starts as a news piece and introduces opinion later.

This is a mainstay of your work and, since you do it well, it enlivens most of your pieces. However in this particular case, I see it to (more likely than usual) result in you losing some of your punch in works that seek to re-use the content. Sub-editors being what they are, a straight "cut from the bottom" would tend to dilute the message.

I would have thought it worth two pieces (and perhaps that was your intention). One straight-up News lead about Kaldari and another Feature covering the lack of self awareness of key wikimedians. This second would link to several of your other pieces - Keyes and Kaldari only two among many. This has two benefits. Firstly, it offers greater scope for re-use in a manner that would not allow for dilution. Secondly, it brings further attention to older pieces. And anyway, it pretty much writes itself, doesn't it?

You are, of course, under no obligation to trust me for my anonymous critique and I don't imagine for a minute you shall, but perhaps the content of my position is enough, at least, for you to check with someone you do trust, like our much-missed erstwhile forum member, Mr Murphy.

[HRIP7]

This young man was a software developer and administrator and he didn't know how to avoid CheckUser with his sock?

Oh dear God, he needs a keeper. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.

To be fair, if he were competent, why would he be working for the WMF?

I wonder if he will be for much longer. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah Stierch, thrown under the bus for much lesser "crimes".

He'll probably be fine as long as it doesn't get reported in the press. The only way to get fired from the WMF is doing something that makes the WMF or Jimbo look bad.

If snuffster hits the press they'll have a hard time defending that.

Greg, this is probably the time to write an exposé.

Lead with the Jon Benet Ramsey pic. The comments are horrific.

Vigilant, Kaldari says he set the site up years ago, and had not kept an eye on the distasteful content that had built up since, such as the pages mocking recent and historical murders of children.

There is something that puzzles me here. I seem to remember that when clicking some of the links you posted earlier in this thread (presently no longer working, as he's taken them down), one or two of the non-fictional deaths of children had a mocking comment by "Ryan" underneath them. When I clicked on the name Ryan, it led to Kaldari's profile.

Could you check your copies please and tell me whether or not I am misremembering?

[Vigilant]

You are not misremembering. He was in the thick of the shitty comments.

quell surprise. Another lying WMF employee.

[Cedric]

Yeah, I caught that, but not really sure how to read most of Wikipedia. I think that if WMF had a community representative who gave a turd about the community he was representing to them, en.Wiki asking that the tool be removed might have some impact, at least a warning.

He may get "talked to" by his supervisor, but from what I can put together they're generally satisfied with his actual work. Plus, he's a white guy with a generally appealing appearance (yeah, he has the stupid hat and beard, but those are totally hipster and Wikipedia tries hard to appeal to the hipster crowd, and the hat in particular is a signal), so he's entitled to privilege, which is why he won't get the Sarah Stierch treatment. The only test will be whether he continues to properly project the belief that Wikipedia is awesome; if he does that he'll keep his job. Hell, he might even get promoted.

That article is classic. Pure and unadulterated truth being told to the hipsters and bronies.

I can hear the sounds of teeth gnashing and fedoras being spindled going on as I type.

Actually, the hats depicted in that article, and worn by "Kaldari," are pork pies, not fedoras. Of course, the author is correct in concluding that the problem is not with the hat--it's the hipster douche underneath it.

I am unconvinced by his explanations concerning "Snuffster." If the site "had long outlived its purpose" as he says, why has he paid the hosting bills for over a decade now?

[HRIP7]

You are not misremembering. He was in the thick of the shitty comments.

quell surprise. Another lying WMF employee.

Thank you.

[Kelly Martin]

You are not misremembering. He was in the thick of the shitty comments.

quell surprise. Another lying WMF employee.

He needs to be fired. Greg, you should update your Examiner article with the information discovered by HRIP7 and Vigilant.