Fæ wants a taste of that sweet, sweet WMF money

[WikiWatcher]

Ashley Speedoguy Fae Scuto sockpuppet alert... "User:QW22" wants $89,500 for a conference.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special ... tions/QW22

[Vigilant]

Ashley Speedoguy Fae Scuto sockpuppet alert... "User:QW22" wants $89,500 for a conference.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special ... tions/QW22

lol

Proposal triggering antispam

Hi, it's been impossible for me to post a collegiate proposal which updates the page QW2022/Proposal as it triggers the 'antispam' filter and stops it being posted. I can't even post it in a sandbox. The proposal has been reviewed off-wiki in a group with 27 long term LGBTQ wikimedia volunteers and it's ready to be posted on meta for wider review. This account QW22 is a legitimate alternate account to avoid individual contributors being targeted for anti-LGBTQ abuse and will be used to publish and share work as part of the QW2022 preparation and delivery. Can someone advise how to handle this trigger? Thanks QW22 (talk) 16:32, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Give him the money, WMF. I dare you.

[Anroth]

The thing is, its not actually a bad proposal on the face of it, could use a few tweaks here and there. The WMF could go the route of saying 'Yes we will fund this, provided that Ashley Van Haeften has absolutely no involvement whatsoever'.

Not sure they have the balls for that direct approach, but the alternative is waiting for the peanut gallery to chime in with "You do know who you are giving money to right?" which will not end well for anyone, the WMF, Fae, or the Wikimedia LGBTQ community.

[Boing! said Zebedee]

Would the WMF be daft enough to even consider giving money for a proposal from "a legitimate alternate account to support activities relating collegiate work on the QW2022 conference" without requiring them to identify themselves?

[Anroth]

Probably not, but they will require identification for auditing regardless.

[Vigilant]

Can you imagine the press?

They could lead with him getting forced out of the WMUK.
Follow that up with the ARBCOM cases and his indef block on en.wp.
Close with Ashley's hanging blindfolded picture from commons and some of his chat logs.

What a present for an incoming CEO to have to deal with right off the bat.

[Anroth]

Oh of course. I mean, with Fae involved there there is a story to be spun for every level of paper from the relatively moralistic guardian to the gutter trash tabloids. And it will never be positive coverage.

[The Adversary]

The Daily Mail would love it!


And; AFAIK they pay good money for photos,

[Anroth]

They don't need to pay good money, Fae released his photos under a free license

[The Adversary]

Quite, but they were deleted on commons, so anyone not knowing exactly where to look, (or having saved a copy) is unlikely to find them.

[Vigilant]

Still released into the public space under a free license.
I'm sure they'd find an available copy.

[The Adversary]

Where?

[Silent Editor]

Maybe Ashley will auction it off as an NFT?

[Vigilant]

If anyone wants a copy of the picture he posted on commons of himself being anally penetrated by a man who is not his husband, just let me know.

[owl be it]

Not sure if posting a picture of some guy's anus is a great way to disprove his accusations of harassment.

[Vigilant]

Not sure if posting a picture of some guy's anus is a great way to disprove his accusations of harassment.

Don't you just love Creative Commons' licensing?

The best part is where he got those pictures removed out of process by some of his now SanFranBanned admin buddies.

If everyone else who wants a picture removed gets the same express service on commons from here on out, I'll delete my copy of the offending picture.

Sauce for the goose, as it were...

[Vigilant]

I just saw this...

Monthly meeting

Attendees

3 participants in the Zoom

Ashley has single-handedly killed that group.

[Anroth]

If everyone else who wants a picture removed gets the same express service on commons from here on out, I'll delete my copy of the offending picture.

Didnt Rodhullandemu get some pics deleted recently quite quickly? I thought it seemed a bit funky at the time but I am not up on how commons processes work (now) with regards to uploader requests.

[Parabola]

just archiving porn of my internet enemies for perfectly normal reasons


staring at it and offering it to strangers for Regular Reasons

[Jim]

Didnt Rodhullandemu get some pics deleted recently quite quickly? I thought it seemed a bit funky at the time but I am not up on how commons processes work (now) with regards to uploader requests.

Yeah - he requested 2 pics be deleted by posting on his wikidata talk page, because he was blocked at Commons without talk page access. It was mentioned here (and here), in the RH+E thread.

Someone (Ankry) noticed and deleted them for him as "uploader request". Shortly before the post at wikidata a UK IP had tried to speedy one of them, but the speedy tag was removed.

They're not very interesting, just old pics, one of him outdoors, one of him sitting with a woman outdoors.

It's certainly the kind of shortcut to deletion that only an "insider" could take - the most that should have been done, imo, was to create regular deletion requests on his behalf, where anyone could opine - in the same way Joe Public would need to proceed.

That said, I'd generally support courtesy deletion of purely personal pictures that aren't in encyclopedic use, through the proper channels. The user would need to understand, though, that anyone who had already obtained the picture under its free licence might want to use it under that licence, and would be as free to do so as with any other pic obtained in the same way.

This is why you should never upload anything to Commons which you might ever wish you hadn't, for any reason. Even if you can get a courtesy deletion (which depends on not enough bloody minded Commoners turning up to keep it for spite, or just because they can) once you've put it "in circulation" you have no way of knowing/controlling who has already got a copy, or is using it somewhere, and not much chance of stopping that use except relying on goodwill, unless the usage you don't like breaks some law rather than copyright, and you can pursue that aspect.

[Vigilant]

just archiving porn of my internet enemies for perfectly normal reasons


staring at it and offering it to strangers for Regular Reasons

You really overthink this.

If you want a copy, just say so without all of the histrionics.

[Beeblebrox]

Didnt Rodhullandemu get some pics deleted recently quite quickly? I thought it seemed a bit funky at the time but I am not up on how commons processes work (now) with regards to uploader requests.

Yeah - he requested 2 pics be deleted by posting on his wikidata talk page, because he was blocked at Commons without talk page access. It was mentioned here (and here), in the RH+E thread

Yep. Totally out of process, no valid reason was given, but on the other hand nothing of value was lost either. Rod was clearly planning to set up shop on Wikidata and probably thought he could become an admin there in a year or so and be able to bully "outsiders" again, and also wanted to show one more time that despite being blocked he still had pull on commons.

I'm not super familiar with the culture on Wikidata, but my general impression is that they have a low tolerance for drama. There's really no call for it. A good portion of edits at Wikidata are actually made on other projects, almost all of mine are actually things I did on en.wp or commons. There's very little need for most users to edit there, and I doubt they are interested in becoming a haven for users blocked or banned from multiple other projects.

[Anroth]

I'm not super familiar with the culture on Wikidata, but my general impression is that they have a low tolerance for drama. There's really no call for it. A good portion of edits at Wikidata are actually made on other projects, almost all of mine are actually things I did on en.wp or commons. There's very little need for most users to edit there, and I doubt they are interested in becoming a haven for users blocked or banned from multiple other projects.

This is unfortunately not quite the case - or rather it is but for the wrong reason. A lot of the 'drama' happens elsewhere as a result of actions taken on Wikidata whose effects are visible on the various wiki's. It doesnt tend to happen on wikidata itself because its effectively controlled by a small group who will just push back on any outsiders daring to attempt changes they disagree with.

See Andy Mabbett and almost every dispute on ENWP he has been involved in, in the last 5 years on ENWP. Pigs is not someone with low tolerance for drama, he's a drama llama.

At some point ENWP will get tired enough that it will just start banning Wikidata editors from ENWP for their edits on Wikidata. I give it only one or two more major dustups before that point is reached.

[DanMurphy]

just archiving porn of my internet enemies for perfectly normal reasons
staring at it and offering it to strangers for Regular Reasons

From memory, Fae has a history (along with many other commons regulars) of fighting tooth and nail against the wishes of outsiders who want their embarrassing pictures deleted while demanding special treatment for himself and his friends. There are three options:
1. A good rule applied to all.
2. A bad rule applied to all.
3. A bad rule that is constantly circumvented by Wikipedia insiders.

Number 3 is the worst of all worlds (since number 2 would at least create pressure to move toward number 1).

Adding: Worth remembering Ashley's history of flickrwashing, too.

[Vigilant]

Ding, ding, ding.

Poor Ashley.


Here's a dealio commons hobbits, "I'll delete every image I have of Ashley if commons will institute an iron clad policy of deleting embarrassing pictures on request by either the copyright owner or the subject of the picture."

[Vigilant]

Ashley making his pitch for WikiNickels on the mailing list.

https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/ ... A5IOYDQ7K/

[Vigilant]

I wonder what other sockpuppets he's using now.

Scuto makes another edit

[Smiley]

Smells like a diva quit.

Who's going to start the SlinkBack pool?

Anyone of sound mind would simply walk away forever so I'm gonna say Sept. 19.

[Vigilant]

Another attempt to grab some of that sweet, sweet cash.

general idea: ask WMF for about US$25,000 to hire a person to organize monthly talks on social and ethical issues

I suspect there's already a candidate in mind.

[Beeblebrox]

If they let Lane Rasberry be the public face of this group, I think that would go down a lot better than Fae and their extremely obvious socks. He's much more articulate and not a dramamonger exhibitionist like Fae.

I also really question why you have to be a card-carrying member of their group to participate in any discussions. Everywhere else I see this idea of "showing allyship" (terrible phrase but whatever) but this group is deliberately closed off. I wonder if that is what the whole group wants, or if it's just what Fae wants.

[Vigilant]

If they let Lane Rasberry be the public face of this group, I think that would go down a lot better than Fae and their extremely obvious socks. He's much more articulate and not a dramamonger exhibitionist like Fae.

I also really question why you have to be a card-carrying member of their group to participate in any discussions. Everywhere else I see this idea of "showing allyship" (terrible phrase but whatever) but this group is deliberately closed off. I wonder if that is what the whole group wants, or if it's just what Fae wants.

If I were on a grant committee, I couldn't see giving money to any group Fae was tightly associated with.
Too much history and too much downside potential.

For example, if this group gets the $25K and it turns out the money was misspent, how do you justify the grant knowing Fae's history?

Something about leopards and faces...

[WikiWatcher]

Ashley Speedoguy Fae Scuto sockpuppet alert... "User:QW22" wants $89,500 for a conference.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special ... tions/QW22

Ashley Speedoguy Fae Scuto Boxset is still waiting to hear about that $89,500.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimed ... 2022-03-15

[Vigilant]

3 participants

Looks like things aren't going that well for his 'conference'.

My favorite bit

18 responses to the community input survey is quite a low number, especially for 300+ expected attendees. I suggest you keep the survey live during the organizing period.

lolol

[WikiWatcher]

Only 18 of Fae's online personas filled in the survey??

[Beeblebrox]

Only 18 of Fae's online personas filled in the survey??

They are never going to get anywhere until they have the will to remove Fae (and their increasingly obvious socks) from any sort of leadership or spokesperson role. I have found that many LGBTQ people I have known are some of the bravest folks I've ever met, so it's obscure to me why that hasn't already happened. I suppose they are trying to be inclusive, but when someone's participation is so transparently to advance their own agenda, as opposed to that of the overall group, they need to go.

[Vigilant]

Only 18 of Fae's online personas filled in the survey??

They are never going to get anywhere until they have the will to remove Fae (and their increasingly obvious socks) from any sort of leadership or spokesperson role. I have found that many LGBTQ people I have known are some of the bravest folks I've ever met, so it's obscure to me why that hasn't already happened. I suppose they are trying to be inclusive, but when someone's participation is so transparently to advance their own agenda, as opposed to that of the overall group, they need to go.

Totally agree.

Ashley is a boat anchor to whatever he is attached to.
Makes me wonder how many people refused to join this group due to his presence.

[Vigilant]

Making it worse

So much whin[g]ing on that page.



Looks like team grifter wins a round.

status Funded

89,450 USD

This seems odd for a completely transparent organization like the WMF /s

Wikimedia LGBT needs to sign the Wikimedia Foundation's "fiscal and grantees agreement". This is private and unpublished by WMF's choice; we cannot share.

What are the odds that Ashley screws this up?



The WMF is spending 100 large on Ashley and his weird little band.

wow

[Midsize Jake]

Looks like team grifter wins a round.

Hmm. I certainly wouldn't begrudge the LGBTQ+ WP'ers their desire to have their own conference, and since it's virtual, it's going to be cheaper than if it weren't. That said, it's not clear why they think they need three whole days for it, and $90K still seems like a lot when the platform and most of the technical facilities (assuming they're not just doing the whole thing on Zoom) are presumably coming from the WMF for free. Still, there's inflation and all that.

Also I do understand that they're budgeting some travel and support costs for "nodes," meaning that some of the participants actually are going to be in physical spaces and they want to reimburse them for getting there (and staying in hotels there too, if it's really three days). But at the same time, if any of this money is going to end up in Fæ's pockets, that's probably going to be the "vector" by which it gets there — unless...

Unless, of course, they just put him in charge of the whole thing. What are the chances of that? You'd have to assume they know that such a move wouldn't be looked on approvingly by the WMF, and I'd even venture to guess the WMF were privately assured this wouldn't happen before they agreed to come up with the cash. If so, then if I were running this conference, I'd make that assurance public. We might be the only ones voicing these suspicions, but that doesn't mean we're the only ones having them.

[Vigilant]

$30k for "project management"

[Ryuichi]

$30k for "project management"

$23.5k for "Low carbon travel, accommodation"... and yet... "There are no proposed venues as the conference is globally virtual".

That sum seems a little bit excessive to move arse from sofa to office chair.

[Vigilant]

I want to know who approved this grant.

[Midsize Jake]

Okay, okay, I confess — it was me, I approved the grant. I just didn't think it would turn into such a shit-show before it even got to Stage One...



In all seriousness though, if it were a traditional physical-world conference involving 400+ people and lasting three whole days, $30K wouldn't be anywhere near enough, right? It's probably more money than necessary for a typical "virtual" conference, but three consecutive days is two days longer than roughly 95% of virtual conferences that most organizations try to put on. So I honestly don't know if it's an appropriate figure, especially since it isn't going to be entirely virtual.

The cynical assumption would probably be that they want these "nodes" just so they can have a series of big parties at Wikimedia's expense, but either way, I personally wouldn't go so far as to expect them to do all the arrangements, scheduling, and other setup/cleanup tasks for free, even if it is all Wikipedia-related.

[Vigilant]

It's going to be something like 8 gay white guys talking about how oppressed they are on en.wp for three days.

[Ceoil]

It's going to be something like 8 gay white guys talking about how oppressed they are on en.wp for three days.

90 grand is the least amount I’d ask for to spend anytime with people who are so obviously gaming charity donations like this. Because that’s what’s happened here.

[Vigilant]

Here's some fun.

Watch the grift get born in realtime.

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wikilg ... meslider#0

Hit the Play button...



Again
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/quwkm/timeslider#0

Just hit the Play button (triangle upper right corner)

[Vigilant]

Looks like Boxset is Ashley's newest sock

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special ... ons/Boxset




https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Boxset



Never change, Ashley. Never change.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? ... r%3ABoxset

[Ryuichi]

It's going to be something like 8 gay white guys talking about how oppressed they are on en.wp for three days.

Ashley, Lane, Owen, Mr Soup-Bowle, Mr Catpole, Mr Hatstand, and a couple of anonymees. Sounds about right.

[Vigilant]

The post grift writeup and analysis of benefit per dollar spent should prove amusing.

[Beeblebrox]

So, here's my understanding of the situation:

*Fae tried very hard, through the power of hysterical over-exaggeration, to get Commons, Trust and Safety, and the LGBTQ user group to take action against me for being a bomb-throwing homophobic stalker terrorist, the evidence being a few comments I made on this thread that don't actually show that at all.
.
*When that utterly failed to produce the desired result on any front, Fae "went on strike" on all WMF projects.

*Except that isn't true because he's had least three other obvious accounts since then, all heavily involved in seeking grant funding from the WMF.

*It appears that the way this will shake out is that the WMF, via the LGBTQ user group, will be giving grant money to a person who says they actually quit contributing about seven months ago, but has actually been using multiple identities, some of which have edited the same pages, which is pretty clearly socking, even by Meta-wiki standards.

That's not a good look for the WMF or the LGBTQ user group.

[Vigilant]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sock_puppetry

Sock puppetry

Sock puppetry is the act of using multiple accounts in a manner contrary to accepted practices of the community. Generally users are requested to only use one account, though there are circumstances that may have users to have additional accounts. Where a user has multiple accounts it is an expectation that they publicly disclose those accounts, usually on each of the relevant user pages providing links to each other.