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by karmafist » Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:10 pm
I was just thinking about the old days and discovered this thread and other comments last night. Figured I should say something.
Until I discovered these comments about me, I was unaware of that e-mail. I find any attempts on their part to "tell my boss" about anything or "try to put me in jail for a year" laughable. Unless I missed it, Wikipedia has never played a significant role in my offline life.
I hate to tell you this, but the general public does not think about Wikipedia all that much. When they do, they think of it as the informational equivalent of fast food: an emphasis on access over nutrition.
Vandalizing it has the same legal equivalent as cheating on a video game. People in the real world don't care, they have real issues to deal with. Anyone dumb enough to trust Wikipedia without double checking elsewhere deserves what they get. Even Wikipedia doesn't trust Wikipedia as a source, that should say all that needs to be said.
Wikipedia only truly matters to people who have a financial stake in it or people who have made thousands of edits in it.
For me, all of this mattered because when I started editing heavily on Wikipedia, I felt like I was building something worthwhile. Like I was part of a community joined together in something greater.
I believed in what Jimbo proclaimed Wikipedia to be even when all evidence showed that Jimbo didn't share the belief that he proclaimed.
For awhile I made some more sockpuppets after Karmafist (more than they have listed on the Karmafist page) and then life got in the way.
However, it's hard to to avoid Wikipedia if you're on the internet. A year or two ago, I made another account and it's been chugging along; legitimately editing and checking off all the boxes onto the way to another adminship. No vandalism.
If somebody discovers it and blocks it, I will probably just make another one and start over. Wouldn't be the first time. If someone from Wikipedia actually reads this and then distrusts every admin candidate from now on, that's fine too. If I do raise this account to adminship, I may continue editing with it, or nominally edit with it and start another account toward adminship or both. At some point I may choose to make another account and use that to vandalize.
None of that really matters. To me, only two things matter.
#1. Whenever I confront a bully, I get angry. I edit Wikipedia because as you know, these pompous, narrow-minded, irrational, joyless people are in thick supply on Wikipedia. In life you have to deal with them, deal with them without getting angry but without capitulation.
That has always been a weakness of mine and Wikipedia is good practice for dealing with those types in real life. So far with this account, it's been a good experience.
#2. I was angry at them for a long time, angry at Jimbo, for a long time. It had felt like that feeling of purpose had been stolen. Eventually I realized that feeling was coming from within myself.
Jimbo and WMF can control Wikipedia, but they cannot control me or control what I do or what I feel. Only I have control over myself.
They can ban me over and over, but they can't stop me from returning if I choose to do so unless they block every single IP address in the world. As stated above, the non-Wikipedia world does not care at all about the inner workings of Wikipedia.
What they do has become immaterial to me.
If I choose to continue chasing that dream that Jimbo has abandoned, then I will. If I choose to vandalize, I will. If I choose to stop editing Wikipedia altogether, I will. What I do, I will do without anger, and I will continue to do it until I decide not to do it.
