The James Alexander Farewell Thread

Moral Hazard · Unread post by **Moral Hazard** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 5:15 pm

Vigilant wrote:
Kumioko wrote:Well in terms of his intelligence I can attest that Jorm was an outstanding programmer and he was pretty good at finding good solutions to problems
No.
Wrong on all counts.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:03 pm

Vigilant is a Reliable SourceTM.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:15 pm

Poetlister wrote:Vigilant is a Reliable SourceTM.

Unread post by **Midsize Jake** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:10 pm

Obviously this whole business about Mr. Jorm is a disgression, but as I recall, he wasn't one of the WMF's "top" developers (if they could be said to have ever had any) in the technical sense. He could code passably well in JavaScript and other C-derived languages, and was appreciated mostly for his familiarity with the platform and his quick turnaround (as opposed to the quality of the code he produced, or his ability to deal with high levels of complexity). He was also loyal and had been there a long time, so basically he was one of the first people they turned to if someone had an idea for a relatively easy JS-based UI popup or a MediaWiki plugin that could be done by an individual programmer.

If I'm not mistaken (noting that this is based almost exclusively on stuff he's posted here on the subject), Mr. Vigilant is used to working with some fairly high-level talent, and his standards are no doubt higher (and I might say waaaaay higher) than those of the WMF.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:46 pm

I've done a lot of safety critical stuff.

If it doesn't work, people die or machines crash.
FDA, DoD, etc have extremely stringent requirements.

There isn't anyone at the WMF that understands how to write code for that arena.

Eric Corbett · Unread post by **Eric Corbett** » Sat Dec 22, 2018 11:38 pm

Vigilant wrote:I've done a lot of safety critical stuff.

If it doesn't work, people die or machines crash.
FDA, DoD, etc have extremely stringent requirements.

There isn't anyone at the WMF that understands how to write code for that arena.

And why should there be?

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:20 pm

Eric Corbett wrote:[...] no safety critical decisions are left to software alone anyway.

Are you sure about that?

Eric Corbett · Unread post by **Eric Corbett** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:26 pm

Dysklyver wrote:
Eric Corbett wrote:[...] no safety critical decisions are left to software alone anyway.
Are you sure about that?

Absolutely certain, as I have actually worked on such systems.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:03 pm

Eric Corbett wrote:
Dysklyver wrote:
Eric Corbett wrote:[...] no safety critical decisions are left to software alone anyway.
Are you sure about that?
Absolutely certain, as I have actually worked on such systems.

So I will give an example of such a system, indeed one that I was working on only a few days ago.

A certain Wiki site is suffering from outages, due to persistent unexplained failure of the php7.2-fpm process. The options are either:

* Set a monit/crontab task to keep an eye on it and kick it back into life when it fails.
* Set up redundant servers on a load balancer to provide failover support.

The load balancer is a fully autonomous piece of software, which detects a broken server and kills it, replacing it in real time with a new server from a template. This is the simplest form of software making a decision.

But now another site is suffering from attacks from Belarusian hackers, what to do?

With a few tweaks, I adjust it to periodically check the integrity of certain files, using hash values on configuration and system files to detect if the server is compromised. It will now automatically kill infected machines, replacing them as needed every five minutes.

With a further set of rules added, it will now start to lock down the firewall if multiple machines are comprised in a certain time, cutting API access temporarily. A basic traffic detection model routes suspicious traffic to an isolated honeypot server, where threat information is gathered.

But that's not really a life threatening issue is it?

Well then, look at any DO-178B (T-H-L) compliant automatic landing system, which works in a remarkably similar way to the lowly load balancer and security system I outlined above, and see how software does make safety critical decisions. Once the realm of expensive military bombers, chances are if you have ever been flown into Heathrow while it was foggy, your life was in the hands of an autoland system.

Eric Corbett · Unread post by **Eric Corbett** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:11 pm

Dysklyver wrote:... chances are if you have ever been flown into Heathrow while it was foggy, your life was in the hands of an autoland system.

Every time I've flown into Heathrow, or any other airport in the world, there's always been a pilot at the controls.

And when have you ever seen me say that software wasn't able to make decisions? Even novices like yourself will surely be aware that software is made up of three elements: sequence, selection and iteration. That's never been in dispute has it?

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:27 pm

Eric Corbett wrote:
Dysklyver wrote:... chances are if you have ever been flown into Heathrow while it was foggy, your life was in the hands of an autoland system.
Every time I've flown into Heathrow, or any other airport in the world, there's always been a pilot at the controls.

And when have you ever seen me say that software wasn't able to make decisions? Even novices like yourself will surely be aware that software is made up of three elements: sequence, selection and iteration. That's never been in dispute has it?

Whenever visibility drops below a certain threshold, the pilots don't land the plane, because they can't see anything. The autoland system does it all with radar and some complicated guidance systems.

The only reason we have pilots at all is because it makes people feel better (also possibly autotakeoff is not a thing yet), but in general any modern plane is perfectly capable of flying itself and landing without the pilots. Indeed if they couldn't do this, the perpetually drunk pilots who haven't slept in weeks could be a safety risk.

The point is that the software used for a Wiki site is very similar to software that thousands of people rely on every week in safety critical applications. And further, that this software does make decisions without human input, a lot of the time.

Eric Corbett · Unread post by **Eric Corbett** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:59 pm

Dysklyver wrote:
Eric Corbett wrote:
Dysklyver wrote:... chances are if you have ever been flown into Heathrow while it was foggy, your life was in the hands of an autoland system.
Every time I've flown into Heathrow, or any other airport in the world, there's always been a pilot at the controls.

And when have you ever seen me say that software wasn't able to make decisions? Even novices like yourself will surely be aware that software is made up of three elements: sequence, selection and iteration. That's never been in dispute has it?
Whenever visibility drops below a certain threshold, the pilots don't land the plane, because they can't see anything. The autoland system does it all with radar and some complicated guidance systems.

The only reason we have pilots at all is because it makes people feel better (also possibly autotakeoff is not a thing yet), but in general any modern plane is perfectly capable of flying itself and landing without the pilots. Indeed if they couldn't do this, the perpetually drunk pilots who haven't slept in weeks could be a safety risk.

The point is that the software used for a Wiki site is very similar to software that thousands of people rely on every week in safety critical applications. And further, that this software does make decisions without human input, a lot of the time.

The point is that there is never any single decision point in a real safety-critical application, and no wiki even gets close to be being safety-critical. In your foggy airport scenario, for instance, not only would a pilot make the final decision as to whether or not to land - guided by the on-board landing systems - but so would air traffic control.

And why attempt to muddy the waters with some far-fetched "theory" about "perpetually drunk pilots"?

Unread post by **tarantino** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 5:54 pm

I've moved a bunch of off-topic posts from members attacking each other. If you guys keep it up, I'll remove your ability to post and let Jake sort it out later.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sun Dec 23, 2018 6:00 pm

tarantino wrote:I've moved a bunch of off-topic posts from members attacking each other. If you guys keep it up, I'll remove your ability to post and let Jake sort it out later.

Gotcha, boss.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 1:20 am

Well he hasn't changed his lifestyle at all...

Webp.net-resizeimage (1).png

Twitter is awesome by the way.

Unread post by **tarantino** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:38 am

There's an interesting exchange here between Alexander and David Robert Lewis (Ethnopunk (T-C-L)) before wikimania in South Africa.

James Alexander wrote:Dear Mr. Lewis,

My name is James Alexander, I am the Operations Manager for Trust & Safety at the Wikimedia Foundation.

I am writing to tell you that we have decided to cancel your registration to Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town for tomorrow (Friday), Saturday and Sunday. If you choose to try and attend anyway you will be asked to leave.

I realize that this may seem a bit abrupt however we received complaints from attendees feeling uncomfortable about your behavior at the Decolonizimg the Internet conference earlier this week in addition to concerns about your behavior at WikiIndaba in Tunis earlier this year. As I am sure you understand we need to take the safety and comfort of our attendees as a paramount concern and the decision has been made that at this time your attendance would disrupt that too much. I am sorry that this message came to you so close to the actual event as it did but unfortunately we were not able to fully understand the situation until today.

As always please let me know if there is any questions and I appreciate your understanding.

James Alexander

Manager, Trust & Safety

Wikimedia Foundation

Although Lewis appears to be somewhat of an asshole, Alexander mistook him for a much bigger asshole and banned him from attending wikimania.

Douglas Scott of wikimedia NZ wrote:Dear David,

I am writing in reply to the email (and attached letter) you sent the legal department at the Wikimedia Foundation on the 6 August 2018 (and copying me in on) in my capacity as the organising chairperson of Wikimania 2018.

It is with great regret that I learnt of your removal from Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town. You have been an editor on Wikipedia for many years now and have attended Wikimedia ZA events in the past which is why Wikimedia ZA granted you a complementary ticket to attend Wikimania 2018. The the best of my knowledge you are correct that you did not attend WikiIndaba in Tunisia; James was mistakenly referring to another individual based upon incorrect information given to him.

Kumioko · Unread post by **Kumioko** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:44 pm

Yep as I have said before, James is incompetent and does things for personal and political reasons, not because it's good for the projects or the community. The WMF and the projects are better off with him out!

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:08 pm

Dysklyver wrote:Well he hasn't changed his lifestyle at all...

Webp.net-resizeimage (1).png
Twitter is awesome by the way.

How far will $15 go towards his family holiday?

Kumioko · Unread post by **Kumioko** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:43 pm

For those that haven't been, Hawaii is extremely expensive so a $15 dining credit in Hawaii will get him about one and a half beers, maybe 2 or an appetizer.

Unread post by **Midsize Jake** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:58 pm

Kumioko wrote:For those that haven't been, Hawaii is extremely expensive so a $15 dining credit in Hawaii will get him about one and a half beers, maybe 2 or an appetizer.

To be fair, if you can manage to get at least a couple of miles away from the resort areas you can usually get a pretty decent sandwich for that much.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:07 pm

Midsize Jake wrote:
Kumioko wrote:For those that haven't been, Hawaii is extremely expensive so a $15 dining credit in Hawaii will get him about one and a half beers, maybe 2 or an appetizer.
To be fair, if you can manage to get at least a couple of miles away from the resort areas you can usually get a pretty decent sandwich for that much.

For more hilarity check out what our friend Graff has found:

(with some autotune)

Graaf Statler wrote:Sorry, I am dying of laughter, I am pissing my pants.
Here is our James now, the former employee of a small, poor foundation run by volunteers. In a hotel at least 240 Euro a night.
Haven't you missed a little something? The price of a cup of coffee is enough to keep us floating.

https://www.hiltonhawaiianvillage.com

And don't forget to view the video!

Of course here in Cornwall there is any number of hotels which will happily rake in that kind of money and more, I know exactly how the emmets are fleeced.

Unread post by **Midsize Jake** » Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:23 pm

Well, let's face it, we don't know what his financial situation is. He could have come from a rich family, and/or received an inheritance recently, or maybe he just saved up a bunch of money by living frugally for a while (which isn't easy in San Francisco, but maybe he's been living in a group house or something). And for all we know, if Twitter really has hired him, they might have given him a "signing bonus."

My guess would be that if he really is heading over to Twitter, the job will probably start on Wednesday (the first working day of the new year), so he might not get another chance to go to Hawaii for a while, and since it's in-season over there now, there's plenty going on even if he's going by himself.

Long story short, maybe we'll see an announcement next week.

Kumioko · Unread post by **Kumioko** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:33 am

Midsize Jake wrote:
Kumioko wrote:For those that haven't been, Hawaii is extremely expensive so a $15 dining credit in Hawaii will get him about one and a half beers, maybe 2 or an appetizer.
To be fair, if you can manage to get at least a couple of miles away from the resort areas you can usually get a pretty decent sandwich for that much.

Yeah that's true and I have only been there twice so I am hardly an expert on Hawaii.

I believe I saw something that he started on Monday January 7th.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:59 am

Midsize Jake wrote:Well, let's face it, we don't know what his financial situation is. He could have come from a rich family, and/or received an inheritance recently, or maybe he just saved up a bunch of money by living frugally for a while (which isn't easy in San Francisco, but maybe he's been living in a group house or something). And for all we know, if Twitter really has hired him, they might have given him a "signing bonus."

My guess would be that if he really is heading over to Twitter, the job will probably start on Wednesday (the first working day of the new year), so he might not get another chance to go to Hawaii for a while, and since it's in-season over there now, there's plenty going on even if he's going by himself.

Long story short, maybe we'll see an announcement next week.

After working at the Lazy W ranch for so long, I suspect James is going to have a rude awakening at Twitter.

Randy from Boise · Unread post by **Randy from Boise** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 6:27 pm

tarantino wrote:I've moved a bunch of off-topic posts from members attacking each other. If you guys keep it up, I'll remove your ability to post and let Jake sort it out later.

Are you intimating that Jake is God???

RfB

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:13 pm

Dysklyver wrote:Of course here in Cornwall there is any number of hotels which will happily rake in that kind of money and more, I know exactly how the emmets are fleeced.

They need the money. Having voted by a large majority to leave the EU, they must by now have realised that they've shot themselves in the foot because they get more in EU grants per head than any other English county does.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:15 pm

Randy from Boise wrote:
tarantino wrote:I've moved a bunch of off-topic posts from members attacking each other. If you guys keep it up, I'll remove your ability to post and let Jake sort it out later.
Are you intimating that Jake is God???

RfB

Are you intimating that he isn't?

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:22 pm

Poetlister wrote:
Dysklyver wrote:Of course here in Cornwall there is any number of hotels which will happily rake in that kind of money and more, I know exactly how the emmets are fleeced.
They need the money. Having voted by a large majority to leave the EU, they must by now have realised that they've shot themselves in the foot because they get more in EU grants per head than any other English county does.

Well that *is* a problem...

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:12 pm

For anyone who wanted confirmation of his new job, it's " Safety Ops Manager @Twitter/@PeriscopeCo " according to a recent update of his twitter profile.

I like the "manager" bit, it looks like he has transferred over at a similar level.

Full write up is this:

Formerly: Manager, Trust & Safety - @Wikimedia Incoming: Safety Ops Manager @Twitter/@PeriscopeCo Geek: Law/Econ/DrWho/Disney/more Views 100% my own.

C&B · Unread post by **C&B** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:45 pm

Annoyingly for some, he a) left of his own volition and b) is now earning far more than the WMF ever could ever pay. He's done that thing people often do at this time of year..."get a new job"

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 9:12 pm

C&B wrote:Annoyingly for some, he ... is now earning far more than the WMF ever could ever pay.

Do we know how much he was or is earning? Or is that speculation?

Still, look on the bright side. Maybe there will be fewer improper SanFranBans. Maybe even there might just possibly be an appeals mechanism.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 11:16 pm

Poetlister wrote:
C&B wrote:Annoyingly for some, he ... is now earning far more than the WMF ever could ever pay.
Do we know how much he was or is earning? Or is that speculation?

Base salary for Twitter's managerial roles is $150,000, with the ceiling somewhere around $230,000. The job ad for the role he is filling is still visible in the Google web cache, but doesn't give salary details. It will be somewhere in that 150-230k range, the average is supposedly 170k.

Wikimedia's own salary data is a bit patchy too, but it seems that other than a few top knobs, nobody can really break the 150k ceiling. I don't think T&S manager counts as top staff, so I will draw the conclusion he was earning about 130k before, and is earning around 170k now.

Thus, before tax, he is getting 40k more, after tax that's about $25,000 a year. It's about 20% more than he was earning.

Kumioko · Unread post by **Kumioko** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 2:13 am

Of course Twitter is also going to expect results and James isn't going to be able to hide like he did at the WMF. He might do well or not, but I suspect getting away from the WMF will be good for his resume and I know it will be good for the community.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:56 am

Dysklyver wrote:
Poetlister wrote:
C&B wrote:Annoyingly for some, he ... is now earning far more than the WMF ever could ever pay.
Do we know how much he was or is earning? Or is that speculation?
Base salary for Twitter's managerial roles is $150,000, with the ceiling somewhere around $230,000. The job ad for the role he is filling is still visible in the Google web cache, but doesn't give salary details. It will be somewhere in that 150-230k range, the average is supposedly 170k.

Wikimedia's own salary data is a bit patchy too, but it seems that other than a few top knobs, nobody can really break the 150k ceiling. I don't think T&S manager counts as top staff, so I will draw the conclusion he was earning about 130k before, and is earning around 170k now.

Thus, before tax, he is getting 40k more, after tax that's about $25,000 a year. It's about 20% more than he was earning.

These are such sad, sad salary numbers.

No equity upside just makes it suck that much worse.

God damn.

The Adversary · Unread post by **The Adversary** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:35 am

Vigilant wrote: These are such sad, sad salary numbers.

No equity upside just makes it suck that much worse.

God damn.

Whatever WMF ..or twitter is paying him: it is far, far, faaaaaaar too much!

Never, ever in my 30+ years on the net have I met a more incompetent nitwit.

A couple of examples: people have been begging him for years to make it impossible for vandals to register new accounts based on older established names.
No success.
Look at admin Oshwah (T-C-L) (who blocks a lot of vandals) ...and look at the accounts that he has gotten named after himself: link.
And editors in the I/P area get accounts named after themselves, with subscript like "'s bloated corpse", or "severed, rotting head" link

Or just the fact that people (read vandals) can still register an account, and without making a single edit they can email anyone who has their email enabled....JarlaxleArtemis (T-C-L) used to send hundreds in a minute or two (he used a script). Presently they have a limit (I think half a dozen) ..but that is still half a dozen too many, when the content is about how you will be raped and killed.

My 2 cents: James Alexander has showed himself more incompetent even than the Visual Edit group, now, that takes some doing!

Bye, bye James Alexander, you will so not be missed.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:38 pm

Kumioko wrote:I suspect getting away from the WMF will be good for his resume and I know it will be good for the community.

If (I stress if) he does well on Twitter, he'll be made. I think most people here will agree that it will be hard for the WMF to make things worse.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:03 am

Poetlister wrote:
Kumioko wrote:I suspect getting away from the WMF will be good for his resume and I know it will be good for the community.
If (I stress if) he does well on Twitter, he'll be made. I think most people here will agree that it will be hard for the WMF to make things worse.

Just taking a look at the Twitter job, he is basically managing a team of paid Bbb23's who are responsible for banning bots and racist trolls based on incoming reports from users. I can't imagine he is going to do badly considering he has spent years dealing with Wikipedia's own special squad, if anything the better organised and actually paid Twitter crew could be easier and less work to deal with.

Kumioko · Unread post by **Kumioko** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:56 pm

Dysklyver wrote:
Poetlister wrote:
Kumioko wrote:I suspect getting away from the WMF will be good for his resume and I know it will be good for the community.
If (I stress if) he does well on Twitter, he'll be made. I think most people here will agree that it will be hard for the WMF to make things worse.
Just taking a look at the Twitter job, he is basically managing a team of paid Bbb23's who are responsible for banning bots and racist trolls based on incoming reports from users. I can't imagine he is going to do badly considering he has spent years dealing with Wikipedia's own special squad, if anything the better organised and actually paid Twitter crew could be easier and less work to deal with.

True but in many ways he'll still have to deal with a degree of volunteerism like he did at the WMF since a lot of the reports will likely be coming from individuals complaining. What might be different at twitter though is more point of view bashing and people complaining about competitors to try to stifle competition.

Unread post by **Midsize Jake** » Fri Jan 04, 2019 9:19 pm

Kumioko wrote:True but in many ways he'll still have to deal with a degree of volunteerism like he did at the WMF since a lot of the reports will likely be coming from individuals complaining. What might be different at twitter though is more point of view bashing and people complaining about competitors to try to stifle competition.

That's a good point - if Mr. Alexander is really going to be in charge of that stuff, and if even a fraction of the bannage/de-platforming cases he (and they) are going to handle turn out to be judgment calls, Twitter's going to get a fairly continuous stream of bad press over this. What's more, if that bad press mentions Mr. Alexander himself and his background, who knows - that could conceivably make it harder for other WMF employees to land better jobs for themselves in the future.

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:12 am

Midsize Jake wrote:
Kumioko wrote:True but in many ways he'll still have to deal with a degree of volunteerism like he did at the WMF since a lot of the reports will likely be coming from individuals complaining. What might be different at twitter though is more point of view bashing and people complaining about competitors to try to stifle competition.
That's a good point - if Mr. Alexander is really going to be in charge of that stuff, and if even a fraction of the bannage/de-platforming cases he (and they) are going to handle turn out to be judgment calls, Twitter's going to get a fairly continuous stream of bad press over this. What's more, if that bad press mentions Mr. Alexander himself and his background, who knows - that could conceivably make it harder for other WMF employees to land better jobs for themselves in the future.

What's worse for him is that his manager won't be some inbred puddinhead from the WMF.

Twitter is metric driven.
He's going to have to actually work and that may not be something he's used to... or good at.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 5:52 pm

Vigilant wrote:He's going to have to actually work and that may not be something he's used to... or good at.

That will put him in a dilemma. Does he make loads of blocks to prove that he's doing something, or does he stay his hand to avoid the charge of making too many bad blocks?

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:01 pm

Poetlister wrote:
Vigilant wrote:He's going to have to actually work and that may not be something he's used to... or good at.
That will put him in a dilemma. Does he make loads of blocks to prove that he's doing something, or does he stay his hand to avoid the charge of making too many bad blocks?

After that long at the WMF, does he have the skillset to know the difference?

Jim · Unread post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:19 am

Presumably a 'draft' for the Signpost, from that greatly misunderstood, stalwart defender of the wiki, Mr Kudpung's sandbox:

James Alexander, former Manager of Trust and Safety and long-time employee quietly quits Wikimedia Foundation. Amid much speculation on Wikipedia criticism forum Wikipediocrcy, and nary a word on Wikimedia's WordPress website, Alexander, from whom all mention has been carefully eradicated, has apparently made his exit from the San Francisco office using the back stairs. Wikipediocracy commenter GorillaWarfare, once again an arbitrator on en.Wikipedia, appears to be best informed explains: "Before some folks here get their conspiracy theories out, there wasn't a coup or anything. I really wish the WMF would announce these kinds of changes on the mailing lists before removing the userrights, it would save a lot of wild speculation." Alexander's LinbkedIn page still continues to list him (as of 5 Jannuary) in his WMF capacity.

According to the WMF website the post previously occupied by Alexander is currently filled by contractor Jan Eissdfeld

...which is kinda strange, because, in all his close to 800 years on this planet, Mr Kudpung, "at least, has no interest in following or even visiting (and never has) the Wikipedia criticism and hate sites..."[1]

edit: Mind you, judging from the trypos, he might have sent his associate, 'Disappointing DGG', on a 'reporting' assignment to gather info...

Unread post by **Midsize Jake** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:35 am

They're a little behind - "Sasha" has now updated his Twitter profile with "Incoming: Safety Ops Manager @Twitter/@PeriscopeCo" along with a new photo, and not only that, he's been flooding his personal Twitter feed with photographs of his food - a time-honored tactic, used in this case to force Wikimedia-related tweets so far down the list that they no longer appear on the first page of results. So I guess he really is embarrassed by his employment at the WMF - and really, who could blame him? I certainly would be.

Jim · Unread post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 5:25 am

Midsize Jake wrote:They're a little behind

Well, to be fair to Mr K, the diff I posted is from 2 days ago, so it might not be his little behind that's the problem. The content isn't there now.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:47 pm

Jim wrote:...which is kinda strange, because, in all his close to 800 years on this planet, Mr Kudpung, "at least, has no interest in following or even visiting (and never has) the Wikipedia criticism and hate sites..."

No contradiction. He has a friend who happened to see Wikipediocracy at his cousin's house. (Needless to say, none of his friends follows Wikipediocracy closely.)

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:06 am

Webp.net-resizeimage3.jpg

Currently in the Wikipedia Signpost "next issue" working area. Obviously GorillaWarfare is best informed

, but credit to the editors for getting all the main bits in there, although there's a typo in Jan's photo caption still.

I am not sure how much the back stairs was used here, it seems he waltzed out the front door, I mean even simple-wiki admins knew about it immediately after he left.

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:34 am

From WS:

By Graaf.

I really don't know if and what GorillaWarfare apparently knows more. It is clear outside the control rooms of WMF even by people who are close to that room is not much information. The Alexander farewell topic on WO is now running form Sat Dec 15 on and all we know is James has visit his sister, has cooked a meal and that he is earning around 170K. That is all we know, and the rest is speculation.

What strange is because he was the man with the nuclear key. He was the only one who could intervene in a wiki community by taking someones licence away. Something WMF hates and don't want, and want to keep as far as possible from them because of the legal consequences. That is absolute the reason why office bans are so rare, because they can be extreem dangers for WMF.

This of course is very significant.

Jim · Unread post by **Jim** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:07 pm

The main purpose of Mr. Methuselah mentioning Ms. Warfare in the way that he does there is to connect her name with this-here 'hate-site' to a large audience in the hope that as many people as possible will be horrified to discover that she associates with our gang of 'trolls' and 'haters' - because after all, that's what the Signpost is to him - a way to get in his digs and jabs at his 'enemies' under the umbrella of 'open journalism' - he seethes for ever after any dispute, so there's no way he's forgotten their recent contretemps, or buried any hatchets. He really is an odious little oik, and poisonous too - the only saving grace is that he's so totally inept at it all and provides so much comic relief as he blusters ineffectually along...

Dysklyver · Unread post by **Dysklyver** » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:54 pm

Jim wrote:The main purpose of Mr. Methuselah mentioning Ms. Warfare in the way that he does there is to connect her name with this-here 'hate-site' to a large audience in the hope that as many people as possible will be horrified to discover that she associates with our gang of 'trolls' and 'haters' - because after all, that's what the Signpost is to him - a way to get in his digs and jabs at his 'enemies' under the umbrella of 'open journalism' - he seethes for ever after any dispute, so there's no way he's forgotten their recent contretemps, or buried any hatchets. He really is an odious little oik, and poisonous too - the only saving grace is that he's so totally inept at it all and provides so much comic relief as he blusters ineffectually along...

Anyone can edit the Signpost though, at least until it's published. And since Kudpung is no longer the editor-in-chief, he doesn't have a veto on his preferred version of the story. So G. Warfare can simply remove the attack, provided she notices in time.

Or someone else could... someone who isn't banned... but cares about peaceful encyclopedic harmony. I mean in no way am I asking anyone too or even saying I would do it myself, but someone could.