Wikipedia's "SanFranBan" list of globally banned users

[Vigilant]

Have things improved since Mr Alexander left?

The WMF is fractally incompetent.

[Vigilant]

Have things improved since Mr Alexander left?

The WMF is fractally incompetent.

They were still right to ban Abd and Giraffe Stapler though.

There's no redeeming value in either one and the project is much better off with them forcibly removed from it.
No loss, big gain from the SanF(r)anBan.

[Dysklyver]

Dear Arthur Kerensa,

This communication is to notify you that the Wikimedia Foundation (Foundation) has globally banned you from Foundation websites and platforms (including but not limited to any site listed at www.wikimedia.org, mailing lists hosted by the Foundation, Wikimedia Cloud Services, and the Wikimedia blog) as well as any in-person events sponsored or funded by the Foundation including any events hosted by Wikimedia Affiliates using funds from the Foundation.

You accordingly may not participate in, edit, contribute, or otherwise modify any content on those sites, platforms, or lists. This ban is placed against you personally, not against a particular username. It applies to any alternate accounts that you may control and any accounts you may create in the future.Furthermore, you may not participate as an anonymous user (“as an IP user”).

We understand that this communication may be surprising and difficult to read, and we regret the necessity. We are taking this action due to the concern of the safety of our users and the integrity of the projects, and in compliance with the WMF Global ban policy. Based on our review, we determined that you engaged in behavior that violates our Terms of Use, section 4. We have received multiple credible complaints regarding your disruptive behaviour which we feel on review requires this action.

As part of this process, your username will be listed as a globally banned user here :https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of ... nned_users. Our normal practice is that only this account ban information will be made public while other information communicated to you in this notice will not be published elsewhere. If necessary for the defense of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia projects, Wikimedia users, or the public, the Foundation reserves the right to later publish this information.

Under some circumstances, you have the option to appeal with the Case Review Committee. You can read more about this process here: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_a ... _Committee>. The role of the case review committee is to provide an opportunity for a second review by community members. If the case review committee does view your case as eligible, they have direct access to our investigation documentation for review. While we regret that we are unable to provide any evidence around this investigation beyond the information provided here, you have an opportunity to reach out to the case review committee if you wish for this type of review.

Sincerely,

Trust & Safety Team

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special ... _Dysklyver

Aw shucks...

[Vigilant]

Well, now that you and the swivel eyed loon are both SanFranBanned, when are we to expect the announcement of your impending marriage?

[Beeblebrox]

Actually kind of interesting to see the email they send when a ban is enacted, I hadn't seen that before.
Section four of the TOU seems to be the standard explanation for all office bans, which isn't surprising as section four is just a list of possible things that can get you office banned, the TLDR version is

*Harassing and Abusing Others

*Violating the Privacy of Others

*Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

*Committing Infringement

*Paid contributions without disclosure

Full text:

4. Refraining from Certain Activities
The Projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation only exist because of the vibrant community of users like you who collaborate to write, edit, and curate the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make edits and contributions aimed at furthering the mission of the shared Project.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on our sites. These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others
Engaging in harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; and
Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.
Violating the Privacy of Others
Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United States of America or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
Soliciting personally identifiable information for purposes of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, or any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the Wikimedia Foundation; and
Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.
Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud
Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation;
With the intent to deceive, posting content that is false or inaccurate;
Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
Engaging in fraud.
Committing Infringement
Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under applicable law.
Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes
Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography;
Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.
Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities
Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of our users;
Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services and have not been approved by the Wikimedia community;
Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on a Project website or the networks or servers connected with a Project website;
Disrupting the services by inundating any of the Project websites with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the Project website for its stated purpose;
Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization; and
Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks unless all the following conditions are met:
such actions do not unduly abuse or disrupt our technical systems or networks;
such actions are not for personal gain (except for credit for your work);
you report any vulnerabilities to MediaWiki developers (or fix it yourself); and
you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.

Paid contributions without disclosure
These Terms of Use prohibit engaging in deceptive activities, including misrepresentation of affiliation, impersonation, and fraud. As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways:
a statement on your user page,
a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.
Applicable law, or community and Foundation policies and guidelines, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure.
A Wikimedia Project community may adopt an alternative paid contribution disclosure policy. If a Project adopts an alternative disclosure policy, you may comply with that policy instead of the requirements in this section when contributing to that Project. An alternative paid contribution policy will only supersede these requirements if it is approved by the relevant Project community and listed in the alternative disclosure policy page.

[Dysklyver]

Well, now that you and the swivel eyed loon are both SanFranBanned, when are we to expect the announcement of your impending marriage?

I married someone else already (ironically just before Covid ), guess he's right out of luck.

Actually kind of interesting to see the email they send when a ban is enacted, I hadn't seen that before.
Section four of the TOU seems to be the standard explanation for all office bans, which isn't surprising as section four is just a list of possible things that can get you office banned, the TLDR version is

*Harassing and Abusing Others

*Violating the Privacy of Others

*Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

*Committing Infringement

*Paid contributions without disclosure

Full text:

4. Refraining from Certain Activities
The Projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation only exist because of the vibrant community of users like you who collaborate to write, edit, and curate the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make edits and contributions aimed at furthering the mission of the shared Project.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on our sites. These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others
Engaging in harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; and
Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.
Violating the Privacy of Others
Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United States of America or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
Soliciting personally identifiable information for purposes of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, or any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the Wikimedia Foundation; and
Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.
Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud
Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation;
With the intent to deceive, posting content that is false or inaccurate;
Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
Engaging in fraud.
Committing Infringement
Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under applicable law.
Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes
Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography;
Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.
Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities
Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of our users;
Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services and have not been approved by the Wikimedia community;
Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on a Project website or the networks or servers connected with a Project website;
Disrupting the services by inundating any of the Project websites with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the Project website for its stated purpose;
Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization; and
Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks unless all the following conditions are met:
such actions do not unduly abuse or disrupt our technical systems or networks;
such actions are not for personal gain (except for credit for your work);
you report any vulnerabilities to MediaWiki developers (or fix it yourself); and
you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.

Paid contributions without disclosure
These Terms of Use prohibit engaging in deceptive activities, including misrepresentation of affiliation, impersonation, and fraud. As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways:
a statement on your user page,
a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.
Applicable law, or community and Foundation policies and guidelines, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure.
A Wikimedia Project community may adopt an alternative paid contribution disclosure policy. If a Project adopts an alternative disclosure policy, you may comply with that policy instead of the requirements in this section when contributing to that Project. An alternative paid contribution policy will only supersede these requirements if it is approved by the relevant Project community and listed in the alternative disclosure policy page.

Honestly, it's slightly disappointing they didn't specify what exactly they banned me for. Not because I did nothing wrong, but because I did so much wrong I can't guess at which particular reason it might be. I believe that unless the ban was for off-wiki activity, or pestering people in real life, then it would have been for something I did between 2006 and 2018, as I have not substantially interacted with their websites for some time now.

[Vigilant]

Well, now that you and the swivel eyed loon are both SanFranBanned, when are we to expect the announcement of your impending marriage?

I married someone else already (ironically just before Covid ), guess he's right out of luck.

That is EXTREEM disappointe!!

[Poetlister]

Honestly, it's slightly disappointing they didn't specify what exactly they banned me for. Not because I did nothing wrong, but because I did so much wrong I can't guess at which particular reason it might be. I believe that unless the ban was for off-wiki activity, or pestering people in real life, then it would have been for something I did between 2006 and 2018, as I have not substantially interacted with their websites for some time now.

Maybe it's for the whole aggregate.

[TNT]

Wotcha Dysklyver, good to see you're still about! You wouldn't happen to be up to your old tricks on a certain communication platform lately would you?

Scouts honour I won't tell


Also it's a good job my signature clears my good name eh.

[Bezdomni]

I married someone else already.

Congratulations!

It's slightly disappointing they didn't specify what exactly they banned me for. Not because I did nothing wrong, but because I did so much wrong I can't guess at which particular reason it might be. I believe that unless the ban was for off-wiki activity, or pestering people in real life, then it would have been for something I did between 2006 and 2018, as I have not substantially interacted with their websites for some time now.

So in your view this may just be due to the abnormally long arm of the WMF, which permits it to know about and punish off-wiki shenanigans? Did you slip a laxative in the KoolAid at a MoveCom social or something? Very mysterious... one day a disembodied cat head appears on our forum and the next thing we know, you're as SanFranbanned as Colin Kaepernick.

Do you think this will substantially affect your life?

[tarantino]

Very mysterious... one day a disembodied cat head appears on our forum and the next thing we know, you're as SanFranbanned as Colin Kaepernick.

Not to be confused with this disembodied cat head, who's a journalist for RT.

[Poetlister]

I prefer this disembodied head.

[TNT]

Very mysterious... one day a disembodied cat head appears on our forum and the next thing we know, you're as SanFranbanned as Colin Kaepernick.

Oh if I had that kind of pull I'd be raking in those WMF grants!

Though to be fair, 11.11% of my posts were to A Den Jentyl Ettien Avel Dysklyver, spooky stuff.

[Dysklyver]

[...] So in your view this may just be due to the abnormally long arm of the WMF, which permits it to know about and punish off-wiki shenanigans? Did you slip a laxative in the KoolAid at a MoveCom social or something? [...]

The WMF has short puny arms... I would say. I spent time directly annoying their staff on their IRC channel, I complained to the devs so much they stopped talking to me, I talked to their grant department in a negative manner, I engaged in undisclosed paid editing for state-actors, and I circumvented multiple bans and blocks to work on many different articles and projects on the WMF sites.

In short it's impossible to know what they have put down internally as the pressing reason for this ban.

Do you think this will substantially affect your life?

Alas I can't think of any way being slightly more banned from a website I've been permanently banned from for many years will affect me.

Wotcha Dysklyver, good to see you're still about! You wouldn't happen to be up to your old tricks on a certain communication platform lately would you?

Scouts honour I won't tell


Also it's a good job my signature clears my good name eh.

You know it.

[Bezdomni]

I engaged in undisclosed paid editing for state-actors, [...]

Were these state actors more like the Vatican, Westeros, or the Virgin Islands? Did they pay as well as transnationals in your experience?

Any comment about these latest proxy blocking measures?