I meant simply to observe that there was never any real anonymity issue with Corbett since he never made any real effort to hide his identity. To suggest as some have, but not Carol at any rate in the post I was responding to, that he was taking advantage of a cloak of anonymity to make uncivil attacks thus seems to me quite far off the mark. If I had been making a more considered response, I might also have noted that editors, even when they take great care to protect their anonymity, may very well not really be genuinely anonymous in the sense that their editing is known to their immediate circle, if only the missus and the cat (and of course meet-up acquaintances ...). It's quite something, don't you think, that an editor who finds himself controversially involved in a debate about his civility in relation to the Wikipedia's Gender Gap Task Force, should have begun his editing career with  a monniker Malleus Fatuarum which means "hammer of stupid women". I dare say this has been the subject of some commentary and I'm happy, for one, to accept Corbett at his word that he knows sweet fuckorum about Latin grammar (the stupid cuntum ...): nevertheless the suspicion surely must arise that perhaps he was playing to some unacknowledged and quietly appreciative gallery all that time?

I'm not unsympathetic to Corbett. I think he's rather fine to tell the truth in an awful sort of way as they say, but quaintly flawed I would nicely add.

On December 1, 2014 at 1:46 PM Katherine Casey <fluffernutter.wiki@gmail.com> wrote:

I am really not comfortable with this list being used to host or organize opposition research or commentary against individual editors. I understand that people are angry about the disposition of this case (and I agree that it was pretty craptastic), but taking it as an opportunity to delve into and opine on the real lives of those on the "other side" is as much personalizing the dispute as anything else that happened in this case (and is unattractively similar to doxxing-style intimidation in my mind, even if you don't propose to explicitly list addresses or phone numbers). Speaking as someone who has had similar done to me because in the other person's mind I was wrong, evil, corrupt, etc: it's not any righter when we do it because we think "I'm good and they're bad" than when someone else does it to us because they think they're "good" and we're "bad".

-Fluffernutter

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 3:51 PM, marinka marinkavandam.com <marinka@marinkavandam.com> wrote:

I'm new to this mailing list, so I may not be doing this right. Please let me know if I'm not. I wish to make a response to Carol's remarks on anonymity.

I don't propose to doxx Corbett here, but I don't think there was ever any problem about his identity even when he was editing under the monniker Malleus Fatuorum ("hammer of men" - but originally it it was Malleus Fatuarum, "hammer of women"). His first few edits are classical in nature and then there is a hiatus of several months after which he resumes again and commences his familiar program of edits centered around his local history and things Northern in the UK. Should one have wished to identify him then, it really shouldn't have been difficult even in those early days. And of course he subsequently made, earlier this year, a remark about a dreadful family tragedy which certainly does serve to identify him should anyone wish to research it.

My experience of life is that sexist men are generally unaware of their trait, would indignantly deny it if put to them, and thus don't necessarily feel the need to remain anonymous.

What I find interesting about Corbett is his lack of notability when you go searching for him. Other than a couple of Amazon reviews (which appear to be his based on the subjects reviewed) I can't find a single blog, article or any other resource authored by him with a single exception pertaining to a charitable fund his family and associates  appear to have set up (for the welfare of ferrets). Otherwise the world outside Wikipedia is silent on him, and he in that wider world. 

I confess myself quite curious about Corbett and his Manchester circle, and not merely within the context of Wikipedia's gender gap but within the broader context of exercising power, and for that reason I am  making a preliminary study of his editing history with a view to discovering how he came to achieve his position of dominance in Wikipedia. If I have anything significant to say about that, I shall upload it to my website and let the list know. I don't expect that will be before next Spring,

Marinka van Dam (a pseudonym)

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