Wrong. They also forced 4chan.org to shut down. They forced CowboyNeal to delete ALL his comments from his talk page. They have a last measure script. They caused a kerfuffle when they released fake OS X 10.4 screenshots. They are a regular pain in the neck on Slashdot.org. Heck, these guys have their own IRC server! They COORDINATE their attacks. I think the fact that they shut down a site to be VERY significant.
I don't like them, but these guys are notable.
Ta bu shi da yu
Charles Fulton wrote:
My question stands: just how many times are we doing to list the dratted page before we give up entirely? You speak of "disrupting Wikipedia to make a point" - how exactly is the listing on VfD 5 times by various users who are offended by the GNAA not violating this principle?!
Well, it's been listed four times by my count--surely we aren't counting May 1st, which occurred during the first VfD debate. As far as I know, it has not been repeatedly listed by the same person, group, or cabal (Tony Sidaway admits he had no idea that it had been listed so many times, and I see you've pestered him on his talk page about that). What this suggests to me is that a number of people found the group--and the article--troubling enough to merit deletion. I don't regard that as disruption to make a point.
When it was up back in late September/early October, I suggested that it be merged with Slashdot trolling phenomena, and I would still endorse such a measure. That's because they're a footnote, nothing more. I mean, are we really writing an encyclopedic article about the exploits of a trolling group? Who's verifying the information? Is this original research? What value or utility is there to chronicle the efforts of such a group? I mean, the bums haven't even been threatened with legal action, I don't think.
I truly do not regard the GNAA as notable enough for their own article. So they've crapflooded a server or three, trolled Slashdot, and raised hell on VfD. Big deal, anyone can do that. We give them an article, we have to have an article on every half-assed sockpuppet army that attacks VfD. That's not a precedent I like much.
-Charles Fulton