I had a discussion over the phone with Mr. Brandt this evening, and he
has taken down his "outing" listing of Wikipedia editors and given me
his assurances it will remain down permanently out of respect to the
privacy rights of Wikipedia editors. He has also removed all of
the chat room materials as well, and given me his word it will not be
posted again. I have also has discussions
with SqueakBox on the English Wikipedia and I am going to attempt to
write a neutral article on Daniel, and the other editors seem to
be in agreement.
Daniel has also conceded the fact that he will have to get used to an
article about him being on Wikipedia. He is a very nice and polite
and very intelligent man and is very different in person than his
on-line persona seems to reflect. He has also given permission for
Wikipedia to use any of
the images on his site in support of a neutral article about him.
It appears this long running conflict is coming to an end. Daniel also
understands that until he formaly withdraws his legal threats from
the Foundation, he will remain banned. If and when he withdraws them,
I would recommend a 1 year ban and allowing him to
come back to the site provided he stays away from his bio (same terms I
am under).
With that, the conflict appears to be coming to a conclusion. I ask
everyone to help defuse the situation with Daniel and assist in getting
a throughly sourced and neutral article completed. He will continue
to run the Wikipedia Watch website and post general criticisms of
Wikipedia, which is his right, but he stated he would honor his promises
to us to observe and respect privacy laws and policies on Wikipedia
if we respect his. He has several other requests about his article
which I need to discuss with the other editors. I also think he needs to
apologize to Mr. Wales for his disruptive conduct at some point, but for
now, I think cooling off the situation is prudent. Daniel
has some great ideas and suggestions about improving Wikipedia, and if
folks can get past the personal issues, and really listen to what he has
to say, I think he could be a very positive force for improving the project.
Jeff