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
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org