These users were actually the reason why I requested ops in #wikinews :P. If I'd had it at the time, they'd have been banned; they were disruptive and belligerent (typical 12-14 year olds really). I'll note that I was told after the fact via PM that these users have been disruptive on various wiki-related IRCs in the past (I don't remember who told me).
 
From my point of view TahR78 was initially rude and abrupt when he was informing us of the "error" on Wikinews (though that could be caused by a language barrier. It's hard to tell in a chat). There was no problem with Wikinews - only with his understanding of the information on the page in question - but even if there had been a problem, there is a right way to ask for help and a wrong way, and he didn't choose the right way. When someone approaches you with an attitude that is equal parts whining and entitled, it's hard to give them a fair hearing (or reading in this case;-)). But while using a nice tone of voice (...of type? heh) would have been helpful, the lack of that was ultimately not what ticked me off. No, what I thought crossed the line was his "bugging" of the channel with his 2 friend's accounts, so that he could listen in after he quit the channel. Nothing significant was said, but still, it annoyed me. IMO that isn't appropriate behaviour.
 
Also, I thought NeoAmsterdam's comment was kind of funny, when taken in the context of his IRC nick:-).
 
gopher65

From: Jon Davis
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 8:50 PM
To: Wikinews mailing list
Cc: TahR78
Subject: Re: [Wikinews-l] Fwd: Wikinews e-mail about IRC complaining

Wow.  Talk about a speedy email about this topic.  This conversation started August 20th, 2009 @ 05:19 PST (12:19 UTC?).

If the group is curious, I can provided a full copy of the chat transcript, but after reading...this is a non issue.  The user in question (Tahr78) who I'm CC'ing (out of the kindness of my heart) was having... difficulties.

He was extremely insistent that our maps were broken, and that there was no other explanation.  NeoAmsterdam and Gopher65 attempted to explain to the user that the maps seemed to be working correctly, that the maps were not country/continent average temperatures (I guess the Netherlands is so small they dont bother giving people the weather other than the national average temp?!) and that the tooltips showed that the temperature in question was for East Midlands, England and not the Netherlands. Apparently the users tooltips were not working, and that's Wikinews's fault.  When NeoAmsterdam explained that this wasn't our fault, the user threw a tantrum.

At this point the conversation goes way down hill with the user repeatedly quitting and re-joining the channel.  Right after he quits the first time, he gets his "friend" to join the channel under the username "Olivier_Bommel".  The user (along with his friend) continue tossing in bits of commentary here or there and generally being a pain in the ass

After a bit of this on & off, we get to the "threat". Since the user is accusing NeoAmsterdam of making threats over IRC, I'm pulling out the 4 lines of relevant text here for everyone:
(6:26:46 AM) NeoAmsterdam: Since you insist, TahR78, I'll say it:
(6:26:46 AM) NeoAmsterdam: The Dutch were fools for surrendering New Amsterdam so quickly to the English.
(6:26:46 AM) NeoAmsterdam: There.  I've said it.  I feel better.
(6:26:46 AM) NeoAmsterdam: ^_^

In short, there was no threatening behavior going on.  NeoAmsterdam did nothing wrong in my book in handling this user.  In fact, if I had been the one on, I would have ban hammered both TahR78 and his friend Olivier_Bommel from the channel for being disruptive.

-Jon

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 17:14, Patrick Mannion <patrick.mannion@gmail.com> wrote:
Dunno why I got this, I hardly hang out on the IRC channel, but nontheless something for you guys to look at...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: TahR78 <tahrim_ramdjan@planet.nl>
Date: Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Subject: Wikinews e-mail about IRC complaining
To: TUFKAAP <patrick.mannion@gmail.com>


Hi Tufkaap,

Im sorry for disturbing you in this late hour (in where i live, Europe, it is now night). I want to complain about an user on IRC, he is much on it. Lets start with the story:

So, i and friends were looking because we were bored, one of my friends said that he found a weather map of Europe. We were going to watch, it was a Celsius map, but it wasnt right. So we joined the IRC channel of Wikinews and we were going to report it. First time nobody reacted, second time also nobody. Thirth time finally somebody was waken up and listened to us. I just nice said ''Hey, there's a kind of fault in this template''. The user i've spoken to, NeoAmsterdam, didnt appreciate that very much. He said to me on a not so nice way that i have to look better, because it are airports. It would stand on a tooltip. Well, tooltips doesnt work on this computer on that day, so i made him that clear. Than everybody said something and, NeoAmsterdam also said that he thinks that the Dutch were stupid to give New Amsterdam to the British.

When he said that, i thought he was going to hurt me, but he didnt. First of all, i cant fix it that New York isnt now New Amsterdam, so dont blame me that and second, it doesnt touch me, because i am born in Holland, but my parents come from a whole other country. I leaved the channel, but friends were still on the channel and said me that they were talking bad about me.

Well, i am not hurt, no, i could even laugh about what NeoAmsterdam said. I am experienced with wiki's, i have a account on the Dutch Wikipedia as well, and have crossuser on, so i can log in on every Wikimedia wiki. But i have also experience on other wiki's like from Wikia. I know this isnt the usual way, im sorry for that, but i donk think this is a nice way to explain things to (new) users on Wikinews, especially foreigners. Also when you are talking bad about a newbie on a wiki, that isnt the right thing i think?

(Why i choosen you is because when i said on the IRC channel some days ago, somebody prefered you. Hope you dont mind my bad English, because i am not so old (11, 12 years) and still Dutch, so i am not a very expert in English. Hope you understand this situation, maybe i made a big thing of it but just wanted to say this.. Only time when i contributed to Wikinews was with a article about the attack on the Dutch queen, no more).

Sorry for the long mail and disturbing you, but i just wanted this to say. Please note that it is a long time ago when this happened, you will be surprised why i send this mail NOW, well, its simple: i didnt have any time. I have also accounts on other much internet communities. There were more people at that IRC conversation but i can only remember NeoAmsterdam.

Greetings from TahR78
----
Want to send a reaction, you can mail this email adress back or leave a note on my dutch Wikipedia talk page, my name there is also TahR78, however i dont prefer that because it isnt necessary to tell every Dutch Wikipedians about this story.

--
This e-mail was sent by TahR78 to TUFKAAP by the "E-mail user" function at Wikinews.



--
Autism is both a gift and a curse at the same time; But I think of it as a gift.

_______________________________________________
Wikinews-l mailing list
Wikinews-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l




--
Jon
[[User:ShakataGaNai]]
http://snowulf.com/ - Blog
http://snowulf.imagekind.com/ - Pictures
This has been a test of the emergency sig system.  

_______________________________________________
Wikinews-l mailing list
Wikinews-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l