[WikiEN-l] Rather surprising outburst on VfD this morning

[Andrew Gray]

On 27/06/05, James Gibbon <wikipedia at jamesgibbon.com> wrote:

> But I was amazed to read a long-winded and detailed reply to a
> comment I'd made in a vote for deletion page (for the
> "Division_Street" article). In it, its author, who doesn't appear to
> be a member but uses the IP address 65.182.172.95, alleges that I am
> engaged in "wilful incomprehension" and "dirty net politics, a petty

I was reading 1980s Usenet posts yesterday. I'd just like to say how
wonderfully retro the phrase "net politics" seems... ;-)

> The comment which to which this was a response was a fairly
> innocuous and genuinely sincere remark on my part, to the effect
> that I was unable to establish the notability of the subject of his
> article. It's perfectly true that the author represents in the piece
> that it is notable, but I'm afraid I have already seen more than one
> article which makes this claim falsely; I just don't have the
> cultural background to judge this. My comment was not even a vote
> for deletion, only a note to say that the article should be
> rewritten if it was indeed notable, otherwise it should be deleted.

Fairly standard VfD comment, by the looks of it. I think you took his
ire through being the last commentor on the page.

> Anyway the VfD page is obviously still there for anyone who's
> interested to see it. When the software upgrade is complete and the
> page is unlocked, I will respond as calmly and unemotionally as
> possible.

Just remember; he's the one being a prat. You've no dog in this fight;
if you want to ignore it, the only person disappointed in you will be
him...

> A couple of questions, then: can anyone tell me who this person is?
> Does he have a history of this sort of thing?

The IP address tells you nothing beyond "well, he's probably in
Chicago". The writing style says "irritable American male", but this
only narrows it down to one and a half million suspects if I know
Chicago ;-)

For history; see
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=65.182.172.95
- edits to a few Chicago-related articles, confrontational style, no
history beyond the last day. He also seems to have been
User:65.182.172.86, and before that 65.182.172.89... hmm. There's some
evident disputes in that history, but damned if I know why he was on
your case. Doesn't seem to like the idea of policy, much, and has an
odd idea of cleanup tags, which are clearly the product of a "bruised
ego" (!)

Goodness, poking around conflicts is like getting your very own soap
opera sometimes. Impossible to stop.

I honestly think your best bet is to shrug and ignore it. These things
happen. VfD and the more contentious talk pages can be quite daunting
when you're new to the system (and indeed even when you're not; I
stopped regularly reading VfD months ago, it was just irritating me)

> It does smell more
> than faintly of paranoia, I have to say. Is this sort of behaviour
> common in general at Wikipedia?

People will often get very... enthusiastic in defending pages on VfD;
they created it, so *of course* it's notable! I have no idea why he
fixed on you, though; perhaps he has history with a user of a similar
name? A lot of Jameses about.

Note that he tries to make VfD into a cause celebré; by deleting his
article we'll show the world what foul childish censors we are, and
he'll... he'll... send a copy to people who don't like the project, so
they can not like us *more*! That'll show 'em! ...of course it will.

Any questions in future, feel free to drop me a message on my talk
page, and I'll see if I can be of assistance.

> It's been a bit of an eye-opener!
> 
> Thanks and regards from the middle of England,

Enjoy your seasonal rains...

-- 
- Andrew Gray
 [[User:Shimgray]]
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk