[WikiEN-l] Another "BADSITES" controversy

[The Mangoe]

On 5/31/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Then DennyColt turned up with the proposal. It was worded a little
> hysterically, but it basically described what the de facto policy was.
> But then a bunch of people who post to these sites (WR and
> Encyclopedia Dramatica) turned up -- led by Squeakbox and Mangoe,
> judging by the top posters on talk
> http://vs.aka-online.de/cgi-bin/wppagehiststat.pl -- who didn't want
> it to be written policy, and they started kicking up a fuss.

Just so we have this straight: I didn't join WR until 9 April, 3 days
after this flap started. The only reason why I even noticed it was
that I keep Expert retention on my watchlist.

> We'll probably never know whether he was a strawman sock or just so
> clueless politically that he ended up looking smart and Machiavellian.

I'm voting for "clueless enough". And the paranoia level behind the
Machiavellian interpretation is a strain on the nerves. I mean, let's
see, here's another theory: that someone in The Cabal did it on the
theory that if it worked, it worked, and if it failed, it could be
blamed on the Nasty WR-ites. Come on: the whole thing is just too
paranoid. It's a lot easier to explain DennyColt's actions as those of
someone who thought he knew more about what was going on than he
actually knew.

These theories of what newbies would or would not do are worthless.
Looking back at my first efforts, I see that I split an article,
merged an article, and put something up for AfD in my first 50 edits.
I suppose that shows that I am a sockpuppet. Feh.