[WikiEN-l] Missed Opportunities to have avoided the Durova Case

[Alec Conroy]

On 11/27/07, Durova <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> wrote:
> Confirmation bias is a dangerous thing.  Extraordinary claims require
> extraordinary evidence.

What is it you think I'm claiming that you haven't already admitted?

If you think I'm saying you're a bad person or have nefarious
intentions or some secret conspiracy (aside from the formerly secret
conspiracy to protect wikipedia from trolls)-- you're wrong.   I'm not
suggesting you had some sort of ulterior motive in blocking !!--  I
totally believe you legitimately believed he was a sleeper sock.  I
have nothing bad to say about you as a person.

As far as I know, all I'm alleging is what's already been admitted.
The fact is-- the "secret evidence" and "secret lists" are very very
controversial.  Wikipedia has long been subjected to criticisms of
"hivemindedness", "cliquishness" and "cabalness".  Until a few days
ago, the idea that there was a group of editors performing secret
investigations, weighing secret evidence, and coordinating their
opinions-- it was a joke.  A crackpot conspiracy theory.  Nobody
really believed trusted Wikipedians would get together for organized
"sleuthing", swapping "secret evidence" and reaching "secret verdicts"
about who is to be blocked.  Nobody seriously believed that would ever
happen.

Except...  it happened.

The secret mailing list is a huge blow.. a huge blow.  It really was a
betrayal of trust.  The community genuinely believed these sorts of
lists didn't really exist, they trusted the leadership to not engage
practices like this.

And now that it's come out, you're danged right people are going to
insist on knowing who was involved.  Youv'e seen for yourself how
seriously the community takes this issue-- and there's no laughing it
off as the trollings of ED-lovers this time.

This siege-mentality militia  is destroying the encyclopedia.  It has
caused more drama and more distraction than anything else in the
history of the encyclopedia.  Let's run down the list of how much the
little "militia" has cost us in terms of time and effort and drama:

* The original MONGO case and the ED links purging
* The BADSITES policy dispute
* The NPA#EL policy dispute
* The Attack Sites Arbcom case.
* The Desysopping of MONGO and the whole arbcom case that led up to it
* The purging of Making Lights
* The purging of Michael Moore
* The purging of Don Murphy
* The dispute that tried to ban even the mere MENTION of ASM
* The purging of Robert Black links
* The purging of any questions, even good faith ones, involving the
slashdot article on SV
* MONGO's edit-warring NPA#EL into being policy
* MONGO, JzG, and others' habit of accusing anyone who disagrees with
them of working for WR or ED.
* The banning of !!
* The revelation of "secret evidence" and "secret mailings lists"
* The RFC on you, and your resigning.
* The Arbcom case that's still ongoing.

How long is this gonna go on?  Your posse of overzealous defenders is
doing more to disrupt the project and destroy user trust and faith
than all the vandals in the world ever could.   I know you're doing it
out of the goodness of your heart, I know you're doing it out of a
desire to be protective.....

But you're hurting the project, and ya'll need to stop.  Go read the
RFC if you don't believe me-- the consensus that the "militia" is
hurting the project is there, and had the RFC continued, it would have
just gotten more and more opinions that the siege mentality is the
wrong direction for the project.

Alec