[Wikipedia-l] Perl

[Tim Starling]

Anthere wrote:
> Today, aplank deleted a collection of pages on meta.
> 
> See http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta%3ADeletion_log
> 
> The deletion policy on meta states that pages should
> stay between 15 to 30 days listed on vfd before being
> deleted. The long delay time is due to the fact users
> do not come to meta as often that they come to local
> wikipedia, so are given more time to react.

Some readers of this list may be confused as to why some people consider 
this to be such a big deal. Perhaps some background on Perl would help.

Perl is a user who has been obssessed with sysopship and other forms of 
status since shortly after he joined Wikipedia. He makes many good 
contributions under one name, and applies for sysopship, and then when 
his bad reputation starts catching up with him, he switches names and 
tries again. So far he has done this 4 times. He has contributed as 
Aplank, Greenmountainboy, Sennheiser, NASA and Perl. When confronted as 
a new identity with allegations that he is another Alex Plank 
reincarnation, he strongly denies it, but when evidence is presented, he 
admits it and expresses remorse. For some of us, these expressions of 
remorse seem shallow, considering the number of times he has repeated 
his behaviour. However Perl does have his supporters. People point out 
that his most recent reincarnation has done lots of good work, and that 
perhaps we should forgive. Despite this, his most recent request for 
adminship on en was easily voted down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=2907208#Perl

The root cause of Perl's bad reputation is the actions he performed as 
his initial identity, Aplank/Alexandros. He removed adverse comments 
about himself, he did something controversial at Mother Theresa which 
offended some people (not sure what exactly), and he "vandalised" Adam 
Carr's user page.  Personally I have found his behaviour rash and 
impulsive, so I wouldn't trust him with sysop access.

Here are some of his previous sysopship applications. Note that during 
the course of the Greenmountainboy and Sennheiser applications, his 
identity was exposed, and some refactoring occurred.

As Aplank/Alexandros:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=1649846#Aplank
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=1749367#user:alexandros
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=1819934#Alexandros
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=1848760#Alexandros
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=1958091#Alexandros

There was also one on the French Wikipedia:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Administrateur&oldid=315106#Aplank

As Greenmountainboy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=2122627#Green_Mountain

As Sennheiser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=2395599#alexandros

As Perl:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=2906811#Perl_(3/6/1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&oldid=3022534#Perl;_(1/4/0)_ends_00:40_9_April_2004

The Perl identity was exposed before the first adminship request. Perl 
requested sysop access on the inactive Maori Wikipedia, which I happily 
granted him, not knowing at that time who he was. Then he requested 
developer access. I received a tip-off, checked the logs, and, in a very 
angry state, posted the result to IRC. At Angela's request, I didn't 
desysop him.

Anyway, it suprised some of us when Perl requested sysop access on
Wikibooks, and it was approved with two people supporting (Mav and 
Theresa) and none against. But it's only wikibooks, it's no big deal. 
Then Mav gave him sysop access on meta. While stricly speaking this is 
allowed by policy, it seems to be against the majority opinion, at least 
on the English Wikipedia.

I'd like to request that Perl be desysopped on meta, and that the policy 
be changed to require more stringent controls on who becomes a sysop there.

-- Tim Starling