I received the following email last night from someone signing as "AB":


Now we cannot be sure of the manner in which JzG or Guy Chapman did or did not "express concern" about my Google Internet Profile (GIP) and operating by way of a masked internuncio would of course provide him with the maximum cover in the way of Plausible Deniabilityâ„¢, the well-known Wikipedia sugar substitute for Truth.

Jonny

Despite no quarter being requested, if I give you a Florida state quarter, will you take it?

Here is how I replied to the person signing as "AB":

CODE

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Subj: Re: Your Google Profile
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:02:08 -0500
From: Jon Awbrey <…>
  To: AB <…>

Thanx, AB, but I would consider it cowardly and dishonorable
to accept any quarter that is not universally granted to all
combatants.  In the mean time I regard my discommendation by
Wikipedia as a Red Badge Of Courage and I wear it with pride.

Jon Awbrey

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Why, thank you for the genuous token of your no doubt ♥felt appreciation — and yes, of course, I presently see no harm or dishonor in accepting it, under the same conditions that I stipulated above.

Jonny

Perhaps Worf accidentally revealed his true identity, presumably trapped in one of those trip back in time, slingshot around the sun episodes. Certainly Living in the Same Space-Time Continuum in a Similar Way.

Cue rehashing of schoolboy Klingon jokes.

Yes, it's true, Luke, AB and I are living in [address redacted] in a simian way.

Jonny

Did I just see some tumbleweed fly past?

Woo-e-e-e-eeeee

Jonny "Il Cattivo" Cache

I dunno how two people can be living in a similar way when one is in the Central Time Zone and one is in the Pacific Time Zone.

Not to mention the the idiosyncracy of one typing short lines with plain words and one typing long lines with fancy words.

See this classic thread.

Yet another email signed by yet another or perhaps the same "AB":


Don't know much about googleography, much less s'fearical trigonometry, but I'm guessing that the UTC is where the Googlemaul Server of the moment lives, not the Sender.

But never you mind all that, as any WikiΦøøl can plainly see that the AB of the moment spells "recognise" in a similar way to our old friend AB, and so it must be she.

Still, let us table for the Time Being our motley crue of commedious pixellations and incidental e-musements and consider the more serious Real World implications of the exchanges before us.

Jonny

It's only a token if you can use it to get on the subway... and that unfortunately costs a lot more than a quarter these days.

Your Google Account Settings include a setting for the user's time zone, and this setting is inherited by Google Mail.

It would seem odd if the sender's time zone setting on their Google login switched from US Pacific Time to UTC overnight.

Well, to be honest, I'd say AB has a fairly valid point here. Generally speaking, WP should blank the user pages of banned users who have registered on WP using their real names.

Of course, if MediaWiki were a sophisticated piece of software, it would be able to:

1. Hide such pages from search engines by simply flagging the specific page.

2. Hide such pages from anyone who isn't logged in by simply flagging the specific page.

3. Allow for special "Auto-Include" pages (presumably sub-pages of the main user page) that would be hidden from non-admins but included in the main user page if they exist, to show "evidence" against banned users only to admins (though I realize they can't be trusted to any degree - I'm just throwing out ideas here).

4. Know intuitively, using advanced AI algortihms, that Mr. Cache here has more personal integrity than all WP admins combined.

I realize that last one will be rather difficult to pull off, but the first three... How hard can it be? We know these things are feasible, they just won't do them.

Well three different thoughts come to mind:

* Why is AB, who feels harmed and threatened by Wikipedia apparently having a rational discourse with Guy, not exactly known for his tender, caring view of the world?

* Why is Guy interested in Jon?

* Why does AB's post come across as passing on the message of a real world threat of intimidation? (Ah, the old Wikipedia paranoia is never far from our minds).

AB sees Guy as a generally good person and has talked to him before on friendly terms. Guy also doesn't treat her the way he would treat many of us if we tried talking to him.

To that I cannot say but the old truth Sun Tzu laid forth still holds true: "Deception is the tao of battle."

Of one thing I am fairly confident...

Things are not as they seem to be.

I continue to receive emails from a person or persons unknown signing as "AB", though I have not replied and do not intend to reply any further than what you see above.

There was no ambiguity about my rejection of the initial "offer", so I do not see the reason for these further communications.

Future emails from this Sender will be deleted unopened.

Jonny

I wonder if this "offer" would apply to "almost" real names -- such as User:Thekohser, or User:Wikipedia Review. These user names are similarly defamed at or near the top of Google searches.

Indeed, SlimVirgin a while back helped to oversight the Wikipedia Review user page from Wikipedia. It was, if I recall, about three or four weeks before some other Wikipediot had restored the sockpuppet emblems to the page.

Now, I can't remember if I "brought on that retaliation myself" by socking again -- but, sorry, when stuff like Carolyn Doran happens, there's just no keeping one of my socks off of Jimbo's talk page. It just wasn't gonna happen. So, if I "deserve" this eternal epitaph of revenge, so be it.

Greg

As e-musing as the whole amnæsty bizness has been so far, I have no choice but to treat the entire series of strangely distractive e-mauls as something between a hoax and a virus — I begin to suspect a neφarious vendetta of some kind on the part of that Scarlette WikiPimpernelle, DaFonz DaWikiaire.

Jonny

What surfaces for me in the two preceding posts is that whatever is going on, it doesn't rise to the level of professionalism that one would expect of a respectable encyclopedia.

But it does rise to the expectations of a dramaturgical game site.