Videmus Omnia returned to Wikipedia to post a rather strong essay about the reasons that he left. He had some especially choice words for the actions of Jim62sch, Orangemarlin, JzG, and Jimbo.

FeloniousMonk, Jim62sch, and Orangemarlin have since edit warred to try to remove the essay. Admin attention then occurred. The current page does not contain the essay.

Jim62sch and Orangemarlin are usually very vocal and open about how they feel about things. But, they don't seem able or willing to extend the same courtesy to the editor that they tried, apparently successfully, to order off of Wikipedia because he opposed them in a content dispute. What's with the thin skins fellas?

That's pretty much the same crew who I ran into last August and September.

I dunno if it rises to the tort of off-wiki harassment, but here is the off-wiki message I received from Jim Schuler (User:Jim62sch).

Barry, go take your fucking meds. Haldol might be good.

I frankly have never heard of Haldol. Do you know what it is, and what it's used for?

It's a brand of Haloperidol, used for the treatment of schizophrenia, mania and severe anxiety. It's less sedating than many similar drugs.

Haloperidol is indicated in the management of manifestations of acute and chronic psychosis, including schizophrenia and manic states. It may also be of value in the management of aggressive and agitated behavior in patients with chronic brain syndrome and mental retardation and in the symptomatic control of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome.

It's a brand of Haloperidol, used for the treatment of schizophrenia, mania and severe anxiety. It's less sedating than many similar drugs.

Hrmmm...

I wonder if Jim was projecting when he flashed that remark to me.

Hrmmm...

And I also faced off against the participants in the WikiProject on Intelligent Design, and they unceremoniously showed me to the door as well.

I wonder if there are others besides Videmus Omnia and myself who were similarly treated by that same crowd.

Why I retired

I retired because I was threated with off-wiki action against my real-life livelihood (I'm an active-duty US military member) by User:Jim62sch. See [[Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Jim62sch]]. He was aided and abetted by his admin/cabal-buddies User:Orangemarlin and User talk:JzG. I had initially gone to [Jimbo Wales for help, who told me he would ban Jim62sch, but Jimbo ended up wimping out and being a no-show despite his sincere promises. I'm sure Jimbo is a fine person, and my hat's off to him for helping to found this project, but my experience with him, and the [[Rachel Marsden]] affair, really make me start to believe that the project would be better off without him. I don't know the best way forward - the ArbCom certainly isn't it, given their treatment of Giano and other similar dipshit behavior.

So I left and Jim62sch is still active. <sarc>Wikipedia is a great place.</sarc> Bottom line - if you edit here, cover your ass from Day One, because, in my opinion, folks like Jim62sch will not hesitate to attack you, by whatever method necessary, to win their point in whatever area they are fanatically ideological about. For Jim62sch, it was [[intelligent design]], an obscure topic virtually nobody in real life, aside from fantatic atheists and equally fanatic Christian fundamentalists, really much give a shit about; we intersected because I thought he and his cabal-buddies might be breaching the fair use policies. This initially minor policy disagreement led to a no-holds-barred fight, off-wiki sort-of-blackmail-style threats, and an ArbCom case. My advice - stay the fuck away from controversial articles/policies and let the fanatics on either side fight it out. The challenge of getting involved is not worth the price you might end up paying in real life.

== Apology==
I want to offer a public apology to Sharon ([[User:Phaedriel|Phaedriel]]), who has also apparently retired, with whom I am friends and who designed my previous userpage. Sorry for having the page deleted! When Jim62sch has inevitably been banned from Wikipedia, I will come back and definitely use Sharon's design again.

Firsfron of Ronchester had something of run-in with the ID crowd a while back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Fir...mber_of_reasons

Firsfron of Ronchester had something of run-in with the ID crowd a while back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Fir...mber_of_reasons

Wow. No wonder I perceived them as uncollegial and uncongenial.

They all work together, as they are all signatories on the WikiProject on Intelligent Design.

Yeah, looks like FeloniousMonk can't even abide having VO's essay in the page history...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Carcharoth#VO

I honestly don't see how people like User:Filll, User:Jim63sch, User:OrangeMarlin, User:Carcharoth, and User:FeloniousMonk sleep at night. Do they really think they're doing those of us who really oppose the Intelligent Design "movement" any favors whatsoever, by pursuing these totalitarian-style bullying tactics against people?

They've clearly gained total ascendancy over the entire topic area, which would be fine if all they did was ensure that the articles remained accurate and focused on actual science. Instead, these people are nothing more than reactionary goons and thugs. They're just feeding more ammo to the ID propaganda machine at this point.

I've asked Jim to explain himself on his userpage.

I think the issue of image licensing in Wikipedia, especially fair use, is something that's going to come up again in a big way in the future and deserves some separate discussion.

I've asked Jim to explain himself on his userpage.

BTW, recall that he [VO] dissed as well. I guess drama is good, yes? •Jim62sch•dissera!

I will be interested to learn how Jim explains himself.


Notice the role of 'dissing' in generating drama. The model for this kind of drama is given by Girard, who extracted it from the novels of Dostoevsky.

Elsewhere in Wikipedia, a similar drama among schoolchildren escalated to an even more ominous instance of Girard's Model of competition, conflict, and violence.

I didn't know Firsfron had to put up with Filll's harassment, stalking and personal attacks! Maybe that's why we haven't seen Firsfron around here lately?

That entire incident tells me all I need to know about OM. I know/knew a lot of guys like him; Wikipedia has a lot of those types. VO did a lot of great image work...OM on the other hand is mediocre in every possible way.

I don't feel that's the case at all. I think OM works hard on articles, and he has brought some up to FA status almost single-handedly. I enjoyed collaborating with OM in the past, and never thought of him as mediocre.

I agree. Unfortunately, his civility could sometimes do with more mediocrity, but yes, he has done (and does do) some good work.