Icewhiz, who in the view of the wikishits, is rightfully globally banned, someone whose "unique combination of deep knowledge and total lack of integrity made him an extremely dangerous editor" and who has caused "real harm to real people", is also Eostrix, who this week was on the verge of becoming a Wikipedia Administrators after a cake walk of an interview process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... ip/Eostrix
He was stopped in his tracks by the almighty ArbCom. Although do you look all that powerful when you are reduced to such obviously panicked moves? Clearly the debate over whether to block was raging behind the scenes throughout the RfA, and its looming closure as a success, the interview process having objectively failed to spot a returning customer, was what forced their hand. He was going to be an Administrator, unless they acted.
Let's take a moment to ponder the broader issue of what happens when you get so desperate for warm bodies to fill vacant seats in the ever dwindling ranks of the Administrator ranks that you don't even for a second start to wonder about people who just seem too perfect?
After all, they were dealing with a user here whose only actual conflicts on Wikipedia seemed to be of the "if I have a flaw, it is that I am too self critical" type. And whose case for needing the tools quite handily checked all the positions wanted at Wikipedia, without there being any real reason given to understand why someone would want that job, rather than be taking it as a necessary evil.
I have never been a fan of the whole Administrators must be content creators position, but neither have I ever said that you shouldn't be REALLY suspicious of someone who doesn't have a plausible reason why they seemingly only want to be a janitor on Wikipedia, especially in the more stressful areas. Nobody is that altruistic. Nobody.
There have been quite a few walkthroughs in recent years. I wonder how many were Icewhiz socks?
Something for the wikishits to ponder. I say that only out of devilment, knowing as we all do, how incapable they are of such ponderings, least of all bringing them to a useful and actionable conclusion. And of course, the very last thing anyone wants to do on Wikipedia, is have a root and branch review to see if Administrators are abusing their power.
As Beeblebrox reminded everyone on Wikipediocracy recently (and it will become apparent later how fucking hilarious this is), the Arbitration Committee doesn't "go after" people, they only investigate Administrators that are reported. You might rightly ask yourself then, who brought Eostrix to their attention? If this wasn't a proactive act, a rare example of ArbCom being self starters, what was it?
There is lots more to specifically say about this block in the arena of the usual bullshit, but you can find all that noise on Wikipediocracy. Insider baseball is their specialism after all. That forum is the natural home for people who want to track and do battle with Icewhiz in some pathetic belief Wikipedia and its community are not rotten to the core. Beeblebrox is their kind of people. Scumbags.
What you get here, is the high level analysis. The view from fifty thousand feet. The study of the maze, not the dirty stinking rats.
To wit, I am interested in why there is so much lingering doubt over the case for the block.
I am also wondering, given that doubt, why they weren't prepared to extend good faith to Eostrix and wait until they actually did something wrong. They have already admitted that Eostrix was being closely monitored as a suspected Icewhiz sock.
They had already let them be an editor for two years, so I hardly think the extra reputational damage of having let them become an Administrator too, would have justified blocking before they were a hundred percent sure.
I suspect the answer to all those questions lies with who placed the block, and who was monitoring Eostrix with their suspicions. That person being Beeblebrox in the former, and likely the latter too.
As we all know, because it is our business to know, Beeblebrox is everything you wouldn't want in a high level Wikipedia functionary with this sort of power and influence. He is immoral, he is untrustworthy, and he is not very bright (but he thinks he is very bright).
I think it says it all that on the one hand we're meant to believe that to further protect Wikipedia and because the evidence was "private" we aren't going to be told any of the specifics of this case so that we might satisfy ourselves it is a sound block, and yet on the other there's apparently no issue with Beeblebrox going around both Wikipedia and Wikipediocracy flapping his chops just enough that to a seasoned observer, including Icewhiz, you can probably figure out what has happened.
Here's the lilely 411....
1. CheckUser results that at least confirm Eostrix and Icewhiz are in the same locale and share the same basic tech and common setup (e.g., an iPhone). Granted, you can spoof even these things to create the appearance of dissimilarity, but it is a pain in the ass and not really necessary.
2. Behavioural evidence that at least confirms Eostrix and Icewhiz have the same sleep cycle and language traits.
3. A handful of more specific behavioural matches in the area of typography, such as a fondness for numerical bullet lists. Just enough to satisfy confirmation bias.
4. Probably some off wiki evidence that shows Eostrix and Icewhiz are the same person, but which could have easily been faked by Beeblebrox and necessarily has to be taken on trust. And as we know, who trust him more than his friends at Wikipediocracy.
5. Probably evidence collected from some of that new fangled tracking technology that the WMF has, and are very secretive about, only even allowing its results to be used in cases where the benefit of catching a globally banned sockmaster about to unleash hell, or at least create a huge PR nightmare, outweighs the risk of its awesome power becoming known to the wider community
That last one is important, because it was of course recently revealed by the WMF that the Chinese Communist Party had infiltrated and taken over Chinese Wikipedia. It was of course the case that people believed that such a thing could never happen on English Wikipedia, because they're so smart and so numerous in comparison.
Well, if this block is sound, it proves they're not so smart, and that not even over a hundred Wikipedia editors, mostly Admins or seasoned veterans, could spot when they were about to hand Icewhiz of all people, a walk through.
They're breathing a massive sigh of relief now, those who know anyway, because those in the know have the terrifying (and often first hand) knowledge of their susceptibility that most even in the Wikipedia community do not.
Given the utter dysfunctional system of governance on English Wikipedia, with its burgeoning beaurecracy and counterintuitively their resulting heavy reliance in the controversial topics areas on undocumented culture and soft power rather than clear written rules and hard power, it hardly matters that they have hundreds of active Administrators and thousands of active editors.
The terrifying truth is, if you actually wanted to see effective results in skewing the neutrality of a topic like Isreal-Palestine, you really do only need a handful of Administrators who have put their time in and appear knowledgeable and trustworthy. Safe pairs of hands existing above the fray, with only the good of Wikipedia in their hearts. People like Eostrix. And Esotrix 2. And Esotrix 3. You get the idea.
That's all it takes.
The vast majority of other Administrators are more than happy to hand off the whole shebang, if it looks like NAME1, NAME2 and NAME3 have got shit under control. And in that scenario, the average editor, even grizzled veterans, are of course, powerless.
Such a strategic advantage is clearly easily achieved by Icewhiz, as we can see now, and whose grievance with Wikipedia and certain Wikipedia editors is clearly enough to motivate him to such great efforts.
After all, its not like he wanted to take over the whole encyclopedia. Just a significant chunk of it. Some might say the only part of it that has any capacity at all to shape world events, given the geographical and societal disconnect between those who know the facts and those who sign the cheques.
I am amused that there are those who, despite living and breathing that filth in the daily, are still incapable of understanding that the level of corruption and abuse of power on Wikipedia is such that it really does drive people to such extraordinary acts of revenge.
Cold.
Ice cold.
Would that we were all so dedicated and righteous.
Protect the innocent. Punish the guilty.
This has been a message of The Resistance.
HTD.
