BullRangifer

Editors, Admins and Bureaucrats blecch!
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CrowsNest
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BullRangifer

Post by CrowsNest » Wed Oct 10, 2018 1:35 am

This guy is a real hoot. Already covered here....

https://www.wikipediasucks.co/forum/vie ... 5485#p5485

....but arguably deserves his own thread for being such a source of entertainment, and crucial public knowledge of what Wikipedia is (and never will be). The best Wikipedians, the ones most likely to destroy it while believing they are helping it, and are those who think they're modern day Aristotles.

Here's his attempt to refine the logic of Guy Chapman on the fitness of Trump supporters to edit Wikipedia.......
"If you can't admit he's dishonest, you must be getting your information from unreliable sources and thus fail a fundamental skill required here, how to vet sources for reliability. That lack of competence, not just your political POV, makes you unfit to edit our political articles."
They're virtually into McCarthyism territory now.

There is one obvious problem with this statement. Trump aside, politicians in general, do lie. What any respected political commentator will tell you, is that all Trump did, was take an already well known phenomena (being totally truthful with the electorate does not typically equate to electoral success) and take it to its logical conclusion.

Trump's lies are huge, and he is unapologetic. Hilary Clinton's lies were subtle, and her apologies, where they even occur, were insincere. Whether the Wikipedians will admit it or not, many voter's ability to tell the difference between these two approaches, precisely because they do consult the right sources, is a big reason why he won.

And he did win, fuck the popular vote, it is irrelevant, as any respected political commentator would tell you. Another example of how Trump took a well known political reality and maximised it to his advantage.

In short, a fundamental skill in writing about politics, is understanding politics and politicians. Nobody who is capable of writing statements like the above, has any skill whatsoever in that regard.

The better question to ask prospective Wikipedia editors, is "Do you understand why Trump won?" Answer that well, and you are clearly someone who is capable of vetting sources. It is the received wisdom of those sources, before and after Trump, that matters of fact only weekly affect electoral outcomes. What matters more, is the feels. Clinton's pernicious lies made people feel worse than Trump's massive whoppers.

Wikipedia will, of ccourse, never be asking anyone if they accept Clinton is dishonest. They ask the question of Trump supporters because they want to believe they are all stupid. And that is pretty fucking stupid.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by Pisto » Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:15 pm

BullRangifer was formerly known as Fyslee on Wikipedia. As recently mentioned on Wikirev forums, he admitted to being the Assistant Listmaster for Quackwatch on his talk page [1]. This didn't stop him from being one of the most active participants determining Quackwatch to be a reliable source in all four discussions: [1][2][3][4].

He even made one editor retire from Wikipedia because he attacked him so harshly that the editor no longer felt welcome, disagreeing over Quackwatch.

Fyslee identifies as Paul Lee, who ran Quack-Files, on Sourcewatch. There is an archive available of his personal Geocities page. There seems to be just one working photograph of him on the site. Interesting how those kind of early mailing list activists turned into active Wikipedians, and their site ended up being an acknowledged reliable source.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by CrowsNest » Thu Oct 18, 2018 8:58 am

:lol:
The fact [Trump] says something should be a big red flag that it's likely untrue.

03:36, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
Wait, so when Trump said he's not going to consider pulling any US Arms deals with Saudi Arabia as part of any possible punishment for violating international law, he meant he will?

I'M SO CONFUSED :shock:

Honestly, how is it even possible to be this stupid?

When people came up with the term "Trump Derangement Syndrome", while I'm sure they meant it more broadly, they could not have coined a better term for this particular kind of idiot.

Seriously, how lazy do you have to be, how devoid of intellectual prowess, how utterly lacking in the ability for deep thought or considered analysis, to have to even think about propagating lazy rhetoric like this?

Trump doesn't lie all the time. He only lies when telling the truth would have harmed his approval rating. You know who else does that? Every politician in history. Every successful one anyway. He just does it bigger, realising as he did that many Americans are so sick of being lied to, they might as well vote for the liars that make them feel good.

If you value American jobs over the lives of the insignificant brown people half a world away, you vote for Trump. Just like the people who voted for Obama are not so fussed about the alarming way drone strikes still can't seem to tell the difference between a school/wedding and an insurgent position/gathering.

People should really pay attention, because the sort of idiot who says stuff like that, also says stuff like this.....
Being a diehard Trump supporter has serious consequences for editing [Wikipedia]
Being a die-hard believer in anything you demonstrably haven't thought too hard about, is bad for Wikipedia. And believe it or not, and it is very hard to believe with idiots like this running around the place, that is actually Wikipedia policy.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by Graaf Statler » Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:30 am

It is all a part of the general American opinion America and the American lifestyle is superior to any other culture. And that American solutions are the only right solutions.
And thanks to that opinion Europe is struggling with a huge refugee crisis and a huge identity crisis. Because that is what it is, we all fall back in our traditional values and start to defend our culture. The moslims who are living here do, the native population do it by the canal parade and the Oktoberfest with a lot of beer, pig meat and nice looking lady's, Sinterklaas with Zwarte Piet , for sure the discussions with the incidents start this month. i will inform you here about it.

These are all signs of a disruption, and the message is all time the same, also with article 11 and 13 and the EP. Stay out of our culture, America and others. That is the message. And the result of all Americans attempts to change the way of thinking of others? ? The clock has turned ages back all over the world. Yes, it has. And maybe the Trump administration understands that better, I don't know but think about it and special you, Jake. And stop with wiki imperialism, because it is contra productive, I have the last two years explained why.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by sashi » Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:44 pm

Bullrangifer? wrote:A few of my other activities:

On Aug. 28, 2002, I started the Anti-Quackery Ring. Take a tour around all the great sites. It happens to be the only ring of its type, and an extremely successful ring at that. Check out the traffic statistics for the last two weeks. The ring is consistently the number one ring in its category, which is the Alternative Medicine category.

On Aug. 16, 2003, I was named the new RingMaster of Skeptic Ring, which is the largest skeptic ring.


Oh, Goldenring! Oh Judge! Oh Mom and Dad... etc. (§)

I'll give him this.... he sure believes he's sufficiently inner wing to merit an outdent chez Jimbo (§)

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by CrowsNest » Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:25 pm

Unsurprisingly, the sort of douchebag who thinks like this guy does, eventually flies too close to the Sun, even in the extremely biased environment of Wikipedia.

Imagine being such a cock you are viewed disapprovingly even in the opinion of other Wikipedians?

Luckily for him, he stuck his tail between his legs and struck his comment in double-quick time (quick for a Wikipedian of course).....

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =887452126

.....which on Wikipedia, for such an avowed #ResistanceFighter, is enough to escape any actual consequences.......
The comment was clearly inappropriate, especially given the previous warning. BullRangifer has struck the comment and apologised and so I am closing this with no action, but this is thin ice being skated. GoldenRing (talk) 09:03, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

His fellow traveller Guy Chapman is at the very same time having to apologise for a very similar example of misjudging the room......

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =887550781

....but of course because he is an Administrator, his doesn't need to even look like a real apology....
I went to ElKevbo's user talk to apologise, since he very obviously failed to interpret my sarcasm for what it was and interpreted it instead as a threat, which it was not. ........ Guy (Help!) 10:16, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Who could have predicted these events?

Anybody. Anybody could predict it based on what these douchebags are happy to commit to print as Wikipedia "essay" material.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by Pisto » Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:28 pm

BullRangifer is now known as Valjean.

He was recently blocked for 12 hours because he called other editors "skunks".

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by ericbarbour » Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:12 pm

Pisto wrote:
Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:28 pm
BullRangifer is now known as Valjean.
Thanks for watching him. VERY minor wiki-crank, sucks up to David Gorski and Guy Chapman routinely.

I need to apply updates to the book wiki file. Your identification of him as Paul Lee is looking very good. Thanks.
BullRangifer (T-C-F-R-B)

Operated as Fyslee (T-C-F-R-B) until name change in 2007, all records under that account were either folded into the later account or obliterated at his request. First edits in December 2005, to subjects such as "Alternative medicine" and "Aspartame". One of the worst people Wikipedia has ever seen, abusive to a fault, willing to "out" and backstab anyone yet brutally secretive of his own identity.

You name it, if it bears any resemblance to pseudoscience or "outside" knowledge, corporate editing, or conservative/libertarian politics, he hates it: Ludwigs2, Arzel, Ludwig Von Mises Institute, alternative medicine, homeopathy, anti-vaccinators, etc. etc. One of his favorite biographies is Stephen Barrett, and he is suspected of possibly having personal ties to Barrett.

There are too many complaints about BR's activities to list, but we do have some premium samples. [167][168][169][170][171][172][173]

BR really, really hates Luc Montagnier. WO thread.

Apparently the ugly and lengthy editwar over BlackLight Power (T-H-L-F-C).[174][175][176][177][178] led to legal action against the WMF in 2014. The WMF and the administrators stonewalled them, of course.
Should one ever wish to snipe at this crew, bring up the uglier rumors around Stephen Barrett, which admittedly come mostly from equally-nuts "alternative medicine" types: his license was canceled by the medical board and he was not "retired"; he has a tendency to act like an arrogant jerk in court; he failed his psychiatric certification exam; he's filed numerous defamation lawsuits against "quacks" who called him a "quack" and every one of them failed; etc. ANY attempt to mention any of this on Barrett's article is very quickly rev-deleted by an admin associated with Wikipedia Medical or the Guerrilla Skeptics crew. Barrett is a total NOBODY...except on Wikipedia. Pathetic as usual.

Or you could bring up the BlackLight Power shitshow. Lee was involved, though the main target was Andy The Grump. I suspect this was a major reason why Andy "retired" from WP in 2015 and ended up on Wikipediocracy (he went back on WP this year and continued to fight with people). Possibly one of the WMF's ugliest obscure legal battles. Greg Kohs was subpoenaed for information on Wikipediots who were involved in shitting on BlackLight and its founder Randell Mills--especially Andy. The Wikipediocracy thread was locked and purged by Billy Burns and Greybeard out of fear of "legal reprisals". Little discussed off Wikipedia, I can't find any evidence Mills got anywhere with a court case. Everyone went silent.

http://www.williamslopatto.com/uploads/ ... plaint.pdf

Funny how, regardless of the subject area, the crazies always float to the top in Wikiverse, eh?

PS: If you REALLY wanna fuck with Wikibastards, doxx AndyTheGrump. I've tried and failed. Attorneys were PAID to try and THEY failed. It's a challenge.

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by ericbarbour » Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:12 pm

For the lulz: an older photo of Paul.
PaulLee_BullRangifer.jpg
PaulLee_BullRangifer.jpg (30.61 KiB) Viewed 4248 times

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Re: BullRangifer

Post by CyberDelog » Sun Oct 31, 2021 8:21 pm

Lee was the list master for Barrett's Quackwatch and later a webring master for some kind of skeptic webring .. he started recruiting skeptics to begin editing on Wikipedia back in January 2006 when he posted on the international skeptics forum:

"I would like to invite webmasters and set owners to begin editing Wikipedia and SkepticWiki. There are many subjects for skeptics to get involved with, and we really need help. There are plenty of loons out there doing the editing right now, and there are too few skeptics to keep them at bay.... Any coordination of efforts should be done by private email, since Wikipedia keeps a very public history of "every" little edit, and you can't get them removed. We don't need any accusations of conspiracy!"

then he goes on to list the different targets, which is the usual black list among the metaphysical realists in the modern skeptic cult.

A chiropractor who has been on Lee's tail for many years and provides me with new info says he and his Danish wife lost their home in California in one of the wildfires some years back.. but he still lives in California and working as some kind of physical therapist at a small clinic of sorts... I would love to post his mailing address so folks can send him hate mail... but, I will refrain and try to keep a higher moral principle in dealing with these psychopaths

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