And it is definitely going to happen soon on current evidence.
Here's a couple of recent comments by User:Martinevans123 about English far right activist Tommy Robinson, made on the talk page of Robinson's Wikipedia biography....
Obviously these are totally unacceptable. It hardly matters that Martin was goaded into making them, because all that shows is Martin is a bit thick himself. They are clear and obvious violations of the BLP policy. Obviously you get some leeway for being critical of relatively public or controversial figures, but that leeway categorically does not extend to personal abuse of this nature....He's an illiterate thug. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:24, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
.....He's a hate-mongering pile of shit.... Martinevans123 (talk) 22:36, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
Nothing was done, even though it was reported to Wikipedia's Administrators. No reason for the inaction was given, but it is Wikipedia, so one can presume they're not minded to do anything because the victim of these violations is not a nice person (never met him, but that's what people say). Needless to say, someone abusing Foundation servers to insult Greta Tbunberg's literacy or morals, would be insta-banned.
It didn't take much effort to find evidence that Martin doesn't confine his hatred to talk page comments. The edit summaries of these edits to Robinson's biography....
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1035052115
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1034965382
....are completely irrelevant side commentary that is merely Martin gloating at Robinson's literal misfortunes.a shame he's bankrupt
any pennies down the back of the sofa?
Obviously these are also violations, and being edit summaries it is far worse than a talk page comment, because these are much harder to remove, and they are a displayed immediately on every editor's watchlist. Which is probably why Martin does it.
I have no idea if any action was taken about these summaries. The fact they are still visible and Martin is still allowed to be involved with this biography, suggests not.
So, with Martin strutting around Wikipedia gloating and insulting Robinson, and nobody in authority stopping him, and with nobody in the media likely to be interested in defending Robinson, it isn't hard to see a day when a follower of Robinson's proves to be literate just enough to figure out how to track Martin down and give him a right good stabbing.
And I for one can't honestly say he doesn't deserve it. This isn't me saying Robinson is a good guy. This is me saying Martin is a bad guy.
To take you back to the first line of this post, Martin shows why it would be wise for Wikipedia to take civility seriously. Because unsurprisingly, an editor who can't be civil to their own editorial colleagues, and Martin is renowned for being uncivil, is highly likely to lack the self control to stop themselves doing shit like this.
Wikipedia is chock full of people who have strong opinions and an inability to control their temper and thus conduct themselves appropriately.
It probably always will, until someone puts a few holes in them. Or blows them up.
That would be a terrible thing. But if it happened, they cannot say they weren't warned, that they didn't know what they were doing was not just wrong but dangerous. Civility, respect for subjects and neutrality are their fucking policies for a reason.
