User talk:Proabivouac
"Sam Blacketer"
I decided to post this on your talk page, since you had linked to information about it on your directory. For the record, David Boothroyd lied to me about his sockpuppetry, when I asked him via his Gmail address if he had any other/previous accounts and why, if so, he was so experienced with formatting from the beginning. He was also evasive about that e-mail address, which had no trace anywhere on the "searchable" internet. I used 3 different search engines and a newsgroup search engine and found nothing using the sam.blacketer (AT) googlemail.com address. I asked him why he did that in my first e-mail to him, and he completely ignored my question. He acknowledged that I mentioned it, but failed to explain his creation and use of that e-mail address.
These are copies of e-mails between me and Boothroyd. The "Original Message" is still there in messages that I received while using Cox, because I forwarded all messages from my Cox account to my AOL account prior to moving and changing ISPs. My new ISP doesn't have an e-mail service. See also this exchange.
Original Message -----
From: Sam Blacketer To: Jonas Rand Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:45 PM Subject: Re: Question
On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 6:15 AM, Jonas Rand <joeyyuan@cox.net> wrote:
According to the Arbitrators history chart on the WP:ARBCOM page, you were elected in December 2007. Could you please explain why your first edits under that account were in December 2006, when you appeared to be quite experienced with Wikipedia or at least its formatting, and suddenly one year later you are an arbitrator? I also note you have not identified yourself the Wikimedia Foundation, and uniquely do not have check user permissions. Are you under the age of 18? Arbitrators, as decision makers on the site, have an ethical obligation to identify themselves at least to the site's governing body (the WMF), if not publicly. Also of note is the fact that you use a Gmail/Googlemail account which has no trace anywhere else on the internet, presumably created for specific use on Wikipedia, so that it cannot be connected to your identity. What have your previous account names been, if any?
None. Jonas, I hope you don't mind but I notice you have a blog which covers wikipedia issues. I'm happy to tell you a little more about myself but because arbitrators are sometimes subject of personal harassment and adverse publicity, I would like an undertaking that you won't publish or disclose anything without my permission.
-- Sam Blacketer
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From: Jonas Rand To: Sam Blacketer Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:02 PM Subject: Re: Question
I will not disclose anything, however I just found it strange that you did not identify to the WMF. I do not use the blog anymore, I was contemplating writing in it again, but I will not say anything about this in there.
Jonas
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Original Message -----
From: Sam Blacketer To: Jonas Rand Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:00 PM Subject: Re: Question
I do find it interesting that you think I was "quite experienced with Wikipedia .. formatting" in December 2006 because that's certainly not how I found it at the time! I started off by just clicking on 'edit this page' and adding the new information following the same format which the existing information used. Then someone came in and turned a simple list with bullet points into a nice looking table and I wanted to do the same so I just copied the format. A little bit of fiddling with it on the sandbox was needed before I got a working understanding.
Having taken up Wikipedia editing only on finding myself liberated, against my will, from a long-term relationship, I found it was a very good way of filling a sudden increase in free time and solving a desire to distract myself. Also it was a good spur to find out about some of the things that I remembered from when I was younger. Mostly I write articles about the sort of politicians who I remember seeing in lists of Parliament, or about events which shook the public attention but seemed to have escaped notice. (I'm still surprised no-one wrote about 'I'm Backing Britain' before me as it was really big at the time.)
Possibly it was a big mistake to use a real name when signing up but fortunately 'Sam' was a childhood nickname which stuck and not my official first name. I also use a personal email which is separate but I don't think it would show up in a search. When I was elected to the Arbitration committee in 2007, much to my own surprise, I didn't want to take the Oversight power offered to all arbitrators because I couldn't see myself using it. Arbitrators exchange other information and meet each other so there was no particular concern over verifying I was over 18. I guess the list of identified users may only list those with the permissions needing verification.
PS As we're talking in confidence, I thought I ought to tell you that one arbitrator (not me this time) was actually quite impressed with some of your blog posts about wikipedia, seeing them as mature and reasonable.
-- Sam Blacketer
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Note that I did not consider my breech of confidentiality an ethical lapse, as Boothroyd lied to me and I have no reason to keep my word. In addition, he needs to be held accountable, for all he did, including lying to me.
Jonas Rand 07:33, 27 July 2009 (PDT)
