Oliver Smith, the Energizer Bunny

Oliver just goes on and on, or someone is doing a great job impersonating him, putting a crazy amount effort into it. I’ve largely stopped monitoring Smith Brother activity, but people notify me, and I was pointed to the latest Oliver Obvious: Bigtom

Registered 16:31, 1 April 2019. Bigtom immediately dove into editing Oliver Articles.

Ikanreed pinged him:

You seem okay, but we’ve got this history for new users whose first edits are only to pages about certain far-right race agitators being shallow-cover trolls, so I worry a bit. Mostly I want to say hi though. Join the wiki, have fun. ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 19:00, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

ok no problem. I don’t plan to further edit already existent articles, but add new pages, so they can be easily monitored. Bigtom (talk) 21:27, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

This is hilarious. Bigtom’s first edit “updated” information about Kirkegaard (one of Oliver’s Favorite Topics):

He is permanently blocked from editing Wikipedia,[17] having misused the wiki to spread his racist nonsense. He has since whined about Wikipedia deleting his pseudoscientific writings on race.[18]

This deviates far from the source, and misrepresents what happened with Kirkegaard’s “writings.” Kirkegaard was “ArbCom” blocked with no explanation, which can happen as a precaution. Kirkegaard may have filed a lawsuit against Oliver Smith, but I have no information on why ArbCom made the decision they did. Oliver simply imagines it (though there are signs that a number of editors complained, one of which is actually banned (and Oliver is also banned). Kirkegaard’s user page and talk page have no annotation, which would be done if the user was banned. His email has not been blocked.

As to “whining” about Wikipedia deleting his writings, the page in question was MfD’d 5 March, 2019. Kirkegaard points out that normal process was not followed, which is correct, and the MfD misrepresented the situation (the page’s creator is not “site-banned” and may easily come back — or not.) However, the deletion is harmless, because (1) A copy is on archive.org and (2) if Deleet wants it back, when he is unblocked, he could get it back. He could also probably get a copy from any of many administrators, (3) The voters in the MfD are correct that the page is not needed for Wikipedia. Such a page might be created as a subpage for an article Talk, where the issues addressed are covered. Normal process was not followed, that’s all. It is not whining to point that out. The page is archived here. I would not advise him to try to get the page back, or to put it back. He has other, less disruptive options. He can make the page available off-wiki (and, in effect, he has done that. If he wants it accessible for public editing, or for a list of editors, he can also arrange that. Doing it on-wiki, given the political realities, is asking for trouble.

Is this “pseudoscientific writings”? To a Rat like Oliver, it might seem so. On the face it is a list of sources, useful for studying a topic. The sources have been chosen to meet Wikipedia Reliable Source policy. Is it unbalanced, cherry-picked? Maybe. I would have to study it to know. If so, the remedies would be to (1) make sure that it is not presented in Wikipedia’s voice, but attributed to the author, (2) not allow it to appear to be a consensus document unless it has gone through a consensus process, and (3) fix it by adding balance. We routinely handled issues like this on Wikiversity (which also has a neutrality policy. Pseudoskeptics. The trolls recruited by Darryl Smith largely demolished that, but it is still possible there. The hater faction will claim that is too much work, that what is shown in those sources is false or worse, and that is a pseudoscientific position, not a rational one. Surely they could add some sources, maybe one at a time. At least one! But, in fact, they are mostly ignorant, they simply know what they don’t like.

But that can’t be done with the page deleted, and what I discovered years ago was that the so-called “skeptic” faction was not interested in creating editorial consensus, but in winning and excluding whatever they disagree with from the project. Reliable source policy be damned. So this event is not in the least surprising.

I should add that as to what I can discern of Emil’s politics, his apparent conclusions or interpretations, I disagree with much. That’s not the point. Emil is capable of engaging in civil discourse, which is what we need on all sides. If he’s wrong, let the best evidence and arguments win, not who has the most clout behind the scenes with administrators. And maybe he is right about some things and wrong about others.

(My ontology does not accept that “right” and ‘wrong” are intrinsic qualities of ideas, that are interpretations. Rather, interpretations are useful or not useful. Further, examining “wrong ideas” carefully can be a powerful learning experience. Rejecting them out-of-hand, without attempting to fully understand them, we learn nothing.)

Bottom line, Oliver is, as he has for a long time, with his brother, filling RationalWiki with misleadingly sourced material, that can look correct if one doesn’t look carefully, he is expert at doing that, a master of quick impression creation. Looking at the link for the Kirkegaard block, we see:

21:58, 21 February 2019 AGK (talk | contribs) blocked Deleet (talk | contribs) with an expiration time of indefinite (account creation blocked, cannot edit own talk page) ({{ArbComBlock}}: Blocking on behalf of the Arbitration Committee. Appeal of this block is only by email to the committee.) Tag: PHP7

The block is not “permanent,” but “indefinite.” That means, on Wikipedia, “until lifted, or converted to a ban.”  Even bans are not “permanent,” generally, because they may be appealed.

In this case, the block is not to be lifted without ArbCom permission, but appeal is explicitly allowed.

Oliver should know a lot about blocks and bans, he is blocked on easily hundreds of accounts. He generally does not appeal the blocks, even if his talk page access remains open. Why should he bother with that when he can create a new account and maybe avoid notice for a little while. Deleet has no apparent socks, and appears to have used only one account on RatWiki. The rest were impersonations.

I have seen  no sign that Kirkegaard is appealing at this time. (He could, by email.) I searched his Twitter account for mention of the block, and his blog. Nothing.

Blocks intended to be permanent will be so annotated, there will be explanations, etc. In a trolling comment, likely from a Smith, there was a mention of one of the alleged complainers. The very last edit of Deleet before the block was to suggest an indef block for MjolnirPants, the one mentioned. (The full discussion. Train wreck. There was no consensus to ban, but the user was indef blocked by an oversighter apparently for gross incivility requiring oversight. (The oversighter actually restored email access, though. The block log. So what Deleet suggested, happened.)

Back to Bigtom:

Update

Bigtom went on, and this is hilarious.

On User talk:Bongolian:

Thanks for giving me autopatrol rights, can you please restore them? D got rid of them with no explanation, he also desysopped me a month back on another account for no reason. I sent an email complaint to David Gerard, but he never responded. At the very least I think this deserves a coop to review his abuse of power.Bigtom (talk) 19:09, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

@D Would you care to comment on this further? David Gerard is largely inactive as far as day-to-day editing, so I wouldn’t him about this. You might be confused that D and NekoDysk are the same account. There was a comment by NekoDysk on your talk page about this already. Bongolian (talk) 19:26, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

I simply pointed out another sock owned by Mike who also showed up on the Mankind Quarterly talk as 82.132.213.25. The difference between me and Mike is I add informative content here, Mike never has and just trolls. His current sock is a parody of an SJW: “Punching bigots” etc and all he’s done so far is cause edit conflicts. Bigtom (talk) 19:46, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

I.e., “NekoDysk” and “D” are the same account. He is a rarity on RatWiki, someone who is quite open about his real-life identity. (There are others, such as David Gerard, and once upon a time, there was me, though I rarely edited, having concluded that the company of Rats was, ah, unpleasant and unnecessary.)

At this point, there are too many signs that Bigtom is Oliver D. Smith to set aside. I won’t list all of them! But who has a long-term conflict with Mikemikev? That’s just one clue of many!

That Bigtom mentions David Gerard demonstrates how clueless and careless he is as to the political considerations. He just revealed that he has likely obtained results in the past by complaining (sometimes privately) to Gerard, which then confirms various suspicions about this, from timing and less direct evidence. I very much doubt that Gerard will intervene, but . . . it is not impossible.

This went on:

@Bigtom Since this obnoxious error, I would rather people were patrolling your edits. Nothing personal, but your feud has caused a lot of uninvolved people here a lot of grief and your own past behavior both with and without the sysop tools on your innumerable past accounts was extremely reckless and disruptive. If you want to be useful and regain trust, then sure, I am a believer in giving sysop tools to anyone that isn’t a troll, it’s not a difficult bar to reach. — NekoDysk 20:02, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Have you seen/spoken to Simoneh on camera to confirm this is a separate person and not Mike? Mike creates many different fake profiles on social media & chat channels with fake images, at one point he was pretending to be a gay Korean male and even typing gay sex on chat channels. He’s had at least a dozen of his Twitter accounts suspended for creating impersonation profiles. And I’m better than identifying his impersonations than anyone since I’ve been in this stupid feud with him for over 6 years; I therefore stick to my claim Simoneh is Mike. His fake accounts of communists/SJWs is nothing new.Bigtom (talk) 20:46, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

He completely misses the point and apparently never understood how RationalWiki has worked, so accustomed was he to being able to use it for his own purposes, and that whenever he ran into problems, he could simply create a new account. NekoDysk is completely onto him (which has been shown less specifically many times.)

Oliver thinks this is about whether or not Simoneh is Mikemikev. That’s not actually relevant. This is about him and his obsessions. He was quite visible as Oliver before this, and my sense is that NekoDysk would recognize it, but allowed him room to show a different side. But he is literally obsessed and insane (as he has acknowledged many times), going all the way back to Atlantid on Metapedia. If this is not him, it is an extremely sophisticated impersonation, which is unlikely. This went on:

I made appropriate off-wiki verification even before talking to you. I am going to block you now, if you want to be banned officially the coop is right there. Have fun. — NekoDysk 21:03, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

So Bigtom was blocked indef, “(Trolling talk pages: abd/smith/mike/etc)” NekoDysk also blocked the IP Oliver had complained about, with Ban evasion: abd/smith/mike/etc) Was that correct? Maybe. Bottom line, it doesn’t matter! This was certainly not me, that IP is what might be used by a Smith brother (impersonating Mikemikev) or by Mikemikev (being himself). I vote for Mikemikev. Either way, to be blocked.

Now, what was the old account that D desysopped?  Going back:

  • 00:54, 23 March 2019 D (talk | contribs | block) changed group membership for Concerned from Autopatrolled and Sysop to (none) (hell no) [also blocked by D for ban evasion. His user page was deleted for doxxing, which I have mentioned before, I think. First edit was to start a cooping. Obviously Oliver, previously identified.] 
  • 15:34, 26 February 2019 D (talk | contribs | block) changed group membership for Arcticos from Autopatrolled and Sysop to Autopatrolled (LANCB / diallos martesen falswas) [(Cornish, maybe means “incompetent possible imposter.” Obviously Oliver, previously identified.]
  • 20:30, 8 February 2019 D (talk | contribs | block) changed group membership for Aeschylus from Autopatrolled and Sysop to Autopatrolled (per block) [Also blocked by D (For your own good.) referring to legal issues. Obviously Oliver, previously identified.]

Oliver must have meant Concerned. D blocked this account for (Ban evasion). This could refer to the indef block of Arcticos (who apparently committed to LANCB (Leaving And Never Coming Back), and who has also been blocked as other accounts. On User talk:Concerned, D explained the block, so Oliver lied about that desysop. It was for cause, not “for no reason,” and the cause was stated:

If you want to email me about your latest weird race theories or how you hate my guts that’s cool, but really you should give this a rest. “claims to hate this place but is obsessed with it and posts here everyday”, sound familiar? You wrote it yourself. — NekoDysk 01:09, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

Aeschylus, if he wanted to come back, was not denied talk page access and could request an unblock. Oliver socks practically never request unblock. It is much easier, they think, to just create a new account and then the brothers can op each other or others will do it easily, if they behave for a bit. Increasingly, Oliver has been unable to do that. John66 (Darryl Smith) is still going, though he has not edited  for about a week.

Because nobody has, so far, challenged D on these desysops and blocks, it appears that RatWiki has gotten very tired of all the socking and impersonations. Some may still blame Mikemikev, but I can assure them, if they care what I say, that it has not been me, and almost all socks listed as mine have been impersonations. (And the few that have been me have mostly been openly acknowledged, confirmed here (a sock claiming to me is generally not me unless I acknowledge it here. Most everywhere, I don’t sock at all.)

I should mention one more account, Jellybeans. This user, blocked by D, claimed that Mikemikev is impersonating him. But who is he? Mikemikev is impersonating jellybeans? No, Mikemikev would be impersonating Oliver Smith, if he is impersonating anyone. I.e., Jellybeans is Oliver Smith, who is defacto banned. The account was registered and edited briefly March 6, then complained to D about the block of Concerned weeks later. D wasted no time blocking him. This was all obvious.

It has actually been obvious before, but what has changed is that D notices and acts on it. Oliver (and Darryl Smith) have been accustomed to dealing with distracted and shallow basement dwellers. John66 (Darryl) pushed limits but hasn’t yet gone too far. D appears to have the general confidence of the Rat community. We’ll see, Wikis sometimes turn around and eat their own.