|
The turnover among Wikipedia editors is so high that most editors today have no idea of the conditions that existed during the first year that I tried to get my biography deleted. There was no policy on biographies of living persons during most of that year. The policy they have now is still much too weak, but it helped during the second year of my effort. Since many of the newer editors are unfamiliar with this history, this old "hivemind" page is preserved for the record. —Daniel Brandt |
Hive Mind
v. Brandt
| Jimbo_Wales (guru/dictator) | Jimmy Wales St.Petersburg, FL, USA born:1966-08-07 
| 2005-10-17: about locking down Brandt's bio: "...an impossible and
absurd request." 2005-10-17: about two links Brandt deleted at Google_Watch: "Do not remove them again." 2005-12-01: In a letter to Editor & Publisher, he refers to Brandt with words such as "strange rant," "prone to incoherent rants," "he misrepresents everything about our procedures," and "I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all." Then he claims Brandt is a "public person," in an attempt to justify Wikipedia's invasion of privacy. But Brandt's photo is nowhere on the web, he doesn't do conferences or give speeches, and he's not on radio or TV. |
| SlimVirgin
aka Slim aka Sarah (administrator) |
Linda Mack aka Sarah McEwan Swalwell, Alberta, Canada born: circa 1961 
| 2005-09-28: started article on Brandt (current version)
2005-10-12: responds to Brandt's complaint that he was not notified: "We tend not to do that." 2005-10-15: "I apologize for what I wrote about you as a source." 2005-10-15: "Most of our editors edit anonymously, for reasons of privacy." 2005-10-16: "...stop editing this article ... don't delete valid references or external links." 2006-04-21: instructs editors to remove posts from the Talk page that may have been made by banned supporters of Brandt 2006-04-29: "Brandt is apparently trying to blackmail people ... it is ugly behavior." (This libelous statement was prompted by the fact that Brandt negotiated in good faith with one editor at the editor's request, and they reached a compromise.) 2006-04-29: bans two editors forever for making comments supporting Brandt, and then an hour later, now that they are unable to respond, accuses them of being the same person 2006-05-07: admits that her bans are based not on hard evidence, but rather on her "well-honed linguistic analytic skills" |
| PhilWiki (editor) | Philipp Lenssen Stuttgart, Germany 
| 2005-10-26: starts a new Wikipedia article on Brandt to replace deleted
article; this new article is quickly deleted 2005-10-29: a story about deletion is posted by Lenssen on his pro- Google blog, and broadcasted by Google News 2005-10-29: note to Jimmy Wales: "...would like a comment regarding deletion of the article on Google-watcher Daniel Brandt." 2005-11-06: hypes the story again on his pro-Google blog |
| Canderson7 (administrator) |
Craig M. Anderson Hialeah, FL, USA born:1971-01-26 | 2005-10-29: undeletes the deleted article
2005-11-01: referring to "Brandt and his fellow trolls," he comments that "resistance is in fact futile." |
| Juicifer aka Jucifer (editor) | John Doe #3
U.S. psychology professor age:34; female; anti-Castro daughters: Deborah, Emily resides in Europe | 2005-10-30 — 2005-11-05: dozens of edits, many of which are hostile
to Brandt, with many incompetent edits and additions, and many misspellings 2005-11-02: "Brandt has no say in the matter whatever." 2005-11-17: "Please no more of this privacy nonsence [sic]." |
| Linuxbeak (bureaucrat and IRC bouncer) | Alex J. Schenck North Scituate, RI, USA born:1986-12-08 
| 2005-11-04: "He can cry about this until the cows come home."
2005-11-07: aborted the vote for deletion, normally a 7-day process, after only one day 2005-11-08: deletes the open letter to Jimmy Wales on Brandt's user page, knowing it won't be restored because he's blocked 2005-11-08: "...you truely [sic] are just a whiny has-been that never was in the first place..." 2006-04-29: "Brandt has a tinfoil hat on top of his tinfoil hat." |
| Ta_bu_shi_da_yu aka TBSDY (administrator) | Chris Sherlock Sydney, Australia 
| 2005-11-04: suggests that everyone "point and laugh" at Brandt's open
letter to Jimbo 2005-11-05: blocks Brandt for 7 days due to an alleged "legal threat" 2005-12-04: quotes Wales' letter to E&P in Brandt's bio: "I tried very hard to help him, and he misrepresented nearly everything about our conversation in his very strange rant." But Brandt has never had a conversation with Wales! 2005-12-29: "[Brandt is] basically a bit of a goose, and in my opinion somewhat unstable." |
| BrokenSegue aka Broken S (administrator) | Scott Zucker Wellington, FL, USA born:1966-11-30 
| 2005-11-04: blocks Brandt for 24 hours
2005-11-07: "If he acts up he'll just get blocked again." 2006-09-10: an editor deletes the Wales quote after Brandt explains why it is inaccurate and unreliable, and that Wales must have Brandt confused with someone else. BrokenSegue restores the quote, explaining that "it is what Jimbo said, and that's all that really matters." |
| Splash (administrator) | John Doe #6 Bristol, United Kingdom | 2005-11-04: "It's reassuring to know that the subject of an article has
been unable to successfully be the final arbiter of its content." |
| Superm401 (editor) | Juan Rico Bronx, New York, NY, USA | 2005-11-04: referring to Brandt: "Poor baby."
2005-11-04: "Frankly, you're deluding yourself if you think any court will care in the slightest. Nevertheless, that sounds like a legal threat. I'd be careful if you want to avoid being banned." |
| Doc_glasgow (administrator) | John Doe #8
Glasgow, Scotland | 2005-11-04: "Perhaps we should find a picture of Daniel Brandt with
some babes to put on our page about him." |
| Rx_StrangeLove (administrator) |
Brian Haws St.Paul, MN, USA | 2005-11-04: "You're right, it isn't a privacy problem. But he is very
persistent." 2005-11-04: "And in any case we have different inclusion standards." |
| GregAsche (administrator) | Greg Asche St.Louis Park, MN, USA | 2005-11-03: "Oh for goodness sakes, stop with the empty threats and
stop violating WP:NLT." 2005-11-07: "Him not wanting an article here about himself is no reason to delete this." |
| Jeffrey_O._Gustafson (administrator) | Jeffrey O. Gustafson Brooklyn, NY, USA | 2005-11-08: blocks Brandt indefinitely, primarily as a reaction to this
page you are now reading 2005-11-11: deletes a highly-relevant quotation from the Florida Supreme Court about invasion-of-privacy, which appeared on Brandt's User_Talk page, on the grounds that it is an "anonymous legal threat" |
| Lord_Bob (editor) | Ben Massey Victoria, BC, Canada born:1986-12-24 | 2005-11-09: "...batshit insanity is not a criteria for deletion." |
| Gamaliel aka Rob (administrator) |
Robert Fernandez Tampa, Florida, USA 
| 2005-11-06: added true but objectionable facts from many years ago,
which is a violation of Florida's invasion-of-privacy statute 2005-12-18: quotes Wales' letter to E&P in Brandt's bio: "I tried very hard to help him, and he misrepresented nearly everything about our conversation in his very strange rant." (Brandt has never had a conversation with Wales, and this is the second time an administrator has inserted this.) 2006-04-05: vandalizes Brandt's user page and bans him forever, because Brandt explained a new federal law that applies to Wikipedia vandals who fail to disclose their identity 2006-04-05: "He's an attention whore..." 2006-04-25: warns editors, in a new box at the top of the Talk page for the Brandt article, that "you may become the victim of internet stalking, harrassment [sic], or legal threats by the subject of this article" |
| Obli (administrator) | Simon Syvertsson Forshaga, Sweden age:19 
| 2005-11-10: "Ironically enough, I think this whole affair qualified him for
his own article." |
| Morven (administrator and arbitrator) | Matt Brown Anaheim, CA, USA age:31 
| 2005-11-11: "Nutcases like Brandt aren't the norm." |
| FayssalF aka Svest aka Szvest (administrator) | John Doe #11 Manchester, U.K. born:1974-03-08 | 2005-12-04: reverts Brandt's effort to deny that he and Jimmy Wales
ever had a conversation, causing Wales' negative reaction to a nonexistent conversation to remain in Brandt's bio |
| AKMask (editor) | Brock Weller Juneau, AK, USA born:1986-02-03 
| 2005-12-05: "...a complete kook..."
2006-04-05: "He [Brandt] is sometimes refferred [sic] to as an 'expert' in matters of privacy. That makes him a public figure, which means his right to privacy is significantly curtailed." 2006-04-25: "He can whine all he wants..." |
| Lotsofissues (editor) | Kai Xue Fremont, CA, USA | 2005-12-13: "Can you imagine the numbers of ppl [sic] in his long life
that his poisonious [sic] personality has bludgeoned? Brandt's uppance [sic] must come." |
| Antaeus_Feldspar (editor) |
Joseph Crowley 3rd 
| 2005-12-13: added "See also: Outing" to Brandt's page, with a link
to a Wikipedia page by that name, in an apparent attempt to falsely suggest that Brandt is gay |
| Vilerage (editor) | Matthew Howard Delaware, Ohio, USA 
| 2005-12-12: starts Brandt-watch.org
in response to this page, and
provides a one-click link that visitors can use to launch a denial-of-service attack on the Wikipedia-Watch server |
| Agamemnon2 (editor) | John Doe #15 Finland born:1983 | 2005-12-16: "Brandt is inherently non-notable... Frankly, I am weary
of Brandt's hatemongering..." |
| Izehar (administrator) | John Doe #16 United Kingdom | 2005-12-16: "...trolling and petty tantrums ... I bet that Brandt is one
of the most successful trolls in history." |
| RoyBoy (administrator) | Dan Gorski Dundas, Ontario, Canada 
| 2005-12-17: "Brandt needs a wake up call ... privacy ain't what it used
to be." |
| Callum_Derbyshire (editor) | John Doe #18 | 2005-12-12: sends Wikipedia-Watch a hoax email, pretending to
identify (and defame) another user on this page; the name was posted here for several hours; some Wikipedians think it's cute so he starts an anti-Brandt blog to brag about it |
| Dtobias aka Dan T. (editor) | Daniel R. Tobias
Boca Raton, Florida, USA born:1963-07-04 
| 2005-12-20: "We should basically ignore all his sniveling..."
2005-12-30: makes false allegations about the legality of NameBase on Philipp Lenssen's pro-Google forum 2006-04-07: incorrectly claims that Brandt edited Wikipedia under a look-alike misspelling of his user name 2006-09-08: on Brandt's notability: "...our bar for inclusion is generally lower than most of the mainstream media." 2006-09-09: "I'd like to see his whacked-out ideas tested and defeated in court." |
| JiFish (editor) | Joseph Fowler United Kingdom | 2005-12-24: "...[giving] Brandt control over who edits his bio [is]
unacceptable." |
| Alterego (editor) | Brian James Mingus Boulder, Colorado, USA born:1982-09-08 
| 2005-12-29: makes false allegations about PIR's tax-exempt status,
and the legality of NameBase, on Philipp Lenssen's pro-Google forum |
| Jayjg aka Jay (administrator and arbitrator) | John Doe #22 Williamsburg, NY, USA (?) works in management age:in his 40s | 2005-12-29: about Brandt: "He's not concerned about privacy; neither
his own, nor anyone else's. He's more interested in self- promotion, and this is one good way of doing it." |
| Dbiv aka David (administrator) | David Boothroyd City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom born:1972-11-09 
| 2006-01-01: Brandt deleted one sentence from his bio on the grounds
that it invaded his privacy, but Dbiv reverted Brandt one minute later |
| Amcbride aka Allen (editor) | Allen McBride Durham, NC, USA 
| 2006-01-01: suggests that when Brandt lets the print press quote him
on privacy issues, that Brandt automatically becomes a public person for purposes of one sentence about a 37-year-old unrelated incident that Brandt tried to delete |
| Phaedriel aka Sharon K. (administrator) | Sharon Kershee Tahsequah Oklahoma City, OK, USA born:1979-07-29 member of police dept 
| 2006-01-02: about Brandt: "...no whining allowed."
2006-05-28: posts a long, tearful, and ultimately silly letter on Brandt's talk page: "I cling to the hope that this incident may serve you to think at least for a moment before sending another inocent [sic] into the flames without a reason." (These whiny remarks refer to Katefan0, an anonymous admin who, it was discovered, is a professional journalist with a Senate press pass. Katefan0 tinkered with biographies of members of Congress on Wikipedia. Brandt claimed that her anonymity on Wikipedia represented a conflict of interest, and asked her to identify herself on her user page. Instead Katefan0 left Wikipedia and suggested that Brandt was malicious. Other Wikipedians chimed in with support for Katefan0 and new denunciations of Brandt.) |
| Geni (administrator) | John Doe #20 United Kingdom student | 2006-01-17: Brandt tries to characterize himself as an activist on both
accountability and privacy issues, but Geni reverts him so that Wikipedia continues to introduce him as someone who is merely "monitoring privacy violations on the web" |
| 69.182.48.34 (evidence suggests that Pegasus1138 did this) | John Doe #21 Canterbury High School New Milford, CT, USA | 2006-02-12: noticed the new email address for this site and added it
to lists requesting ecommerce offers and similar spam (one of the ecommerce spam bots included the perp's IP address, and we also have exact times in our logs; this sort of harassment is now a felony) |
| Zanimum (administrator) | Nicholas Moreau Brampton, ON, Canada born:1986-11-09 
| 2006-03-16: reverted a comment Brandt made on User_talk:Kittenmarks
because as a Wikipedia spokesman, he had to suppress a funny Harvard Crimson story about Wikipedia |
| Jokestress (editor) | Andrea James Los Angeles, CA, USA born:1967-01-16 
| 2006-04-03: after Brandt removed from this site an image of a letter,
this editor reposted it at a free photo hosting site without permission, in order to sidestep Wikipedia's copyright rules; next, she prominently linked to this image of the letter from two Wikipedia articles |
| Freakofnurture (administrator) | John Doe #23 | 2006-04-03: blocks Brandt for unspecified "vague legal threats"
2006-04-07: incorrectly claims that Brandt has edited Wikipedia under ten different aliases |
| Mackensen (administrator and former arbitrator) | Charles Fulton Kalamazoo College, ' 05 Kalamazoo, MI, USA 
| 2006-04-05: referring to Brandt: "Wikipedia does not negotiate with
terrorists." |
| FireFox aka Phil (administrator) | Phil Gibbs
Kent, United Kingdom born:1990-03-25 
| 2006-04-05: completely deletes Brandt's user page |
| Zscout370 aka Zach (administrator) | Zachary K. Harden Oceanside, California, USA born:1986-05-29 
| 2006-04-05: "This guy is doing everything under the sun to bully his way
onto Wikipedia. He has threatened other users too, and I'm not going to stand by and watch this happen." |
| Eloquence (administrator, developer, and trustee of the Wikimedia Fndn) | Erik Moeller Berlin, Germany (Angela Beesley, trustee of Wikimedia Foundation, is an ex-girlfriend) 
| 2006-04-06: "[If] any person who doesn't like their biography could
request it to be deleted, [this] would result in huge gaps in our coverage. WP is an encyclopedia which attempts to accumulate the sum of all human knowledge, not the sum of knowledge which people find tolerable." (vote to KEEP) |
| Malber (editor) | Michael M. Alber Manchester, NH, USA born:1971-02-22 | 2006-04-06: lists Brandt on a special Wikipedia page that purports to
objectively discuss cranks, kooks, crackpots, and quacks |
| JzG (administrator) | Guy Chapman
Reading, United Kingdom born:1964 
| 2006-04-12: "The guy is a certified kook!" |
| Gmaxwell (editor and developer) (his girlfriend Kat Walsh, user Mindspillage, is a meta-administrator and arbitrator) | Greg Maxwell DeLand, FL, USA born:1979 
| 2006-04-16: After six months of failing to get any of the half-dozen
articles about himself and his sites taken down, Brandt starts detecting visitors from Wikipedia and redirects them to Wikipedia Review. Since Wikipedia has already blacklisted WR, that means all of Brandt's sites need to be blacklisted. This includes the research site NameBase, which has been cited as a reference in a few dozen Wikipedia articles. Greg Maxwell instantly refers to Brandt as someone who "vandalizes huge numbers of pages on Wikipedia ... in effect, [he] has spammed hundreds of Wikipedia articles in one fell swoop." But Brandt did this without even touching Wikipedia! 2006-04-29: keeps deleting a screen shot of the top of this page on copyright grounds, even though there is no conceivable legal problem whatsoever with the image 2006-09-09: Brandt deleted several lines in his bio that he considers actionable under Florida law, and explained why on the Talk page; minutes later Greg Maxwell reverted Brandt and deleted his Talk explanation on the grounds that Brandt is a banned user |
| Jdforrester aka James F. (administrator and arbitrator) | James David Forrester London, United Kingdom born:1983-03-31 
| 2006-04-23: "Brandt's self-puffery isn't worth our time including." |
| Kittybrewster aka William (editor) | Sir William R. Arbuthnot 2nd Bt of Kittybrewster London, United Kingdom born:1950-09-02 
| 2006-04-25: Brandt holds the copyright on an autobiographical essay
he wrote in 1992. On 2005-12-15, Gamaliel linked to a library in Ohio that had posted it without permission. On 2006-04-12, Brandt got the library to take it down. On 2006-04-15 Jokestress found the essay on Google Groups and linked to it. On 2006-04-24 Google took it down at Brandt's request. Today Kittybrewster finds that the library's copy is duplicated at Archive.org and links to it. Brandt sends a take-down request to Archive.org. |
| Jareth aka Shell_Kinney (administrator) | Michelle Kinney Akron, Ohio, USA born:1975-02-21 
| 2006-04-25: an editor deleted the Archive.org link as a copyright
violation, and Jareth reverted this editor without giving any explanation 2006-09-10: deletes from the Talk page Brandt's explanation of why the Wales quote is inaccurate and unreliable, on the grounds that Brandt is a banned user |
| Marudubshinki aka Maru Dubshinki (former admin) | John Doe #28 Riverhead, NY, USA | 2006-04-26: "Seigenthaler never had a case, save in the court of public
opinion, where (the judgement of various uninformed and erroneous pundits to the contrary) he has decisively lost. I can't imagine you'll do much better. But go ahead and make your empty threats, or sue. It'd be nice to have a good solid precedent to use against cranks like you." 2006-05-13: deleted Brandt's defense against Berlet's criticism so as to sabotage the poll taking place on the Talk page about whether to include this criticism in the main article |
| Cyde aka Cyde Weys (administrator) | Ben McIlwain Univ. Maryland, USA undergraduate 
| 2006-04-29: banned editor Strangeland forever, because this editor
posted a screen shot image of the top of this page in an appropriate place on Brandt's article, and then when another editor deleted it, Strangeland had the audacity to point out that all the copyright requirements had been fully met for this image |
| Modemac (administrator) | Eric Walker Quincy, MA, USA age:37 
| 2006-05-06: "In the manner of all good kooks, Mr. Brandt has his own
cadre of fans... Brandt has found that he can get a lot of attention by bashing Wikipedia." |
| Cberlet (editor) |
John Foster (Chip) Berlet born:1949-11-22 wife:Karen A. Moyer Burlington, MA, USA 
| 2006-05-13: claims that the article Brandt wants deleted is a "sanitized
version, lacking sufficient criticism of Brandt," and then proceeds to attack Brandt on the Talk page because the late L.Fletcher Prouty was on his advisory board at the same time that Berlet himself was on it (1989-1990) |
| AngryParsley (editor) | Geoff Greer Yonkers, New York and Spokane, WA (parents) born:1985-03-17 
| 2006-06-15: offered chat logs to this site that were counterfeit, for use
on our hive mind chat room search engine. Geoff Greer specializes in scraping content and scrambling it with Perl, and owns a domain (abughrai.be) that was registered under a false name. |
| NicholasTurnbull (administrator) | Nicholas Turnbull West Sussex, U.K. age:18 
| 2006-07-14: "You know, no matter how much I try to irritate Brandt,
he still doesn't add me to that page of his like he threatens." |
| Fubar_Obfusco (editor) | Karl A. Krueger East Falmouth, MA, USA born:1978-09-14 computer tech at whoi.edu | 2006-07-18: deleted the
Wikipedia-Watch Accountability Project logo,
which illustrated adjacent text in Brandt's bio, stating that the image was "goofy" |
| Raul654 aka Raul (administrator, bureaucrat, arbitrator) | Mark A. Pellegrini
engineering grad student, University of Delaware, USA born:1982-06-19 
| 2006-06 to 2007-03: kept
six PIR websites on the Wikimedia Foundation
spam blacklist out of vindictiveness, despite protests from other editors |
| JoshuaZ (administrator) | Joshua (Josh) B. Zelinsky
Yale, class of 2007 New Haven, Connecticut, USA age:23 
| 2006-12-10: "There is no reason to let him [Brandt] edit this [Brandt's]
talk page." |