Mark Bernstein’s unhinged attempts to prove myself and the rest of #GamerGate right have finally reached their denouement when he spent all day hounding the female Wikipedians of the Year, accusing the Arbitration Committee of conspiring with GamerGate.
Jimmy Wales, “I recommend the Twitter block button”, Molly White (GorillaWarfare), “Done” – click for full size.
Tweet here, archive here.
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Today, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales named two women as “Wikipedians of the Year” (archive here). Regrettably these women, Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, were immediately attacked by notorious bigot Mark Bernstein, who demanded on Twitter (archive here), “what did the Wikipedians of the year do to stop right-wing threats and extortion at Wikipedia?”
Two Prolific Female Editors are Named Wikipedians of the Year and Immediately Attacked by Bernstein. (Minor cosmetic amendments to photo for parody purposes).
Mark Bernstein, the self styled ‘Chief Scientist’ of his company Eastgate Systems (and also pretty much the only scientist of the tiny company), has a long history of using Wikipedia to promote his own views and prejudices. He is currently serving a 6-week Wikipedia block (archive here) and and indefinite topic ban from ‘any gender-related dispute or controversy […] broadly construed’ (archive here) due to ‘a pattern’ of misconduct and insensitive remarks in this area.
In my article, Improper of last year I exposed Bernstein as having made numerous edits to articles about his own company and its products contrary to Wikipedia policy on conflict of interest.
In this case, the female subjects of Mark Bernstein’s attack could not be more inappropriate and ironic. Whilst Bernstein claims to support feminists, as in his lengthy and regrettable article, Infamous, his targets in this incident, women of achievement, could not have greater credentials in the fight against harassment.
To quote the Huffington Post, “Student Emily Temple-Wood Writes A New ‘Women In Science’ Wikipedia Entry Every Time She’s Harassed” (archive here). Unlike many self-styled social justice warriors, Temple-Wood largely eschews Wikipedia’s drama boards and actually writes articles.
Similarly, Stephenson-Goodknight has contributed to over 3,000 content articles and was a founder of the Wikipedia Teahouse, an induction programme for new members.
In the wake of the Okaloosa School threats, the Witchfinder reveals that an absence of US law enforcement activity over sinister website Kiwi Farms has led to further vigilante threats, including a detailed guide to retaliatory harassment of the operator and the sending of false anthrax packages. Josh Moon has had many enemies on the chan boards and elsewhere for some time, long before I wrote about the site. Their opposition to Kiwi Farms and Moon shows every sign of intensifying.
Escambia County. On the left, Joshua Conner Moon with a small child. Perhaps it is one of the children Kiwi Farms recently voted to target. On the right a terrorist with Anthrax. Center – Sheriff David Morgan looks on. Image used under the UK Parody exception pursuant to s30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Child is a stock image from Dreamstime.
Last week, Hertfordshire police received a menacing email trying to imply I was a criminal. They immediately realised it was fake, and put it in to their technical unit for tracing. It was not the first time. Needless to say it seemd to come from a domain owned by Joshua Conner Moon, the operator of the ‘GamerGate.us’ email service, which falsely poses as the #GamerGate movement for trolling purposes.
Joshua Moon’s site Kiwi Farms has been increasingly controversial for some time now due to its explicit targeting of preteen children and the disabled, as well as high profile individuals like former Nintendo PR Alison Rapp. In my initial article on the subject, I documented how multiple hosting companies had banned the site. French hosting company Gandi.net expressly confirmed that Kiwi Farms was banned after child pornography was found.
In a later article, with links and archives, I provided evidence that Kiwi Farms were openly organising frightening forged emails to women, in the name of other women and with penis photos and similar attached. A member boasted of organising SWATtings and one screenshotted a massacre threat they sent to Hertfordshire police. The same article linked to a vote taken on Kiwi Farms to target under age children and gave an example of their doing exactly that by harvesting family photos of a 5-year old boy. Clearly many of these activities are illegal under Federal United States and Florida law.
Most message boards that provide questionable content avoid participation and rely on immunity under section 230 of the United States Communications Decency Act 1996. Case law shows that this immunity can be lost if you join in the fray and participate by creating editorial content, which of course Moon does on a regular basis. He would be well advised to read this article here (archive here).
So this happened. I got most of my grades for my law course and I am nearly done. Of note I got a distinction for litigation (conducting court proceedings) on the civil and criminal side. Much to my astonishment I also received a grade of 100% for conduct (ethics). This makes me one of the most ethical law students of all time.
Some of my law grades. 100% for conduct.
I have decided to refocus this blog more ethically based on feedback from KotakuInAction and elsewhere. There will be more law and factual pieces with fewer hitpieces along with a slightly gentler style. I will be posting the new style stuff under my real name, with occasional harder pieces by ‘Matthew Hopkins’ for old times’ sake.
So let us turn now to Zoe Quinn and her purported, ‘victory’ over Eron Gjoni. What does the recent judgement of the Massachussetts Appeal Court mean and who (if anyone) won anything?
Firstly, we need to go to the original document, which is here, for a detailed analysis. On an interesting note, Zoe has changed her legal name from Chelsea Van Valkenburg to Zoë Tiberius Quinn. Tiberius was a Roman Emperor said to be a “dark, reclusive, and sombre ruler who never really desired to be emperor”, according to Wikipedia.
Mark Bernstein’s behaviour has always been … eccentric, even before his recent formal topic ban from #GamerGate and indeed, any gender related controversy on Wikipedia (archive here). As far as I can understand his latest rant, he has been escalated beyond complaining that criticising individuals to their employers or about their employment is ‘harassment’. Bernstein now describes it as ‘extortion’, the US equivalent of the UK crime of Blackmail contrary to s21 Theft Act 1978.
Mark Bernstein characterises criticism of anti-GamerGate Wikipedia administrators in the context of their jobs as ‘extortion’. Click for full size.
Based on his various ramblings on Wikipedia (archive here) and elsewhere, Mark thinks that controversial Wikipedia arbitrator Gamaliel asked to be banned form enforcement related to the GamerGate article and related matters in order to signal GamerGate to leave him alone.
By chance, Gamaliel was a person mentioned in a draft article about the unjust ban of editor The Devil’s Advocate (TDA) from Wikipedia some months ago. I sent it for comment to everyone mentioned in accordance with ethical practice, but then postponed it due to the arbitration case. For background on TDA’s ban, there is an excellent article by Allum Bokhari here on Breitbart.
This article is a further exposé of the sickening sexual deviants who run and participate in Kiwi Farms, a trolling website operated by an unemployed man called Joshua Conner Moon. Moon lives in Escambia County Florida with his mother, Keller Williams Realtor Candice Potter. Previous articles have focused on Moon himself, but this one focuses on a user called Dynastia, a friend of Moon and user of his site. Dynastia has been organising the sending of penis photos to women for harassment purposes on a near industrial scale and recently had a formal vote passed at Kiwi Farms that they could target children, which was then carried out.
Sheriff Morgan, please let Matthew Hopkins News give you a solid tip-off about some possible sex crimes.
What Has Come Before?
To recap for those who are unfamiliar with Kiwi Farms, it is a website set up to troll and harass the vulnerable online. Kiwi Farms recently had its main account, @KiwiFarms, indefinitely suspended from Twitter (pre-suspension archive here) after my intervention. This is unsurprising as the tagline was, “Gossip and exploitation of the mentally handicapped for amusement purposes”.
In my original article, I had seen some quotes on Encyclopaedia Dramatica in which Moon was said to have boasted of paedopilia, but I did not accept these serious allegations until I received a separate tip-off that Moon’s site contained child pornography. Rather than view the URIs I contacted the hosting company, which banned Moon.
Subsequently, several hosts in succession removed the site. One, ethical French company Gandi.net told Moon that they had independently verified there was child pornography and it was so serious that he would not be given a second chance. A full size image of their exchange with Moon is here.
The Witchfinder identifies another developer thoughtlessly willing to alienate his customers with ignorant and bigoted opinions about #GamerGate and its supporters.
Joe Wintergreen mouths off ignorantly. This is not the way to sell games, or have a career in the games industry. Click for full size.
Today I learnt about some games I had never heard of before. Impromptu Games developer Joe Wintergreen is the proud author of Half Life 2 mod – ‘Shotgun Sunrise’ and its derivative, ‘Vroom!’ a racing game. I am not sure if modifying a first person shooter into a slightly different first person shooter is that great an accomplishment, but Shotgun Sunrise gets a just-above-mediocre 7.3 from the ModDB Community.
I saw your post Josh and just this once I shall try to respond.
Joshua Moon seems a bit upset. Just this once, your author will respond. Click for full size.
Dear Josh,
I read your post addressed to me and just this once I will respond to you in the hope that this will help you.
Firstly, unlike you I do not live with my mother and I do not claim benefits (you searched my address, remember?) Aside from paid work, I do charity work assisting vulnerable people in court. I have had a fairly high profile life and many people have said good and bad things about me. I am not motivated by your criticisms of me. I have not lifted a finger to try to silence other sites like Encyclopaedia Dramatica or Archant, for example.
The target of the Okaloosa School Threats, Joshua Conner Moon, runs a harassment site that prioritises the disabled, vulnerable and women and has regularly been the target of SWATting attempts, such as the 2014 attack on their previous host Linode (archive here). Linode were also targeted by an incredibly powerful DarkNet attack in early 2016 (archive here). Currently Moon and his gang are organising cyber harassment of women. Sheriff Ashley needs to get on it – because even if Moon is a hoax victim, he is not an innocent victim.
In this post on Kiwifarms, a user forges an email from self-described feminist Randi Harper, to another self-described feminist Candace Owens. This happens right in front of Moon, who bans neither user. The now deleted imgur link is said to be a picture of a penis. The entire site is full of content like this, encouraged by Moon. Click for full size.
Right before the Okaloosa hoax Josh Moon had opened a thread for his new email service GamerGate.us. The entire thread is exclusively full of people registering accounts in the name of people and companies they oppose, and sending emails in their name.
The first email in the thread purports to be from Zoe Quinn and is sent to Contact180, the project she recently opposed. Impersonation and Harassment are crimes in Florida. Josh is at the head of that thread and he bans or discourages no one.
The inevitable denouement of ‘That Which Sleeps’. Your author asks readers to report King Dinosaur Games to the Federal Trade Commission.
Nearly 18 months to the day, on 22/10/2014, I paid $50 into the Kickstarter for proposed Indie game ‘That Which Sleeps’. The game sounded appealing and the developers King Dinosaur Games (Joseph Vivolo and Joshua Perry) said it was almost written. Many were convinced and backers paid $85,593 into the Kickstarter against a $12,000 goal.
A note in the ‘Story’ section of the ‘That Which Sleeps’ Kickstarter.
The developers promised a game in two months. A year later, after many delays, I wrote the blog post, ‘Those Who Wait’. After sending the developers the draft and a threat of a report to the FTC, they refunded the money whilst I slept and excluded myself and another dissenter from their forums.
Joseph Vivola and Joshua Perry better keep their promises.
Now, 18 months since backers were promised a game, 16 months after the proposed beta release, the developers claim to be out of money.
Fenicks (Joseph Vivolo) claims the King Dinosaur Games team are out of money. Your author says ‘show us the accounts’. Click for full size.
Having had a full refund, your author has no claim against King Dinosaur Games. However there were thousands of other backers. Your author strongly suggests they ask for the developers to account for the money – and if they cannot produce accounts backed by bank statements then backers should report them to the FTC.
The US Federal Trade Commission took legal action against the developer of another Lovecraftian themed game, “The Doom that Came to Atlantic City” in very similar circumstances in 2015. That Kickstarter too had a great campaign, convincing mockups of the final product and massively exceeded its goals. It turned out the developer had in fact spent most of the money on himself.
Kickstarter backers who have not received a refund can contact the FTC here.
