Wikipedia Votes to Terminate Richard Symonds Admin Status, Unbans Alleged ‘Shapps’ Account and Releases Hugely Damaging Ruling Regarding Guardian Newspaper

EpicGuardianFail

The Guardian published an article claiming that Contribsx had been banned as a sockpuppet of Grant Shapps MP 17 minutes before the 1 minute trial, conducted by a Guardian source, even opened.

The Witchfinder reports on astonishing developments in the Grant Shapps MP / Contribsx Wikipedia Case, which has closed a few minutes ago. As a reminder the case before ArbCom concerns allegations reported in the Guardian Newspaper by journalist Randeep Ramesh that Grant Shapps MP operated a sockpuppet account called Contribsx, used to puff himself and badmouth political rivals in his own party.

Another body at Wikipedia has now made a further ruling unbanning Contribsx on the grounds that his ‘trial’ was a shambles, with disturbing revelations including the fact that the Guardian reported the result online before the investigation page was even created.

[Edit – now incorporating Guardian responses to my complaint 12/06/2015]

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Guardian Confirms Investigation Into Complaint About Journalist Randeep Ramesh Who Wrote Wikipedia Story

The Witchfinder has some concerns about ethical journalism.

Before beginning this article, it is necessary to declare my interests. This is already stated elsewhere, however, cards on the table –

  • I am a Conservative blogger (and Party member)
  • I know Grant

Having said that, I have criticised Shapps stridently and impartially where appropriate in the past. and I intend to be impartial here.

The reason for my disclosures is that I have made a complaint about the journalist who wrote the Grant Shapps story, Randeep Ramesh, and the Guardian have now confirmed they are looking into it. This story sets out my reasoning as a follow-up from my earlier story, which has now been picked up by the BBC.

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Explosive! Grant Shapps MP Vindicated by Wikipedia Investigation! Accuser Contact With Guardian “was not appropriate” – Arbcom Voting on Sanctions Now

The Wikipedia Arbitation Committee (ArbCom) is a respected and thoughtful quasi-judicial body that has ultimate oversight of disputes on Wikipedia. It has been so successful as to be cited in academic articles as a model for dispute resolution. An investigation by ArbCom whose proposed findings were released a few hours ago has comprehensively devastated media claims that Grant Shapps MP edited his own or colleagues’ Wikipedia entries. Members of ArbCom have proposed dismissing his accuser and are voting now.

GrantShappsTeam2015

Grant Shapps MP – Innocent Victim of Political Smears

What sort of person has a username of “Chase Me Ladies, I’m the Cavalry“? Aside from the obvious drawback of taking a really long time to type, it has the secondary problems of being prima-facie sexist (as opposed to imaginary SJW sexism) and somewhat creepy.

When people like Anita Sarkeesian or @Eastgate talk about pervasive misogyny or a hostile environment your author often treats them with scepticism but in this case it looks pretty clear cut. Imagine setting that as a username or email address in any other workplace?

The username is that of Richard Symonds, the Wikipedia administrator and Liberal Democrat who accused Grant Shapps, who thinks it amusing. That alone raises questions about his judgement and suitability. The name itself has lent a slightly surreal air to the ArbCom proceedings and seems inconsistent with Liberal Democrat stated policy on equality.

It is frankly bizarre that the left would criticise the entirely reasonable decision of ArbCom over #GamerGate but ignore a person whose username is a hair away from, “Stick to the Kitchen Sink, Girls!”

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KotakuInAction Reforms – We Came for the Games, Now we Must Stay for the Politics

Vivian James

Vivan James has been called the daughter of #GamerGate. Will she become mother of a new political movement against the authoritarian left?

The phenomenal success of KotakuInAction has revealed the spectacular groundswell of dissatisfaction and rage not just against gaming journalists but against the oppressive and increasingly extreme ‘Social Justice Movement’. As the population of KotakuInAction grows larger its moderators have recognised the need for change. The Witchfinder agrees and urges them to seize this opportunity.

KotakuInAction, a Reddit forum less than 9 months old. has been spectacularly successful. It now boasts over 34,000 members. At slow periods it always seems to have at least 500-600 users logged in and at peak periods there are thousands.

KiA, as its members know it, is a forum that was set up in relation to the #GamerGate scandal, which is broadly about the corruption of journalists in computer games and in particular their attempts to shill extreme left wing ideologies that normal people rightly reject.

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Report From the #GamerGate Meetup – Celebrate!

Foie Gras 1

Foie Gras on Warm Brioche with Apple – All the Richer Whilst Contemplating the Ruin of Bigoted SJWs!

The Witchfinder reports from the #GamerGate meetup on Saturday 18/04/2015 .

Central London is a great place to celebrate, and what a lot of things GamerGate has to celebrate! This week alone Liberal Democrat and former Block Bot administrator (she used to host the Block Bot checker) Sarah Noble has been suspended from her role on the Liberal Democrat regional executive committee and forced to resign from the executive of the Secular and Humanist Liberal Democrats.

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Resources on the ‘Pay Gap’

Recently the beautiful and persuasive @Shoe0nhead of YouTube fame shared a pastebin with information and statistics about the alleged male / female pay gap. Your author thought it might be useful to collect the documents in a more accessible page and the video for context is below.

The essence of the debate is that some on the left say there is an unjust gap between male and female earnings. The counter argument is that in fact these figures only arise from contentious studies that do not adjust for occupation and that male and female earnings differ because of different life paths whereas women and men in the same jobs have similar earnings. As Shoe points out, there is … a lot … of evidence for her point of view –

Consad Report (via US Department of Labor)
In short –

“[…]this study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in the compensation of men and women are the result of a multitude of factors and that the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action. Indeed, there may be nothing to correct. The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of the individual choices being made by both male and female workers.”

Articles
Wall Street Journal – “There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap”
New York Times – “Fair Pay Isn’t Always Equal Pay”
New York Times – “Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces”
New York Times – “For Young Earners in Big City, a Gap in Women’s Favor ”
New York Times / Economix Blog – “Share of Men in Labor Force at All-Time Low”
Time Magazine – “Workplace Salaries: At Last, Women on Top”
Bloomberg – “Don’t Blame Discrimination for Gender Wage Gap
Forbes – “It’s Time That We End the Equal Pay Myth”
Reuters – “Female U.S. corporate directors out-earn men: study”
Telegraph – “The gender pay gap does not exist”
Telegraph – “Sorry ladies, I’m not worried about wage gaps”
USA Today – “More parents share the workload when mom learns to let go
ABC News – “Women CEOs Beat Men in Pay in 2009”
CBS News – “The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth”
CNN – “Survey: Working dads want more family time”
CNN – “Women ‘opt out’ of career success”
MSNBC – “‘Sea change’ seen in spouses’ financial roles”
Business Insider – “8 Reasons Why The “Gender Pay Gap” Is A Total Sham”
Huffington Post – “Wage Gap Myth Exposed — By Feminists”
Examiner – “Gender pay gap is not what activists claim”
Marketwatch – “The gender wage gap is a myth”
American Thinker – “The Wage Gap Myth”
Zero Hedge – “The Biggest Shock From This Friday’s Payroll Report (Sorry Men)”
Payscale – “Majors by Gender: Is It Bias or the Major that Determines Future Pay?”
Science 2.0 – “Women In Science: No Discrimination, Says Cornell Study”
How Stuff Works – “Is there a gender gap in the workplace?”

Videos
American Enterprise Institute – “The pay inequality myth: Women are more equal than you think”
Shoe0nHead – “#equalpayday”

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ICO Update

Your author was actually going to issue Court proceedings today in the County Court for a Small Claim against James Billingham. I have no idea why he thinks I have dropped matters as I said the exact reverse. Before issuing the claim form I had contacted the police and offered the opportunity to object but they had not done so. In fact they have been very reasonable.

UPDATE – 11/04/2015 – So last night a DS from Hampshire phoned me. She said that Mr Billingham had never, in fact, made a statement – so his claims about an ongoing investigation and the police agreeing with him or whatever up until now are in fact factually incorrect. Mr Billingham has been invited to make a statement so the police can then investigate or alternatively, decide there is no case to answer.

But then … chasing the Information Commissioners Office … I discovered that the wheels of bureaucracy have been turning and the ICO have now allocated an officer to investigate 🙂 . I was able to get hold of them for a brief chat and to provide some further information.

We also briefly discussed the various defences advanced by the Block Bot. Obviously, the officer is quite rightly still forming a view but I can say I am very happy with what I was told and that they have moved other things aside to ensure this is looked into properly. So I think now things are moving I can wait a few weeks more. This, I suspect, will be amusing …

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Chair of UK Conservative Party Grant Shapps MP on Gawker.com Coca-Cola Robot Stunt – “Nazism and anyone sympathising for it is simply unacceptable”

Grant Shapps MP

Grant Shapps MP

This is going to be an upbeat post. The Witchfinder is pleased to note that people are listening to reasonable persuasion from GamerGate as well as other sensible, moderate voices. The battle against the unhinged, out-of-control left, the so-called ‘Social Justice Warriors’ can be hard. When there are setbacks or things seem to be going badly it is worth reminding ourselves of our successes.

No matter how much the left-wingers who infest the media try to talk it down, from their perspective the truth is grim. Moderate and Conservative voices in the gaming industry and more generally in society outnumber them vastly.

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The Block Bot’s PR Problem

The Witchfinder thought a screenshot of the Block Bot’s current rankings would amuse and rally the forces of reason, be they #GamerGate, moderate atheists like Professor Dawkins or the feminists with whom we find common cause on this issue. Googling ‘The Block Bot’ yields the following –

At the time of writing, the only positive sites about The Block Bot on the front page of Google are the Block Bot itself on Twitter and its website. Every other article is adverse. Now, I believe we have some Wikipedia editors in our ranks and that Wikipedia has rules about only using reputable sources. Not exactly a shortage, is there? Even the BBC. Oolon / James Billingham’s desperate spinning will not restore their reputation. Everyone knows who they are now.

BlockBotRankings

The Block Bot website and some negative articles.

BlockBotRankings2

The Block Bot’s Twitter and Negative Articles.

BlockBotRankings3

The last of the top ten Google results. Another negative article about the Block Bot.

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The Block Bot Fact Checked

In the wake of recent humiliating revelations that the Block Bot has been blocking celebrities like Professor Richard Dawkins their team have been spinning desperately. The Witchfinder reviews and clarifies their claims as needed.

The Claim – Barack Obama is Not on the Block Bot

ObamaIsNotBlocked

Obama is Not Blocked … Anymore.

True … now … but that has never been the allegation. The allegation in my article was that ‘Barack Obama was on at one point’, as this archive demonstrates. Barack Obama was listed in the Block Bot as Level 1 … the “Worst of the Worst”.

BarackObamaScreenshot

Barack Obama! Level 1 Troll. “The Worst of the Worst” … According to the Block Bot.

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