This is a repost of a blogger entry I wrote on January 1st.
It was premeditated and pathological. Kelly Martin (a.k.a Kelly Loren, a.k.a Kelly The Hun), an appointed administrator on the highly popular Wikipedia website, apparently went power mad and ran amok last night deleting numerous so called Userboxes on the site’s database (with no voting or due process as is customary on Wikipedia) when no one was paying attention - during the New Year’s Eve festivities.
Userboxes are info blocks that show what individual Wikipedians (The editors) are interested in and/or their affiliations (”This user supports Amnesty International” or “This user is a republican”)
Giving reasons such as “Those templates are crap and should be deleted.” and “Screw” the process, referring to the democratic voting process that takes place when an item is up for deletion on Wikipedia, she unilaterally went on a moral crusade to delete whatever template she disagreed with (even the Amnesty International one citing “use of unfree images”, though in this case untrue - The image was replaced days earlier with a free version made by yours truly).
This was not left without an outcry from hundreds of Wikipedians worldwide who were turning on their computers one by one after their new year’s celebrations. An official Request for Comment was issued and a debate ensued.
Her deletes have since been reverted, but she still remains an administrator with no regret for her actions while maintaining her holier-than-thou attitude.
“I’ve done this before, and I’ll do it again in the future”
“And I have the utmost of respect for the spirit of this project, far more than do the people who create this pox of stupid and useless userboxes. I have long been on record as willing to disregard the formal written policy of Wikipedia when it gets in the way of doing the right thing.”
“Screw process. Those templates are crap and should be deleted.”
It is not yet clear if she will remain an administrator after her blatand abuse of power and uncivil response to those that opposed her actions, but this wikipedian will surely keep an eye on this rotten apple for at least some time to come.
Update:
Her latest fuckup: She blocked a proxy IP address with numerous Wikipedians behind it.
