Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Certified Gangsta (talk | contribs) at 04:52, 22 November 2008. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Dear fellow Wikipedians,

It is with the utmost pride and sincereity that I address to all of you, friends and foes, secret admirers and outspoken critics, administrators and newbies, or maybe just someone passing through this unworthy talkpage of mine, maybe for the one last time.

Most of you probably already heard the bad break I got this morning. I am not going to post any diffs. here. I have already resigned to my fate. I am not here to contest my block, demand the desysopping of the involved admins, or appeal through a different venue (even though I should be). I just want to set the record straight. Perception vs. reality is the ultimate issue of social interaction. Once those at the top portray you as the "evil", it is impossible for the crowd to see you at a different light.

The episode is remarkably absurd and needlessly dramatic. I concede that I grossly underestimated the power of a group of administrators who can literally gang up on an established, experienced editor, any established, experienced editor. They can call them the nastiest names possibles to a good faith editors (trolls, vandal, you name it) while looking past the editors positive contributions and their own shortcomings. They can single-handedly take everything away from you. In my candidate statement for the arbCom election, I explicitly stated that I am not part of the so-called "establishment". My block right now is a testament to that fact. Misplaced Pages is running scared. The elite does not want "change" and a "new voice" in any governing body. They can dig up ancient diffs. and make them look like blockable offense. They seem to think that as sysop, their opinions take pretense over the average powerless editors.

I have always been a firm believer that the purpose of education is to make us think critically and to question authority. In an ideal world, these "questioning" should be encouraged and rewarded. Unfortunately, Misplaced Pages is no utopia. I have always been an aggressive editor. I never hesitate to speak up when I see powerless editors get abused by admins or the blatant double standard in policy enforcement. I like to play the role of the “attack dog” in the Giano arbitration case and the IRC case, in which Bish was insulted by a former rogue admin. I agree that my style may not be optimal, but I am a pragmatist and it seems to be the only way to impact and implement positive changes and to uphold the NPOV policy. Needless to say, I have made countless enemies in the past. Some of them are the so-called "power brokers" of our community. They include the "persona non grata" on my talkpage. Most of them are either rogue admins, trigger-happy members of WP:BASEBALL, and members of WP:CHINA (who made a concerted effort to boot me off the project during the Certified.Gangsta vs. Ideogram arbCom case). At the moment, the arbCom thread as well as my candidacy page look like a concerted anti-Certified.Gangsta campaign. Those who had unpleasant experience or disagreement with me in the past rushed to join the fray, anxious to kick me when I'm down. The most disgraceful of all is User:Dengero from WikiProject: China, who right after my block, shamelessly reverted all my recent edits to the questionable retired baseball player userboxes and articles of page 3 girls even though he was not part of the discussion is any of these venues. It is evident that he is doing this out of personal vendetta.

Under normal circumstances, the edits I have made would not give me a disgraceful one-week block. Admins would not be acting this recklessly without the tacit approval of the ones who call the shot behind-the-scene. They would not threaten to block an editor because he questioned his administrative conduct. They would not threaten to block an editor because he is in the middle of a content dispute with him. They would not threaten to take away an established editors rollback rights with a strong record on anti-sockpuppet efforts and NPOV prevention even though he uses rollback with strong discretion. And most importantly, they would not block a good-faith editor who voluntarily submits an issue to AN/I for advisory opinions.

Two days ago, I was scanning through AN/I when I noticed a thread titled User: Alex contributing from L.A. who was apparently a ban-evading sock of a puppet master. The puppet master was blocked 2 years ago for making death threats. He was still contending that the original block was invalid. This episode reminds me of User:PoolGuy arbCom case, which happened when I first arrived in Misplaced Pages. Ironically, Alex has a patron. His name is Admin User:Future Perfect at Sunrise. Future decided to unblock Alex after almost no discussion on AN/I. When I questioned the unblock, Future Perfect, angry at the fact that someone is questioning his judgment, became extremely defensive and was eager to shut me up by saying "let's close this discussion". He accused me of NPA against ban-evading sock Alex. He then tried to exonerate Alex's pass transgression and sockpuppetry 110 as well as demonstrating a flawed understanding of WP:SOCK. He then failed to assume good faith WP:AGF by accusing me of boosting your Arbcom candidature by creating a tough-guy profile on ANI? Good lord. Go do what you must and get your "landmark case" rolling, but try to not waste the time of your more mature fellow wikipedians all too much in the process, willya? He then accused me of disruption on 3 fronts, the 3rd one was his categorization of “aggressive poking of Alex” and the first 2 he had no previous input in.

Front #1 is the principals at Magee Secondary School, a page I have edited for almost 2 years. This page, along with Dominguez High School and Kitsilano High School, is on my watchlist and I have frequently prevented persistent vandalism in the past. I have good reason to question the edits as self-promotional on the part of Randy George. Even the editor I was in dispute with, Onorem, agreed that I am editing in good faith and my doubts are well-founded. After reliable, up-to-date sources are provided, I ceased reverting.

Front #2 is what Future labels as big-breasts fixation. I want to go on record to say that I am the champion of gender equality and a sex-positive feminist. Accusing me of misogyny and sexism are the ultimate insults to both me and my mother, who as a single mother, taught me the importance of treating women with dignity and respect. Keeley Hazell, Lucy Pinder, and Michelle Marsh (model), all of which belonged to the category “List of big bust models and performers” had long hosted “noted for her large, natural breasts” in the openings with appropriate citations with little to no objections. During that night, I added similar descriptions to other articles that were part of the “list of big bust models and performers” as well as Salma Hayek (with appropriate citations as well as reference to David Letterman’s show in the edit summary). During this time, Future, eager to take revenge based on personal vendetta in the Alex affair, never mentioned any BLP concern, but instead accused me of misogyny and sexism. My main problem with this issue is that Misplaced Pages is known to be not censored. If my addition was not about breasts size but other physical attributes with citations, my edits would not have been impeded and censored by Future. This double standard is extremely troubling. Ironically enough, I was not blocked for the edits made to Salma Hayek (the article Future was crusaing against me on), but to edits made to articles that belonged to list of big busts models and performers (which Future did not attempt to revert) for BLP. Note that, no one has ever explicitly state what the BLP violation is. And during my content dispute with Future, he never mentioned his contention is based on BLP concern. It is common for articles to contain information that are not always cited. Demanding a cite for every trivial detail is unfeasible. For articles included in “list of big bust models and performers”, the opening is hardly controversial. Calling it “disruption” and “blockable” offense is flat-out laughable.

The rest happened this morning. I don’t need to reiterate what happened. I posted Future’s unadminlike behavior on AN/I seeking advisory opinions from experienced admins and e-mailed Bish to seek her opinion. She seemed a bit busy in RL currently and said she would look into it later. The AN/I thread snowballed with hostile admins I had history with attempting to blur the issue by pointing to my other unrelated edits and my userspace to dismiss my credibility. After the thread was quickly closed, they took actions to block me, locked down my talkpage, reverted on my proudest work on Misplaced Pages, and sabotaged my arbCom candidacy, presumably after discussion in IRC.

One of my detractors’ obsessions is to point out my disruptive, POV-pushing behaviors in my old account Freestyle.king before legally changing my username through the due process. (someone else recreated the account recently and was indef. Blocked. The indef. Blocked is not mine.) That was my newbie account. I am not going to lie. I got off to a bumpy start. Bish regarded me as a problem user and kind of took me under her wings. I have been doing my best to be productive and stay out of trouble ever since.

For a brief while, Misplaced Pages took over my life. I ditched parties, dumped my girls, and even quitted school. Even though I was sorely disappointed at the direction of the project, I come back again and again holding out the faint hope that even though I am just an average editor whose voice carries no weight whatsoever, I could still influence positive changes.

It seems like every time I try to come back, make something meaningful out of my Wiki-life, and rehabilitate my image, a concerted effort would seek to drive me out again. I have taken on a lot of shit throughout the years. I am sick and tired of listing them all, but I had enough.

My arbCom candidacy is another attempt of mine to serve the community I learned to love. I know from the very start that I am a longshot at best. Someone told me certain Wikipedians are impressed with my answers on the questions. Thank you for the encouragement. I am very flattered.

Growing up in Compton, California, I choose usernames such as “Bonafide.hustla”, “Certified.Gangsta”, and “NWA.Rep” despite significant ridicules from the community. Being one of the few Wikipedians with any sort of street credibility, I often find it frustrating to blend in to the mainstream. Often times, this seems like a gated elitist community that rejects the slightly less enlightened minds.

To my critics, thank you for challenging me by being my worthy opponents. Don’t blame yourself. Take it easy. Pop the champagne. To my dear friends and (potential) supporters, I am going to cherish the fun times and pleasant memory forever. Best wishes.

Despite this ultimate setback in my life, I consider myself one the most accomplished non-admins here. If I didn’t have the balls to stand up in the joke banner incident, Ideogram’s bullying, Sumple’s baiting, LionheartX’s sockpuppet and harassment campaign, Viridae’s double standard in policy enforcement, Fred Bauer’s personal attack on Giano, and Future’s personal vendetta, a big part of Misplaced Pages’s articles would have been taken over by communist fanatics and rogue admins.

Certified.Gangsta’s last wish is that people respect my userpage as it is and keep my arbCom candidacy. I may be gone, but this grassroots movement must be kept alive.

Despite all this, now, I must turn around, find a gun on the ground, cock it. Put it to my brain and scream "die Bonafide hustla" and pop it The sky darkens, my life flashes, the plane that I was supposed to be on crashes and burns to ashes.

And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn

Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice…

Thank you for sharing this chapter of my life with me.

Thank you Jimbo for giving me the opportunity to edit on this site.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

Peace,

NWA.Rep aka Certified.Gangsta aka Bonafide.hustla

R.I.P.