• @schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -1310 months ago

    Remember, if you donate to the WMF, they will use that money to enforce “WMF global bans” against users trying to make useful contributions but who once looked at the wrong people funny.

    • @tabular@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      910 months ago

      Who’s trying to making useful contributions but got banned, and what were they banned for?

      • @schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -1010 months ago

        One of the earliest global bans was against user “russavia” - research him and you’ll know what I’m talking about. After that I stopped following Wikimedia internals because it was 100% clear that they were now just completely arbitrarily banning people.

        • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2110 months ago

          Banned user Russavia edited two of the oligarch articles. He was a very active administrator on Wikimedia Commons, who specialized in promoting the Russian aviation industry, and in disrupting the English-language Wikipedia.

          After finally being banned on the English Wikipedia, he created dozens of sockpuppets. Russavia, by almost all accounts, is not a citizen or resident of Russia, but his edits raise some concern and show some patterns.

          In 2010, he boasted, on his userpage at Commons, that he had obtained permission from the official Kremlin.ru site for all photos there to be uploaded to Commons under Creative Commons licenses. He also made 148 edits at Russo-Georgian War, and 321 edits on the ridiculously detailed International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both of these articles were, at one time, strongly biased in favor of Russia.

          Idk, when you’re using Wikipedia as a tool to push Russian propaganda, it seems fair that you’d be banned. That’s not what Wikipedia is for. He’s free to start russopedia.ru or whatever if he wants to do that.

        • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          510 months ago

          You could have just said you’re upset that a Russian propagandist was banned. Would have been quicker and more honest lol.