User talk:Antarcticsuburbs

November 2008

You have been blocked indefinitely from editing in accordance with Wikipedia's blocking policy for attempting to obtain the e-mail address of an editor for the purpose of harassing them (see WP:ANI#User:Antarcticsuburbs and coordinate attack from skepchick.org). If you believe this block is unjustified you may contest this block by adding the text {{unblock|your reason here}} below. EyeSerene^talk 11:33, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

I really was not trying to obtain Damien's e-mail address for the purpose of harassing him.

I was trying to obtain his PHYSICAL mailing address for that purpose.

I'm kidding, of course.

Actually, I am writing a book about Wikipedia as a social phenomenon, and I currently am wanting to interview people who are unanimously hated and reviled within the Wikipedia community, for a chapter on what I hear are known as "trolls," that is, people who make it their sole pasttime to delete other people's entries and mindlessly contest their every statement, typically because of political or religious motivations.

By all accounts, Damiens.rf is a troll of the worst order, and so I feel my book would be incomplete without his presence. Damiens, if you're out there, my offer still stands.

Of course we believe you. It also seems I misread your intent, but trying to obtain his RL address rather than (as I thought) his e-mail address really doesn't make the situation any better, and could put your group in a difficult position should Damiens.rf decide to follow things up with your ISP. I sympathise with your annoyance at having an article you've all worked hard on nominated for deletion, but you're not the first and unfortunately won't be the last. From my experience of these things the article appears to have enough reliable sources to assert the notability of its subject, and I'd imagine whatever administrator closes the AfD debate will close it as a 'keep'. However, we do expect all editors here to follow our policies and interact with each other in a polite, collegiate manner (WP:CIVIL) regardless of the provocation, so I have to ask you to drop the personal attacks before I'm forced to lock this page. I see nothing in your post that would persuade me to unblock this account, but if you want to make a formal unblock request, instructions are in the above templated notice. EyeSerene^talk 11:13, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Well, if I'm blocked, I'm blocked. I'll accept that. My apologies for adding to this situation.

Thank you for the apology, it's much appreciated. AfD debates often become contentious, and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Rebecca Watson is very mild compared to some :P I can only try to reassure you that each article is judged solely on its merits, regardless of anything that goes on elsewhere, and comments made in the heat of the moment by you and others in your forum will have absolutely no bearing on the result (and as a safeguard there are mechanisms in place to catch those articles that do get mistakenly deleted). It's only really a concern if an AfD becomes so disrupted by organised off-site canvassing that eventually it has to be abandoned and relisted, which is a waste of everyone's time, or when off-site threats become on-site disruption. For what it's worth, I don't believe you had any real malicious intent, but because of the nature of Wikipedia and our 'cough' diverse editorship, if we didn't strictly enforce policies like civility and assuming good faith this place would rapidly become a warzone ;) Should you decide you want to edit Wikipedia in the future, if you can give an assurance that Damiens.rf is off your target list I'd be happy to unblock this account. If not, no worries and all the best, EyeSerene^talk 09:40, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind response. Yes, Damiens.rf is definitely "off my target list." For sure. Really, anything I said wasn't intended to be all that serious; I really was just messing around.

Thanks again for being cool.