No real surprises here.
Via reddit.
Abd has updated his pro se defamation lawsuit against the WMF to add names.
The TLDR: Abd’s website, where he posts all the court documents, is here. The amended court case, naming names is item #16, in other words this document here.
Abd says the WMF does not have the right to publish his name in connection with a global ban.
Oddly enough, the global ban policy was just mentioned a few hours ago in a new Buzzfeed piece by Joseph Bernstein:
Though the foundation does not disclose the nature of the offenses it investigates, it is widely held among Wikipedians that “office actions” apply only to extreme cases: child pornography, pedophilia advocacy, terrorism, realistic threats.
Could the Golden Age of Wikipedia hagiography created by the Women In Red project’s PR now be drawing to a close?
There is now a “Go fund me” page for the lawsuit. Abd says that at this point he is out of pocket $400, which someone has already reimbursed him for, so will not need funds unless the case goes forward. and he now needs about $100 per person to serve the defendants. I count 10 defendants, as Abd says he got the Wikimedia foundation and James Alexander on the same line by mistake, plus a new filing fee of $400, so that is around $1400.
In typical Abd style, there is also a link on his website for those who wish to donate to the WMF instead.
So now we wait to see if the case is dismissed.
Note: See previous piece about this: “Abd files a lawsuit”.
Another note: Mr. Lomax provides updates at https://np.reddit.com/r/Lomax_v_WMF/
Gender Desk 
Nice. Thanks. Actually, I do need some support now, probably, to serve process on the added defendants. If I don’t serve them, though, they will be dropped as defendants without prejudice, i.e., I could file again. New filing fee $400. To serve each, if they don’t waive service as the WMF, probably about $100 each. The GoFundMe was intended to be ready to deal with the next phase of the trial if my WMF claims survive the expected Motion to Dismiss. Discovery can get expensive, but at that point there starts to be public benefit in pulling back the curtain. (Some of it, anyway, some of what is disclosed in discovery must be kept private.)
No problem.
I have updated it with an approximate amount.
You (or someone) really should post it on Wikipediocracy though, they have a much larger readership than I do with probably with more money too.
There are probably people on Wikipediocracy who do not believe you should be editing Wikipedia. They are entitled to their opinion. But Wikipedia should treat people decently, I hope even they will agree with that. If you think about it, even an employer is not allowed to say anything bad about a former employee that would jeopardize their future employment. The only thing you can get out of an HR department is confirmation of the dates of employment. An organization that depends on the good will of volunteers should be even more circumspect about their past volunteers.
Yes. The WMF is claiming CDA Section 230 immunity as a service provider, which does, as it has been interpreted, allow them to ban anyone for any and no reason. But publishing the list of banned users is, as you noticed, is far outside of ordinary practice and is unnecessary, and it is content they created, so it is outside their Section 230 immunity.
Now, as to costs. With permission, I may again amend the complaint, and there is a rule about that which I missed. To amend a complaint does not require a new filing fee.
When I amend the complaint, the court will issue subpoenas, and I will mail the defendants a request to waive service. If they accept service (as the WMF did), there is no cost other than that mail. However, if they ignore this, as individuals are more likely to do, then it is roughly $100 each to serve them. If I do not manage to accomplish this, after a time the court will drop them as defendants, without prejudice, meaning that I could file a new suit (another $400 plus service costs). At this point, there are six unserved defendants, two whose identities (and therefore addresses) are not known. The WMF will be asked for that information if the case proceeds to discovery.
So, soon, we are looking at another $400 approximately.
http://coldfusioncommunity.net/we-are-getting-around/ is about this blog, and thanks.
(and I miscounted. There are 8 unserved defendants, not counting John Doe, so it’s $600.)
Lomax spreading yet more misinformation I see.
Wikiversity’s Research guidelines state:
“At times, it may be useful to amend the Wikiversity research guidelines so as to explicitly exclude some types of fringe research if they disrupt Wikiversity or distract the community from its educational missions.”
They even have a page to *vote to delete* these fringe research areas that cause disruptions and distractions; the page Lomax is still moaning about years later was clearly voted to be deleted.
Any deletion really has nothing to do with attacking academic freedom; Lomax never has read Wikiversity’s research guidelines.
Except that’s not what he said, is it. He says that initially there was no problem with hosting original research and fringe theory but later everything changed and they didn’t even give him time to transfer all the documents to a different place.
I see you don’t give any links, maybe you don’t want anyone to check the revision history to see who might have messed with those pages.
Are you Anglo Pyramidologist? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Anglo_Pyramidologist
Is this you? [removed link to former Wikipedia criticism site -GD]
And what about this? http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10542 …oh, but you need an account to access the sekrit forum.
If I wanted to discredit this Rational Wiki, you are exactly the type of person I would send to follow people like Abd around on the internet. I almost left your comment in moderation, but maybe people should see this for themselves.
But as I have said before, people have limited time and don’t want to read a lot of back and forth here. They just want brief updates, and a link in case they want to read more. At this point you can either email me a link for further information and I will post it, or you can try your luck with a different forum, maybe Abd will engage with you on his own platform or maybe the wikipediasucks(DOT)co people would be willing to take it up.
I basically ran Wikiversity for a time as a custodian. Oliver is referring to https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Research_guidelines
That was a proposal that was never adopted, a set of ideas. as it says at the top, “copied from beta wikiversity.”.
There was no “page to delete fringe research areas.” There is https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Requests_for_Deletion and there is https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Deletions as a policy page. I handled and closed many, many deletion discussions. “Fringe” was *never* a valid deletion reason. Deletion was rare on Wikiversity, the site had so many less disruptive options. which I helped develop while I was active.
Again, Oliver is referring to https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Requests_for_Deletion/Archives/16#Cold_fusion — closed by Mu301, explicitly ignoring the discussion, and ignoring that cold fusion had *never* caused any disruption on Wikiversity, until then. This was indeed an obvious attack on academic freedom, backed up by a ‘crat who admitted having been “alerted” by private email, as had been threatened.
You guys are really going to have to take this discussion elsewhere. People just do not have the time or interest to read this level of detail about – whatever it is. Maybe I will have to start deleting comments.
I am only interested in the lawsuit results, and would like to leave this last thread open as a place for Abd to update any movement in the case.
That is very nice of you.
I looked for the name of the artist for “Objectify this” so you could credit the photo, and she has deleted all her social media and profiles, so I don’t dare give her name. I suppose you could credit it to Qahwa Project, 2015. It was cropped from a much larger photo that I don’t have anymore, and was part of a street art project to protest violence against women during the Arab Spring, especially in Tahrir.
I replied to the WMF Motion to Dismiss. We now wait for as many as a few months. http://coldfusioncommunity.net/wp-content/uploads/28-0.pdf
Thank you for the update.
Abd Lomax’s lawsuit was dismissed. The clerk has closed it.
He will have no chance to amend, he already amended twice. His lawsuit was a failure. He lost. Lomax embarrassed himself. He has no clue about the law. I don’t think he will care that he lost, he even admitted he filed just to annoy his defendants. The dismissal of his lawsuit is good news. Lomax was too full of himself.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/14573324/lomax-v-wikimedia-foundation-inc/
“Accordingly, Plaintiff’s amended complaint is hereby dismissed and the Clerk is directed to close this case. (Lindsay, Maurice) (Entered: 06/05/2020)”
Thank you for the update.
It says “failure to make a claim”.
I suppose that means something in legal jargon.
The ruling confirms that Wikipedia can indeed ban people for any reason at all, including no reason, that this is indeed the law of California, not just the implication of their self-written Terms of Use.
It is the ultimate legal proof that Wikipedia really is merely a private website, and any claims it makes that might suggest it somehow has a higher purpose, up to and including their recent attempts to cast access to Wikipedia as a “fundamental human right”, as complete and utter horseshit.
You have to question the motives of anyone who tried their very hardest to stop Abd pursuing this case to the state of obtaining an actual ruling, especially if they claim to be Wikipedia critics.
It probably just confirms the adage about acting as your own lawyer.
For those who don’t know, Abd has reported on reddit that he has been seriously ill.
I doubt it. As I said at the time somewhere, probably Wikipediocracy, even a seriously good lawyer would struggle to overcome the facts of the case, to wit, he is indeed banned, their Terms say they don’t have to say why anyone gets banned, there doesn’t even need a reason, and try as he might, he couldn’t actually detail any material damage (as in loss of income) arising from their published reason, making the issue of whether it was defamatory, moot.
It a sad state of affairs, useful only for cementing this “we don’t need to give a reason” as an actual legal precedent now, and proving to everyone that Wikipediocracy didn’t give a damn about this case except to further laugh at Abd and show they are totally in cahoots with the people who most frequently ban people from Wikipedia and make up the reason afterwards, safe in the knowledge it is and only ever would be reviewed by their fellow cult members, never an external authority.
It all shows Wikipediocracy would rather ban people like me from their forum, for calling out Wikipedia’s insiders only culture for what it is, than the people who probably smiled inwardly or even publicly celebrated at the news of this dismissal. We know Vigilant celebrated like a mad man.
Wikipedia is merely a private website, now more than ever. That means that anyone who has examples of them abusing this absolute power to decide who is and is not on the inside, need to be assisted in getting their message out there. It also means that people should pay attention when people like Beeblebrox consider themselves part of the privelaged elite of Wikipediocracy’s very own insider culture, because it is a sign that the so called pre-eminent Wikipedia investigators, have been thoroughly compromised.
I’m sure the WMF is delighted to have you defend their legal position.
Do you ever read what anyone else says? You really do talk some utter shite sometimes.
So now you’re banned from Sucks and unbanned from Wikipediocrazy? And you just deleted one of your socks on reddit?
No, he was banned again on Wikipediocracy for threatening violence on another forum member.
Violence? Against who?
I just noticed this.
Sweet princess,
I have been extreem ruff about you in the Commons on discord yesterday, but that was only tactic. I will never ever talk and think in this way about a woman, never. And for sure not about you.
I am in general very sad and sorry this whole sex thing came in the picture, sex is in my opinion a bonus. Something I learned in my development to a man, it can be a extra gift of a woman.
It is not a start, it is a end. And it is not even needed to have a deep relation with a woman. Not needed to love a woman deep. You know I do with you, I never have lied to you and I never will about this.
WMF have gambled and played a extreem risky game with me, and has lost. And what I try now is to change everything in a gift you want so dear. What is your greatest wish on earth.
A real Library of Alexandria.
It is not about me or my ego what should be hurt. Of course a am deep hurt and damaged, but that is the price of being a partizan, my love.
I will fix that train blog as soon as I have the rest for it, OK?
https://lgbrc.wordpress.com
In Dutch, with all the story’s and pictures. For you of course.
Martin
Why would anyone want to bad-mouth me?
Simple answer. Because the once who do that don’t love woman.
It’s the same principe as people who abuse animals, they don’t love them. So the start to hurt them only because they are a animal. Only for that reason.
Only the fact you are a woman is enough for them to tread you in this way, and nothing else.
Simple.
Because they are envious.
Why did god give that’d dammed talent of her not to me, why made god this huge mistake.
Why did god bless her double, and with her talent and with her appearance and not me.
That’s the reason my dear.