User talk:Essjay

User talk:Essjay/Top User:Essjay/Talk TOC

RE: Wikipedia:Requests_for_mediation/Firestone_Tire_and_Rubber_Company

This is my first mediation request, can you please take two minutes and make sure I did it correctly?

I am particularly concerned about how I removed some of the information added by Mobile 01, addressed on her talk page [1]

Mobile 01 is a new user (December 2006) and we are both trying to learn.

If any of my edits are incorrect, you are welcome to restore them, or I will gladly restore them.

thanks for your time, Travb (talk) 17:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again, our mediation does not appear on the mediation page. In addition everyone has agreed to mediate, except for the completely unrelated three people which Mobile 01 added, Leaders100, Ekun, Terrorific. If you are too busy to handle this request, can you suggest someone else? Thanks Travb (talk) 14:51, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason, the category that triggers the case management bot was not included correctly, causing the bot to not recognize and list the case. I have corrected it, and the bot should list it shortly. Essjay (Talk) 22:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Essjay, thank you [2] If I can be so blunt, the current system for listing new mediation requests is not very user friendly at all. Maybe you need an assistant (or several) to help you, and your and the assistants' links should be at the top of all of the mediation pages. Having this job is a huge job for one person.

Thanks again for your help.Travb (talk) 00:08, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it's not exactly supposed to be easy; it's supposed to provide exactly what the Committee needs to see to take on a case, and to weed out those who aren't serious about mediation (before we made the process more involved than just posting "ZOMG I HATE USER:X", we had dozens of requests that never went anywhere; the process helps to weed those out, because the users who file those requests won't go to the trouble of filling out the paperwork.) We have tried to make it as user friendly as possible; we have the one-click fill-in box, and the preloaded template with the format, as well as several guides to filing a request. If there are specific points you could offer, I'd be happy to explain why we do things the way we do, and to make any reasonable adjustments. Essjay (Talk) 06:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I just thought I'd pop in here and say that I'd be happy to help if Essjay or anyone else wants it. Cheers, ✎ Peter M Dodge (Talk to Me) 00:41, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd rather keep you at RFCU and CHU; RFM is pretty well handled by the case management bot. Bad idea to stretch good clerks too thin. ;) Essjay (Talk) 06:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I recently submitted a username change request, and that request was denied. I was confused as to exactly why, and so I asked the Bureaucrat (or anyone else, really) to explain things more clearly or give me some idea of what might be an acceptible name to choose. I received no response, but since you seem to be more inclined to give people a hand, I was wondering if you could just take a look and maybe clear things up for me. The archived request can be found here. Feel free to move this to my talk page. Thanks. 149.43.x.x 20:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As I understand it, the archival bot activates when one of the result templates is used (in this case, the denied template, with the red X); as a result, the bureaucrat probably never saw your extended comments. Given that the existing user is not active, I've gone ahead and performed the change. Essjay (Talk) 22:03, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I see why no one addressed my question. Thanks much for taking care of it quickly - I appreciate the careful and friendly consideration you give to your fellow Wikipedians (particularly myself, at the moment). I'm glad to have this all taken care of! :) Cheeser1 23:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're quite welcome; I do what I can. :) Essjay (Talk) 06:14, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Essjay, I'm kinda puzzled. Your Wikia profile says that you're 24 years old, work as a Community Manager for Wikia, and used to be employed by a Fortune 200 company. But your Wikibooks profile says you're over 30 and currently work as a Theology professor. Is the Wikia profile someone else? I hope you can shed some light on this matter. Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 23:14, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, the Wikia profile is me. :) One of the things that tends to happen as you become, let us say, "popular" on Wikipedia is that you attract the attention of an unsavory element. There are a number of trolls, stalkers, and psychopaths who wander around Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects looking for people to harass, stalk, and otherwise ruin the lives of (several have been arrested over their activities here). It's quite unfortunate that this happens, but it all to often does. (A good friend of mine who is a minister had to leave Wikipedia after his Bishop was threatened by Wikipedia stalkers.) For those who have little to lose from thier participation here, there is no reason not to be fully open about who they are; if you don't have a boss or a family, you don't have to worry about losing your job or your family being stalked. A few people are lucky enough to actually work for Wikimedia or Wikia, and are in an excellent position: When the people who are stalking you are also stalking your bosses, you really don't have to worry about the effects.

Many people have tried many things to keep thier identities secret: They worry over every little detail they may have released, or refuse to answer anything about themselves, making it very difficult to form any personal ties. Quite unfortunately, it simply isn't possible to keep your details quiet: You will eventually say something that will lead back to you, and the stalkers will find it. My approach was different: I decided to be myself, to never hide my personality, to always be who I am, but to utilize disinformation with regard to what I consider unimportant details: age, location, occupation, etc. As a result, I've made many strong friendships here, because I've always been the person I am, but the stalkers have spent the last two years searching for middle-aged college professors with the initials "SJ" (which are, by the way, my initials) who live in the Northeast; I never had to worry that anything I said would lead back to me, because the areas they focused on, the unimportant statistical information, was a cover

I was actually under the impression that the stalkers and psychopaths were the only people who actually believed the story; a quick examination of the time I've spent here should lead to the conclusion that there's no way I could be who the statistics said I was. (This has been confirmed by nearly everyone I've talked to; I've heard "I knew it!" more times than I can count in the past two weeks.) I've been pretty upfront about using disinformation (I didn't put "I use disinformation" on my userpage or anything, as that would have defeated the purpose); most everybody who is particularly close to me knew it was a cover.

Once I accepted a position with Wikia, I was in a safe place to "come out," and I did. Before I accepted the position, I provided all my real details to Angela and Jimbo, and immediately provided the same information to Brad Patrick; I also placed it on my Wikia userpage, from where I expected it would fairly quickly make it's way back to Wikipedia. The stalkers picked up on it immediately (but couldn't believe that a 24 year old had fooled them), but nobody here seemed to notice, which I didn't find particularly odd, since I expected that everybody here knew what was going on.

So, that's the story. My Wikia profile provides my real information; some of the other sites still have old information simply because I haven't gotten around to updating them (I've been a bit busy over at Wikia). Nothing really has changed any; I'm still the person everybody has known for the past two years, I just have a different job. I've never been disingenuous in my interactions with others: I've always been myself, and have every intention to continue being myself, people just know a bit more about what I look like and where I live now. Of the dozens of people I've talked to since I "came out," all have been happy to have a face to associate with the person they know, have understood the need to be protected, and have no doubts that nothing has changed about the person they have come to know. I don't expect anyone who knows me to feel any different. Essjay (Talk) 06:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That makes a lot of sense. I didn't think you had the time to be everything you said you were. :) Thanks for taking the time to write such a lengthy reply, and congratulations on getting the job at Wikia! Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 08:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]