User:John Reid/Tobias Conradi

I seem to have run afoul of Mr. Conradi by daring to venture an opinion on a relatively insignificant subject: TfD of yet another giant catch-all navigational template. I may have been intemperate in my comment but I stand behind it all the same. My opposition is not a matter of fact but of opinion. Mr. Conradi demanded I defend my comment. As a rule I think this kind of defense is a pointless distraction and I don't elect to fight a pitched battle over every comment I make. I have gone so far as to write a short essay explaining this meta-opinion. Mr. Conradi appears to have taken grave exception to my refusal:


 * It is not a matter of opinion. You claim something untrue. You were notified of this. So you spread false claims. Do you like this? Do you like lying?


 * I did not read it, because false claims are not a matter of opinion. You may read lie.


 * So you still spread false claims after being made aware of it. What is the diff to lieing?

I attempted to warn Mr. Conradi, politely, that accusations of lying may violate WP:CIVIL and run the risk of annoying other editors. His response was decidedly uncivil. Mr. Conradi has provided his own summary of this dispute on his user page :


 * Some people say something that is not true. This is not necessarily a lie. It's not easy to prove lies, but it's easy to prove that claims are wrong. Yes, and some people stick to their claims, even if they could know better....

At this point I determined to respond no further and as Mr. Conradi appeared to turn his attention elsewhere I hoped the matter was at an end.

Accusations of sockpuppetry are not to be bandied about lightly, especially without evidence. Thus I state clearly that I simply do not know who is responsible for the recent spate of vandalism to my user and user talk pages, mostly from my own imposters:


 * User:John Reid (history):


 * User talk:John Reid (history):

I repeat that I have no evidence linking these edits to Mr. Conradi other than proximity in time (all date from after my involvement with this user); that I have been involved in no remotely similar conflict with any user; and wholly subjective impressions of general style. I do suggest CheckUser may be appropriate.

Meanwhile even a quick glance at Mr. Conradi's talk page shows that he is consistently disruptive to this project and uncivil to other editors as a rule. I firmly believe in WP:AGF and have been more than willing to give this editor the benefit of the doubt. But at this point I feel this user is beyond salvage. John Reid 07:08, 30 April 2006 (UTC)