User talk:Brahmschubert/Archive 6


 * Thanks for your email. Unfortunately the concept of "legitimate sock puppets" does not apply to users who have been indefinitely blocked, as you have, for vandalism and abuse of multiple accounts. I don't give a rat's arse as to how impressed you are or not. GbT/c 08:44, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, maybe the concept does apply but it's sort of moot since users, not accounts, are blocked. When a user is blocked be it for an hour, a year, or infinitly, all of his accounts, legitimate or otherwise, should blocked for the duration of the block. This includes accounts discovered or created long after the block was put in place.  In the cases where they are not blocked, it's because nobody noticed or, for short blocks, it was deemed unnecessary on the theory that the blocked user would do the honorable thing and respect the block across all of his accounts. davidwr/  (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  20:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * By the way, MHLU, if you should ever decide to return to Wikipedia, and frankly I hope you do someday, you'll have to convince at least one administrator that you've put your previous editing patterns behind you. Many admins are willing to unblock indef-blocked accounts after a year, some are willing to do it sooner but they generally take a lot more convincing.  Fair warning though, if you do request an unblock, be it a year from now or sooner, you will be on a "short leash" for the first few months. davidwr/  (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  20:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Can't come back

 * Before we consider an unblock, you are going to need to make a full alocution. Below, please list the name of every account you have ever used at Wikipedia.  We will check this, and if you have avoided sockpuppetry for an extended period of time, there is a chance you may be reinstated.  But first we need to see that you are willing to come clean on all of your sock accounts.  --Jayron32. talk . say no to drama  01:52, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Note to reviewing administrator: CheckUser confirms that MHLU has edited while logged out as recently as today. Tiptoety  talk 04:26, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

MHLU requested help from me, summary of reply
Several hours after 's decline above, emailed me through the Wikipedia email system. This is fine, he and I have interacted before. I sent him a reply. Here is a rehash of my comments to him:

Based on what I know neither I nor anyone else I have no way to tell if he is editing anonymously or if someone sharing is Internet connection or his IP address is editing anonymously. The IP address range that found in 2009 above, 70.245.x.x, is now an SBC (AT&T) address range. I have no clue if this is his current address range or not, and I have no clue if it was a dial-up range which rotates among dial-up customers quickly or a DSL range which may have long-term leases.

However, based on his unfortunate history, my recommendation is that he and his entire household voluntarily cease editing Wikipedia from home for at least a year and refrain from editing from home until either they no longer share Internet service with User:MHLU or until User:MHLU has been allowed back into the community.

If User:MHLU is editing from a "public" IP address such as a school that funnels all traffic through a gateway, he should not be allowed to edit from that location until the IP address in question is confirmed to be a public address and unless all recent evidence of ban-evasion starts to point to someone else (which is very unlikely), he should remain community-banned for at least another year. I also recommend that even if User:MHLU could demonstrate that it wasn't him, he acknowledge that it will cost him more in goodwill than it will benefit him to try to prove such a thing right now. He should give it a year.

In any case, I recommend that User:MHLU cease all Wikipedia-related activity for at least a year and encourage everyone in his home to avoid editing from home. If others in his home are banned they should of course honor those bans, independent of User:MHLU's situation. After a year of silence from him and his household, then and only then should he determine if he's using a "public" address and if he is, ask his network administrators notify the Wikipedia administrators so they can decide how they want to handle traffic from this address.

After a year of silence has gone by AND after he's made sure nobody else will abuse his home ISP account or he's made sure that his employer/school/whatever's public IP address is known to the Wikipedia administration, then he should contact one of the two administrators who recently reviewed his unblock request. If neither responds, then I recommended he contact the Arbitration Committee.

Additional comments
I'm generally open to allowing anyone but those intentionally out to hurt Wikipedia to come back after a year on a trial basis of being away. I'm also open to the idea that not all cases of abuse from the same IP address are sock-puppetry. However, if a person is editing from an IP address that makes it difficult or impossible to determine who is responsible for mis-behavior, and if that person has a history of such mis-behavior, then they person may have to resign himself to the idea that he won't be able to edit Wikipedia until he can edit from an IP address that is his and his alone, or edit from an address where the other users are not interested in playing games with Wikipedia. He will also have to resign himself to the idea that no matter how much evidence he provides to say "it wasn't me" - even if it wasn't him - that the mere act of providing evidence will be seen by many as wiki-lawyering and the resulting loss of goodwill will likely hurt his cause more than the evidence exonerating him will help.

I sincerely hope that sometime on or after March 14, 2011, User:MHLU can find himself in a situation where he has sole control of an IP address and that some administrator is willing to do what it takes so he can write some articles for WP:AFC and propose some edits to existing pages, then if that goes well, modify his community ban to some form of restricted editing/mentoring situation and, eventually, full reinstatement as a productive member of the community. In order for this to happen, not only will User:MHLU need to be able to edit from an IP that nobody else uses or at least one nobody else will abuse, he will need to radically change from the person he was in 2009. This may take far longer than a year, or it may have already happened. I don't know MHLU's age nor do I want to know it, but given his past, he should be at least as emotionally mature as a typical mid-20-something adult before he requests any kind of reinstatement. I say that as someone who himself arguably does not meet that criteria and whose lack of maturity has gotten him into wiki-trouble. This is one of several reasons I no longer edit Wikipedia as much as I used to.

It is possible that User:MHLU is completely reformed now and that the recent charges of ban-evasion are because of someone else sharing his IP address. I trust the administrative community in this and if they are willing to take the risk of loss of any and all good content that he would have written in the next year over the risk of abuse if the checkuser is right and the risk that the checkuser is wrong but he is not ready to edit as a productive editor, I'll support them in that. Not only will I support them, if I were acting as a decision-maker and I had nothing more than a checkuser's confirmation to go on I would have made the same decision myself.

Closing message to MHLU
MHLU - I hope you spend the time you would have spent editing Wikipedia doing productive things to make your life, the lives of those around you, the lives of those in your community, and the lives of everyone who calls this planet home a better place. Please don't apply for reinstatement until all of the conditions above are met. In particular, if you aren't as mature as a typical mid-20-something person by this time next year, I recommend not re-applying until you are. I picked "mid-20-something" because once you get to that point, it will be obvious to everyone that you aren't the same person you were in 2009.

davidwr/ (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  15:44, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Upcoming Wikimedia events in Missouri and Kansas!
You're invited to 3 exciting events Wikipedians are planning in your region this June—a tour and meetup at the National Archives in Kansas City, and Wiknics in Wichita and St. Louis:

Drug policy
O’Rourke is a fierce opponent of the War on Drugs and has called for ending it. As part of his opposition to the War on Drugs, O'Rourke favors the legalization of cannabis on grounds that the war against narcotics cannot be won. In 2011 O’Rourke co-authored a book, Dealing Death and Drugs: The Big Business of Dope in the U.S. and Mexico, which in part argues for an end to the prohibition on marijuana. On January 5, 2018, O'Rourke posted a video on Facebook blasting Attorney General Jeff Sessions' rescinding of the Cole Memorandum on January 4.

Abortion
O'Rourke has a lifetime score of 100% from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and a rating of 100% from NARAL Pro-Choice America. He voted against the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017, which made a permanent prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortions and made reforms to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to prohibit qualified health plans from including coverage for abortions.

LGBT rights
O'Rourke told the Dallas Voice that he called marriage equality a core civil rights issue during his House primary campaign. While on the El Paso City Council, O’Rourke led a successful fight to overturn the domestic partnership ban. He was a co-sponsor of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2013 (H.R. 3135).

Immigration
O'Rourke favors comprehensive immigration reform. O'Rourke opposed Trump's decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which granted temporary stay to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors. O'Rourke said it is a "top priority" to protect these so-called DREAMers. He has criticized President Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration, saying that Trump is "constantly stoking anxiety and fear about Mexicans, immigrants and the border with Mexico. Unfortunately this President takes another step into a dark world of fear, isolation and separation." Ted Cruz asserted in 2018 that O'Rourke wanted "open borders and wants to take our guns." PolitiFact found that Cruz's claims were "false"; noting that O'Rourke had "not called for opening the borders or for government agents to take guns from law-abiding residents."

Health care
O'Rourke has expressed support for single-payer legislation to achieve universal health coverage. He supports stabilization of the insurance markets to improve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He also supports the expansion of Medicaid and is a co-sponsor of the Medicare-X Choice Act of 2017.

Gun policy
On the evening of June 22, 2016, O'Rourke participated in the sit-in in the House of Representatives that attempted to force a vote on gun control legislation. When the Republicans ordered C-SPAN to turn off its normal coverage of the chamber, O'Rourke and Representative Scott Peters transmitted images by cell phone to social media for C-SPAN to broadcast.

On March 7, 2018, O'Rourke told Alisyn Camerota of CNN that "We have a great tradition and culture of gun ownership and gun safety for hunting, for sport, for self-defense... I think that can allow Texas to take the lead on a really tough issue, which the country is waiting for leadership and action on." He has called for a complete ban on assault rifles.

3/29
Thank you, JamesBWatson. I hadn't noticed this unblock request and so hadn't had a chance to review. I agree with your unblock of this user. MHLU, welcome back. Thank you for jumping through the hoops I set out here. JamesBWatson is implying these were probably not necessary in your case, and he may well be correct. Nevertheless, you demonstrated you do indeed plan to contribute productively and I appreciate it. Happy editing! --Yamla (talk) 21:53, 1 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much, JamesBWatson. I am very thankful that I've regained the trust of the Wikipedia community and I look forward to making a positive impact on the project with the contributions I will make as a reinstated editor. Best, MHLU (talk) 00:39, 2 April 2018 (UTC)