Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Jason Gastrich/Evidence

Anyone, whether directly involved or not, may add evidence to this page. Please make a header for your evidence and sign your comments with your name.

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Please make a section for your evidence and add evidence only in your own section. Please limit your evidence to a maximum 1000 words and 100 diffs, a much shorter, concise presentation is more likely to be effective. Please focus on the issues raised in the complaint and answer and on diffs which illustrate behavior which relates to the issues.

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Jason Gastrich's sock puppets: An introduction
"Don't expect to be hearing from me, but expect to be hearing from them." (Writen by Gastrich after his RfC and posted on his talk page.)
 * As Warriorscribe explained, "what this likely means is that there will be more Gastrich socks, but he's going to try to be less obvious about it." This is because "Gastrich does not have the following or the influence that he claims," but still wants to use Wikipedia to gain an audience.

As for getting blocked for poor behavior, Jason Gastrich wrote, "Why would it matter to me if I were banned? My morals aren't guided by consequences." 

Request for comment
There is plentiful prior evidence of Gastrich's multiple policy violations at his Request for comment, some of which is summarised below.

Evidence presented by User:Jim62sch
Given experience and Gastrich's past history, I would like to deflect the expected criticism of my evidence by stating the following:

What this is not about: This is not about Jason Gastrich creating articles on his favourite subjects, nor is it about his being an evangelical Christian, nor his personality, nor his assertion to being a minister or theologian, nor religious or other affiliations.

What this is about: It is solely about his behaviour as manifested on Wikipedia, including but not limited to his imposition of his POV, his use of dubious methods to skew coverage of his pet subjects, his inability to abide by WP:CIVIL, WP:NPA, WP:NPOV (tending toward m:MPOV) and WP:HAR. Note that none of us are claiming perfection, we all make mistakes, we all comment strongly at times, but if we do make mistakes and comment a bit too strongly, we tend to apologize. This is not the case with Gastrich: he seems believe that he is always correct, and that anything he writes, no matter how spiteful, accusatory, or simply incorrect, is acceptable because he is guided by a higher cause.

First assertion
Gastrich has repeatedly violated WP:CIVIL, WP:NPA, WP:HAR and WP:AGF. Below, are examples of this behaviour gathered from an analysis of his user edits.

Civility, attacks, harassment, and ascribing motives
(Through Jan 6, 2006)


 * Accusing another editor of “trolling” him, of “over-stepping” his bounds and wherein he makes an unsubstantiated accusation based on Gastrich’s own interesting inferential abilities:
 * A continuation of the above, this time left on the talk page of User:Chuck Hastings, a possible sockpuppet of Gastrich:
 * Here he attacks most editors as being “unbelievers”, and directs readers to a sermon he wrote regarding the background for his assertion:
 * Here he accuses a fellow editor of being “an unbeliever who has rejected the lordship of Christ” and who quotes Bible “verses to try and belittle His followers”. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jason_Gastrich&diff=prev&oldid=38730173]
 * Upon receiving a “permanent final warning”, Gastrich unleashed the following regarding his fellow editors by noting that, “A handful of unbelievers and anti-fundamentalist Christians have led a brigade of hatred”; noted of the admin posting the warning that his, “… hated [‘’sic’’]for Christian fundamentalism and your burning bias to silence me and like-minded contributors has made you a person that we cannot deal with.”; and closed with a vaguely threatening, “May God have mercy on your soul, Guy”.
 * Accuses two fellow editors of not having a clue, and ironically notes that their votes for deletion of a specific article are somehow personal attacks:
 * Accuses another editor of having an agenda (irony at its finest):
 * Accuses two editors of being, “…people who care very little about Wikipedia and an honest vote.”
 * Makes an unfounded charge of vandalism against an editor and an admin:
 * Continues the unfounded charge of vandalism on two users’ talk pages:
 * Accuses (ad nauseum) other editors who were maintaining Wikipedia’s integrity of having, “…done irreparable damage to their integrity and to Wikipedia.”
 * Accuses another editor of being “one of ‘’them’’” and “on their ‘’side’’” (emphasis added):
 * Accuses an editor of making personal attacks, makes erroneous assertions regarding how many times he has contacted user and then blanks user’s post that showed that Gastrich had made erroneous assertions:
 * Accuses an editor of sending spam, belonging to a hate group and engaging in heinous behaviour.
 * In his RfC reply, he shows no contrition, but points out that others “hate” and “troll” him, and spread “lies” about him:
 * Intentionally mentions editor’s real name, then calls him “detestable”:
 * Accuses an admin of being “anti-Gastrich” from the get-go, and then proceeds to apologize to Wikipedia for this imagined behaviour he attributed to the admin:
 * Calls editor’s comment “distasteful” and claims that Jesus told this person to discuss these issues privately rather than publicly:
 * Again “distasteful”, attacks editor’s integrity and knowledge of Christian faith:
 * Calls another user a “hard-core, partylining, card-carrying atheist”:
 * Threatened to report an editor on the editors user page for what were, admittedly, strong comments, but then blanked the threat:
 * Interesting:
 * In edit comments refers to admin as “monkey”:
 * Absent any provocation, refers to an editor as “single-minded” troll:
 * Accuses an editor of vandalism for 10 AfD nominations:
 * Accuse editor of literary ignorance:
 * Under the guise of “pruning”, Gastrich blanks some of his most inflammatory personal prose, which contains significant harrassment:
 * Questions an editor's charachter: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Mark_K._Bilbo&diff=prev&oldid=34160392
 * Unsupported allegations (I note, however, that there appears to be a history between Gastrich and the other editor):http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Mark_K._Bilbo&diff=prev&oldid=34135701
 * Harassment of fellow editor and Christian pastor:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jason_Gastrich&diff=prev&oldid=33929414
 * Questions an editor's religious convictions:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Icj_tlc/Archive1&diff=prev&oldid=33776383
 * Once again casts aspersions at another's belief:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Icj_tlc/Archive1&diff=prev&oldid=33662194
 * Accusation of bullying:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Daycd&diff=prev&oldid=33565553
 * Tirade against nominator of a Gastrich-created article Articles for deletion/Dennis Agajanian. Special:Contributions/CDThieme indicates that this is prompted by an edit war over the inclusion of Gastrich in the Typosquatting article.  Gastrich has used both typosquatting (talkorigin.org for talkorigins.org) and domain squatting (antonyflew.com), this is verifiable from DNS.

Second assertion
Place argument and diffs which support the second assertion, for example, your second assertion might be "Jimmy Wales makes personal attacks". Here you would list specific edits where Jimmy Wales made personal attacks.

Work in progress

Sockpuppetry / meatpuppetry
This is discussed in some detail in the RfC, but to recap the important points in detail:
 * has a presence on Usenet, and is supported there by a character called "Uncle Davey" (editing here as ) - it is not clear whether this is functionally a meatpuppet in this context. It can be hard to disentangle the two, but since Uncle Davey follows Gastrich's lead the distinction may not be that relevant.
 * There is a list of known or suspected puppets at Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Jason Gastrich
 * It is likely that the various accounts fall into the following classes:
 * Sock puppets operated by Gastrich. This includes  and (to a high degree of probability),  and especially  whose email address is on Gastrich's own domain and who protested innocence of being a puppet from that address.  The latter two were created after the RfC had begun, so are significant in this case.
 * Strong supporters of Gastrich who either followed him here or were asked to participate as meatpuppets. This includes, aka "Uncle Davey", this much is known from evidence on Usenet.
 * Those not associated with Gastrich but asked by him to join in the astroturfing of various AfD debates through Wiki4Christ.com, by email or by talk page requests.
 * A fair probability of one or more persons making edits designed to look like sockpuppets in order to further blacken Gastrich's name. This may be out of genuine opposition (Gastrich undoubtedly has enemies) or conceivably reverse psychology, hoping for sympathy towards the wronged Gastrich.

CheckUser results
Fred Bauder 02:43, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
 * and have used the same range of ips of the same large isp.
 * was not found.
 * was not found.
 * was not found.
 * was not found.
 * was not found.
 * was not found.
 * ,, ,  were not found.
 * was not found.
 * ,, , , and *  were not found.
 * consistently uses a different major provider.


 * also uses a second smaller high speed provider.
 * was created on that provider February 7, 2006 and made a few edits.
 * was created on this provider February 8, 2006 and made edits compatible with being a Jason Gastrich sock. The other suspects were not found. Fred Bauder 02:43, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

has used a unique isp in a different part of the world. The other suspects were not found. Fred Bauder 02:43, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

also uses another isp in that same country. The other suspects were not found. Fred Bauder 02:43, 19 February 2006 (UTC)


 * March 18, 2006

Behaviour of various puppets

 * is a proven sockpuppet of Gastrich's, used to attempt to astroturf some LBU-related entries. See also Special:Contributions/Big Lover which includes evidence of privacy violation.
 * is a similarly named account, used to attempt to astroturf the AfD for Gastrich's autobiography, see special:Contributions/Big Daddy which has an overlapping edit pattern, edit histories which are typical of those which Gastrich uses (see comments re Markkbilbo and Harvestdancer); may also be related as similar edits are also interleaved.  Note that Big Daddy and The Bronx were both created in April 2005 and then lay dormant for some time, The Bronx is still dormant, Big Daddy resurfaced in November 2005 and was eventually permablocked.  The use of the phrase "keeping people ignorant" is characteristic of Gastrich's use of language (e.g.  from admitted sock Big Lover).
 * is an example of a type of account of which there are several in this debate: created in April, used briefly for edit-warring on an article and then not used again. Note that the article's subject Anthony Flew has been the subject of cybersquatting by Jason Gastrich, who owns te domain anthonyflew.com, repeatedly inserted into the article.
 * has a similar name and provided this whitewash at, an article which sees edits from Gastrich and several other of the identified socks. Note that a link ios added to jcsm.org, Gastrich's ministry.
 * namechecked Gastrich in and  as well as adding links to Gastrich's cyberquatting domain at skepticsannotatedbible.org.
 * During the deletion debates of the various LBU articles Gastrich set up an external organisation wiki4christ.com to solicit Christian contributions to Wikipedia, including among its aims voice our opinion on the inclusion of Christian entries. Gastrich consistently referred to all those articles nominated as "Christian biographies" or "Christian articles" and those arguing for deletion as having anti-Christian bias.  Many of those so accused are self-identified Christians, though few are known to be Southern Baptists like Gastrich.
 * Between 05:11, January 30, 2006 and 10:33, January 31, 2006,, and  between them reverted four times in under 24h.  In each case this was in their first 24h as a registered user.
 * Subsequent to the RfC, a suspected sock, was blocked.  This user sent an email requestign unblocking, which came from the address hooba@wiki4christ.com.  Wiki4christ.com is owned by Gastrich.  It now offers email service, but at the time of the account's creation was offline and I do not recall it offering email service before then.
 * Suspected sock has been blocked for 3RR violation at, including adding Gastrich's cybersquatting "rebuttal" at skepticsannotatedbible.org.
 * Subsequent to the RfC User:LinkChecker signed up and began editting only a handful of articles. These articles were the ones Gastrich frequents and the edits were made exactly along the lines of Gastrich. The user began to terrorize other editors's talk and user pages (the ones who reverted his changes). User was banned and new accounts make similiar edits followed.
 * User:Turkmen added a website to an atheist's webpage. A domain check proved this to be owned and operated by Jason Gastrich. The webpage contained no content of the article's subject matter and was a link to Gastrich's main page. Turkmen registered and editted after the RfC.

Astroturfing

 * Gastrich organized an offsite group, Wiki4Christ, where he solicits people from his ministry to influence the AFD process, as he describes it: "Voice our opinion on the inclusion of Christian entries." (cached) and jcsm.org/Online/WeeklyDevotions440.htm.
 * He thanks people for attempting to swing a vote jcsm.org/Online/WeeklyDevotions437.htm here.
 * A person claims that Mr. Gastrich repeatedly lobbied him to come and swing votes.
 * These diffs, , , , , , show very clear evidence of attempted vote stacking.  Note how the links are weblinks not Wikilinks, so they do not show up in "What Links Here". Note also the use of the term "Christian biographies" as if the articles have been nominated for deletion because they are Christian - the grounds given in AfDs were nothing to do with their religion.
 * A minor example: . This user is upset at being roped in by Gastrich, and this  indicates that they (an outsider) feel Gastrich was not honest in these dealings.
 * This refers to the Wiki4Christ mailing list and a mail-out.  Shortly afterwardsa number of keep votes appeared on AfDs for Gastrich articles, none of whom were editors on the article, or AfD regulars.  The majority of these followed correct AfD procedure (many AfD newbies do not).  Here's a random sample:, , , , , ,  - as far as I can tell none of these were contacted on their Talk pages by gastrich, and none of them are the kind of people you'd expect to suddenly start voting on large numbers of AfDs.  Note: I haven't singled these people out for any reason, they've probably been told that this is some kind of attempt to purge "Christian articles" (as above) and are acting in good faith (and indeed Faith). Several of them prominently self-identify as pro-life, Christians or protestants, again this is not a problem (so do I up to a point) but it is a possible marker for those likely to be contacted outside Wikipedia, which is the case at issue.
 * Per : WP:SOCK says "Do not use multiple accounts to create the illusion of greater support for an issue, to mislead others, or to circumvent a block; don't ask your friends to create accounts to support you or anyone, either." (emphasis added)
 * The contribs list of sockpuppet includes little but solicitations to vote on AfDs for Gastrich-related articles.

Disrupting Wikipedia to make a point

 * Vandal report re IP editors: . The reported vandalism is to Gastrich's user page, and consists for the most part of commentary on Gastrich's own actions; 25 November 2005 is the date in question, the reported "moderate IP vandals" are, , , , ,  -- in each case with the comment claims to be on a mission from God who will not quit trying to "expose the liar" that I am. User_talk:Jason Gastrich has been reverted over and over, mainly due to his anonymous, unsigned posts, but he won't quit. This much is true: Gastrich has repeatedly reverted or excised adverse comment from his Talk page without archiving it (not an offence, but a problematic act on the part of a confrontational and controversial editor).
 * Contemporaneous discussion on AN/I: archive 52 and Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive52
 * Mediation Cabal/Cases/20 December 2005/Faith and rationality: Gastrich attempts to enlist support for his adding of tendentious content to an article where consensus does not exist to support it within the article's editor community.
 * Mediation Cabal/Cases/27 December 2005/Mark K. Bilbo: Gastrich "outs" a Wikipedian by name. Both Gastrich and Warriorscribe are obviously bringing their external battle into Wikipedia.
 * The retaliatory nomination for deletion, noted elsewhere, of numerous atheist biographies:
 * Articles for deletion/Farrell Till, Farrell Till ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), linked with Kent Hovind
 * Articles for deletion/Mark K. Bilbo, Mark K. Bilbo ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), author of several Que books
 * Articles for deletion/Michael S. Berliner, Michael S. Berliner ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]) ,
 * Articles for deletion/Harry Binswanger, Harry Binswanger ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/Yaron Brook, Yaron Brook ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]) (this and the previous two prominent members of the Ayn Rand Institute)
 * Articles for deletion/Bryan Caplan, Bryan Caplan ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, Goparaju Ramachandra Rao ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), a good example of what we should be keeping to counter systemic bias.
 * Articles for deletion/Reginald Vaughn Finley, Sr., Reginald Vaughn Finley, Sr. ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]) the notorious "infidel guy"
 * Articles for deletion/Ellen Johnson, Ellen Johnson ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), president of American Atheists
 * Articles for deletion/Joseph Lewis, Joseph Lewis ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/António Agostinho Neto, António Agostinho Neto ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), prize of the bunch, Angola's first President.
 * Articles for deletion/James W. Prescott, James W. Prescott ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/George Reisman, George Reisman ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/David Rovics, David Rovics ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/Peter Schwartz, Peter Schwartz ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/David Seaborg, David Seaborg ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch])
 * Articles for deletion/Sean Sinjin (2nd nomination), Sean Sinjin ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), two weeks after previous AfD
 * Articles for deletion/Talzhemir, Talzhemir ([ edit] · talk · [ links] · [ history] · [ watch]), deleted.


 * Feb 28th after making two content edits the user starts a rfc with his 10th edit, eleven minutes after the first supposed "attempt to resolve the dispute"  other suspected sock puppets are the only ones to sign the rfc.  Another sock calls "admin abuse" at WP:AN/I  when the socks are found out.

Subsequent to opening of the RfA
This section has been expanded by other editors
 * On 17 Feb, 2006, , , , and  all edited the LBU article, , with non-neutral edits (e.g. adding "and a complete rejection of divine love and grace."  to the definition of atheism), or reverted {sockpuppet} tags from each other.
 * Feb 26 An article was written by Gastrich,, with a redirect created by him at . The article was deleted per Articles for deletion/Steeling the Mind Bible Conference. It was re-created on February 26, 2006 at the site of the former redirect also created by Gastrich; the editor who created it,  only has two edits: creation of the copy article and a citation of Jason Gastrich's website in  .  Cornuke is another "PhD" of LBU (note also the subtle POV of changing "completed" to "earned" in respect of his PhD from the unaccredited LBU). The content as re-created is substantially identical to that deleted at  - only a few words differ, format and sentence structure is identical, created fully-formed including wikilinks ( vs. ).
 * Feb. 20th The user 's one edit was to vandalize the article by deleting all content claiming the subject "Vandalizes posts throughout Wikipedia to peddle his book, and enjoys calling himself an "expert" in the process." This expert of diploma mills was cited in an article as referring to Gastrich's Louisiana Baptist University as a diploma mill in 2000.
 * Feb. 27th: On a user's talk page User: Jack White1 wrote "here is the information I added" then quoted something added to the Cornuke article, which included the conference article-link that was a deleted and a Gastrich link. The problem, though, is "Jack White1" is the sock puppet stalking the Hovind article and the addition Jack was referring to was at the Cornuke article made by User: Jumpstart My Heart with a very short editting history. That's two confirmed puppets.
 * Feb 27th deletes the note that the Dallas Theological Seminary is unaccredited, ect.
 * has been using profane language and attacking various users.
 * Feb 28th angry that his other puppets have been exposed and links removed so he reports another  without merit.
 * starts an RfC with his 11th post. Gastrich puppets are the only ones who endorse the RfC. Their votes are dismissed.
 * Feb 29th is created. His first post is to defend Jason Gastrich on a user's talk page.
 * Feb. 29th is created and his first edit is to support a Gastrich puppet and remove other people's comments. He is blocked by an admin.
 * February 28 was created, and his first act was to nominate Michael Newdow (well known atheist plaintiff in the school pledge case) for deletion . Gastrich owns the domain michaelnewdow.com and as mentioned above has put his link in the article(the page is asbent of anything related to the person).
 * March 1 is created to revert a check user delete by an adminstrator and deletes a user's page.
 * March 1 only three edits is to add POV that Gastrich adds.
 * March 1 first and only edit is to add POV that Gastrich adds.
 * March 1 partly white washes this evidence page.
 * March 1 partly white wahes this page again.
 * March 2 continues sending puppets to a RFC started by another puppet.
 * March 2 first and only edit is to add POV that Gastrich adds.
 * March 2 first and only edit " " ".
 * March 2 first and only edit " " ".
 * March 2 first and only edit " " ".
 * March 2 's only edit was change a proposed Jason Gastrich probation (on this arbitration) from one year to one week.
 * March 7 denies using sock puppets as he "apologizes" for his behavior.
 * March 16 vandalized the RfA decision page. The edit labelled as "updating evidence" changed the one year ban to "two weeks" along with the probation period of one year to "two weeks."
 * March 17 and 18th white washes the facts about accreditation three schools related to Louisisna Baptist University. While such edit summaries were labelled as "removal," the edits were the deletion of information surrounding the questioable schools.
 * User refuses to answer questions concerning his edits, connection to the "schools," and if he was a sock puppet of Jason Gastrich.
 * March 18 makes two edits to defend User:Shocka5. These are the only two edits has ever made.

Other examples

 * On 2006-02-18,, , , , , and all exhibited classic Jason Gastrich behavior in editing the Louisiana Baptist University to paint the "institution" in a more favorable light.
 * On 2006-02-19,, , continued the trend of Gastrich-like behavior in repeated editing/reverting of Louisiana Baptist University as an accredited university. (List for this date should be continued if more vandalism makes it necessary) Justin Eiler 04:02, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * On 2006-02-19 left a signed message here admitting plainly that he was Jason Gastrich. -- Ruby  04:48, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * On 2006-02-19, systematically removed sockpuppet notices from other Gastrich accounts. Hexagonal 04:53, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * On 2006-02-19, made Gastrich's usual editing change to Abortion, using a misleading edit summary ("rv page blanking vandal"). A quick glance at the diff shows that the page was not blanked. Justin Eiler 20:48, 24 February 2006 (UTC)


 * On February 20, 2006,, and  blanked the diploma mill allegations.Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 05:17, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * On 2006-02-22,, made Gastrich's usual alteration at Atheism before going on to persistent vandalism at Abortion. Also, removed a request re: Gastrich socks from Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents. --Plover 01:38, 24 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Between Feb 20th and 22nd several new accounts were opened with the express purpose of removing sock tags from Gastrich puppets user pages.
 * 20th Feb , ,
 * 21st Feb , , ,
 * 22nd Feb
 * 24th Feb:
 * , nominated a notable writer for AfD who wrote a book showing that legalised abortion decreased crime and went through Category:Christian Wikipedians to drum up votes, then complained on the admin's noticeboard (assuming bad faith) when the AfD was speedily kept. Writing style is identical to Gastrich's.
 * Other sockpuppets:, , , ,
 * Gastrich site added to an article, legal problems of an LBU alumnus deleted , personal attack , article on a critic of diploma mills scholar who referred to Louisiana Baptist University as such is vandalised
 * On March 1, 2006,, nominated User:Arbustoo for deletion on his first edit. He also nominated Harlan Ellison for deletion in apparent bad faith, and proceeded to lambast User:FeloniousMonk for running a "cabal" in Gastrich-like language.Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 02:27, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Root of the problem
The root of the problem apears to me to be (LBU) and  (SAB). Specifically, it is stated that Gastrich's doctorate from this college was awarded on the basis of his rebuttal to the SAB. He has repeatedly claimed that this rebuttal is an authoritative source and should be included in the SAB article, citing in support Amazon reviews. As set out in the RfC, Gastrich knows that Amazon reviews can be manipulated and there is fair evidence of his having done just that, as well as some well-argued and scathing critiques among the Amazon reviews. This is in any case moot since the addition of your own work to an article is considered bad form per WP:VAIN, and to edit-war over it is worse.

Also, the LBU article says that LBU meets several of the criteria for diploma mills, including offering credits based on "life experience", lacking accreditation from any nationally recognised accreditation body, and failure to register doctoral theses with the usual repositories. Big Lover, i.e. Gastrich, stated that LBU is "obviously not a diploma mill" and any insinuation to the contrary is clearly offensive to him, as a graduate of the college. Gastrich clearly holds his alma mater in high esteem, for example raising the parallel with Harvard when discussing the proposed deletion of a list of alumni.

Other articles attracting specific attention have been, a prominent young-earth creationist, and whose subject, an atheist, has an ongoing external dispute with Gastrich.

The problem has been brought to a head by the creation of a significant number of articles on people and institutions significant in the Southern Baptist community, but often not provably significant outside that particular walled garden. There is an intersection with young-earth creationists, and another intersection with the list of unaccredited institutions of higher learning. There exists a group of editors who have devoted significant research to the identification and collation of these institutions, and that group of editors ensures that when new articles are created on them, data on accreditation is included. For:  was originally a redirect to ; here  TonyT5 changes it to a small article. Here Turkmen reverts it back from a redirect, again adding detail. And here a user adds what might be thought reasonably relavant information, that PIU has been called a diplome mill and will sell you a degree for a one-off payment for $2,500-$3,000, which TonyT5 and Turkmen omitted to mention.

It is really these whitewashing and vainglorious edits, of varying degrees of subtlety, more than the means used to achieve them, which I see as the problem to the project.

Evidence presented by Stifle
Jason Gastrich, posting as BigBear (talk • contribs • [ page moves] • block user • [ block log]), posted a particularly rude and incivil warning on Plover's talk page. Stifle 15:01, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Checkuser requested. This may be a sock or it may be a deliberate attempt to smear. Guy  16:07, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Note: This is the same incident I reported for 2006-2-19 above. Ruby 16:26, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know if a WP:RFCU is needed, the comment is signed by Jason and appears to be just the same tone, content, etc. as everything else he posts. Stifle 20:18, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Also, in the matter of the case, I feel I must point out that JzG created a page describing Jason's activity at Gastroturfing, which the arbitrators may form an opinion on. I nominated it for MFD, and JzG speedied it while on MFD. Stifle 20:28, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I did indeed, and acknowledged my bad. One thing to coin a phrase, another to hang up a banner about it. Just zis Guy you know? 20:59, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Jason Gastrich emailed a number of users with a Christian userbox on their userpage (although not myself), and nominated a random selection of atheists for deletion, apparently violating WP:POINT. Stifle 20:28, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Jason added a message to his user page demanding that nobody edits the page. Stifle 20:28, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

He is alleged to have phoned Icj tlc's father, a church pastor, complaining about Icj tlc's behaviour in reverting and/or apologising on various pages. 

Evidence presented by Hexagonal
I have to agree with Stifle's assessment of the situation. While it could be remotely likely that some third-party vandal is impersonating Jason Gastrich and making this even more of a mess than it already is, I'd sooner believe that it is merely Gastrich and those under his direction. First, unlike other cases in which impostors have appeared, Jason Gastrich does not have a good name to be disparaged. It is not as if we are seeing Jimbo impostors here - think more along the lines of Willy imposters. Even then, I can't see it as being likely that some third-party troll would be impersonating Gastrich, since whoever is controlling all of the socks is being both viscious and coherent with earlier attacks.

Running a CheckUser on each of the socks is just going to add to the already overflowing backlog. While being mindful of process is important, slowing down other investigations of vandalism with excessive Gastrich sock checks is not good for the encyclopedia.

Besides, I don't know exactly what would be achieved by checking each suspected Gastrich sock. If a sock comes from one of his IPs, then it will just be added with the others to the already existing mountain of evidence. If it is coming from an unknown IP, then all we can do is suspect that Gastrich or someone who is acting like him is using proxies. Given that Gastrich has an above-average level of understanding of the Internet, I am sure he is familiar with what proxies are, and how to use them. Hell, Gastrich is sneaky, and I wouldn't put it past him to use proxies, and then blame the vandalism on a third party, so he can present a denial of all the sockpuppets, except those created from his IP. (I can change, I can change )

Applying Occam's Razor here, it is far more probable that Gastrich is using proxies to create socks, than is some external vandal impersonating Gastrich to blow this saga out of proportion. All I know is that vandals like Gastrich are the worst kind, since their subtle POV is much more damaging to truth than the graffiti-style vandalism of other well-known vandals. Hexagonal 21:09, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Evidence presented by David
On February 28, was created, and his first act was to nominate Michael Newdow (well known atheist plaintiff in the school pledge case) for deletion. He cited as his reasons for nomination: "Non-notable; just another baseless litigant in this lawsuit-crazed culture". No votes other than his were to delete and I closed the nomination as having been made in bad faith. David | Talk 00:18, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

On March 2, was created and nominated four perfectly good pages for deletion citing bogus reasons:


 * 1) Obesity nomination reason "Unverifiable, hoax".
 * 2) Eternal (band)  nomination reason "Spam, blatant promotion".
 * 3) Tony Blair   nomination  reason "Non-notable biography".
 * 4) User:CambridgeBayWeather nomination reason "Vanity page, spam".

Each case was closed as a speedy keep by me. David | Talk 14:36, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * David, these do not look like Gastrich to me. Just zis Guy you know? 14:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Maybe they were, maybe they were not. The ArbCom members have CheckUser abilities and can verify, but it's best to draw it to their attention just in case. On the Obesity AfD, User:Renegade Master purported to vote "Speedy delete This article is an utter joke!!! And I'm Jason Gastrich!" . David | Talk 15:03, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Renegade Master created his user page at 14:10 and labeled himself a Mindspillage sock.  At 14:20 he called himself Gastrich on the Obesity AfD.  It's certainly very odd behavior. Could it be a Gastrich impersonator (someone trying to discredit him?) Thatcher131 21:58, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * There is a history of people spoofing Gastrich. This user profile shows the history of such a person in usenet. As such, it will be hard to distinguish between real sock puppets, meatpuppets and impersonators. I am sure we are seeing all three in action at once. David D. (Talk) 22:10, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It's a fracking spillover from the very worst of Usenet right onto Wikipedia. It's what we've all feared.  -- Cyde Weys  07:37, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Evidence presented by JoshuaZ
My involvement with the Gastrich affair was minor, merely another person cleaning up the myriad socks. I have one data point to add. This comment was made by Gastrich on March 7. The comment feigns lack of knowledge that the checkuser request here was made by User:Juicy_Juicy which is one of the socks involved in this whole mess. This means that by March 7, very late in this matter, Gastrich was still using socks. Furthermore, see other users new evidence indicating that he still is using socks. JoshuaZ 02:47, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Evidence provided by Ben
rewritten

I believe various users involved in this case may have violated the policy Wikipedia is not a battleground. I also think this is an opportunity for arbitrators to determine principle with respect to off-site co-ordination of editing and politicking on Wikipedia, especially with respect to activist groups.

Various users involved participate in the Usenet group "maleboge.org." This newsgroup, according to one of its members, "exists to expose religious frauds or those that use religion to defraud others." Jason Gastrich "is a focus of this activity" whose "antics served as the impetus for the start of the group." . (Previous evidence regarding the activities of maleboge.org was this diff)

The maleboge newsgroup often discusses Wikipedia with respect to Jason Gastrich's participation here, and the main participants in these discussions are Wikipedians who have been in active contact with Gastrich on Wikipedia. Those users are (but not limited to):


 * Markkbilbo (founder of the group maleboge.org)
 * Daycd (aka David D., David)
 * Harvestdancer (aka Jason Harvestdancer)
 * WarriorScribe

Still more Wikipedians, such as administrators User:Cyde and User:Duncharris whom are involved or have commented on this case, are identifiable members of/contributors to the group. Some co-ordinated actions and references on talk pages strongly suggest the involvement of still more Wikipedians under different usernames.

Discussion regarding Gastrich and Wikipedia also occurs outside the maleboge newsgroup:. (In this case, user SonOfFred is User:WarriorScribe.)

Votes to delete articles deemed acceptable by the Wikipedia community, and derisive comments on AfDs, demonstrate that Wikipedia is being used as a battleground by members of this group.


 * AfD for Thomas Ice:
 * AfD for Template:User_Native_American (which also includes mocking comments towards Gastrich on its talk page Template_talk:User_Native_American):

Additionally, information concerning Gastrich which I believe would generally be regarded as a trivially poor example was added to the Typosquatting article by WarriorScribe. Members then engaged in an edit war with Gastrich on the Typosquatting article regarding this example.

This is not meant to excuse Gastrich's conduct, which has been abhorrent. Though this is a case where Gastrich has been named the defendant, in my opinion, arbitrators have a duty to also investigate these quite unusual circumstances surrounding his conduct.

--Ben 00:54, 19 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Interestingly this user has his own ongoing RfA. See the Requests_for_arbitration link. Arbusto 03:14, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Response by JzG
I would point out that I started the RfC and this RfAr, I did much of the vandal-fighting, placed at least one of the CheckUser requests and took quite a bit of Gastrich's flak, including fielding email from a blocked sock on Gastrich's own domain. I can't recall ever having heard of maleboge.org, and am certainly not active there. Nor have I visited the infidelguy website. The typosquatting example is irrelevant: first, it is a valid example, whatever its significance, since Gastrich was indeed typosquatting (and has also cybersquatted); second, the way to fix issues is not to edit war but to discuss them on Talk, and Gastrich has been around long enough to know this. Editing content relating to yourself is questionable at best, edit-warring over it is a definite no-no. I don't think there is any doubt that WarriorScribe has brought an agenda with him, as many editors do, but he is open about it and acts within policy. His technique appears at worst to be to pay out sufficient rope, and then call the sheriff to cut the victim down once they have hanged themselves. I don't particularly admire WarriorScribe, but I have not seen him creating great chunks of POV content or organising astroturfing either. For the avoidance of doubt, I have never visited or posted to talk.origins either. Just zis Guy you know? 23:05, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Response by Cyde Weys
None of this excuses what Jason Gastrich has done, however. And the various "anti-Gastrich" groups or what not wouldn't exist had he not started with his shenanigans in the first place. You claim I am a member of Malebolge.org but all I ever did was post a "welcome" message. I didn't find it my liking. I still prefer talk.origins much more, which is a newsgroup for the discussion of evolution and is not really related to Jason Gastrich because Gastrich hasn't posted there in a long time. So while all of these extra-Wikipedia affairs you brought up are interesting, I don't think they have much of an effect on this case. -- Cyde Weys  21:32, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Response by David D.
I had been involved in wikipedia for a long time before Gastrich showed up on the scene. I was also one of the first to be involved in the maleboge group on usenet although I did not found the group. From my perspective the group is designed to expose religious frauds with a focus on Gastrich. Just to clarify the comments above made by, aka David, is not myself. Also the comments in maleboge made by David are a distinct user to my posts as David D. I invite anyone to find dig through the archives, I have nothing to hide.

When Gastrich appeared as an editor at wikipedia i was well placed to advise Gastrich on the policies here. I have never tried to discourage him from editing although I have tried to explain to him why POV editing and sockpuppets are not advisable on wikipedia. In some cases i have even defended Gastrich's edits. In general, I think the majority of opposition to Gastrich has come from Wikipedians who did not know of the usenet Gastrich. Certainly the RfC and RfA that highlight Gastrich's behaviour on Wikipedia are independent on the maleboge group. His actions speak for themselves. David D. (Talk) 17:31, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Response by Mark K. Bilbo
No, I am not the founder of "maleboge.org" (which, by the way, is not a Usenet newsgroup, it's a Google group... there's a difference). And if there's some kind of "coordination" going on over at maleboge.org, that's news to me. But it's not much of a conspiracy to leave a list hanging out in public where it can be found and read via Google is it?

Sorry but there is no cabal. Gastrich has made it his mission to seek out atheists (and sometimes skeptics as well as people who defend evolutionary theory). He often claims he's being "stalked" but the reverse is actually closer to the truth. A few may have come to the Wiki on hearing Gastrich was up to his usual tricks. Should this surprise? Particularly given the way Gastrich has gone out of his way to wave red flags in peoples' faces?

I wandered over here during the Antony Flew flap. Gastrich was all over online atheist forums (including alt.atheism), making a big deal of Flew's tenative consideration of some kind of organizing force in the universe. As if this was some big conversion coup for Gastrich himself. We were being told one of our "leaders" had left atheism. Funny thing was, most of us didn't even know who Flew was. So what's one place you go to look something up? Gee, could it be something called "the Wikipedia?" And, lo and behold, who was already there, grinding his POV ax on the Antony Flew page but Jason Gastrich hisownself.

From where I sit, it's that I can't go anywhere in the online atheist community without running into Gastrich or the smoking remains a thread he's just left or hearing him at the door not far behind. He is the one doing the "stalking."

Fact of the matter is, for every one name of someone who had previous contact with Gastrich that you'll find on the RfC concerning Gastrich's behavior, there are ten others from the Wiki community at large. It played out exactly as I expected. Gastrich breezed in to yet another community, started insisting on having his (and only his) way, telling long time regulars what their rules really meant, until the community bit back and tossed him out the door.

This was going to happen whether anybody who knew Gastrich from the outside bothered to show up at all. It's just what Gastrich does everywhere he goes and it's the same outcome every time.

Mark K. Bilbo 18:56, 22 March 2006 (UTC)