User:Will Beback/TM-Evidence

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The TM topic has been a problem for years. Peterklutz and his socks battled with some "anti-" editors known for their RL advocacy against the movement. Another major TM editor was "Vijayante", originally known as Maharishi International Publications Department. Those editors were blocked repeatedly. In more recent years the "anti-" editors seem to have departed while new TM editors appeared. By mid-2009 there half a dozen TM editors with only one editor who routinely championed the "anti" view, though he was uncivil and realtively ineffective. That's the situation I saw last summer.

Dozens of editors who're generally uninvolved in the topic have complained about the POV of the articles or other aspects of their editing. See: Complaints There have been numerous noticeboard and other postings.

Seven editors have made logged-out edits showing that they've edited from IPs in Fairfield, Iowa, home to a 2,000+ member, TM-oriented community, perhaps the largest in the world and the headquarters of the US movement.

Team editing[edit]

TM editors have dominated TM-related articles.

TM editors have engaged in various team editing practices. For example:

  • For years these editors have made agreed between themselves to limit the topic of the TM article to keep out material on the movement, then deleted the material related to the movement (mostly negative material characterizating the movement as a cult or NRM), then objected to creating an article about the movement. The "movement vs technique" issue. It's an example of how the editors have exerted ownership of the topic.
  • "Sexy Sadie"- For years, the TM editors have been removing from the biography any mention of a song by John Lennon which criticizes the Maharishi. The removals have violated NPOV, but the defense is that it was OK since they all agreed to it.
  • MUM stabbing - TM editors have agreed to minimize and remove material on lawsuits concerning the movement, including one which alleged negligence concerning the widely reported murder of a student on the MUM campus.

TM editors have co-edited articles with no connection to TM: [1][2][3][4][5]

TM editors have literally "tag" teamed. One editor marked non-contentious material in the Deepak Chopra article with {fact} tags, then another deleted the text.

TM editors have !voted together:([20] and [21]), ([22], [23], and [24]), ([25] and [26]), ([27] and [28]), etc.

A leaked document posted on an "anti-TM" blog describes a plan to coordinate responses by TM insiders to blog threads that concern TM.[29] It refers to the existence of "team captains" who can coordinate a team response, including handing off issues from one person to another in cases of disputes. Two separate bloggers have complained about what appear to be sock puppets posting in the comments section.[30] In one case, a TMer wrote, "sorry, glory dog and I live in the same house, share a router with the same satellite server, but use two different computers, which probably more than anyone wanted to know. i could go downstairs and use my wife's cable DSL, if that would make you happy. it would show a different IP."[31] Among the usernames that frequently post to these blogs are "Tim Guy" and "Kbob108", which are reminiscent of TimidGuy and Kbob.

In two instances, inexperienced TM-editors interacted with non-TMers in such a way that it implied off-wiki communication:

  • Hickorybark asked Rlevse for help, despite having no contact with him previously. Previously, other TM editors had come to Rlevse for help and advice.[32]
  • Roseapple had no obvious contact with Dreadstar or !voted in any other RFA.[33]
  • TM editors have made the same edits, teaming in an edit war:[34][35][36][37][38] (The inclusion of these links is debatable - the point here is the team editing: [39][40][41])
  • Non-TM editors have been blocked for edit warring with TM editors, who've avoided individual blocks through team editing.

Individual editors[edit]

Common issues[edit]

The TM editors have all removed sourced, negative material from articles. They have also dealt with negative material by adding longer rebuttals and "balancing" material, even when if of unequal weight. 3RR-type edit wars have been rare, partly to the obvious pointlessness of edit warring against a team. They are polite.

WP:IDIDNTHEARTHATThe TM editors have opposed or ignored input from outside sources, including feedback on COI editing, (thread,thread) the "Sexy Sadie" matter, and the recent feedback from WT:MEDRS, (thread), and WP:FRINGE/N (thread), and WP:RSN (thread). They're calling something a policy violation even though the WP:BLPN folks said there was no problem.thread

Evidence pages[edit]

The TM editors all espouse the same point of view. Their edits to TM-related pages as of February 20 are in parentheses, showing different levels of participation.

  • /TM-Keithbob (5546) Kbob is the leading editor on over a dozen TM-related articles. 54% of all his edits have been to TM-related pages.
  • /TM-Littleolive oil (4952) 69% of her edirts have been to TM topics. She is very aggressive on talk pages, and is the leading contributor the main TM-related talk pages.
  • /TM-TimidGuy (3586) 76% of TG's over 4,700 edits have been to TM articles.
  • TM-Bigweeboy (2253) Bwb often agrees enthusiastically with other TM editors, and has also engaged in plagiarism.
  • /TM-Dreadstar Dreadstar has had a close relationship with some of the editors and has significant involvement with some articles related to TM. He has blocked or given admin warnings to users in disputes with the TM editors.

Other[edit]

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