The Editorial Committee of The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy (April 2012)

Wikipedia Administrators uncover the sleazy methods used by anonymous Greek Internet Trolls - Bloggers "Omadeon" / "Danae Papadopoulou" to discredit Takis Fotopoulos' entry and work, and to harass by "outing" other users and ID activists.

 

An orchestrated attempt to distort and discredit  Takis Fotopoulos’s biographical entry in Wikipedia ignited by sockpuppets who acted as internet “stool pigeons”,  using such methods as outing names of ID activists and friends, was revealed and addressed effectively by Wikipedia administrators a few days ago, after the reaction of Wikipedia users.

 

The Wikipedia user “SentientContrarian”, a “Wikipedia verified” sock puppet who made his/her appearance with another Wikipedia account after s/he miserably failed to distort the Wikipedia entry approximately three months ago as user “Elp gr”, admitted himself implicitly that he is Greek blogger “Omadeon”, who, along with his Facebook alter ego / sock puppet, “Danae Papadopoulou”, is the main executor of a vast and unprecedented defamatory campaign over the Greek internet, spanning a series of blogs and Facebook accounts for over 4 months now, against Takis Fotopoulos and the ID Network in Greece, as we will see below. This user, according to the Wikipedia Administrators’ assessment made posts in Wikipedia Talk Pages of other users and of the biographical entry, that…

“contained suggestions regarding the real life identities of Wikipedia users. This is against Wikipedia’ s Harassment policy. “

Moreover, as an administrator confirmed,

“Checkuser shows convincing evidence of a link between the SentientContrarian account and User:Elp gr which combined with contributions and writing style show that the accounts are run by the same user.”

“As Elp gr had been warned twice for edits to Takis Fotopoulos, and this account was then created to continue the same sort of edits, it is clear that this account had been created to avoid scrutiny.”

“Both accounts have edit warred, and this SentientContrarian account has been blocked for edit warring. The SentientContrarian has also been blocked for WP:Outing.”

“Given the circumstances of creating inappropriate accounts, edit warring and outing, your contributions and actions have been far more harmful than helpful to our aim of creating an encyclopaedia, so I am indefinitely blocking both accounts.  11:18, 4 April 2012 (UTC)”

This led to the Wikipedia administrators turn to block indefinitely the sockpuppets from editing

“for persistent disruptive editing, as [he] did at Takis Fotopoulos.”  

SentientContrarian (“Omadeon” / “Danae Papadopoulou”) got a status of sock puppets in their account:

“This account is a sock puppet of Elp gr and has been blocked indefinitely.
Please refer to User_talk:SentientContrarian#Indefinite_block for evidence.” 


The IJID Editorial Board would like to thank the Wikipedia administrators for their immediate and accurate response to this sleazy attack by this tiny group of internet “trolls” and self-styled “bloggers” represented by Omadeon and/or “Danae Papadopoulou”, taking into account (a) the restrictive and, at the same time, dilatant nature of the norms of the medium, which leads some administrators to often take a position of “equal distances” when so serious distorting and harassing phenomena happen and, (b) that they do not actually have knowledge of what has been taking place on the off-Wiki internet during the last 4 months or so.

 

We will try to shed some light on the course of the most important events in this campaign, although unfortunately, our detailed announcement about the mud-slinging campaign against us in Greece, is mainly in Greek.

Before we see some of the devious methods the internet Troll, Omadeon (and most likely his scatological Facebook alter ego, Danae Papadopoulou) used in order to distort the biographical entry of Takis Fotopoulos, we would like to remind our readers that such an attack on ID Wikipedia entries is not an entirely new thing, as an almost destructive concerted attack on most ID entries took place 6 years ago.

 

Furthermore, as we said, the new devious attempt to defame Fotopoulos and his work is not also out of the blue, but part of an unprecedented, in its length and persistence, defamatory campaign against Inclusive Democracy and Takis Fotopoulos personally, which has been on the go for more than 4 months in Greece, with more than obvious political connections to the Reformist – Degenerate “Left”.

 

Additional information for this campaign, its connections and implications can be found in "David Curtis takes part in an anonymous mudslinging campaign against Takis Fotopoulos (and publicizes it in Agora!)".

 

FOTOPOULOS’S WIKIPEDIA ENTRY DISTORTION AND THE ATTACKING SOCK PUPPETS’ “ARGUMENTS”: A MINIATURE OF OMADEON/ “DANAE PAPADOPOULOU”’ S FILTHY CAMPAIGN AGAINST ID AND TAKIS IN GREECE.

 

As we said, it is more than evident from the sort of arguments used in the attack by this Wikipedia user, his/her writing style, the user profile and “interests”, as well as the methods s/he used in Wikipedia, and the systematic exploitation of this attack in external social media by Omadeon and “Danae Papadopoulou”, that the sockpuppet who attacked the Takis Fotopoulos entry in Wikipedia is indeed “Omadeon” (something that himself almost explicitly revealed, as we’ ll see below). Omadeon also happens to be the main executor of an enormous mud-slinging campaign, which has lasted for more than 4 months on the Greek internet, with the direct or indirect support of a, largely subsidized by the system, section  of the Reformist – Degenerate “Left” in Greece. This “Left” instead of attacking the institutions of the neoliberal capitalist globalization in every country and stand out against the campaign by the Transnational Elite to expand the system and encompass the “non-client regimes” into the New World Order (like the crime against the Libyan people, and now the Syrian - see Takis's article), or instead of attacking Zionism itself, it is denouncing, with an excess of hypocrisy, the “politics” of Israel, of “the bad elites”, the “political system”, “greed” of some “malicious cliques”, etc.. The support of this sort of “Left”  is evidently abundant to such sock puppets. Their connection indicates more or less the motives (either they are under pay or not) of these internet “Trolls” to attack possibly the only political movement in Greece which has been criticizing the despicable role of this “Left” in today’ s crisis, a pro-systemic role that has been documented by ID and is now well-founded.

 

An additional indication of the connection of this “Left” with the sock puppets is provided by the complaint letters that were sent to prominent members of the Reformist “Left” by Takis, when the first wave of the attacks against his biographical entry took place by sock puppet “Elp gr” in Wikipedia 3 months ago. In these letters the close internet relationship between these academics and Facebook sock puppet “Danae Papadopoulou” was revealed, a relationship which also included a defamatory dialogue against Takis in public Facebook Walls. The characteristic lack of a single response to these founded allegations (in Greek) was another indication of Omadeon’ s and Danae’ s close relationship with a significant part of the Reformist Left, the (subsidized by the EU) “Greek Committee against the Public Debt” and the academics who support it.

 

The following is an edit that Omadeon (together with his female persona, “Danae Papadopoulou”) made in the Talk Page of a supposed “affiliate” user in his defamatory “cause”, asking the other user’ s help. This has now been deleted by the administrators, because of the “Outing” he attempted to do against other Wikipedia users and ID activists. In it he reveals without much doubt that it’ s him who is involved in this deplorable (and possibly subsidized) campaign.

In this text, which summarizes this internet sockpuppet’ s “arguments” and “victimization” methods, he declares without leaving much space for misconceptions:

“You see, as someone who has been personally involved in this unfortunate internet drama with the extremely militant members and supporters of the Inclusive Democracy movement (such as User: ”…” - if you do a Google search on him, you will easily find traces of his involvement with the Inclusive Democracy movement, "ID" for short - , User:”…”, whom I believe to be ID member “…”, and User:”…”, to name a few), my testimony on what is written in the Greek-only announcements cannot be considered as reliable as that of a neutral, unbiased editor who is fluent in both languages.”

And, in addition, Omadeon does not forget to offer a good advertisement to his stinky blogs, in which, among other cretinist distortions against texts and actions of the ID project and Fotopoulos, he has been systematically “outing” antisystemic activists and has been slandering them, twisting their words, actions, and even personalities.

“I will also provide you with a (Greek-language only) blog article that documents Mr. Fotopoulos and his movement's actions, as they occurred since December 2011 (yes, it appears that Mr. Fotopoulos embarked on an internet war against Greek blogs and movements in December 2011 and it seems to have lasted quite a bit, a war in which he seems to have enlisted the aid of an academic named “…”). The article contains links to other articles as well, so I am only going to provide the link to the main one:

Omadeon' s distorting, slanderous and outing post in a Wikipedia user' s Talk Page

 

In this delirium, Omadeon repeats in full and in an identical manner the same series of lies and parroted distortions which has been spreading all around the Greek (and not only) blog-o-sphere, along with his Facebook “alter ego”, “Danae Papadopoulou”, who in a disguise of a supposed …“real” female persona (although it is more than obvious to every casual observer that s/he is another sockpuppet of Omadeon), is throwing tons of dirt in his/her Facebook Wall and in other users’ and organizations’ Walls, uttering despicable claims that identify Takis, the ID Network and its members with Stalinists, and, without any remorse, even with …National-Socialists and Nazis! Not only this, but the stinky internet “Troll” even reached the point where s/he published a fake announcement of Fotopoulos’ death, which was circulated not only in “Trolls” blogs, but in some of their associate Greek Castoriadians’ public Facebook Wall Pages, in Twitter, etc..

 

Omadeon’ s main claim for this nasty and coward personal attack is, that it was Takis and the ID Network who “attacked” other blogs in the first place, a claim which brutally twists reality:  The truth that it was Omadeon and a tiny group of his affiliate Reformist Left and “life-style anarchist” affiliates, who assaulted, under the hood of a badly-perceived anonymity, Takis in a Greek blog. The pretext of this well planned attack was that the ID Network criticized and denounced the degenerate role of the Athens Indymedia and of its Editorial Committee, which have been systematically censoring or slandering (with the help of an “established” group of “life-style anarchists” who are constantly patronizing the medium) every voice which detracts from the parallel/liberal Left and the alternative self-styled “anarchist” voices, about the NATO-backed “Revolutions” in the Middle East, or any voice which deviates from the main “anarchist” line that the Anarchists should open a war with the members of the Communist Party, as they did in October, when a few life-style anarchists attacked its members, because they did not like the way the tens of thousands of friends and members of the CP deployed around the Greek Parliament, in order to “protect” it, as they claimed.

 

Replying to his distortions, the Greek ID Network condemned Omadeon’ s devious means, that were almost identical to the ones he used in Wikipedia so as to distort the Fotopoulos entry and throw dirt against him and other users or activists! Following our reaction to his sleazy methods (in Greek), he began a hideous and unprecedented campaign, together with his alter ego, “Danae Papadopoulou”, by “trolling” ENERY single blog in which regular and signed texts by Takis and ID were re-published. Some of these blogs, belonging to the sort of Reformist “Left” that Z-Net, “Democracy Now!” etc., also belong (which Omadeon and Danae Papadopoulou avidly support), preferred not to stop this crook and his clique of associates from writing tons of unfounded slanders against Takis in their Comments sections, but to let these Comments appear publicly en masse under Takis’s and ID’ s re-publications, supposedly in order to support the freedom of speech and that of a twisted “anonymity”, as if this freedom also includes slanderous and insulting comments!

 

This led to the creation of a mess of twisting pages dedicated to the supposed “attacks” by Takis against... Omadeon on the internet, and not vice-versa, as was the real case! The stance of these blogs, which do not abide by any democratic means of self-regulation, (as was e.g. Fotopoulos’ proposal for the blogs’ self-regulation by the administrators of the blogs themselves and not by any external authority) but instead abides by the systemic doctrine “Everything goes”, was criticized by our Network in our Greek Announcement.

 

While this was happening and such events were accumulating, Omadeon and his sock puppets continued to exploit the stance of these blogs, in order to defame more and more Takis, by creating a grotesque story of “Victimization” and of attacks that supposedly began by him and the ID Network, and not by Omadeon and a tiny part of active proponents of the Greek Reformist “Left” (this includes the subsidized by the EU Greek Committee against the Public Debt, reformist parties and patriotic tendencies of the “Left” in Greece which do not even challenge EU and neoliberal Globalization, several Castoriadians, etc.). In other words, all this “Left” that is directly and indirectly connected with Omadeon’ s interests and priorities, as anyone can infer from reading his blog and sockpuppet “Danae Papadopoulou”’ s public Facebook Wall and user profiles.


You can also read in the Talk Page of Takis’s biographical entry a good short representation of the identically-styled “arguments” that were used (in several versions) in various Greek blogs’ comments, and which were also used in the Omadeon’ s and Danae Papadopoulou’ s posts and their blogs and Facebook pages respectively. As one could expect, the defamatory internet stool pigeons and their Wikipedia sock puppets Elp gr and SentientContrarian, attempted to excuse their blatantly disrupting activity in the entry, by “victimizing” themselves and their friendly “Leftist” blogs and by turning from assailants into defendants, without any shred of proof for their claims. An activity which was spotted and reported, not only by users, but by administrators as well, resulting to their indefinite block, as we saw above.


Nevertheless, this identical attack in Wikipedia was not only similar in terms of “Arguments”. Omadeon and his sockpuppets employed similar methods in Wikipedia, to the ones they used all over the “alternative” Greek media in order to leave their mud. So, like the aggressive methods Omadeon and “Danae Papadopoulou” used in other blogs and Facebook pages, (i.e. unstoppably “trolling” them, even threatening them, as it happened in the web page of the Greek economist Dimitris Kazakis), their Wikipedia sockpuppets, respectively, contacted other editors and admins personally in their Wikipedia “Talk Pages”, when they felt they were affiliate to their “cause”, trying to gain supporters for it by writing things like:

“What's the deal with the Inclusive Democracy supporters? They're so aggressive and militant; please see my Talk page for some samples of their behaviour. What should be done about it?SentientContrarian (talk) 11:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC)”

Proof of their “trolling” traces may be found here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Nihilo_01#Hi_Nihilo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:EdJohnston#Regarding_the_Takis_Fotopoulos_entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jpgordon#Regarding_the_Takis_Fotopoulos_entry_-_possible_ad_hominem_attacks_by_Inclusive_Democracy_supporters

 

 

Last but not least, one can draw extra proof (if one is still needed!) that the Wikipedia harassers are Omadeon and his sock puppets, from their personal interests in their respective User Pages:

“Wikipedian with a scientific and professional interest in Decision Support Systems, logic and informatics. Other interests include music, Greek politics, and cars. I try to offer useful, honest and accurate information whenever the need arises.

Also, I have a strong dislike towards articles that read like they were created by someone's fan club, especially if that particular fan club exhibits a behaviour that is against Wikipedia's Community Standards. This sort of stuff does not belong on Wikipedia, or any encyclopedia for that matter. Those who can't be bothered to abide by these standards should do us a favor and remove themselves from this community posthaste."

As a Wikipedia administrator noticed, it is exactly this (self-acclaimed) “cause” by this internet “Troll”, stressed in the paragraph above, which is already a reason to dispute his constructive and “community” motives in an on-line Encyclopedia with elementary ethical rules, like Wikipedia. Nevertheless, this crook had the nerve to make lessons about what belongs or not to Wikipedia and who fits in it! But the reply came by Wikipedia administrators, with a very resounding condemnation of his Wikipedia presence.

 

It is not accidental, either, that Omadeon and his sockpuppets on the Greek internet, also share similar special interests, as their Wikipedia User pages display. (informatics, logic etc.)

 

Finally, to thwart off any doubt that “Danae Papadopoulou”, Omadeon’ s Facebook sock puppet, the twin executor of this filthy campaign, is part of the same campaign plotted by these (possibly hired) internet stool pigeons who “out” antisystemic activists to their pro-systemic and liberal-Left “friends”, one can look at the following post in her/his public Facebook Wall, a little while before s/he received an indefinite block at Wikipedia.


In this, and in a similar manner to what they tried to do in Wikipedia, s/he posted this revealing statement:

danae papadopoulou facebook status outing ID activist

 “Well… A bit of outing now. User “…” in Wikipedia is the member of “Inclusive Democracy” “…” [full name] (one of Takis Fotopoulos’ acolytes).”

In addition, s/he writes about the "necessary" academic qualifications of the outed ID member:

“Who is “…”? He is the “…”. He has a “…”. He is writing “…”, but he DOESN’ T HAVE any scientific presence, because the only thing he has done up to now as regards publications, is to write in ID.”

 

April 2012

The Editorial Committee of

The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy