Before I launch into this edition, there’s probably a few items I need to clarify.
The first is the concept of “oversight”. One of the “nice things” about a wiki is that it keeps a history of all the edits made to various pages. The only way this history can be erased is by deleting and re-creating the page in question – something Conservapedia’s admins are very good at doing. This is especially true of talk pages, where even if awkward questions are reverted, there’s still a trace of it in the history.
However, deletion and re-creation of pages is an extremely poor example of wiki etiquette, and certainly not something you’d get away with at Wikipedia (or even small wikis such as Rationalwiki, or A Storehouse of Knowledge). Which means that if somebody sticks something really horrible on a page (like an ASCII Goatse) you’re kind of stuck with it in the article’s edit history, if you can’t delete the page in question. Which is where “oversight” comes in.
This is a tool, usually made available to responsible, trustworthy (yes, you can see where Andy Schlafly made his first mistake, right?) administrators, which allows them to “cull” edits directly from the articles history log. In other words, that edit will never have happened. Winston Smith would be gurgling with glee. It’s an ideal tool for somebody who is basically dishonest.
The second thing that needs mentioning, is Rationalwiki’s page called “What is going on at CP?” which serves to highlight some of the better (or worse, depending on your viewpoint) goings-on on Conservapedia. However, due to repeated cases of Conservative Deceit, where articles’ history were lost through delete/re-create tactics, they implemented a program that automatically takes a screendump of the link in question on Conservapedia, and adds it to the reference. Thus, even if CP delete the page, the “hardcopy”, so to speak, remains.
Good, having covered that, we come to the latest bit of fun on CP. Andy continues to be oblivious of the fact that Terry Koeckritz has driven away most of his editors (and admins), and wields “checkuser” like a mallet. (Checkuser is another tool that allows admins to see what IP addresses editors are using. Terry Koeckritz – ok, and the other admins who have it (Ed Poor and Karajou especially) – simply cannot grasp the fact that two or more editors can have the same IP address. Nope, if it shows up that somebody else has the same IP as you, then you’re abusing multiple accounts and you’re banned. It’s not rocket science, but to these intellectual midgets, it’s easier to click the ‘block’ button than to think. Actually, Andy isn’t alone in that. Ed “I’m user 188 on Wikipedia” Poor, in response to numerous complaints about TK, simply says “…it is useless to “make a case” for his dismissal. That is not how we work around here.” Ok, then – how do you work around there?
But I digress. Not content with having Terry Koeckritz abuse editors, wiki-stalk them, make up his own rules (the latest being deleting articles because they’re “pop culture”) Andy hands him the “oversight” baton – claiming it to be “deserved and overdue” – possibly another sign that Andy is losing touch with reality. Of course, does Terry treat it with respect/ Ha! One of the first things he does is make a comment by Andy disappear. Said comment was Andy saying “private communications are not preferred” in response to an editor saying that Terry Koeckritz was demanding e-mail addresses from editors (which is a flagrant breach of the COPPA laws – and probably worth bringing to the authorities’ attention next time he tries that). If it isn’t there, it was never said, right?
Then, in a move that boggles the mind and yet gives us a wonderful insight into just how stupid Terry Koeckritz actually is, he adds the following to his user page within hours of being promoted:
It has recently come to my attention some vandal sites and individual trolls are passing around purported screen shots of this wiki. Needless to say, to have their way, they are forging them to perpetrate a fraud.
What makes this so laughable is that a) “What is going on” has been running their screen-capture bot for probably close to a year and b) it is common knowledge that Terry watches WIGO, and it’s talkpage, like a hawk. So to say “It has recently come to my attention…” is not only a lie, it is a very poor lie.
In fact, all the idiot has managed to do is hang up a great big neon sign, in letters 20 feet high, which reads, “I’m going to abuse Oversight, and here’s my excuse up front, just in case I get called on it.”
The other question that needs to be asked, is just who is he’s making the excuse for? The two people who might actually read his userpage, or is he just trying to justify his deceit to himself?
We couldn't make this up... 