Pointman writes: I think we’ve all had that pleasant surprise when something totally unexpected just drops out of the sky and into your lap. That happened to me last weekend when a creature called William Connolley attempted to comment on a piece I’d written about the Bengtsson scandal. If you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s infamous for editing thousands of Wikipedia articles on climate and anyone significant in the area. You can find several articles on his activities over at WUWT.
His idea of truth is somewhat idiosyncratic to say the least, but let’s just say if you were any way sceptical, you weren’t going to get a glowing entry. When the skeptics tried to correct the foul calumnies for their entry, they were promptly changed back, a loop they went around until he banned them from being able to edit anything.
I’m actually quite knowledgeable about him, since I’ve been a fawning admirer and stroker of his ego for as far back as his days co-founding the joke site called Real Climate with Gavin Schmidt and others of a similar ilk. Needless to say, it’s under one of my dark side Eco-Annie personas. The site is pretty much moribund these days but it did get a sniffy mention in the climategate emails by Phil “hide the decline” Jones, as being there just to disseminate propaganda.
He was never particularly significant in the self-declared pantheon of climate demigods, more like their technical gopher despatched as required to cobble together various bits of HTML for them. In his Wikipedia heyday, he built up a small but dedicated following of fanboys but since Wiki banned him and nobody sane reads his blogging attempts, he’s of late been at a loose end, cruising around the skeptic blogosphere, trolling for all he’s worth and generally leaving a terrible stench behind him.
As it happens, I’ve a personal score to settle with him, and one I never thought I’d get the chance to do but this looked to be a heaven-sent opportunity, if I could just play it right. Picking an appropriate way would undoubtedly come down to making use on his own rather inflated idea of his importance in the general scheme of things climatic, but in just the right way. He’s used to swimming around in a little pond of mutual fishy admirers and as far as I’m aware has never had a good kicking, so I laced up my steel-toed boots and thought about an appropriate bait to fix on the hook.
Read the rest of this entertaining post here: The scorning of William Connolley.
WC has been trolling all the blogs lately trying to get readership for his own sorry excuse for a blog. He posts links to it constantly. And of course has learned nothing from either the Wiki episode or now the Pointman one. His biggest problem is that no one is reading his blog, just laughing at him.
Kudos to Pointman! It was a tough job that was done successfully ! 🙂
good grief, is he still around?…..I mean WC
I am not sure baiting a nonentity like Connolley is worth it. He is a frustrated little man. He has maths quailifications but became a low level coder instead. I presume he found being a mathematician too difficult. He has become a minor irritation in the climate debate but no one is interested in listening to him. I believe he has aspirations to be a Green MP, best place for him (even less people will listen to him them).
I am sure he will continue with his puerile outbursts – but no one cares!
Well done. While this is a satisfying result, WC has ruined the potential for integrity that Wiki might have had as a open-sourced resource.
A stoat is a weasel. Apt.
I think I may have traced the source of the problem.
In climategate email #4349 the Real Climate “rapid-response” team lists:
As you can see, William Connolley’s name crops up twice. Perhaps this is what gave him the determination to make sure he always gets his retaliation in early.
I’m on Pointman’s list. I read it yesterday. Very amusing.
God forbid I ever cross Pointman. The line, “If a sequitur ever managed to take up residence in that vast cavernous vacuum between his ears, it’d die of loneliness.” is one of the funniest I have ever read. Artful.
It seems to me that Connolley is bitter about his present situation relative to his peers. He is one of the original members of “The Team” yet he has nothing to show for it. Millions of people read his propaganda on Wiki while no one reads realclimate or SKS yet the other members of realclimate appear on major TV networks. I’m sure that the personal and financial success Mr. Cook has had eats away at poor William. Cook goes from being an unemployed loser a researcher at a major university and the author of a paper that President Obama cited. Connolley has fallen behind and he knows it. Now he is screaming for people to pay attention to him. He wants the fame that he thinks he deserves.
Bravo. Pointman’s blog should be on the blogroll here as a pointer to sophisticated historical insight into climate cultism, and tips on strategic thinking that individualist temperament skeptics desperately need more insight into to get them out of the choir and out onto news sites where commenting is free as can be and sorely lacking in fact checking voices.
Connolley even outright denied he was the subject of an exposure article about his Wikipedia corruption, even defending his claim using word games about the incorrectness of the headline text used that meant it obviously wasn’t referring to the same William Connolley:
http://notrickszone.com/2014/05/16/leaked-memo-on-climatology-exposes-growing-worry-within-german-meteorological-society-unacceptable-unethical-developments/#comment-942428
no, it exposed it. Wiki’s format means that anything controversial will eventually be decided by a popularity contest.
A very enjoyable read. Can’t stand Wiki, myself – because of odious toads like WC.
@alex E
It’s worse than that. All it takes is someone who is a fanatical gatekeeper like WC who refuses to give up when someone inserts something they don’t like. They eventually wear down anyone who disagrees with them.
Alex E says: Wiki’s format means that anything controversial will eventually be decided by a popularity contest.
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Agreed. If you have to use it I would always advise looking at the talk pages. It’s often surprising how controversial to a few people an apparently bland subject can be and how much bitter in-fighting is going on under the surface.
@alex E
I think Wikipedia’s format ensures that the editor with the highest degree of obsessive compulsive disorder prevails.
Wikipedia could have been a very valuable resource for the world. But because of William Connolley in particular, it is nothing but a propaganda blog. It has no credibility outside of its small head-nodding clique of catastrophic AGW True Believers.
That’s a shame. Wikipedia could have been a contender.
Guess I’m missing something. I confess I only made it about 3/4 of the way through. I just kept having the thought, “is this really worth the effort?” Never been a fan of the sneer and jeer, though I admit to indulging myself from time to time.
The Pointman showed us that the WC needed cleaning.
Then Pointman decided it was un-cleanable so he quarantined the WC.
Good decision Pointman.
John
> is this really worth the effort?
Well, its about me, so obviously yes. Though otherwise I find it hard to see the point. If you want to see the other side of the conversation, its at (not worth checking, especially since it’s a very cheap trick to drive up visits.)”
lolol
Pointman, you have crossed over to the dark side. Quickly! Come back to the light. Follow my voice and you will see it. Come back into warmth and light. GK
WC accepts soliloquist MM’s “..a debate where none should exist”. So let WC lapse into solipsism’s lonely realm of recursive debatelessness.
John
Pointman’s writing is always enjoyable, this was fun but not one of his classics.
He has a brilliant turn of phrase.
Willy! You’ve broken cover at last. I was beginning to think I’d scarred you for life. Come on over to my gaff. I’ll let you in if you pass a few little tests. Just for you, I’ll make them really simple. You won’t even have to look the answers up in Wikipedia; they won’t be there anyway and if they are, they’ll probably be wrong anyway.
You know you want to do it and I’ll only pose you suitably simple questions. Gowon, let’s do the rematch. The whole blogosphere is watching. Your chance for another 15 minutes …
Pointman