Ban Xah Lee

[Xah Lee]

Of interest:

• Why Can't You Be Normal?
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/why_cant_you_be_normal.html

• Ban Xah Lee
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/ban_Xah_Lee.html

I consider this post relevant because i've been perennially gossiped
about in comp.lang.* groups today and in the past 5 or 10 years, many
of the threads mentioning my name are not started by me nor did i ever
participate.

Plain text version one of the above article follows.
---------------------------------------------------

Ban Xah Lee

Xah Lee, 2009-03-07

This page is a short collection of online communities that banned me,
in a way that i don't consider just. It illustrates the political
nature among the tech geeking males.

HARASSMENT BY JOHN BOKMA

I was harassed by a newsgroup poster John Bokma (a regular of
comp.lang.perl.misc) to have my web hosting service provider kick me
off. This happened in 2006.

Summary: I was posting relevant but controversial opinions in a rude
manner to “comp.lang.*†newsgroups. I was using Google's newsgroup
service to post it, and has nothing to do with my web hosting service
provider, other than my signature containing my website or links to
relevant articles on my website. However, this guy digs up my web
hosting provider, and lobbied people to send complains to kick me off.

Detailed account: DreamHost.com and A Incidence of Harassment

WIKIPEDIA

My Wikipedia account P0lyglut is banned by Wikipedia admins in
~2008-06 for a month or so.

Summary: i was editing articles on Tibet, Human sacrifice, Dalai Lama,
citing info from Chinese historian Li Ao, and was fighting with those
who revert me in a non-conformal way. They banned me for editing, and
subsequently banned me from editing my talk page, and removed the
defense i gave on my talk page.

The original reason for reverting my editing was that i linked to my
own website (which contains the collected videos of Li Ao's program on
youtube, with English translation and summary). Subsequently, because
i did not behave in a way that seems “polite†to them, and kept on
fighting, the reason they cited to ban me was spreading propaganda.

For some account of this incident, see bottom of: Why Can't You Be
Normal?. The fighting and discussion can be seen on my talk page, at:
User talk0lyglut. The writing where i defended my edit, that got
removed from my talk page, is here: Wikipedia User talk0lyglut ...
2008-07. Local copy of these at: Wikipedia_ban_2008-06.zip.

FREENODE IRC EMACS CHANNEL

I'm banned on Freenode's irc emacs channel since about 2006-10, and
the ban was never lifted as of 2009-03. The ban is primarily, and
single-handedly executed by John Sullivan (aka johnsu01).

Some detail: Emacs Irc Channel Ban On Xah Lee.

HACKER NEWS

“Hacker News†website, at http://news.ycombinator.com/, banned me
around 2009-02 or earlier.

Someone posted a question about why some sites seem to be banned,
titled “Ask PG- What is the list of banned sites and why are they
bannedâ€. He asked for reasons or a public list. The url is at Source.
(local archive: Hacker_News_xahlee.org_ban.zip) Then, someone posted
the list of domains/sub-domains that are banned, which contains my
site “xahlee.orgâ€.

No explicit reason is given. It appears to me, it was banned because
one of my essay: Why Software Suck, has been submitted to the site in
2009-02, then in the discussion, someone mentioned i am a troll, then
admin placed my site on ban.

There are other bans that i consider unjust. This page is a start to
list them. I'll try to add more when i have time.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Of interest:

• Why Can't You Be Normal?
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/why_cant_you_be_normal.html

• Ban Xah Lee
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/ban_Xah_Lee.html

I consider this post relevant because i've been perennially gossiped
about in comp.lang.* groups today and in the past 5 or 10 years, many
of the threads mentioning my name are not started by me nor did i ever
participate.

Plain text version one of the above article follows.
---------------------------------------------------

Ban Xah Lee

Xah Lee, 2009-03-07

This page is a short collection of online communities that banned me,
in a way that i don't consider just. It illustrates the political
nature among the tech geeking males.

HARASSMENT BY JOHN BOKMA

I was harassed by a newsgroup poster John Bokma (a regular of
comp.lang.perl.misc) to have my web hosting service provider kick me
off. This happened in 2006.

Summary: I was posting relevant but controversial opinions in a rude
manner to “comp.lang.*†newsgroups. I was using Google's newsgroup
service to post it, and has nothing to do with my web hosting service
provider, other than my signature containing my website or links to
relevant articles on my website. However, this guy digs up my web
hosting provider, and lobbied people to send complains to kick me off.

Detailed account: DreamHost.com and A Incidence of Harassment

WIKIPEDIA

My Wikipedia account P0lyglut is banned by Wikipedia admins in
~2008-06 for a month or so.

Summary: i was editing articles on Tibet, Human sacrifice, Dalai Lama,
citing info from Chinese historian Li Ao, and was fighting with those
who revert me in a non-conformal way. They banned me for editing, and
subsequently banned me from editing my talk page, and removed the
defense i gave on my talk page.

The original reason for reverting my editing was that i linked to my
own website (which contains the collected videos of Li Ao's program on
youtube, with English translation and summary). Subsequently, because
i did not behave in a way that seems “polite†to them, and kept on
fighting, the reason they cited to ban me was spreading propaganda.

For some account of this incident, see bottom of: Why Can't You Be
Normal?. The fighting and discussion can be seen on my talk page, at:
User talk0lyglut. The writing where i defended my edit, that got
removed from my talk page, is here: Wikipedia User talk0lyglut ...
2008-07. Local copy of these at: Wikipedia_ban_2008-06.zip.

FREENODE IRC EMACS CHANNEL

I'm banned on Freenode's irc emacs channel since about 2006-10, and
the ban was never lifted as of 2009-03. The ban is primarily, and
single-handedly executed by John Sullivan (aka johnsu01).

Some detail: Emacs Irc Channel Ban On Xah Lee.

HACKER NEWS

“Hacker News†website, at http://news.ycombinator.com/, banned me
around 2009-02 or earlier.

Someone posted a question about why some sites seem to be banned,
titled “Ask PG- What is the list of banned sites and why are they
bannedâ€. He asked for reasons or a public list. The url is at Source.
(local archive: Hacker_News_xahlee.org_ban.zip) Then, someone posted
the list of domains/sub-domains that are banned, which contains my
site “xahlee.orgâ€.

No explicit reason is given. It appears to me, it was banned because
one of my essay: Why Software Suck, has been submitted to the site in
2009-02, then in the discussion, someone mentioned i am a troll, then
admin placed my site on ban.

There are other bans that i consider unjust. This page is a start to
list them. I'll try to add more when i have time.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

Well, don't worry - nobody is going to ban you from Usenet (except
possibly the Chinese govt).
OTOH, nobody here much cares.
So, rant on - it's what Usenet is for. ☄

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

 

[D Herring]

<apologies for the cross posting>

This page is a short collection of online communities that banned me,
in a way that i don't consider just. It illustrates the political
nature among the tech geeking males.

If anybody on this list visits Boston, contact me to claim your free beer.

 

[Tim Greer]

Of interest:

Unintesting stuff snipped. Perhaps it's the irrelevant, off topic posts
you continue to make to groups that have nothing to do with your self
gratifying rants? We get it, you think you're smarter than anyone else
and that's the reason for you posting and arguing with people. That is
why people probably kill filed you (there's no "ban" feature for usenet
itself). I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're not as
important as you like to think yourself. Into the killfile you go.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Well, don't worry - nobody is going to ban you from Usenet (except
possibly the Chinese govt).
OTOH, nobody here much cares.
So, rant on - it's what Usenet is for. ☄ <--- what is that char?????

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

 

[Arved Sandstrom]

[ SNIP ]
This page is a short collection of online communities that banned me,
in a way that i don't consider just. It illustrates the political
nature among the tech geeking males.
[ SNIP ]

********************
Here's the thing - most people don't get banned from anything even once, let
alone from online communities many times. While it's certainly within the
realm of possibility that a single ban from a single online community may be
unjust, when a pattern develops it's a pretty good sign that you're the
problem, not them.

AHS

 

[Hendrik van Rooyen]

"Grant Edwards" <gra...isi.com> wrote:

There you go: a 30-second psychological diagnosis by an
electrical engineer based entirely on Usenet postings. It
doesn't get much more worthless than that...

Oh it is not entirely worthless - as a working hypothesis,
it seems to cover and explain the observed facts, so it
should be accepted until a simpler theory comes along.

- Hendrik

 

[Byung-Hee HWANG]

Of interest:

• Why Can't You Be Normal?
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/why_cant_you_be_normal.html

• Ban Xah Lee
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/ban_Xah_Lee.html

I consider this post relevant because i've been perennially gossiped
about in comp.lang.* groups today and in the past 5 or 10 years, many
of the threads mentioning my name are not started by me nor did i ever
participate.

Plain text version one of the above article follows.
---------------------------------------------------

Ban Xah Lee

Xah Lee, 2009-03-07

This page is a short collection of online communities that banned me,
in a way that i don't consider just. It illustrates the political
nature among the tech geeking males.

HARASSMENT BY JOHN BOKMA

I was harassed by a newsgroup poster John Bokma (a regular of
comp.lang.perl.misc) to have my web hosting service provider kick me
off. This happened in 2006.

Summary: I was posting relevant but controversial opinions in a rude
manner to “comp.lang.*†newsgroups. I was using Google's newsgroup
service to post it, and has nothing to do with my web hosting service
provider, other than my signature containing my website or links to
relevant articles on my website. However, this guy digs up my web
hosting provider, and lobbied people to send complains to kick me off.

Detailed account: DreamHost.com and A Incidence of Harassment

WIKIPEDIA

My Wikipedia account P0lyglut is banned by Wikipedia admins in
~2008-06 for a month or so.

Summary: i was editing articles on Tibet, Human sacrifice, Dalai Lama,
citing info from Chinese historian Li Ao, and was fighting with those
who revert me in a non-conformal way. They banned me for editing, and
subsequently banned me from editing my talk page, and removed the
defense i gave on my talk page.

The original reason for reverting my editing was that i linked to my
own website (which contains the collected videos of Li Ao's program on
youtube, with English translation and summary). Subsequently, because
i did not behave in a way that seems “polite†to them, and kept on
fighting, the reason they cited to ban me was spreading propaganda.

For some account of this incident, see bottom of: Why Can't You Be
Normal?. The fighting and discussion can be seen on my talk page, at:
User talk0lyglut. The writing where i defended my edit, that got
removed from my talk page, is here: Wikipedia User talk0lyglut ...
2008-07. Local copy of these at: Wikipedia_ban_2008-06.zip.

FREENODE IRC EMACS CHANNEL

I'm banned on Freenode's irc emacs channel since about 2006-10, and
the ban was never lifted as of 2009-03. The ban is primarily, and
single-handedly executed by John Sullivan (aka johnsu01).

Some detail: Emacs Irc Channel Ban On Xah Lee.

HACKER NEWS

“Hacker News†website, at http://news.ycombinator.com/, banned me
around 2009-02 or earlier.

Someone posted a question about why some sites seem to be banned,
titled “Ask PG- What is the list of banned sites and why are they
bannedâ€. He asked for reasons or a public list. The url is at Source.
(local archive: Hacker_News_xahlee.org_ban.zip) Then, someone posted
the list of domains/sub-domains that are banned, which contains my
site “xahlee.orgâ€.

No explicit reason is given. It appears to me, it was banned because
one of my essay: Why Software Suck, has been submitted to the site in
2009-02, then in the discussion, someone mentioned i am a troll, then
admin placed my site on ban.

There are other bans that i consider unjust. This page is a start to
list them. I'll try to add more when i have time.

Don't worry, Xah. At least, my minds is running on your rails. Please do
not stop. BTW, what do you think about using Gnus instead of G2/1.0?

Sincerely,

 

[Haines Brown]

A glance at Ban Xah Lee's web page reveals that he is what is called an
autodidact - someone who is self-taught. While this is an admirable
achievement, it carries with it certain dangers.

One is that it gives the illusion that learning is not a social
activity, but an individual one. This is not the case. The autodidact
merely abandons conventional structures for his education and pursues
his own course. However, from the moment they are born, our development
arises through social contact. If you study library books in your garret
entirely on your down, the book is still a social communication. What
autodidaction shows is that there is more than one way to develop
through social contact, not that it can be done without it.

If the bulk of one's development necessarily takes place through social
communication, then one depends on the effectiveness of that
communication. This is why we use conventional words, familiar concepts
and accepted facts to build an argument. When we cannot do so, there
should be good reason.

That is why, when we seek to challenge conventional wisdom, we ought to
do so in a manner least likely to offend or confuse. Rudeness,
unnecessary obscurity, novel words or concepts that are not mandatory,
reliance on contested facts rather than conventional knowledge,
insensitivity for one's intended readership, threaten the line of
communication that makes it unlikely to bring others over to our
position and also ultimately unlikely that we can develop ourselves.

Another danger facing the autodidact is that it is too easy to acquire a
contempt for others. If we have studied a field obsessively for some
years, it is natural that we end in a position where our knowledge will
generally be superior. But this does not make us superior. We don't live
in a world in which social relations arise from a private possession of
expertise, but in a world in which we develop ourselves through our
relations with others. As any teacher will attest, you often learn more
from the ignorant than from the expert. It is our social solidarity that
gives rise to potentials that allow us to exceed our private capacities,
not our being able to acquire and privately possess intellectual riches
for ourselves.

 

[William James]

If we have studied a field obsessively for some
years, it is natural that we end in a position where our knowledge will
generally be superior. But this does not make us superior.

What does make us superior? Are you so dishonest or insane as
to assert that everyone is equal?

This line of sophistry leads to the conclusion that Isaac Newton
was not superior to a microcephalous idiot. Probably several---
nay, thousands!---of these idiots had already invented calculus
and Newtonian mechanics, only to see their achievements ignored by
the elitists.

Or perhaps you mean that although these idiots were grossly inferior to
Newton in intellect, character, personality, and knowledge, their
other assets elevated them to Newton's level---their ability to
discharge copious amounts of spittle, mucous, urine, and execrement.

And in the workplace today, the idiots should be paid the same as
the geniuses. Superiority is a fascist lie.

From each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs.

All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.

 

[D'Arcy J.M. Cain]

Don't worry, Xah. At least, my minds is running on your rails. Please do
not stop. BTW, what do you think about using Gnus instead of G2/1.0?

So you are going to repeat his postings in their entirety so that those
that block him will see them anyway, right? Wrong. We'll just block
your posts too.

*plonk*

 

[r]

So you are going to repeat his postings in their entirety so that those
that block him will see them anyway, right?  Wrong.  We'll just block
your posts too.

*plonk*

This is to all usenet readers who think they own c.l.py!
=======================================================

This especially concerns D'Arcy, Bruno, and Steven D'Aprro! All three
of which who's wibbling, and chastinations of fellow readers has
plagued this group for far too long. I hereby declare these readers
viral infestations, in the name of freedom of purity.

You should really stop reading usnet thru email or some asinine news
reader, this will solve all your problems and stop your obnoxious
quibbling for which i am getting tired of listening to. I am sick of
hearing cry babys like you say "don't quote a post because i do not
wish to read it". Look idiot, if you don't want to read it, for christ
sake DONT F'IN READ IT AND SHUT THE HELL UP!!

I don't know if you are aware of this but you are in no way forced to
read anything. I know you wish to live in a world completely under
your control with the mantra "My way or the highway", but it does not
work like that. And let me tell you another thing bozo, just because
you have been reading usenet since 1972 from your mommas basement with
one hand on your "Oscar Myer", does not mean you own it or have any
power to tell others how, what, or when they should read or not read
this group or post to this group. SHUT UP AND READ OR JUST SHUT UP! Go
choke yourself while watching some gay porn so you might be happy for
10 minutes and spare us you infantile whining.

School time for old burnouts:
=============================
The best reader for Usenet is Google groups. There is no need to read
miles of quoted text because it all gets stuffed in a nice little link
called "show quoted text" -- believe it or not Because i use the
wonderful Google Groups I also don't have my email or reader clogged
with hundreds of messages for which i do not care to read. I just skim
the subject lines here in the group and decide in a micro second
whether or not i will read it. Dump those useless newsreades and move
into the 21st century people. Are you still playing Atari for Christ
sake?

Newsreaders are like Newspapers. I have no use for them either. Just
like a newspaper i have to plow thru miles of useless crap just to get
to the one thing i might be interested in, not to mention walking to
the curb to pick the damn thing up! In the age of 24 hour news
networks and instant internet news, a newspaper is only good for one
thing, wiping my backside!

So wake up and smell the coffee burnouts, the end of your useless and
tyrannical reign is nigh, the future is upon us and the sun is shining
bright! The invasion of the normies has happened. No longer shall the
meek rule, but all shall be contributors to the digital revolution. If
you think that this is bad for you now, just wait a few more years!!
hahahahahhaahaha -- Evolution rules!

 

[r]

HARASSMENT BY JOHN BOKMA

I was harassed by a newsgroup poster John Bokma (a regular of
comp.lang.perl.misc) to have my web hosting service provider kick me
off. This happened in 2006.

I know the feeling. I have this super geek with nothing but time on
his hands constantly following me around like a flies on an elephants
crack. This lowlife has nothing better to do with his time. But, i
guess at least this give his poor miserable life some meaning. It's
nice to know i can help those poor saps less fortunate than me

 

[Steven D'Aprano]

This is to all usenet readers who think they own c.l.py!

[snip abusive, anti-social rant]

Well, after kill-filing this kiddie for a few months, I thought I'd give him
a chance. By pure luck I chose this post to read.

Good news "r", you've earned yourself a permanent kill-filing. I'll be
enjoying the silence from you.

*plonk*

 

[r]

This is to all usenet readers who think they own c.l.py!

[snip abusive, anti-social rant]

Well, after kill-filing this kiddie for a few months, I thought I'd give him
a chance. By pure luck I chose this post to read.

Good news "r", you've earned yourself a permanent kill-filing. I'll be
enjoying the silence from you.

*plonk*

 

[Boris Borcic]

seconded.

 

[Roedy Green]

I consider this post relevant because i've been perennially gossiped
about in comp.lang.* groups today and in the past 5 or 10 years, many
of the threads mentioning my name are not started by me nor did i ever
participate.

The reason you are unpopular has nothing to with what you say. It is
that you don't participate in discussions. You just pontificate from
on high. It implies a sort of haughty superciliousness that people are
reacting to.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
~ Dr. W. (William) Edwards Deming (born: 1900-10-14 died: 1993-12-20 at age: 93))

 

[Kenneth Tilton]

The reason you are unpopular has nothing to with what you say. It is
that you don't participate in discussions. You just pontificate from
on high. It implies a sort of haughty superciliousness that people are
reacting to.

Buddha taught that the universe is ineluctably a single interconnected
web of cause and effect, which is my haughty preamble to this
observation: it depends on the newsgroup.

comp.lang.lisp is cool so here Xah participates as a normal contributor.

kt

ps. The "Failed Attempt At Witty Comeback" lines are now open. Plz dial
carefully. k

 

[Tim Greer]

That's great, but he trolls like crazy here
(comp.lang.java.programmer).

Hi hits us at comp.lang.perl.misc and comp.lang.python, too (with off
topic posts). He's just a weirdo that thinks he's incredibly important
and interesting, and just ignores people's requests for him to stop
cross posting. In the end, I've seen worse posters than Xah Lee, but
he's in my killfile.

 

[Chris Rebert]

It's the Unicode character for "Comet", whatever that's supposed to
mean: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2604/index.htm

Cheers,
Chris