TK

From Rationalwikiwki

Current revision as of 09:39, 16 March 2008

TK is the most controversial member of RationalWiki. Because of his history (see below), he was always given a cold reception at RationalWiki. Also because of his history, the more established members of RationalWiki were prone to grossly overreacting to his (admittedly thoughtless and abrasive) comments. Indeed, for much of RationalWiki's history there was no Headless Chicken Mode without TK; it was not until he was banned that RationalWiki underwent its first Headless Chicken Mode in which TK was not somehow the root cause.

The only friend he has left on RationalWiki is Bohdan.

Pre-wiki

Before joining Conservapedia or RationalWiki, TK was a moderator at the site "Hot or Not". There, he devastated the moderator community by playing moderators against each other, destroying any goodwill between them, and obliterating users' trust in the moderators. All of these are tactics he would later use on Conservapedia and try to do on RationalWiki.^[2]

Conservapedia

On Conservapedia, TK was, for a time, a member of ASchlafly's inner circle, and his authority was, in effect, second only to Schlafly's. He was also a member of the Special Discussion Group. TK was notorious as the most tyrannical of the sysops on Conservapedia, and even the other sysops feared him. He casually blocked many thousands of IP addresses and hundreds of CP users, including most of the users who would later establish RationalWiki.

TK's tyranny would eventually grow to the point where he would subtly challenge ASchlafly's authority, reverting Schlafly's edits and ceasing to defer to him as the final word on CP policy. Many RationalWikians had been predicting a showdown between TK and ASchlafly, though it was often hard to tell who they were rooting for. ASchlafly was to finally have enough of TK and strip him of sysop powers.

RationalWiki 1.0

TK maintained a sockpuppet on RationalWiki 1.0, although its identity was only discovered upon the opening of the Special Discussion Group.

RationalWiki 2.0

Before shutting down RationalWiki 1.0, ColinR presumably mentioned that that all members of RationalWiki 1.0 would be up for sysopship on RationalWiki 2.0. Following the creation of RationalWiki 2.0, TK insisted that ColinR's off-the-cuff remark gave him the right to sysopship because he had had an inactive sock on the previous site (which he was partly responsible for bringing down in the first place). Not surprisingly his sysop request led to some acrimonious debates, both because of his activity as a sysop on CP and because of the nature of his involvement on RationalWiki 1.0.

Just before he left RationalWiki, ColinR created the infamous "Clean Slate" directive (incidentally, this was his last official act on RW). The Clean Slate policy stated that actions committed prior to the creation of RationalWiki 2.0 could not be held against a user. The bizarre timing of this initiative mostly benefited TK, because the other RationalWikians were already non-judgmental of each others' past offenses.

Although this gave TK a free pass by preventing RationalWiki from simply banning him on the spot, he was still unable to attain sysopship there. When it was suggested that sysops be elected democratically, TK fought the proposal, opining that elections would become a "beauty contest",^[3] probably knowing he could never garner enough votes to be elected.

After his frantic attempts at wikilawyering himself into sysopship ended in failure, TK took his ball and went back to CP.

Return to RationalWiki 2.0

TK made a few subsequent forays into RationalWiki using sockpuppets.

At some point, TK was being assured by AmesG and a few others that they were willing to grant him entry into the secret RationalWiki Forums. Cracker, in a moment of either whimsy or insanity, gave TK access to the Cabal, purportedly to expose to him that behind his back, no, they still really didn't like him. Thus was TK the only person to hold simultaneous membership in both the RationalWiki Secret Forums and the Special Discussion Group.

Later, he visited RW again under the now-outed sock Night Train, where he attempted to foment a mass assault on Conservapedia. Sadly, the sock's attitude and behavior easily led people to deduce the sock's puppet master.

Wrath of TK

His ambitions foiled yet again, TK used information he obtained from his time on the RationalWiki Forums (or possibly the decoy forums set up specifically to divert TK, Cabal 2), to create the website Rationalwiki.info. The site was both revenge and an attempt at blackmailing RationalWikians into cutting him some slack. The site failed fantastically at this and met much mockery and general disinterest.

Around this time he was desysoped from CP (see above). In revenge for this he temporarily opened up their Special Discussion Group for general viewing, although this only lasted a short time before alleged legal threats from Andrew Schlafly and his FBI agents forced him to lock it down again.

Second return to RationalWiki 2.0

With nowhere else to go, TK returned to RationalWiki. There he continued his campaign for sysopship, this time by lobbying for the rules to be altered to facilitate his bid for sysopship.

TK continued his battles with the old guard (Human, SusanG, Kels and AmesG), but also behaved amiably towards the newer editors who had no previous negative experiences with him. When the call to ban him was sounded, many of those who defended TK were these younger editors he had befriended.

Banishment

See full article: Great TK banning Incident

Following a very high profile, half-assed, and very chaotic voting process, in which the full glory that is a mobocracy was revealed, TK was banned from the site. His ban length was then altered several times because of either appeals for leniency or to keep the ban consistent with the Fibonacci sequence.^[4] He maintains several barely active socks on the site, but only to post a few poisonous messages. He continues to give himself away by making the same idiotic spellin mistakes.

Some time after his banishment from RationalWiki, TK was banned from Conservapedia, allegedly for trying to pull rank and bully other users (in spite of the removal of his sysop powers). Thus, TK was silenced across all venues, and he dropped off the radar after this.

Not quite the Comeback Kid

TK's block expired on schedule on March 10, 2008. Once AKjeldsen unprotected his talk page, TmtamesP cheerily welcomed TK back.^[5] AmesG came along and speculated hopefully that TK was gone for good, which TmtamesP clearly did not appreciate, shrilly calling AmesG a troll and reverting his comment.^[5] Less than 30 minutes after AKjeldsen unprotected TK's talk page, Genghis Khant jumped the gun and re-protected it.^[6]

Despite much hopefulness and anxiousness on the part of TmtamesP, TK has not yet returned.

Modus Operandi

TK utilized a number of techniques for tearing down a community. The employment of these methods suggests a bright but bored (with real life) person, who is either an unappreciated genius or an old hand at this game. Additionally, his desperate grabs for sysopship on RationalWiki and his attempts at pulling rank on Conservapedia even after he was de-sysopped suggest a psychological need for power.

1. Example:

1. Example:

1. Example:

I leave this for you to fill out, Human. You have more experience with TK than I. I hope AKjeldsen will also chip in. --Hans Johnson _{I'll get my hans on it} 01:13, 13 March 2008 (EST)

See also

• Rationalwiki.info

Notes and references

1. RationalWiki's commentary on a relevant Los Angeles Times article.
2. Revealing commentary discussing TK.
3. TK's opposes democracy.
4. Block log for TK.
5. TmtamesP welcomes TK back[1]. AmesG comments [2]. TmtamesP reverts AmesG's comment[3].
6. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, all in the span of a half hour[4].