The Solution to the Problem of Gwen

Various people have suggested that the solution to the problem of Gwen is to raise a fuss about it within the ranks of Wikipedia. I beg to differ. An important part of the Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss story is that the checks and balances within Wikipedia have failed. When oversight is conducted intermittently by quasi-random, self-selecting individuals, it is clear that it just does not work in a reliable fashion. That is exactly the kind of fragile structure which a focused group of friends or interest group members can chew up and eat for breakfast.

It is clear that the Wikipedia power structure is fundamentally corrupt. Like the nobility in medieval Europe, a class of what are essentially thugs has seized power and will use it to defend their position against all comers. No serious standards of morality, judgement or even common sense are applied. Wikipedia admins are power-hungry people who just want to defend their turf, hold on to it and, if possible, extend it. They derive psychological gratification from exercising power over others. 

The system doesn't work and it is naive to think otherwise. It is like going to a third world country where torture is practised routinely by the police and lodging a complaint with the police about the fact that they practice torture. Is that going to work? Obviously not. It will either have no effect or it will land you in a torture cell too. 

No. The solution to the problem of Gwen Gale is journalism. Real journalism - not blogging, either, although blogging may help get the message out. This is a real story. It is not some insignificant internet happening. Like it or not, Wikipedia has become an important source for information to a large chunk of the world's population. It has just killed off Encarta, for example. 

Think of it this way. Imagine there was a Microsoft executive who happened to fancy herself as a great auteur and had penned an amateurish work of fiction which she was unable to get published. Wanting to drum up interest in her literary efforts, she inserted some articles about herself in Encarta and made it look like she was a potential Nobel prize-winner. 

This abuse was not picked up by whatever checks and balances existed within Encarta, and the articles went out to the world in an edition of the encyclopedia which remained current for one year. Tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people all over the world saw and read those articles and were briefly misled into believing that the executive was a notable feminist and science fiction author. 

After a year or so, the abuse was discovered; the articles were removed; and the executive was reprimanded. However, she had managed to cultivate contacts within the company power structure so well that she was able to escape any serious punishment. Not only that, but she was actually being considered for a position on the Micrsoft board.

Is that a story? That's a story. That's a story that could be included in virtually every serious newspaper in the world. It's a story that could be featured on 60 Minutes, be the subject of a book and have Hollywood take an option on it. It's a story that needs to get out there. So forget about making complaints within Wikipedia itself. Focus instead on journalism. If you have any journalistic contacts, tip them off about the Great Wikipedia Heidi Wyss scandal. 

Encarta killed by Wikipedia

Microsoft has just announced that its Encarta encyclopedia is being discontinued. A professionally put together product is being replaced by an amateur freakfest. Would people consult Wikipedia as willingly if they knew the unsavoury aspects that lurk just beneath its surface, as revealed in the rocambolesque tale of Heidi Wyss/Gwen Gale?

Gwen's Minions

The thing that seems most puzzling to me in the entire Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss saga is the role of her minions - the Antandruses, the CharlotteWebb's, etc., who reflexively and ruthlessly defend her even after her wrong-doing is exposed. They do much of the grunt work, banning users and deleting awkward material which may reveal a bit too much about what Gwen has been up to. Why do they do it? For most of us, the bonds of friendship are not infinitely elastic. If we discovered that our friends were, in fact, serial killers or rapists, we wouldn't hesitate to turn them into the police. We certainly wouldn't help cover up their crimes. Yet that is what Antandrus et al. are doing. It's not like they don't know about it. The evidence has been shoved in their face and they have simply deleted it. 

Is it possible we are dealing with some kind of strange entryism phenomenon here? Entryism is the term used when members of an extremist faction deliberately infiltrate a larger organisation in order to advance their agenda within its ranks. By joining in large numbers, keeping their agenda secret and voting in concerted ways, they are sometimes able to change the whole character of an institution. For example, hardcore communists would sometimes infiltrate trade unions and attempt to seize the reins of power, swinging the whole institution to the left. When the Pat Robertson candidacy died, America's nutball evangelicals pursued an entryism strategy within the Republican party, helping pave the way for the extremism of George W. Bush.

If Gwen's minions, like her, are members of some extremist ideological faction, that would go a long way towards explaining their behaviour. In that case, they don't care about right or wrong. They just want to advance their propagandistic goals and increase their own power. But what ideology could it be? Heidi herself talks about "radical feminist separatism." Is it possible these people are all radical feminist nutballs? Or scientologists? There is a Gwen Gale who is a scientologist. It hasn't been definitively established whether this Gwen Gale is the Wikipedia Gwen Gale. I myself think she is probably not. But certainly if they were all members of a creepy cult like scientology, that would explain their bizarre and concerted actions.

Whatever the explanation, once Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss finally gets her comeuppance, and what is surely the greatest scandal in Wikipedia history is finally exposed, it is important that her partners in crime - like Antandrus and CharlotteWebb - are held to account too. They cannot be allowed to get away with their complicity in this monstrous abuse.

The Best Websites for Following the Great Gwen Gale\Heidi Wyss Tragi-Comedy Adventure

Here are the best websites with which to follow Heidi Wyss\Gwen Gale's tragic-comic progress through the internet and life.

Gwen Gale Revealed : Brilliant expose, complete with abundant evidence, of Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss's maniacal Wikipedia manipulations. It demonstrates her lies and her use of multiple sock puppets.

Heidi Chronicles : A good account of Heidi Wyss's mad progress through the Wikipedia ranks and some of her more egregious abuses of power.

Gormglaith : Heidi Wyss as deluded, pretentious auteur. Priceless real-life comedy. You won't be able to read it, but the first few sentences should give you a good laugh.

Gwen Gale's Talk Page on Wikipedia : This is where Heidi gets to live out her fantasy of being the great lady, the mighty princess in the castle to whom the lowly peons come to pay court, begging to have their changes approved by royal warrant. Only deferential contributions are allowed to remain visible. Anyone who suggests that Gwen/Heidi doesn't have a clue what she's doing, is violating Wikipedia principles or guidelines or is abusing her power will immediately find their contribution hustled off into the archives out of sight. Check out the Archives section if you're interested enough.

Antandrus Talk Page on Wikipedia : Antandrus is Gwen Gale's minion/partner in crime. If the peasants prove a little too restive and dare to utter any harsh remarks to our sackcloth princess, she runs to Antandrus for both moral and practical support. If a user needs to be blocked, for example, because he insists on pointing out that Gwen/Heidi is grotesquely abusing her power, often Gwen will get Antandrus to do it so it looks a bit more objective. 

Gwen Gale Blocked : This is when Gwen Gale's lunatic abuses were exposed and adjudicated upon within Wikipedia itself. Amazingly, the ban was only temporary, and she was allowed to resume administrative duties afterwards. 

Gwen Gale's bid to get on Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee : Gwen withdrew after encountering significant opposition. No doubt she will try again, though. Her first bid for administrative status was rejected too. It's frankly astounding that she could even be considered for this position considering her history of sock-puppetry and abuse. 

Wikipedia Scandals page : contains some discussion of Heidi's mad escapades.

A Review of Gormglaith Written in the Style of Heidi Wyss/Gwen Gale (Glossary provided)

Harjabeewah! Bish teeme isht hoomwah capowdaih! Ni vo brub ja hoom geh durt. Nimh ma vurt diza - ja isht capowdaih.

If you are a low-minded person and thus unable to comprehend the mysteries of gibberish, you may wish to consult the glossary helpfully provided below.

Gibberish English

Harjabeewah!  Bloody hell!

Bish  This

teeme book

isht is

hoomwah completely

capowdaih crap

Ni I am not

vo going to

brub read

ja it

hoom all

geh the way

durt through

Nimh Take

ma my

vurt word

diza for it

Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss's Gormglaith Review

Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss wrote a preposterous article about herself on Wikipedia, giving the impression that she was a noted auteur and that her laughable gibberish tome, Gormglaith, was a significant work of literature. The pages were eventually deleted from Wikipedia, and the fact that she had used Wikipedia for self-promotion purposes became a Wikipedia scandal. Gale/Wyss had her admin rights on Wikipedia suspended for a while but quickly bounced back to start a new reign of Wikipedia tyranny.

The text of Heidi's Wikipedia entry about herself can still be found on other websites. Let's take a look at it : 

Wyss was educated in Geneva and in the United Kingdom. She has worked as an histologist and technical writer. Her first novel Gormglaith, published in 2007, has been described as a "Radical lesbian separatist cult hit set in a plausible future with a witchy bent", "...like a female Finnegans Wake..." along with "touches of Tolkien" and reminiscent "...in some ways of the very intricate work of Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Keltiad novels."

Where do these quotes come from? Did Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss just make them up? No, indeed. They are completely authentic. The quotes comes from a review of her book on the website WomenWriters. Gwen Gale/Heidi Wyss quotes extremely selectively from the review, however, contriving to give a completely misleading impression. If you read the full review, you see that the reviewer said the book was so bad, she couldn't actually bring herself to read it!

"For my part, I had trouble getting into it. It isn't just a book -- it's a project. From the first page, it was incomprehensible and there was nothing there to draw me in, or make me care enough to dig in."

After that, the reviewer obviously feels a bit sorry for the hapless Heidi and throws in a few ambiguous compliments at the end to soothe her wounded ego. "It felt like a female Finnegan's Wake, with all that implies, good and bad. It had touches of Tolkien and reminded me in some ways of the very intricate work of Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Keltiad novels." 

Heidi Wyss/Gwen Gale picks out isolated phrases from the devastating review of her gibberish and uses them to construct a grossly dishonest impression.

Gwen Gale - Tinpot Wikipedia Tyrant, Heidi Wyss - Tinpot Internet Auteur

This website will chronicle the tragic-comic real-life tale of Gwen Gale, the tinpot Wikipedia tyrant who continues in her historic mission to destroy whatever potential Wikipedia once had. It is a case study in psychopathology, and may one day be of interest to future students of human aberration. 

Gwen Gale, tinpot internet tyrant, is also Heidi Wyss, tinpot internet auteur. Her ebook, Gormglaith, which is distributed for free on the internet because no one in their right mind would ever pay for it, is one of the most unreadable tomes human vanity has ever devised. It is written, literally, in gibberish : a kind of pseudo-Scottish dialect gibberish to be precise, which Heidi herself has just made up. As such, of course, it is completely unreadable.  The ever-gracious Gwen provides a glossary, however, to help unworthy peons like you and me penetrate the ineffable mysteries of her oracular words. 

The mind boggles at the kind of morbid vanity which could lead someone to write a book using made-up words. It's rare to see this kind of pathological egotism outside of a psychiatric ward.