Just WHAT side of the government was Picklewalsh with? Pro or against? You dont suppose he/she was a government agent?

I wouldnt want to go to camp Bush yet.

DG, come on, you think this is a plot with the admin to remove picklewalsh?
Please, he broke the rules and paid for it, besides, you think picklewalsh would be a higher priority then say… you?

Dang, thanks for the examples SO. Hard pill to swallow, but down it goes.

That was low pickle. You had no right to do that man. And it totaly sucks.
The three amigos work hard to protect our arses as well as their own.....just cant believe they had to protect our ars from you.

And Marto, pickle knows, and has known he's not IP banned. He was on here yesterday. Or at least thats what it said under his avatar.

[edit on 21-8-2006 by mrsdudara]

Damn that thieving scouz! I go away on a trip for two days, and I come back to find not only did he get himself banned, but he has been a very naughty boy! Why did he do this? It just does not seem like him! What the hell was he thinking?????????

When I first saw this thread, I thought, well gee, banning him for good is a bit extreme. A warn and penalty would have sufficed. But then after reading posts he authored and seeing that ge basically copy and pasted and took all credit............

Now who am I gonna pick on and abuse in chat?

<------- wonders if he were ever banned if people would fight for a second
chance for him to come back...

Oh yeah... thats right... Elevated one wouldn't steal content....

Originally posted by WestPoint23
DG, come on, you think this is a plot with the admin to remove picklewalsh?
Please, he broke the rules and paid for it, besides, you think picklewalsh would be a higher priority then say… you?

Huh???

I didnt understand a word you said...or what you mean...maybe some coffee would help me.
Oh, i get it...you're talking about THE ADMINISTRATION, not the ATS administration.
BTW, i work undercover for the government. I'm indispensible. (Just kidding, ATS)

Originally posted by Nygdan
Anyway, I noticed that no one is taking up the previous offer of admiting that they've broken the rules and returned with a new account after being banned. I'd highly recommend that people come clean now in order to work it out.

ROFL

Are you serious?

No, come on, really...

I believe that this thread reflects just how much PW was liked. This is why his banning is simply so difficult to accept.

I liked PW. I "spoke" to him quite often in the Chat Rooms here at ATS. He was a very likeable, personable fellow. Always eager to offer help, it is difficult to simply accept the banning without trying to defend his actions -- to, somehow, excuse them. But facts are facts. PW broke the rules of ATS as well as crossing the lines of something that we all should hold sacred -- integrity.

PW plagiarized the work of the members of ATS (and God knows who else) and he lost his integrity and his credibility. Perhaps if he had been merely a member, his banning might have been a temporary one but, as a moderator, it is understandable that he would be permanently banned. Certainly a moderator is held up to a higher level of scrutiny and responsibility than a regular ATS member and so it should be.

I will miss PW on ATS. But I understand why his "departure" was necessary; out of principle and to serve as an 'example' to the rest of us to avoid the temptation of presenting the work of others as our own and to recognize the value of our personal integrity. When our "word" is comprimised, we truly have nothing. I am sure that this lesson will not have been lost on PW and one will hope that he will never breach another trust again -- certainly not a trust that we share at ATS.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Now who am I gonna pick on and abuse in chat?

*points at niteboy*

I want to thank SO for putting out that information on what was going on behind the scenes. You didn't have to, but you did, and that alone is a very fair thing to do.

As MrsDudara said, it is a very difficult pill to swallow. Unfortunately, I have to do the same, as do most of us. This was not just a random attack on a member, this was a well backed (obviously) investigation and the results are in my opinion very fair. As Majic said, it is a sad day, and it does hurt. We only have our net personalities to trust each other on. A few of us know each other in real life, but not as many as we know on here. We have to be able to trust each other, especially when we are dealing with conspiracies here already. I looked at the links that SO provided, and it just made me even more sad. It wasn't a mistake, a mistake doesn't happen repeatedly in different areas of the internet. I don't feel now like I ever knew him as much as I thought I did, and that is really a shame.

If we don't even have a basic modicum of trust with each other, then how are we ever going to get farther on here? I had a few doubts, but the more I look at the evidence, and the more I think about what the ramifications could have ended up as being, the more it makes me sad.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
What the hell was he thinking?????????

I've been wondering that for the last day now. As most of you know, I too considered him a friend, talking to him plenty in chat, and sometimes helping him work out some issues, and to say I'm shocked about all this would be an understatement. See, if pickles was an idiot, then fine, I wouldn't be shocked. But he's not. This is a smart person who is obviously intelligent enough to know that what he did was wrong while he was doing it. A smart person who knew/knows full well that it's both morally and legally wrong to take the work of others and attribute it to yourself. A smart person who knows that when a community has embraced you and treated you like a member of a family, you don't stab them in the back.

The whole situation just confuses me and frankly, some of the reactions of people here also surprise me.

To the people who state that "it's all about the money" or "he was targetted" or other such theories, I have to ask if you are either hermits, anti-social people or just looking for excuses.

If you're just looking for excuses to get your friend back online, I can understand that. But if you actually believe what you wrote, you have a very serious problem.

I admit, growing up I've always been part of communities. At home living in Manhattan, in school, in college, now even at work, I've always gotten along with people and have always been "part of the community." When you're part of the community, you don't have to like everyone. You can argue and whine and complain and debate and fight. But you have respect for one another. That's the key word here "respect".

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to touch the Creative Commons stuff. We all have our areas of expertise, and legalese is not mine. I am, however, an expert on community. Taking material written by others (not even just staff but YOU&ME, the membership) and passing it off as your own without giving a moment's thought to the community is simply WRONG. It boggles the mind how a well liked member of the community could do this, but nonetheless, it was done.

So yes, while I too am saddened to see a bright young man not be part of this community anymore, I also must force myself to realize that this bright young man knew better and for some reason decided to make some very poor choices along the way, and now has to live with them.

I'm sorry...

Originally posted by eaglewingz
If the entire thread was copied, including posts' authors, I suppose an argument for ignorance could be made.

But when you intentionally delete the actual authors that's another story. Publishing another's work as your own is plagarism, pure and simple, no matter what medium it's in.

[edit on 8/20/2006 by eaglewingz]

We are just a bunch of monkeys regurgitating information, only giving differnet slants...
or you could replace monkey with computers who take info and match various info together to get "different" results.

Seriously, my point is...Solomon (if he existed) had it right.
There is nothing new under the son.
Who stole what work...where did you get your info? Who did you steal it from?
("you" as in "us" in general)

We are virtually connected and cant live in isolation...cells feed off of each other, etc.
This whole "ownership" is just an illusion my friends. A few year we are all pushing up dasies.

The world would do good to lighten up a bit.

Peace

Dalen

By looking over his site, there is NO doubt he KNEW he was STEALING, period.

He asks his own members not to do such a thing but does it him self.

Originally posted by Nygdan
Anyway, I noticed that no one is taking up the previous offer of admiting that they've broken the rules and returned with a new account after being banned. I'd highly recommend that people come clean now in order to work it out.

I'm here with a new account, but not because I broke any rules. I don't KNOW why myself, my mate, and our best friend were banned, all within a 24 hour period, all with IP blocks, all after making normal posts, then simply trying to come back in.

Work it out? Tried that. Tried for a couple months total, both when it happened via email, then now with this name (apx a 6mo span). All I found out was .............. no one in the know will respond to my scenario. I have tried both as the previous user, via email, then as this user under a false pretense that nonik is a friend of the banned users, trying to gain info for them. I have also sent this quest as this user, but stating who I used to be. Nothing. Two admins did have the courteousy to U2U me back, but just that they had no info about the situation, that all they knew for me to do was contact one of the 3 tops, especially the single top that is the only one able to IP block a banned user. I put a lot of time into making several emails / U2U's very literate, coureous, and to the point, without ranting ....... to no avail.

In the end, this notion of admitting to work it out is completely futile.

I may get banned now for this, I dont know, all I wanted was to find out what happened to three users that were not troublemakers, hell, one was even on a councel ........... but you asked, maybe that was just a ploy.

As for coming on as multiple users for the purpous of talking to yourself, boosting the alter-user, yadda yadda ........ well, that's just both juvenille and insecure.

As for this whole pickel thing, well, c'mon, that was pretty blatant what that user admittedly did ......... he plagerized.

NN
aka: ?

Originally posted by dAlen
This whole "ownership" is just an illusion my friends. A few year we are all pushing up dasies.

If that were true, then I could come to your house and take anything I wish citing "ownership is an illusion." The world just doesn't work that way and ATS has very open rules allowing content to be used.

He could have moved posts or threads he made and then asked others to go there and comment. ATS had no problem with his forum in the first place obviously (or letting him use his own created content), but stealing other people's content was over the line.



Imagine that you run a grocery store. A nice young man sets up a booth outside selling some fruit. It's a specialty booth so you don't have a problem with it.

Now, in an effort to build a customer base, you find that this nice young man is taking items out of your store, slapping his own label on them, and then selling the goods as his own. When you say something, he returns the items and apologizes.

Does that change the fact that he stole from you in the first place?


It doesn't.

Make no mistake. He knew what he was doing. He started a forum of his own and quickly realized that it's hard to attract visitors. We've seen this many times before with people who start their own forum for whatever reason. Then he took content and passed it off as his own to attract attention.

He may be a great guy, but he made a poor choice and has to accept responsibility for that. The finger can be pointed at ATS and the staff that we did this or we did that, but feeling the need to place blame on others doesn't resolve the issue.

Other people here should learn a lesson in this. Accept the consequences of your own actions. Sometimes the penalty is light and sometimes not, but passing blame isn't the way to go.

Thread Closed

Because this thread has achieved its purpose, and out of respect for the fact that picklewalsh is no longer able to respond or comment on ATS, it has been closed.

I hope my fellow members can understand, and won't take this the wrong way.