Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/DarrenRay and 2006BC/Evidence

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The blog of 2006BC[2] is a slanderous and vitriolic critique of Dean McVeigh, which makes it difficult to believe that he has come to WP to write balanced articles that reference McVeigh or the union liquidation in general. Likewise the blog of DarrenRay[3] shows a strong POV on the liquidation of the student union in which they were involved. Since this issue relates to the majority of edits I'm not going to try and link them, however the talk pages Talk:Dean McVeigh and Talk:Melbourne University student organisations provide plenty of examples as do the edit histories of those articles.

Edits I made that provided direct quotes from media coverage were reverted by both parties as slanderous or POV[4] or with misleading edit summaries[5][6][7], and they suggested that the quoted newspaper was a biased source(Talk:Melbourne_University_student_organisations#Reversion_of_facts) despite them using the same newspaper as a reference in other articles.

DarrenRay tried to remove tags making his personal involvement clear stating this was irrelevant[8]. I realise that avoiding articles with potential conflict of interest is only a guideline but I think it is in context with the POV warring.

One of my concerns has been the apparent collusion by DarrenRay, 2006BC and to a lesser degree User:AChan to revert attempts to rework what are considered POV edits by other editors to these and other articles to avoid WP:3RR by passing the baton to the next person when each individual hits 3RR. This is bad faith editing and has made it even more difficult to gain consensus in balanced edits. Bit hard to show links in manageable fashion but this shows a procession of reverts[9]. I suspect, and am supported by the sockpuppet concerns, that even if there was no sharing of accounts, there was at the very least related editing done via external coordination to overwhelm other editors.

This is an example of the "cooporative" reverting in Dean McVeigh against attempts to remove personal attacks by the same editor or editors acting on instruction of DarrenRay:

• revert 1 by DarrenRay [10]
• revert 2 by DarrenRay [11]
• revert 3 by 2006BC [12]
• revert 4 by 2006BC [13]
• revert 5 by 2006BC [14]
• revert 6 by DarrenRay [15]
• revert 7 by AChan (sockpuppet of DarrenRay) [16]
• revert 8 by AChan [17]
• revert 9 by AChan [18]
• revert 10 by AChan [19]

This all happened in the perriod of 14 hours.

User:DarrenRay and User:2006BC have identified themselves as Darren Ray and Benjamin Cass. They are past presidents of the Melbourne University Student Union, as listed on the page. They were supported by User:AChan who identified himself as a friend of Darren Ray. A CheckUser was run three times as stated here by User:David Gerard, which is listed by User:Essjay at User:DarrenRay/Sockpuppets

• Unitypigdog (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • Edited and voted to keep Dean McVeigh, edits about McVeigh appear to be negative.[20], [21]. Assuming that sockpuppetry is true, this amounts to vote-stacking
  • Made an edit to Elaine Carbines, a Victorian politician, [22]. No edits from Darren Ray here, but User:Ambi reverts, with the reason "rv banned user".

This previously occurred with User:Ericdu, who was suspected to be a sock of User:StephenBengHo but not banned. This seems to imply that Ambi suspects Unitypigdog to be StephenBengHo, but the CheckUser thinks otherwise

• • Edits Lidia Argondizzo, [23], and is inserts a comment about ARgondizzo being extremeley wealthy, which is continually removed by User:Ambi and reinstated by 2006BC and DarrenRay
  • Edits Carlo Carli [24] and inserts some information about shady parliamentary perks; same case as Argondizzo
  • Edits Tim Harding, another politician, but no eyebrows are raised
  • Edits John Thwaites (Australian politician). No eyebrows, 2006BC later edits the article.
• 2006BC (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) - see below
• BibiCass (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • Appears to have no edits
• D-Ray20 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • All edits were to Erik Locke. Author of all of the content, apart from an anon. Appears to relate to a blog called "Slandersyou", which may be relevant. Not involved in edit-warring.
• ArmageddonX (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • All edits were to Craig Langdon, another politician. No edit-warring, however, edited the article 1 minute after it was created, by Kipps (talk · contribs · count)( who also voted to Keep Dean McVeigh on his/her second edit(??) and blanked Labor Right)
• Hamishjay (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • Edited Dean McVeigh and a few other political articles. [25] blanked out a section on McVeigh's qualifications - this may be to attack McVeigh
• BenjaminCass (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • Uploaded an image of a presumedly private police letter to Benjamin Cass and then posts it on the Dean McVeigh page [26], regarding a complaint that Cass had lodged against McVeigh to police - makes attacking posts on McVeigh
• AChan (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) -see below

Edit-warring by main participants, DarrenRay, 2006BC, AChan

• Tom Kenyon - South Australian politician. Appears unrelated to Victorian politics which is the main thing - perhaps a sign of complete lack of goodwill between the conflicting parties? Edit-warring based on who the opponent is? (Ambi vs 2006BC and AChan)
• Kim Carr -Senator from Victoria. (Ambi vs all three)
• Crikey - an Aus political website. (Ambi vs 2006BC and AChan)
• Richard Marles, Carlo Carli, Lidia Argondizzo, Sang Nguyen - Vic politician (Ambi vs all three)
• Stephen Conroy, Peter Batchelor, Bill Ludwig - (Ambi vs DarrenRay and 2006BC) - relatively minor

I am not up to date with what the disputes where, simply that they existed.

An article about a Victorian business was posted by the involved parties, which was 80% about Dean McVeigh liquidating a bankrupt business. It appears to be a naked attack page. I have no business credentials, but a liquidator is supposed to be a person who is appointed by a court to do the "last rites" to a failed business - I'm sure the company's history and operations and demise is more important than the person who cleaned it up after it died.Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 03:24, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't look at this as it is very detailed and others were more involved and have a grasp of the content/nature of the dispute. Needless to say Darren Ray and Ben Cass obviously have a conflict of interest, as they are involved in court battles regarding to this

• A police document (1-1 correspondence) was glued on to Dean McVeigh's article - I believe this is inappropriate.

• Achan has written worthwhile material about Australian companies. That would seem to be a lot of effort put into a sock. They are Centro Properties Group, Primelife, Babcock and Brown, Miller's Retail, Flight Centre, ABC Learning, Eddie Groves.
• Involved IPs
  • 59.167.73.44 (talk · contribs · count)
  • 203.153.200.204 (talk · contribs · count)
• both appear to be anti-McVeigh
• StephenBengHo has also seem to have an overlap with the edit history of many articles - is this related in any way?
• Kipps (talk · contribs · count) has not been picked up but appears more likely to be a sockpuppet than AChan (other contribs to WP) and 2006BC (is probably a different person)

Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 01:59, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See my comment for why this evidence is relevant.

Some of these diffs are very long, in the interests of readability the most illustrative diffs are bolded. --bainer (talk) 12:50, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of information pertaining to Ray, Cass or the MUSU liquidation

• repeatedly removing quote from the university describing the liquidation (quote appears under "Collapse and Liquidation" section): [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33]

• removing references to the Optima deal: [34], [35] (towards end of diff), [36], [37]

• removing information about Cass' role in 2003 election: [38] (towards end of diff), [39], [40]

• removing published criticism from court officials of Cass' blog (which Ray and Cass cited as a source): [41], [42]

• [43] (with a misleading edit summary)

• [44] (again with misleading edit summary)

Attacks/accusations

• On Dean McVeigh: [45]

• On Stephen Luntz and Jaimie Adam: [46], [47] (as 203.28.240.20 (talk · contribs))

Cites his own attack website as a source

• [48], [49]
• My warning to Ray about doing this: [50], Ray's cooperative response: [51]; then my suggestions to talk: [52], but then this: [53].

Miscellaneous

• removing dispute tags: [54]
• removing requests for sources: [55]
• misrepresenting the titles of newspaper articles used as sources: [56], [57], [58], [59]

Reverting in tandem with DarrenRay

• [60] (same revert as [61])

Removal of information pertaining to Ray, Cass or the MUSU liquidation

• removing mention of liquidation in intro: [62], [63]

• removing reference to University's support of liquidation, implies that one individual was responsible for the liquidation: [64]

• removing references to the Optima deal: [65], [66], [67]

• removing published criticism from court officials of Cass' blog (which Ray and Cass cited as a source): [68], [69], [70]

• removing published reference to Ray threatening McVeigh: [71], [72]

Attacks/accusations

• On Dean McVeigh: [73]

Miscellaneous

• misrepresenting the titles of newspaper articles used as sources: [74], [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80]

• removing {fact} tags: [81]

• replacing the contents of Melbourne University Student Union (a redirect page) with the (now deleted) attack bio of McVeigh: [82]

Removal of information pertaining to Ray, Cass or the MUSU liquidation

• removing published criticism from court officials of Cass' blog (which Ray and Cass cited as a source): [83], [84], [85] (note that both DarrenRay and 2006BC made an edit similar, but not identical to these edits: [86], [[87]])

• removing a sourced paragraph about Ray: [88]

• removing sources: [89], [90], [91]

It has already been established that Darren Ray and Benjamin Cass are different people who know each other away from Wikipedia. I just thought that I'd add a few of my findings from Google searches for the two here. There are various sources on the internet, it seems, that link the two together to a point which suggests that they seem to have a large influence upon each other.

• The two, along with Andrew Landeryou, have launched a lawsuit together against the University of Melbourne in the past: [92]
• As already mentioned, Cass and Ray are both former presidents of the Melbourne University Student Union
• In May 2005, a comment on a blog post about Cass and Ray questioned whether the Benjamin Cass undergoing certain activities on the internet is the real Benjamin Cass. "I have my severe doubts that Benjamin Cass is indeed Benjamin Cass. Clicking through to his profile, it reveals that he is a blogger at "benjamincass.blogspot.com" - fair enough - and "countingmymillions.blogspot.com". Given the sensitivies of the situation, I doubt that the real BC is likely to be boasting about Counting His Millions. Perhaps BC has taken on the indentity of Duncan Fischer or Marcus Kemp, freeing up Benjamin Cass to have his identity to be taken on by someone else." [93]
• Cass and Ray have in the past been legally accused of creating fake identities to "get their own way": [94]

Really, what I've drew from the various links above is that Ray and Cass both have a history of deceiving people, and a history of faking their identity. Cass seems to follow everywhere Ray goes, and vice versa (two other names that frequently come up are Andrew Landeryou and Scott Crawford). The two also clearly aren't scared to take legal action when they don't get their own way. Hopefully this bit of background information will help the case a little. Esteffect 21:35, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In case the above links disappear from the Google cache, the contents have been forwarded to the AC - David Gerard 22:18, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What can I add, but this diff [95], which still fascinates me. When a major Australian newspaper refers to the event as "the Optima deal" [96], you have to wonder why he would claim the word Optima is "not relevant".

DarrenRay's behaviour: reverted a factual and relevant addition [97] and despite repeated requests never restored it. But really, the talk page explains it better. Stevage 22:04, 28 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

With regard to the evidence presented above by Esteffect which quotes a blog entry raising doubts that the real Ben Cass is the author of the Cass blogs, I have recently been in touch with someone who personally knows both Darren Ray and Ben Cass and, in fact, ran against Ray in the MUSU elections. He has told me that he believes Ben Cass is the Cass blogger. He says he has "no reason to believe that it is not actually Ben Cass" and that "even the mobile number on the left hand side matches what I had for Ben." This phone number is the same mobile number that User:2006BC has requested Wikipedia use to call him to verify his identity [98]. This person originally had doubts that Ray was the author of the MUSU Lies site because the site owner's name was hidden behind a proxy, but he told me that after talking to others, "we were confident that Darren was genuinely behind the MUSU Lies site." Emails and details available privately to the Committee, but I wont provide them publicly because it would involve identifying a non-Wikipedian third-party's identity. Sarah Ewart (Talk) 01:11, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]