Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia | The Register:
"Meanwhile, Durova continued to insist that she had some sort of secret evidence that could only be viewed by the Arbitration Committee. 'I am very confident my research will stand up to scrutiny,' she said. 'I am equally confident that anything I say here will be parsed rather closely by some disruptive banned sockpuppeteers. If I open the door a little bit it'll become a wedge issue as people ask for more information, and then some rather deep research techniques would be in jeopardy.'" (emphasis mine)
Wikipedia's editorial elite have a secret email distribution channel to help them go after members they don't like. They invoke sanctions against those people, and then try to avoid justifying their actions with wording that sounds like it was taken verbatim from a White House press conference.
Is anyone actually surprised by this? This problem isn't unique to Wikipedia. It happens every day in thousands of so-called web communities. It also happens in lots of places that aren't on the Internet-- like workplaces, courts of law, churches, and let's not forget school playgrounds. That's right-- some adults never grew up beyond the petty and childish paradigm of making themselves feel more significant or important by singling other people out for harrassment.
Durova is just one example of someone who publicly professes one philosophy (i.e. the egalitarian tenets of Wikipedia) and then indulge in their true beliefs privately. Maybe she should run for political office-- I have a hunch that she'd fit right in.