RationalWiki:Articles for deletion/Anthroscape

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Anthroscape | Result: Scraped away[edit]

Anthroscape (edit|talk|history|protect|delete|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

Delete[edit]

  1. Hi, the original vote (many years ago) had no consensus and only 3 voters so I have re-created an AfD for the article. Anthroscape was closed down in 2018 (it has not returned) and all that remains is an archive of the forum on the Internet Archive. The current article as it stands is only 4 lines. Furthermore, the quote at beginning of article no longer has a source (the forum has long been deleted). Looking at the previous AfD, it was alleged Michael Coombs was the article creator as @CharlieBass. The evidence for this is - Coombs impersonated Bass on MootSF many years ago (an archived thread of him pretending to be other people can be found here, while his main account was also suspended). MootSF was a short-lived (2014-2015) anti-racist forum critical of Stormfront. Bass, is an African-American man who used to post there alongside another African-American named EgalitarianJay (aka Morpheus). Coombs had a penchant for impersonating Bass and EgalitarianJay and was banned multiple times on MootSF for creating fake troll accounts. Coombs was also banned in 2014 on Anthroscape, and prior to his ban, received temporary suspensions. So the timing when the Anthroscape article was created by the account @CharlieBass, in 2014, also fits Coomb's behaviour and MO. He created the article to blame on Bass because he was temporarily suspended and kicked off the forum. Coombs also had a bone to pick with Anthroscape's moderator, Crimson Guard (who kept suspending him before ultimately banning his account). The Anthroscape article was set up to attack CG and I suspect Coombs later edited the same article as the sockpuppet @Batman who only made a single (reverted) edit: "Crimson Guard is of Italian heritage and overweight" (Coombs also called CG a "fat Italian" on Anthroscape). There is further strong evidence Coombs edited the article on another sockpuppet: @Mascara. They only made one edit but the name "Mascara" is significant. Coombs was specifically banned from Anthroscape for posting misogynistic comments about women and mascara/make up (see here for the comment that got him banned in a thread he made titled: "How much paint do you slap on your face to look good when you don't?"). Finally, if you looks at Coombs' main account on Anthroscape prior to his suspension you will curiously see how he described his politics, "Far-left". This is despite the fact he is a known neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier and far-right activist (as documented on his article). So the fact the @CharlieBass described their politics as left-wing and anti-racist is not unexpected for him. He literally toys around with these fake personas and impersonations (note he was banned on MootSF for impersonating an anti-racist as well. Overall, I would argue for deletion of the article for the following reasons (1) the forum was deleted 7 years ago, (2) the article is a stub and (3) the article was very likely created by Michael Coombs impersonating someone else who is a banned editor. 38.248.90.84 (talk) 22:18, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
  2. Delete. —cosmikdebris talk stalk 22:35, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
  3. Delete because it tells us virtually nothing about a website which no longer exists. Who created it is wholly irrelevant.Bob"Life is short and (insert adjective)" 10:30, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
  4. Bob's right. It doesn't matter if an article was created by Michael Coombs, Rob Smith, Ken DeMyer or Buzz Aldrin. But this is a shite article about a webshite nobody gives a shite about anymore. Spud (talk) 10:42, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
  5. No way to make the stub grow. Author irrelevant.      – Regards, Avarice 01:56, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

Keep[edit]

Goat[edit]

Following from my comment I would like to add the following. The account @CharlieBass' only other edit(s) was on Talk:Hbdchick. Now, that article (which later became a redirect to racialism) was created by a user named @Moxie14 in 2014 (Bass left comments on its talk not long after it was created). I believe that Moxie14 was none other than Coombs again on a troll account which a sysop here suspected many years ago. Moxie14 contains 14 as a digit, a reference to the Fourteen Words white nationalists use. Secondly, that account was a blatant parody mocking an anti-racist. As an example, read how Moxie14 described Steve Sailer (they also created the Sailer and Gregory Cochran article):

Steve Sailer is a hardcore anti-Semite, racist, misogynist, white supremacist, homophobe, transphobe, xenophobe and all-round champion bigot who can arguably be (dis)credited as the godfather of pseudo-scientific on-line hate. If it's foul, fetid and attempts to give itself a biological and/or intellectual veneer, then Sailer will have had a hand in it somewhere, trust me.

Many years ago, a sysop @ZooGuard appears to have realised Moxie14 was a troll account (further that Bass was likely a sock of Moxie14) and not genuine but no one followed up with their suspicions (see for example their comment here). Can anyone take the above paragraph serious? Poe's Law. Credit should also be given to @GeeJayK who realised: "The drop of accusations in the opening line of this article is really problematic. It's not sourced nor covered during the article and it "does look like a parody. I didn't check the fossil record, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually written by a troll." 38.248.90.84 (talk) 22:42, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

You pointed to the wrong section. Correct attribution is here. It's about a different page, anyway.      – Regards, Avarice 01:56, 3 July 2025 (UTC)