User:SusanG/RWW
SusanG was one of the hardline atheists on RationalWiki, along with Jeeves, and no other was as infamous for their combative and sometimes abrasive way of expressing it. Regardless of her more abrasive side, she was respected and highly valued for her construction of much of the 'Help' pages and the 'navbox' systems.
She initially joined under the account RojerB to test the misogyny level of RationalWiki before joining using a female username. The site evidently met her approval, and she "came out" July 21, 2007,[1] and re-joined as SusanG the next day July 22.
She was sysoped on September 1, 2007 by Human.[2] As the first victim of Human's Great Demoting Binge, Susan was bureaucratized May 23, 2008. In 2010 she was elected to the Loya Jirga. She lived next door to fellow RWian Him.[3]
Field notes[edit]
Susan was often stern but generally approachable. She was also quite tolerant of AmesG's and Human's attempts to hit on her.[citation needed] Occasionally, however, she revealed a more hardline, intolerant side of herself, particularly when it came to religion. In this respect, she sometimes butted heads with the then resident theist AKjeldsen.
She seemed to share a certain level of camaraderie with Genghis Khant.[4]
She once described herself as someone who "likes being liked". This seemingly casual description of herself was actually piercingly accurate, and explains certain behaviors during the Kip the Dip Incident and the Great Pissing Contest.
Kip the Dip Incident[edit]
See main article: Kip the Dip Incident
In the Kip the Dip Incident, AKjeldsen overreacted to a mildly snarky comment made by SusanG on new user Kip the Dip's page, and blocked her for 9 hours.[5] Furious, SusanG unblocked herself[5] and announced her permanent departure from RationalWiki. Fortunately, she forgave AKjeldsen and decided to remain at the wiki.
Susan takes her ball and goes home[edit]
Later, after typically combative comments[6] about religious and engaging in a verbal tussle with MarcusCicero on main page talk, Human responded to her comments there[7] and then went to lecture her on her talk page nine hours later.[7] He then, in a moment of profoundly bad timing, logged off for the night, leaving the wiki to fend for itself against SusanG's wrath.
SusanG asked to be desysoped[8] and then promptly banned herself for 5 years.[5] Blocked and planning on no longer being able to unblock herself, she proceeded to remove references to herself across RationalWiki as an IP.[9]. After blanking her own Essay:Credo, Genghis Khant (clearly running on autopilot and only seeing an IP blank an essay) blocked her, then unblocked her once he realized it was Susan.[10] For the short time her first IP's ban was in effect, Susan returned as another IP and continued purging her presence from the wiki.[11] Genghis Khant then attempted to calm SusanG down.[12] Susan unblocked herself only to delete the essay she previously blanked[13] and change her userpage to announce her permanent departure from RationalWiki.[14]
Despite the seeming frenzy described in the above paragraph, this entire incident was very abrupt, coming out of nowhere, very low key, involving only SusanG, Marcus Cicero, Human, Genghis Khant (and, if you really want to stretch things, the few users who noticed that something was going on[15]), and fast, lasting less than 90 minutes.[16]
If an accurate article is ever written about this incident, you will be able to read it at Great Pissing Contest.
Absence[edit]
Susan left following the contest - apparently never to come back - and although some predicted she would soon be forgotten, that was not the case. She eventually returned and was later demoted to admin.
In mid-October 2008 Susan left once again.[17] Since then, she made a few brief appearances, indicating that she was still aware of the events of the site.[18] Susan had a known tendency to continue editing RationalWiki with transparent socks after nominally leaving the site, and it appears she was doing so again.[19]
Subsequently it became clear that user Toast was actually SusanG in disguise. This was, pretty much, confirmed after the formation of the Loya Jirga. Not that it wasn't obvious in the first place.
Return[edit]
In 2010 she was back, back, back![20]
Death[edit]
In 2011 Susan's activity slowed somewhat, and she mostly edited the saloon bar and WIGO:CP. She also vehemently opposed LQT, to the point that she refused to comment on pages that use them, regardless of the subject matter.[21]
She declared herself retired on 20 March, blanking her userpage and adding the retired template to Toast's talk page.[22][23]
It was later discovered that Susan had died in February 2011. [24] She is much missed. Many of her on-line friends and fellow editors paid tribute to her on her talk page showing that, while she was able to annoy people, she was very respected and well-liked.[25]
Socks[edit]
- Frolich
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ RojerB outs herself.
- ↑ User rights log for SusanG.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ SusanG and Genghis Khant as both were among the hardcore atheists on RW, and they had similar backgrounds (both are UKers, divorcees/widowers, and middle aged). Witness, Genghis Khant was often the first to come to SusanG's aid when she had been unfairly persecuted.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Block log for SusanG.
- ↑ Like this comment and this one, for example.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Human responds to SusanG's comments on the Main page talk, and lectures her on her talk page.
- ↑ SusanG reacts to Human's lecture.
- ↑ SusanG, as an IP address, removes references to herself on RationalWiki.
- ↑ Block log for Susan's first IP address.
- ↑ SusanG's second IP address' contributions.
- ↑ Genghis Khant attempts to calm SusanG down.
- ↑ Deletion log for Essay:Credo.
- ↑ SusanG announces her permanent departure from RationalWiki.
- ↑ NightFlare noticed but elected not to say anything until later; RA reverted SusanG's blanking of her own essay and then queried Human.
- ↑ 1 hour 26 minutes between Human's instigating lecture and SusanG's finale.(Dead link)
- ↑ Susan blanks her userpage and everything else in her userspace.
- ↑ Susan swiftly responds to Human's brief departure with a curt goodbye.
- ↑ Cayce Pollard and Terra were linked to SusanG (Terra self-identified as Susan here). Some other accounts used during Susan's nominal absence also bear a striking similarity to Susan. The discussion here is a dead giveaway.
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ [4]
- ↑ [5]
- ↑ passed on
- ↑ Tributes to Susan