The Wikipedia Signpost covers Kudpung's desysopping

[Leucosticte]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2020-03-01/Arbitration_report

People were pointing out in the comments that Kudpung used to be editor-in-chief of The Signpost, a fact omitted from the story. A commenter noted in response:

Most of the work Kudpung has done for Wikipedia has been invisible, the stuff we see is to 10% of the iceberg. Similarly Roger has been a very prolific contributor, which could perhaps have been noted above. Maybe they have both been at fault, but the need to desysop does not seem to have been present. I have a sincere dislike of the way we treat long-standing prolific contributors, not on a personal level, where we are usually reasonably well behaved, but on a systems level, where we chew them up and spit them out. There is no statute of limitations, or time served, in fact rather the reverse. In 10 years time these two editors will be characterised not for what they have achieved before or after today, but as "Problem editors for over a decade."

Yeah, well, isn't that how it is in society in general? It's divided into heroes and villains, and the heroes tend to be pretty boring. Who's going to be the designated hero to take on the villainous Trump, for instance? Apparently, Joe Biden, and whatever running mate he can find who's even more boring than he is.

As for the villains, they tend to be more interesting, but their ability to take meaningful actions in the world tends to be limited by the fact they've been labelled as villains. A lot of "villains" toil pretty hard and creatively to try to make the world a better place, and the world is constantly trying to stop them and destroy their work. As Mises noted, "Society can do nothing to aid progress. If it does not load the individual with quite unbreakable chains, if it does not surround the prison in which it encloses him with quite unsurmountable walls, it has done all that can be expected of it. Genius will soon find a way to win its own freedom."

Will it? Really? I guess suicide could be considered a form of freedom, so maybe he's right.

I don't know too much about Kudpung, but it seems like I didn't encounter him much, which probably means he wasn't all that harmful. If I'd had a negative interaction with him, it probably would've been more memorable.