Because it illustrates the extent to which Lott's detractors are interested in attack and name calling rather than the merits of serious discourse, we excerpt from the WP Talk section on Lott the following material (least it, like so many other texts unfavorable to the detractors, disappear from the record.)
On 5 February 2006, TimLambert wrote:
The section below was added to the article by Purtilo. It obviously doesn't belong in the article but it is relevant here in talk. Purtilo asserts that the people in the list below have been accused of being sock puppets and writes:
Even those posting from places where Lott is unlikely to be located are accused of being him.
137.216.209.23 (South Dakota)
66.190.73.64 (Fort Worth, Texas)
128.8.128.182 (Hyattsville, MD)
[Note added 2007-2-9: It appears the above three links at Wikipedia have been removed from their cite and the history there rewritten - again. Yet another illustration of how history is fungible at WP.]
128.239.177.196 (Williamsburg, Va.),
206.165.74.6 (Phoenix, AZ)
How does Purtilo know the real names of all these users? None of them identified themselves. The only explanation I can think of is that a call for help went out on some pro-gun mailing list and these users edited the article and reported back to the list (or to Lott) what they had done. That makes them meat puppets . There is also a difference between saying that someone is a suspected sock puppet and accusing them of being Lott. I suspected that Purtilo might be Lott; I accused Timewarp of being Lott. Note that 152 Purtilo does not deny that Timewarp is Lott. He also includes some users identified by IP address that I never suggested were Lott, but leaves out ones that I did suggest were Lott. I did say that 66.190.73.64 was probably Lott and that is indeed in Fort Worth. Thing is, though. All four edits by 66.190.73.64 were done on the night of October 13 2004 and according to Lott's blog he gave a talk in Austin on the 13th and in Lubbock on the 14th, so it sure seems reasonable that he spent the night of the 13th in Fort Worth. -- TimLambert 13:51, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
On February 17, TimLambert wrote:
My error, I misread the year. There is no evidence that Lott was in Fort Worth when those four edits were made. My thanks to Purtilo for noticing this. -- TimLambert 16:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
Purtilo subsequently wrote:
Tim, it's pretty exhausting trying to talk reasonably about this stuff in the forum when the first thing you do is obliterate the points we try to make. Answers to some of the rhetorical questions you raise were already there in earlier material, which you snipped. Oh well. So let's look at just the narrow question of sockpuppets and meatpuppets for the moment. I checked out the names I could find from the histories (fortunately there are other research tools besides WP on the web) and the ones I found are real people, and they're listed accordingly. What motivated them to want to get involved? Beats me, I don't speak for them, but there's no question this discussion has been noticed in many other forums on the web. (I'm cheerfully using it as the basis for disallowing Wikipedia's use as an authoritative source on my campus, for example.) Your antics in talk.politics.guns are well known, and surely there are blogs where someone has observed "there goes Lambert again." But look, your own analysis above isn't even self consistent. I dutifully traversed the links on the pages you cited above, and surprise, the log from Lott that you use to prove Lott was in a town on one date (and supposedly posted here as such) cites a different year than is under discussion. I'm not sure that what Lott did in 2004 has much to do with where he posted from at the relevent 2005 dates, other than those who don't look close might be satisfied - typical of the "I'll see it when I believe it" crowd. Give it a rest. -- Jim Purtilo
Pierremenard then wrote:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say "I checked out the names I could find from the histories (fortunately there are other research tools besides WP on the web) and the ones I found are real people, and they're listed accordingly." Huh? Listed where? How do you know, for example, that Cbaus is Chad Baus from Ohio, that Gordinier is Michael Gordinier from WUSTL, that Stotts is from UNC-Chapel Hill, that Henry1776 is Henry Schaffer, that Sniper1 is Mike Fleischer? -- Pierremenard 15:57, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
Back to TimLambert:
Purtilo, things that are wrong get corrrected as I did above. If you can identify errors in the article about Lott, please do so, so they can be corrected. Calling me names does not prove that the article is wrong. -- TimLambert 16:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
Serinity replied:
Purtilo, not 152.163.100.10, put this post up first, Lambert. 152.163.100.10 was just copying what had already been put up. You can't get even something that simple correct. You can't get the year correct that the person from Fort Worth made the posts. You accuse Purtilo yourself most of the 20 times that he was accused of being Lott. You accused me. You have been the primary accuser for everyone. Based on what? How sad. Yet, somehow we are supposed to trust you as the sole source for all these attacks on Lott. Be serious. The discussion in the talk section document dozens of other mistakes. Anything that relies on you as the sole source should be removed permenantly from this discussion. You get things wrong two, four, six, maybe eight times, we might forgive you, but you must be in the hundreds. -- Serinity 2:04, March 3, 2006 (UTC)
TimLambert:
Hmm, yes, Purtilo added it on Jan 25 before 152 did. I have corrected my comment. Now it's even more interesting. How did Purtilo know who all those people were? Notice that he left a response without offering an explanation of how he knew. Very mysterious. And Serinity, the two of you have found two errors in a comment on a talk page. Trying to pretend that two is "hundreds" does not help your credibility. -- TimLambert 10:15, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Serinity:
Try just counting up the sundry times you accused others falsely of being a sock puppet. Try your reposting saying "not discussed on talk page." That is not serious and you know it. Reading through the archived discussion pages you apparently have edited evidence to make your claims. You have been corrected so many times I can't even count. Do you have anything that indicates that Purtilo's post is at all wrong? Did he falsely identify anyone as not being Lott? Is Purtilo Lott? If you accuse someone of that 20 times, you and your compatriots should have evidence that you can show us. He said that he wasn't over and over again and provided evidence yet you all would erase and ignore it. Until you either take back all your false claims or until you show he is wrong, you shouldn't be allowed to post any more. This Wikipedia discussion is useless if people can just make things up, and I am going to stop participating. -- Serinity 13:11, March 3, 2006 (UTC)
Gzuckier:
Alternately, how about a Sock Puppet ID Success Ratio , consisting of the number of times a person correctly identified a sock puppet out of the total times he/she identified someone as a sock puppet? On that scale, TL is quite a ways ahead of all those who make vague allegations to "Lambert has sock puppet problems of his own". Gzuckier 21:49, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Cbaus:
Speaking for myself, Cbaus, I can say that Purtilo knows who I am and where I am from because after I was attacked by Tim Lambert on my very first visit here of being a sockpuppet, I got interested in the history of this whole thread and saw Purtillo had been through much the same as me (only far worse - he has much more patience for you folks than me), I contacted him. I am not ashamed of who I am, and I don't appreciate having my credibility and honesty questioned by people who don't know me. Honestly, some of you Lott-haters here must be getting paid for all the time you spend preventing any sense of fairness here. Me - I have a real job - and thus can't keep up with you. That's how you've driving most others listed above away too. -- Cbaus 4:16 p.m, March 3, 2006 (EDST-USA)
Gzuckier:
Also, we could derive a Sock Puppet Sensitivity Index as the number of times a person mentions/complains about having been identified as a sock puppet, divided by the number of times he/she was actually identified. Cbaus, you are getting up into the high numbers here. Gzuckier 21:49, 22 March 2006 (UTC)