I am a former member of the now defunct project Red Spectre (which is where I met Saul).

Saul and I have been online friends for most of the last ~9months or so. He’s a nice enough kid, but ofc has his flaws. Personally I find him to be a well read person and I am convinced that the majority of his time is spent studying theory or editing Revolupedia articles.

Saul is young. Only 18, and last I knew was still going to school. He also (in the last few months) was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, which is why I am making this post. Saul often comes to me in my discord dms and is terrified that you all are plotting against him. I do not think any of you are, and I tell him that, but he is rather paranoid about it. I’ve told him repeatedly that he should ignore it, y’all are just making stupid memes and jokes, but he will not listen. When I first met Saul he didn’t seem to have any issues with delusions but then one day he just…did. He’s been in and out of the psychward, trying new medications, but he’s really really been struggling.

As I understand, he did considerable damage to the prolewiki and leftypedia projects, I am sorry on his behalf. Even if he wouldn’t agree with me, I don’t think it was good what he did, and I know that you all are just as passionate to see change in the world as he is. I know for a fact he would be devastated if someone wrecked his revolupedia project in the same manner that he wrecked prolewiki.

I’m far from some big shot communist or anything, I’m just a 25 year old that’s read a bit of this or that, and tabled a couple times for various parties. Still, I come here asking if people could just avoid talking about him? I can’t exactly expect the entirety of this community to never mention him, but I also can’t control Sauls internet usage. I just feel bad for him and I don’t know what else to do.

  • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
    22·
    2 days ago

    I assume this is related to the maoists post on the lemmygrad court.

    I write in short sentences but it’s not annoyance or anything. It’s just for clarity’s sake so bear with me please.

    When I made that post I didn’t want to mention him at all because I feel that what concerns prolewiki doesn’t concern lemmygrad (and vice versa) but at the same time it’s almost impossible not to. The post is not about wisconcom particularly, it’s about, well, all that’s in the post.

    The pattern is that we have an uptick of accounts that join and immediately start wanting to change lemmygrad’s line or asking questions and then get referenced on revolupedia just hours or days later. The pattern is there, so it must be mentioned. I made clear in the post that these accounts may not at all be related to revolupedia but that’s where it started, the first of these accounts coincided with the post on lemmy.ml. On ProleWiki we recently got an anonymous edit request through a TOR connection trying to add revolupedia to our list of wikis too.

    He has left a huge mark on both lemmygrad and prolewiki, too much to ever let bygones be bygones, and can’t seem to get either out of his mind since 2022. Wrecking is one way to put it and it’s not wrong, but he is also an abuser and harasser. Originally, as detailed in the wiscon files, prolewiki ignored his attempts at trying to get sockpuppet accounts approved. PW’s founder even had long respectful discussions with him (on his side; can’t say the same for wisconcom) and was trying to help him out. But then wiscon stepped it up and would not let go, to the point that he tried getting other people on board ‘infiltrating’ prolewiki. Having mental issues is not an excuse for being an abuser and I get that’s not what you’re saying, but at some point if we can’t help him and he keeps trying to harass then that’s on him too.

    He has especially harassed me in particular so this is why I am taking the time to write this, as much as I don’t like bringing drama up in public. I always feel like it annoys people.

    I can assure you, and you can assure him if you want, that nobody is conspiring against revolupedia. Lemmygrad doesn’t have the same history as ProleWiki does with wiscon, PW has had to deal with him far longer (an entire year nonstop and then on and off since then), but live and let live is literally all we ask for. I would actually even discourage any attempts to make accounts on revolupedia that I hear about, and I’ve not heard about any (and I would probably know right away if there was one). Since lemmygrad doesn’t have as big a history with wisconcom, they are probably not even aware of revolupedia. It’s been two very different experiences.

    When I first met Saul he didn’t seem to have any issues with delusions but then one day he just…did.

    In our case it seems like it’s kind of always been there. He joined PW mid 2022 and I think the turning point was coming out of retirement with a petition around october 2022. I’m not going to ask publicly when you first noticed this on your end.

    He has asked a few days ago what it would take to get the wiscon files offline. A list was drawn up.

    Here is what he can do, if you’d be willing to transfer the list:

    1. lemmygrad and prolewiki is off-limits to him. he can set up a lemmy instance (and we might federate), he can be on another instance, whatever. But he has done too much damage to ever come back to lemmygrad in any capacity.
    2. Just ignore lemmygrad and prolewiki if they come up. I do it all the time with revolupedia (except in that one post since I had to bring it up of course). In the revolupedia post he made on lemmy.ml people asked in good faith what about prolewiki and he started immediately attacking PW. Just don’t answer, or say “yes, that is certainly another wiki” and leave it at that.
    3. Likewise, anyone from lemmygrad or prolewiki is also off-limits. Go no contact. I specify lemmygrad because they’re also done with him here and every time he comes back he gets reported, so I can safely say they don’t want to be contacted by him. Just pretend neither lemmygrad nor prolewiki exists and that you’re not aware of them.
    4. He still has a disparaging piece of lies on his substack. https://wisconcom.substack.com/. If he doesn’t have access to it then he should work with substack’s team to get it deleted on their end. I can send the substack people’s email addresses if he needs to contact them. This also goes for any blog, wiki, discord, whatever else he has that has content on prolewiki. This also means correcting his lemmygrad page on revolupedia. Seriously, all you have to say on it is “lemmygrad is a lemmy instance”. You can say it’s dengist and third-worldist if you want i don’t care about that but at least have some self-respect about the other stuff (e.g. the person who was “banned” clearly deleted their own account). If he ever feels the need to make a page on ProleWiki, just say “ProleWiki is a communist wiki.” and end it there. Not difficult.
    5. Likewise, discourage anyone on revolupedia from interacting with prolewiki or lemmygrad on the same stipulations as above. This also means deleting any accounts that he or they may have on lemmygrad and prolewiki retroactively. It’s in his interest too because they’ll just look like wisconcom alts.

    As a show of good faith he’s allowed to keep the CSS he literally stole from me for revolupedia’s homepage idc. Would be nice if he’d said where he got it from instead of pretending he wrote it for leftypedia though but whatever.

    This is a long list but it’s a fair one because we (on lemmygrad’s and prolewiki’s part) also hold ourselves to it. And it’s either that or endless back and forths and what is the point in that? It will never end and just be exhausting.

    I hope he gets the help he needs but sometimes bridges are burned and won’t be mended, because the persons affected by that behavior are the ones who decide if they want to mend the bridges or not.

    • procapra@lemmy.mlOP
      10·
      2 days ago

      I think this is incredibly fair and I am sure he has already seen this post and read it, but nonetheless I will forward it to him.

      The only thing I’ll say is that point 5…I really don’t think anyone else on revolupedia even uses this site? I have an account on there but I have made maybe 2-3 pages on there at most. I’m just not all that good of a writer haha. Any accounts you think are his are 99% probably his. We actually used to make jokes about this in RS because Saul just has so many fucking alt accounts for every single possible website/service. “All of us are Sauls alts!” and other jokes like that.

      I hope it didn’t sound like I was trying to say that everyone should just get over everything that happened. Rather, I just didn’t know what else to do for him. It’s not like people haven’t told him before to stop coming here. I probably tell him this atleast once a week.

      Anyways, I’m sorry for any and all stress you’ve had to endure because of his behavior and hope that you can enjoy the rest of your day.

      • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
        12·
        2 days ago

        Any accounts you think are his are 99% probably his

        Probably yeah. They show their true face sooner or later. Not trying to sound mean on this (again just trying to be clear on messaging), but it’s not relevant who they belong to, what matters is that they look like wisconcom’s and if we get even just once the idea that he has tried to get an alt through on lemmygrad (or prolewiki, of course), the deal is off the table and he’s back to square one like he is now. I assume he doesn’t want that, so it’s in his interest to actively discourage anyone he even hears about requesting an account here or posting here if he even gets a whiff of this happening.

        He also has to be proactive and delete the alts ASAP. I say this here because as you pointed out, we both know he reads lemmygrad. The terms of the deal are not up for debate, either he accepts it as is or doesn’t; the editing of the lemmygrad page on revolupedia and the deletion of every alt account will mark the start of it (edit- and of course then he has to follow every point, including deleting his ‘on prolewiki’ substack piece ASAP). Hopefully in perpetuity.

        Since we can tell you’re not an alt you can keep using this account on lemmygrad, but that goes only for this one.

    • ☭ Lily ☭@lemmygrad.ml
      211·
      2 days ago

      If you keep talking about him, you are just giving him more reason to keep creating alternative accounts. It is natural for somebody to want to defend themselves.