WordBomb

From ChapmanCentral

wp:User:WordBomb is, by his own admission, Judd Bagley, Director of Social Media for overstock.com. He also posts to Wikipedia Review as WordBomb, where he pursues a vendetta against wp:User:SlimVirgin to the glee of all.

Bagley has been identified by the New York Times, New York Post, and other publications as the person behind antisocialmedia.net, a website set up to attack people deemed to be in support of naked short selling, a (legal) stock market practice. Bagley's employer, Patrick Byrne, chief executive of overstock.com, is waging a campaign against naked short selling, which he blames for the poor performance of his company's stock. Independent observers blame the poor performance of the stock on the fact that the company loses money hand over fist.

Byrne and Bagley have both been openly ridiculed by reliable sources, with Bagley being described as a cyber-terrorist. He was initially harassing people anonymously, a criminal offence in the U.S., until he was outed by the New York Post.

Bagley has posted spyware on Wikipedia to harvest the IP addresses of administrators who've crossed him, then publishes what he thinks are their locations, and weaves them into his conspiracy theories. Bagley's team described SlimVirgin as the "Cardinal Wolsey" of the pro-naked short selling group -- not directly involved but supportive in important ways behind the scenes. This is risible. SV's first interaction with WordBomb was a block for for trying to out wp:User:Mantanmoreland, and to semi-protect the article WordBomb was trying to nobble. As far as I can tell, that was it. I certainly can't find any evidence that SV is promoting naked short selling.

WordBomb threatened SV and others by email and has also emailed Jimbo. He promotes the Wikipedia Review fantasy about SV being an MI5 agent involved in covering up Pan Am Flight 103.

Here are some articles about WordBomb/Overstock, discussing inter alia his "crazy and profane Web-based attacks."

• http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aLDKLcXDf9PU&refer=columnist_antilla
• http://www.nypost.com/seven/01022007/business/overstock_com_lashes_out_at_critics_on_web_business_roddy_boyd.htm
• http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0C17FB38550C738DDDAA0894DF404482
• http://www.nypost.com/seven/01032007/business/lawyer_tied_to_critic_business_roddy_boyd.htm
• http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2006/12/21/the-worst-stock-for-2007-overstock.aspx (this one is especially interesting)