Greetings once again, Garfield Wiki! You may be surprised to see me writing another blog post here. To be honest, I’m a bit surprised about that myself. But today is a sad day, and indeed one I hoped would never arise. After recent events, I have made the decision to leave the Garfield Wiki. But in light of the many false accusations that have been waged against me lately, I do have one last thing to say. Consider it a defense of my actions, even though I see no need to defend them myself.
As a long-time visitor to this Wiki and an even longer-time Garfield fan, from the start I have only wanted the best for this community. In November 2021, years of silent observation became too much to bear, and I made the decision to finally speak out against the problem that I realized was destroying the Garfield Wiki from within - the toxic and unwelcoming environment created by TeeJay87’s abusive and inappropriate behavior. Of course, I realized that TeeJay87 would not go quietly, and thus prepared myself for all manner of abuse before coming forward. As a result, when I posted Creating a Welcoming Environment I did so with trepidation, but also with the boldness and self-assurance that can only come from knowing you are embarking on the path of justice and accountability. Indeed, the initial response to my blog post was all too predictable - TeeJay87 lashed out violently and Low Spark of Lyman refused to do anything at all. It was only because of the brave actions of Cooljoe01 and LS032 that TeeJay87 felt the pressure to resign shortly afterwards, and for these efforts I must once again commend those two courageous individuals.
After TeeJay87’s resignation, I became hopeful that the situation on this Wiki would start to improve. Specifically, I hoped that TeeJay87 would take the time necessary to seriously evaluate his own behavior and make a good-faith effort to improve himself. But this is most certainly not what took place. Just weeks after resigning, TeeJay87 staged an abrupt and audacious attempt to reclaim his administrator position, asserting a newfound change in his attitude that did not exist. TeeJay87 then embarked on an unsuccessful endeavor to bypass the community entirely, petitioning Fandom Staff for a unilateral re-promotion. As if that was not bad enough, TeeJay87 then tried to use a poll to deceive the Wiki's administrators into believing his re-promotion enjoyed popular support. In a final outburst of rage, TeeJay87 published a highly offensive piece of "fanart," launching a vehement attack against me for my opposition to his abuse of power. Simultaneously, he engaged in yet another attempt to deceive the community by distorting the details of a supposed "deal" he had struck with the Wiki administration. This was detailed in my second blog post here, A Concerning Discovery. In May 2022, TeeJay87 followed this up with another re-promotion request, and this too was rejected by the Wiki’s administrators. The community had spoken with a loud and unified voice - TeeJay87 was unsuited for power and any efforts to reinstate him as an administrator would be highly damaging to the Wiki’s users.
Thanks to the combined efforts of myself, LS032, and Cooljoe01, along with a few others who had the bravery to speak out along the way, all of TeeJay87's attempts to regain power had failed. When he made his fourth attempt at re-promotion in November 2022, I was optimistic that the same result would follow. Sadly, I was wrong. When his request was not acted on immediately, TeeJay87 became irate and engaged in a campaign of vicious attacks against LS032, who he blamed for said lack of action. This included a thread (since deleted) where he attempted to demote LS032 by force, complete with a meatpuppet brigade of TeeJay87’s friends showing up solely to manipulate the voting. Sure enough, Fandom Staff shut down this attempt and deemed the “vote” to be invalid. To my shock and dismay, however, both Low Spark of Lyman and LS032 himself responded to this outrage by capitulating to TeeJay87’s terroristic tactics and re-promoting him as an administrator here. Despite my grave concerns about this action, I still held out some level of hope that the Garfield Wiki would be a more welcoming place going forward. Recent events have made crystal clear, however, that under the current administration this will never happen.
To be perfectly honest, after what happened in January I did not plan to return here, but circumstances forced my hand. Last month, an account named "BonzoWagA" showed up and began impersonating me. Naturally, I wanted to correct the record and make clear that I was not responsible for this. When I did so, I simultaneously took the opportunity to offer some mild critiques of the current state of the Wiki. The response to this was stunning. The other administrators, Low Spark of Lyman especially, attacked me viciously, blatantly lying about TeeJay87’s history and assigning him truly unbelievable motives and goodwill. I, of course, pushed back on these inane assumptions and was attacked even more viciously in response. TeeJay87 even had the audacity to issue me a “warning” full of ridiculous and false accusations of libel, subsequently threatening to block me on totally false pretenses.
Shortly afterwards, when a fellow user pointed out TeeJay87’s long history of posting bigoted and offensive fanart, I chimed in to add some more context about the situation. In response, TeeJay87 blocked me, claiming that I was “us[ing] Garfield Wiki as Kiwi Farms/Encyclopedia Dramatica despite warnings.” This is, simply put, total nonsense. While it is unfortunately true that many of my posts on this Wiki have resulted in controversy, at no point was I attempting to start drama or cause toxicity. In contrast, my efforts have all been in the interest of reducing the toxicity on this Wiki and improving the hostile and unwelcoming environment that already exists here.
What is even more disheartening is that, judging from this thread, it appears that Fandom Staff has chosen to prioritize maintaining an artificial "peace" over addressing the root cause of the toxic environment. My appeal of TeeJay87’s unjust block yielded a similar response. While acknowledging that TeeJay87's posts are "often problematic" (their own words), and that his art is indeed offensive, Fandom Staff opted simply to quell the “drama” without any examination of who was right or wrong in the matter. Even though from the perspective of Staff this may seem reasonable, in reality it creates a culture of chilling silence, in which anyone speaking out against abusive administrators can be shut down under the guise of “preventing drama.”
So what does this all mean? Well, to put it simply, the conclusion I came to in January 2023 has only been confirmed - the situation on this Wiki is entirely hopeless. There is no end in sight to the toxicity that TeeJay87 and the other administrators have created, and I have no desire to continue to legitimize such a state of affairs. Therefore, I will not be returning to the Garfield Wiki for any purpose until there is a significant change in attitude among the administrators here. This attitude has already alienated countless users, caused two reputable and responsible administrators to leave the Wiki, and will no doubt chase away many others in the future. By allowing it to continue and protecting TeeJay87, the other administrators here, particularly Low Spark of Lyman, have chosen to put their own authority above the interests of the Wiki's users. That is a tragic statement, but it is a true one all the same.
Considering everything I have detailed in this blog post, it has become increasingly clear that leaving this Wiki is the only reasonable course of action to take. So I say so long to the Garfield Wiki, at least for the immediate future. While I was ultimately unable to create a welcoming environment on this Wiki, I do not feel as though my efforts here were a failure. In contrast, I stood up for what was right, fought against abuses of power, and, in my opinion, made a positive difference. Just as sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants, so too I hope to have shed some light on the problems that have plagued this Wiki for many years, and more specifically to have traced them to their primary cause - TeeJay87. I know many users here have seen the logic and reason in my arguments, including the aforementioned pair of former administrators, and that alone is enough for me to consider this undertaking a success. Should conditions improve here, I will be most happy to return and become part of a friendlier and more welcoming community. But until then, the time has come for me to bid farewell to the Garfield Wiki.