We are very sorry and want to apologize to all those targeted in The Loveshade Sockpuppet Purge on Fandom/Wikia and other websites. We don’t know how many people have been blocked from editing two versions of Uncyclopedia and other websites. We don’t know how many are now being targeted for a system-wide ban from Fandom/Wikia and other hosts (as of right now the number keeps increasing), but we sincerely apologize to all of you. We never intended anyone else to get targeted because of us.

We are going to be very frank about how this likely got going.

1) We write controversial stuff. We openly challenge social norms that we believe mistakenly assert that late 2oth century and early 21st century American and closely-related social standards are the only acceptable standards for human beings. We reject the notion that the majority of societies throughout human history were “evil” because they didn’t fit the way “we all know” things should be done. We frequently recall this observation of Lazarus Long (allegedly Robert Heinlein): “If ‘everybody knows’ such-and-such, then it ain’t so, by at least ten thousand to one.”

2) We admit we were investigated by local, state, and federal authorities shortly after 11 September 2001. There were a number of searches and seizures in various parts of the United States and possibly other countries. It involved at least a dozen agencies including the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reportedly the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and possibly Homeland Security (we haven’t verified the latter). Several people were questioned, and at least three people were arrested. After a period of years, according to a signed statement from the FBI, all seized material in their possession was returned. No one was convicted, except for one person who was convicted on a possession of marijuana charge which was apparently incidental to the main investigation (the marijuana, which was seized by a local agency and not given to the FBI, was not returned).

3) Some of us were involved in an admittedly unwise trolling/infiltration/sockpuppet exercise that successfully infiltrated and, for a short while at least, fooled members of a group known for trolling/computer hacking/harassment. That was years ago, but they’ve been going after us ever since. Advice: don’t try to out-master the masters.

4) An associate of The Loveshade Family started editing a wiki at Fandom, then called Wikia, and a friend applied to adopt it. An administrator who had made very few edits and who hadn’t edited that site in a long time came back. They made repeated demands that violated Fandom policy. Fandom approved the adoption, and the administrative status of the troublesome editor was removed. In addition, Fandom, by their standard policy, removed the admin status of the site’s inactive founder who hadn’t edited in years.  That got mistakenly blamed on the adopter, which got the site targeted by over a dozen people who vandalized and threatened people both there and on other websites, and got people associated with the Fandom wiki blocked from other sites and groups. After years, members of that group are still going after The Loveshade Family and its associates.

5) We have filed cease and desist orders, DMCA take down orders, and even a couple of restraining orders because of various violations and threats against us including death threats.

We accept full responsibility for our own actions. Again, we are very sorry to the innocent people who have been hurt by all of this.

We also understand that, while some people behind this almost certainly know what they’re doing, others may be sincere but misinformed.

To all these people, we ask, no we plead, that those who are spreading rumors and reports and slander and libel and blocking actions against a number of people they claim are us to stop and think if maybe, just maybe, somebody they’re hurting may be an innocent, and even underage, victim.  Some of them we don’t know about at all, but some of them are.

Wikipedia has a bit of what happened here. We have more of it here. The image that appears at top is listed on Uncyclopedia as being in the public domain.