Talk:Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Close paraphrasing by serial copyright violator (reformed, one hopes)[edit]

I want to leave a record here explaining why I deleted some content in the article, knowing full well that maybe two people will read it, but one of those people is the person who needs to see it. This is quite typical editing done by an editor who should certainly know better after creating 284 articles on English Wikipedia since April 2010. Here is the diff where he added this material:

"Due to substantial assaults, Ruíz expelled to the Chisca Amerindian peoples of Florida, prohibiting their entry to any Florida province, "as people who are foreign, unsettled and wicked". In addition, Ruíz established the death penalty to any Christian cacique who give to this people refuge or harbor. Meanwhile, if an Amerindian murder to a Chisca, he would rewarded him with a bounty of an ax and a hoe. More late, the governor dispatched to then-adjutant Estevez de Carmenatis with substantial troop of infantry to South, scouring from Nocoroco to Ibiniuti, in order of kill or capture all the Chisca remaining in the land. Apparently, while Juan Bauptista Terrace ensign was sent as a spy with six soldiers to murder the Timucua chiscas he found there, the Timucua people managed to flee. However, shortly after, the Chisca appeared in the north and it was rumored that they were preparing an attack on the Guale coast."

For comparison's sake, here is the text he "paraphrased", if his edits can be dignified as such, from The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Resistance and Destruction, by John E. Worth:

"In response to these substantial assaults, Governor Ruiz ordered the Chisca to be "completely expelled and thrown out of all these provinces as people who are foreign, unsettled, and wicked," establishing the death penalty for any Christian cacique who provided refuge or harbor to the Chisca Indians. Furthermore, the governor offered a bounty of an axe and a hoe to any Indian killing a Chisca. Shortly before his death in the epidemic, the governor dispatched then-adjutant Estevez de Carmenatis once again to the south, with a substantial troop of infantry instructed to scour the land from the coastal town of Nocoroco through Mayaca until arriving at the interior province of Ibiniuti, killing or capturing all the Chisca remaining in the land. Apparently at the same time, Ensign Juan Bauptista Terraza was sent "as a spy with six soldiers to extinguish and kill the Chiscas he found in the villages of the said province [of Timucua]." The expulsion from Timucua was apparently successful; after the Spanish reprisals against the Chisca, "the rest fled, leaving the province free." Nevertheless, the Chisca soon appeared far to the north and were rumored to be preparing for new attacks against the coastal Guale."

Now, it is obvious that the "paraphrasing" is laughably inept, and even though he follows the source much too closely, he still manages to change the meaning. But the real problem is the burden it imposes on other editors to weed out this crap, made even more burdensome by the fact that said editor has added a great deal of it to English Wikipedia. Worse, the few editors who feel compelled to fix it, may not ever discover that they have been deceived, because he has changed the text just enough that search engines will fail to detect the duplication. Consequently, those editors have wasted their time editing content that may very well be removed when the infringement is discovered (one hopes). I've come to realize after fixing maybe a couple dozen of his creations, that he does this deliberately. This guy has recently complained that I always made him "feel I was the worst writing in wikipedia in English" (!), but I would respond that I feel betrayed by an editor who has so little respect for other editors' time. Carlstak (talk) 15:38, 10 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]