TK

 "The threshold for tolerating constant arguments and disputes, is very low these days. It will get lower." (TK 8th Dec '08)

Terry Koeckritz, alias "TK", "The Knife", "Team Killer", and even "TeacaKe", has accounts at both Conservapedia and RationalWiki. He was defrocked as a sysop for a few months in 2008, but was rehired to enforce Andrew Schlafly's iron will. People tend to think he is loyal to nobody but himself, and terminally power hungry. He is inclined to be quite abrasive, and tears communities down skilfully.

Operating system
He prefers to contact users privately, through email or other means, so most of the community don’t see what’s happening. He targets new users who haven’t learned about his past, and shows them only his “better” side. These users end up supporting TK against experienced users who know him better, and quarrels develop. Discussions get fragmented off via chatroom forums, instant messenger chat sessions, etc., where the rest of the community won’t know what he’s doing.

He ignores reasonable discussion and imposes what he wants.

Conservapedia
For some time TK was close to Andrew Schlafly and ranked just below the Führer. He was notorious as the most tyrannical of the sysops at Conservapedia, and even the other sysops feared him. TK was enthusiastic with the banhammer and blocked large numbers of users. He even used range blocks against potential users who had done nothing. At that point he felt able to challenge Andrew Schlafly himself. TK undid some of Schlafly's edits, and refused to accept The Boss's say as final. Schlafly turned around and stung TK by desysopping him. After that TK had to do without the special powers. Desperate for power TK tried to act as a sysop even after he had been desysoped.

Banishment and return
For a time TK was banished from Conservapedia and caused problems at RationalWiki instead. Things got too hot for him at RationalWiki. "TK returned to Conservapedia on the 23rd of March, after being unblocked by Geo.plrd. Although he was supposedly on parole, the document that discussed the specifics of this status was quietly deleted (again by Geo.plrd) on 28th March with the comment 'Per private discussion' (although as usual on Conservapedia, other sysops voiced no objection)."

Between late April and late November 2008, TK stayed away from CP. TK returned to Conservapedia in November 2008 in force, and is as active as he ever was. He got blocking rights within three weeks of his return. Several previously committed Conservapedia sysops say they left Conservapedia because of him. Philip J. Rayment seems to be upset, but hasn't left yet. There have been prominent, probably futile letters of complaint, see JessicaT and An open letter from a disillusioned conservapedian. RationalWikians can't do more than speculate about what TK may be doing through emails, chatrooms etc.

Currently, TK seems to be working faster than last time. He may feel a need to do his stuff before his reputation catches up with him, but teh Assfly has a bad memory: on December 1st, 2008, he reinstalled TK to near-sysopship, now with added Checkabuser checkuser powers.

Motives
TK has something in common with an Internet Griefer. Conservapedia suits him - there are strong but arbitrarily enforced rules, behind-the-scenes administrative communications, a fairly clear ideology to abuse, and plenty of vulnerable normal users and borderline personality-disordered admins to manipulate. However, we can't get inside his head to see exactly what he wants. Last time, Andrew Schlafly kicked him out before he could finish whatever he wanted to do. Theories include:
 * 1) Perhaps he wants to bring the site down.
 * 2) Perhaps he's playing some type of brinkmanship. "Let's see how far I can get before they block me."
 * 3) Perhaps he aims to control the site, and plans to manipulate even Aschlafly later so that he will be the real power.
 * 4) Perhaps he learned from his last mistake, and will be satisfied when he controls everybody except the Schlafly family.

TK's shenanigans
Here's the sort of thing he does.

IP range blocks
Huge IP range blocks, taking out whole regions and/or ISPs, are instituted by TK and Geo.plrd, apparently an ally in this endeavor. It appears that TK is trying to stamp out the use of TOR and proxy servers by vandals, without caring how much collateral damage he does in the process, although another possibility is that he would like to minimize non-American involvement in Conservapedia. Either way he has refused to discuss the rationale behind these range blocks publicly.

TK has even used range blocks deceitfully and vindictively to target individuals. When User:Sideways queried a fellow editor's block, TK responded not by openly targeting Sideways but by blocking IP range 79.76.0.0/16, effectively stopping a large proportion of a UK-based ISP's customers from editing Conservapedia. When Sideways used a proxy IP to further complain, TK banned him/her for "abusing multiple accounts", associating Sideways with various unrelated vandals who had used the same proxy. The above happened 19th December 2008.

A similar pattern shows up in TK's treatment of User:BRichtigen, whom it is likely that TK was deliberately targeting for BRichtigen's persistent insistence on fair treatment of editors by sysops (see Conservapedia:MYOB). On 2nd December 2008, TK blocked IP range 81.210.0.0/16. BRichtigen then complained that he was covered by this block, along with many thousands of other households in Germany and Central Europe. Subsequently the block was lifted, but when TK blocked BRichtigen for two weeks, on 16th December, he again blocked BRichtigen's IP, this time for six months. Again, both blocks were lifted by other administrators. However, when Bugler blocked BRichtigen for a week, on 27th December, TK saw his chance again, and blocked the IP range for a full year.

It is likely that TK uses this tactic consistently. A glance through his block log shows that he blocks almost as many IP addresses as user accounts, often alternating between the two. It seems probable that, as in the case of Sideways and BRichtigen, he bars user's IP addresses when blocking them, often for much longer than the user is blocked. He has also been seen encouraging other users with block rights to share information with him for the purpose of range blocks.

Church fire
There was a fire at the church where Sarah Palin worships. There is not even proof that the fire was started deliberately. Here’s what TK said:

"An arsonist would not, could not, be a 'Christian'. So who else but an atheist? Someone following Christ's teaching would never do arson. So, logically, one would assume it is a Godless person."

WillB is more sensible: "I'm sure the police are looking into all the possibles [sic] such as someone with other religious believes [sic] (such as Muslims or Hindus) or a few angry former members of the church or any of what could be dozens of possible suspects."

Later still"All religions have their bad apples"

HelpJazz
TK blocked HelpJazz for being an administrator of a group harming Conservapedia, ie RationalWiki. He's Jazzman there and he isn't very active. It seems being an administrator is what counts. TK is a user at RationalWiki as is HelpJazz. The stuff about administrators on his userpage here suggests he just might have wanted to be a bureaucrat. TK playing a game of, “I can but you can’t.” Well HelpJazz there are better websites to edit.