Yes, Etho. The first excerpt I put up was submitted by me to the wiki, which means that I voluntarily ceded copyright restrictions to my own work to the extent that it can be uploaded to the wiki. So while you could not take that text and put it somewhere else, such as a PDF or other book, without my permission, you could legally use any portion of that text in whatever article you plan or any other article on the wiki. The case isn't exactly the same, but most of the basic principles are very similar to the extent that that case established the force of copyright law in our country. :-). That's why I could not, for example, simply forbid you to use that first chunk of text, but rather was politely asking.
I recognize that you guys think I was in some way trying to sabotage the project by jumping right in and creating an associated page and getting to work by contributing some of my own writing. I'm not entirely sure how that would have seized control or prevented you from setting up the stuff you wanted to set up -- to structure it around GV's perspective -- but I think the idea is that I was trying to get other people interested and involved before you had set up that structure, thereby undermining you? Or something along those lines. Couldn't you have just said, hold on, please wait to start contributing until we all agree on a framework? Or something else along those lines, rather than immediately jumping to accusations that I was sabotaging you? I don't really know how to convince you that that wasn't my intent. Honestly, it doesn't make much sense for me to start irrevocably contributing the product of a considerable amount of effort on my part to your project if I wasn't interested in helping.
I'm a doer. If I am interested in a project, I leap right in with both feet and start getting it done. in my experience, that's the best way to actually get a large initiative all the way done... Get enthused and get into it immediately, and let your momentum carry you forward and interest others in the cause. I have completed several enormous projects in my time here, so I think I can speak from considerable experience on that front.
Since my first contribution was met with accusations that I was trying to undermine the project by contributing enormous chunks of well-researched history, I honestly don't think it would be possible to work together with you guys. I mean, how would that even work, given how even this extremely minor dispute is playing out? Like, I understand the "I bet your ego is too big for you to rejoin us" taunt, but I think in practical terms this wouldn't work. I would do too much and hijack it or do too little and drag my feet, or whatever the problem might be. Not to mention that we haven't even started discussing content disputes. I'm just not interested in nasty fights or being called names because I have a different opinion about some historical event, and you just know that's going to happen. I don't even know why you would want to urge me to rejoin you, for that matter... Why not recruit other people who you don't personally despise quite so much?
While I appreciate the thoughts and wish you nothing but the best success, I think it would be best if we went our own separate ways on this one. Thank you.