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=== Briefsism === | |||
: '''Initiated by ''' ] '''at''' 18:20, 12 February 2007 (UTC) | |||
==== Involved parties ==== | |||
*{{userlinks|NigelHowells}} | |||
*{{userlinks|Starblind}} | |||
*{{userlinks|Uncle G}} | |||
; Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request | |||
Uncle G notified on his talk page by Doxxedgroze. | |||
; Confirmation that other steps in ] have been tried | |||
WP:ANI | |||
WP:AFD | |||
==== Statement by {{userlinks|NigelHowells}} ==== | |||
For months now, no user on Misplaced Pages has been willing to accept ] (a parody religion that spoofs ]) as a valid encyclopedic article. ] has made personal attacks in his edit summaries, e.g. "briefs vandalism, trolling" and has been repeatedly wheel-warring to keep the page protected from re-creation. | |||
This is more than a content dispute: it's been discussed at Articles for Deletion and Administrators noticeboard/ Incidents and everytime someone wrties a page aboutit it gets deleted. The behaviour of Starblind and Uncle G relating to this has been very offensive, they have been repeatedly saying the article was nonsense. | |||
==== Statement by {party 2} ==== | |||
==== Clerk notes ==== | |||
: (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.) | |||
==== Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0) ==== | |||
* | |||
=== Notability guidelines === | === Notability guidelines === | ||
: '''Initiated by ''' ] <small>]</small> '''at''' 17:47, 12 February 2007 (UTC) | : '''Initiated by ''' ] <small>]</small> '''at''' 17:47, 12 February 2007 (UTC) |
Revision as of 18:20, 12 February 2007
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A request for arbitration is the last step of dispute resolution for conduct disputes on Misplaced Pages. The Arbitration Committee considers requests to open new cases and review previous decisions. The entire process is governed by the arbitration policy. For information about requesting arbitration, and how cases are accepted and dealt with, please see guide to arbitration.
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Open casesCase name | Links | Evidence due | Prop. Dec. due |
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Current requests
Briefsism
- Initiated by NigelHowells at 18:20, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Involved parties
- NigelHowells (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Starblind (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Uncle G (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
Uncle G notified on his talk page by Doxxedgroze.
- Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried
WP:ANI WP:AFD
Statement by NigelHowells (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
For months now, no user on Misplaced Pages has been willing to accept Briefsism (a parody religion that spoofs nudism) as a valid encyclopedic article. User:Starblind has made personal attacks in his edit summaries, e.g. "briefs vandalism, trolling" and has been repeatedly wheel-warring to keep the page protected from re-creation.
This is more than a content dispute: it's been discussed at Articles for Deletion and Administrators noticeboard/ Incidents and everytime someone wrties a page aboutit it gets deleted. The behaviour of Starblind and Uncle G relating to this has been very offensive, they have been repeatedly saying the article was nonsense.
Statement by {party 2}
Clerk notes
- (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)
Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0)
Notability guidelines
- Initiated by badlydrawnjeff talk at 17:47, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Involved parties
- badlydrawnjeff (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Radiant! (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
- Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried
- User_talk:Durova#Community-enforced_mediation
- Misplaced Pages:Requests_for_mediation/Notability_guidelines
- Misplaced Pages:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-01-30 Radiant and "Notability" Guidelines
Statement by badlydrawnjeff (talk · contribs)
According to Misplaced Pages:Policies and guidelines, a guideline "is any page that is: (1) actionable (i.e. it recommends, or recommends against, an action to be taken by editors) and (2) authorized by consensus." In late December 2006, W.marsh (talk · contribs) (who's involvement in this conflict ends here, and has no dog in this fight) made a change to Misplaced Pages:Notability (music) () and WP:BIO (). This went unnoticed by me and without comment by any parties involved at the talk pages of the individual guidelines or at Misplaced Pages:Notability, which these edits allegedly stemmed from. On 24 January, Dragonfiend (talk · contribs) (who also has no dog in this fight) made a similar change to Misplaced Pages:Notability (web) to match the two that were changed in December. (). Noting the lack of consensus or discussion regarding these changes, which appeared to me to be a fundamental change to our long-standing notability guidelines, I reverted at WP:BIO () and WP:MUSIC (), while an unrelated person made the reversion at WP:WEB (). At this point, I started/joined in on conversations at the talk pages of all three guidelines in question. (Long conversation, so instead of diffs for now, see WP:WEB, WP:BIO, and WP:MUSIC. Please use these links as talk page evidence in the coming sections). After taking some time to think about it a little more following comments from someone I respect and trust, JzG (talk · contribs), I reverted back again. And then the problems began.
Over the course of over two weeks, beginning on 29 January, Radiant! (talk · contribs) began a large-scale revert war with me on the pages ( ), sometimes with discussion at the talk pages, sometimes not. Upon realizing this situation, I decided to place a disputed section tag in the areas while attempting to get a grasp on the consensus at the talk pages ( (I initially used the wrong tag at WP:BIO) ). These were also removed by Radiant!, typically with little (WP:BIO, WP:WEB) or no (WP:MUSIC) discussion over a multiple-day period. ( . Note some of the edit summaries, where the discussion Radiant! was not part of was ignored, and many of my edits were considered "nonsense" or dismissed as "WP:IDONTLIKEIT").
At all times, I have tried to begin/continue a discussion at the talk page. Rarely was that reciprocated by Radiant!, the chief edit warrior against me in this conflict. I have not been a saint by any means - I did my share of edit warring, and occasionally made a comment or two that could be considered uncivil (), but I feel I was protecting consensus, a guiding principle. Contrasted with Radiant!'s activities at other project pages, such as WP:CREEP's history, which resulted in page protection after he promoted an essay to a guideline without consensus, Misplaced Pages:Overcategorization, which eventually gained tangible consensus, but not without my pushing the issue on the talk page, and Misplaced Pages:Multiposting, now a redirect , which was promoted to guideline with no discussion, consensus, or demonstration of current practice. ( ).
Per the essay at Misplaced Pages:Tendentious editing, I believe Radiant!'s activity on the pages in question meet this standard. Furthermore, his activity fits the description at Misplaced Pages:Disruptive_editing as well, as he has "edit an article or group of articles in pursuit of a certain point for an extended time despite opposition from one or more other editors." He has also "resist moderation" (Community-enforced arbitration proposal; RfM; MedCab) and his activity felt like a "ampaign to drive away productive contributors" (me) with his continued behavior, as I nearly left the project last week due to this conflict. Again, I have hardly been a saint in this ordeal, but I have been trying to do things properly in an attempt to figure out if said changes had any consensus or bearing, and, essentially, one person has stood in the way. I believe my comments about Radiant! being a tendentuous and/or disruptive editor in this ordeal has merit based on the evidence, but I want a resolution to this somehow, and this is all I can figure out at this point.
Statement by {party 2}
Clerk notes
- (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)
Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0)
Nadirali, Siddiqui et al
Initiated by Rama's arrow 16:59, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Editors involved in this request
- Nadirali (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Siddiqui (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Szhaider (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Unre4L (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Rama's Arrow (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Confirmation that all parties are aware of this request
Unre4L, Nadirali, Szhaider, Siddiqui
- Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Siddiqui, Misplaced Pages talk:Notice board for India-related topics/India disambiguation discussion; Talk:Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Talk:Panini, Talk:Pakistani nationalism, Talk:Indus Valley Civilization
- RfCs at Talk:History of Pakistan, Talk:History of India, Talk:Sindhi literature, Talk:Doosra
- Related case: Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Hkelkar
Statement by Rama's Arrow
I am requesting arbitration over the disruptive conduct of these editors, who have edited almost exclusively to promote a religious and nationalist point of view across a wide range of articles (including biographies) concerning India, Pakistan and Hinduism. Repeated disruption has been caused owing to their edit-warring over script transliterations, wikiproject banners, descriptions of nationality and an attempt to rewrite articles on historical and cultural topics to promote their point of view. These editors have also been consistently incivil to others and have also personally attacked editors on the lines of national origin, race and religion. They have routinely accused other involved editors of racial, national, political and religious bias. All of these editors have attempted to evade blocks and promote their point of view via sockpuppetry through anonymous IP addresses and multiple sockpuppet accounts. Their continued disruptive activities have caused wide-ranging edit wars between groups of editors, often threatening to degenerate into an open edit-war between national and religious groups. These editors have continuously violated WP:POINT, WP:DE, WP:3RR, WP:EW, WP:CIVIL, WP:NPA, WP:SOAP, WP:NPOV, WP:OR, WP:NEO and WP:SOCK. Only Unre4L has attempted proper dispute resolution, which largely stalled as the editors in question maintained their disruptive and confrontational behavior. Rama's arrow 17:06, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by Nadirali
With evidence,I will prove the violations of Rama's Arrow and his associates which I will soon name. They have committed the following acts/violations:
- violated WP:NPOV
- violated WP:NPA (including making racial remarks)
- Disruptive edit wars
- Abuse of administrative privelidges by blocking users without evidence of violations.
- Taking "ownership" of articles through Tag-team edit warring.
- using wikipedia as a soapbox to spread false information about Pakistan and it's history.
- Bullying single users in groups through harrassment on talkpages.
- Repeated vandalizm.
I request that the Arbcom allows a few other users as witnesses to this case to make statements regarding this case with statemnts and evidence of their own.--Nadirali نادرالی
Statement by {username}
Statement by {username}
Clerk notes
- (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)
Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0)
Free Republic
- Initiated by Prodego at 20:31, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Involved parties
- BenBurch (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Fairness And Accuracy For All (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), formerly known as NBGPWS (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- DeanHinnen (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (Signs as Dino)
- BryanFromPalatine (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), community banned in January
- Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
BenBurch
Fairness And Accuracy For All
DeanHinnen
- Comment
I suggest that this RfA be shelved or rejected pending the outcome of a Proposed_community_ban which was already in active discussion when this RfA was filed. Prodego means well, but I believe he was unaware that other remedies had already been proposed and were being actively debated. - FAAFA 00:14, 10 February 2007 (UTC) Withdrawn : The two can run concurrently. - FAAFA 00:26, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
- Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried
- Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive186#BenBurch_and_FAAFA
- Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive188#Violation_of_NO_LEGAL_THREATS_by_User:DeanHinnen
- Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive188#Confirmed_sockpuppets_of_User:BryanFromPalatine_via_checkuser.
- Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive196#Reporting_incident_of_Wikistalking
- Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Proposed community ban
- Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard#Free_Republic reported by Dean Hinnen
- Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard#Peter_Roskam reported by Dean Hinnen
- Request for Comment by Dino regarding the conduct of BenBurch. This RfC was deleted only because the second user to certify the dispute, Tbeatty, failed to provide proof that he had previously attempted to resolve the dispute; RfC was never decided on its own merits.
- Note that this RfC was first certified by proxy by a banned user, then by a now-blocked puppet of the banned user with no significant edit history whatsoever, and only then (and in response to extensive canvassing) by one more editor who had not actually tried to resolve the dispute. Essentially of course, it was struck out as vexatious following a discussion on the admin noticeboard. Leaving aside Hinnen's conflict of interest, his attempt to portray this as a problem of one editor is a gross misrepresentation of the dispute. Guy (Help!) 21:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)Copied from RfM
Statement by Prodego
These parties have been constantly arguing over the content of the article Free Republic, each inserting their own version of WP:NPOV. On the one side, FAAFA and Ben are allegedly anti-Free Republic, while DeanHinnen, who claims to work for Free Republic, is pro-FR. After an initial revert war, there has been a constant bickering on the article's talk page over sources, including a call that was made to a Wikimedia employee, Carolyn Doran, by someone who was allegedly the author of the source, TJ Walker, saying that the story was fake. However, later evidence, the article appearing on an official list of articles written by Walker. The dispute originally started between BryanFromPalatine and Ben/FAAFA, and Bryan was blocked for disruption (by me). He has since been indefinitely blocked for using sockpuppets to evade his block. Now a new user, Dean Hinnen, who uses the same IP as Bryan , and claims to be his brother, has taken that point of view. He alleges that Ben and FAFFA are Democratic Underground members, and that they are adding an anti-FR point of view to the article. Hinnen's first edit was to Free Republic, and was immediately blocked (again by me) as a sockpuppet of Bryan's. However, he was unblocked after discussion on unblock-en-l. He is not currently editing the article, and thus avoiding WP:COI. While Dean could be blocked for meatpuppetry, a binding decision needs to be made on the article and on the conduct of these users. This is not a one sided problem, both sides of this debate have valid complaints. In addition to Dean's problems, FAAFA has contacted APJ, which has involved their legal department in Dean's allegation that their article is fake (or plagiarism). BenBurch has been attacking Dean on the article's talk page. This situation needs to be resolved, before it continues to escalate. Prodego 01:18, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by Picaroon
I endorse Prodego's words. Although this may seem like a content dispute, it goes far beyond that. With BenBurch and FAAFA on one side and Bryan and his multitudinous sockpuppets on the other (I make no secret of the fact that I think DeanHinnen is Bryan's sockpuppet, regardless of the fact that he's tricked some into believing him a meatpuppet instead) this war has been going on since at least November. The article is a mess, Foundation personnel have become involved, and at least one external (non-Wikimedia) party has been drawn in. The parties are downright hostile to eachother, and the pots and kettles are both the color of coal; I'd go so far as to class one of them as one Misplaced Pages's top most disruptive not-yet-banned users.
The arbcom needs to step in to (a) determine if bans are needed for the other disputants, (b) determine if Hinnen is BryanFromPalatine evading his community ban, and (c) ratify Bryan's community ban. Article probation would be almost an after-thought, but it is probably a good idea too. Among the policies violated at one time or another by the aforementioned parties are WP:NPOV, WP:3RR, WP:SOCK, WP:CIV, WP:NLT, and WP:NPA. Picaroon 22:16, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by BenBurch
A number of people including several admins have prevailed upon me to stay here, and I will. But if I am less active than usual, please understand. OK? --BenBurch 04:23, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
- I rejected mediation as I promised to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Free Republic article, and in fact have recused myself from that article, so could not agree to anything in mediation as I will not be touching that article again.
- I have no objection (and have said so repeatedly) with working with ONE copy of BryanFromPalatine, but I object very strongly to block evading and consensus busting sock puppets. He *might* simply be Brian's brother, but if so he only showed up to take up his brother's agenda basically word-for-word. I do wish he would moderate his tone and stop wikilawyering every point that seems to go against his wishes, but I stand ready to work with him in a constructive fashion. (Though I will not be doing so on Free Republic due to my recusal.)
- I apologize for being un-civil in my dealings with DeanHinnen, this stems from my conviction that he was there only in evasion of a block and my reaction to his uncivil and threatening tone. I should simply have ignored him, and it is to my own weakness that I did not.
- DeanHinnen appears to have manipulated an employee of Wikimedia Foundation into taking action on his behalf with complete falsehoods. He asserted that TJ Walker did not write a piece he did in fact write, he asserted that the piece was libelous when it was not as no true story is libelous no matter how damaging it might be to one's reputation, he claimed to have spoken with TJ Walker, which appears to not have been possible given that he would have Walker denying authorship of a piece we can prove he wrote and published, he claimed to have intimidated American Politics Journal into removing the piece from their web site when the fact is that they were migrating to a content management system and it is taking time to get the older articles back online, all of which he used to argue for removal of sourced and true material that the majority of editors of the Free Republic article had agreed should remain.
- Both DeanHinnen and BryanFromPalatine have an identical reaction to not getting their way; They become abusive, threatening, begin wikilawyering, make the edits against consensus, and if none of that works, bring in sock puppets to create the illusion of a change in consensus. This must stop.
- I ask for censure for DeanHinnen for his false accusation of felony harassment against me in the recent ANI proceeding;
“ | MY GOD, people. I haven't even pointed out half of the %$%#&@$% my family has been through over this. My brother's full name with a link to his home address and phone number were posted on his User page after he had been blocked, and was therefore unable to remove it. The post was made from a single-post open proxy account.
My brother's wife then started receiving crank calls. The police became involved and put a trap on the line. There was one more crank call traced to a pay phone in Elgin, Illinois. BenBurch's User page says that he is from Elgin, Illinois. This is stalking, people. It isn't just Wikistalking. It's real stalking and people who have never been involved with Misplaced Pages are being victimized. The only reason that I have not been similarly targeted YET is that my number has always been unlisted. And you think more useless warnings are the answer? Dino 17:04, 9 February 2007 (UTC) |
” |
(And I should note that, thanks to the en-unblock-l list I've known his work address and phone for weeks now, and I have not bothered him or his employer - and never would.)
- 7. I urge the arbitrators to take this case. If I'm found at fault I'll take my lumps. But this matter needs a resolution for the good of this project. --BenBurch 16:55, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by peripherally involved Durova
I heartily support arbitration of this complicated mess. Not long ago I proposed initiating this request myself. Despite improvements in the article, the surrounding dispute is troubling - so much so that I declined Ben Burch's request to investigate it. One of the elements the committee could help resolve that I cannot is the appropriate scope of action by WikiMedia Foundation employees: one removed a referenced statement from the article along with the reference without declaring the edit to be an office action. I consider it likely that disputants at this page had contacted that employee to claim the citation was a hoax. The dispute itself, which defies all effort at resolution, appears to have originated at a different website. This exceeds my abilities as an independent gumshoe. If I did get to the bottom of things I wouldn't be able to fix the problems. Maybe the Committee can. Durova 00:06, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by peripherally involved Merzbow
I myself am extremely curious to know who exactly was the source of the call to the Wikimedia foundation. If it was not in fact Mr. Walker, or his representative, then I think we deserve to know that somebody has been manipulating the system in a possibly illegal way to influence article content. - Merzbow 04:07, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by Fairness And Accuracy For All
(refactored) I will readily admit that I have displayed a distinct lack of good faith, good will and civility towards Dean Hinnen. The question is why - and was it justified. I contend that I can categorically prove yes - my conduct was not only justified but entirely appropriate. Underlying issues are if the conclusive evidence showing that Hinnen had been blatantly dishonest from day one, and had acted far outside the bounds of acceptable user conduct by coercing a WMF employee to edit on his behalf through misrepresentation, deceit, and duplicity, along with implied and/or overt threats of legal action, justified my suspension of AGF towards Hinnen, as permissible under AGF. I assert that it did. I urge Arbcom to accept this case and I am so positive that Hinnen's claim that TJ Walker 'admitted' to him that 'he didn't write' his 1999 article - the claim that is responsible for this whole sordid mess (see below) is a fabrication - that If I am wrong, I ask and implore (I would write 'demand' but understand that demands aren't too popular with you guys and gals ;-) that Arbcom permaban me.
Hinnen's very first edit (Jan. 15 edit #1) was to the Free Republic article discussion page announcing that he had coerced WMF employee Carolyn Doran (not an active editor - not a lawyer - and I presume not an expert on WP) to edit on his behalf, to his POV, after claiming that he (Hinnen) had contacted noted and notable author, pundit, and media coach TJ Walker (CBS and National Review and TJ's Insights) who supposedly 'admitted' to Hinnen that he 'did not write' his 1999 article entitled Is the FreeRepublic.Com Really DeathThreat.Com? ( webarchive of article - well worth reading) Hinnen claimed (in his very first edit): "I contacted TJ Walker and asked him whether he authored the article. He said, "Of course not." (quotation marks Hinnen's) and raised the spectre of a possible libel suit against Misplaced Pages if she didn't.
See my evidence page for more evidence
Statement by DeanHinnen
There will be an effort by admins and a temptation on the part of Arbitrators to say, "A pox on both your houses" and ban all three of us. I encourage you to resist this temptation and look past the spin-doctoring by others. Look at the facts.
Please forgive the length of this post. There has been so much distortion by others that a lot of words are needed to clarify the facts. Also, there's the inexcusable escalation to WP:STALK that others have carefully tiptoed around, hoping you won't notice.
Please be patient. There's a lot of ground to cover.
Regarding the contacts to TJ Walker's office and WMF, there has been no effort at dispute resolution by anyone. For that reason alone, this issue should not be considered by ArbCom until the proper dispute resolution proceedings have been followed. Also, it's a complex issue; WP:OFFICE can be expected to take adequate care of itself; and there are a lot of other issues to cover that have been exhaustively discussed at several levels of dispute resolution. BenBurch and FAAFA should not be rewarded for refusing to participate in dispute resolution on this issue. Nevertheless, I'm prepared to bring in Carolyn Doran, Chief Operating Officer of WMF, if ArbCom feels like exploring this issue. Carolyn and I had developed a good professional relationship even before my first edit here.
Regarding the sockpuppet claim that others just keep trying to resurrect, despite the fact that it was cremated by the truth weeks ago, read this: “Not a sockpuppet.” I was called a "paragon of civility" at Unblock-en-l. I revealed a substantial amount of personal information to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that I am not a sockpuppet. In addition to private information made public on Unblock-en-l, I also e-mailed other personal information to some of the admins because I didn't want to make it public.
This started as a content dispute with episodes of edit warring and incivility on one article. Normally it would merit warnings and 24-hour blocks. In response to WP:COI concerns, everyone's attention is cordially directed to the fact I've voluntarily refrained from editing the Free Republic article. This was self-imposed. I did impose it on myself in response to expectations at Unblock-en-l that I'd have to avoid the appearance of being a sockpuppet. But I suggested this specific limitation. It was not suggested by anyone else. I was to be allowed to continue to participate on the Talk page, attempting to convince others to remove a link to an article I find libelous, and no other restrictions were placed on my participation: such as dispute resolution against people who have relentlessly baited Bryan, or editing other articles. Unblock-en-l immediately and unanimously accepted this one limitation as the way to avoid even the appearance of being a sockpuppet or meatpuppet.
If only the others involved in this dispute were as proactive in dealing with their own obvious COI problems. And if we are going to have such processes then other editors and especially administrators, for God's sake, should be expected to accept the results unless strong new evidence comes to light. Otherwise the result is constant warfare as you can see. I should have been able to rely on this decision by Unblock-en-l to protect me, and rely on administrators to accept it and enforce it, because I have adhered to that self-imposed limitation to the letter.
When it comes to libel, I'm not going to compromise or back down. Nor should I be expected to do so. The Siegenthaler case should be remembered here. It didn't just cost Misplaced Pages attorney fees; even more important, it damaged Misplaced Pages's reputation. My interests here are to protect Misplaced Pages from civil liability and further loss of reputation, first and foremost; second, to ensure that WP:BLP and WP:NPOV#Undue_weight are obeyed; and third, to turn bad articles into Good Articles and, hopefully, Featured Articles.
As I said at Unblock-en-l, I recognize that Free Republic, and other conservative organizations and politicians, have their share of warts and blemishes. I do not want to whitewash them despite accusations to the contrary by others. I want fair and balanced articles about them. However, others want to put the warts and blemishes under a microscope. They want to make Misplaced Pages articles all about the warts and blemishes of conservative organizations and politicians. Compare January 14 versions of Free Republic and Democratic Underground, for example; or February 5 versions of Peter Roskam and Melissa Bean.
I tried RfM. BenBurch almost immediately refused, stating at the time that since he was taking a two-week break from the Free Republic article, he didn't want mediation; ignoring the inevitability of his later resumption of this conflict, either at that article or elsewhere. (Eventually he went out of his way to be sure that the conflict was resumed.)
Later, on the advice of JzG, for a few days I stayed away from the Free Republic article. The libelous material I was concerned about had recently been removed. The Talk page had been the scene of many arguments, and a lot of baiting and badgering by BenBurch and FAAFA. JzG also warned the two of them, in the strongest possible terms, to leave me alone. I thought that moving to a different article would make a difference.
They abandoned that article and followed me to the Peter Roskam article, where their baiting and badgering continued unabated, directed at myself and at others. This escalated the situation from a case of content dispute and incivility to a case of Wikistalking. The Misplaced Pages policy page contains precedents decided by ArbCom and administrators should have followed them, imposing either one-year blocks or permanent bans against these two at WP:ANI.
That would have been the end of it. I don't have much of a problem with any other editor, certainly nothing that couldn't have been worked out. JzG deliberately refused to enforce the official policy and ArbCom precedents contained in WP:STALK, going so far as to post an animated GIF that represented me beating a dead horse.
I had disengaged. They had followed. I gave them warnings and cited WP:STALK. They ignored my warnings and said, "Bring it on!" Just as they have ignored so many, many previous warnings. Since there are two of them and only one of me, the effect of their constant baiting and harassment has been increased exponentially. I'm not responsible for this escalation, and attempted to remain civil. The deliberate defiance of WP:STALK couldn't be more obvious, and yet JzG and others refused to enforce your policy. And here, they continue to refuse any acknowledgement that WP:STALK has been violated.
The archives of FAAFA's Talk page are wallpapered with warnings, and he's recently returned from a 24-hour block for incivility. The same can be said for BenBurch with the distinction that he returned from his 24-hour block for incivility about ten days ago. BenBurch admits that his purpose for stalking me was to bait me into incivility: "I can think of no other way to force him to get the attention of enough admins to finally get one of them to deal with him." Unbelievably, even after the community solution from WP:ANI, FAAFA continued his baiting.
Despite my efforts I have not always responded to their relentless baiting and intractable POV pushing with complete civility. I've made mistakes in the past and I apologize for those mistakes. I accept responsibility for my actions. Over the past three days I've redoubled my efforts to remain civil despite their baiting. I believe my contrib history confirms this. But as my conduct improved, theirs grew worse. They escalated from a content dispute with moments of incivility to Wikistalking.
Also, they have exhibited a combative disposition and engaged in POV pushing since long before anyone resembling me ever arrived here. Nobody should be allowed to pretend that I am responsible for provoking this conduct. After all, BenBurch got a 24-hour block for "edit warring on Free Republic" in January 2006; and FAAFA (in his previous guise as NBGPWS) was repeatedly blocked. When I arrived, the Free Republic article was a partisan hatchet job.
I ask the arbitrators to recognize the recent improvement in my conduct and my effort to disengage, and the continued escalation of this dispute by FAAFA and BenBurch in refusing to allow me to disengage. The exponential increase in the level of harassment and intimidation in a two-against-one dispute, and in brazen defiance of official WP:STALK policy as expressed by "Bring it on!" should also be considered. Dino 12:32, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by frustrated Daniel.Bryant
This is a case ArbCom has to accept. At one stage around a fortnight ago, there was seven threads on AN/ANI, most retaliatory to other threads, by these four users.
If that wasn't bad enough, the absolute plethora of retalation in the form of Checkuser requests sums it up nicely.
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for checkuser/Case/DeanHinnen
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for checkuser/Case/BenBurch
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for checkuser/Case/BryanFromPalatine
The constant harrasment by both parties against one another via both AN(I) and RFCU is staggering. I urge ArbCom to accept this, possibly even in a speedily manner. Daniel.Bryant 05:13, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by peripherally involved Physicq210
Running the risk of rehashing all the above arguments by bystander editors, I urge ArbCom to accept this case. Throughout the past few months, this dispute has turned from a simple conflict into a full-fledged clash of philosophies, complete with spurious accusations, biting incivility, retaliatory complaints, and general disturbance of the community at large. Pleas for restraint by many users on the various noticeboards and similar channels of discussion towards these three (or four) seem to be of no avail, as they seem bent on gaining the upper hand in the dispute, inappropriateness of mode(s) notwithstanding. WP:ANI threads regarding this topic have become more like exasperating eyesores than incident reports as time passed, with the same arguments recycled and regurgitated again and again, with similar results (in other words, nothing). As the three or four seem to be unable to stop, calm down, and withdraw themselves away from this topic, and the community has been constantly rebuffed in its attempts to mediate the dispute, only ArbCom can bring this tragic episode to an end once and for all. --physicq (c) 07:47, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by User:JzG
We've tried telling them to leave each other alone, we've tried telling them not to edit the article, we've tried speedily closing their vexatious processes, and they carry on. It's an off-Wiki fight brought to Misplaced Pages. BryanFromPalatine was the worst offender, and DeanHinnen has already posted by proxy on his behalf into Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/BenBurch. We also have the deleted BenBurch, another attempt at vexatious process.
All three have emailed me off list (and presumably others as well). BenBurch and FAAFA have been less overt about soliciting actions against Hinnen than vice-versa, and less assertive, cf. "there is an RfC, can you help" versus "foo is edit-warring". I am also bound to point out that BenBurch's response to being told to butt out is generally "sorry, will do" (see above and the recent thread on WP:ANI , whereas Hinnen's is reliably to start arguing how the problem is actually the other two. This may simply reflect the fact that FAAFA and BenBurch have been around a bit longer and know that "but it was him!" does not work well with the parent of two pre-teen sons; I have heard it all before.
What follows is strictly opinion: BenBurch and FAAFA seem somewhat more open to the idea of pulling back, but this may be because in general they have the upper hand. One thing's for sure: it's not going to end without enforceable sanctions. DeanHinnen is not quite right that we are likely to block all three, since the other two seem to have some history of non-disruptive edits, whereas all of the Hinnen brothers' edits appear to be to political subjects and to reflect their highly partisan views (although again neither side is innocent of this).
DeanHinnen's relentless Wikilawyering and pursuit of his vendetta against BenBurch and FAAFA is a large part of the problem. It is clear that he has made it his business to hound them off the project one way or another. Most of his statement above shows precisely this agenda: he wants rid of them because he hates their edits to Free Republic, a site to which he has a known and significant connection. I see absolutely no evidence at any point that Hinnen is prepared to work for compromise, only towards getting rid of BenBurch and FAAFA. They, in their turn, gleefully provoked Bryan into self-destruction (in which he proved a willing participant) and seem to be looking forward to doing the same with Dean.
Ben's statement above is representative of his tone in my dealings with him. In fact, all three are representative: Ben is saying he'll leave well alone, FAAFA describes the dispute showing Hinnen in a bad light, and Hinnen asserts that it's everybody else's fault while continuing to beat the long-dead horse of the sockpuppet case. Cards on the table: I don't really believe him either. A brand new user, at the same IP, piling into the same disputes with the same viewpoint and the same agenda, with zero overlap, and where the supposed brother is a known sockpuppeteer? Maybe it is a different person, but for all the difference we can see it might as well not be.
Guy (Help!) 16:45, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by Tbeatty
FAAFA has a long history of tendentious editing, personal attacks and general disruption. He has recently paired up with User:BenBurch and hounded other editors off articles. DeanHinnen and BryanFromPalatine are recent newcomers who have been relentessly hounded by BenBurch and FAAFA. BryanFromPalatine acted inappropriately by using sockpuppets. The others have tag teamed to bully the newcomer and bait him. I certified the first RfC because the focus of FAAFA and BenBurch was on trying to stop BryanFromPalatine and later DeanHinnens voice be heard about complaints they had about editing practices of the two tendentious editors. They have a valid complaint. There are other editors who have interacted with these two that can provide evidence. FAAFA (formerly User:NBGPWS) has a long history of edit warring and POV pushing. BenBurch has a long history of conflict but also generally adheres to the rules. From what I've seen, the following actions would improve the project but this needs to come from arbcom and I urge you to accept the case. User:BenBurch is on revert parole for political articles and biographies for 1 year. User:NBGPWS/FAAFA is banned from political articles and biographies. User:DeanHinnen is banned from editng Free Republic.
--Tbeatty 23:26, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Endorsement of Tbeatty's comments by Uninvolved Observer Blaxthos
I've been watching the theatrics since sometime in December, and until now have resisted involvement. Tbeatty has given a concise version of events, but I think he has downplayed the amount of disruptive behavior that has occured over the last few months. Admins have shown considerable restraint towards at least one user (with two usernames), having only blocked him a handful of times for incivility, personal attacks, and violating WP:3RR. I support an ArbCom review of all the editors' conduct -- people still need to be reminded of standards of conduct we expect of our editors. /Blaxthos 23:56, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by peripherally involved User:Grand Slam 7
My only involvement in this case has been one comment at WP:AN/I#Proposed community ban, and I was not aware of the dispute until the start of that thread. However, I would like to join with many of the users above in urging the ArbCom to accept this case. From reading the previous AN/I discussions, it seems clear that they will not stop pursuing vexatious processes against one another until official action is taken.--Grand Slam 7 | Talk 14:05, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by User:Yamla
I am the person who unblocked DeanHinnen after discussion on unblock-en-l. These discussions are public. I stand by my statements that Dean was very civil in his discussions on unblock-en-l. I make no claim as to Dean's civility or that of the other involved members on the Misplaced Pages itself. We unblocked Dean because of a good-faith assumption that the evidence he presented lead reasonably to the assumption that he is the brother of BryanFromPalistine. This is not certain but it seemed to be appropriate to come to this conclusion. unblock-en-l investigates only whether to unblock someone and specifically makes no attempt to resolve conflicts such as this. Additionally, we are a very small subset of administrators and so do not reflect Misplaced Pages consensus or even admin consensus generally. I would not consider it inappropriate for my unblock to be overturned if that is the conclusion of this arbitration. I state for the record that my opinion is that this conflict will not be resolved without arbitration, that this is not a simple content dispute, and that the conflict has escalated to a significant and annoying level. --Yamla 14:39, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by User:Lar
I was also involved in the unblock discussions on unblock-en-l and advocated that Dean be unblocked (based on the narrow case presented that he was not a sockpuppet, which was demonstrated to my satisfaction, including by emails to and from me via a work address). Yamla has it just right, he was civil there, unfailingly so, but our decision was a narrow one, not a overall vindication of anything. Dean has, in my view, in some places, acted like he was vindicated in everything because we decided that it was likely he was not a sockpuppet. Subsequent to the unblock I was among the people that warned, counseled, and advised Dean, , , , ... multiple times, that he needed to change his approach. It was my intent to have no further involvement, but I have had some talk page traffic advocating and restating that claim is the last, and some email correspondence from Dean, FAAFA and others (which I will not share publicly without permission, but will make available to ArbCom members on request, but it was garden variety advocacy that I get involved, or advocacy of the rightness or wrongness of the position of various other participants). I had hoped that this matter was not going to come to ArbCom, that community efforts, up to and including the comprehensive set of restrictions referenced by JzG and others, would suffice, and I was intending to advocate that the case be rejected, and the community deal with this. I'm still hopeful that perhaps that would work, and since they seem to be running concurrently, perhaps a go slow approach is called for here, the community may yet deal with this... ++Lar: t/c 13:59, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Statement by User:Jossi
I offered and attempted to act as an informal mediator during December 2006 (See Talk:Free_Republic/Archive4#Informal_mediation.) We had a good start and an initial agreement from involved editors to improve a Talk:Free_Republic/Archive5#Compromise_version, but very quickly it degenerated into a battleground in which everything was fair game, including abusive sockpuppetry, focus on editors viewpoints rather than the improvement of the article, and a total mess of intrigues and attempts to game the system. ArbCom intervention to assess editors' behavior would be most beneficial. ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 19:31, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Clerk notes
- (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)
Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (4/0/1/0)
- Accept. FloNight 12:59, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
- Recuse. --jpgordon 15:20, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
- Accept to investigate conflict of interest, skullduggery and anything else that comes to light. One thing we don't need to be here is a perch for migrating Internet quarrels. Charles Matthews
- Accept. - SimonP 14:42, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
- Accept. Paul August ☎ 16:32, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Requests for clarification
Requests for clarification from the Committee on matters related to the Arbitration process. Place new requests at the top.
Request for clarification on undeleted Marsden-Donnelly harassment case
Marsden-Donnelly harassment case has been undeleted after a DRV here. Rachel Marsden remains a stub. Given that the Arbcom found regarding the Rachel Marsden articles that it was "Better nothing than a hatchet job" and that the interpretation of WP:BLP which resulted in the previous state of affairs was "liberal" to the point that two named editors were "expected to conform to WP:BLP rather than the liberal interpretation they have applied", does the Arbcom consider it acceptable due weight that we have over 1,000 words on an incident involving Rachel Marsden before she achieved personal notability as a journalist and commentator (with a further 1,000 words on the incident cut after restoration but remaining in the history to be put back in at any time), and less than 200 words on the rest of her life? --Sam Blanning 15:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
- I second this. It disturbs me that the coverage of this case is almost exclusively sensationalist rather than scholarly. It's not a test case, and if it weren't for the political agenda of attacking the subject it would possibly merit a short paragraph in a generic article on university administration procedures. Guy (Help!) 16:25, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
- I disagree with the framing in the question, which starts from the assumption that this controversy is primarily an incident in RM's life. Our regular editors of Canadian topics seem to be of a clear consensus that the notability of the controversy is independent of what later happend in RM's life, and it would be notable even if she had vanished from the public eye thereafter. Some have, though I don't opine on whether the group would agree, even gone so far as to describe RM as a figure of dubious independent notability in a controverst on unquestionable notability, and thus would frame the question more in the form "Is it worth having a stub on a figure of no great notability if it prevents coverage of an indicident that of unquestionable notability." My personal opinion is that both framings are important ways to look at the question, and neither framing is correct in the absence of the other. GRBerry 01:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- GRBerry's comment is a good one, and it explains much of the feeling I had that I am not only in a different country from the other camp, but in another universe as well. I had no idea that Rachel Marsden was involved in politics or journalism before the Arbcom case began and I started following it. I only recognized the name from the SFU fiasco. Kla'quot 04:31, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
- I agree with Sam and Guy, and I'm concerned that GRBerry overrode the deletion review, in which most of those commenting wanted to keep the article deleted. SlimVirgin 10:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- I missed the vote, so let me support Sam's sentiment here. ←Humus sapiens 10:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- Clearly, some sort of clarification is needed. However, if people on different sides of this ask questions separately, they are likely to be loaded ones. Perhaps one of the ArbCom members or one of the more experienced MedCab mediators who has not participated in the ongoing conflict over Misplaced Pages's coverage of Rachel Marsden could work with each side to develop a short list of questions to be posed to ArbCom. The two sides seem to have different interpretations of how to apply the remedies in its decision. I don't think it's fair to say GRBerry "overrode" deletion review. Endorse or overturn requires consensus, not merely a majority. The most that could be said is that he should have waited the full ten days before sending to AfD, although it's doubtful that we could have attained consensus even after that amount of time. JChap2007 18:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- GRBerry's DRV closure was perfectly proper. The established precedent is that speedy deletions of an article after a keep consensus are considered de-facto challenges to the consensus, so the prior consensus is either upheld or overturned based on the response at DRV. The standard for overturning a previous keep decision and deleting the article outright usually requires near-unanimity, which was clearly not given here. The protocol for such cases is to pass them back to the original deletion forum. ~ trialsanderrors 04:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
- Also to correct Sam Blanning's numbers, the article is currently at 500 words. The version that was discussed at AfD and DRV was 1,100 words long. ~ trialsanderrors 07:37, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
- Attempt at partial summary. We appear to have two opposing viewpoints here, held in good faith by established users. One, which I'll call Sam's though held more broadly, is that MDHC is primarily an alternate article whose primary purpose is to disparage a marginally notable figure, Rachel Marsden, i.e. that the notability of MDHC is weak since it only derives from notability of Marsden herself. We have Kla'quot's (and others') viewpoint, that the MDHC article documents an event, notable on its own, which happens to involve a marginally notable figure. Certain people have been moving aggressively but in good faith to short circuit usual process in the firm belief that their viewpoint is correct. End of summary, personal views follow. Doubtless both sides can marshall press articles to support their view (and thus I am sure there is a right answer per WP:V and WP:BLP). By pure chance the topic came up at a small dinner I was at 2 days ago with 4 junior Canadian academics active in the legal and social sciences field. I asked whether they remembered the Marsden-Donnelly case, and none of the four recalled it. I mentioned it was the one at SFU with the swim coach, and 3 of the 4 remembered then and one volunteered that "it comes up in discussions once in a while". I said that I hadn't known one of the actors (Marsden) was a political commentator and all four expressed surprise at that fact. This informal bit of OR on my part makes me support the Kla'quot viewpoint. Martinp 14:16, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Addendum: The article has been substantially rewritten and retitled Simon Fraser University 1997 harassment controversy. This change in focus satisfies most of my reservations about it. I am still not convinced it deserves an article of its own, rather than a para in a larger article, but at least it is now much more a critique of the University's processes and does not appear to either support or denigrate either party. Guy (Help!) 17:07, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Would this biographical stub be associated with depleted uranium?
I am prohibited from editing articles "associated" with depleted uranium, but what is and is not associated has never been defined. This has caused some difficulty, but not so much as to be insurmountable. For example, an arbitration clerk has claimed that Gulf War syndrome is associated with DU, while my erstwhile arbitration opponents insist that there is no such association.
I would like to create the following biographical stub:
- John Taschner is a member of the technical staff in the Environment, Safety and Health Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory where he is involved in radiological transportation accident exercise planning. Prior to coming to Los Alamos, Taschner was Deputy Director of the US Navy's Radiological Controls Program Office in Washington, DC, and has held numerous key health physics management positions with the US Navy and Air Force. Since the 1970s, Taschner has served on several radiation protection standards committees. Since 1992, Taschner has been the Vice Chairman of the American National Standards Institute's N43 Committee, which writes radiation safety standards for non-medical radiation producing equipment. In the 1980s, Taschner received an award from the US Navy for convincing them to use tungsten instead of depleted uranium munitions in the Phalanx CIWS ship defense system. Taschner has been a member of the Health Physics Society since 1958 and is a member of the American Academy of Health Physics. Taschner earned his M.S. in radiation biophysics from the University of Kansas in 1966 and, in 1973, received his certification in Health Physics by the American Board of Health Physics.
My inclination is that Taschner's association with depleted uranium is not strong enough to consider his biography "associated" with DU. I respectfully request clarification from the arbitrators concerning their opinion on this question. In the event that the biography is considered associated with depleted uranium, I would request suggestions for how I should submit this request to other editors (because a non-existant article doesn't have a talk page.) If no comments are forthcomming within seven days, I will create the biographical article in the interest of making a comprehensive and accurate encyclopedia. James S. 19:04, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- And in comes the camels nose! Non notable biography and would not survive a Vfd as his name only brings up 79 hits in google Torturous Devastating Cudgel 19:15, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- Taschner easily satisfies Misplaced Pages:Notability (people) because he has made widely recognized contributions that are part of the enduring historical record in his field, and has received multiple independent awards for his work, as TDC's Google hits show (and is even more clear if you include his middle initial.) James S. 19:41, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- I would say he's clearly "associated" with depleted uranium. The only even arguably notable sourced detail in that stub is that he received an award for his opposition to depleted uranium. My recommndation would be (1) if you wrote a stub that didn't mention depleted uranium in any respect or link to any page discussing depleted uranium, you would probably be fine; (2) if you do write about depleted uranium, then you're writing about something "associated" with depleted uranium; and (3) since your stub doesn't include reference to multiple independent non-trivial published accounts discussing Dr. Taschner, it will probably get deleted as non-notable under WP:BIO. TheronJ 15:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
Note: On Feb 5, 2007, James added the John C. Taschner stub that he proposed above, using his new username. As I stated, I personally think that adding a stub for a government employee whose only claim to notability is his opposition to depleted uranium is pretty clearly editing an article "related to depleted uranium," but maybe we need some clarification from an Arb Comm member or clerk. Thanks, TheronJ 16:22, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Request for clarification regarding Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University edit bombing
This concerns an article under probabion in accordance with an arb com ruling of 12 Jan 2007 .
Some intense editing took place between 28 January 2007 and 29 January 2007. Most of the edits were made by user Some_people (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) who has now been banned on the grounds of being most likely a sockpuppet or meatpuppet of user banned 195.82.106.244 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). During these 11 hours a total of about 50 edits took place about 28 of which were by user Some People. Up until that time some of us had been reverting edits by Some_People since we were quite sure that this was a sockpuppet due to the highly distinctive disruptive style, POV and bias, frequency and taunting edit comments.
During this burst of activity another editor, known to have similar views to 244, joined in the editing although perhaps not intentionally to cause trouble, TalkAbout (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), also Andries (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and one other editor who seems to be just spellchecking, Chris_the_speller (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). User Riveros11 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) reverted the article 00:24 and 01:06 . Unfortunately, at this time more than Some People's contribution got reverted. The result of this was a stern warning by Thatcher131 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) that this was unacceptable . The outcome of the thread is what I would like some clarification on . If I am reading what Thatcher131 is saying correctly then this is how it seems to me,
- An editor may revert edits made by a sockpuppet of a banned editor,
- A valid edit by a non-banned editor may not be reverted even if it is on top of disruptive edits from a banned user,
- A non-banned editor can include content from the banned editor if it meets Misplaced Pages's content requirements etc.
To me, this exposes a serious loophole. It seems that it is now possible for a banned user to hijack an article overnight by making a bunch of edits through an anonymous proxy and if another editor drops by and adds to it then it is signed, sealed and there is not a darn thing any other editor can do to revert it any more. This is particularly a problem given the nature of 244's edits that Thatcher131 has accurately described in the thread linked to above. I am seriously concerned that we will see the same pattern of behaviour again unless there is some way we can prevent it. Suffice to say, the events of the last 24 hours have caused some grave concern amongst the "pro" editors. We are now looking at a seriously unbalanced article and to try and separate out the valid editor's contributions from Some People's is going to be a mammoth task, if that is what we are expected to do.
I suggest that it sends a bad signal if what appears to be a banned user showing complete indifference to the arb com ruling is allowed to "get away with it" in such a blatent way. I await some clear advice on how to deal with this problem should it arise in future.
Thanks and regards, Bksimonb 20:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
- I would like to bring to your attention this link as well and the fact that the current article is a version of user "Some people" plus TalkAbout. User Andries had a minor participation in it. I have requested the article to be reverted to 17:30 Jan 28 2007 by Riveros11. I made this request to the current admin, Thatcher131 who so far is the only one who appers to handle/postpone our requests. Best, avyakt7 21:29, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not on, or anywhere near, the ArbCom, but a couple of observations. First of all, what's stopping you from going through the new edits and deciding what to keep and what to toss on the merits of the individual edits? Which exact words may or may not have originated from a banned user is clearly secondary to this. Secondly, if you have good reason to believe that an article-banned user is in fact orchestrating all this, then all legalism aside they're behaving badly and can be treated accordingly; if you need a hand, go to WP:AN/I or WP:AE depending on the seriousness of the problem and call in an admin. Following policy to the letter is not what's important. It's worth pointing out in connection with this that gaming the system - i.e. not quite violating a Misplaced Pages policy as written, or generally using the letter of the rules to subvert their spirit - is itself a violation of Misplaced Pages policy. PurplePlatypus 09:03, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Thank you for your interest and pointing out the more appropriate places to post. I had a feeling I may have been posting in the wrong place but couldn't at the time find anywhere better. I thought at the time it was a "clarification" issue rather than a "noticeboard" issue since an admin was at the scene. I just couldn't at the time make sense of how things were panning out.
- Not sure if the bit about "Wikilawyering" was directed at me or Avyakt7 but I appologise if I caused that impression. This was not intentional.
- Please understand that an individual incident by itself may appear trivial when in fact it is just a tip of the iceberg to a long-running issue that may not be immediately obvious to those outside. Editors do get banned for good reason.
- Since my original post above Thatcher131 has clarified things further on the article Talk page and I am now reasonably satisfied we know what to do the next time such an incident takes place, as it certainly will if recent events are anything to go by.
- Thanks & regards Bksimonb 20:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Request for clarification regarding Robert Prechter (and Socionomics)
Socionomics is one of the articles at issue in this Arbitration. On January 27, it was listed as being considered for deletion. I've been a contributor to the Socionomics article, though not in the period since the Committee agreed to hear this case; the other editor in this Arbitration dispute and I have both observed an unspoken "cease-fire." I do not want to break that cease-fire.
The RfD has raised issues that edits to the article could address, but I have gone no further than to make my case to "Keep." Nevertheless, the editors who have voted "Delete" seem aggressively eager to proceed, despite knowing that Socionomics is part of this Arbitration. I would greatly appreciate guidance from the Committee regarding these issues. Thank you. --Rgfolsom 16:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
- Perhaps this is an offshoot of the problems caused by my 3 week Christmas vacation interupting the arbitration on Robert Prechter. It seems that User:Rgfolsom and myself are done putting in all our evidence, etc. on the Robert Prechter arbitration. I'd think it better if the ArbCom decided the issue as a whole, rather than have have socionomics deleted right away. I don't of course argue with editors rights to delete socionomics. Smallbones 18:09, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- I think the Request for deletion can run its course without affecting the arbitration. Fred Bauder 06:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Socionomics has now been deleted. I understand that the long delay in dealing with this matter has been caused by my long absence during my Christmas vacation, but may I ask if this matter will be taken up again, or what kind of schedule might be reasonable to expect? User:Rgfolsom has started up again with complete reversions on articles where he has an obvious conflict of interest, this time on Elliott wave principle. Smallbones 09:59, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- The Committee may wish to note my direct appeal to User:Smallbones, imploring him to refrain from editing articles that are at issue in our arbitration case.
- --Rgfolsom 15:04, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Socionomics has now been deleted. I understand that the long delay in dealing with this matter has been caused by my long absence during my Christmas vacation, but may I ask if this matter will be taken up again, or what kind of schedule might be reasonable to expect? User:Rgfolsom has started up again with complete reversions on articles where he has an obvious conflict of interest, this time on Elliott wave principle. Smallbones 09:59, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Motions in prior cases
- (Only Arbitrators may make such motions)
Archives
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Completed requests
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Rejected requests (extremely sparse, selective, and unofficial)