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*What a pile of shite. Here am I, living in extremely poor circumstances, yet using the bandwith I can afford to make contributions here. I could spend that money on food, cigarettes or other stuff but on balance, I pr4efer to donate my expertrise, such as itr is , her54e, ]] 01:40, 20 October 2010 (UTC) *What a pile of shite. Here am I, living in extremely poor circumstances, yet using the bandwith I can afford to make contributions here. I could spend that money on food, cigarettes or other stuff but on balance, I pr4efer to donate my expertrise, such as itr is , her54e, ]] 01:40, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
:So please block me; I don't have the luxury of a comfortable life at present, but Misplaced Pages is all I have. If I can contribute here, or on Commons I will, as long as I can draw breath. However, I an equally find other stuff to do. ]] 01:52, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


==Misplaced Pages as blog host - block request== ==Misplaced Pages as blog host - block request==

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    Co-editor apparently banning me from pages

    See /Smatprt. A topic ban from the topic of William Shakespeare has been proposed and has considerable support, and a mutual editing restriction on all parties is also under consideration.

    Moved to subpage as it's rather big. --TS 22:31, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
    Datestamp of this comment is faked in an attempt to delay archiving of this pointer. --TS 22:31, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    One of the two editors (I am both the plaintiff and, in the thread, subsequently indicted)for whom a topic ban has been proposed, User:Smatprt, has noted on the page that he is experiencing problems with his computer, and will be travelling until the 18th, and thus cannot respond to the charges or issues raised concerning his editing behaviour. I suggest the page here retain this notice until at least that date.Nishidani (talk) 11:38, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

    Merridew behaviour

    Resolved – No, it is. No admin is going to take action here, as my previous reverted close suggested. There are other venues available for dispute resolution. Black Kite (t) (c) 17:59, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    Per , and , I ask an uninvolved admin to block Jack Merridew (talk · contribs) for disruption. This is a continuation of a pattern of abusive editing on Merridew's part to impose his preferred styles on articles over objections. He is now accusing me of "harrassment" for undoing his undiscussed changes to the styles established in articles that I previously edited. Merridew was banned by arbcom for past stalking and abuse of multiple accounts. His current arbcom sanction mentions " follow dispute resolution processes to resolve editing conflicts". I submit he has failed to do so. I believe, at this point, his behaviour is more than serious enough to warrant a block. I would block him myself for disruption, but other admins have felt I am involved. (I will be offline for many hours now.) Gimmetoo (talk) 19:33, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

    You are involved; and very much so.  pablo 19:38, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Baseball Bugs (talkcontribs) 19:46, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Seems like a content dispute, and a kinda lame one at that. Is there a version that is more frequently used in other actor bios? Has this been discussed in a style guideline perhaps in a wikiproject? Tarc (talk) 19:52, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's not about colours or styles or my editing; he's decided to target me. Merridew 20:10, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Merridew 21:40, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Not going to lie, after reading over those diffs, and your ANI report, it looks like you, Gimmetoo, are the one who has been doing all the harassing. If there's a content dispute, take it back to square one with Jack and discuss it civilly. For the record, Jack is more than willing to talk about his edits. On a side note, considering that you yourself do not have all too stellar of a track record, I encourage you to not hurl stones at other people's glass houses when you live in one yourself. -FASTILY 20:45, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well, that last bit isn't very fair. One 12hr block for 3RR and one temporary indef to confirm that an alt account was genuine does not make one's abode a glass one. Tarc (talk) 21:25, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I agree with Fastily's summary of the interactions between Jack and Gimmetoo/trow. It is clear that Gimme is the one being tendentious and unreasonable, and has indulged in hounding behaviour over a period of several months. Gimme seems to believe that he owns certain articles and interprets all disagreement on their content or presentation as a personal affront, and I'm sure I don't need to say that that is a totally unproductive and irrational attitude. It is also worrying that Gimme takes such delight in bringing up Jack Merridew's (very distant) past bad behaviour, as though it's prima facie evidence that Jack must be in the wrong now. That is quite obviously wrong too. I urge Gimmetoo to leave Jack the hell alone and stop being so precious. This is beyond tiresome. Reyk YO! 22:26, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Not resolved. Merridew went immediately to making similar inappropriate changes of style known to be controversial, in this case in direct violation of WP:CITE#Citation_templates_and_tools: " Because templates can be contentious, editors should not change an article with a distinctive citation format to another without gaining consensus." The edits in question are to Kerr and Andress. Merridew made no attempt to gain consensus, no post on the talk page, no attempt at discussion that I can find. Furthermore, his edit to Andress installed a bug in the table that Merridew ought to know about, because it was the content basis for the last ANI issue. (An issue which, by the way, Merridew misprepresents above; Merridew undid one of my edits, I started a discussion, and Merridew didn't respond.) And I noticed these because both Kerr and Andress are articles I have watchlisted, and that I've edited quite a bit, as far as I know long before Merridew ever edited them. (I've also edited the other articles Merridew edited: Bynes and Bullock.) It seems likely to me that Merridew is stalking me, especially given Merridew's documented prior stalking. Gimmetoo (talk) 05:28, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Storm in a teacup much? 160.44.248.164 (talk) 08:37, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Indeed. Looks like someone is suffering from a serious case of WP:IDHT and WP:BATTLEGROUND. Please stop for the good of the project. Thanks, FASTILY 17:17, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sorry, but I think you're all missing the point-- we have policies and guidelines for a reason, and Gimme is following them. How about telling Merridew to move along and find something else to occupy his time with? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:00, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    The point is that Gimmetoo/trow is making it a habit of demanding blocks of editors who disagree with him when he doesn't get his way, has a major ownership problem with some articles, and refuses to listen to constructive feedback. Why should Jack "move along" when he's working for the good of the project and obeying policy and guidelines (indeed, helping to improve them) simply because an obstructionist doesn't like it? What needs to happen here is for Gimetoo to "let it go;" I hope that action will be taken against him the next time he makes one of these frivolous complaints.Bali ultimate (talk) 18:05, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Could you please explain your assertion that Jack is obeying policy and guidelines, when it is Gimme who is doing so? If Merridew doesn't like our citation guidelines, he should take his crusade to that page. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:14, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    The point is that there are other venues for resolution of disputes before marching straight to ANI. This page is not for yelling "I don't like what this editor's doing, please block them". This is why I've marked this resolved (twice). Black Kite (t) (c) 18:17, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    The explanation of how Jack is obeying policy and guidelines is that he's making articles internally consistent (and very often consistent with other similar articles as well). Consistency is a principle that overrules personal preferences. It is downright disruptive to complain about changing a reference like this: <ref>http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20414325,00.html</ref> to this: <ref>{{cite web|last=Oh |first=Eunice |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20414325,00.html |title=Miranda Kerr: Yes, I'm Pregnant! - Babies, Miranda Kerr, Orlando Bloom |publisher=People.com |date=2010-08-19 |accessdate=2010-10-15}}</ref> and Gimme knows it. He's also aware that MOS:ENDASH documents the consensus that we should change dates ranges like "1987-1988" to "1987–1988" and Gimme knows that as well. He even knows how to fix the problem that his browser causes him, because I've taught him how to do it (add a sort key). It's about time that Gimme stopped obstructing editors whose only desire is to improve Misplaced Pages, and quit running to ANI every time he doesn't get his way, before the community loses patience with him. --RexxS (talk) 21:39, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Precisely. ANI is not here to play mommy. I also don't see anything wrong with Jack's edits as a purely practical matter. He removes redundant coding, an outright good thing. Policy is descriptive, not proscriptive as we say. It describes accepted community standards, not tells us what to do. We even have/had that wording on one of the policy overview pages, followed by 'it can and does lag behind community practices at times'. I think the lack of outcry and the frustration with Gimmetoo's hounding of Jack is fairly good evidence that the policy in question is starting to get behind the times. -- ۩ Mask 21:29, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    (od) Another editor tried to work things out with Jack once before but he managed to out last her. She retired from the project, see it here Wildhartlivie. I'm done for the night but I'm sure Jack can supply the many difs to the RFC and the projects who dealt with this. Have a good night everyone. --CrohnieGal 22:32, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    User:A Nobody also had frequent arguments with Jack Merridrew. A Nobody is now banned from editing. --Alpha Quadrant 23:21, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Irrelevant, and blatantly untrue.  pablo 00:01, 16 October 2010 (UTC) I don't think you can draw a causal link between those two statements.  pablo 11:33, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    There was obviously a big argument between the two: http://meta.wikimedia.org/User_talk:Rlevse --Alpha Quadrant 00:13, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    WHL (and a second account first thought to be a sock but later identified as a friend who edited at her house) seemed to be on a crusade to keep a wild variety of colors in various articles rather than going for a more unified, sober, and meaningful approach. There were more editors than WHL and Jack involved in that, but there was some edit warring on both sides, and I would not by any means paint this as "WHL tried to work things out with Jack". As for A Nobody, it's probably a lot more accurate to say that after a community RfC on A Nobody, the findings of which he failed to heed, and a subsequent ArbCom case which he "retired" to avoid, A Nobody was blocked and then a community ban was layered on top of that. A Nobody went on to disparage other editors on his private Wikia wiki, to the point of being ordered to desist by Wikia staff. That's probably a far more accurate recounting of events. I don't really hold Jack responsible for either of those two editors departing. ++Lar: t/c 10:39, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    I have no idea what CronhieGal's comment is supposed to mean. This dispute started when Merridew tried to install cite templates on two articles, and was reverted (by me on one, and another admin on the other). The consequent discussion on both articles did not provide consensus for Merridew's edits. Nevertheless, well after these discussion concluded, Merridew made precisely that change on two other articles - articles that I routinely edit, and edited long before Merridew ever edited them. Merridew made no attempt at discussion, and given the past two attempts, likely would not get consensus for Merridew's edits at the articles in question. Nevertheless, many editors appear to be supporting Merridew's edits as perfectly OK.

    Nobody who edits here for any length of time is going to do everything perfect. Everyone has faults. Indeed, most of the commentators above have committed wikifaults in various degrees, including me. Indeed, some of those above are involved in this dispute but neglected to reveal that point for genuinely uninvolved editors. Some editors have civility issues. Some editors fail to observe WP:BRD. Some may be canvassing. Given the two IP edits from the same country, there may be sockpuppetry. Nevertheless, I saw the behavior displayed by Merridew as much worse than anything anyone else in this thread has done recently. But apparently those commenting above disagree. Therefore, I would like to get this straight: is it the consensus of this ANI thread that:

    1. there is nothing wrong with edit-warring to change an article to meet an editor's preferred style, regardless of the style present in the article, how long it has been there, or any past discussions
    2. specifically, the prohibition of WP:CITE of edit-warring to install cite templates is obsolete and is to be marked historical
    3. there is nothing wrong with targeting articles another editor edits routinely
    4. there is nothing wrong with edit summaries in article space identifying a specific editor's edits as harassment

    Is that the consensus here? Gimmetoo (talk) 00:41, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Alternatively, how about:
    1. specifically, there is nothing wrong with improving an article by changing a bare url to a properly formatted citation, regardless of how many badly-formed references there are in the article, nor how long they have been there
    2. it is unacceptable to edit-war to revert article improvements
    3. the guidance against changing the style of references is subordinate to the need to have references displayed in a consistent format in an article
    4. there is nothing wrong with identifying harassment when it occurs
    5. ANI is not dispute resolution, and the community has only limited patience with those who abuse it
    Perhaps we could get consensus for that? --RexxS (talk) 01:41, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    So you're saying, if any part of an article is "inconsistent" in any way whatsoever, that you are 100% completely justified in changing every style aspect of the article to any style you choose, and that it is 100% completely justified to remove any other fixes or corrections to the article at the same time? Gimmetoo (talk) 01:49, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    And you're saying that on articles that you routinely edit, and have edited for a long time, nobody is allowed to format the references to display in a consistent manner, or you'll report them to ANI? Or is it just Jack who isn't allowed? --RexxS (talk) 02:19, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I would say "consistency" is fine, if it reflects the way the article has developed. For instance, I would say that an article that is stable with 90% one variety of English could be made 100% that variety, but taking a 10% variation as an pretext to make the article 100% a different form would probably not be OK. Would you agree? Gimmetoo (talk) 02:38, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'd say that consistency of presentation is far more important than whatever underlying mechanism is used to achieve that. I certainly would agree that an article which is 90% one format and 10% another would be improved by making it 100% consistent. To address the issue of which format, the "majority style" of English is not one of the deciding factors given at WP:ENGVAR for good reason. The primary deciding factor is whether the subject has strong national ties; the secondary one is the first major contributor who used a variety of English. Since an article may have been expanded considerably by an editor who used a different variety, we've reached the present consensus that majority usage is not a deciding factor. Nevertheless, extrapolating ENGVAR to other issues requires caution. "The English Misplaced Pages does not prefer any major national variety of the language" means that we hold either variety in equal respect. The same does not apply for the display style of references. For example, I believe that one of the fully-formatted references (as enumerated at WP:CITE#HOW) is always preferred to bare urls (which often only display a superscript numeral). It would be a mistake to object to an edit which improved an article with inconsistent referencing by bringing it into consistency with one of the full citation styles given at WP:CITE#HOW. Wouldn't you agree? --RexxS (talk) 03:24, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, I would disagree with some of your statements. Installing citation templates is contentious. While a "fully-formatted reference" is in some ways an improvement, I think that using "fully-formatted reference" as a pretext for installing citation templates in an article that has developed without them is an abuse, and to do so to target and bait editors who support WP:CITE is pointy and WP:HA. Gimmetoo (talk) 06:53, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I understand your view, and appreciate it. Citation templates are contentious, but I'm not prepared to either endorse or condemn installing them without considering context. I still think the way references are presented is more important then whether they are made via a good hand-crafted reference or a citation template. As everyone knows, citation templates make citation maintenance much easier and present a (generally) consistent result. Not everyone understands the problem that an large article with 100+ templates can take a considerable time for the server to generate in edit mode. That is an issue that will require developers to address. Personally, I have no difficulty with someone converting an underdeveloped article to citation templates, but I wouldn't recommend it for large, heavily referenced articles at present. I accept that your view may be different, and there is a large "grey area" in between the obvious extremes, where discussion and judgement is required. I'm glad we can agree on the value of fully-formatted references, but I would still recommend that individual articles deserve individual discussions, and suggest that the relevant article talk page is a better venue to search for consensus on this issue. --RexxS (talk) 14:33, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Hi, you can see this same type of disagreement being discussed multiple times. First, here is an AN/i report very similar to this one. Also instead of writing down all the difs in it, you will see in that report all the difs of where this was discussed at multiple locations like the village pump, WT:ACTOR. All I'm saying is that this same kind of complaint got no where before and it needs to be dealt with this time. The actor project had a few major discussions going on about this too, the dif is in the link above. Jack did the same thing to Wildhartlivie following her from one article to the next. The dif for that was deleted so I can no longer get access to it. Jack has a set way that he feels the project should follow and he just barges in and makes the changes and doesn't bother to discuss it with editors who are working the articles. I dropped out the discussion finally myself because it was like talking to a brick wall. Wildhartlivie, finally got fed up with no one taking this serious to help her out with all the harrassment she felt she was getting so she finally just slapped a semi-retirement up and slowly found that she couldn't work here with running into Jack still that she found that her enjoyment here was no long going to be had and she left permanently. We have to have Jack follow the same set of rules as everyone else. I don't know why this is so difficult to understand that Jack does target editors and he is relentless. I know he has his supporters but it is time now with another editor saying the same thing about it to make it stop. Just my opinion but this is kind of a rerun of what I saw the last time. I hope this clarifies my hurried post last night. Gimmetoo is not wrong, he is right, Jack has no right to force his opinions on everyone else. He's been doing that for a long time now, is anyone going to say enough is enough now? HTH, --CrohnieGal 10:37, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    I don't think that's an accurate or helpful summation at all. You (as a friend of WHL) are wildly misstating the case here. WHL was not harassed by Jack and to say that really is over the top. ++Lar: t/c 10:48, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Crohnie, you know I've taken WHL's side in a lot of disagreements, more than most, in fact, but your summary of events is plain wrong. Her departure was far more complicated than you indicate, she was consistently hostile towards Jack, and her standard reaction became to completely lose her temper, not just at Jack but at several editors, usually for piddling reasons such as they did something she didn't like. I think it's fair to say that WHL viewed Jack with malice. You also know that Jack asked me to mediate between the two of them, WHL agreed, and then at the 11th hour absolutely refused to proceed and instead chose to depart. Her choice. She could still be here if she'd kept a cooler head. I agree with Lar's comments, above and below. Rossrs (talk) 09:43, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I need to clarify what I meant in saying I agreed with Lar's comments. I agree with what he said regarding Jack's intentions. I'm convinced that his aim is to make incremental improvements where he sees the need and rather than ask permission to make edits, which he should not have to do, he makes them and then discusses them when questioned. That is how it should be. I was strongly against him at the beginning of the talk you refer to at WP:ACTOR, then I thought that as nobody else was prepared to listen to him, I would, and ultimately I could see his point. WHL wouldn't/couldn't (I don't know which) but didn't make an effort to see any viewpoint but her own and if anything her attitude fanned the fire. I think she was more than capable of speaking up for herself, so I don't believe it's right to portray her as a victim. Rossrs (talk) 10:59, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    Here's my view on this contretemps. ((obDisclose, I've stuck up for Jack before) Jack, in his gnomish way, has been going around improving things (I find it hard to argue against moving citations from bare links or hand formatted references to the citation templates, and even harder to argue against changing bare dashes to emdashes per the MOS.) and that seems to have setGimme off to the point that he's exerting ownership characteristics. That needs to stop. The case, as presented by Gimme is spurious (and it was closed twice already). I'll go farther, if Gimme keeps reverting improvements to articles, whoever makes them, a block is in order. Jack is editing in agreement with our convention. Gimme should drop the stick and back away from the horse, now, before this degenerates further. ++Lar: t/c 10:48, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    If it's any help, Lar, your summary reflects my own thoughts (obDisclose, I share Jack's perspective on improving Misplaced Pages). To be as fair as I can to Gimme, I should say that citation templates present an issue in very large articles (as I outlined above), and that changing hyphens to endashes in date ranges (per MOS) presents a minor problem particular to the Safari 4 browser (as outlined in Gimme's earlier complaint against me). These issues are solvable, but not at ANI. I'd encourage Gimme to engage in the process of seeking solutions, as there are plenty of editors willing to collaborate in that. --RexxS (talk) 14:51, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    That's true. The issues are discussable and solveable. I'm not going to buy into the citation discussion any further than I have, but I have been discussing the use of colour in film award tables at Talk: Halle Berry, and in fairness to Gimme, he is discussing it. On the other hand, we discussed the same thing a few weeks ago on my talk page, specifically Halle Berry, and he reverted me in mid discussion and suddenly I was alone in the discussion. That appears to me to fall under the heading of "ownership characteristics". If he's looked at my talk page since then, he's aware of how negatively I viewed that, but as long as the current discussion remains on track, the issue remains solveable. Rossrs (talk) 10:59, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    nb: Gimmetoo's reverts of my edits to Ursula Andress && Miranda Kerr are being discussed at Talk:Ursula Andress and the awards colour-thangs at Talk:Halle Berry. I'm still travelling. Jack Merridew 03:08, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    I haven't looked at the color issue, but MOS specifically addresses this by stating that excess markup should be avoided, and ACCESS discusses the issues wrt vision-impaired editors and screenreaders. I rather imagine there is a similar issue occurring here, as there is probably little reason to introduce color there. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:11, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Briefly, Sandy, the "color issue" is that some articles have developed with tables that use colour-coded results. Merridew et al. are trying to remove them. I am viewing that issue as mostly an arbitrary style change. Gimmetoo (talk) 15:04, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Thanks for the explanation-- if the color coding conforms to WP:ACCESS, I don't have a problem with it. The usual problem with color coding is that it doesn't. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:13, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Gimmetoo, editing a table to reflect a site-wide default style is not "an arbitrary style change". If I was reckless enough to change the colours to yellow and purple, that would be arbitrary. Deciding among a relatively small group of editors that the plain table needed to utilise colour, and then adding the colour to various but not all tables, is far more "an arbitrary style change" and creates an inconsistency (yet another one) that didn't exist before. Why is one choice arbitrary and one not? Rossrs (talk) 08:09, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I don't understand this either. Am I to believe that the first editor to get to an article can lock down its presentation style for ever and ever? Even in the face of pretty strong support for the idea that changes might be an improvement? To me, that is pretty much what WP:OWN tries to prevent and does not agree with the principle that this is the encyclopedia anyone can edit. Reyk YO! 11:03, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's never that black-and-white, unfortunately. Where a particular style is only a matter of personal preference, then our guidelines require other editors to respect that (because it prevents edit-warring over something that is only a personal preference). Sometimes editors feel that changing certain elements of a page is an improvement, but others believe that they are simply making a mere style change unnecessarily. The question (as here) depends on whether the change is an improvement. Those making the change think it is, and see those resisting it as 'owning' the article; those thinking it only a style change see it as unnecessary. Each side has a good-faith case, but neither can convince the other of it. --RexxS (talk) 12:17, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Slippery slope

    This discussion has been marked closed several times, but it continues; some of the arguments above mystify me and this discussion appears to be headed for a slippery slope if not resolved, so please let's not mark it closed again.

    RexxS, I'm particularly confused by some of your feedback, because at Misplaced Pages:Featured article review/Ormulum/archive1 you understand the reasoning behind not switching citation style, but here we find many editors expressing different opinions, contrary to WP:CITEHOW. I don't want to derail this discussion, so perhaps you can explain the apparent contradiction on my talk?

    The slippery slope: editors above appear to be endorsing the use of citation templates in articles that don't use them, and allowing Merridew to continue this behavior against guidelines. Certainly bare URLs are not preferred, but neither are citation templates, and many of us hate them because they so clutter the text. If we're headed down a slippery slope that endorses them, here are some counterexamples to refocus the issue away from Merridew's behavior, which I do believe is disruptive.

    1. Tourette syndrome (TS). I largely wrote and cited that article myself. I hate citation templates because they clutter the text and are subject to the ever-changing whims of whomever edits and changes them. I cited TS manually because it is easier to grab the info from PMID and format it to conform with WP:ITALICS (journal names, etc) and WP:MOSBOLD (volume number), without cluttering the text. On the other hand, I endorse the use of citation templates at other medical articles that are frequently edited by numerous editors, since most of them won't understand an individual style used on an article edited mostly by one person. If Merridew decides to impose citation templates on TS, I'm going to be kicking and screaming.

    2. Venezuela suite of articles. There has been a long-standing problem on those articles, as no particular citation style has been endorsed across the suite (as in medical articles, which largely use the Diberri template filler); the citation style used in Venezuela articles is a mish-mash because of the number of different editors who edit those articles and format citations differently (unlike TS). When Rd232 starts a new article, he uses his own citation style-- one I have never encountered elsewhere-- but if he started the article, guidelines say we should continue his style (which never happens because few understand his style-- I try to conform, but I can't bring myself to violate ITALCS and MOSBOLD). Are those arguing against Gimme here willing to say that we should alter Rd232's style when he started the article with a consistent style? He also hates citation templates, but his citation style does not follow WP:ITALICS or WP:MOSBOLD.

    3. The Ormulum FAR linked above-- citation style was changed without consensus, and it's just plain ugly. (Added clarification: some editors' writing style is more conducive to parenthetical citations, and they should not be switched to the cite.php format, as specifically mentioned at WP:WIAFA. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:05, 17 October 2010 (UTC))

    I'm sorry, but I disagree with most weighing in here-- Merridew appears to be on a pointy campaign, while Gimme appears to be trying to enforce guidelines because he understands the slippery slope. If some handle isn't gotten on this matter, it's looking to head the direction of the most lame date-delinking case. No one should be unilaterally imposing citation templates in articles without gaining consensus on talk. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:50, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    ? I don't use bold in references, and per normal convention across many citation styles (and WP:ITALICS), I italicise books and journal titles. My citation style is a minor variation of APA style (in that I prefer to put article/chapter names in double quotes for clarity). Rd232 12:50, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    OK, I may have misstated your style (I didn't go and re-check), but the point is, it's consistent, but new editors to the articles don't follow it, resulting in a mish-mash including the addition of citation templates, which is against guidelines. This is an example of the slippery slope that I hope will refocus this discussion with concrete examples unrelated to Gimme or Merridew. (I think it's true there probably isn't a MOSBOLD issue, as that refers to journal volumes which aren't found frequently in Ven articles, but on Italics, you italicize websites, which isn't normally done-- that's what I can't bring myself to do, since I'm a MOS maven on that sort of thing :) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:01, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    Our principle is very well established: each article should be left in the citation style that has been established, and newer references should (over time) be reformatted back into that style. If a well-established article does not use citation templates, the references shouldn't be converted to use them. If it does use them, the references shouldn't be converted away from them. If it uses footnotes, it shouldn't be changed to Harvard referencing. If it uses Harvard referencing, it shouldn't be changed to footnotes. Going around changing styles on numerous articles violates this principle and is not appropriate as an editing pattern. — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:12, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    This is exactly my understanding of the issue and the problem that is occurring here. On the Venezuela articles, very few of them ever reach GA or FA potential, so the issue has never come to a head, but if an article started by Rd232 were to reach GA potential, citations would need to be converted back to his style unless alternate consensus were developed on talk. I do not understand the support here for Merridew's campaign, and am dismayed at the statements made about Gimme enforcing guidelines. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:18, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    If I was looking at an article at GAN or FAC, and there had been a change in citation styles (to discover that would involve digging in the history). I really doubt I would quarrel with it. Unless editors involved with the article complained, I don't see why it should be an issue, as long as it is consistent. And yes, I do know the policy.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:22, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    This has never been tested (the original editor of the Ormulum FA is gone, so he didn't complain), and I certainly wouldn't hold up a FAC over this, but the slippery slope exists nonetheless, and my concern that it is headed the direction of the lame date-delinking case (another area in which I would never hold up promotion of a FAC, but that engendered heated and lame discussion, which is why I say we need to get a rational handle on this rather than disparaging Gimme.) Let's suppose I'm hit by a truck tomorrow, and someone starts adding citation templates to TS ... or a Venezuela article gets stalled at GAN because Rd232 wants his original style respected-- how is this going to be resolved? We have a guideline for a reason, and both CITEHOW and WIAFA are clear. Gimme is enforcing guideline. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:28, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well, I could run after the ambulance for you :) ... I'm thinking judgment call, don't want to be too rigid in setting up guidelines in advance because as you imply, we can't anticipate all the fine points in advance. That bit of policy was not handed down on stone tablets, you know.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:32, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes, but. What happened at Ormulum is inexcusable, because it opens the article to the potential for another FAR if anyone complains, rightly, about the citation style imposed upon the article by mostly one editor, who didn't appear to understand WIAFA. I could be pointy about it and insist that the FAR not be closed until this is corrected, but 1) I don't think that would be helpful considering other issues surrounding the deteriorating environment at FAR, and 2) one editor decided to ignore the citation debacle and simply bring the article to standard, which is generally a good thing. But the result is not optimal-- the original editor's writing is more conducive to parenthetical citation. My argument is that we should not be disparaging Gimme here for keeping the bigger picture in sight, and we should be resolving this in a way that won't lead to another lame date-delinking debacle. There will likely be a judgment call at Orumulum to keep the article FA in spite of the change, but what if someone later complains? It's a slippery slope. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:38, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    This is basically an issue of consensus: people shouldn't go around changing existing styles unilaterally (with the exception of making style formats consistent within an article, when there is a clear style consensus developed). Anything else should be resolved by discussion on the talk page. To return to the original discussion subject - if Merridew is continuing to go around not respecting existing style usage, that's a problem to be demonstrated and then to be addressed. Failing to demonstrate/address should not raise concerns that policy is being overturned. Rd232 13:45, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    Correct, and that is how this discussion needs to refocus. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:51, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Good point, we had turned to discussing policy instead of conduct. Well, looking it over, I strongly suggest a RFC/U.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:56, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I hope my counterexamples that don't involve Merridew or Gimme helped bring the issue into more clear focus. Perhaps we could avoid an RFC/U by simply asking Merridew to stop? We won't benefit from an RFC on citation style because we don't yet have a good test case-- this only comes to a head at FAC and FAR where citation style must be respected, Ormulum is the best example so far, and Geogre is gone and no one else is willing to take up that crusade, since the article was brought to standard. Further, we already have a guideline, and an RFC is unlikely to overturn it. I think-- I could be wrong. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:11, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    There have been RFC's on this issue here and here. The last one has links to where this has been discussed in other places too. I thought some difs might be helpful to this discussion. --CrohnieGal 17:09, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Those RFCs are on color; I'm more concerned with citations, as they relate to WP:V, a policy issue. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:16, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I would be more than mildly concerned if I felt that any admins are underinformed enough feel that swapping citation styles without going to Talk first is at any time a viable option, or even an "improvement".. the reason we have things such as WP:CITEHOW is not to encourage WP:OWN but to encourage stability, discourage edit wars, etc. Styles can change, if one goes to Talk and works it out. Did that happen here, or did someone wander in with an Edit Bat? • Ling.Nut 03:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    There have been RFC's on the citation part too in the WT:ACTOR as can be seen here. Most of that page is about citations, color, bullets, etc which I suggest reading. The same thing goes for the RFC at Moonriddengirl which discussed the color issues but also discussions about the citations were there too. Here is one that I just remember that was about citations started by Jack here. There are more I believe at some articles talk pages but off hand I don't remember which articles so there is no way for me to locate the difs without going through all the actors I have on my watch list. I think Jack should be able to give some difs since he said he brought it to the Village pump and other locations. Jack please supply difs for the RFC's and discussions about the use of citations, thanks in advance, --CrohnieGal 12:14, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I suggest that if Merridew wants to change guidelines, rather than wandering in to individual articles talk pages, he should take an RFC to the WP:CITE talk page, and widely advertise it. Short of that, it would be helpful if he respected existing guidelines. Ditto for color at WP:ACCESS-- waging this battle across individual article talk pages is disruptive. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    While that's sensible advice in general (seek consensus before changing guidelines, and don't think that consensus for sweeping change is achieved at individual pages), I don't think that's what Jack Merridew has been doing, at all. Jack tends to change things back to conform to guidelines when others previously wandered off into the weeds. As in this case. ++Lar: t/c 16:21, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    User:Xanderliptak, redux

    Xanderliptak (talk · contribs)

    I saw this edit on my watchlist, and reverted it, as I see no reason for the removal.

    I then looked at his contribs and saw a problem. He is systematically removing all images he has uploaded to Commons from use here, and has requested speedy deletion of same on Commons (which cannot obviously be dealt with here; I included this detail merely for background). Not wishing to create intense drama, I have not reverted the latest edits; I believe this is symptomatic of behaviour that has been going on for quite some time. (See also, from almost a year ago, very similar situation). Namely, this user appears to be labouring under the misapprehension that he gets to control use of images he has created after he has uploaded them. Beyond that I cannot speculate as to motivation.

    I am honestly not sure what the course of action here needs to be. This is clearly problematic, and repeated, behaviour. User has been notified. → ROUX  05:29, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    I jut came across this through a page on my watchlist. I note that Xander and Roux have some history, so I thought I would, as an uninvolved party, concur with Roux's reading of the situation. As it happens I think the one example of an edit that Roux provides is not a good one because (for unrelated reasons) that content should not be there. But the broader issue still stands. hamiltonstone (talk) 05:34, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    The edit I provided is simply the one I ran across first (I use a hack on my watchlist to only display changes since the last time I loaded the page, then scroll to the bottom and work my way up). There were other edits, but seeing that there was a pattern I refrained from reverting them all and instead brought the issue here. Agreed that the specific first edit I provided can and should be discussed on the relevant talk page; the general issue is what needs to be examined here. → ROUX  05:42, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    I'm aware of the past history; Roux has suffered quite a bit of abuse in this interaction. I would say Roux is correct that there is a behaviour issue, but I've also seen XL change behaviour when approached the right way. The core issue currently seems to be a licensing dispute. Gimmetoo (talk) 06:04, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    To be clear I did not attempt to discuss this with Xanderliptak, as discussion with him has proven to be less than fruitful. I figured better to gain the attention of uninvolved people. → ROUX  06:16, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    The images he uploads to Commons are freely licensed. The licenses are not revocable. So we can use them, whether he wants us to or not. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 12:56, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    That was the core issue that came up a few days ago. Presumably Xander figures if he can't get what he wants, then he'll delete them and then nobody can have what they want. ←Baseball Bugs carrots15:24, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Don't presume tell people what I want. You showed up late to a discussion and tried to talk about things that the discussion was not even concerned about. Again, you are here talking about issues no one else has even brought up. XANDERLIPTAK 17:22, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Roux reverted the edit here: and when Hamiltonstone complained on the talk page, Roux explained his rationale here: I don't see any need for this board, but rather, discussion should begin on the article talk page. Xandarliptak is as free to edit, and be bold as any other Misplaced Pages editor. Every edit he makes that Roux does not agree with cannot be brought here. It should be on the article talk page.Malke 2010 (talk) 16:39, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    See below. You have clearly not paid any attention to what I wrote or what is happening here. → ROUX  18:59, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    What is this ANI even about? People complain about the images in the article, I have to argue to keep them in. More people complain, so I take them out. Then those that wanted them out complain I take them out? What kind of logic is that? What is all the Commons talk and "we can use them even if he doesn't want us to"? I was the one always arguing to use hem, ROUX and others were saying we should not. I just finally gave in and said take them out. ROUX should have been happy. Side note, I did get what I wanted on Commons. ROUX and Beyond My Ken were trying to pull up past arguments, but Commons ignored them. The Commons issue had nothing to do with using or not using images, but about what the licensing summary being deficient. XANDERLIPTAK 17:18, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    That was on one article where the inclusion of unsupported elements was the nature of the dispute, not the inclusion of the coat of arms in general. 'All this Commons talk' is merely, as I said, background; you are attempting to have images which you freely and irrevocably licenced deleted, an issue that will be dealt with on Commons. I never tried to pull up past arguments on Commons, because I did not make a single comment on Commons; once again you appear to be unable to comprehend that you must provide diffs of alleged behaviour and not merely say whatever you want. This ANI is about approximately thirty instances of you removing images you have created from articles where they very clearly belong. The same images you are attempting to have deleted. The same behaviour you engaged in nine months ago (discussed here, you may also wish to see your own talk page to refresh your memory). → ROUX  18:59, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    It is hard to tell what you really want, since you change your story so often. :) But why all this excitement over drawings of family crests and such? This ain't Rembrant stuff, you know. ←Baseball Bugs carrots17:53, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    The better question is why is Roux following Xanderliptak? And why is Hamiltonstone claiming he got here from his watchlist when everybody can read this exchange for themselves:

    I do not understand why there is any information about the Kennedy coat of arms on this page, which is about the surname, and serves as a disambig page for people to locate relevant Kennedys as subjects of WP articles. Move it to an article called Kennedy (coats of arms) or to the pages relating to relevant individuals or families, but surely get it off this page? hamiltonstone (talk) 05:23, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    I personally think it is useful information (though I may be biased). My concern with the removal, and why I reverted it, is partly a matter of WP:BRD, and partly a matter of a posting to ANI that will be up momentarily. → ROUX  05:28, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yeah, I see that now. I'd like to keep this separate. It isn't that the information may not be useful, but I don't see why discussion of a range of coats of arms of different Kennedy individuals or families should be on the surname page rather than on the pages of the relevant people (or indeed a page about the coats of arms, if there are a few relevatn secondary sources to satisfy notability). But this is a bit of a new area for me, so if there are contra arguments, I'd like to hear them. hamiltonstone (talk) 05:38, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    Even assuming good faith here, Roux appears to be saying he wants to keep the material just so he can come here. It looks a lot like canvassing, hounding, and a lack of AGF on Roux's part. On Xanderliptak's side, it appears he's just being bold. My suggestion would be to stop this before it gets to look like you're setting the dogs on Xanderliptak. He's removing the images people have fought to get rid of, but now inexplicably are fighting to have restored. Might be time to reassess your own behavior.Malke 2010 (talk) 18:24, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    <belated response to comment by Malke about me:> "why is Hamiltonstone claiming he got here from his watchlist when everybody can read this exchange for themselves". The answer is: I have Kennedy (surname) on my watchlist. The removal of the coats or arms seemed like a good idea; its reversion by Roux seemed a bad one. But as heraldry etc is not my area, I thought I would raise the issue on the article talk page and draw that discussion thread to the attention of the two involved editors at their talk pages: . It was only when I did that that I discovered there was a broader issue, and i thought I should mention that at ANI, since a thread had already been opened and some uninvolved comment appeared to be desirable. I don't appreciate the slur implicit in your comment Malke: you could have checked the diffs, where the timestamps would have made it clear that this was the simplest explanation. hamiltonstone (talk) 03:56, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Um... did you read anything I posted here? Seriously, don't post without reading what is going on. → ROUX  18:29, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    There seems to be an echo in this section, namely someone griping about Xander being "followed". Some editors don't like being watched, and rung up for what they're doing, since they have this notion that they should be able to do whatever they want, unimpeded. They come here and complain that they're being "harassed"... by multiple users. At some point, the possibility might arise that the editor is being followed because he needs to be followed. Hanlon's razor might figure into this. ←Baseball Bugs carrots18:36, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Seriously, this actually makes me somewhat angry. You do not understand a single thing that is going on here. You clearly have not bothered to read a single thing I wrote, and certainly haven't looked at the links I provided. I am not saying 'keep the material so I can come to ANI.' In terms of that specific article it is simply the first one I saw on my watchlist. Then I looked at Xanderliptak's contribs, and saw he has removed every instance of every image he uploaded to Commons. Further, on Commons, he has requested speedy deletion of all his images. (Something he can't do, not for the reason he has given.) Nobody has 'fought' to get rid of , almost all of which are articles about nobility, for whom coats of arms are a fairly important subject, recording as they do marriages, alliances, elevations (or demotions) in station, etc. The removal here of one of his images from the talk page of WP:WPHV is particularly noteworthy as well.
    Xanderliptak is, quite simply, attempting to remove all of his images from use on enwiki, with concomitant attempt at deleting them from Commons. This is a problem that is related to ownership behaviour from over a year ago detailed here and here, which you would know if you had read the links I had initially posted.
    In all seriousness, please do not comment when you have demonstrably not familiarized yourself with the details of what is going on. I bear no personal animus towards Xanderliptak, my concern is with widespread disruption arising from his repeated attempts to control the end result of images which he has freely contributed to the project. → ROUX  18:53, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Nobody has "fought to get rid of" Xander's images. The issue, as Roux states, is that he wants to maintain control of them, and since he can't do so, he's working on getting rid of them. (I'm sure they'll bring him a healthy profit on the black market.) ←Baseball Bugs carrots19:04, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    This would be a good place to drop the stick and back away from the dead horse.Malke 2010 (talk) 20:48, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Feel free to advise Mr. Xander to that effect. :) ←Baseball Bugs carrots21:12, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Malke, I tried saying this politely. Apparently you didn't read it. I'll be more blunt: you do not understand what is going on, you have obviously not looked at a single link or diff provided, and your contributions to this discussion are completely and totally unhelpful and off base. Please stop commenting. → ROUX  23:28, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Roux, I understand perfectly what is happening here. I don't see Xanderliptak doing anything but being bold in his edits. I don't see anything wrong with his removing the images. If editors want them back, they're free to put them back, or find other images, or they can take the articles off their watchlists. Focus on the edit, not the editor. And chill about it. It's time to let this go. Malke 2010 (talk) 23:43, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    The way I understand it (and Roux, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), this guy is not "being bold", he's trying to assert ownership over his own creations, in defiance of the license rules. And he's been getting irritated because the rule-followers keep impeding him. I never heard of that guy until this past week, but it didn't take long to figure out what he was up to. How do you figure other editors are "free to put them back"? These are designs of family crests or something, which he himself created. So no one else could claim them as their own, and hence they couldn't upload them. ←Baseball Bugs carrots23:50, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually, you do not, Malke. Xanderliptak is not being WP:BOLD. of course you would know this if you had read the diffs I had provided, including practically identical behaviour from almost a year ago. Your insistence that you understand what is going on is clearly indicating that you have not read the diffs. The edits you have made to this discussion are beyond useless. Until you can indicate that you have actually read the diffs and links provided, I urge anyone else reading this to pay not the slightest bit of attention to anything you have to say on this matter. → ROUX  23:56, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec)First, it's never wise to assume you know what his motives are. And second, if he created the image and is now removing it, what is the big deal here? If an editor makes an edit to an article, but then comes back and removes the edit and then puts in something else, or decides that the edit wasn't really a good one, who is to say he can't do that? Images come and go on Misplaced Pages. Nothing here is permanent. A week from now none of you will care about any of this.
    Imagining what Xanderliptak's motives are appears to be the central problem here. There's a reason we have this guideline. Try it out in real life and you'll see what I mean. We can always assign motive based on our own prejudices and beliefs, but at the end of the day, we don't really know for certain what anybody's motive is, or is not. This whole thread was started based on an assumption that didn't take into account other things that might be going on. The previous arguments are now old. This new argument should have been addressed first on Xanderliptak's talk page and/or the various article talk pages. Not here. Malke 2010 (talk) 00:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    AGF is not a suicide pact. Again you are demonstrating that you have not familiarized yourself with the history. Addressing this problem with Xanderliptak directly would have been less than fruitful--again, if you had familiarized yourself with the history you would know this. Addressing the issue on 30+ talk pages would have been similarly useless. I beg you, stop inserting your uninformed commentary. It only obscures the situation. → ROUX  00:17, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    History is past. Today is all you have. Forget about it and move on.Malke 2010 (talk) 00:23, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm going to suggest that Malke moves on since he seems so spectacularly clueless about this issue. Jon (217.44.188.123 (talk)) —Preceding undated comment added 00:32, 16 October 2010 (UTC).
    If you actually read some of the stuff Xander has said recently, you don't have to "imagine" his motives, as he's right out there with it. He was trying to apply the "moral right" principle to his little creations, and he was told repeatedly that it doesn't apply. Having finally apparently gotten that message, he's going through and trying to get them zapped on dubious grounds. ←Baseball Bugs carrots01:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    If a rights holder didn't really understand and intend the implications of a CC licensing for an image, then we have sometimes deleted the image. Gimmetoo (talk) 01:35, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    If editors have had issues with that guy for a year, it's probably not that simple. ←Baseball Bugs carrots01:39, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    That is, however, not his stated intention. He has stated, variously, that they 'were intended to be quick sketches and I will replace them one by one with better versions' (paraphrase, not his exact words, but very close; of course that still doesn't explain why he is seeking deletion. He could simply upload new versions over the old ones), and 'these images have caused trouble so I may as well remove them until the new versions are ready' (again paraphrase. And ignoring the fact that the images are not the problem, his behaviour is). These are things he has said on Commons, and I can provide diffs if requested, as he has said nothing on enwiki about his motivations. Moving back to the original point of this post: there are severe behavioural issues with Xanderliptak, namely:
    • Repeated application of WP:IDHT (visible in every recent dispute/discussion he has taken part in, both here and on Commons
    • Repeated allegations against fellow editors and refusal to provide diffs of the alleged behaviour despite repeated requests
    • Repeated misrepresentation of tenor, tone, and content of discussions and what other editors have said with, again, refusal to provide diffs backing up what he says despite repeated and unambiguous requests to provide same
    • Repeated refusal to provide references backing up what he has stated
    • Ownership behaviour of his images (diffs provided above setting the context as an ongoing issue for almost a year, not new)
    • I will provide diffs of all the above if asked, I just don't have the energy right now to comb through that many pages.
    I don't deny that Xanderliptak has made valuable contributions. Misplaced Pages's coverage of heraldry is spotty at best, and it is one of those areas where visual cues are practically mandatory for understanding the subject. However, the above issues, none of which are new, are a distinct problem and need to be addressed in totally unambiguous terms. I had proposed an editing restriction for Xanderliptak to address some of those issues; Prodego's premature archiving of the thread prevented discussion that might well have prevented this set of circumstances from occurring.
    Several other editors who have bothered to read the history here seem, unless I am mistaken, to agree that there is a problem. A solution needs to be found, please, to prevent further disruption. → ROUX  02:39, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I agree, Roux, there is an issue. I thought the dispute about one image was just getting resolved (leaving out three shields) - with an "out" provided on a silver platter - and I was disheartened when the dispute simply shifted to something else. I do think XL's image contributions are extremely valuable, but if XL wants to remove the images, my suggestion is to just let that happen. So long as XL only removes XL's own images and nobody else picks a fight, I suspect XL would eventually restore those or better images and the project will see a net benefit. And if that turns out to be false optimism, the issues get resolved another way. Gimmetoo (talk) 03:00, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have zero faith whatsoever that those images will ever be replaced. My AGF reserves here are fully depleted. Also as a general principle I think it is a bad idea for Misplaced Pages to indulge the "I'm taking my toys and going home" behaviour when it comes to encyclopedic content. The precedent it sets for disgruntled editors to remove content they have contributed is... bad. → ROUX  03:20, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have zero faith whatsoever that taking up this many kilobytes with what amounts to "Someone needs to talk to the user, but Roux has a past history with him" is conducive to anyone staying with the project. With regard to the deletion of images, if we're talking about him wanting to make a newer, better version, that's fine; I reverted the diffs linked above because I was under the impression the user was ragequitting over his inability to modify the licensing. If the images are going to be mass-deleted for whatever reason in the future, a bot should unlink them with an explanation. This will avoid confusion and have the added benefit of not annoying people with the articles on their watchlists. Recognizance (talk) 04:09, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    The good thing is that Xander's edits were reverted - the images are back in the articles. I think just about all of his speedy deletions were overturned by the admins over on the Commons. It sucks when a contributor throws a hissyfit and spitefully starts destroying all their contributions as some sort of payback - holds their contributions/images hostage. That's where we need admins to step in and set the record straight - that you can't disrupt the project that way. Maybe this thread ought to be marked 'resolved' because really Malke is pointlessly winding Roux up. I think we should just leave this issue be, it's been dealt with. I doubt Xander will pull the same stunt again.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 05:32, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Excuse me, if Roux is 'wound up' he did it to himself. It was Roux's choice to come here and make this complaint which doesn't need admin action. He could have done nothing, especially as Hamiltonstone didn't even want the image on the page in question. Roux could have waited. There's no emergency on Misplaced Pages, least of all with the deletion of images. This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. And ignoring the obvious lack of WP:AGF, WP:CANVASS, and WP:HOUND, makes this thread seem like an even bigger hissyfit than anything Xanderliptak has done. Stop hounding the guy. Nobody here likes his images anyway.Malke 2010 (talk) 16:41, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Okay, look. Three people now have told you that you don't know what you're talking about. I have pointed out repeatedly that you clearly haven't read any of the links or diffs provided. If you had, you would know that this is really not about the single page which Hamiltonstone is involved with, that was merely the first one where I noticed this problem. Could you please just shut up until you know what you're talking about? → ROUX  16:56, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I do see your points. But what I'm talking about is, you should not have come here as your first move. If you really want to start the process, start an RfC/U. Don't come here with every bit you find. Stop looking at his contributions. You're too involved here. I'm actually very sympathetic to you that you are so upset by this. I saw your request for an unblock and I felt very bad for you. But you're coming here first is not a good move. Do you see any admins here doing anything? Xanderliptak has disengaged on this thread. You should do the same. Everybody should do the same. For now, a good solution might be a self-imposed interaction ban, for say three weeks, etc. Malke 2010 (talk) 17:08, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Facepalm. There is no other option for a first move here. Discussion with Xanderliptak is pointless. RFC/U is less than pointless, it's just a delay of a month while more disruption can occur. I looked at his contributions solely because I saw one weird removal and wanted to know what was going on. You really, really don't have a clue what is going on here, and what has been going on for almost a year. Please cease your uninformed commentary. → ROUX  17:14, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have looked at all your diffs, etc. Believe, me, I know exactly what has been going on. Xanderliptak should stop removing images, and you should take a break from this. If you don't look at his contributions, you won't be upset. Let someone else notice things. And how do you know, maybe your comments have made an impression on him. Now it's time to wait and see.Malke 2010 (talk) 17:26, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Malke 2010. Xanderliptak has pissed off more than just Roux, and more than just Roux have been restoring all the images he has deleted from articles, declining all the speedies on commons etc. This isn't about two editors arguing, this is about one editor behaving in an out of order way by trying to control the onward disposition of images that they uploaded.Elen of the Roads (talk) 19:16, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Comment from an uninvolved party passing through: If other contributors have been pissed off then it would probably be best if they make the complaint and follow up on it. Rightly or wrongly, considering their history, Roux's reporting of Xanderliptak here and forceful argumentation against Xanderliptak after the initial notification can give the impression of hounding. Notice of Xanderliptak's actions has been give to the admins here; a continuing prosecution would seem to be unnecessary. Lambanog (talk) 11:45, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Hard to argue with that. Xander certainly has pissed more people off, but it may well be that they have concluded that the horse is already dead. Perhaps it's time to close up here. Elen of the Roads (talk) 15:39, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Fine. The next time that Xanderliptak pulls something like this--and the next, and the next--I will bring up this thread and the last one, and remind you lot that you had a chance to stop the disruption but ignored it. This editor has attacked others, been rabidly dishonest about others, attempted to own content, been disruptive, etc etc etc, with total impunity. I suggest that admins familiarise themselves with the concept of 'enabling.' → ROUX  21:38, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Edit wars now occurring here, here, here, apparently over an effort to use Xanderliptak's versions of images instead of other versions. (And before anybody says anything tiresome about stalking, I have had User talk:Fry1989 on my watchlist since this edit, saw Xanderliptak's warning, and decided to take a look given Xanderliptak's penchant for... well, for being Xanderliptak). → ROUX  02:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
      • Well, this section almost made it to the archive point, anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that the item Xanderlip is edit warring to have removed, is the same entry he himself posted back in February. It's the same old story - ownership. ←Baseball Bugs carrots14:50, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
        • I find this concerning. :/ To an uninvolved party, it looks less to be edit-warring to remove something than to add something. The older image was altered at one point in August, with a "transparency added and secret watermark removed with gimp". The new image has been protested in part because it displays the artist's name. While Xander has shrunk the thumbnail to obscure it, it's still there. You can see it clearly here and here. Xanderliptak, you seem to be a talented artist; why not create an image that does not contain your signature since it is being protested? People who contribute text to Misplaced Pages--no matter how good their work--do not get to "sign" their articles. WP:WATERMARK indicates images should not "have any credits in the image itself." This is policy on Misplaced Pages. It seems like it would be a simple matter to comply. --Moonriddengirl 20:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
          • See here. This is not a new issue; Xander has been told before that he's not allowed to sign his work. → ROUX  21:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
            • Facepalm And that is enWiki specific. Roux, can you or anyone else point to a specific Commons guide/policy that would get Xanderliptak's contribs there removed and him a talking to by a Commons admin? In an odd way it may get him part of what he wants - his old images off of Misplaced Pages. (His release of the rights... well that's someone else's problem at that point.) But that is still a Commons argument waged in the wrong place. - J Greb (talk) 21:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
              • I have pretty clearly tried to stay away from Commons issues, saying as I did in my first paragraph that Commons issues needed to be decided on Commons. I have tried to focus on Xander's behaviour here, which is severely problematic in multiple ways. → ROUX  21:52, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Watermark

    I have reverted User:Xanderliptak's changes because of the credits embedded in the image, as this is against local policy. I have suggested he create a new version of the images without the problem, but also cautioned him about edit warring, as he has reverted several different contributors across these three pages. I know he has been blocked several times before for edit warring, but hopefully it will not be necessary this time. --Moonriddengirl 21:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Completely undiscussed controversial climate change move needs reverting

    A less than a month old account that originally claimed to be a WP:CLEANSTART case and still has no obvious link to the user's previous identity has just moved Climate change denial to Criticism of Climate Change (yes, complete with the wrong capitalisation) without any prior discussion. To avoid a move war, can an uninvolved admin please move back so that a discussion at WP:RM can be started cleanly. Thank you. Hans Adler 06:48, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

    Done and move protection enabled. Toddst1 (talk) 06:56, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Just for clarity, can you or someone provide a diff to the account's claim of cleanstart? Cheers, Ncmvocalist (talk) 06:57, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    da diff Toddst1 (talk) 07:03, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    See new section below, which I have been preparing since I started this report. Off to a lecture now. Hans Adler 07:14, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    Heh, and I was just thinking I'd seen this user's editing style before.... Ncmvocalist (talk) 07:26, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    No problem... See here**Terra Novus's Diff**..I will stop editing this article if it really is such a issue due to me being a recent WP:CLEANSTART, but I hope that the more experienced editors involved will fix this article's WP:NPOV issues...--Novus Orator 07:07, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    As a relevant aside, I'm about to close the Climate Change ArbCom case (once I have breakfast) and will be posting the details later today. Dougweller (talk) 07:40, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

    About the user

    After some additional research, here is some further reading:

    This seems to be a competence problem rather than bad faith, but something needs to be done. Hans Adler 07:14, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

    If certain types of editing are causing similar issues in other topics, then a topic ban is unlikely to do much good. Unless the Community is willing to put the user on probation (see Misplaced Pages:Editing restrictions for examples), or a mentorship thing (which is a timesink), I'm not sure anything short of a ban or indef block would be able to address such a situation. Ncmvocalist (talk) 07:34, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    I would encourage this editor to take this opportunity to completely leave all controversial topics, or at least to return to his initial account. To Terra Novus, if you continue having problems like this with the new account, I think you'll quickly be banned, since you will be taking too much community time when people have to figure out what you're up to. If you want to keep trying to improve controversial topics, and you want a fair hearing, you should go back to your other account. Really, I would recommend getting out of contentious topics altogether, since candidly, you don't show a sensitivity to the types of things that will get you in trouble across the board. But for maximum leeway you should surely go back to your first account. Only if you are extremely confident that you can stay out of all controversial topics altogether with this account, as well as any areas in which you've previously edited, is there any remotely plausible chance that you will not be sanctioned under this new account, at least in my opinion. Mackan79 (talk) 07:54, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    WP:CLEANSTART is quite clear in its statement that editors who decide to place {{retired}} on their original account and create a new account should not return to edit the articles/subjects that they previously edited as it could lead to WP:SOCK issues. If the intent was to simply keep editing the same way, one cannot claim cleanstart. One can hold an WP:Alternate account for specific purposes, but at this point, the new account does not meet them. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 12:12, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
    You are absolutely right, and as I said above I have stopped editing Climate Change articles. If any one will take the time to look at my edit history as Terra Novus (After my cleanstart), they will see that I have adhered to the noncontentious topics policy in the articles I have chosen to edit. This was just a ignorant misstep on my part into a new subject that was too contentious. As I acted in good faith (and, to be honest, in ignorance of the move request policy) I hope that the community will understand my full adherence to Misplaced Pages's principles.--Novus Orator 04:16, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    Then one of his next edits is at a subject dear to people of his outlook Out-of-place artifact. Hardly a noncontentious topic as it involves the evolution-Young Earth Creationist argument. Dougweller (talk) 04:14, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Other recent edits

    I've taken the time Terra Novus suggests, to review his edits, and I'm sorry to say that I can't agree that he's stuck to non-contentious topics or edited in a responsible manner within them:

    • In this edit to the Pro-life article we get blatant misrepresentation of the cited source, which says, verbatim: "Traditional Jewish teachings sanction abortion as a means of safeguarding the life and well-being of a mother. While the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements openly advocate for the right to a safe and accessible abortion, the Orthodox movement is less unified on the issue."
    • Our article on Race initially had this sentence that accurately summarized its four sources,
    This new science has led many mainstream evolutionary scientists in anthropology and biology to question the very validity of race as a scientific concept describing an objectively real phenomenon.
    Then Terra Novus came along and first gave us this remarkable passage,
    After the rise of the New Left amongst academia, a modified population genetics reflected a new understanding of the sources of phenotypic variation. Pressure from demographic groups in society has led many mainstream evolutionary scientists in anthropology and biology to question the very validity of race as a scientific concept describing an objectively real phenomenon, although, ironically, they were the ones who historically popularized the concept. (See also Political Correctness).
    and then eventually gave us this sentence, which cites the same four refs but grossly misrepresents their meaning:
    This new thought has lead most modern scientists in anthropology and biology to totally discount the validity of naturalistic racism.
    The Southern Poverty Law Center, lists the society as a "Patriot' Group". Its definition of patriot groups includes: "Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the 'New World Order' or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines".
    to this truncated one,
    The Southern Poverty Law Center, lists the society as a "Patriot' Group". Its definition of patriot groups includes: "Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the 'New World Order'.
    The SPLC cited reference did indeed include the phrase "or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines."

    I appreciate and value Terra Novus' contributions to space vehicle articles, volcano articles, and similarly non-controversial articles. I also imagine he believes he's doing the right thing by making these kinds of changes. But it's my clear impression from these and other edits that he's so agenda-driven that he will purposely distort controversial articles to match his political and religious beliefs without respect for the sources they cite. He doesn't seem to be able subordinate his beliefs to the policies we're all required to abide by in order to contribute here. I have no idea what the best remedy for this problem might be, but I know it needs one. This pattern cannot be allowed to continue.  – OhioStandard (talk) 16:07, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Thanks for the impressive presentation. Since this came after a claimed clean start (which was very ill-advised but presumably in good faith), I guess the best way forward would be a mentorship, possibly in combination with a topic ban for contentious topics and contentious edits, and an understanding that once there is a mentor available the user can no longer claim to have been ignorant about an edit's controversial nature. Hans Adler 17:03, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    I will be happy to accept the advice and help of a more experienced user...If anyone is willing to give me comments and correction as I work on becoming less biased that would be much appreciated...--Novus Orator 03:44, 17 October 2010 (UTC)


    A start would be to remove the statement "Please join me in helping lower WP:Systematic bias on Misplaced Pages. " from your user page. I hadn't looked at your contributions recently and hadn't realised the extent of the continuing problem. You also need to make it clear that you are not going to continue what I can only call a campaign and avoid any articles that you would believe would fall into the scope of such a campaign, as you don't appear to be able to "subordinate our beliefs to the policies we're all required to abide by in order to contribute here." I'd definitely support a topic ban for contentious topics and contentious edits. Dougweller (talk) 04:39, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    I think Hans Adler is being a bit generous here. Terra Novus is presumably intelligent enough to figure out when his edits are to an area that has a political or religious controversy attached to it (race, abortion etc etc). He knows he has strong views in some areas - I don't think those are going to get any less strong. Ergo, I don't see that a mentor to 'make him aware of an edit's controversial nature' is necessary at all. Every edit that people are complaining about, Terra Novus seems to hold the view that things are being 'distorted' by political pressure or bias. Therefore, if he ever feels it necessary to make an edit that 'corrects' this 'distortion', he needs to raise it on the talk page first. The same should be true of any editor - they shouldn't just be barging into an article, changing content on the grounds of 'religious bias', 'political correctness' or whatever. I don't think TN needs a mentor, and I don't think his own views are going to change substantially. He just needs to follow the rules - if you think something needs changing because of your views on the subject, get into a discussion.Elen of the Roads (talk) 10:40, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    I was making an assumption on Novus Orator's age that may or may not be correct and probably doesn't need further discussion. Also most people have a lot more exposure to demagogy than to rational arguments, and many editors seem to believe that everything is about opinion and feelings (probably reflecting the state of the US popular media) – so Misplaced Pages's norms take some getting used to. If nobody volunteers as a mentor, my proposal is moot anyway. In any case I support an indefinite (not infinite) topic ban for all contentious areas and all contentious edits to other areas. Hans Adler 12:02, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    With regard to the SPLC definition of "Patriot groups" it is possible that the definition, in itself, as it covers a large range of groups and motivations, might be misconstrued by some readers with regard to the infamous Birch society, with an thought that all of the ascribed factors are thus applicable to that group. To that extent, the attempt at truncation is likely defensible. Collect (talk) 14:20, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Not without a source that says that the SPLC only applies those specific elements of the category to the JBS it ain't. Beyond My Ken (talk) 17:12, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    As OhioStandard rightly points out, much of the sourcing in TN's edits does not stand up to scrutiny. Here is another example from today in interracial marriage: . The original content was unsourced, but the source provided by TN was no better (the website of an interracial dating agency). On Heim theory, there is no reliable secondary mainstream source available that describes this theory as an "emerging theory". After TN's edits to the lede, ("trimming"), it is not apparent to the reader that this is a fringe theory, not currently within mainstream physics. These were two random examples. Mathsci (talk) 18:00, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    To be fair, the dating agency link was already there as a URL - Terra Novus just turned it into a cite template footnote. Horrible ref, which I've removed now. Rd232 19:12, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    @Dougweller I am going to revise the Systematic bias statement on my user page to "Please be aware of Systematic Bias and do your best to correct it"...I think that would be less inflammatory. I don't think it is wrong for me to bring awareness to WP:Systematic bias as a issue, because it is something that the Misplaced Pages community is attempting to correct...--Novus Orator 03:31, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think the concern was that you appear to have misunderstood the meaning of "systemic bias". It is not systemic bias if our articles are written based on an understanding that rape, slavery and torture are criminal and should not be allowed, or that Hollow Earth theory and alien abduction are not to be taken seriously. There is no significant difference of opinion about these topics between various cultures. Systemic bias is about the problem that we have more editors writing about the most trivial details of today's commercial children's toys than about classical antiquity, and more editors writing about obscure differences between two closely related languages that for some reason matter to nationalists, than editors writing about the major indigenous languages of South Africa. Hans Adler 08:38, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually, what you're describing (accurately) is "systemic bias", as in bias that is endemic to the system. What he seems to be complaining about is "systematic bias", as in bias that is deliberately and methodically inserted into the system, which is basically an ideological complaint. Beyond My Ken (talk) 10:16, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Oh, so there is also a real term "systematic bias"? People always seem to be linking it to WP:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, so I assumed they have trouble with the Latin and the meaning. Maybe they only have trouble with the Latin but mean what they say, not what they link. Thanks! Hans Adler 23:26, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well... I don't know if "systematic bias" is a term used out in the real world, the meaning just seemed obvious from his usage and the meaning of "systematic" ("methodical"). Combine that with his clear ideological proclivities, and there you go! It's very similar to the complaints heard from conservative agenda-makers about "liberal bias in the media" and so forth.

    It's more than likely that he means "methodical bias caused by deliberate insertions of liberal thinking", but is calling it "systematic bias" because he thinks that's what "systemic bias" is, if you take my meaning. Overall, I don't see any real ideologcial bias in Misplaced Pages, but the systemic bias you point to is a real problem – although the solution in my mind is not to delete the articles about Pokemon or Transformers but to increase the number of articles on more important topics. (And maybe even to, somehow, change the culture of confrontation that prevails here. Unfortunately, doing so would probably bump up against some of Misplaced Pages's basic precepts, which are among the causes of the systemic imbalance.) Beyond My Ken (talk) 00:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    So, Terra Novus: The outcome here seems to be up to you, for the present. I'm sure I can speak for your fellow editors here and say that we all greatly appreciate your contributions to non-controversial articles. It's abundantly clear that you're a very intelligent, articulate editor who can bring significant value to the encyclopedia, and we'd all be disappointed to lose that. It's also clear, I think ( and I'm genuinely sorry to say so ) that many or most of your fellow editors don't feel they can trust your ability to keep your personal beliefs from overwhelming your willingness to follow the rules when editing articles that have anything at all to do with politics, religion, or other controversial matters, e.g. don't feel they can trust that you'll be able to impartially represent sources, maintain a neutral point of view, and so forth.

    Speaking personally, I'd really hate to see you subjected to a community ban, because it's so obvious to me that you can make really strong contributions here apart from articles relating to politics, religion, global warming, and other highly controversial topics. Besides, I've really enjoyed collaborating with you on the few articles we've crossed paths over. So the question I have is this: Would you be willing to just stay completely away from such controversial articles, quit "drive-by tagging" them, avoid wholesale deletions or blanking, and use talk pages in good faith as suggested above? Would you be willing, in other words, to apply your obvious talents to non-controversial articles, exclusively?

    It's your right to refuse, of course, but without an affirmative reply it's my strong expectation that if you're not blocked now then you'll be back here again very soon, with the eventual result being a community ban. I don't intend the least disrespect, and I regret having to ask, but can you stick around and limit yourself to non-controversial articles (nothing remotely related to politics, religion, climate change and environment, etc.) and adhere to the suggestions others have made above re use of talk pages, etc.? I know this might seem restrictive, but there are hundreds of thousands of other articles here that would benefit from your considerable skills, and I just don't see any practical alternative if you're going to be able to contribute here over the long term. Best regards,  – OhioStandard (talk) 01:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I just appreciate you guys taking the time to help me fix my own bias. I totally agree to editing non-controversial subjects, and will do my best to stick to that area. I would just ask that whenever I slip (as I obviously have in these instances) that editors will take me to the task (civilly), and assist me in finding more productive paths for my contributions. I will accept any constructive criticism or complaint that my work produces. I will generally try to avoid Climate change articles, and any subject in which editors are known to (or say that they have) widely differing opinions. Please put a note on my talk page whenever you have some friendly advice, or correction. I appreciate the editors involved in this case assuming my good faith throughout. @Hans, thank you for correcting my spelling of Systematic to Systemic, I see that the two have widely differing meanings, and will change it at once..--Novus Orator 04:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm a bit puzzled. You must have known that Out-of-place artifact is contentious and for the reasons I gave. As I understood it, you are avoiding any articles linked to evolution (and presumably religion) Dougweller (talk) 04:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    User:Chesdovi

    Chesdovi (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

    Not sure what to do with this editor. He's your pretty standard truth warrior ideologue and is going badly off the rails. Since the point-fest that was his article on "Judiasm and bus stops" which he freely aditted to having created because he was struggling to have an article on Judaism and violence deleted (see Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Judaism and bus stops) his edits have grown increasingly aggressive and bizarre. He's been using a fringe source to try to brand Istanbul, Tiberias, Sanaa, as the "Islamic cities of hell" (using an apocryphal hadith from the 12th century from a traveller that hated these cities). For instance "ISLAM CALLS THIS CITY HELL HELL HELL HELL", . He recently sought to remove the fairly basic fact that Hebron is a holy city to Muslims (since they believe the prophet abraham is buried there and that Muhamad stopped there on his night journey to jerusalem) . Almost all of his edits have a slant -- either downgrading the muslim interest in a place, or seeking to create the impression that there are so many Islamic "holy cities" (for instance, he's just added the absurdity that Kairouan is considered by "many muslims to Islams fourth holiest city") that there interest in places like Hebron and Jerusalem is of no matter (I also saw him recently seeking to downgrade the non-contreversial fact that the original Muslim Qibla was towards Jerusalem with some irrelevancies about language in the Koran ). The sheer volume of this stuff is impossible to keep up with, and he just reverts and brushes off appeals to stop. He, charitably, is either not equipped to write on mainstream Islamic views, or is so equipped, but is simply using wikipedia to make political points. I won't oppose the edits of a propagandist any more. Hopefully this will be dealt with.Bali ultimate (talk) 19:05, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    Apparently he's had a bee in his bonnet about Islam and "holiest sites" back to 2006, according to this AN/I report from then .Bali ultimate (talk) 19:18, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Without commenting on the rest of this, I must say that it is certainly not absurd to describe Kairouan as "Islam's fourth holiest city". This is what I was told and read when I went to Tunisia many years ago; and there are over 200,000 Google repeating this. RolandR (talk) 20:25, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    The Times' military correspondent wrote of Kairouan in 1939: "What a Hell of a place to put a Holy City". But unfortunatley Roland, we cannot rely on users' own experiences of what they "know" or what they have "heard". Only published RS are sufficient. That a user can remove material on the premise that it "has never heard of Damascus being a holy city in Islam" is unacceptable. Chesdovi (talk) 20:27, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, it's perfectly acceptable. According to our verifiability policy, unsourced material can and should be challenged and, if challenged, the people who want to include the material need to provide backing for it in reliable secondary sources. Removing that unsourced claim is quite OK. Reyk YO! 21:42, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    And if it's sourced with 8 citiations....? Chesdovi (talk) 21:46, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think the issue was that you reverted several times without adding the sources, and now that you have added something others feel that the sources don't actually back up the claim being made. I don't presume to know enough about Islam to judge about that; you need to discuss it on the talk page. Reyk YO! 22:05, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Before I moved material from Hebron, I at least made a token search to see if I could find RS. "Bali" just removes anything he has not "heard of before"! I also noted the removal on the talk page. When I have added sourced material at Sana, it is again removed. I am quite capable of discussing matters amicably as I did when I added Tiberias is a city of Hell in Islam. But I will not have anything to do with "Bali", who describes my work in rude terms and airs his views in the most repulsive of fashions. Chesdovi (talk) 22:56, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm not an expert on the subject but Sana'a should be protected because of an edit war, and Bali you should know better by reverting that information as vandalism, as you did with your first revert, and with Istanbul even though it's not vandalism. And Chesdovi for reverting back and not using the talk page, and looking closely at your edits, your edits keep getting reverted, and you hardly go to the talk page and as the creator of the clearly WP:POINT Judaism and bus stops, some sort of saction should be placed on you. Secret 21:39, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sanctions belong on the "other" editor involved here. I am within my rights to abstain from comunicating with that editor, a most abusive and intimidating user whose use of profanities is outrageous. Chesdovi (talk) 21:45, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Comment Err, Bali...even UNESCO think that Kairouan is a major Islamic holy city . Chesdovi, you have every right to ask not to be sworn at, but you cannot complain if another editor uses bad language in a non specific way even if you don't like it. You must keep using the talk page. Plainly not all of your edits are outright wrong, some would appear to be, but if you don't communicate with anyone, all that will happen is that you end up being blocked for edit warring. Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:50, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I don't want anything to do with this "Bali". He has been creepily followng me around ever since I raised concern about his violation of WP:CIVIL. Chesdovi (talk) 21:56, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Fair enough, but you need to be upfront with everyone else, and you need to add the sources THE FIRST TIME, not the seventh time.Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:05, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Point taken. But if users want sources, they could add a tag. If they want to stir up trouble, they prefer to remove and revert and then report. You can see the wonderful additions I made to qibla. My additions were a real improvement, and "Bali" uses it as an "example" of how I "downgrade the non-controversial facts", yet it is very clear from the discussion at Jerusalem that the issue is not so simple after all. Chesdovi (talk) 23:18, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    At the risk of adding more smoke than light to this thread, I'd like to mention that Harar in Ethiopia also claims the title of the "Islam's fourth holiest city", a claim also supported by UNESCO. A Google search returns some 584,000 hits. So Kairouan's claim is one POV, & I'm while I'm perfectly happy either delegating the issue to WikiProject Islam to arbitrate, or adding "some say" to either Harar's or Kairouan's claim -- or both -- everyone involved should remember to be careful when making sweeping statements about any subject: there are content disputes on Misplaced Pages that are merely sleeping at the moment, & when awoken may cause unforeseen havoc. -- llywrch (talk) 20:49, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    "As I told you longe ago, do not calle up That which you can not put downe; either from dead Saltes or out of ye Spheres beyond. Have ye Wordes for laying at all times readie, and stopp not to be sure when there is any Doubte of Whom you have." --Orange Mike | Talk 21:09, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Ouch. Things must have got bad if you've started quoting the Necronomicon Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:29, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Naw, the only thing that has gotten bad is my attitude about how well people get along here on Misplaced Pages. -- llywrch (talk) 04:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    That seems to be the editor in questions eventual intention (stirring up trouble, all leading back to some aspect of the IP wikipedia nonesense). What's undeniable is that he's spewing this stuff across a wide swathe of articles with no effort made to determine what the underlying consensus view is, to read the survey literature, or to couch it appropriate ways. He basically just finds a source with the desired sentence in it, and makes the edit (some stemming from a misunderstanding of what he's read, but life is too short to get into revert wars every time it happens). He's continued over the past day or two in other articles. There are places that local muslims consider important for instance, and folk-traditions that say such-and-such is "xth holiest in islam" but that "islam" writ-large is scarcely aware of. The local view of the importance of a location should of course be in any article -- but that's not what's being done. The broader issue is the overall agenda, which is easy enough to discern if you look at a few pages of his edits.Bali ultimate (talk) 21:19, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Senkaku Islands dispute

    The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
    Resolved – full protection implemented; suggestion of mediation and/or RFC. Please keep further debate located at the proper venue. Magog the Ogre (talk) 22:41, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    OK Everyone, this was posted on my talk page. And seeing as I can't make heads or tails between the two bickering parties, I'm going to repost it here. I really don't have much comment other than to note that Phoenix7777 indeed makes the poor choice of labeling any edits he disagrees with as vandalism. So this is posted from my talk page; if anybody can make heads or tails of it, by all means please step in, because I feel like I'm having the Chewbacca defense thrown at me. Regards, Magog the Ogre (talk) 22:45, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    quoted from talk page
    The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

    Hi Magog the Ogre,

    I would like some assistance in dealing with an edit-war that's occurring in Senkaku Islands dispute. In a nut-shell, this page is about a territorial dispute between China and Japan. While POV-pushing is a common occurrence in that page, a long-time editor of the page known as User:Phoenix7777 Special:Contributions/Phoenix7777 has recently took it upon himself to revert practically every attempt to correct pro-Japanese misinformation presented on the page. This includes numerous types of contents that had been discussed extensively and properly justified.

    To name a very good example, a figure and reference of a newspaper article published by "People's Daily" or "Remin Ribao" was used in the article. The article said a number of things, which are widely confirmed by Chinese editors and very well discussed:

    (1) "Senkaku Islands" was listed as a constituent of "Ryukyu Islands", which is not the same as "Okinawa"
    (2) "Ryukyu Islands" was occupied by the U.S. at the time of the article's writing
    (3) The author of the article explicitly disagreed with how the U.S. and Japan conspired to have the U.S. annex the "Ryukyu Islands".

    However, some editors grossly misused this article and decided that it is evidence that claims "Chinese recognition of Senkaku Islands". Also, in the figure caption, the same editors persisted to put "(Okinawa)" beside "Ryukyu Islands" Phoenix7777 when the figure did not make such an equality (nor Okinawa is ever the same as Ryukyu Islands even when under U.S. occupation). Even though the degree of misuse is very obvious and occupied several threads of discussion(1, 2, 3), Phoenix7777 still refuses to acknowledge the error. He tried to justify his point by citing a load of outside Japanese review articles that made the same logical mistake, but that still doesn't change the fact that the original referenced newspaper articles did not recognize Japanese control of the Senkaku Islands (which also had been pointed out to him several times). Needless to say, he also reverts attempts (1, 2) of correcting the mistake on the article and even threatened to report me of "vandalism".

    This is only one of several examples of his disruptive behaviour. I think other editors more affected by his conduct may be able to provide even more examples. In addition, there were others who complained about his edit-warring in the past (1, 2.

    Bobthefish2 (talk) 06:41, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    I will explain the recent edits I've reverted as vandalism.
    1. San9663 (talk · contribs) removed a description from a direct quote and by the very next edit removed the corresponding description from the paragraph.
    2. Bobthefish2 (talk · contribs) removed a citation and a cited description and by the very next edit added a {{cn]] to the sentence.
    Aren’t these vandalism? I ask Magog to warn them or to block them for an appropriate period.―― Phoenix7777 (talk) 08:23, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's puzzling that you insist to only selectively read certain sentences of my writing and not others. As I've addressed before in here and in previous discussions, many of your citations were inaccurate in their reading of the source they cited. The disagreement is not even a matter of subjectivity, but rather a matter of definition. If an article unambiguously says "A" and not "B" and your sources say this article says "B", then your sources are wrong. And needless to say, your cited description is also misinformation by extension because it is advocating that the original newspaper article is saying something it is not. This is a VERY simple refutation and I am surprised you can't come to terms with that.
    Anyhow, I believe it is a very clear-cut case of who's actually vandalizing and engaging in an edit-war to push his POV. If an admin can't set an example of destructive interference like this, then it will be hard for editors who are actually interested in writing objectively to do anything. Bobthefish2 (talk) 20:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sans9663 is not a canvassed user. What I filed was a complaint and not an ongoing community decision, debate, or vote. I did not ask for a consensus and as a result, there is no vote to stack. What I did do was to notify two other editors who had made similar complaints in the recent past and another editor who's planning to file the same complaint. Bobthefish2 (talk) 21:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    The reasoning of my edit was fully explained in the note, following the reasoning of another editor (john smith)'s principle suggested in a preceding edit elsewhere. It did not change the content as all, just removed some redudant description wich were repeated in the saem entry and could be found by simply following the wiki link. While Phoenix7777 had made several edits which were POV and controversial, and changed "claim/POV" by removing the source/claim in the sentence to make it look as if were undisputed fact, often right through reverting without discussing. Recent examples can be found here and here. I tried to convince him through talk page but since he put my name here I had no other choice but to repsond and raise the issue. San9663 (talk) 10:29, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Oh yes, I forgot about that too. I don't think User:Magog the Ogre will want to go through the Senkaku Islands and Senkaku Islands dispute talk/history pages, but all the evidence are there. Bobthefish2 (talk) 20:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    This is another example of sabotage, and has been done various times. San9663 (talk) 12:57, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually we don't need wikilinks to all of the alternative name which double-redirected to the most widely accepted name. ―― Phoenix7777 (talk) 13:08, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    Another example of User:Phoenix7777's destructive behaviour can be found in the Rare earth element's history. While on the surface, it appears he is removing a link to a term because the link already existed earlier in the article, a closer look will show that numerous chemical compounds or elements in this page were linked more than once (i.e. monazite, loparite, cerium, and more). To add context to this, he is not a participant of that wiki page and the edit he reverted belonged to User:San9663, whose reverts are regularly targeted by him (and often for no justifiable reason). Bobthefish2 (talk) 20:17, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    • Statement from the accused user

    I misunderstood the interpretation of the vandalism. User:Qwyrxian explained me and I understood. See my talk page. I apologize for my misuse of the term. However the unexplained removal of a citation or a cited material I labeled as vandalism is still a malicious edit unacceptable to this community. Please note the problem is that User:Bobthefish2 is insisting the edits made by Bobthefish2 and San9663 are not vandalism but legitimate edits instead of malicious deletions. ―― Phoenix7777 (talk) 23:09, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

    I've already gave you the reasons why they were bad references in a thread where you listed them. For some reason, you like to pretend the counterarguments and refutations never existed! To repeat myself for the gazillionth time, whatever you cited was completely and unambiguously wrong.
    And of course, I don't care if you apologize for mislabeling us as vandals because that does not encompass the worst of your behaviour. I filed this complaint because you've been vandalizing other people's edits including mine. You've reverted contents that were against your position regardless of whether or not they were backed by sound justification. Then later on, you even turned this into a game. Just look at how you followed User:San9663 around and reverted his edits in pages where you have no previous activities on. Your contributions page says it all. I am also not the only one who has run out of patience with you. Bobthefish2 (talk) 05:42, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    It appears that User:Phoenix7777 has just reverted yet another attempt to remove his dubious references and claims which were, again, very unambiguously refuted in multiple threads. Bobthefish2 (talk) 05:54, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I am an involved editor on the page, although in the specific dispute above I think my only involvement was to correct Phoenix7777 on the use of the term vandalism. Hopefully, based on the apology above, xe will not do so again. I will say that this article is definitely a problem right now, as it's 1) a big mess, so it needs major revision, but 2) is extremely politically charged (i.e., enough that the related topic is causing riots and acts of violence in China against Japan right now), and so 3) is very difficult to make edits to. Yesterday, User:Bobthefish2 came to my page asking what he thinks we should do: . My response () is that the next best step is probably Full Page Protection (on both Senkaku Islands and Senkaku Islands dispute), for about a week or two. As I told Bobthefish2, I would make the request myself, except for the fact that I recently made the most recent significant changes (moving a sentence and citation from the main article to the dispute article), so I don't want people to think I'm trying to protect "my version", especially when neither article is even close to what I would consider my "preferred" version. I do invite admins to take a look, and then lock the page down for some time, in any wrong version that you arbitrarily like. My feeling is that if we (all) can't get into a more collaborative editing mode in the next week or two, we're going to have to seek mediation. I don't agree with Bobthefish2's most recent comment on my talk page, , which recommends "the worst vandals and their IPs" being banned from participating on the article, because I don't see anyone who meets that criteria. Instead, I'm seeing mildly problematic editing from multiple different editors on both political sides of the debate, but no one person is particularly worse, and I don't see anything so bad, yet (although, like the real-world situation, we're riding on the edge all the time). Qwyrxian (talk) 23:53, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec)--Sorry, but I'm removed the resolved tag. It seems wrong to me to claim in less than 1 hour after Magog posted here that the issue is resolved. Can't we just give this at least half a day to see if anyone involved actually wants to comment on the issue here? Qwyrxian (talk) 23:53, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    I agree with Qwyrxian's observation and recommendation regarding the wiki entry and the issues. An example is, I added the double square brackets to the text so that it would provide a proper link to its corresponding wiki entry, but user always tried to revert me (diff here). He indeed became so obsessive as to stalk me to another unrelated entry Rare Earth Elements to remove the double brackets I put to link a chemical element to its wiki page (see diff here). I view this as unreasonable disruption targeting someone he disagrees with, call it "malicious" according to . Though behaviors such as this are probably better described by as "not particularly worse" (quote Qwryxian -- in my view it is simply minor nuisance and childish but I don't disagree with Qwryxian), it does presents unnecessary hassle to the community and creates problems and sometimes unnecessary arguments among the members. I have now basically stopped editing in entries where he participates because I do not want to waste time in meaningless edit warring. ---- (I think I do not understand how to make "Notify" function works - help/pls fix) Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at noticeboard of discussion regarding reason for discussion. The thread is thread name of the discussion.The discussion is about the topic Topic. Thank you. —San9663 (talk) 04:02, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    San, he reverted the wikilink at Rare earth element because it was superfluous. All the elements are linked to their wiki articles via the table. To add a link elsewhere as well is overlinking. And I am at a loss as to why you have stuck that piece about notifiction on the end of the edit.Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:29, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    To help Magog the Ogre get to the bottom of all of this (& advise any Admin with enough time & courage who might want to do the same), this article is about a clutch of islands claimed by either two or three different countries as part of their sovereign territories. (The number varies depending on whether one counts Taiwan as a country separate from the PRC.) In other words, an ethnic/nationalist dispute IMHO similar to Liancourt Rocks dispute, which is currently under an active ArbCom probation. And I see a lot of actions on the article page alone which look, at first glance, to be motivated more to favor one POV in this matter than by good faith (e.g., statements tagged as "citation needed" which arguably don't need to be tagged, images illustrating the disputed claims nominated for deletion). Although further examination shows that some of the individuals involved still should be treated as acting in good faith, this article is at a tipping point. If things continue as they have been, this article will be put under an ArbCom probation at least as restrictive as Liancourt Rocks dispute is currently under; but if all parties involved start behaving civilly to each other & make an attempt to find areas they can agree on & build from there towards a consensus, everyone -- those involved in the article, the rest of the Misplaced Pages editors, & our readers -- would be very happy. Until either of those happens, I for one wouldn't fault MtO if he simply deleted all of that discussion from his Talk page & act as if no one had contributed to a thread about these islands there. -- llywrch (talk) 19:37, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Removal of the "quote" in the reference

    Please comment on the following edits.

    1. San9663 (talk · contribs) removed a description from the quote in the reference and by the very next edit removed the corresponding description from the paragraph.
    2. STSC (talk · contribs) removed the whole quote in the reference.

    The quote was added because the availability of the preview of Google book is precarious and dependent on the region. Actually the page is currently invisible. ―― Phoenix7777 (talk) 05:52, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    The contents removed by STSC are the same dubious contents I've referred to many times. It's a good thing that you brought this up yourself. Bobthefish2 (talk) 05:58, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    There was diff no quotation marks on the wiki text. It does not appear like a quote at all. I thought it seems a redundant and subjective description and removed it according to the reasoning by a previous editor of "non relevance" —Preceding unsigned comment added by San9663 (talkcontribs) 07:53, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    (Involved user) I note that San9663 in this reversion and this reversion said "continuing John Smith's previous edit of simplifying". This refers to a removal of a reference I made of the Washington Times' supposed ownership by some church. I don't think that San's reversions are comparable, as it's a bit daft to refer to every publication's ownership if mentioned in a Misplaced Pages article. However, the People's Daily's ownership/control may be far more relevant given the Chinese government's territorial claims.

    I also don't think that STSC should have marked his recent edits as minor.

    I haven't looked at everyone else's edits widely. John Smith's (talk) 08:24, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Well, we may agree to disagree. My reasoning is that, many people, especially those who know a bit of Asia and the two countries disputing these islands, know what People's Daily / Renmin Ribao is. We all know it is a state-owned, propaganda organ. It is quite redundant to add a full sentence for description. But I don't mind it either way personally. I edited it once and I am not going to do any revert, or even bother to discuss about this. It is too minor an issue to me, until forced me to explain myself. On the other hand, Washington Times is much less well known. I mistook it for Washington Post a few times when I first heard of it. A short qualification to remind reader not to confused WaTimes with WaPO is necessary IMO, and more necessary than for People's Daily. Even if not, two double brackets to wiki-link it should be agreeable to all. Unfortunately, people like keep removing the links, and even worse, removing the WT and the "claim" word totally. I know this is the Japan POV section, I have no objection for anything written there, Japan can "claim it owns the world" and we have no ground to say Japan does not have the freedom to say so. In short, I do not mind as long as it said someone "claims" or someone "asserts". But trying to pretend "claims" as undisputed facts are, IMO, against wiki's rules. San9663 (talk) 16:48, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.


    DGG's unblocking of Rangoon11

    Resolved – Appears to be a non-issue based on comments below. See my summary at end. Hersfold 17:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    I am asking for community input on the actions of DGG (talk · contribs) in the unblocking of Rangoon11 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log).

    Rangoon11 was blocked just over a week ago for three months following a SPI and his posting to here (see Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incident#Harrassment by User:Codf1977)

    At the SPI s/he avoided addressing the issue and following the block, s/he made no request for unblock or review, instead chose to evade the block two days later by editing from 92.29.112.82 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log). Only after that IP had been blocked did s/he make a unblock request, which was declined by Favonian (talk · contribs).

    Without further input from Rangoon11, Colonel Warden (talk · contribs) made an offer to intercede and get the block lifted at User talk:Rangoon11's talk page, this was followed by DGG's offer in the archive of the SPI and talk page.

    Rangoon11 then agreed to "make the required undertakings " and was unblocked.

    DGG did not consult with the blocking admin Hersfold (talk · contribs), only informing him after the unblock. Nor does it appear did DGG consult with anyone else, or take into account any other of the reasons for the block or it's length (as detailed in the SPI) nor the subsequent block evasion into account when deciding to unblock.

    I believe this is abuse of the admins discretion, not to dicuss this in anyway with any of the admins involved, or to bring it here for discussion since other editors here expressed concerns about his editing (see here).

    Codf1977 (talk) 07:03, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Rangoon11, DGG, Hersfold and Favonian informed Codf1977 (talk) 07:07, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    • In order to clarify matters, it appears, per Rangoon11's talk page, that you have been involved in discussion or in some other manner with Rangoon in the past. Can you disclose what the extent of this interaction has been? Silverseren 07:40, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes, over his editing of pages on UCL, for his take on it see the ANI thread he posted linked to above. Codf1977 (talk) 07:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • DGG is an editor of outstandingly good temperament, who would never do a thing just to further his own self interests, and has demonstrated an admirable ability to work with anyone. Instead of assuming bad faith or abuse on his part, one would do better to try to understand him as a role model. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 07:56, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I would think that all (or most) admins would want each of there actions viewd on it's own merits and not in the context of other good or bad actions. I also think that admins use of the tools not only should be free of any self interest, but crucially, also free from the appearance of any self interest and that can't not be said for this case. Codf1977 (talk) 08:39, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Comment It doesn't seem to be self-interest to me. I think you're reading just a tad too far into things. If you read the entire Update and the following Unblock sections of Rangoon's talk page, he agreed that he will consult with the Col. and DGG on future related article. I think you should give it time and see if he improves instead of bringing this directly to ANI. You seem a little too involved in this issue at the moment. Worst case scenario: We run out of rope. Ishdarian 09:09, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I'm trying to find anything remotely problematic? What about an unblock is self-interest? Blocks are about prevention, and never punishment ... if the requirement to protect is no longer needed, the block should be gone. I cannot find any good reason that this review is here... (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 09:14, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • DGG is one of the most even-tempered and rational admins on the project and I seriously doubt that his action was carried out with anything other than the most honourable motivation. I hope he will post here to clarify matters and confirm my initial position, but there should certainly not be any rush to judgment. Stifle (talk) 10:35, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • If anyone is to be upset it would be Hersfold but I doubt he will. DGG does a fine job and should be applauded for his work. Advance notice is good but I don't think we should get too upset over this decision. JodyB talk 11:06, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Hersfold's comment on this is "Ok... I'd appreciate being consulted before unblocking, but that's fine". It would, I think, have been reasonable to have put a friendly note on DGG's talk page suggesting that it would have been a good idea to have consulted Hersfold before deciding to unblock, but an ANI report claiming admin abuse is a gross over-reaction. JamesBWatson (talk) 16:53, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • DGG's nicer than I am to people who've screwed up. That's not a bad thing. Jclemens (talk) 16:59, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Um... yeah. If I'd really had an issue with DGG's unblock, I'd have left a more serious note on his talk page (not mine) and then would have brought this to ANI iff I still wasn't satisfied. While I feel like an echo saying this, DGG is one admin that I consistently see exercising good judgment, and I understand and support his reasoning for unblocking here. As Jody said, if anyone would really be upset by this, it'd be me, but I don't much care either way, and there seems to be a consensus here that DGG has acted appropriately. Hersfold 17:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    from the picture on my user page, you will see that I have a fringe of a beard. You may classify it either way as you please DGG ( talk ) 02:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I have apologized to Hersfold--I was influenced by the apparent change in attitude and did not want to lose the momentum. And I am not disagreeing with his block--multiple sockpuppettry is a serious affair, and possibly it needed the long block to get some degree of cooperation. I hope it continues. DGG ( talk ) 02:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Decision is appropriate. Taking into consideration DGG's excellent record and impartial judgment qualities and also Rangoon11's commitment to refrain from the act which he/she was blocked for. The decision to unblock him/her is justified. - Humaliwalay (talk) 05:30, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    212.219.57.60 / Wikiplayer13

    212.219.57.60 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) vandalized User:Kevin McE () and my own user page (), and used threatening language in both edits. I do not take the threat seriously; I can't speak for Kevin McE. However, I am under the assumption that I am supposed to report the incident. I am fairly certain the IP address is being used by Wikiplayer13 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), as the vandalism occurs following warnings from Kevin McE (, ) and myself (, ). Another IP associated with this account, 82.46.89.207 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log), has previously vandalized our user pages when faced with various disagreements (for example, , , , ). See also: previous ANI discussion. I believe the editor's net effect upon Misplaced Pages is negative. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 15:16, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Blocked Wikiplayer13 indef, blocked the IP indef (or at least until we get some credible assurance that the administrators at that school are paying attention), and deleted the death threat revisions. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 16:00, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    You will (I hope) be glad to hear that I survived the day without any death threats being enacted upon me, and I've had far more immediate threats than some sulky keyboard warrior. I fully approve of the new policy of removal from edit histories, but I'd be sort of intrigued to see what he had to say if anyone is in a position to e-mail it to me. Kevin McE (talk) 17:30, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well, let me get in touch with my team of multinational assassins. I think I can fit you in at about 1:30 PM on the 30th; we can have lunch and at some point after you'll be dead. I'll pay for lunch. of course. HalfShadow 17:36, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    That's kind of you to offer, but I'm busy on the 30th: would the day before be possible? Kevin McE (talk) 23:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    It would kinda help if you had your email address set. :-) --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 17:41, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I know that used to be set, and assumed it still was. But although I've asked for a confirmation code at two different e-mail addresses this evenings, nothing has come through to my inbox to facilitate me enabling e-mail contact. Kevin McE (talk) 23:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    The user has since implied that his account was compromised, which doesn't make any sense as the edits were made from an IP address, not while the user was logged in. But the user has essentially admitted to using the same computer from which the edits were made. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Admin help

    Resolved – Username blocked, complaint is moot until/unless he returns with a new handle. Tarc (talk) 14:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Any administrator with a sense of fairness and not a political activist is urged to help. Visit the talk page of AGK for details and get AGK to help fill out arbitration forms. AGK is an arbitration clerk. AGK is not a party to this, just the clerk.

    The issue is that there is calculated effort to get Malia Obama off Misplaced Pages, at least her own page. Bo, the Obama dog has clearly survived deletion. Malia was discussed but that was TWO years ago! Since then, much has happened.

    Biased activists have removed the article and quickly placed a page protect on it. This despite no fighting (a reason for page protection). The talk page shows support for an article but people falsely claim consensus when consensus is actually for an article.

    Some people think the President doesn't want an article so they use phony and specious excuses, like non-notability. Well, Misplaced Pages has determined that Bo, the dog, is notable. Bo and Malia are in the same family. Malia has given an interview, not Bo. She was involved in the oil spill, not Bo.

    This article is not just a deletion issue or I would go through that. It is also an unreasonable political activist trying to get their way and using manipulation, such as page protection and falsely claiming consensus.

    Those political activists, like the ones listed in the requested arbitration, should be banned from writing about any Obama issue, not just Malia.

    ADMINSTRATION REQUEST: One person said that I needed a lawyer. Please, I am asking for an administrator to step forward and take on this case. I will leave it to you. The only request is either arbitration or similar process. Presidentmalia (talk) 21:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Can you find links for your claims. And BTW, as a talk page stalker of Looie496 I know his take on this.--Talktome 21:48, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Do you think it healthy to carry such a torch on Misplaced Pages? Your usernamw suggests you are here to do nothing else. Such one-dimensional approaches to Misplaced Pages to prove a point are severely discouraged. If you want to try WP:DRV you don't need an admin. S.G. ping! 21:52, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Here's the talk page. goes and grabs popcorn.--Talktome 21:54, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Capsule summary: in response to a request at RFPP I indefinitely full-protected Malia Obama as a redirect to Family of Barack Obama. My understanding is that there is a standing consensus that a separate article is not desirable. I am by no means fully versed in the history here, and if any admin feels that the page should be unprotected, I have no objection whatsoever. Looie496 (talk) 21:56, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Talk pages needs re-routing doesn't it? S.G. ping! 21:57, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Well Presidentmalia has been advised to try DRV more than once now to see what the current consensus is. Calling all opponents political activists is unlikely to help the cause though.Fainites scribs 22:05, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    On the bright side, if they keep it up, they may cease to be an issue. Everybody wins. Well, everyone else. HalfShadow 22:29, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    • It is laughable to suggest that this dispute is ripe for Arbitration, when pretty much no dispute resolution has thus far been attempted. Presidentmalia's understanding of the Misplaced Pages DR process seems to be minimal; if somebody would be willing to school him on the basics, we might avoid a waste of the clerks' time and a pointless RFAR. AGK 23:07, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Grundle2600 was previously involved in these pages. Am I being paranoid to wonder... Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 23:18, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    User first edited on 15 October. Perhaps filing that SPI is not such a bad idea. Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:32, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Far too aggressive and belligerent to be Grundle, and he is much more interested in the politics of Obama rather than personal vendettas like this. I think the username should goto UAA though. Tarc (talk) 00:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    If I had found that user name, I would have username-blocked it on sight. She's a girl, not a public figure. Bearian (talk) 00:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Blocked last night, so problem solved. Tarc (talk) 14:34, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    User:Heymid, User:AIK IF 2010

    Heymid (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

    AIK IF 2010 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

    Five days ago I blocked Heymid for seven days: the block should have less that 48 hours to run. However, just now Favonian (talk) asked me if Heymid was socking. It sure looked that way to me, and Favonian has indef-ed AIK IF 2000 as a sock-puppet of Heymid.

    What is to be done with Heymid? I don't trust myself with resetting Heymid's block - I had felt Heymid was making progress, and I feel really let down. So... throwing it open to the community.

    I'll let all parties know straight after posting this. TFOWR 22:39, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    I have followed this sad case from the sideline. I'm afraid we must conclude that Heymid just doesn't get it and an indef block is called for. Favonian (talk) 22:47, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    At least, even by sock standards, he isn't very smart. He might as well have called his sock "Heymid#2"... HalfShadow 22:54, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    *sigh* Sorry to say it, but I concur with Favonian. —DoRD (talk) 22:59, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I've been watching this drama for a few months, and I must sadly agree with Favonian. Access Denied  23:00, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    You're certain enough it is him, right? I've seen a few banned users pretend to be socks of other users in order to get them in further trouble. HalfShadow 23:03, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict × 2) WikiChecker seems down right now, but I have to say that the time this occurred is starting to trouble me: it's just barely consistent with what I know of Heymid's timezone (UTC+2) and edit habits. Is it worth getting a checkuser to confirm before we make a huge mistake? TFOWR 23:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm just saying, I've personally seen false-socking done at least three times. It may or may not be worth the effort, but it can't hurt to check. HalfShadow 23:14, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    We have 48 hours before the change to make an indef makes any difference, so I don't see any cause to undo my block yet.—Kww(talk) 23:18, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict)Better safe than sorry, so yes: let's request a CU. Speaking of timezones, I'm in the same one as Heymid. Goodnight! Favonian (talk) 23:16, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm sure it's noted that the sock was named after Heymid's 7th most edited article, AIK IF. Not a good way to not get caught... Doc talk 23:20, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    Indefed. If he protests and someone wants to run a checkuser, that's fine by me. Heat to light ratio with this editor has never been good, and I don't see any loss in losing him.—Kww(talk) 23:05, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    CU says it is likely that it is Heymid. The thing with Heymid is that he causes problems without even trying and shows a distinct lack of clue, so this is hardly a shock. Beeblebrox (talk) 23:56, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I never would've figured they were savvy enough to use proxies, so I'm still not entirely convinced. Anyhow, I've allowed the talk page access since there has been a length and rationale change on his block. –xeno 00:00, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Still, you have to admit, it looked too obvious. Generally a socker isn't that...incompetent. HalfShadow 00:48, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually, a surprising number are. People ask how I detect some of them so easily, and the only answer I can give is that they really don't seem to have a clue as to how to cover their tracks. The ones that do generally never get blocked.—Kww(talk) 01:34, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Could we please show Heymid the door? Too much disruption for too long, no clue. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    A "from the sidelines" opinion, been watching Heymid for a while and his behaviour has basically gone like this: do something silly -> get told off -> sort of say sorry, but wording suggest he thinks he actually did ok -> promises to not do it again -> X days pass -> do it again. This has been repeated numerous times, with a little DIDNTHEARTHAT thrown in on top. I think this is a WP:COMPETENCE failure. I mean, he's a nice enough guy (I suspect he is relatively young, which accounts for a lot of the interaction problems) but seems unable to understand the words "Heymid, just go edit articles for a few months". --Errant 07:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    • Note that Heymid has now left a slightly less than civil request on his talk page to close this thread and mark User:AIK IF 2010 as "impersonating" him instead of being his sockpuppet, though from what I see of this thread and the SPI, it seems that he's trying too late to cover his attempt at sockpuppetry rather than accepting that he shouldn't have done it. GiftigerWunsch 14:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Personally I'd be surprised if AIK IF 2010 (talk · contribs) was a sock of Heymid. I agree firstly with what xeno says above: I wouldn't have thought that Heymid would be savvy enough to make use of an open proxy. There also doesn't seem to be motivation for it, considering that at the point when AIK IF 2010 was registered Heymid could just have created a new account via his own IP address. Using an open proxy is standard procedure for someone who wishes to impersonate another user, since it makes any technical links ambiguous, and we therefore have to rely on the behavioral evidence. The behavioral evidence in this particular case, is, frankly, trying way too hard. Kww mentions above that the socks that we catch are often obvious, which is true, but this is off the scale. Heymid even pointed out himself that the account was quacking much too loudly to be a natural duck; he's clearly aware how obvious the link appears, why would he have made it that obvious in the first place?
    To speak plainly, I imagine that there are plenty of people who would get a kick out of getting Heymid indefinitely blocked by impersonating him as a sock.
    I am aware that there has been a pattern of disruption from Heymid in the past, and if I'm honest I've often found myself muttering in favour of a block. However, although I'm 100% aware that there are users who find the accusation of sock-puppetry credible, I'm worried that the suspicion of socking is being used as a cover reason for getting rid of a user who many find annoying, this seems to be realized in some of the comments above.
    Kind regards, Spitfire 23:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I agree with this. While I do not think an indefinite block is unwarranted ( I have previously called for one), it should not come as a result of this incident. The suspected sock was trying way too hard. decltype (talk) 00:10, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Death threats on Flint, Michigan

    Resolved – accounts blocked, cops on it. Toddst1 (talk) 00:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    According to User:Finmcaley12 and User:199.8.26.10 on Flint, Michigan someone named Brice Davis is going to get murdered. Should we contact the authorities? TomCat4680 (talk) 23:08, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    I'm in touch with the police at Indiana Wesleyan University where the IP is from. Toddst1 (talk) 23:45, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have indeffed the account and rev-del'ed the edits that include the name of the threatened party. Looie496 (talk) 23:47, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    And I've restored them so the cops can take a look. Toddst1 (talk) 23:56, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    If they need access they have ways to see the data. Making it public is a very bad call in my opinion. Vegaswikian (talk) 01:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think you missed this one. SnottyWong  23:52, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    If there's a CU online right now, please ping me via email. I will give you the email address of the detective I'm working with, but he would love to decode Finmcaley12's ip address. You can email it directly to him. Toddst1 (talk) 23:55, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Is it necessary -- essentially the same edit was made by IP directly before the account made it? Looie496 (talk) 23:58, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
    Toddst hit my talk page, I'm on it. — RlevseTalk00:04, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
     Confirmed User:Finmcaley12 and User:199.8.26.10 are the same. — RlevseTalk00:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Possible Death Threat

    Resolved – --Chaser (talk) 01:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    This worries me. Access Denied  00:48, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Oh yeah; that's something that requires immediate action... HalfShadow 00:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yup. Standard WP:RBI. Let's not waste time on these punks. Rodhullandemu 00:59, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I agree that it is too vague to be actionable or to be worthwhile reporting. Marking as resolved.--Chaser (talk) 01:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    edits to Mike Francesa edits coming from themikefrancesa.com

    the Mike Francesa article has been decimated by vandals from themikefrancesa.com

    2 recent users have been editing the article on Secretariat tonight

    JLUrbach and RKO36

    I suspect they are WP:SOCKs and if not, they only created these accounts to fool around.

    Fatandloud (talk) 02:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    don't know where they all originated from, but they have also moved onto Jon Heyman and a bit of Evan Roberts as well. A bunch of blocks (or one IP block) may be in order.--brewcrewer (yada, yada) 05:43, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Here's more with diffs NKC2228 98.116.0.67 24.151.80.130 70.23.207.102

    Fatandloud (talk) 16:46, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Remove Inka 888 from twinkleBlacklist?

    A while back Inka 888 was added to the twinkle blacklist for misuse and a high level of incompetence. Since then Inka has made huge progress with the help of mentor Intelati (talk · contribs) and a few talk page stalkers, myself included. So I'm proposing that Inka be removed from the blacklist. Let's see what everyone thinks. Access Denied  04:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I would Say Inka has made incredible progress, and has just a short mentoring term left. As his mentor I would say let him get acquainted with Huggle and rollback for one week, then on 10/25/2010 UTC time, remove his name from the blacklist. This is to alliviate any overload of "New things".--Talktome 04:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have taken a look at his edits since he started using Huggle on the 17th and it seems he has been doing a good job, no mistakes. I do believe, though, that Inka already has TWINKLE with this edit, which could possibly be a go around of the blacklist or him using Friendly (since it is being merged with TWINKLE). In the last three days, this is the only instance of TWINKLE use, so I am guessing (and hoping) that it is Friendly use.
    Otherwise, I do believe the wait to get "acquainted" with Huggle and rollback should wait a month. I also believe that mentorship should not end at a specified time, but should be until Intelati feels Inka is ready. When I was under mentorship, it didn't end for almost 6 months. We don't want Inka slipping back into old habits. I also feel that once mentorship does end, Intelati and others should check in periodically to see how Inka is doing, check for mistakes, problems, make comments, even give barnstars if needed. My mentor still does that with me from time to time, but not as often as before. - NeutralhomerTalk05:22, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    For your pondering: When I read this, I checked the blacklist. A large number of the people there are no longer active at all. Some have not edited for over a year, others seem to have retired. We might want to reorder the list so that the active users show up first, as the line goes on for a while. That or cull the list of the inactive users. Either way it was very hard to read down the full list. Then again my screen isn't that large, but still. Sven Manguard Talk 06:46, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Per above, the full list. I suggest in the future that new additions are added at the beginning, rather than the end, of the list, at the very least.

    1. "Dilip rajeev", active
    2. "Jackmantas", last seen Aug 08
    3. "Flaming Grunt", last seen May 09
    4. "Catterick", indef blocked Aug 09
    5. "44 sweet", last seen Aug 09
    6. "Sarangsaras", indef blocked Sept 09
    7. "WebHamster", indef blocked Nov 09
    8. "Radiopathy", active
    9. "Nezzadar", last seen Dec 09
    10. "Darrenhusted", active
    11. "Notpietru", last seen Mar 10
    12. "Arthur Rubin", active
    13. "Wuhwuzdat", active
    14. "MikeWazowski", active
    15. "Lefty101", last seen May 10
    16. "Bender176", indef blocked Jun 10
    17. "Tej smiles", possibly active
    18. "Bigvernie", possibly active
    19. "TK-CP", active
    20. "NovaSkola", active
    21. "Inka 888", subject of this ANI
    22. "Polaron", active
    23. "SluggoOne" possibly active

    Sven Manguard Talk 07:03, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Aw shucks Sven, now you have to advise every single editor in that list that you have mentioned them at ANI ... (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 20:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I doubt it's necessary. We aren't discussing them, only the list they are on. If we go into their individual merits, then it will become necessary to tell them. Sven Manguard Talk 00:14, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Aaron Rubashkin

    Resolved – WP:DRV is the place to continue this discussion, article G10'd as an attack page - even the title has no reliable sources AFAICS. Black Kite (t) (c) 08:30, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I'd like to ask the admins to have a look at this version of Aaron Rubashkin. Scroll down to the "Family" section. What was the point of that long list of everyone in his extended family? How many of them might be minors? As far as I can tell from the edit history, the editor who added them was Ajnem (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log). The list has been deleted, but it's still in the history. I think someone should revdelete or oversight all problem versions of the page. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 04:42, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    And could someone rule on the speedy nomination of Rubashkin crime family? --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 04:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I think you meant this version of Aaron Rubashkin. All of the Agriprocessors related articles are pretty troublesome and need eyes on them. Sean.hoyland - talk 04:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes, Sean, you linked to the same version of the article I did (16:51 UTC, 18 October 2010). And agree that all those articles need eyes on them. That would include Agriprocessors, Postville Raid, Milton Balkany, Sholom Rubashkin, and Moshe Rubashkin. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 04:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    ...and Aaron, that was the bit I changed. Sean.hoyland - talk 05:00, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Oops, yeah, corrected. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 05:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    We also have Category:Rubashkin family. A kosher salami if you can guess who created it... and included it in Category:Crime families. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 05:03, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    <Sigh> Pritzker family has a similar list, including a kid born in 1994. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 05:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    HELLO What does it take to get a G10 attack page deleted? This has been here over an hour. Usually this kind of thing is acted on in minutes. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 05:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    • I'm quite here. I'm not entirely sure how to act: it's been blanked which is good, but I'm somewhat involved, so don't want to act on it. I think the large amount of discussion is what holding it up. NativeForeigner /Contribs 06:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    You're only involved because you made the mistake of commenting on the AFD, an AFD that was filed specifically to derail a clear-cut, BLP violating, G10 speedy. So, you fell into the trap and the disruption worked. I'll repeat here what I said there. CSD clearly says "Both the page title and page content may be taken into account in assessing an attack." No source calls them the Rubashkin Crime Family. That attack was dreamed up by the editor who created the article. This isn't even a tough call. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 07:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yeah, pretty much. NativeForeigner /Contribs 14:55, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    G10 applies. Speedied. --Courcelles 07:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Entirely improperly, during a perfectly normal AfD -- and now non-admins will be unable to see exactly why deletion was inappropriate here. This is an abuse of admin powers and I request that the deletion be reversed so that the AfD can be decided by the community in the normal way. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 07:39, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    We don't have AfDs on articles that are deleted as G10, which fairly clearly applies in this case. The correct location is WP:DRV now. Black Kite (t) (c) 08:30, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    The reason this should still be at AN/I is that it was speedied while an AfD was in progress, in clear violation of WP:GD: "Speedy delete, Speedy or CSD mean that the user thinks the article qualifies for one of the narrow speedy deletion criteria. If there are no objections, the deletion discussion may be closed early. If the decision is contested, the AFD discussion continues." Really, it ought to be obvious that this was improper and the AfD should be reopened, with deletion following community consensus in the normal way. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 08:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Bullshit. The AFD was started on top of the speedy notice for the obvious purpose of derailing a clear-cut speedy. You can't interfere with an obvious speedy by trying to yap it to death at AFD. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 08:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Bullshit yourself. That's exactly what can be done. Declining a speedy and requesting a full discussion at AfD is entirely normal, and short-circuiting that by interfering with an AfD is explicitly proscribed. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 09:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Not true: Pages that are unsourced and negative in tone, especially when they appear to have been created to disparage the subject, should be deleted at once if there is no policy-compliant version to revert to... Furthermore......If the entire page is substantially of poor quality, primarily containing contentious material that is unsourced or poorly sourced, then it may be necessary to delete the entire page as an initial step, followed by discussion. . Even if you dispute the plain language requiring deletion, it's not even close to "admin abuse". --Calton | Talk 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I mean, if you'd like to take up the fight of your personal interpretation of a bureaucratic procedure -- and your adding "clear" to your term "violation" doesn't change that essential character -- versus Foundation-level policy regarding WP:BLPs, be my guest, but I suspect it won't end well. --Calton | Talk 09:15, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict)If the article was G10'd for being an attack page that is entirely proper. Per WP:IAR and common sense. Because it is a BLP this trumps many of the normal rules, and calling them a "crime family" is a clear BLP attack violation --Errant 09:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    At least you're acknowledging that "normal rules" call for a different outcome/process here -- "common sense" indeed.... I did quote WP:GD correctly, right? Nomoskedasticity (talk) 09:21, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, I'm telling you the correct process was employed here. --Errant 09:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, "normal rules" -- as I've quoted -- call for immediate deletion. Which was done. No "admin abuse", normal procedure. You have a problem with that? Click --> here. --Calton | Talk 09:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    NOW, could someone please go to that version of Aaron Rubashkin I linked to in my very first post (you know, the one that give the names of about 30 members of his extended family) and tell me if anything should be revdeleted or oversighted? --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 09:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Philip Baird Shearer - block review

    Cirt has pledged to avoid certain actions, concerns expressed later are valid but do not require immediate admin action appropriate for this noticeboard. Are we done? Franamax (talk) 01:43, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

    Would an uninvolved admin care to take a look at a block noted at User talk:Philip Baird Shearer#October 2010, apparantly for re-adding merge templates to a couple of articles apparantly against the consensus at a talk page. Was it tendentious editing? Did it deserve a block? --Tagishsimon (talk) 10:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    My attention has been drawn to the block of Philip Baird Shearer by Cirt. An unblock request is pending on his talkpage, on which I have commented. Further review of this block is requested. The blocking administrator is aware of this thread. Newyorkbrad (talk) 10:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I will admit to not being a fan of the blocking admin, Cirt, but even so blocking another admin, and a long standing previously unblocked one too, ages after the event seems grossly unfair, especially as it is debatable and borderline blocking offence. I am also concerned that Cirt hand picked his reviewing admin, GWH. Giacomo  10:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    GWH did not actually decline or accept the unblock request. I would say that Giano's description as "not being a fan of the blocking admin" is understated, just a tad bit, see . Cheers, -- Cirt (talk) 10:46, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I am concerned over the circumstances here. The block itself was delayed which argues more for a punitive block rather than a protective one. And any way you cut it, the blocking admin handpicked the reviewer. Whether that's bad or not is subject to debate but it certainly looks bad. As far as the actions that led to the block I am not particularly persuaded that either side is correct but the timing and review are lacking I think. JodyB talk 11:00, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Please note above, the "reviewer" did not actually do a formal review, which is still pending. -- Cirt (talk) 11:01, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Cirt why did you feel it necessary to contact another administrator to review you decision? If that was necessary why did you not contact me first and discuss you concerns before blocking my account? Do you not see that there is a breach of ethics in pacing a block on an fellow editor and then soliciting someone you know, via a method for which no log exists, to review your decision? Do you not see that there is a potential conflict of interests in such actions? Do you always do this? If not, how often do you do it, and why did you do this time? -- PBS (talk) 12:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I contacted an admin I highly respect to take a look at the matter. This admin responded, but did not actually accept or decline the actual unblock request. -- Cirt (talk) 12:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Do you always do this? If not, how often do you do it, and why did you do this time? -- PBS (talk) 12:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    No. Not often. Because I highly respect the admin and wanted his take on the behavior pattern of the blocked user. -- Cirt (talk) 12:22, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    FWIW, the block has now been lifted by the blocking admin, after an agreement by the bloker and the blocked in respect of future actions on the articles in question. --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Regards to above re review, see comment from Shell Kinney (talk · contribs): "As far as other admins reviewing; the unblock template should attract some more." Cheers, -- Cirt (talk) 11:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    That is what CAT:RFUB is for, and it is also why GWH did not actually accept or decline the unblock request. -- Cirt (talk) 11:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

     Done, unblocked, per this reply to my unblock offer. The unblock offer was suggested by Newyorkbrad (talk · contribs), proposed by myself, and accepted by Philip Baird Shearer (talk · contribs). Cheers, -- Cirt (talk) 11:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    It was recorded on my talk page that Cirt in the words of Georgewilliamherbert he was "pinged by Cirt out of band to independently review " and I thank Georgewilliamherbert for his review. However this communication via a method which is not logged on Misplaced Pages, is something I find most concerning, because I have always assumed that an an administrator who was reviewing a blocked account was not solicited by the administrator who had put on the block. Maybe I'm naive but I had assumed that administrators who reviewed the block were in no way connected to the blocking administrator (and turned up through the random process of looking at whatever category has a list of pending blocks or some other equally random occurrence -- shows how often I get involved with bocks and unblocks), because AFAICT without such restraint natural justice goes out of the window. -- PBS (talk) 11:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Newyorkbrad thank you for your intervention as a facilitator of a compromise, by how did Cirt draw you attention to the block because your edit history and the edit history of Cirt do not appear to show any communication between the two of you immediately prior to your intervention (I will be happy to be shown that I am wrong and that I have missed the exchange in the edit histories). -- PBS (talk) 11:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    @Philip Baird Shearer, note comment of Newyorkbrad: "My attention has been drawn to this block..." - so some as yet unnamed individual pinged him offwiki, to draw his attention to the matter. I chatted with him after that. -- Cirt (talk) 11:50, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Where did you chat with him? -- PBS (talk) 12:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    On gmail chat. -- Cirt (talk) 12:10, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Cirt higher up this page Newyorkbrad wrote "My attention has been drawn to the block of Philip Baird Shearer by Cirt." are you contradicting Newyorkbrad when you write "so some as yet unnamed individual pinged him offwiki" or were you the person who pinged him? -- PBS (talk) 12:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Looks like an ambiguously placed modifier. The phrase could be read as either "attention has been drawn by X to the block of Y" or "attention has been drawn to the block by X of Y". The latter seems to me more likely in this case. Gimmetoo (talk) 13:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I responded to this already to you, below. I was not. Someone else must have pinged him. Then I established chat with him after that, and chatted with him about the situation. -- Cirt (talk) 12:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It looks like at least one unblock request existed on your talkpage after the block, and that places you in a category of users requesting unblocks. Several of us tend to those pages, though in complex situations some may not act on the unblock entirely independently. Personally I haven't been around much over the past fews days so I haven't reviewed any unblock requests. Hope this helps. Syrthiss (talk) 11:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I would imagine the answer to Cirt and PBS's question is quite simple: It is my considerable experience that me posting on anyone's talk page several times in a few moments attracts the attention of at least 50 Admins and acouple of Arbs. Sometimes it works to my advantage and sometimes to my correspondent's - very occasionally to the advantage of both. The alternative is that Brad and I are in a secret liasion to undermine and destroy Misplaced Pages - he is Mr Nice and I, Mr Nasty. There again Brad could be my sock. I will leave it to all to decide which is the most likely scenario.  Giacomo  12:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    That is how I understood the system worked, I do not see it matters how complex the situation is, involved administrators should not review other cases and the blocking administrator should defiantly no be soliciting reviews. I am very surprised to learn that such behaviour goes on and that some editors condone it. -- PBS (talk) 12:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm not-- apropos of other recent situations, I suggest Cirt work on transparency. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:50, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • My point entirely. Once cannot help remembering the recent block of Malleus Fatuorum (however he spells it) by GWH because Malleus was in dispute with Cirt. A block si contraversial that it drove Malleus from the project. I cast no aspertions, but as I said, one cannot help remembering. Can one?  Giacomo  12:52, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Well, considering Cirt did some offWiki campaigning in that case, yes. I do wish admins had to keep their discussions on Wiki, as is done with FAC business. Admins joining together off-Wiki is a real problem, when we lose one of Wiki's most prolific FA writers, and others are targetted at FAR. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 12:56, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    (od) Without comment on the block on PBS, I suggest that administrators should be reminded that the correct place to seek a block review is on ANI. Soliciting a review off-wiki (or chatting off-wiki for that matter) is, if I may be permitted the understatement, not the most transparent way to review ones actions. --RegentsPark (talk) 13:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I would like to add that same applies to FAC/FAR business: delegates work very hard to make sure those processes are transparent. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    A clarification of the chronology insofar as I am concerned might be helpful. I was reading my mail on Gmail this morning when a Gtalk window opened and an editor asked me to take a look at this block. The editor was not a party to the block (i.e., it was neither Cirt nor Philip Baird Shearer). I do not have this person's permission to identify him (I haven't asked), but I don't think his identity would startle anyone.

    Having been asked to look at the block, I did so and offered my comment on-wiki that I disagreed with it. Both because my attention had been drawn to the block off-wiki and because I found myself in disagreement with at least two other administrators, I did not unblock unilaterally but posted to ANI to call attention to the need for review. (I see above that someone else was doing the same at about the same time.)

    Within a minute of my post on User talk:Philip Baird Shearer, which detailed the reasons I thought this was a bad block, I received an IM from Cirt. During a short conversation, I reiterated my view that the block was problematic, but in a thinking-out-loud mode suggested a possible resolution of the block. Cirt asked if he could mention on-wiki that it was my suggestion and I said this was okay. As noted above, Philip Baird Shearer accepted the proposed resolution and Cirt unblocked on that basis. Frankly, the resulting log entry for the unblock is probably less than the complete vindication that Philip Baird Shearer was probably entitled to, but there's not much to be done about that at this point.

    For what it is worth, I adhere to my view that blocks of good-faith editors should almost invariably be preceded by a specific warning. This is true in the case of any editor, and certainly it was true here in the case of an editor who has been editing since 2003 with a completely clean block log and a very solid editing history. In addition, this is also a reminder that it is very important that any block message contain enough information so that both the blocked user and anyone reviewing the block has a clear and complete explanation of the reasons for the block. Newyorkbrad (talk) 14:15, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Thanks for the clarification (corrected a minor typo above). I hope it's not a secret that I abhor off-Wiki attempts to influence a FAC or FAR, and think admin discussions off-Wiki are even more despicable. I hate IRC, chat, and don't even know how to find IRC, but the issue here is that some admins often discuss actions off-Wiki, and Cirt seems to be one of those; it now appears that GWH may also benefit from thinking more about transparency. Agree with Rd232 that a transparency essay might be useful. I'll also add that, considering my past interactions, I'm surprised that PBS has no block log, but that is neither here nor there-- I'm not a fan of some of his past behavior, but this block was still wrong. Just not quite as wrong as what recently happened to Malleus. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    This seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill, at least in terms of GWH being asked to do a review. As long as this was not intended to interfere with the usual unblock request review process, there's no harm in an admin soliciting a second opinion, as long as it is clear that the opinion has been solicited. More concerning is the block itself, which it is fairly clear should never have happened. People (admins are people too...) do make mistakes, but acting in this way in these circumstances is quite a substantial one, and should give the blocking admin pause to think about how he ended up at this juncture. As ever, if there are genuine concerns that a specific issue is actually part of a pattern, WP:RFC/U is that way. PS I was looking for an essay on transparency or on/off-wiki communication; there doesn't seem to be one. Perhaps someone would like to create Misplaced Pages:On Transparency. Rd232 14:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Maybe it's available elsewhere ...  pablo 14:52, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Since editors can be blocked through community consensus on ANI, can admins be desysopped here as well? Quantpole (talk) 15:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Seems an extreme sort of reaction.. however I believe the proper de-sysopping process is via an RFC. I concur with rd232 - this was a bad block, but subsequently sorted out fine. The issue of off-wiki comms should be addressed as a wider issue - and formally. --Errant 15:10, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It would be extreme if it was limited to one issue. I still don't understand why blocking has less hurdles than desysopping when admin tools are supposedly not a big deal. Quantpole (talk) 15:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Without commenting on the admin in question, current policy only allows for desysoping by Arbcom. Even an RFC is only a step in the process leading to an RFARB, (barring the sort of action that Arbcom deals with as an emergency desysop.)--Cube lurker (talk) 15:20, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Oh getting an admin de-sysopped is an immense rigmarole, they rarely fall on their swords with honour and they all stick together like glue. Much better just to identify the corrupt ones, be aware of who they are, then ultimately avoid them and the areas theu inhabit. When they are vindictive, like Cirt, that too is obvious and people see it right away after the first few incidences. Oh and of course it was moi who "pinged" Brad and raised the profile of the block. Had I not, Cirt would still have him in his prison - or does anyone doubt that? It's what I do best round here - get people out of prison who have been wrongly banged up.  Giacomo  15:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    <ec>Why are admin rights deemed more important than the basic right to edit? Quantpole (talk) 15:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm not commenting on this issue in particular but... I suppose the theory, which I don't entirely disagree with, is that once an editor has received admin tools they are trusted by consensus of the community. The problem is that it sometimes does not take much for an admin to piss off a (vocal) subset of the community by applying the communities rules (which is what we ask them to do). So, by making de-sysopping a reasonable hurdle it avoids "weekly" AN/I threads along the lines of "propose de-sysopping of...". I suppose the rationale is that if an admin is so off-kilter that they are wheel-warring or otherwise outrageously misusing their tools in a way that fundamentally damages the wiki other admins will block them to avoid further disruption. Otherwise the normal procedures for the application of sanctions applies; except that the decision is made slightly further up the chain than a simple RFC & community sanctions. --Errant 15:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well any consensus here would need enacting by a bureaucrat (I presume) who should be able to judge whether it is just a subset of the community with a grudge or not. Personally, I consider the incorrect blocking of two established users in the matter of a few days something which does fundamentally damage wikipedia. Quantpole (talk) 15:56, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Again just on the technical aspect, Crats do not have the ability/authority to desysop. They can flip the switch on, but it takes a steward to flip it off. Stewards won't do that on community requests, only self requests, or official Arbcom requests.--Cube lurker (talk) 16:04, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    An RFC/U with wide community participation and strong consensus in favour of desysopping provides the basis for a request to Arbcom to be approved quickly. I've no idea if that is a complete over-reaction here or not, but if there are issues, an RFC/U can clarify them even if it doesn't lead to desysopping. Rd232 16:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Giacomo, I'm shocked! Struck my GWH comment above. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Shocked that I asked an Arb to take a look the usual pile of backstage goings-on and Admin reluctance to address an issue, or shocked that such things go on? Admins had had quite long enough to addres the issue. If I were not taking a keen interest in young Master Cirt and his dreadful behaviour, PBS would still be blocked - not that I have much sympathy with Admins who find themselves on the wrong end of an unjust block, but I suppose one must treat all equally. Such is my lovely, generous nature.  Giacomo  17:59, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm not sure what the big deal is with contacting other admins for review out-of-band (IRC, gmail chat, email, etc). I don't do IRC regularly, I typically am sitting behind firewalls that won't let me do it. But quite a large number of admins do that. Many admins and a few arbcom members of the past gmail chat me, I get such roughly on a weekly basis. I also get email from editors, administrators, current and past arbcom members, and Foundation staff regularly.
    When Cirt pings me and asks for a review (which does happen moderately regularly out of the total spectrum of contacts I get) I try to consistently indicate "I was contacted and asked to review...". If the contact might form an involvement of some sort that would mean I'm not unbiased I won't act to (for example) deny an unblock.
    There seems to be some question out there about whether last week's thing with Cirt and Malleus involved some outside contact - it did not. I also did criticize Cirt for engaging in mutual combat before it degenerated into the block situation; see my original comment and my reply to SandyGeorgia from that thread.
    As I said on PBS' talk page - Cirt did contact me last night asking for review, but because I have PBS' user/talk on my watchlist (And no, I don't know / recall for how long or for what reason, but I have around 1500 named accounts userpages watchlisted) I saw the block as it happened and went and did a quick review including checking diffs and looking at the relevant talk page histories for a while before Cirt had contacted me. I had concluded that the block was "ok" - I told Cirt (and posted on PBS' talk page) that I would probably not have blocked myself, but that I found the behavior disruptive, and I had concluded that prior to Cirt contacting me.
    It seems to be somewhat lost in all the discussion above about undue influence that I did not in any way deny the active unblock request. I commented on what I felt the problem was, below the unblock request, but didn't deny it. The entire time it was active on the requested unblocks list and admins who watch that should have been aware and reviewing to the degree they regularly do. At any point they could have involved themselves, and nothing I did nor Cirt did would have interfered with that, other than giving them more context and opinions to review on the situation.
    If people feel that there needs to be more transparency on requested reviews by other admins, I support that. As I said, when people ask me to review and it wasn't requested on-wiki (and even most times it is requested on-wiki) I try and make that clear when I get involved. If you search my wiki and user space contributions for "requested to review" you will see quite a number of hits.
    I don't see that level of general disclosure by admins when it's email conversations or IRC involved. I believe that what I disclose is better than normal practice here and is transparent under any reasonable definition. If there are any questions I am happy to answer them either here or privately. I do need to be clear on one point - I don't keep chat logs, so I can't substantiate times or dates on conversations, if that is an issue. But pose any questions you may have. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 19:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    and who exactly are you to know these things? Besides which I was addressing the organ grinder not his monkey.  Giacomo  19:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Admins go on powertrips all the time. It is a fairly standard consequence of human nature, as documented in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Misplaced Pages's mechanisms for limiting the syndrome are extremely poor. Noloop (talk) 19:53, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Saying that User:Philip_Baird_Shearer should be unblocked as time served, please use more discussion. Off2riorob (talk) 19:56, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think you will find he was unblocked some hours ago. a little late to the party, i would go home to bed if I were you.  Giacomo  19:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Break

    This was clearly a bad block, that I think is beyond dispute. The two real issues are A) did Cirt hand pick a reviewer? If he did so what? I've asked people to review my work (both admin and non-admin.) Just because you ask somebody to review your work does not mean that person is going to give you a pass and agree with you. The other issue B) is off-wiki communications. I'm not a big fan of it either and encourage communications to be on wiki. That being said, I don't think any of us who have our email enabled have 100% of our communications on-wiki. Usually they are quick responses and done with. I'm certain that NYB/Cirt didn't think their conversation would turn into WikipediaGate. Do I have preferences for on wiki? Definitely, but I think this is a little over the top. So unless you want to move to desysop, which I don't think this lone mistake is worthy of, then I think we should just pack our bags and mark this resolved.---Balloonman 20:03, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    It's not over the top when too much admin business is conducted off-Wiki without transparency-- clearly it causes problems, particularly with admins who regularly engage in such. FAC stays clean because we don't do that: people in trusted positions should avoid it as much as possible, that is, only limited to situations that require extreme confidentiality for valid reasons that would cause harm to individuals or the encyclopedia. About that essay on Transparency-- it seems to me that it's needed. Also, Balloonman, you won't find out if this is a "lone mistake" by marking this thread closed-- that would be another example of how things get brushed under the rug when admins join ranks. I see Giano is blocked again, but I'm reminded that neither Giano nor Malleus were inclined to hold their tongues when they saw this sort of thing going down. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:16, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Notice, I didn't mark it closed... but unless other cases pertaining to Cirt and abuse of offline correspondence are brought up, then keeping this open is beating a dead horse. Does too much happen offline? Yes, I completely agree. I hate IRC and like you have never been there. That being said, I think NYB's description of the events is very believable and that neither of them thought much of it at the time. I am neither a fan of nor a critic of Cirt, but unless you (generic) intend to take this to the next stage and make a call for his de-adminship, then this has reached a natural conclusion. Do you, SandyGeorgia, believe that there is sufficeint grounds to pursue the desysopping of Cirt over this incident?---Balloonman 20:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think there have been other indications of problems with Cirt's conduct, and this is one symptom that may be part of a bigger pattern. However, the broader issue of lack of transparency among admins is worthy of discussion, not only for the Cirt/PBS issue, but also the recent Malleus issue. Too much gets swept under the rug here, and those who call it out end up becoming increasingly vocal and getting blocked; I say, stop ignoring them, and acknowledge the problems, often caused by a lack of transparency. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    As I stated, I received no contact off-wiki related to the recent Malleus issue.
    I received an email regarding the Sept 29th warning to Malleus ( an unrelated incident ) from another administrator, not Cirt. Prior to that, I have emails from a thread I started on Wikien-L after Rodhullandemu retired (briefly) after his not-good block of Malleus in the July 12 timeframe. Those are all in the archive. I do not recall having had a google chat about Malleus in the last six months, with Cirt or anyone else, though as I said I don't keep logs so I can't confirm that or refresh my memory.
    Regarding Cirt contacting me - I strongly encourage admins to seek second opinions on their actions. Whether that is a private IRC or gmail chat, an email, posting to ANI, posting to another admins' talk page on-wiki - the more review we do the better we are at finding issues and giving and accepting feedback. This is a good thing.
    We don't want people deciding things in secret off-wiki Cabals. But asking for feedback is not making decisions. Suggesting that we shouldn't ask for feedback is outright wrong. We need it - we need more of it, if anything. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 20:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    And what is wrong with asking for it on Wiki where everyone can see it-- maybe even right here in the very place designed for such? Unless one is asking one's most ... what was it Cirt said ... highly respected contacts ... that is, admins more likely to see things one's own way? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sandy (and B-man) I've been at the #admins IRC channel and "it is boring, so dreadfully boring, I want to be a lion-tamer, yes a lion-tamer" :) Private or semi-private channels are good for contacting people quickly, informally discussing wiki concepts and attitudes, letting off steam - and yes, asking someone to review your actions as an admin. The caveat is that you can't use those channels for on-wiki action or justification, if you want to co-ordinate, do it in main-channel where we all can see it. GWH's review or lack thereof conveys precisely nothing. If GWH were to publish here his findings, I would expect him to explain the provenance of the initial question. Yes, off-wiki communication is sometimes bad but everyone does it and it's nice being able to say "Isn't xxx a bit of an asshole?" and hear back that "yep, but I was thinking more a total jerk". There's nothing wrong with asking someone you trust to look at something - and if they are really trustworthy, they won't wrongfully comply with your wishes or even agree with you at all anyway. Franamax (talk) 21:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "but everyone does it and it's nice being able to say "Isn't xxx a bit of an asshole?"" I don't -- I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Wikiepdians I have contacted by email in the last five years all of those have been bilateral communications about bilateral content issue -- with one exception where I think that the person we discussed is/was insane and it would not have been correct or sensitive to communicate that opinion where such a statement could be read by the person under discussion. In no case where I have contacted someone or they me, have we ever discussed another user in disparaging terms, so strike one from your list. -- PBS (talk) 22:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It is so pleasant to be able to agree with SandyGeorgia for a change!
    Georgewilliamherbert as far as I recollect I have never had any contact with you what so ever. So I am puzzled as to why my talk page should be on your watch list (any user pages I watch are there because of a previous conversation I have had with them and I can look at the logs of the pages to find out when that interaction started to date how long they have there there).
    You have on your user page that you are "A member of the unblock-en-l mailing list volunteers" what is that?
    You wrote "I'm not sure what the big deal is with contacting other admins for review out-of-band (IRC, gmail chat, email, etc)." It is a big deal because of transparency. I appreciate that occasionally there may be a good reason for an off page bilateral discussion, but that should be very much the exception not the rule. For example you write "When Cirt pings me and asks for a review (which does happen moderately regularly out of the total spectrum of contacts I get)" why do you think Cirt does not make those requests on your talk page? Why did you not reply via his/her talk page?
    Personally if a blocking admin asked my to review their decision I would decline because the moment they asked me to do so, in my opinion I would no longer appear to be a disinterested party (it falls under Catch 22). I would have thought that this is obvious, but if it is not obvious to you then ask me on my talk page.
    The problem we now have as a community is that in future whenever Cirt, blocks a user account any person may legitimately ask of the reviewing administrator "did Cirt solicit you to review this block?" and because of the acknowledged use of communications other than the talk pages (and this and similar forum) ... which is why "contacting other admins for review out-of-band" is a big deal. -- PBS (talk) 21:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    As I said on your talk page - I have no recollection of why your talk page is on my watchlist.
    (digging in) Ah... Diving into your archives shows these from 2007:
    As I said, I have 3,000ish user pages watchlisted, of which about 1,500 are named accounts.
    Regarding being asked to look qualifying one as an involved party - I agree with Balloonman below. I disclose such requests when made; in your case, I chose not to action the unblock request per se, only comment on the situation, to avoid appearance of impropriety in taking an actual admin review action, though I left my opinion on the situation. I disagree that being willing to listen to and respond to such requests makes me automatically biased; I generally agree with admin actions I'm asked to review, but I generally agree with most that come up at ANI or on other pages.
    As I said, before Cirt asked me, I saw the block on my watchlist and checked on the situation and had concluded that there was some disruption. I posted that because Cirt asked privately for a public review. When I posted I disclosed the contact. I don't do requested reviews without disclosing it, as a rule. If someone's afraid that I'm unduly connected to Cirt somehow, go look at my unblock review history and/or ANI history for disclosures of requests to review and see what I said. I'm not unwilling to ask Cirt to undo something or criticize them politely if it's called for.
    There seems to be a fear that I'm covering for or doing back room deals for Cirt. The same fear could be said of Fred Bauder, Newyorkbrad, Jimmy Wales, Guy, Tony, Allison, SV, Jay, or dozens of others who I have emailed or google messaged in the last year. Or for that matter, met in person at Foundation HQ or functions, or the Maker Faire booth, etc. It would be hard to count all the people I'm in contact with off-wiki at some level.
    Other than privacy related Arbcom notifications, unblock-en-l, which is an official and confidential function, and OTRS, which is an official Foundation function and confidential, if anyone I've been in contact with offlist thinks I have been acting inappropriately or attempting to do back-room deals then I give my permission for you to bring it up and discuss any problematic correspondence. If anyone in those confidential channels things I'm doing something wrong you can discuss it generally but please don't break the official confidentiality without reviewing if user private data or related issues are involved in the email.
    If you're concerned that Cirt's doing something untoward, or concerned about their admin behavior, feel free to talk to them about it and if that's not satisfactory start a RFC. I have an opinion, which is that generally I agree with Cirt's administrative actions and trust their judgement. That's not a blanket "They never do anything wrong". I wouldn't say that about anyone on-wiki (myself muchly included - Feedback needs to go both ways, and I certainly don't pretend that I never make mistakes). If you have a strong contrary opinion then take up the issue.
    Regarding what unblock-en-l is - it's the email mailing list for block appeals, the first tier of appeals being the unblock request on user talk pages, the second tier being email to unblock-en-l, the third is Arbcom, the fourth is the Foundation, the fifth is Jimmy. The first three are listed in the block template (unblock request format) and the block message that comes up when you try and edit (the emails to unblock-en-l and Arbcom as second and third tiers). It's an official function and has confidential user data and names disclosed regularly, so it's not an open list or open membership. I'm sort of surprised you hadn't heard of it...
    Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 21:59, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    PBS, a person who is contacted CAN review the admin actions of another person and do so objectively. Now, just like participation in an AFD/RfC, if your input is solicited, you should disclose said solicitation AND your voice will probably weigh in more if you disagree with the person who contacted you. For example, a few weeks ago, I was contacted by somebody wanting input on a WQA report. In my response, I disclosed that my input was solicited and I told the person who contacted me that they were in the wrong. If an admin came to me asking me to review their action, I would take that request as implicit permission to reverse their action if I disagreed with it. Should it be online, I would like it to be, I don't like IRC/off-wiki communications, but that is not a requirement.---Balloonman 21:22, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Another concern I have (related to the two diffs I listed above) is about the integrity of the FAC and FAR processes wrt Cirt's off-Wiki behavior. The downward trend at FAR was advanced by now-indeffed or banned or whatever Mattisse (talk · contribs), yet Cirt seems to be continuing that trend of targetting Geogre/Bish/Giano FAs. Who else is Cirt backchanneling with? Sorry to all of you who engage in chat, IRC, or whatever, but FAC and FAR stay clean because we don't do that-- my actions, solicitations for input, opinions, whatever, are on Wiki where others can take me to task if they don't like 'em. And the arbs are aware of one FAC-- where I had to backchannel to guard confidentiality-- where someone was clearly stirring a pot backchannel, and I don't appreciate FAC being undermined in that way. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have no problem with discussing the subject of IRC/off channel communications, but as far as I am concerned this issue is resolved. Unfortunately, off-wiki communications is not against policy or practice. We may not like it, but we can't punish Cirt for not following an policy/guideline that doesn't exist. If you want to start and RfC on the subject, and use Malleus/Cirt as examples, that's fine there are scores of other examples that can be brought up as well. But I can't see any sanctions against Cirt for failing to follow what we (and I agree with you) feel should be. Thus, IMO, the thread is going no where.---Balloonman 21:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    What's this Malleus / Cirt thing? Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 22:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    <groan> pleeeeease say you didn't say that, GWH. You blocked Malleus for the fallout over the Malleus/Cirt thing. Then Sarek blocked him when John told stories about Malleus that were, well, untrue, and Malleus said as much. Now Malleus is gone, and all he was trying to do was restore a FAR when he was called "lazy". SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:26, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    That's not the question - I recall that incident quite well, thank you. The question is, what does that have to do with off-wiki conversations? There were none there. Several people have said something along those lines above; I have said above and repeat again now, there were none in that incident... Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 22:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well, at the risk of repeating myself (I explained this above), let's see ... that was yet another G/B/G FAR started by Cirt, continuing a trend started by Mattisse, who (redacted to clarify) continues to e-mail some of her "plague list" and likely also her allies. Malleus was hard at work, trying to satisfy Cirt on that FAR, who apparently wouldn't be satisfied, and then the "lazy" comment happened, then John said untrue things about Malleus, Malleus rightly questioned his English, and the rest is history. As I said elsewhere in this thread, I hope Cirt isn't continuing Mattisse's disruption at FAR, and am glad s/he has decided to leave the GBG FAs alone. This is a question of people who do their bidding off-Wiki, and that includes FAR. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:48, 19 October 2010 (UTC) Redacted to clarify. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict) (with update of above)
    Ok... Please keep off-wiki discussions about admin actions and reviews thereof and off-wiki discussions about FAR content separate. There seems to be implication at places above that Cirt solicited the block in that incident, which did not happen. I have no knowledge of the FAR activities or what Mattisse is or is not up to in email or elsewhere, other than that Mattisse is (still) blocked. I don't think the other admin who blocked, nor either unblocker, are FAR people (though I don't know so, I don't hang out at FAR). Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 22:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sorry for the confusion-- agree the two cases became confused. But, we're getting to the heart of the matter, that is affecting content contributors, now. Often admins and arbs aren't aware of what is going on in the trenches where articles are written, and content contributors are unfairly blocked, when those of us doing the work see the problems quite clearly. Malleus is an editor who worked his arse off, not only on the FAs he noms, but for others as well, and that admins don't seem to understand how the "lazy" comment hit him is disturbing. Then for John to so badly misrepresent Malleus right here at ANI, and for Malleus to be blocked for questioning his English is just plain insulting, and no restitution has been made to Malleus. Y'all really think that for someone to overturn these unfair blocks makes everything hunky-dory? All of that started with Cirt's activity at FAR, where G/B/G FAs are frequently targeted instead of truly deficient FAs. The only overlap between these two cases (PBS and MF) is that both Sarek and Cirt are involved in both. But the point is that admins are affecting content contributors when they aren't in the trenches and don't usually know what behaviors are feeding conflict. Yet those of us in the trenches see it all very clearly, but are treated unequally here at ANI-- note that Malleus's second block originated here at ANI, just as Giano's block did! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    There seems to be an undercurrent here that if someone's a really good content contributor, they will or should get a pass on user behavior stuff. Arbcom and the community have forcefully rebutted that argument, repeatedly. I appreciate Malleus' content contributions - and his feelings about the civility policy, which are honestly contrarian and well thought out. But he keeps poking the bear by being rude to people. A lot.
    The policy is there because both casual and directed nastyness corrode the Misplaced Pages community, driving editors away and making disputes nastier and personalized and much harder to resolve.
    It would help if the peer community of active content people helped convince Malleus and other problematic editors that, even if they disagree with the civility / abuse policies, they need to abide by them. The policy isn't there to create a nanny state where bad words are banned.
    That could have saved Ottava Rima and CoM. It might help save Malleus. The pool of second chances isn't infinitely deep. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 23:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Good grief, we're not really going to go down this path again, are we? This is the same (false) argument given by John that led to Malleus's block when he questioned his English, and that is by no means the undercurrent, nor am I saying that anywhere, although it is a frequent diversionary tactic used by admins here who either don't or can't see the problem, and use that logic to avoid seeing the point. And the same John got away with questioning the mental health of a top FA writer, Ceoil!!! Double standards. Try re-reading. That admins apply different standards and admins routinely get away with more than any lowly editor can doesn't mean content contributors get a free pass-- it means admins get a free pass. And by the way, if you think one's contributions don't matter to the arbs, I suggest you re-read all of NYB's comments, and consider how long they let the Mattisse situation go on (in contrast, for the record, when I was involved in an arbcase, they declined to put forward a positive finding about my contributions, curiously, yet they do it for Mattisse, Ottava, etc-- there's another mystery for 'ya-- I've got a clean block record). And I don't think many content contributors are going to convince Malleus of anything, since many of us are increasingly seeing his point and concerned that something must be done to protect those who actually write articles from those who don't know what kinds of disruptive behaviors occur in the trenches. Please reflect on that. And I object to you labeling Malleus a "problematic editor"-- how much you wanna bet that if you weren't an admin, some overzealous admin would block you for that? Those of us who have worked with him don't find him problematic at all, unless admins are poking him in the eye with a stick, calling him "lazy", or blocking him for questioning the English of someone who misrepresented him to the point of untruthfulness. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:46, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Agree with SG. The point is - it takes a lot of research to understand what is really going on in the trenches on any given issue. A modest degree of rudeness, when taken in isolation, too frequently becomes a basis for ticking off irritated content contributors when the real long term subtle poking, baiting and disruption is missed. Content editors who struggle against this type of thing, often alone, are unlikely to take kindly to having their wrists slapped when the the discussion gets a little blunt.Fainites scribs 23:53, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (Replying primarily to SandyGeorgia) - There is a community standard in play here. It's that people have to be at least minimally polite at least nearly all of the time.
    Again - I encourage content editors in every way possible, BUT, you will not get free passes on that community standard. Good content work, even really good content work, is not an entitlement to screw with the rest of the encyclopedia, including the community standards and our civility and personal attack and abuse policies.
    If that means you quit if we block Malleus or Giano permanently, that's unfortunate. But that's the standard. If there are people disrupting process, call for help before someone gets really rude at them. If that's all outside admins see when we get to the situation, that's what we'll react to. It's really simple.
    This has gone up to the community, for a widescale review of the Civility policy. There was a working consensus that we needed to be enforcing the policy and doing so consistently, including against admins and really good active content editors. That's been happening more and more. It's gone up to Arbcom twice - Ottava and CoM are gone because of that. Giano and Malleus have not modified their behavior - this is eventually going to get to that point, too, if they don't.
    Again - if you feel this is just so wrong that you have to end your FAC work and the FAC groups go on strike or whatever - I'm sorry to see it come to that, but that's your right. It won't protect these guys from getting booted if it keeps up.
    Anything you can do to avoid that happening would be appreciated. Arguing with me won't avoid that happening. Actually modifying those editors' behavior will. If you care about the situation, work on that end of it.
    Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 00:06, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    That straw man is long dead. As Sandy repeatedly said, no one is arguing that good content contributors should get a free pass. Could you instead reply to the legitimate issues Sandy brought up in her latest post? Ucucha 00:10, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    (outdent) This is not a straw man.
    I can't comment on particulars of other-directional disruption or abuse because I haven't studied particular incidents. I haven't seen diffs. It's not floating up to ANI in a coherent actionable form and nobody's filing RFCs or arbcom cases on these things. If this is being handled unevenly because of what's happening and where and that being a poor impedance mismatch to ANI-ish admins, that's unfortunate. If you can make the coherent case, then I and others are here listening. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 00:17, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes people have filed ArbCom cases on these things. Repeatedly. Fainites scribs 00:21, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    GWH, you wrote that there is an "undercurrent here that if someone's a really good content contributor, they will or should get a pass on user behavior stuff". Sandy denied that such an undercurrent existed, and did not argue that content contributors should get a free pass; you then proceeded to argue (purportedly in response to her) that content contributors should not get a free pass. I'm not sure how that is not a straw man argument.
    I wouldn't be arguing about these semantics if they didn't illustrate one of the underlying problems. Sandy wrote about "diversionary tactics", and this (whether deliberate or not) seems a perfect example. A few days ago, during the mess concerning Malleus, you appeared to be misrepresenting Malleus's comments (I mentioned that then, and can elaborate on it if you wish); now, you seem to be doing the same. Please consider the arguments Sandy, Malleus, Giano, and some other people are making more carefully—it's more sophisticated than "content contributors should be able to say anything they like".
    You won't get an ANI report in a "coherent actionable form". Not everything can be solved by an ANI report and blocks and warnings etcetera; what I'm rather hoping for is a change in culture. Ucucha 00:33, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    (outdent on old point miles up the page) I think the "second opinion" idea is missing the point. An unblock review is an independent review of a request for an unblock - not a second opinion. A second opinion would be if an admin blocked and then privately wondered if they'd done the right thing and pinged a trusted experienced editor to ask if they thought they'd f....d it up or got the wrong end of the stick in some way. Presumably if the trusted, experienced editor said yes, you'r off the wall here, you could apologise and reverse your actions. That is a human process. However, an independent unblock review is part of a formal process of checks and balances. Fainites scribs 22:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Block review—Grundle2600 socks

    After seeing Gerald Walpin v. Corporation for National and Community Service show up as a blue link, I suspected we had yet more socks of Grundle2600 at work. After deleting the article as a G5, it was recreated by another new account, and edited by another. I have deleted the article again, and salted the title. I also indef-blocked all of the new accounts which created or edited the articles. I'd like to have another admin take a look at xkc125 (talk · contribs), Sarah 227 (talk · contribs), and Romney Wordsworth (talk · contribs), the three accounts blocked. I am absolutely positive about that last one, because of and . I'm pretty sure about the others, but another set of eyes would be appreciated, especially since the usernames don't fit Grundle's pop-culture obsessed pattern. Horologium (talk) 11:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    No doubts there - clearly Grundle on all counts. (Is it worth making an edit filter to catch this idiot's obsession?) Rd232 12:15, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    The first two are outside the pattern, name-wise. I'm not sure if he still logs in to watch his original talk page, but if you posted a msg there or send a note via other means and ask "are these your socks?", he'll give you an honest answer. Tarc (talk) 14:41, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    xkc125's only edit is to create the Walpin article linked above, which very closely matches the content pushed previously into Gerald Walpin. Sarah 227's only edits are to add/fiddle with the infobox in that article. Rd232 14:57, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I know, just sayin it's different/weird, is all. :) Another possibility is either a comrade-in-arms, or someone trying to make Grundle look bad. Tarc (talk) 16:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    WP:MEAT is possible, but trying to make Grundle look bad? The mind boggles. Rd232 16:57, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    At this point, the best a false-socker could hope for would be that he might make him look better... HalfShadow 17:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Kabong! Well, it's always possible that it's a sock of "Chase me dinosaurs" continuing to try to impeach Grundle with false evidence. ←Baseball Bugs carrots17:21, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    There's no point. Grundle is buried so deep right now he'd get out of the hole faster by digging downwards. HalfShadow 17:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yeah, and the Chinese will fix him up :) TMCk (talk) 17:48, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Even there, he might run into a wall. I may be wrong, but I think Grundle is only indef'd, not banned. "Chase me dinosaurs" might be playing a game to try and get him banned. We're still waiting for the outcome of an SPI on "Chase me dinosaurs", so we can't say just yet. ←Baseball Bugs carrots18:01, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, Grundle went from a politics topic-ban to a site ban in April 2010 (Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive607#Request to modify my topic ban). That was when he started with the industrial-strength socking. As for the possible joe job, I can't say, but Grundle is already site-banned with little likelihood of that being overturned (the socking alone is enough to keep him away, and that doesn't even address the editing issues he presented before getting kicked to the curb). Horologium (talk) 18:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (e/c)Nope, he is already banned TMCk (talk) 18:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I see. So, since he's already fully banned, which is the strongest sanction wikipedia can issue, an impostor would have no reason to impostor him unless he's just playing a game (which is certainly possible). ←Baseball Bugs carrots20:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Time to introduce List of Misplaced Pages's most wanted. But seriously, there seems not much what we can do about this disruptive "editor" unless AOL (his provider) would kick-in which is more than unlikely. I don't have a cure for this but if someone thinks they have they should post it. Possible impostors are redundant compared to the quantity of G.'s socks.TMCk (talk) 20:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    All are  Confirmed plus one additional sock. –MuZemike 00:22, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    False use of "Vandalism" edit summary when involved in a content dispute

    I've been asked(1) to bring this matter here. User:Tmorton166 reverted my good faith edit with a summary noting that my good faith contribution, one which reinstated(2) a fellow Wikpedia editor's contribution, was simply "Vandalism".(3)

    Tmorton166 is directly (4) involved in a content discussion regarding this very subject and is well aware that my good faith contribution, in support of other Misplaced Pages editors, is anything but "Vandalism". This is unacceptable and should not be excused, it is precisely this type of abuse that degrades the project, injects incivility and turns away both the contributor directly targeted as well as third parties considering contributing. For the record, this is not a "newbie" issue, I am a long time contributor and have for the last several years had a dynamic ip beginning with 99. I am not a SPA by any stretch of the imagination.

    The callous lie, application of twinkle and or whatever else has now been triggered in addition to my "revert on sight"(5) vandal status has now caused my edits to be reverted by vandalism patrollers(6), which Tmorton166 himself has noted.(7)

    It's easy to Game or wikilawyer someone opposing you on content into a little useless ball of "revert", but it's neither ethical nor does it further the project. My edits were good faith, civil and well supported. 99.144.244.4 (talk) 15:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Good faith or not, I count 4 reverts in less than 24 hours by you between your different IPs, which constitutes as edit warring per WP:3RR. Nymf hideliho! 15:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It may be good faith, 99, but you're edit-warring to restore a completely unacceptable section header for a BLP. Please read that policy; it's important. Thanks, Antandrus (talk) 15:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict)Overview: This IP is persistently editing in a BLP violation claiming (incorrectly) consensus for inclusion on the talk page. I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first few times but persistent re-addition despite numerous requests to desist means I don;t believe he is acting in good faith and the edits are an attempt to BLP vandalise the page. I point out I used Twinkle to revert these changes (not rollback) and although Twinkle refers to this directly as vandlism I used it deliberately to make a point about the escalating severity of my reverting. After the user posted a pretty aggressive message on my talk ending with the words, the utter lack of intellectual integrity you quite obviously possess., I pointed them at AN/I who could weigh in on my actions and hopefully bring more eyes to the article and the header issue. I admit, that on reviewing WP:VAND it may be that this is in fact Tendentious editing (which is no better ;)), however I have no issues reverting it as vandalism with Twinkle - so as a more general question, is this the right approach? --Errant 15:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Everyone needs to go read WP:VAND#NOT, but remember: just because something isn't vandalism, that doesn't mean it's not inappropriate. 3RR is a bright line: do not cross the line unless you understand the narrow limitations for doing so. Jclemens (talk) 15:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec)The OP's edits are not necessarily deliberate vandalism, so the OP has a point. It would be better to label such edits as "BLP violation", for which the OP will have no defense. ←Baseball Bugs carrots15:59, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I strongly consider this a bad faith deliberate attempt to vandalise the article, the IP did not seem to "get it", hence escalating the type of Twinkle revert. However, point taken, so I retract specifically calling it Vandalism and instead substitute "Gross and deliberate BLP violation, tendentious editing". --Errant 16:04, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (Edit Conflict) That's nonsense, my edit restored another editors contribution and is the current, ongoing and long standing subject of discussion. The ONLY opposition to the addition found on the talk page previously consisted of "Convicted for what? ... Come on. This entire thing is ludicrously blown out of proportions..." ... "He's not going to be convicted. There's no evidence. It's clearly part of smear campaign" ... "same exact type investigation is left out of other articles, with a vengence." These are not substantive arguments on which one can base such an outrageous mis-characterization such as the bullshit, "Gross and deliberate BLP violation, tendentious editing". What was it that Joseph Welch said? It seems it would be appropriate here.99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    You've got the same problem there, by saying "deliberate BLP violation", unless you can find statements from the OP admitting to it. Whether it's good faith or bad faith, a BLP violation is a BLP violation. There has been an allegation of rape, but there has been no legal finding that a rape actually occurred. The OP may not understand that distinction. So unless you can find the OP specifically saying, "I don't care, the guy's a rapist, end of story", then AGF requires that you regard his position as good-faith but wrong-headed. ←Baseball Bugs carrots16:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well, if the overwhelming insistence is that I retract such an opinion, I will have to do so. But I extremely strongly disagree. AGF is not a license, it is not infinite. The editor reinserted a variation on a header that various IP's (I do not believe this IP) have been trying to get into the article for a while. They were told very clearly a number of times about why the header was innapropriate and they still insisted on inserting it, claiming there was no opposition, they had consensus, it was supported by RS's or that it was censorship to remove it. I was happy to consider it misguided initially, but now (given their clear understanding of WP policy and admission of longer editing history) I believe they are editing in bad faith. shrug, I want them to be aware of why the heading is 100% inappropriate. --Errant 16:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Note that, for the record, the text I supported, and that was introduced by another editor, read: "Investigation of alleged rape". That is all. .99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Make no mistake, that wording was only introduced as your first header was less than neutral. Nymf hideliho! 16:20, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I don't understand you. Is this now neither vandalism nor a BLP violation? It is the only edit that is at issue, it is the edit that you two have been reverting. The previous one was "Rape investigation". .99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I have no comment on that as I have never reverted you, unless you have any undisclosed accounts or IPs. Nymf hideliho! 16:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "Rape investigation" is POV-pushing and a BLP issue. "Investigation of alleged rape" is legalistically neutral, as there is an ongoing investigation, and there has been no legal finding that a rape actually occurred. ←Baseball Bugs carrots16:32, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    The main issue with the header is that it is trying to draw attention to the section, which is inappropriate per BLP policy. There is no need for a heading at all, and this was agreed on the talk several times. I will step back from the issue and as a compromise offer this;

    • If the other editors feel strongly that I should retract all insinuation of bad faith I will do so and apologise
    • and will not revert further additions but push it to the BLP board for better discussion.

    However, I do feel my actions were reasonable and appropriate, if my use of the Vandalism revert a little strong. --Errant 16:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Though a long standing technique, misdirection does not make a thing so. Your claim, "this was agreed on the talk several times", is false and has been demonstrably shown(1)(2) to be so on the article talk page. But then, unsupported allegations, mis-characterization and empty rhetoric seem to be a recurring theme here. They do seem to work, but then they're based upon your abuse of AGF, people just assume what you say is supportable. I prefer sourced ref's. 99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Funny you should say that. Looking at the talk page I see Talk:Julian Assange#Hypocracy and Talk:Julian Assange#Section "title" for section dealing with the Rape allegations/investigation/charges. Your diffs "demonstrably showing this to be false" appear to be <ahem> nothing of the sort. There does appear to be a talkpage consensus, it doesn't appear to support your assertion, nor your belief that this heading - in either of the forms you've used - should be used. And what do sourced refs have to do with section headings? TFOWR 16:59, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Also there is quite extensive discussion of the whole section in the archive, that plus the edit history from the time shows we hashed this out quite extensively. There have been various attempts to re-insert a pointy header in that section but it has been reverted as a BLP issue each time. There are also a couple of threads from the ] but I don't have much time to hunt them down now. --Errant 17:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "Investigation of alleged rape" is the only edit at issue. It is the contribution of another editor that I supported and is the edit reverted as "Vandalism" under discussion here. There are no additional content edits under dispute.99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "Rape investigation" is also an edit at issue. TFOWR 16:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    No it's not. It's a Red Herring, textbook application. No one is seeking to reintroduce that edit, you're simply acting as an auctioneer taking bids from the Chandelier. Consensus appears to be for "Investigation of alleged rape". 99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:03, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    My point was that the text I supported, and that was introduced by another editor, read: "Investigation of alleged rape" gives the impression that you didn't introduce the heading "Rape investigation". TFOWR 17:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually Sherlock, I was trying to neutralize previous headings, "Rape Charges" and "Rape Arrest", it's the Wiki-Way. I change text, others tweak me, we arrive at consensus. The other editor's tweak on me was an improvement. My edits also improved on the past. Your point? 99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:14, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    The editor who introduced the new wording only did it as a way to compromise. It does in no way imply consensus (or a specific stance) for mentioning rape in the header. Nymf hideliho! 17:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually, "Sherlock", no. You added a heading. Describing that edit as "neutralizing" is disingenuous. TFOWR 17:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    The ONLY opposition to the addition found on the talk page previously consisted of "Convicted for what? ... Come on. This entire thing is ludicrously blown out of proportions..." ... "He's not going to be convicted. There's no evidence. It's clearly part of smear campaign" ... "same exact type investigation is left out of other articles, with a vengence." This is not the basis for either a supportable argument or a consensus. It is however a strong argument for lack of neutrality, POV and WP:OR. Bias is not the sole province of IP accounts. And the abusive mis-characterization of my honest, good faith, neutral and well supported edit is still troubling, the underlying content dispute is minor - the Gaming and beatdown attempted there is not. 99.144.244.4 (talk) 16:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Hmm, even if there is issues over good/bad faith, I don't think you can support the edit as neutral and well-supported. If you review the history of the article you will note it is not well supported, and it is definitely not neutral. It is, in fact, very pointy. I'd also point out that the thing you keep quoting is not any part of the rationale for removing the header - it was a reply from another editor to a wider discussion about the section. Several of us made it very clear the policies and guidance under which the header was removed/disputed --Errant 17:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    The OP's contrib history indicates that he re-introduced both versions of the header at different times. ←Baseball Bugs carrots17:16, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I was trying to neutralize previous headings, "Rape Charges" and "Rape Arrest", Rape and Assault, etc, many of which passed through multiple edits and contributors without question until a tweak or change, it's the Wiki-Way. I change text, others tweak me, we arrive at consensus. The other editor's tweak on me was an improvement. My edits also improved on the past. I simply support the last change made by another third-party editor, and have done so unequivocally since his addition.99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:21, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    So until he's at least arrested or something, why is a heading needed at all? ←Baseball Bugs carrots17:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    99, you have not used this argument before, so I'm afraid to me it looks like an argument in retrospect. When you re-added it on the 18th with accusations of apologists and spin etc. your rationale (on talk) was as follows: "Section title "Rape investigation" or "Rape allegation" or "Rape charges" and topic are notable, well ref'd and quite significant - and accurately surmises the section - a header summarizing section contents is quite standard. Topic is simply what it is.". I believe this states a clear aim to add a section header with this content come what may. --Errant 17:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yeah I'm going to have to stand by my apparently controversial claim, at least according to you, that, "a header summarizing section contents is quite standard.". It's like Red Herring Fest here today. But the Game rewards a furious offense doesn't it? Substance is over rated apparently.99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


    The section is extensive, notable, well supported and properly summarized by the succinct heading noted above:


    On 20 August 2010, an investigation was opened against Assange in Sweden in connection with an allegation that he had raped a woman in Enköping on the weekend of 14 August after a seminar, and two days later had sexually harassed a second woman he had been staying with in Stockholm, but within 24 hours of the investigation opening prosecutors withdrew the warrant to arrest him saying the accusations against him lacked substance. The chief prosecutor Eva Finné said there was no reason to suspect he had committed rape "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape". He was still being investigated for harassment,which covers reckless conduct or inappropriate physical contact, a charge not serious enough to trigger an arrest warrant. The second woman belonged to the Brotherhood, a Christian affiliate of the country's Social Democratic Party, and was acting as Assange's spokeswoman. Assange said "the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing"; his supporters claim he is the victim of a smear campaign. he acknowledged having had sex with the women, but said it was consensual. He was questioned by police for an hour on 31 August, and on 1 September a senior Swedish prosecutor re-opened the rape investigation saying new information had come in. The women's lawyer, Claes Borgström, had earlier appealed against the decision not to proceed.
    There are few paths to proper copyedit available when faced with such prose. Misdirection and obscuring are not within our remit. The subject is not pleasant, but it simply is what it is.99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


    It seems I've allowed myself to be derailed. This is not a content dispute, this was User:Tmorton166 reverting my good faith edit with a summary noting that my good faith contribution, one which reinstated(2) a fellow Wikpedia editor's contribution, was simply "Vandalism".(3)

    Tmorton166 is directly (4) involved in a content discussion regarding this very subject and is well aware that my good faith contribution, in support of other Misplaced Pages editors, is anything but "Vandalism". This is unacceptable and should not be excused, it is precisely this type of abuse that degrades the project, injects incivility and turns away both the contributor directly targeted as well as third parties considering contributing. 99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:34, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    No, a report at ANI runs the very real risk that your own conduct will be scrutinised. Tmorton166 should not have described your edit as vandalism. You should not be claiming a lack of consensus, when the talkpage shows a clear consensus. You should not be edit warring against consensus. Tmorton166 deserves to be slapped with a {{trout}}. I don't believe blocking you would be effective: I'd recommend another admin give consideration to protecting the article - if you persist. TFOWR 17:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Side note: Since I'm the unnamed editor in question who changed the IP's POV header to a more neutral version I would like to say that I'm not supporting my own or any other heading in this section. The main header/section title does indeed cover it well enough and there's also no separate header for the first paragraph in this article's section.TMCk (talk) 17:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Consensus? Numerous editors have introduced, reintroduced, supported, or tweaked a variety of direct summarizations of the section. No substantive argument has been presented in opposition. Most of the argument for silence comes from apologists and partisans on record as supporting obscuring or removal based upon, "Convicted for what? ... Come on. This entire thing is ludicrously blown out of proportions..." ... "He's not going to be convicted. There's no evidence. It's clearly part of smear campaign" ... "same exact type investigation is left out of other articles, with a vengence." Not quite the Wiki-Way. Multiple long term edits by numerous editor's to support concise accurate summarization are not trumped by screams of Vandal or empty reverts by a couple of partisans.99.144.244.4 (talk) 17:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    BLP rules are the wiki way, and they do trump many other considerations. TFOWR at 17:40 above summarizes the situation well. The article should neither make a big thing of this nor try to bury it. The separate heading is a step in the direction of making a big thing of it. Now, if he gets arrested, that's a different matter. ←Baseball Bugs carrots17:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "No substantive argument has been presented in opposition." In your opinion. Above, you presented diffs of two of your talkpage edits as "proof" of the lack of consensus; I then linked to the actual talkpage threads. Multiple editors on the talkpage disagreed with you. Dismissing editors who disagree with you as "apologists and partisans" - I can tell you for free: that's not "the Wiki-way". TFOWR 17:56, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Actually, I did not dismiss them. I quoted them, "Convicted for what? ... Come on. This entire thing is ludicrously blown out of proportions..." ... "He's not going to be convicted. There's no evidence. It's clearly part of smear campaign" ... "same exact type investigation is left out of other articles, with a vengence.". There was a time when such public proclamation's of pure partisanship were noticed, and rejected for what they were. I guess this is just another milestone in the ever-evolving set of acceptable standards as we whittle our contributors down to the last man standing. .99.144.244.4 (talk) 18:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Your being disigneous when you say Actually, I did not dismiss them. I accused you of Dismissing editors who disagree with you as "apologists and partisans" because you said Most of the argument for silence comes from apologists and partisans. The standards here are consensus and WP:BLP. Neither of these are new, neither should come as any surprise. TFOWR 18:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    WP:BLP supports reporting notable events, as is the case here. consensus includes all those numerous editors that have contributed, or supported, section headings as noted above. It is not I that am turning a blind eye to the contributions and discussion regarding the article. And it is not I that have claimed this to be a closed topic no longer up for discussion - nor have I rejected contributions as Vandalism. I have honestly supported a civil and substantive discussion of the issue(1) The record is clear and supports my contention that I am not a Vandal and have engaged in a GF effort to substantively discuss the issue. The same an not be said for all participants.99.144.244.4 (talk) 18:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    The event is reported. The issue (which you are misdirecting this from) is that the header is undue and a BLP violation in drawing attention to the event. It is not particularly significant in his biography, and the addition of it is quite pointy. I have a groundswell of patience, but you used it up very quickly by being aggressive, rude and ignoring points we were raising. Classic example: your persistent quoting of a badly worded reply on the talk page which was actually unrelated to the header we were discussing and ignoring the points I (and another) consistently raised with you. However, AN/I is not for disputes. I was wrong to use the Vandalism revert, that has been made clear to me, I have apologised. I suggest we take the content dispute to the article talk again and involve editors from WP:BLP/N. Otherwise this looks at risk of going downhill -Errant 18:34, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict × 2) You are indeed not a vandal, and I believe I had already made that clear. WP:BLP does indeed support reporting notable events: that is not at issue - what is at issue is you adding a header. No one is attempting to prevent the reporting of notable events, and I am surprised you would describe this as such. WP:CON involves discussion, not drive-by editors dropping by to re-add their favourite header while ignoring talkpage discussions. You're to be commended for at least participating in the talkpage discussion; however, edit warring against the obvious consensus there is far less commendable. TFOWR 18:39, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    If you check back, most of the headings along the lines of what you added were added by IP or new editors - and were reverted by long term editors under BLP policy. This is consistent in the article history. You, on the other hand, have consistently mis-characterised a consensus for including the header, quoted that above text which is unrelated to the header issue (and I agre badly argued), heaped abuse on my talk page, the article talk etc. and made wide accusations of "apologists", gaming, wiki-lawyering, censorship and so on. This is the main reason I don't find your work on this article constructive. --Errant 18:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Ok, TFOWR is someone I very much trust over this (along wiht BB and Jclemens), so I do apologise for using Vandalism revert on that edit. It was a decision made in the heat of the moment in light of the attitude exhibited by this IP, I am sure that others will attest that I am not usually so vindictive. However, I still feel that the IP is pushing to have the header for POV reasons, as backed up by his comments/language --Errant 18:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    • I'd say that if the IP makes one more harsh and/or disruptive edit with one of their IP's let's go for a wide range-block as far as technically possible of not less than a month (like one of their IP's already received today).TMCk (talk) 20:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    The edit I believe you're referring to, and referred to in this edit summary(1) from the article mainpage as "Excessive sock puppetry: IP hopping vandal persistantly adding WP:BLP material" is not from me - nor does the coincidentally 99.* prefixed IP address geo-locate to the same area as mine. The two quick incidents of juvenile vandalism hardly rated a ten-day lock, especially as a block was made and appeared to stop the offender. 99.144.244.4 (talk) 22:35, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    User:Noelemahc

    PLEASE NOTE: This discussion was originally posted by 204.153.84.10 on the WikiProject Comics talk page. I've moved it here, as this seems like a much more appropriate place to discuss the situation. Friginator (talk) 16:46, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


    I'm not sure if this editor is learning English, or if they just have bad grammar problems, but most of what they have been adding to articles has been difficult to read at best, and incomprehensible at worst. A few different editors have come along and tried to fix what they have written (not an easy task, guessing what they are trying to say), and I was content to help out. Then today, they began making comments like this, which seem to indicate that they feel other editors should be relied upon to fix the mess. I don't know about anyone else, but while I don't mind making corrections and fixes here and there, I don't have time to be checking all of someone's edits, especially when they respond with my criticism with a revert and somewhat rude edit summary. Just please, if you have the time, keep an eye on this editor's contributions, and help them understand why it is important to write intelligibly. 204.153.84.10 (talk) 23:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

    Given that the writing quality of the original text ("When Spider-Man has been away, Chameleon got the infant"?!) I'm not sure what the problem is. GDallimore (Talk) 06:37, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
    My mistake, that poor text was added by the same user. I have no solution. Ignore me. GDallimore (Talk) 06:42, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

    I've seen a new user adding equally bad blocks of text. Is this a WP:DUCK case, trying to avoid scrutiny, or just a coincidence? 204.153.84.10 (talk) 18:20, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

    If it was someone learning English or who had bad English education I don't think you would see the confrontational attitude that editors have already posted about what he puts in the edit summary. Can this be considered vandalism and something he can be blocked for? Or do we as a group have to stalk his posts to try to correct his work, and hopefully correct his behavior eventually? Spidey104 13:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I don't personally think this is vandalism, but it's certainly not constructive. I admit I've been watching his contribution history very closely, simply because many of his edits need to be reverted. This isn't a new problem, though. I've run into several other editors (mostly on comics articles, actually) whose English is deplorable. Whether this is a case of sockpuppetry, I have no idea. Also, it's important to note that Noelemahc's contributions aren't all nonconstructive. Friginator (talk) 16:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    A user whose name is "Chameleon" spelled backwards might be a sock? Ya think??? ←Baseball Bugs carrots16:56, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Hah! I hadn't even noticed that. :) 204.153.84.10 (talk) 19:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Allegation of antisemitism

    User:Nomoskedasticity has accused me of being an anti semite, I totally repute this and commented as such and as I know he simply doesn't like me and has attacked me personally before with comments such as I have no reading comprehension and other comments I struck the allegation and left him a note on his talkpage letting him know and informing him that I would report him if he repeated it and he has un-struck the antisemite allegation and replaced it. I should not be personally attacked in this way by a user, I would like the accusation struck, it is completely false and attacking. The section is here and the history here. Off2riorob (talk) 18:00, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    its out of line most likely and should be struck but it seems lost in translation. It looks like Nomo misinterpreted when Rob said the term "Jew" was kinda derogatory (Which i have certianly heard used that way). Nomo Seems to have over reacted by assuming it is he meant calling some one Jewish is Derogatory and there is nothing wrong with being jewish. The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 18:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    There is nothing at all out of line. I specifically did not say "Off2riorob is an anti-Semite". I said that believing that someone has to be protected from being called a Jew is to hold the view that being a Jew is somehow a problem and "verges on anti-Semitism". If one is not allowed to make that kind of observation on Misplaced Pages then this place has real problems. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 18:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    You "specifically did not say x" is terrible way to defend your self as it translates to "gosh i was careful with the way i said it so I could avoid being call out on it." Implied statements often say alot more than explicit statement. The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 18:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec)The issue that turns up in many, many biographies here is whether someone's religion or ethnic group "has anything to do with anything". It certainly would be fair to call Myron Cohen a Jewish comedian, since much of his work centered around Jewishness. It would be less fair to Jack Benny, because all or most of his work was religion-neutral, i.e. he was a comedian who happened to be Jewish. I admit to sharing Rob's uncomfortableness with the term "a Jew", as opposed to "Jewish", but if you, who are Jewish, are OK with the term "a Jew", then we might be oversensitive. However, it calls to mind the Nazis painting the German word for "Jew" on Jewish storefronts. Except that does not necessarily impeach the word itself, but just the Nazis' usage of it. ←Baseball Bugs carrots18:30, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes. Whilst Off2riorob's statement was clumsily phrased, it clearly wasn't anti-semitic in the slightest. It's fairly obvious what point he's trying to make. I would suggest that Nomoskedasticity strike that allegation. Black Kite (t) (c) 18:33, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    And editors opinions on these issues don't really matter do they. Content is based on sources. The time would be better spent improving Jew_(word)#Changes_in_use based on reliable sources. Sean.hoyland - talk 18:35, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I would appreciate the comment striking as I am in no way an antisemitic at all and where I work my account is known by people and such a weakly claimed allegation could well have real life issues, it is illegal in my area. Please retract it, if the user refuses to retract it imo it is a personal attack and he should be blocked. The discussion and issue has brought up points that we have unclear issues with at wikipedia and I fully intent to discuss the issue on a policy page, when I find the best location.Off2riorob (talk) 18:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    You haven't shown any awareness that there is a problem in your attitude, and frankly I was thinking of starting a thread on AN/I myself about it. You have clearly implied that there is something wrong with referring to someone as a Jew. There isn't, and it isn't something to protect someone from. If you don't get that, then there's a problem. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 18:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Ah, my binary friends. Is it offensive to call someone a Jew? Yes. Is it an honorable and inoffensive thing to be called? Yes! Consider the following: "That Jew lawyer cheated me." Appropriate or inappropriate use? Or, "Mayor Bloomberg is a Jew who isn't particularly devout." How bout that one? Context kids.Bali ultimate (talk) 18:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Or Groucho Marx, in reference to himself and his brothers and their stage and film work, "We were just four Jews trying to get a laugh." That statement at once contains elements of pride and self-deprecation. ←Baseball Bugs carrots19:39, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Well precisely. And to make it clear what is at stake here, Rob has a problem with the notion that Ed Miliband is a "British Jew". Context indeed. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 19:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Bali ultimate ia heading this in a rational direction. Let's summarise. There is absolutely nothing wrong with BEING a Jew, but some racists and/or bigots DO use the term in a derogatory way. The second part of that sentence is NOT anti semitic in the slightest. It is anti racist. HiLo48 (talk) 19:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Indeed, I had a similar concern before when an unreferenced statement that an individual was gay was removed as an attack on the individual; it's unfortunate that calling someone gay could be considered a personal attack, but it's used as one frequently. GiftigerWunsch 19:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yes, sadly the first meaning most kids learn for the word gay these days is the negative one, long before they have any understanding of sexuality. It would be much rarer, but would still happen in some circles for the word Jew. And I still hear occasional use of the word to negatively (but sometimes humorously intended) describe someone who is tight with their money. It's all in the context. HiLo48 (talk) 19:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    A wise person many years ago said, "Meanings are not in words; meanings are in people." It's not the word necessarily, it's how it's used. Kids nowadays say, "That's so gay!" the way kids in my generation said, "That's so queer!" So as a word, "gay" can be either good or bad, depending on who's using it. An extreme example is to hear one black person greet another with, "How you doing, you old n*gg*r?" in an affectionate way, but something very hurtful if I were to say it. (And by the way, "black" is also both pejorative and prideful, depending on how it's used.) ←Baseball Bugs carrots20:01, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Well, rather than the meaning of the word "gay" which the current generation uses (which I consider to be a completely different term really; I know plenty of people who use it synonymously with "lame", and harmlessly, but who aren't homophobic), I meant that stating that someone is homosexual is a BLP violation as it's contentious; I find it a little unfortunate that homosexuality is considered something which is offensive unless true (or indeed WP:Vverifiable), but with homophobia still unfortunately prevalent, it has to be considered a BLP vio despite the fact that "heterosexual" wouldn't be considered one, and in fact would probably be considered implied if not stated otherwise. GiftigerWunsch 20:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Ok, we had a misunderstanding. I think Rio and Nomo should both acknowledge they spoke in a way that was taken wrongly by the other person, whether they truly believe that or not. All in the interest of eliminating more drama. I can understand Nomo's point of view as a Jew (and yes, I use the word Jew for that is what I am, ethnically and religiously, being "Jewish" I personally hold for those that are religiously Jewish but are not ethnically, such as converts). As a Jew I get frustrated with individuals, who always are non-Jews btw, who think Jews need special protection and everyone needs to be on their toes and look out. We have survived your hatred on our own, so thanks but let us defend ourselves, if we dont want to be called something, if we find something offensive, if we dont like someone being labeled a Jew, trust me, we'll tell you; we aren't shy about telling those that do things we dont like where to shove it (just ask the Jordanian army, or the Syrian airforce, or the Lebanese, or the Egyptian, and so on and so on, so many wars in 52 years). I can also understand Rob being insulted by being called an anti-semite, I understand that would hurt and be quite insulting especially if you were trying to be helpful. I'm sure Rob understands there are REAL anti-semites here on Misplaced Pages whose only edits are to create or expand anti-Jewish propaganda pieces and he does not wish to be lumped in with them. Just as Im sure since Rob understands those editors are quite real that it is understandable the heightened level of security that Nomo may be editing under. So, in the words of the 20th century's greatest American philosopher- Can't we all just get along?Camelbinky (talk) 20:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Range of bad IPs

    It has come to my atention today that a range of IPs in the Philippines have been adding false information to articles on bands and musicans (adding incorrect record labels and labeling J-Pop bands such as FLOW and JAM Project as christian rock bands). All of the edits come from the same range. The IPs are as follows:

    The IPs are all registered as belonging to "DIGITEL GSM 3G IP POOL". And considering that there are only two /24s being used here, I think it would be beneficial to Misplaced Pages to block these two ranges for an extended period of time.—Ryūlóng (竜龙) 18:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Sounds like Gerald Gonzales to me. If any admin is interested, the ranges of the IPs above are 115.147.230.0/24 and 115.147.202.0/24. -FASTILY 19:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I don't see the crossover with Gonzales.—Ryūlóng (竜龙) 20:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    These are DjJosh (not verified via CU). I will note though, that these ranges are far too busy to block. Tiptoety 20:44, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Again, I don't see what that connection is. Also are the ranges (the two /24 ranges) that busy that they can't be anonblocked?—Ryūlóng (竜龙) 23:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Unblock Giano

    Going nowhere; as usual, no consensus for anything in particular; we have better things to do here: Nothing will happen.
    The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

    Is it that time of year again. Once again we have an admin blocking giano over a very mild comment. Someone nip this in the bud before we get the usual.--Cube lurker (talk) 20:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC) Link for user: GiacomoReturned (talk · contribs). Link to diff that the admin believes is block worthy.

    Sorry, I wasn't aware that calling other editors monkeys was acceptable this time of the year. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Neither is this the first block of this type for this editor. Rodhullandemu 20:10, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Neither is this the first stupid comment in this thread. Hans Adler 23:22, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    This is not calling someone a monkey for Gods sake it is a phrase used as I'm sure you are aware to refer that you are wanting to talk to the boss and not his subordinate. Not a blocable offence IMO. Mo ainm~Talk 20:15, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I have undone this as it's a bad block that is going to do more harm than good. Mo ainm hits the nail on the head. Nev1 (talk) 20:17, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Nice of you to discuss it with the blocking admin first. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I followed your lead as you did not discuss the issue with anyone in the first place. Nev1 (talk) 20:20, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Why is discussing it with the blocking admin more urgent than letting a badly blocked editor edit again? ---Sluzzelin talk 20:22, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I fail to see how Giano calling Off2riorob an organ grinder's monkey is acceptable behavior. ←Baseball Bugs carrots20:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's not. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 20:25, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It is, apparently, an idiomatic phrase. In any case, I think we should have learned by now that blocking Giano for a short period time and time again is not going to have any effect. If you feel there is a problem with his editing (I don't clearly see that), there are other ways to solve the perceived problem. Ucucha 20:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    He didn't , and from the people who are supposed to be writing an encyclopedia one can expect a modicum of literacy. Or at least the ability to use Google. Hans Adler 20:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    And in case someone missed it: WP:Vulgarity did not become policy. Hans Adler 20:33, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'll thank you not to insult my literacy. I'm quite aware of the idiomatic use of the phrase, which wasn't anywhere close to civil anyway.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:35, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Yet also wasn't anywhere close to blockable.--Cube lurker (talk) 20:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    "then learn to speak your own language" -- oh, yeah, paragon of civility we've got here. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:39, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I was once blocked for calling people "idiots". If that's blockable, how is calling them "organ grinder's monkeys" somehow OK? Or have standards really dropped that much in the last few years? ←Baseball Bugs carrots20:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I was once blocked for calling an editor "ignorant" in the technical meaning that he ignored... --Cyclopia 23:48, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Perhaps the person you were calling an idiot was clearly an idiot, whereas Off2Rio is clearly not a monkey?  Giacomo  20:42, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (EC) As a first offense, maybe not. As a fortieth offense, yeah, I can see that as a blockable offense. But as we've come to accept, some editors are bulletproof. Not complaining, mind you, no point in that anymore. Just saying it out loud. Dayewalker (talk) 20:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's self fulfilment at work. He has a reputation for being bulletproof because every couple months someone uses a flimsy excuse to block him. And when the flimsy block doesn't stick everyone mutters about how he won't stay blocked.--Cube lurker (talk) 21:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    There is a huge difference between applying an invective directly to someone and merely implying it by using a bloomy idiom that happens to fit the situation perfectly. It's disappointing that one of the greatest literature projects in the world today has such a high proportion of "editors" who are sufficiently tone-deaf not to understand this. Of course the average literary quality of our output is of precisely the competence level that one would expect under the circumstances. Hans Adler

    • The quality of admin judgment generally on display (and the mischievous, but lovable, IRC hi-jinks) reminds me of a saying I learned long ago in Indonesia: "Pay peanut, get monkey." Bali ultimate (talk) 21:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    *Oh, here we go again. I'll start the popcorn. Tony Fox (arf!) 21:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Indeed, I wonder which camp my editing falls into? S.G. ping! 21:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'll take "People I'd like to find in a burning building so I could wave goodbye to them" for $500, Alex. HalfShadow 21:11, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I would dearly love to implement a basic literacy requirement for editors (& admins, a fortiori). Exceed a certain number of comma splices, or mangle "refute" and "repudiate" into "repute" -- off on a wikibreak, have fun. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 21:10, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    @Hans: I find the idiomatic use in this context to be more uncivil than just calling them a monkey. It implies that the editor is a meatpuppet of sorts (dancing to someone else's tune) yes? Is there some other reading of this that I'm missing? Hobit (talk) 21:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Agree with Hobit. GiftigerWunsch 21:42, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    I think you are all now foraging in desperation. It's a common, very common English adage. If you want to drive me off like Malleus you will have to work and dig a lot deeper and re-enter the realms of reality.  Giacomo  21:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Hmm, well, I take no real stance on the block. But the idiom; is not particularly common and usually used disparagingly. I'd advise not using it again. --Errant 21:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It's not especially common, but that's not what's in debate here and you know it. It's unimportant how common the phrase is, it's only important what the meaning of the phrase is. And calling someone an "organ grinder's monkey" is uncivil and insulting, suggesting that they lack the intelligence to think for themselves and are somehow below others. GiftigerWunsch 22:00, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Maybe it's common in the UK, but certainly not in America, and to us it immediately comes across as highly insulting. ←Baseball Bugs carrots22:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    and Cocksucker is used in America I beleive, and it's not insulting?  Giacomo  22:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    It's extremely insulting, yes. How does that free you up to call someone a monkey? ←Baseball Bugs carrots22:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Aha - great minds think alike.  Giacomo  21:35, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    There are so many admins and sole-co-founders who have not been blocked for far more obvious rudeness that it really does look like a case of "I've got a big stick, now who can I hit?" when a block like this happens to a non-admin. DuncanHill (talk) 22:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    What nonsense! Perhaps we should have an article on this well used phrase? Jon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.42.54.83 (talk) 22:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Thanks! To spell that out: Peter Mandelson was called a monkey in the Daily Mail, Paul Henry (broadcaster) was called a monkey in the NZ Herald, Sarah Palin and her future successors as candidates were all called monkeys in the Guardian, and the British prime minister was (almost explicitly) called a monkey in the Times.
    Except it's not true. Because using this metaphor, and even spelling it out, is perfectly acceptable in ordinary discourse. It's not advisable to compare your boss with either the organ grinder or his monkey, but then that's hardly a reasonable standard for civility, is it?
    Or maybe that's precisely what it's about. Applying this saying to your supervisor is insubordination. Is that what we have here? A hierarchy with admins at the top and producers of quality content at the bottom?
    I don't think so. I think it was just a misunderstanding. But thoughts of this kind naturally come up each time an admin forgets how stupid it is to block Giano without thinking first. Hans Adler 23:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    And that should confer immunity for continued incivility breaches? I do not think so. Giano has had enough warnings, and blocks, for incivility, and should have learned by now not to transgress, or at least test, the limits. He isn't alone in that regard. Forgive me for an argumentum ad Jimbonem, but we are supposed to be a "collegial environment" here, in which we might be sensitive to cultural and personal differences, and moderate our terminology accordingly. In some circles, "monkey" is abusive to the point of racism, and should, on balance, be avoided. The point is also that Giano is intelligent enough to know that, and arguably should know better. Idiomatics aside, taking the piss isn't acceptable here. By anyone. Rodhullandemu 23:19, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sigh. That would all be fine and good if admins applied these standards equally. John (involved in the MF block) questioned Ceoil's mental health once, and made grossly inaccurate statements about Malleus here at ANI-- why can admins get away this, but the lowly content contributor can't even defend themselves at ANI without getting blocked? Anyone who thinks there isn't a vast schism between most admins and most top contributors is seriously asleep. That Giano and Malleus choose to make that point time and again gets them blocked. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:24, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    (edit conflict) Conflicts are bound to arise, but the set of admins who are "uninvolved" with editors such as Giano and Malleus is seriously diminishing. The "good content creator" argument being prayed in aid of tolerance appears to me to be wearing increasingly thin, because it could be seen as a divisive tactic to separate "ordinary editors" from "admins". However, the later comment is misguided. Admins contribute content not merely by reverting vandalism, and some have even contributed to GAs and FAs without shouting about it. This is a false dichotomy, reminding me that "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". It should not be so here, and admins on a pure power trip should be kicked out, just as should be editors who imagine that content=immunity. The road to where we are is littered with former editors who have failed to realise that. Rodhullandemu 23:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    It is no more correct to say that Malleus was calling someone a monkey (akin to racism) than it is to say that taking the piss means you have accused somebody of being a urine thief. Lets have a little common sense here ladies and gentlemen. Fainites scribs 00:01, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    Crap. We're talking about Giano, not Malleus, although it's hard to put a cigarette paper between them. I'll spell this out once, and only once: Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, open to all to contribute to, as long as they accept the rules. Apart from rules about vandalism, there are also rules about civility that mean that when there is difference on content issues, dispute should be conducted courteously. That hasn't happened here. The "urine thief" metaphor doesn't help; everyone knows what it means- however, it doesn't carry the same connotation as "monkey". Rodhullandemu 00:27, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec) Jimbo's word is not law, and WP:Vulgarity was turned into a redirect after failing to get a consensus. The main reason Giano is being blocked and unblocked all the time is that Giano is being blocked and unblocked all the time and lots of admins wait for their chance to try if they can be the one who gets a block in that sticks. They know they have to be fast, because there is so much competition for every Giano-blocking occasion. They can't afford to think things through, because then another admin will do the block.
    The second reason Giano is being blocked and unblocked all the time is that Giano is taking a lot of things much more personally than he should. Which, of course, is at least in part because he is being blocked and unblocked all the time. Hans Adler 23:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Oh, dear, where to start? "I want the organ grinder, not his monkey" is an amusing phrase, perfectly suited to certain situations, but to say it to one's fellow editor is, indeed, not very polite. It's not as horribly uncivil as calling someone c***sucker, which is certainly a clearly blockable offense. This was not in that category. But can we ask that everyone involved simply start being a bit more polite? It probably won't kill us to try. Jonathunder (talk) 22:51, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Giano is the Gödel sentence of Misplaced Pages civility policy. --TS 23:26, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I completely agree with Jonathunder. An amusing phrase by someone, who yes, is quite rough around the edges, but you know what? Giano makes me laugh, if he ever insulted me he's one of the few I would never bring to AN/I because I bet I'd be laughing too hard. I can probably count on one hand, maybe two, the number of individuals I have come across on Misplaced Pages who are genuinely REAL, who I could respect their viewpoints, respect what they say, etc. even though I disagree most of the time Giano is one of them. Giano could be seen as the "anti-Jimbo"; while my religion does not have the concept of an anti-christ figure so I'm not completely in touch with what it represents I'm more familiar with the similar Zoroastrian concepts, and please dont think I mean he's "EVIL" or anything; I'm just saying maybe a counter-culture anti-establishment "leader" is needed as a balance, is there anyone better suited than Giano?Camelbinky (talk) 23:27, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    I've never blocked anyone for incivility, but seeing that sentence had me reaching for the button. Then I thought better of it and was going to leave a message asking him to strike it... then I saw this shitstorm. Ho hum. I'm all for rich tea and sympathy when editors get mad at each other, but random, seemingly calculated insults are not acceptable. And literacy schmiteracy, comparing an editor to a monkey is an insult. Rd232 23:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Agreed. There's a saying "failure to hit the target is not the fault of the target". However, if you choose to call a fellow-editor a "monkey", even with the best of intentions, you should accept the risk that this will be found to be offensive. An Request for comment on editors who cannot, or will not, understand this, is long overdue. Rodhullandemu 23:50, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    • There's a rather wide gulf between acceptable behavior and behavior requiring a block. If you want to block somebody, go looking for something really bad. Don't pick on edge cases. Jehochman 23:55, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Jehochman hit the nail on the head when he said "go looking for something really bad". Alot of admins think it is their job to "go looking" for these infractions and then punish with blocks, and certain other admins think it is their job to go looking for any requests for unblocking and then rubber stamp the block even when the block should in fact be removed. Too many it seem are watching Giano just hoping to pin something on him, that is why George says this is the "100th abuse", how many admins have similar accusations against them that get thrown out because the "thin blue line" equivalent exists? Admins need to stop looking and doing things with their own judgement and simply throw out trash WE the editors and users tell them to. Do what we want, not what you want. Listen to us. You want a !vote on keeping Giano, fine, if he loses ban him. No consensus or keep and he stays. Until someone he insults complains legitimately how about you butt out? I would be PISSED if someone insulted me and then a passing admin punished him without me complaining first.Camelbinky (talk) 00:18, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    Are you sure you want to phrase it that way? Really?
    Perhaps I'm biased - I was (if I can parse the sentence object/subject usage properly) apparently the Organ Grinder referred to. But this was not a trivial minor thing. As one of the insultees, in this particular situation, I would rather not minimize the situation, and I am in fact in a position to complain, though I had left the thread to others until now.
    Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 00:34, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    (ec)I don't recall ever even considering blocking someone for incivility, so it seemed worth observing that it crossed my mind here. (That I didn't here reflects that I never actually have blocked for incivility.) It being Giano did not factor. (Giano-associated long-term drama I'm aware of from a distance; I don't really know what's involved, though I gather he's an ANI Hall of Fame member.) Rd232 00:36, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Admin help needed with fully protected page

    User:Rich Farmbrough appears to have logged off immediately after inadvertently breaking the 'Unreferenced BLP' template so that it now displays like this on 20,000+ articles. Could an admin please undo or fix his actions to correct the template display? --Jezebel'sPonyo 20:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Could somebody please revert the most recent changes to this protected template? It no longer displays properly in article space, and the editor/admin who made the changes appears to have gone offline. Hullaballoo Wolfowitz (talk) 20:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    It has been reverted (not by me). Ucucha 20:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    RevDel needed at Anne Robinson

    Recent string of vandalism from IP accounts, some of which manifests in the final, offensive edit summary. Hullaballoo Wolfowitz (talk) 21:09, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Gone. Ucucha 21:12, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    TfD snowed

    Can someone please check this one Misplaced Pages:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2010_October_16#Template:Two_other_uses and tell me if a non-admin closure per WP:SNOW was correct? I disagree with the way this discussion closed. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:42, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Hi Magioladitis, I think it was a reasonable close. To be honest, I was considering closing it early myself. Obviously, you could list the decision at Deletion review if you want. PhilKnight (talk) 22:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    Good snow, well executed. A lot of these discussions go on ridiculously long for no earthly reason. --TS 22:39, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
     Good close: it clearly didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being deleted, and generally with templates "it's not useful" or "it's redundant" is generally trumped by evidence that others find it useful, anyway. Non-admins aren't meant to execute snow closes, but I don't think it's worth overturning the close simply to have an admin close it the same way. GiftigerWunsch 22:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
    User:Kotniski notified. Airplaneman 23:47, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

     Good close. If User:Kotniski is looking for a reason to become an admin, to avoid frivolous AN/Is like this one seems like a pretty good one. --Born2cycle (talk) 23:58, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

    Wankers?

    Does anyone really believe that's an acceptable closure? Malleus Fatuorum 00:53, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Rodhullandemu notified. Airplaneman 00:58, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    No, I don't. However sincere the sentiment, and whoever about (newcomer through to experienced user, quiet user to drama magnet), the manner of expressing this is plainly not appropriate. I hope the admin will strike that wording out. It's inappropriate in any way. FT2  01:01, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    ((ec)) Whatever. Pot/kettle, kettle/pot. You might live until Christmas, but I am not that optimistic for myself, which gives me a personal perspective on that. Meanwhile, while we can we should continue to build an encyclopedia using the time we have left to us, to the best of our ability. 01:06, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    I can't really disagree with the close—the thread was indeed getting more heat than light. But it's rather ironic for Rodhullandemu to close the thread with that impolite comment when he has just been arguing against Giano's incivility. I suppose I could block him–people have been blocked for less over the last few days, and with less prior discussion—but that does not seem especially productive. Ucucha 01:07, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    Agree with closure, disagree with choice of wording. Just fans the flames more. That said, closure was way warranted. Block? Please don't. Drama not needed. Strange Passerby (talkcstatus) 01:09, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm not calling for a block; in fact, I might unblock him if he does end up blocked. We don't need blocks for every naughty word.
    But I find it hard to see why Giano was blocked today for calling another editor a monkey (and even that not quite), and Rodhullandemu is not blocked for calling an entire group of editors "wankers". Why is that? Ucucha 01:16, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    So just another admin fuck up that would have a lesser mortal blocked then. How many more before the light begins to shine? Malleus Fatuorum 01:19, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Yes, that's a fair comment. -- Hoary (talk) 01:29, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


    Can someone please close this discussion, too (nicely)?--Bbb23 (talk) 01:21, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    How much better does it get than this? I presume all of those calling for restraint here will exercise same next time it's a non-admin who uses a ninny word or term? Hell, I'm half-tempted now to start testing this myself: I've always thought most of the best editors have a block log, so I may as well have one, too. But I doubt that GWH gets it yet. I'm wondering who I can tell to F off and not get blocked? NYB seems to have a sense of humor: perhaps I should start with him? Well, it was good of Rod to prove the point we've been making so nicely. Bbb23, you 'must be kidding-- an admin can call other editors wankers and you wanna close it lickity split? Haven't we seen it all now? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:24, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    Sandy, you're always welcome to tell me to fuck off. (I have skin of linoleum.) That aside, it has to be said that: (i) wanking is particularly safe sex; and (ii) it's not entirely clear who the referents of "Wankers" are. -- Hoary (talk) 01:29, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    I'm trying not to envision someone with skin of linoleum wanking.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:52, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    At this point in time we are unlikely to get anything useful out of such a debate. After the earlier failed block is seems unlikely than anyone is going to throw any more around and I would suggest that people's current moods means that constructive disscussion is unlikely for at least 24 hours.©Geni 01:32, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    All fine as good- just remember to apply the same standard to Malleus next time, and take note once and for all of just who gets the infamous "free pass". SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:44, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    • What a pile of shite. Here am I, living in extremely poor circumstances, yet using the bandwith I can afford to make contributions here. I could spend that money on food, cigarettes or other stuff but on balance, I pr4efer to donate my expertrise, such as itr is , her54e, Rodhullandemu 01:40, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
    So please block me; I don't have the luxury of a comfortable life at present, but Misplaced Pages is all I have. If I can contribute here, or on Commons I will, as long as I can draw breath. However, I an equally find other stuff to do. Rodhullandemu 01:52, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    Misplaced Pages as blog host - block request

    Amyxiao (talk · contribs) is using his/her user talk page as a blog; making no other contribution; and not answering any questions on his/her use of wikipedia as blog. The user has been warned that a block is certain to follow. Evidence is found in his/her contributions log and the user talk page history. I'd be grateful if an admin would consider a block. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:33, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

    1. Cody, Edward (9 September 2010). "WikiLeaks stalled by Swedish inquiry into allegations of rape by founder Assange". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
    2. "Swedish inquiry reopen investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by founder Assange on third level of appeal". Anklagermyndigheten. 10 September 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
    3. Dagens Nyheter http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/aklagare-misstankarna-mot-julian-assange-kvarstar-1.1158117. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
    4. ^ "Sex allegations against founder derail WikiLeaks' momentum", The Washington Post, September 10, 2010.
    5. Davies, Caroline (22 August 2010). "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denies rape allegations". The Guardian.
    6. "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange questioned by police". The Guardian. 31 August 2010.
    7. "Sweden reopens investigation into rape claim against Julian Assange". The Guardian. 10 September 2010.
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