| Revision as of 06:25, 20 October 2014 view sourceNorthBySouthBaranof (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers33,477 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 14:08, 20 October 2014 view source Gamaliel (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Administrators93,995 editsmNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
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| I imposed a topic ban on an editor involved in editing articles related to the Gamergate controversy following a number of inappropriate comments about living individuals included in the articles. The ban itself was criticized for a number of reasons which I still believe are invalid, but in my rush to deal with the matter quickly, I did not insure that the proper procedures as set down by the Arbitration Committee were followed. The topic ban was appropriate, and was reinstated later by another administrator after further violations by the editor, but the way I went about it imposing it was inappropriate, wasted the time and effort of numerous other editors, and left living individuals open to further denigration by this editor. I want to specifically apologize to ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and anyone else's time I wasted with that mistake. | I imposed a topic ban on an editor involved in editing articles related to the Gamergate controversy following a number of inappropriate comments about living individuals included in the articles. The ban itself was criticized for a number of reasons which I still believe are invalid, but in my rush to deal with the matter quickly, I did not insure that the proper procedures as set down by the Arbitration Committee were followed. The topic ban was appropriate, and was reinstated later by another administrator after further violations by the editor, but the way I went about it imposing it was inappropriate, wasted the time and effort of numerous other editors, and left living individuals open to further denigration by this editor. I want to specifically apologize to ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and anyone else's time I wasted with that mistake. | ||
| At Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the subject of the article has been repeatedly denigrated by a particular editor on the talk page. While I was an uninvolved party with Gamergate, at Tyson's article I voiced my opinion enough on the talk page that I felt it inappropriate to take certain actions like imposing a topic ban. What I should have done was immediately sought such a ban on ], but instead I redacted a comment here, warned the user there, all actions that took little time, in hopes that the whole matter would go away on its own. My refusal to take the necessary steps required allowed this matter to escalate, until this editor posted a comment so egregious it required revision deletion, and then that editor came to my talk page to harangue me about it for three days until I finally blocked him for harassing me after repeated requests that he disengage. While given this |
At Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the subject of the article has been repeatedly denigrated by a particular editor on the talk page. While I was an uninvolved party with Gamergate, at Tyson's article I voiced my opinion enough on the talk page that I felt it inappropriate to take certain actions like imposing a topic ban. What I should have done was immediately sought such a ban on ], but instead I redacted a comment here, warned the user there, all actions that took little time, in hopes that the whole matter would go away on its own. My refusal to take the necessary steps required allowed this matter to escalate, until this editor posted a comment so egregious it required revision deletion, and then that editor came to my talk page to harangue me about it for three days until I finally blocked him for harassing me after repeated requests that he disengage. While given this editor's behavior, I believe a block was appropriate and inevitable, at no point in this process did I take the actions required by process and policy to appropriately deal with this matter. My desire for a speedy resolution led to my taking a number of inappropriate actions and wasting a great deal of time for myself and a number of other editors, and to them I apologize, especially ], ], and ], who posted thoughtful and reasonable disagreements here. | ||
| Given that the common thread here is that I am trying to do as much as possible in as little time as possible, and it has become abundantly clear to me this evening that my attempts to do so have caused me to make these significant errors of judgment. As a result, I think it is time for me to disengage from Misplaced Pages for a extended period of time, perhaps a month or more. This will likely not be permanent or extend much longer than that, because a number of my real life obligations will resolve themselves in December. I will continue to edit to fulfill my obligations to the ] and the ] as best I can, but I will try not to participate in general editing, administrative actions, or noticeboard discussions. | Given that the common thread here is that I am trying to do as much as possible in as little time as possible, and it has become abundantly clear to me this evening that my attempts to do so have caused me to make these significant errors of judgment. As a result, I think it is time for me to disengage from Misplaced Pages for a extended period of time, perhaps a month or more. This will likely not be permanent or extend much longer than that, because a number of my real life obligations will resolve themselves in December. I will continue to edit to fulfill my obligations to the ] and the ] as best I can, but I will try not to participate in general editing, administrative actions, or noticeboard discussions. | ||
Revision as of 14:08, 20 October 2014
 | This user is busy in real life and may not respond swiftly to queries. |
An open letter to the community, or the few members of the community who have a passing interest in my affairs:
I have been extremely busy of late. Very good things are happening personally and professionally, but they have in the last two months left me extremely busy, and at many times extremely stressed. This means I have far less time for Misplaced Pages than I used to. Misplaced Pages has been a constant in my life for the last decade, and I find myself coming to the website even when I don’t have the time to do so, as a way to relax or procrastinate. I have tried to scale back my editing and administrative activity to compensate for my increased obligations, but just as I have tried to do so, I became entangled in two very messy Misplaced Pages conflicts, both driven by outside agitation, the Gamergate controversy and the article on Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
In short, my desire to assist the encyclopedia and my fellow editors and to protect living individuals who are written about here has come into conflict with my need to spend less time on Misplaced Pages. As a result, in regards to those two conflicts, I have made several egregious errors. Those errors, I now realize, have come about through my desire to help Misplaced Pages in the quickest way possible so I could return to my other obligations. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I took shortcuts to speed up my involvement which actually ended up wasting much more time for myself and other editors. I believe my motivations and the desired results were all appropriate ethically and conformed to Misplaced Pages norms and policies, but my circumventing or not completely following regular procedures was inappropriate and did more harm than good, to myself and others.
I imposed a topic ban on an editor involved in editing articles related to the Gamergate controversy following a number of inappropriate comments about living individuals included in the articles. The ban itself was criticized for a number of reasons which I still believe are invalid, but in my rush to deal with the matter quickly, I did not insure that the proper procedures as set down by the Arbitration Committee were followed. The topic ban was appropriate, and was reinstated later by another administrator after further violations by the editor, but the way I went about it imposing it was inappropriate, wasted the time and effort of numerous other editors, and left living individuals open to further denigration by this editor. I want to specifically apologize to User:Callanecc, User:Cuchullain, User:Dreadstar, User:NorthBySouthBaranof, User:Ryulong, User:Tarc, User:TheRedPenOfDoom and anyone else's time I wasted with that mistake.
At Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the subject of the article has been repeatedly denigrated by a particular editor on the talk page. While I was an uninvolved party with Gamergate, at Tyson's article I voiced my opinion enough on the talk page that I felt it inappropriate to take certain actions like imposing a topic ban. What I should have done was immediately sought such a ban on WP:ANI, but instead I redacted a comment here, warned the user there, all actions that took little time, in hopes that the whole matter would go away on its own. My refusal to take the necessary steps required allowed this matter to escalate, until this editor posted a comment so egregious it required revision deletion, and then that editor came to my talk page to harangue me about it for three days until I finally blocked him for harassing me after repeated requests that he disengage. While given this editor's behavior, I believe a block was appropriate and inevitable, at no point in this process did I take the actions required by process and policy to appropriately deal with this matter. My desire for a speedy resolution led to my taking a number of inappropriate actions and wasting a great deal of time for myself and a number of other editors, and to them I apologize, especially User:Johnuniq, User:Objective3000, and User:TParis, who posted thoughtful and reasonable disagreements here.
Given that the common thread here is that I am trying to do as much as possible in as little time as possible, and it has become abundantly clear to me this evening that my attempts to do so have caused me to make these significant errors of judgment. As a result, I think it is time for me to disengage from Misplaced Pages for a extended period of time, perhaps a month or more. This will likely not be permanent or extend much longer than that, because a number of my real life obligations will resolve themselves in December. I will continue to edit to fulfill my obligations to the Misplaced Pages Signpost and the Misplaced Pages Library as best I can, but I will try not to participate in general editing, administrative actions, or noticeboard discussions.
I understand that part of being an editor and administrator is to be accountable to the community. But that accountability does not mean that an overworked volunteer need be on call constantly, or at the whims of other editors, or be the punching bag for editors who are working out their authority issues. I ask that the community respect that and not attempt to drag me back into editing conflicts or lengthy discussions. If anything requires my immediate participation, I ask that a single person, perhaps User:TParis if he is willing, convey the requests and demands of the community to me instead of me having to answer the requests of a hundred editors at once. Misplaced Pages requires certain obligations of its volunteers, but it should also respect the limited time and energy of those volunteers, respect their attempts to disengage, and not demand what they cannot give. I have served this community for ten years, I now ask that it respect my need to step away for a time.
I am going to unlock my user page now, and I ask that the editors who do post here only do so in accordance with the comments above. Thank you. Gamaliel (talk) 05:46, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
- No apologies necessary, Gamaliel. We're all working as hard as we can to make this encyclopedia a better place and a better source of information, and only nonsensical bureaucracy kept your efforts from being exactly on point. Enjoy your break. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 06:25, 20 October 2014 (UTC)