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Amendment request: Genetically modified organisms

Initiated by David Tornheim at 06:10, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Case or decision affected

Genetically modified organisms arbitration case (t) (ev / t) (w / t) (pd / t)

Clauses to which an amendment is requested

1. David Tornheim's topic ban from topic of genetically modified organisms, commercially produced agricultural chemicals and the companies that produce them, broadly construed is reduced to be a topic-ban from glyphosate, broadly construed. David Tornheim is further warned that any disruption in the GMO topic area after this appeal will likely result in additional sanctions, including but not limited to the restoration of the original topic ban as a new sanction. 17:21, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

List of any users involved or directly affected, and confirmation that all are aware of the request

• David Tornheim (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (initiator)
• TonyBallioni (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Seraphimblade (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

• diff of notification TonyBallioni
• diff of notification Seraphimblade

Information about amendment request

• David Tornheim's topic ban from topic of genetically modified organisms, commercially produced agricultural chemicals and the companies that produce them, broadly construed is reduced to be a topic-ban from glyphosate, broadly construed. David Tornheim is further warned that any disruption in the GMO topic area after this appeal will likely result in additional sanctions, including but not limited to the restoration of the original topic ban as a new sanction. 17:21, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

• Remove restriction

Statement by David Tornheim

I am appealing my topic ban from GMOs imposed by Seraphimblade in July 2016—almost four years ago. I have not made any edits in the area since then.

In April 2019, I appealed this topic ban, and it was reduced by TonyBallioni to a topic-ban from glyphosate, broadly construed.

I have not edited articles related to glyphosate or GMOs since then. I would like to have this restriction removed.

After four years, this restriction appears to be more punitive than WP:PREVENTATIVE. --David Tornheim (talk) 06:10, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

@Bradv and GorillaWarfare::

Can you comment on what kind of edits you plan to make in this topic area?

I mentioned this in my previous appeal last year, where I said, "If my topic ban is lifted, I will help keep the area up to date with the most recent science using the best reliable sources." I also commented on the fact that the science has fallen out of date, where a nearly 20-year-old report has been superseded.

I have a Bachelor of Science from University of Cincinnati and Master of Science from University of Southern California, and can bring a science background and knowledge of proper review of scientific literature to articles. I edit under my own name.

(a) understands the reason for their ban * * * (c) has a plan for doing things differently going forward

I explained that in my response to Seraphimblade in my previous appeal. In particular, I said that I will focus on content, not editor.

At the time of my 2016 topic ban, I had only made about 3,000 edits; now I have made over 12,000 edits. I am far more familiar with the policies and guidelines around casting aspersions and civility, and I now understand the importance of collaborative editing and how to resolve conflicts when there is disagreement.

I am now far more familiar with sourcing requirements than in 2016.

(b) can demonstrate a history of making productive edits in other areas

I believe my edit-history speaks for itself. I provided a number of examples of areas I was involved in, in my appeal of 2019 in the initial post. Since then, I have continued to work on vandalism reversion and created articles on the John Robinson Circus and Tillie (elephant).

I'm also curious to know why you haven't returned to editing GMO topics since the reduction in your topic ban scope.

(1) I wanted to demonstrate continued restraint. Often, editors who have been blocked or topic-banned immediately return to their past behaviors as soon as the ban is lifted.

(2) Shortly after the reduction in my topic-ban, I sought clarification on the scope of the topic ban. I was puzzled by the responses and simply stayed away.

(3) That almost any edit in GMO might be construed as related to glyphosate was a big deterrent.

I value my reputation on Misplaced Pages. Editing under my real name, my reputation at Misplaced Pages reflects on me personally and directly. In four years of the topic ban, I have learned from my mistakes.

--David Tornheim (talk) 04:05, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by TonyBallioni

No real thoughts on this. I’m happy with whatever the arbs decide. My standard comment is that a sanction working should not be taken as evidence that it isn’t needed. TonyBallioni (talk) 14:18, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by Seraphimblade

I was rather apprehensive about narrowing the original sanction's scope, but it appears that doing so hasn't had any negative consequences. I suppose this could be tried, with a clear understanding that if the problems occur again, the topic ban will be put right back in place. Seraphimblade 19:26, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by Kingofaces43

As someone who spent a lot of time trying to curate the GMO topic and deal with the disruption David Tornheim and other editors caused, I'm going to ask arbs to carefully read the comments (especially admins) from both David's original topic ban AE, and the appeal, especially in the context of how frustrated the community was with what David was constantly stirring up in this topic. A lot of David's actions outlined there more or less forced us to need a DS-enforced RfC on the scientific consensus for genetically modified food safety. There (and before) David frequently engaged in denialism on the consensus, and in the real-world, that is generally treated similarly to climate change denial, anti-vaccine sentiment, etc. Such WP:PSCI policy violations generally require a significant demonstrated change in subject matter competence for sanctions to be not needed.

Even at that AE appeal less than a year ago, the topic ban reduction was pretty tepid among admins, and part of the expectation was that David could use it demonstrate they could edit appropriately in the broader GMO area. Instead, they haven't edited the area at all. That's somewhat akin (though not exactly the same) to the problem of an editor being topic banned, "retiring" for the length of it, then appealing it saying that haven't caused problems since. In the real world, fringe proponents have shifted the goal posts away from GMO safety to glyphosate to make that the new point flash pan controversy filled with fringe theories us agricultural/science editors have spent a lot of effort separating from actual science. That David wants to directly jump into this new controversy without any other GMO edits is a serious red flag. Contrary to their last appeal's comment I think this illustrates that I was a newbie who did not fully understand the rules and Misplaced Pages norms..., the kind of stuff they engaged in went well beyond being a newbie and shows disregard for what they actually were banned for. My specific comments at the appeal have more background on that.

Prior to the ban, David's main area of disruption was primarily in GMOs with serious WP:FRINGE and WP:ADVOCACY issues, which is documented pretty well at their original AE ban and the previous sanctions listed there. Part of the behavior issues that the topic ban was meant to handle was to keep David away from science curators in the topic such as myself in lieu of a one-way interaction ban. That has to do with a specific GMO principle we passed at arbcom on aspersions (e.g., the Monsanto shill gambit). There's a lot of other history behind that principle, but a major reason for David's ban was hounding editors and disrupting content discussion with that gambit and encouraging others as you can read about in their original AE ban that led to two others getting sanctioned at well. See David's Monsanto must be pleased thread for another example of what we had to deal with until admins finally stepped in.

If anything else, it still looks like the WP:PREVENTATIVE ban is still working, and David hasn't given us any reason to think otherwise given how serious their behavior issues were before the topic ban (most comments at the last appeal were very generic that struck me as a mix between empty and incomplete apologies). As I asked at the last appeal, why would David be so interested in coming back into a topic they were so dead set against the science on? Their last appeal really didn't address the problems they caused at all, and this appeal has even less. We really need a good reason given past behavior to let David into controversial areas on this subject beyond it's been awhile and the topic seems calmer now. If anything, that's because the sanction was working correctly. I might have different opinions on more periphery GMO editors that were banned/sanctioned (13+ at last count), but David was one of the core editors in this subject that led to the original GMO case and problems afterwards.

Obviously I've had to deal with a lot from David in the past I've tried to distill down into something manageable, but if you boil this all down into one line, if David still can't even directly address the serious behavior that led to their ban, then the appeal should be denied. They haven't said or done anything different since the last appeal, glyphosate is still controversial, and this appeal seems to be significantly lacking for establishing what would be considered low-risk upon return. Kingofaces43 (talk) 18:57, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

@Bradv and GorillaWarfare: Seeing David's most recent response, I'm concerned they especially skirt around one of the core issues. They say they have a science background, yet outright denied the scientific consensus and significantly disrupted the topic as part of it. The "updating" the science thing goes back to WP:TE type issues that came up in the GMO RfC I mentioned above. An issue there wasn't not using scientific sources, but cherrypicking low quality fringe articles and taking up community time pushing that. What David has said on having a science background doesn't differentiate them from before their topic ban, but I realize it's not easy for arbs either since you need to somehow assess subject matter competence changes to address the fringe advocacy history, especially with no edit history in the unbanned areas. I'm not sure how you could reasonably assess if the POV problems wouldn't come back.

On the old rejected change they do mention, the science hasn't really changed in that area significantly (I'll stay out of those weeds), so David's comment is already a red flag for me. It may seem minor at first glance, but those kind of edits using attribution or middling language to lessen the apparent weight of a source were a common problem back before the ban (normally something from the from a secondary source like the EPA wouldn't even need attribution). In reality though, that entire section was already since updated over the years looking for more current sources. Editors still decided to use the source in question (ref 80) along with a more current one in part because nothing was really superseded. This isn't exactly an area lacking attention. Kingofaces43 (talk) 05:50, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Just a reminder since this is still open that group battleground behavior was an issue at David's original ban where Jusdafax was also sanctioned. Jusdafax's Unless one assumes bad faith comment is just continuing that same pot stirring from old disputes. That case partly shows why those of us science editors actually in the subject are so cautious about this all.

Otherwise Nosebagbear's comments are a fairly even-handed read of the situation. There are plenty of GMOs that don't deal with glyphosate. Kingofaces43 (talk) 14:24, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Side note

• Just a slight aside, but I also wanted to update arbs on the general status of the GMO/pesticide topic. Back at the original 2015 case, only a few editors were actually sanctioned just because of the sheer number of problems to sort through. Slowly over time, other disruptive editors were topic-banned (or some interaction bans) as I mentioned with the 13+ sanctions above. However, that left a lot of fatigue on the few editors who did remain trying to handle the tough content while also juggling with problematic behavior from editors and not wanting to run to AE each time giving the appearance of policing the topic. It wasn't until recently that things mostly settled down in 2018 and a flareup that took up a chunk of 2019. That's largely why I'm so cautious from a WP:STEWARDSHIP perspective now.

In general, agricultural topics don't attract as many subject matter experts, but in the real-world, the subject does attract a lot of WP:FRINGE stuff that finds it way to the encyclopedia when you get people coming in with advocacy issues. The volume of that may be higher in things like climate change or alt med, but there are also more editors to handle that in those topics. We've lost some good editors in part because of how long it took to really tamp down on behavior issues here, so I would ask arbs to consider for future GMO/pesticide discussions what their risk tolerance for an editor in the subject should be. I know I'd like to go from maintenance to fleshing out mode in the subject again now that it's been in a relative lull for a few months, but being stuck with new or old behavior problems has often put a stop to that for me. Those of us left in the subject have had a lot on our plates, and while the DS have helped take some unnecessary burden off them, I think I can speak for a lot of us that we shouldn't be handed something that has a decent risk of stirring up the subject again and ending back up at AE/Arbcom. Kingofaces43 (talk) 19:41, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by JzG

This seems like a bad idea to me - the anti-GMO brigade are hammering hard at Monsanto right now after the capricious court award. Guy (help!) 22:40, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by Mr Ernie

It's a bit sad to see this stall. I thought the appeal had merit and deserved a bit more consideration. Mr Ernie (talk) 13:51, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by Nosebagbear

While there might not be a benefit to immediately become a hyper-active editor in a field that an editor was recently Tbanned in, not editing in any of it (but still planning to) is almost as problematic.

Certainly we could deduce that the editor is more patient than they were, which is a plus. But we can't tell that their editing has become any better, whether they can handle dispute in their controversial field and so on. Thus, I'd like to advise the following:

1. David Tornheim's appeal to be declined
2. A recommendation/request be made to Tornheim to get at least some activity in the now open bits of their original TBAN to show it as a viable field for them
3. A shorter timescale than ARBCOM refused appeals are often suggested with to be given. I can't see any reason why 3 months of helpful contribution by Tornheim, after his lack of issues thus far, wouldn't be sufficient, so make that the timescale before a permitted re-appeal (rather than 6 months etc etc)

Nosebagbear (talk) 14:22, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Statement by Jusdafax

I am in agreement with Seraphimblade and Mr Ernie that David Tornheim’s restriction should be lifted. Four years really is a long time on Misplaced Pages.

DT’s statement here is direct. His answers to the questions are reasonable, regarding his not editing in the GMO field since he was partially unbanned in 2019: the conditions appeared to him to be open to interpretation.

A look at his User page and his last 500 edits, all made this year, show a diverse ongoing commitment to the project. Unless one assumes bad faith, I believe there is no good reason not to lift the remainder of the topic ban. Jusdafax (talk) 13:14, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Statement by {other-editor}

Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should address why or why not the Committee should accept the amendment request or provide additional information.

Genetically modified organisms: Clerk notes

This area is used for notes by the clerks (including clerk recusals).

Genetically modified organisms: Arbitrator views and discussion

• Recuse. Katie 15:54, 16 March 2020 (UTC)
• David Tornheim, can you comment on what kind of edits you plan to make in this topic area? Typically when topic bans are lifted we would want to see that the appellant (a) understands the reason for their ban, (b) can demonstrate a history of making productive edits in other areas, and (c) has a plan for doing things differently going forward. You claim in your request that you haven't made any edits in the GMO topic area since that ban was lifted, so why does it need to be lifted further? How would doing so benefit the project? – bradv🍁 19:14, 16 March 2020 (UTC)
• David Tornheim Like Bradv, I'd like to hear what kind of editing you plan to do if the ban is lifted. I'm also curious to know why you haven't returned to editing GMO topics since the reduction in your topic ban scope; normally that would be a good path towards demonstrating that the remaining restriction is unnecessary. GorillaWarfare (talk) 22:28, 16 March 2020 (UTC)
• Upon reading David's replies and the comments by others, I am agreeing with Jusdafax that lifting the ban after four years might be beneficial to the project. I also think David is sufficiently warned that any return to old behavior will swiftly result in sanctions again. Regards SoWhy 07:54, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Amendment request: Race and intelligence

Initiated by AndewNguyen at 21:56, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Case or decision affected

Race and intelligence arbitration case (t) (ev / t) (w / t) (pd / t)

Clauses to which an amendment is requested

1. Editors reminded and discretionary sanctions (amended)

List of any users involved or directly affected, and confirmation that all are aware of the request

• AndewNguyen (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (initiator)

Information about amendment request

• Editors reminded and discretionary sanctions (amended)

• I request that ArbCom open a review (I am not sure which clause this falls under, but I assume it's the discretionary sanctions.)

Statement by AndewNguyen

I am requesting that ArbCom examine the long-running series of disputes over this topic, which have escalated in the past few months, especially the past month. Several administrators and non-administrators have argued an arbitration case or review is needed to address this situation. This view was expressed at Arbitration Enforcement by the admins User:In actu, User:Ivanvector, and User:Barkeep49, and more recently in this discussion by user:SMcCandlish and the 2600:1004 IP user.

The following are some of the recent or current community discussions about these articles, although I may have missed some:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive252#Grayfell (May 2019)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive261#Oldstone_James (February 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive262#Peregrine_Fisher (March 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive263#Jweiss11 (March 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive264#Race_and_intelligence (March 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_283#Talk%3ARace_and_intelligence (January 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_286#Books_from_Cambridge_University_Press (February 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard#Rindermann%2C_Intelligence (April 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard#RfC_on_race_and_intelligence (April 2020)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Self-requested_closure_review:_RfC_on_race_and_intelligence (April 2020)

The following are some of the issues that need to be examined:

• There is a concern, expressed in several of the recent Arbitration Enforcement reports, that some editors are attempting to remove or exclude well-sourced material from the article for dubious reasons.
• There is a concern, expressed mainly in the RFC, that some users (especially NightHeron) are violating BLP policy by repeatedly stating that some living people are white supremacists, without presenting any sources that call them that.
• There is a concern, also expressed in the RFC, about possible meatpuppetry or off-wiki canvassing.
• There is a concern about whether or not TonyBallioni's closure of the RFC was improper.

I have not added the list of editors that should be parties, but see the comment by In Actu in which he suggested who the parties should be to such a case. If ArbCom decides to open a case or review, I request that they exercise their own judgement about who the parties should be, or follow In Actu's suggestion.

When this situation was escalating at the end of March, I took a break from Misplaced Pages for 4 weeks, so upon my return I'm disappointed to see that it is continuing to spawn new disputes among the same group of editors. Without ArbCom's intervention, it is likely to continue coming up again and again indefinitely.

Statement by JzG

This may need a new full case. There are two deeply entrenched camps, and there is a good deal of argumentation that seems to an outsider to be intellectually dishonest, a sort of "teach the controversy" approach. Accusations of bad faith abound, not always without merit. Admins have tried to deal with the issue and failed.

Above, we have "there is concern" over TonyBallioni's well-reaosoned close of the recent RfC. That seems problematic: there was no consensus to overturn, and debate was often about the apparent invention of new policies on the fly. Guy (help!) 14:23, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Statement by slatersteven

I was involved in the RFC and made the point that the claim "blacks have a different form of intelligence" is used by some as an example of white privilege (for example our system of maths is set up for the way white brains work). I was pointing out how this can in fact impact on articles about that (after all if its a fringe to say race affects intelligence that applies even when it is used as an excuse for black underachievement). But the RFC came to a conclusion, and I see no reason not to respect our processes. I am however would be concerned if it could be shown the close ignored opinions based upon an essay, or presumptions of being a NAZI!.Slatersteven (talk) 14:40, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Statement by IP editor

Many thanks to AndewNguyen for making this request. As one of the people who thinks that an ArbCom case is needed, I had recently suggested to several other editors that someone should request arbitration. Now that this finally has been brought before ArbCom, I can mention something I've been wanting to mention for about a month, but that would have been inappropriate to bring up outside of ArbCom or AE.

It has been evident to me for a long time that NightHeron is a parody account, most likely being operated by someone associated with the alt-right. It's reasonably well-known that a large portion of the material related to human intelligence and intelligence researchers at RationalWiki is deliberate parodies (see the discussion here and here, among other places). The people who write this material are trying to make RationalWiki such an obvious caricature of left-wing talking points that no one takes the site seriously. Misplaced Pages has been vulnerable for a long time to the same type of trolling, and that appears to be what's happening now.

It is important to recognize the distinction between actual leftist beliefs, and the beliefs that members of the alt-right claim that leftists hold, and how perfectly NightHeron's editing matches the second description. Aside from race and intelligence, nearly all of NightHeron's editing has been to hot-button political topics such as White privilege, Male privilege, Ilhan Omar, and Abortion. This is not a random selection of topics - it is the precise set of topics that the "Cultural Marxism" conspiracy theory claims are being used to undermine the culture of Europe and the United States. As a further way of advocating this conspiracy theory by basing his edits on its claims, during the RFC NightHeron was actually citing a book by a communist party member, which itself cites the works of Karl Marx, and arguing that this is a mainstream source.

There are three actions in particular that I think demonstrate NightHeron's status as almost certainly a parody account.

• First, when NightHeron was challenged to provide a source supporting his statement that Heiner Rindermann is a "diehard white supremacist", the source that he provided was The New Observer, a right-wing fake news site that propagates anti-semitic conspiracy theories. The New Observer article that he cited is not publicly accessible, apparently because it either is paywalled or requires registration to view. By citing this article he let his disguise slip momentarily - why would any non-member of the alt-right not only be reading that site, but have access to the non-public articles there?

• Second, as NightHeron explained in his comment here, he has been evading scrutiny with the use of multiple accounts. The explanation he gave there (that his other account uses his real name) is not convincing, because he could simply rename the account if he wanted to avoid editing under his real name. Presumably, his main account is the one that he uses for pushing his actual, right-wing point of view.

• Finally, I wish to call attention to NightHeron's comment here, in which he stated that The same IP-editor recently made a similar accusation against me on the user-page of another admin, Barkeep49, who'd also been involved in the AfD/DRV. After I learned of the accusation by chance, I was able to defend myself, and nothing came of it. Barkeep49's actual words to NightHeron were, So as to the other pieces, I do think, now that you're here, that you need to be very careful when describing people as white supremacists. More careful than you've been to date - the stuff on Piffer is not nearly strong enough, for instance. NightHeron's statement that Rindermann is a "diehard white supremacist", cited to a right-wing fake news site, came after he was given this warning. So this is a case of an an editor gloating about how he was merely warned by an admin instead of sanctioned, and that he's thus entitled to continue the same behavior. (Incidentally, this behavior also has included an attempt at doxxing another Misplaced Pages editor.)

None of this is the behavior of a normal Misplaced Pages editor. But it is exactly the behavior one would expect from a person who is planning, sometime in the future, on writing an article for an alt-right website about how many Misplaced Pages policies he was able to get away with violating by making an alternate account that pretended to be a leftist. Misplaced Pages's admins should be embarrassed that they've allowed themselves to be hoodwinked with this tactic, especially if it's allowed to continue even now that I've pointed it out. 2600:1004:B159:2CC4:F8F8:76FE:335B:DEF6 (talk) 14:44, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Statement by {other-editor}

Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should address why or why not the Committee should accept the amendment request or provide additional information.

Race and intelligence: Clerk notes

This area is used for notes by the clerks (including clerk recusals).

Race and intelligence: Arbitrator views and discussion

• Misplaced Pages arbitration
• Misplaced Pages requests