Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:30, 3 October 2005

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The last step of dispute resolution is a request for arbitration. Please review other avenues you should take. If you do not follow any of these routes, it is highly likely that your request will be rejected. If all other steps have failed, and you see no reasonable chance that the matter can be resolved in another manner, you may request that it be decided by the Arbitration Committee.

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Currently, there are no requests for arbitration.

No cases have recently been closed (view all closed cases).

Currently, no requests for clarification or amendment are open.

The procedure for accepting requests is described in the Arbitration policy. If you are going to make a request here, you must be brief and cite supporting diffs. New requests to the top, please. You are required to place a notice on the user talk page of each person you lodge a complaint against.

0/0/0/0 corresponds to Arb Com member votes to accept/reject/recuse/other.

This is not a page for discussion, and Arbitrators may summarily remove discussion without comment.

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Current requests

Template

Involved parties

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

If not, then explain why that would be fruitless

Statement by party 1

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Statement by party 2

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0)

Abuses on Polygamy article

Involved parties

• User:Researcher99 (initiating party through official ] advocate User:Imaglang aka Neigel von Teighen)
• User:Nereocystis

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

Nereocystis has been informed

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

• Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Researcher99
• Misplaced Pages:Requests for mediation/Researcher99 and Nereocystis (mediation failed)

Statement by advocate of party 1

Statement by User:Researcher99's advocate Neigel von Teighen as it can be confirmed by

User:Nereocystis has incurred in a long term abusive behaivor against User:Researcher99 (aka Researcher) in the Poligamy page and, specially, in Talk:Polygamy. This user believes that Researcher has been doing POV edits in the article and so it does think my 'client' about Nereocystis, but that is not the main point of this case. The discussion of either the content is POV or not has been totally displaced by abuses performed by Nereocystis as it can be shown by the list of diffs at the bottom of the statement. Thus, we're seeking the Misplaced Pages:Civility policy to be applied.

Preliminary evidence:

I have contacted User:Researcher99 by mail so he can send his statement soonly. Thank you. --Neigel von Teighen 23:30, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Statement by party 1

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Statement by party 2

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (0/0/0/0)

User:Fred Bauder Misplaced Pages:Civility violations

Involved parties

• User:Njyoder
• User_talk:Fred Bauder

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

He has been informed, but has not responded yet.

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

If not, then explain why that would be fruitless

Discussion on his talk page and mailing list was met with silence. He continues to refuse to provide so much as a single link to substantiate his claims.

• How can you substantiate libel?

• You can't, I'm just saying that he hasn't made any attempt to provide evidence to support his claims (which are libelous). Every time I ask him to do it he just gives a dismissive response along the lines of "I was just doing my job." They were never addressed in any medium, neither the RfA, nor other parts of Misplaced Pages, nor the mailing list. I think he realizes that he screwed up, which is why he's being so evasive. Nathan J. Yoder 17:38, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Since it is impossible to substantiate libel (by definition), it would probably be better grammar, more informative, and less blatantly biased to say "He has failed to substantiate his claims regarding..." Feel free to delete my constructive criticism.

• Okay, changed 'libel' to 'claims.' Nathan J. Yoder 18:10, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by party 1

In Misplaced Pages:Civility it clearly states that you can't lie about users, such as outlined here (in regard to my arbitration committee ruling). In my arbitrartion ruling, there were 16 proposed principles, all added by him. There were 12 findings of facts, all but one were added by him. Due to the nature of the blind-voting of the arbitration committe, the aribtrators took his word that they were all truthful and simply voted in the affirmative on most, despite a lack of links as evidence. He knew about this and took advantage of it.

There are a variety of examples of non-policies and irrelevent statements inserted by Fred into the arbitration case with, quite literally, zero supporting evidence, but since this statement is limited in size, I'll only cover a few primary ones.

For example, Fred Bauder inserted a claim about citing sources with no links to diffs and no supporting evidence. One would assume that if someone were to make accusations of someone else not citing sources when they should have, they would link to changes where there should have been citations. I had made numerous citations, including primary sources in the Bisexuality article and I had clearly cited the regular dictionary and a specialized etymology dictionary in the Gender article. That makes the claim of not citing sources nothing short of a lie and thusly a violation of civility rules.

Another example is "original research", which again, had zero supporting links. Also, proposed principles 5 & 6, added by him, are fabricated wikipedia principles (lies). That is all for now.

Reference: Misplaced Pages:Requests_for_arbitration/Njyoder/Proposed_decision

• If you think the claim is groundless, then why don't you point out where Fred presented evidence for the cite your sources claim? I have yet to see a single link, which is REQUIRED to prove that the claim is groundless. Your accusation of the claim being groundless is based on nothing more than personal bias (again--there is no evidence in his favor), you refuse to believe that an arbitrator could just make something up on an arbitration case, thus you are recused from this case and your vote does not count. I'm serious about that, you are not capable of being impartial here, I will recuse each arbitrator who does not bother to find a single link of evidence to support Fred's claim, because anything otherwise is direct evidence of their inability to acknowledge perseonal bias. Again for emphasis: in order to demonstrate that he did not lie, you need to present at least a tiny shred of evidence, but absolutely nothing has been shown.

Take special note here that Fred does not actually deny that he lied on the case. He doesn't even bother to present any evidence in his defense, even though, if he were lying, all it would take would be a single diff link. Nathan J. Yoder 22:38, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• To JF: Second, of course Misplaced Pages policy applies to arbitrators during proceedings, you just explicitly excused arbitrators from lying on an arbitration case. There is NOTHING in Misplaced Pages policy, nor ethics, nor common sense that allows that. It is for this reason that you are also recused from the case, you can't be objective. Thirdly, an appeal is not necessary if it can be found an arbitrator engaged in foul play by breaking Misplaced Pages rules, the one and ONLY reason Fred is suggesting an appeal to Jimbo is because he knows Jimbo will likely not hear ANY appeals (regardless of merit) and he knows that an impartial hearing in this case would get him in serious trouble. Lastly, the blind voting is evidenced by the fact that they voted even though there was no evidence linked at all AND that, as I had already stated, that the "cite your sources" thing was actually blatantly false (I specifically mentioned places where I did--they were ignored). I'm sorry, but this isn't a matter of simple disagreement, they made a matter-of-fact claim that I didn't cite sources when I actually did and then utterly refused to cite a single case where I should have done it, but didn't. Nathan J. Yoder 22:36, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• To epopt: you were involved in my arbitration case, I changed your vote to recuse. You didn't even bother reading the facts, you didn't bother to present the slightest bit of evidence that Fred didn't lie. Thus, you are recused. Your actions are highly inappropriate here and out of line. I haven't changed the other arbs vote yet, because at least he wasn't involved in my case. The funny thing is, that if this were really without merit, all it would take is a single diff link to prove me wrong, but you are not doing that. You are implicitly acknowledging that I'm right. Nathan J. Yoder 23:41, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Take special note here that Fred does not actually deny that he lied on the case. He doesn't even bother to present any evidence in his defense, even though, if he were lying, all it would take would be a single diff link. Nathan J. Yoder 22:38, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• In response to my change: I recommend blocking epopt and the admin who reverted my change. It should be abundantly clear that it's inappropriate for those with obvious vested personal interest in the case to NOT recuse themselves. The epopt was a part of the arbitration case in which Fred lied. Anyone who can't see the conflict of interest here should be blocked as well. Nathan J. Yoder 23:46, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• • Editing others' comments is never appropriate, period. If you think Epopt should have recused, you should have just said so. By your logic all the arbitrators could be considered to have conflicts of interest - logically they would all want to protect Fred. It's extremely uncivil to say that people who disagree with you should be blocked. Etc. BTW, you're within a hair's width of violating your personal attack parole. ~~ N (t/c) 23:55, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Then you should tell Fred Bauder, who is involved in this case, to not delete my comments, like he did from this RfA. That went unpunished, I suggest he be blocked for at least 24 hours. He has violated the rules by deleting my comment and will be granted automatic immunity due to his arbitrator status. That is not my logic. You and the other arbs he are being incredibly disingenuous and engaging in an absurd strawman argument. My argument was never that they should be recused because they disagree. I had made the very clear argument, which was dilberately ignored in favor of a logically fallacious strawman counter-argument, that it was due to their involvement in that particular arbitration case that made it a conflict of interest. By them admitting that Fred lied, they would in turn be admitting that they made a huge personal error, thus a huge conflict of interest exists.

• The other arb in this has explicitly stated that it is okat for arbitrators to violate Misplaced Pages rules and literally lie on an RfA, so if my claims were 100% true, he would still reject the case, that alone should be enough to recuse. Add to that the fact that NONE of these arbitrators have bothered to address even one of my claims, especially the "Cite your sources" one, which would be EASY to prove wrong if it were untrue. I have presented falsifiable evidence that he lied. If, as the arbitrators claim, my accusation is totally without merit, then it would only take a single diff link or some other easily produced piece of evidence to prove that it's absurd. In fact, if you notice, in cases where such wild, baseless accusations actually are made, arbitrators and other parties tend to go out of their way to produce a variety of links to demonstrate that, because it's so easy to do. But in my case, where it's so "obviously baseless", literally ZERO evidence has been produced. Nathan J. Yoder 03:22, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

"This is not a page for discussion, and Arbitrators may summarily remove discussion without comment." Snowspinner 03:26, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

My comment wasn't discussion, it was a comment on Fred's behavior. He was completely out of line in removing that comment and no amount of apologia will excuse that. Nathan J. Yoder 03:42, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

I should also note, that this page contains lots of discussion, including discussion by you and non-arbitrators. It's pretty common on this page. That notice clearly has no validity when it comes to discussion of the specific cases. Nathan J. Yoder 03:47, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

It's very hard to make any sensible response to an argument that clearly takes as its own premise that everything you say is right. The only response seems to be to point out the meglomania of the argument, which could be taken as a personal attack. Suffice it to say, then, that I disagree with what you are saying. Snowspinner 04:30, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

That has to be the strangest cop-out of a response that I've seen. I had two distinct parts of my argument that didn't rely on the premise that I was right, which were very clearly outlined. Are you contesting my assertion that my comment was not part of a discussion? Or are you contesting the second part, that discussion regularly takes place on this page? It seems to me that you're just out of straws to grasp at, so you're giving up. Nathan J. Yoder 04:46, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Statement by party 2

Please limit your statement to 500 words

An appeal of an arbitration is to User:Jimmy Wales Fred Bauder 19:35, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Quick comment by Snowspinner

I blocked Njyoder for 48 hours for altering the Epopt's vote. Snowspinner 00:34, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

If Njyoder tampers with any vote ever again, I'll block him for a lot longer than 48 hours. ➥the Epopt 05:34, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (0/3/1/0)

• Recuse Fred Bauder 19:37, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject on three grounds: firstly, I think the claim is groundless (I do not think that Fred violated civility); secondly, I do not believe that Misplaced Pages policy applies to Arbitrators in our enacting of our duties anyway - we end up making "personal attacks" in the form of "xyz is a troll, and here are the links to demonstrate as such", and our job would be still more unmanageable were we to limit ourselves by playing within the boundaries we set down to heighten community cohesion; and, thirdly, as Fred points out appeals for Arbitration cases are exclusively through the channel of direct appeal to Jimbo - this is outside of our mandate. Further, I find it more than a little insulting to be accused of "blind voting" in favour of everything written by Fred (or whomever), and that we do not read very carefully the evidence presented. That we disagree with you does not necessarily mean that we are wrong. James F. (talk) 21:45, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject with prejudice:

  1. this is a patently frivolous claim intended to harass and disrupt the Committee's business
  2. the accusation includes actionable libel of all arbiters; to wit, that we vote blindly instead of competently and patiently doing our jobs
  3. accuser stands in contempt of the Committee by presuming that he has the authority to recuse arbiters who have the termerity to disagree with him
  4. accuser has forged alterations to arbiters' comments, and therefore is estopped from questioning the honesty of any arbiter

  ➥the Epopt 23:23, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Reject. I concur with both James and Epopt. →Raul654 00:41, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject. Appeals should go to Jimbo. We should speedy remove this "request" Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 12:30, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

The Bogdanov Affair Affair

Involved Parties

• User:Snowspinner
• User:YBM
• User:rbj
• User:Laurence67
• User:LLL
• User:XAL
• Various IPs

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

They will be made aware. I promise.

Statement by Snowspinner

The Bogdanov Affair article has been plagued by vicious POV warrioring from a number of sides, including IPs belonging to Igor Bogdanov, the subject of the article. The short form is this: The Bogdanovs published some physics papers, which were eventually widely recognized by the physics community as nonsense. Bogdanovs stand by their papers. Hilarity ensues. The article has been under near-constant revert warring recently, as Bogdanov and people allied with him remove all criticism, and Bogdanov's critics revert frantically. The mediation cabal failed to solve this one. I ask for short term injunctive relief, specifically that the Bogdanovs, YBM, LLL, Laurence67, and XAL all be banned from the article in question. A sample of problematic edits include (A new user who immediately shows up in the firefight) and (For personal attacks). The odds of sockpuppets being involved in editing here is quite high - a lot of users who do nothing other than edit Bogdanov pages.

Statement from third party Ral315

I haven't edited the article, but I was one of the admins who was involved in blocking. As part of a routine 3RR request on WP:AN/3RR (made by Rbj), I blocked Rbj and an IP purportedly belonging to Igor. Both editors acted badly afterward; Igor reverted the article under different IPs, and Rbj was, in his own words, "proud" of the block. The whole thing is a mess, and I would support blocking at least a few of these editors (Bogdanovs and Rbj, I'm not really sure on how the rest are involved) from editing the article. I would also encourage the ArbCom to clarify on whether this is a violation of WP:AB (though this is only a guideline, it would help to clarify how far the vanity/autobiography guidelines reach. Ral315 W_S 19:44, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

some clarification Ral315, it was not i, but it was Igor who requested that you block me and you ended up blocking us both for 24 hours. i submitted to the 24 hour block and Igor did not. he was protesting his innocence on the talk page twice using different IPs before the day was over and i, not willing to use anonymous IP, had to stay out of it.

lastly, you might not see the justification, but Snowspinner said after the fact that reverting Igor's edits to this article that is about him had some immunity from the 3RR. i don't remember the exact words but the record is there. my actions were vindicated because of persistent vandalism of the article by Igor because he doesn't like inclusion of factual data that makes him look bad. please get your facts right. this is a case of vandalism by persistent vandals that needs to be ended. as i said on my talk page when i just got blocked, i am absolutely certain that i was doing the right thing reverting that vandalism even if it was more than 3 reverts that day. Misplaced Pages:Autobiography is pretty clear about writing your own biography here. it's pretty damn clear who is flagrantly breaking the rules and i hope that the all of the admins and arbcom figure it out.r b-j 21:52, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Aah, so it was Igor. My mistake. Nevertheless, I feel that 3RR should still apply- the Autobiography guideline is just that- a guideline. Not a hard rule. But a temporary injunction blocking some or all of these editors from editing might not be a bad idea. Ral315 W_S 02:26, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I think rbj was reasonable to violate the 3RR after I told him not to worry about it. If you really want to throw a 3RR block over this, you should throw it at me. Snowspinner 02:32, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

ya know, Ral315 and Snowspinner, for the 2nd time i was blocked for 3RR violation along with Igor who was blocked "indefinitely " ', and sat this out for 24 hours, while at the same time Igor just goes and gets another IP and edits the article anyway during the time that we are both "blocked" (during my 24 hours and his "indefinite" period).

does this matter to you? i've never been a 2 Amendment supporter, but now i understand what they mean when they say "When you take away our guns, only the crooks will be armed because, being crooks, they will not give up their guns voluntarily." (i'm still not a 2 Amendment supporter.)

you can throw all the 3RR blocks you want. with me they'll stick because i will not edit anonymously nor look around for other IPs to work from, but with Igor, it doesn't matter. he'll just shrug it off and do what he does anyway since he sees himself as above the rules. ever wonder how much he's laughing at you? r b-j 01:16, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Question from Bishonen: an injunction for XAL?

Oops. I didn't realize that the Bogdanov Affair affair had made it to RFAR; I just blocked XAL for the third time for unrepentant personal attacks. 72 hours. Should I unblock her so she can respond to this RFAR? I'd appreciate it if she could get an injunction against editing anywhere else, though (especially not on Talk:Bogdanov Affair), for what would have been the duration of the block. I'm not happy about all this vitriol she spreads, and, from past experience, I'd expect it to be worse now that I've gotten her worked up with a new block. Bishonen | talk 20:42, 26 September 2005 (UTC) PS, re Snowspinner's request above that XAL along with other users be banned from editing the article: she never has edited it. Never edited any article on wikipedia. I want her banned from the article's talkpage.

For what it is worth, I support this motion. XAL has contributed nothing to the discussion, in stark contraindistinction to most of the other users like Igor or rbj or ybm, and often stirs things up. --Maru (talk) 21:03, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Also from an outsider: XAL appears to only rant and to only rant on one topic (user:YBM, whose letters are sequentially one after hers, like IBM and HAL), and to contribute nothing but a negative -- an anti- point of view. Thus, she seems to have come to us from some outside web fight and longterm flamewar. Since coming here, she has demonstrated the grace, understanding, curiosity, and equanimity of a wounded hyena with rabies. Geogre 11:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement from User:Rbj

I am not a physicist. I am an electrical engineer with some experience in publishing and in academia, although I'm not in the academia at the moment. Being on the Review Board of a technical journal (Journal of the Audio Engineering Society), I have a little experience about how stuff like this gets published. No journal is immune to it which is why some physicists thought that the Bogdanoff brothers were deliberately stinging the physics discipline in the same way that Sokal did to the sociology discipline.

There are two initial possible classes for the Bogdanoff's work: either it has some merit (perhaps with flaws or perhaps not flawed at all) or it has no merit.

If it's the latter, then it is bad science or junk science or pseudoscience (which would be called "quackery" if the science were medicine). In that case, it doesn't matter what the consensus of physicists think. reality is not dictated by majority rule.

If it is the former, that is that it is not devoid of merit, then it is either mainstream science or it is fringe science or protoscience. But here, which category that it falls into does depend on the consensus of the mainstream of the existing discipline. If a majority or even a large minority of physicists recognize the Bogdanoff's work to be valid (or, at least, to have some merit) a case could be made for it to be called "mainstream". But, given the supposition that the work has some merit, if the Bogdanoff's work is not respected as having any merit by any more than a token set of recognized physicists, then the best that can be claimed for it is that it is fringe science or protoscience. That label is not necessarily disparaging. A century ago special relativity was fringe science or protoscience and now it is standard in any introductory modern physics text.

But if the theory is not accepted by the "mainstream" physics community, there is no basis to claim that the theory is mainstream. And if it is not mainstream, the remaining categories are: fringe science or protoscience, and junk science or pseudoscience. In some manner, even string theory, which has a lot of adherents and respect, must accept such a label. If it turns out that string theory can never be falsifiable, it will eventually fall by the wayside and become an obsolete theory.

So there are two main questions to deal with:

1. Does the Bogdanoff's published work have technical merit or not? That issue is too technical and arcane to be debated here, however, a bona-fide cosmologist who has identified himself and his credentials has offered an opinion here on the talk page. Igor would be correct to imply that only the "specialists" can debate this effectively, but he is not correct that this is the salient question for debate about the Wikipedian article. Misplaced Pages is not the Annals of Physics nor Classical and Quantum Gravity nor the USENET newsgroup sci.physics.research. It would be nice if we could get more real physicists other than User:YBM and User:Alain_r involved, but then again, Misplaced Pages is not the place for real physicists to slug out what is or what is not real physics (but, unfortunately, it looks like it may become that).

2. The other question that is salient is: what does the wider community of physicists say about the quality and veracity of the Bogdanoff's work? Well, there is quite a record and, despite the publication of their earlier papers in reputable journals, the record is not flattering for the Bogdanoffs. The VAST majority of the credentialed physics community has utterly rejected and dismissed their published work as "wrong", "hoax", "embarrassing", "incoherent", "gibberish", conceptully invalid (my paraphrase of many positions), and even "BS" (and i don't think they mean "Bachelor of Science"). VERY, VERY, FEW physicists have come to their defense on the record. We virtually only hear the journal referee's comments (and only relayed to us via the Bogdanoff's, that has to be a dubious source) but that fails to recognize the problem. No one disputes that the Bogdanoff's got published in a couple of legitimate journals of theoretical physics. The problem is that their papers are believed by the mainstream to be without merit. The journal referees competence regarding this arcane field are also suspect (indeed physicist John Baez has said that the referees have something to answer for). And the merit that Bogdanoff's try to extract from such publication has been destroyed by the fact that the editorial board of CQG has made it clear that the papers, in retrospect, have failed to meet the standards expected of any article published in the journal. The editors of CQG have repudiated the very papers that the Bogdanoffs have published in their journal. This is undeniably damning (except that Igor does actually deny that it is).

The Misplaced Pages policy is that there is no original research and neutral POV (we don't get to write our own autobiographies here). The fact that the Bogdanoffs continue to defend their work as genuine should be reported as such. But the fact that their work is overwelmingly rejected by the mainstream physics community should also be reported as such. Including links to fringe science, protoscience, junk science, and pseudoscience is not inappropriate at all, because there is no way that anyone can claim it to be in the mainstream.

I have been editing on Misplaced Pages for about a year or two (I think). The Bogdanov Affair is not my only agenda, but that cannot be said for the Bogdanovs, their sock-puppets, and the few flesh-and-blood supporters: XAL, Laurence67, CatherineV; -- they are here for one and only one reason: to paint the B brothers in the most flattering light possible. To turn this stinkhorn into a rose. But it simply stinks, and that stink is of the Bogdanov's own making. Their behavior regarding this, both here on WP, and at other sites/blogs and USENET, has been nakedly dishonest. They act like imposters much of the time, and I am confident that the reason is that they are imposters. They are pretending to be physicists, but the real physicists know that the B. brothers are not.

The admins and ArbCom of Misplaced Pages are going to have to make a judgement about what the real physicists say about the Bogdanov "research". On the latest version that I or YBM (now a few others have stepped in to defend the article from the B. vandals) have left, you will get links to the extensive web pages and blogs where this has been discussed since 2002 (a quick check of some words as at Talk:Bogdanov_Affair/comments including an older NYT article). This is the very information that the Bogdanov brothers want to suppress. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. r b-j 22:28, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Proposal from Marudubshinki

I have watched and studied this matter a fair bit; I do not think it will end peaceably until the page is inacessible for whatever reason. I propose we keelhaul a neutral Wikipedian, essentially randomly chosen, and put them up to a vote on the Talk: page. If accepted, (as they should be since a neutral editor will not have been involved, and presumably, would be non-prejudiced and hence acceptable to all parties), they will completely revamp the article, striving for a neutral even-handed result. This would then be indefinitely protected, until such time as the madness ceases. --Maru (talk) 23:58, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure completely selling out the wiki process is what I'd call an acceptable solution. --Snowspinner 01:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Well, Snowspinner, the wiki process has been grinding along for a while now, and it seems to be ineffectual in this case. I don't fault wikis for this- they are essentially predicated upon the idea of consensus being possible, with the various parties being reasonable and willing to eventually compromise. I don't see any glimmerings of either quality here. So, much as I hate the precedent, we must explore alternatives. --Maru (talk) 03:26, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I think that this is a fair proposal. Another variation on it would be to elect a "college" of 3 or 4 neutral wikipedians. --Igor

Well, I was thinking it would be a lot easier to randomly and fairly select one Wikipedian rather than 3 or 4; it would also be a lot easier for all parties concerned to vet one rather than multiple candidates. --Maru (talk) 03:21, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

A little heads-up regarding the 3RR rule, sock puppets, and subterfuge

I think that if admins and the ArbCom look into this, it is pretty clear that the Bogdanovs are acting on a little plan of attack by attrition. Notice our two latest Bogdanov sock puppets, "Agent 194" and contribs and "Naudin" and contribs. now here is what will happen, sorta like the board game Risk, in the next edit/revert war, Igor will attack from multiple locations (sock puppets) each with equal resources (our 3 reverts allowed) to the foe, but with a total that outnumbers his opponent. I will revert his vandalism, and he will revert back, but the only way for me to "keep up" is to go beyond the 3RR where none of his sock puppets do that.

I will bet you've seen this sorta thing before, but I do not know what you do about it or have done about it. It's just a heads-up.

In addition, even though both Igor and I have supposedly been blocked because of 3RR violation, Igor does not submit to his being blocked. He just gets another IP, sometimes starts up a new identity, and continues to white wash out anything that he doesn't like to see in this article that is precisely about his "beating the system". Igor is not submitting to his blocks resulting from his own 3RR violation. Do you guys on the ArbCom give a rat's ass about that? -- r b-j 02:49, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

I just point that involved parties cannot unilaterally declare that 3RR is not valid anymore. If Igor has been banned by ArbCom, we can enforce that (please give me an url), otherwise, I'm not upholding Snowspinner advice where he tells Rbj he can break 3RR official policy as much as he can. -- (☺drini♫|☎) 19:50, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

I point out that I was an uninvolved party, and that the declaration was not that 3RR did not hold on the article, but rather that Igor's edits should be treated as vandalism and edits by banned users, never count towards the 3RR. Snowspinner 20:15, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, Drini, please be careful (and precise) of what say (or type). Snowspinner only said to not worry about the 3RR in reverting the repeated vandalism of Igor since Igor does not and never has submitted to an edit block.

But the main point in my notice here is that it is clear that Igor ignores any block for vandalism, 3RR, or any other reason. At 21:08, 23 September 2005 (UTC), Ral315 blocked both Igor and me for 24 hours for 3RR violation. Even though I know I was doing the right thing by reverting Igor's vandalism, I understood that I was taking that risk (of catching a 3RR violation) by repeatedly reverting this vandalism and I accepted the consequence (sorta like civil disobedience). But it is clear that Igor did not (accept the consequences of his 3RR violation). At 18:01, 24 September 2005 (UTC), Igor had been clearly editing. 18:01 is earlier than 21:08 therefore Igor does not submit to edit blocks that you throw at him. There are other examples; if you want me to find them I will.

This is explicitly what i want the ArbCom and admins to notice. Igor considers himself above the rules and is perfectly willing to "play the system" to get what he wants, whether he deserves it or not. Right now, I understand that Igor is "blocked ... indefinitely" (Drini, those are your words). But do you think that Igor cares about that? What does the evidence show? Must i spell more of this out for you before you will get it? r b-j 20:39, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but until ArbCom gives its ruling, 3rr still in hold. From Misplaced Pages:Vandalism: "Vandalism is not: NPOV Violations". I know you believe with all your heart as snowspinner does that Igor is throwng false statements. But until an official ruling is issued, both partes are subject to policies.

No, Drini, Igor is not subject to the policies. That is the whole point. Give him a 3RR block, he'll laugh it off and edit anyway. Block him further for ignoring the first block and he'll laugh it off and edit away. Will a single admin or ArbCom member take notice of that? I haven't seen any evidence that anyone has noticed and I don't know how much more explicit one can be about it. r b-j 20:41, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

But you must wait until arbcom rules. It may seem unfair, it is, but that's how things are. -- (☺drini♫|☎) 21:01, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

That's why this arbcom request is, you cannot be judge (and rule from right now that igor edits should be removed without penalty) and an involde party. -- (☺drini♫|☎) 03:26, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Which, notably, I wasn't when I declared open season. Snowspinner 11:41, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Ok point taken, but then, if it was indeed a vandal (judged and sentenced) why other with RFAr? -- (☺drini♫|☎) 23:08, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Because the ban wasn't working, and the article was still consumed with revert war. Snowspinner 01:30, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Well, I think that each one of us believes that it is "noon" above his head. The problem is not what "rbj" thinks or what "igor" thinks. At least not directly. Because the problem, here, is to acheive a good, objective and honnest article. We almost got a consensus. Except...for one thing. Rbj refuses to admit that the publication, in the article, of a negative statement issued by the Editorial Board of CQG (a theoretical physics journal where we got published) should be balanced by the publication, a few lines after, of the referee's report that accepted the paper in CQG. It simple to understand : without the referees approval, our paper would not have been published in CQG. And the Editorial Board of the journal would not have issued this negative statement.

Conclusion : after months of discussions, the problem of this "Bogdanoff Affair" article only lies now on the publication of this referee's report. Rbj does not want it to be published. We support its publication which represent, in our opinion, the only way to achieve a balanced article.

Igor

As is his normal pattern, what Igor writes here is a falsehood and a verifiable falsehood. Indeed many times I have agreed to keeping a referee's report that flatters the Bogdanovs (as in this version) as long as it is balanced with another referee report that is (how shall we say?...) less flattering (the Eli Hawkins report). Since virtually the entire physics community dismisses their publications as nonsense, a 50-50 balance of referee reports is more than generous. In addition, I left it to Igor to decide if he wanted them both in or both out. As usual, he chose to remove the unflattering report and leave in the one that he likes. So I removed that one also. Currently it appears that the WP admins are supporting that decision since they have, without exception, reverted Igor's "edit" (unless one of the other editors got to it first). Also keep in mind that Igor is "blocked" indefinitely for 3RR and he continues to edit anyway.

But, of course, the rules don't apply to Igor Bogdanov. r b-j 23:18, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Rbj's so called proposals do not stand on. To cut a long story short, he wants to apply the text written by one referee about one article for one journal on an other article and for another journal. This is called deformation and manipulation of facts. Rbj wants to create a reality that never existed.

As I wrote on the discussion page : 

"Rbj seems to have 2 problems :

1. The first of his problems seems to be his incapacity of writing exact informations. He presented at least 3 times major informations as correct when they appeared as totally invented to serve his demonstration. For instance, he insisted to apply the text of the referee appointed by "Journal of Physics A" to the article published in CQG. While reading his presentation, one was convinced that the JPA referee was commenting our CQG paper. To make sure that there was no mistake about this relation, rbj even wrote just after the positive citation of the CQG report :

However a referee for Journal of Physics A, who later went public, might not agree

Might not agree with what? With the paper published in CQG of course! There is no other way to read and understand this phrase.

In the last version he proposed (this very day), rbj continues to present false informations as if he had done a serious work on it. An example? In order to justify the use he does of the text of JPA referee, rbj does not hesitate to write that our "KMS State..." paper was published in Journal of Physics A when IT WAS NEVER PUBLISHED IN THIS JOURNAL!

in the talk page, Igor says: The Eli Hawkins report exhibited by rbj is NOT a report for CQG but for "Journal of Physics A" . It was on that basis of that information that i changed it from CQG to JPA and now he says that it wasn't JPA. so YBM or someone else went and got the precise citings and put it in the article. i have no idea what it is that Igor is complaining about if i "correct" the reference to what he says it is. if it was wrong, i'm sorry, but it was on the basis of what Igor said. and we fixed it right away. r b-j 05:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

It is only after having rewritten this article (precisely on the basis of the critics made by the referee) that we submitted the new version to Chinese Journal of Physics where it was published.

So it is evident that rbj's presentation is FALSE and shows his irrepressible tendancy to invent informations or situations just because he HAS to present us as negatively as possible.

Igor has to back that up with evidence. i can make mistakes by making corrections based on Igor's information, but i have never "invented" a single fact or quote and no one should believe such a pathetic charge without requiring hard proof. they can complain about "timeline" (a phony argument intended to get unflattering content removed) or about being "not exact" (another bogus argument, when bona fide inaccuracies of content was revealed, they were minor - regarding which journal vs. another journal but there were never any substative errors of fact that i put in the article), but they cannot credibly claim that i fabricated content. proof is required.

in addition, i do not invent identities to make it appear that my falacious POV has more popular support than it does. other than Laurence67, XAL (a.k.a. Sophie), and CatherineV, there is no evidence of other real flesh-and-blood supporters for Igor. and there is no evidence that either of these three supporters know anything about physics other than reading Igor's and Grichka's book (which means they still wouldn't know anything about physics). i'm merely and electrical engineer, but any EE who is worth his salt knows some classical and introductory modern physics. i do not claim to know the hard core detail of cosmology but i can read what other physicists say, i can evaluate their credentials, and, even for this mere electrical engineer, it is obvious that The Emperor is naked, and Igor and Grichka are the weavers of the fine cloth the Emperor is "wearing". r b-j 05:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

In my opinion, this is a typical manipulation of facts in order to satisfy rbj's personal views upon the subject. Since he wants the article to appear as negative as possible he organizes "his" article the way he wants (even if it is necessary to deform badly the chain of events or the reality of things).

the problem for Igor is that 95% of physicists understand their publications to be nonsense and have publically stated so on various blogs, websites, and USENET postings. when the prevalent opinion of their "work" is so one-sided, a balanced and objective article about it will not reflect that as 50% - 50%. it is not 50-50, but more like 95-5 or 20 to 1. Igor seems to think that when 20 physicists say damningly negative things about his "work" to one or two who said lukewarm positive comments, that somehow this means a fair article would express that as 50-50. "fair" is not stupid and Igor really underestimates the intelligence of those he is debating with. and he greatly overestimates the persuasiveness of his argument. sometimes we have the energy to take him on, point-by-point, but so often, there are just dozens of ineffective, weak arguments that it just isn't worth the energy to address each frivolous point. r b-j 05:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement from Laurence67

First, just a comment about Snowspinner's list of "Involved Parties" : why is Igor not there ? Has he no right to stand up for himself, in spite of the fact that he is, with his brother, the most concerned person ? This "omission", in my opinion, is particularly representative of this "Bogdanoff Affair Affair".

Indeed, I find that the worst aspect of this revert war is the rudeness and the unfairness with which Igor is treated by some contributors and, a lot more serious, by some administrators, particularly Snowspinner. The latter decided arbitrarily that Igor's contributions were "repeated vandalism", just because he is the subject of the article, so he banned him and, what's more, encouraged the other contributors to revert his posts "on sight", without worrying about the 3RR.

This bias had an ill effect on some other contributors, who interpreted this "blessing" as a right to revert any text from which the least extract could have been in favour of the Bogdanovs. To justify this, any contributor who seemed to be "for" the Bogdanovs was suspected to be a sock puppet, which was an excellent excuse to feel free to revert us as easily and systematically as they did for Igor ! Then, when it became obvious that we were not, they created an idiom for us ("meat puppet") which meant clearly that they admitted we were not Igor himself, but which suggested we were "revertable" as well. A good example is given by "Professor Ying" here : 29 september, 11:24, as he writes by reverting me : "reverting a revert of a Bogdanov's sock puppet called Laurence67". This comment is all the more hypocritical as, whereas I have been officially considered to be a "possible" sock puppet (it was inscribed on the top of my personal page), now my name has been removed from the list after I prooved I was a "real person". And what is more, "Professor Ying" knows me for monthes and monthes as a "forumer" (among others on sur-la-toile.com) and knows better than most Wikipedian contributors that I'm "real"...

Because of this lack of fairness, the article has become excessively negative and partial, all the more as most contributors don't even take the trouble to read the details given by Igor in the discussion page - just like r-b-j, who gets 2 journals mix-up but persists in reverting "his" version of the facts.

Moreover, beside the quality and the pertinence of the article itself, I find also that the administrators should be a little more motivated to fight some serious "incivilities" against Igor, who is regularly insulted, without the perpetrators being sanctioned. One of the worst example : "You are bastards", "You are cheaters, liers, fraudster and incompetent in almost any field." (YBM, 26 September, Bogdanov Affair - talk page) ; other version, by r-b-j : "They are hucksters, swindlers, con artists" (r b-j, Bogdanov Affair - talk page - archive 2, 03:26, 17 September 2005), before suggesting to add the category "excrement". More recently, by the same "contributor", whose style becomes more and more hysterical : "he lies and lies and lies and lies. that is how he got to the position he is at today. (...) it is what it is. it stinks. the stink is of the Bogdanoffs' own making and no amount of room freshener will remove that stink." (r b-j 17:42, 29 September 2005).

Beside these incredible "direct" insults, there are many others, more "discret" and indirect, sometimes in the article itself : some contributors try to insert external links, categories or "See also" whose content is very insultating in this context, like "The Emperor's New Clothes", or more recently : "The crackpot Index", an article about "incompetence" etc. (Bogdanov Affair - talk page - archive 2, 03:26, 17 September 2005). Obviously, this kind of contributions is designed only to destroy as much as possible the Bogdanovs' reputation. How a "real" encyclopedical article, which is supposed to be objective, could be written in such a malicious context ?

That's why I think that the "Bogdanov Affair" must be written / supervised above all by neutral contributor(s), and I find that Maru's idea - looking for a "neutral Wikipedian" - is very good. There can be one or 3-4, as suggested by Igor, I think that their number doesn't matter much, as long as they don't try to settle a score by means of the article, as some current contributors do.

Laurence67 21:27, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Just one quick point: "Why is Igor not there?". Igor's there. He's represented by "various IPs", which is unfortunate, but it's his own doing. Igor has not responded to any of my suggestions that he start editing from a name account. I don't have any right to insist on this, and I haven't been, but I recently posted yet another appeal in response to his own complaint about his rapidly rotating assigned IP's causing him to accidentally violate his blocks. No reply. Bishonen | talk 08:31, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Update: Igor has now registered the account Igor B., and edited the article from it. I appreciate it, and I hope he'll find the convenience of using a single name account. I'm assuming he intends to edit from it exclusively from now on, so I'm leaving the briefly used Igor Bogdanoff account permablocked. If any lingering autoblocks or other remnants of the confused IP situation should bite him through no fault of his own, I appeal to admins to help keep the new account unblocked. Bishonen | talk 16:47, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

OK, I understand. I just found it was not clear if Igor had the right to defend himself or not. Thank you a lot for your explanations !

Laurence67 19:15, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Update October 3: sweetness and light!

Crossposted from WP:AN/I. Update: Bogdanov Affair is eerily quiet just now, after a huge edit war. I removed one POV rant from each side, and everybody (that I've heard from) seems quite happy with the result. Igor Bogdanov has registered a name account, and declared that he doesn't feel any need to change the article any more. And hey, it's a good article, much better than before the wars! Admittedly, this may be the calm before another storm, as the talk page remains a horror story and I just had to threaten to ban two editors--acrimoniously discussing everything but Bogdanov Affair--from it. Bishonen | talk 01:43, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (4/0/0/0)

• Accept Fred Bauder 14:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. James F. (talk) 17:49, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept ➥the Epopt 23:26, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 14:07, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Zephram Stark

Involved parties

• Zephram Stark (subject of arbitration)
• Carbonite
• Commodore Sloat

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

• Carbonite | Talk 16:34, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• Zephram Stark Note: Response to notification was a personal attack
• Commodore Sloat

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

• Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Zephram Stark

Statement by Carbonite

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Zephram Stark's behavior has been a serious problem for many months. In addition to the complete lack of respect for the idea of consensus, he had made personal attacks, used disruptive sockpuppets and made frequent rants against Misplaced Pages administrators. One extremely offensive edit summary made by Zephram was "This place is a joke. It's too bad, because it had possibilities before all you fucking Jews came along. The funny thing is, I never had anything against you before this. Now I see what people mean."

His behavior has been especially poor on Terrorism, where he has consistently made edits and additions that are opposed by virtually every other editor of the article. He's created sockpuppets to support his positions and completely ignores consensus. Carbonite | Talk 16:57, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Zephram Stark

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Carbonite, don't you get tired of shooting yourself in the foot? If you don't want people to call you on your corruption, stop being corrupt. It's that simple. Trying to kill the messenger won't do you any good because everything you do on Misplaced Pages is transparent. That's the beauty of it. Anyone who wants to see if your accusations have merit is going to come to the same conclusion that they did the last time: that your accusations of "sockpuppets" are unfounded, that you are the one disrupting terrorism while I am actively trying to resolve differences, and that your allegations fall squarely into the definition of idiocy (most notably because everyone knows I'm Jewish). --Zephram Stark 17:22, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

One more thing, please look up the word consensus before trying to use it again in a sentence. --Zephram Stark 17:38, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

All I ask is that people take nothing Commodore Sloat says at face value. I always try to find something that is true or at least an exaggeration in a critique, but the good commodore has got me stumped.

• Talk:Terrorism is currently more active than normal
• I am engaging no personal attacks, although I defend myself when attacked when no other options are available
• I have made no sockpuppets, and from what I have read, people affected are taking these accusations up with Misplaced Pages founders
• EKBK contributes to many discussions on subjects that I know nothing about. His claim that he heard the term FISA:Terrorism is not unlikely because I have heard the term used since the late seventies to describe the difference between dictionary-defined terrorism and the official USA version. EKBK is only one of over a dozen users that have been blocked for doing nothing but expressing their opinion.
• I certainly did not invent the neologism FISA-Terrorism. Anyone who has heard the term used in colleges and discussion around the country can verify that. This, of course, is irrelevant because the term has been dropped from that proposal for weeks.
• The section that was deleted had only verified quotes and summaries from the U.S. President, Osama bin Laden, and a New York Times bestseller. How anyone could call that original research is beyond me.
• I made no racial attack, as would be evident if Commodore Sloat or Carbonite would bother quoting me in context.
• My only agenda is to help create an article for terrorism that conveys information, the same as everyone else who is honestly trying to improve the article (as evidenced by actually contributing to it instead of just deleting whole sections of relevant and fully cited information).
• The last time Commodore Sloat accused me of hijacking the discussion, I had listed the four proposals and asked for each member's feelings on them, which many people gave and we got much closer to a consensus. After Commodore Sloat interupted the conversation to make accusations and allegations that something was wrong with discussing the proposals, people started talking about his accusations instead. Don't take my word for it, look at Talk:Terrorism. Actions talk and B.S. walks, Commodore.

• Does everyone want to hear my alleged "bizarre theory" about the word "unalienable" that is supposedly disrupting the Declaration of Independence? I assert that "unalienable" means "cannot be alienated." BIZARRE, isn't it!!

In recognition of the hard work you have done to railroad someone based on absolutely no factual information at all, I award you superbsbarnstar, Commodor. --Zephram Stark 01:31, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

I, Zephram Stark, do hereby nominate Smyth for The Most Hilarious Contradiction of Terms of the Day Award: "shows a total disregard for the consensus against him" ~Smyth

Is it possible to request comment from SlimVirgin? It doesn't feel like a normal lynching without the whole gang. --Zephram Stark 13:07, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by EKBK

Please limit your statement to 500 words

The things you say about Zephram Stark are simply untrue. You and your friends have been calling me a sockpuppet since I agreed with him on some points on the terrorism page, and what followed after I contacted a number of administrators was enough to make me sick. I was put in the position of "proving" I'm not a "sockpuppet", which I did to several administrators satisfaction, and I even emailed the founder of Misplaced Pages on this, because the principle of the thing was enough for me to do so. Just because I was formerly a "user" rather than an "editor" should not have made any difference in how I was treated, and I have since observed this fiasco with interest. I will re-iterate-I AM NOT A SOCKPUPPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!--EKBK 18:10, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Commodore Sloat

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Zephram Stark's behavior on Talk:Terrorism has brought progress on that page to a complete standstill. He constantly engages in personal attacks and he keeps trying to commandeer the agenda to hilight his own original research. When his original research is shot down again and again, sockpuppets appear to defend him out of the blue. EKBK's very first contribution to wikipedia was to jump in the middle of the discussion Stark was disrupting and to claim that he uses the term "FISA-terrorism" (a neologism invented by Stark) all the time. (He claimed this after people asked Stark to quit adding original research to the article). It seems odd that a user's first edit to wikipedia would be to jump into such a controversial fight on a talk page, to make a highly unlikely claim. Stark has also made the "fucking Jews" comment another editor noted above -- whether he is Jewish or not, such attacks are entirely inappropriate for wikipedia. He keeps trying to hijack the discussion on the talk page to focus on his agenda - sometimes laying out "criteria for definition" with the goal of turning everything back to his original research (and ignoring the fact that there already are definitions of terrorism in wikipedia that are not original research and could be useful. I haven't been paying as close attention but I have noted that he is similarly disrupting the Declaration of Independence page with a bizarre theory about the word "unalienable." But it is not the content that people are objecting to here; it is his conduct, which has severely disrupted work on these pages. --csloat 19:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Smyth

I concur with everything Commodore Sloat says. Zephram Stark is such a difficult person to deal with because, at least on the surface, he does not appear to be a straightforward troublemaker. But as anyone who tries to engage with him quickly discovers, he is unreasonable, belligerent and utterly dishonest, frequently resorting to blatant lies, personal attacks, and consipracy theories about the cabal of administrators that prevent him and his sock drawer from turning articles into his personal playground.

I have not been involved with his argument about whether "inalienable" and "unalienable" mean the same thing, but a quick glance at the pages involved shows that the sequence of events is the same as with Terrorism. He makes low-quality opinionated edits, shows a total disregard for the consensus against him, repeatedly fails to provide even the smallest shred of evidence to support himself, and makes increasingly hollow pronouncements that a compromise is close. Then we have the sudden appearance of a sockpuppet army and his descent into lengthy paranoid political rants.

I don't know what a reasonable remedy against him would be. Banning him from editing only the articles he has disrupted so far is unlikely to help, as he has shown no inclination to give up during the months this has gone on, and there are hundreds of other pages he could quite easily give the same treatment to. – Smyth\ 13:18, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by jpgordon

I became aware of the issue of Zephram Stark when an editor requested that I look at Terrorism and consider protecting it. As an edit war was clearly in process, I did as requested, and explained it on the talk page. From that point on, it was clear that reasoning with Mr Stark was going to be, to put it mildly, exceedingly difficult and wearying. Mr Stark has shown no sign whatsoever of understanding the nature of cooperative editing on Misplaced Pages; rather, his insistance on the introduction of idiosyncratic, highly POV original research, his continual attempts to control and manipulate discussion, his assumption of conspiracy and accusations of "corruption", and his invocation of sockpuppets to imitate consensus make it clear that neutral third parties need to study the evidence (sorry about that -- it includes wading through months of Talk:Terrorism) and come up with a solution to this problem. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 21:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by BrandonYusufToropov

A cursory examination of Talk:Terrorism and its archives will reveal what we're dealing with here. Zeph is, I am afraid, a one-person filibuster out to prove that any deviation from his point of view is inherently subjective, outlandish, ridiculous, biased, part of a lynching party, etc. His perpetually chaos-inducing editorial philosophy may perhaps be powered by the Energizer Bunny; no amount of reasoning, or turning the other cheek, dims the surrealistically obesessive nature of his quest to remake this article according to his own eccentric standards. He is the single most consistently disruptive personality operating under a recognizable screen name I have yet to encounter on WP. I suspect he is one of those characters who is somehow entertained by inviting disciplinary action. which means we may be reinforcing bad behavior here, but folks, it has been months and, as he still refuses to put down the one-note megaphone he has hard-wired into this article.... BrandonYusufToropov 18:00, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (4/0/1/0)

• Recuse. Personally involved. Jayjg 18:05, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. Fred Bauder 22:15, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. James F. (talk) 03:04, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept ➥the Epopt 11:36, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 14:11, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Mike Garcia

Involved parties

• Mike Garcia (Michael)
• Fvw

• Possibly also Guanaco and Danny, his mentors, as well as Jimbo Wales, the architect of his current mentorship arrangement.

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

User talk:Mike Garcia User talk:Danny User talk:Guanaco User talk:Jimbo Wales

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried. If not, then explain why that would be fruitless.

This is a continuation of a previous issue that was hoped to have been handled but as it turns out the remedy either didn't work or has stopped working. I don't see how an RfC would help given the number of people who have already made clear that they disapprove of Mike's behaviour, and mediation isn't appropriate as this isn't about content but about behaviour, and the behaviour issues are clearly policy violations.

Statement by Fvw

Mike has a long history of problems on wikipedia, though for a while after Jimbo unbanned him things seemed to be under control. The last few months he has been getting progressively more troublesome however: He has made personal attacks, threatened people, repeatedly violated the 3RR, removed comments of people reporting him for 3RR violations from WP:AN/3RR and user talk pages, evaded blocks editing under different IPs (which also violates his agreement with Jimbo), and generally broken CIV in every way possible.

Though I must commend Danny and Guanaco for their effort in taking on such a mentorship in the first place, I feel that they currently aren't intervening enough to defray the damage done to wikipedia by Mike, nor am I sure that there's any level of mentor involvement that could do this. While I'm all for rehabilitating editors who've had troubles in the past, I'd rather have fifty unblockable vandals than one editor who continually creates ill will and ruins the general good spirit which wikipedia is built on. --fvw* 00:58, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Mike Garcia

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Statement by Snowspinner

I remind the arbcom (And fvw) that they have previously declared that they do not have jurisdiction over Mike due to the special nature of his parole, which came directly from Jimbo, and thus is not something that it is within their power to overturn. Snowspinner 01:24, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Oh? I must have missed that. I didn't see it in the RickK-Guanaco case, and that's the only ArbCom case relating to Michael I can find. Could you give a link? --fvw* 01:29, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

While I'm not necessarily disagreeing with snowspinner, I honestly cannot remember us making such a declaration. Can you please refresh my memory. →Raul654 04:55, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm not finding it. Possibly I'm delusional. Possibly it was something that was said off of the arbcom page. My recollection is David saying it - you might ask him. Snowspinner 22:27, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I vaguely recall it ... I said something like the ban and its lifting not having been an arbcom matter, but down to Jimbo. In practice, the AC was set up by him to deal with this sort of stuff so he can get on with other work, and if it bounced to him and he asked us then it'd be in our court. So it probably is - David Gerard 16:20, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I'd still think that essentially vetoing Jimbo (As any overturning of Mike's ban would be) would at least require Jimbo's permission. Has anyone actualyl left Jimbo a message asking "Hey, is Mike's unban overturnable by the arbcom?" Snowspinner 17:01, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Two users have brought it up here: User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Mike_Garcia_RfAr Pasboudin 22:16, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Just as a suggestion, you can also try the mailing list. Sasquatcht|c 00:24, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by third party Nandesuka

In this edit summary, User:Mike Garcia's edit summary was "PASBOUDIN, PLEASE STOP NOW OR I'LL KILL YOU". I don't know the detailed history of their dispute. I don't think it matters. I am not inclined to make excuses to allow this sort of behavior. Death threats are not funny, they are not excusable, they are not understandable, and they are absolutely not acceptable. I have seen literally thousands of content disputes on Misplaced Pages where the participants, although upset, somehow resisted the temptation to threaten bodily harm on others. It is my personal opinion that we need an absolutely zero-tolerance policy towards death threats. They have a chilling effect on bold editing (which was, of course, the editor's intent), and they shatter any pretense to an atmosphere of civility. I urge Arbcom to act on this matter (and any other matter where an editor issues a death threat, no matter what the justification) swiftly and firmly. Nandesuka 12:10, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by third party the wub

I'd just like to add my opinion that whether it is by the Arbcom, or intervention by GodKing, something has to be done. As I see it death threats are totally unacceptable, and I imagine any other editor would recieve a very long or indefinite ban. Nor is this a first offence, Mike has repeatedly broken WP:CIV and WP:NPA. Yes he has made and continues to make many good edits, but when he gets into conflict everything breaks down. the wub "?!" 21:32, 22 September 2005 (UTC) Just to clarify, when I refer to Mike's behaviour I am talking about after Jimbo unbanned him, I don't think I was even around before then. the wub "?!" 21:36, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by third party Ral315

I don't have any personal relationship to this case; I just want to note for the record that Mike Garcia is currently blocked for 72 hours for 3RR violation, and subsequent use of IP addresses to circumvent these blocks. Ral315 04:47, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Just as an explaination, he was originally blocked for 48 hours for a 3RR on Hypnotize, however, I noticed that an anon IP continued to revert edits with summaries like this so I thought it was safe to assume it was Mike evading 3RR so I reblocked for another 24 hours. However, even after that, he continued with ANOTHER 3RR with even more threats like this one. This kind of hostility is not in any way helpful to the Wikicommunity and as such, I blocked him for an extra 24 hours ontop of the original 48 he had yet to serve and posted another warning on his talk page. Anyways, just saying something needs to be done as this kind of behaiviour should not be tolerated at Misplaced Pages without some sort of reprimand. Sasquatcht|c 21:00, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by uninvolved third party Erwin Walsh

Arbitrators should probably seek comment from Jimbo Wales before accepting case; authority is not clear. Erwin

Statement by third party Flcelloguy

Just as clarification, I have blocked Mike Garcia twice. The first time was on September 5 for 24 hours (); this was a clear-cut WP:3RR violation. In the hours after the block, I suspected that he was editing from an AOL IP because of some similar edits, but only warned him and did not extend the block (). Then, on September 21, I blocked him for 48 hours following another 3RR violation (). The reason I gave a 48 hour block, as explained on his talk page, was because of the multiple reverts, the harrasing edits and death threat (as noted above), and because I had warned him explicitly before about violating the WP:3RR rule, and his past history (he has eight WP:3RR blocks to date ). This 48 hour block has been extended by Sasquatch because of Mike Garcia circumventing the block using AOL IPS, continuing the harassing edit summaries and reverts. This is the current block in place. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 21:26, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

P.S. I did make this statement; it just credited it to my IP in case anyone is wondering. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 21:32, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (3/2/0/0)

• Accept Fred Bauder 22:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject, refer to Jimbo directly. This is outside of our area, as Snowspinner has pointed out. James F. (talk) 03:05, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept: I believe we have jurisdiction ➥the Epopt 11:38, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject, refer to Jimbo per James's suggestion above. Neutrality 00:48, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. If Jimbo wishes to veto us, then that's his perogative, but I do believe we have juristiction here. Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 14:20, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Theathenae

Involved parties

• REX
• Theathenae

Theathenae refuses to accept some proven facts that are found on credible sources if they conflict with his POV. He edit wars anyone who implements these facts without providing any sources to prove that his edits are true.

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

User talk:Theathenae, Revision as of 11:33, 6 September 2005

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

If not, then explain why that would be fruitless

I REX have on various occasions requested to try other steps in dispute resolution process. The Talk:Arvanites page is very long due to attempts of other people including me to reason with him. Also, I have tried to reason with him on his . In vain obviously. I have on at least one occasion asked if we can request Meditation: (quote from Talk:Arvanites) I suggest that we request for Meditation. This might help us resolve this dispute. REX 15:35, 27 July 2005 (UTC) They refused in favor of RfC. I later requested for comments (quote from Talk:Arvanites): I requested for comment. REX 10:18, 5 September 2005 (UTC) Check the request here. Nothing happened. So I believe that Arbitration is the only solution that can work because as I shall demonstrate below, Theathenae will not accept anything which contradicts his POV, however credible my sources may be (one of them is even an agency of the UN).

Statement by party 1 (REX)

On the Misplaced Pages article Arvanites there has been a dispute going on for quite some time over whether the Arvanitic language is a language in its own right or a dialect of the Albanian language.
I have provided the following references:

• Encarta refers to Arvanitic as a variant of Albanian.
• UNESCO RED BOOK ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: EUROPE refers to Arvanitic as a diaspora dialect of Tosk Albanian
• Ethnologue calls the language Arvanitika Albanian.

These are wholly credible sources, especially UNESCO which is an agency of the United Nations and they specifically refer to Arvanitic as a diaspora dialect of Albanian. User:Theathenae utterly rejects these sources and will edit war anyone who disagrees with him, however credible his opponent’s sources may be. He has written on the article Arvanites: Their language, Arvanitic has developed separately from Tosk Albanian and has been heavily influenced by Greek over the course of the past five centuries, to the extent that it is today considered a separate language by speakers and linguists alike. This statement is utterly his POV. He has provided no evidence to support such a statement and it contradicts with what UNESCO says. He also says on Talk:Arvanites that the article sould say: Their language, Arvanitic shares a common origin with the Tosk Albanian language this statement is also wholly inaccurate because it calls Arvanitic a language which shares a common origin with Tosk Albanian, rather like English and German are separate languages which share a common origin. This statement is also influenced by his POV and contradicts with UNESCO's statement. I have pleaded with him on his Talk Page and on Talk:Arvanites for him to consider his stance carefully, but he refuses only saying that (quote from Talk:Arvanites): I will continue to defend their right not to be labelled against their will. This statement that it is against their will is quite inaccurate. The Helsinki Report on Human Rights clearly says that some Arvanites use the term Shqiptar to describe themselves, that is the same term that Albanians use to describe themselves. Therefore, how can being called Albanians be against their will? Anyway, UNESCO, Encarta and Ethnologue wouldn't use that phrasing if it were against their will as he puts it. The UNESCO, Encarta and Ethnologue Reports were written by professionals, they knew what they were doing. I have proved all his sources to be false here but he has not indicated that he will observe Misplaced Pages policy. His behaviour is utterly unacceptable on Misplaced Pages I have told him on many occasions, but he refuses to listen. I have asked him to provide some references so that I could know that the scholarly community view Arvanitic as a separate language and not that he is not speaking off the top of his head (Misplaced Pages:Verifiability and Misplaced Pages:No original research). He can't, I have already demonstrated above that at least linguistically Arvanitic is a dialect of Albanian, and my sources above indicate that the scholarly establishment view it the same way (Both the UNESCO Report and the Ethnologue Report were compiled by professional linguists). If a certain phrasing is good enough for an agency of the UN (UNESCO), then it is certainly good enough for Misplaced Pages. We simply cannot accept User:Theathenae’s word over the word of institutions like UNESCO. This would be a violation of Misplaced Pages policies Misplaced Pages:Verifiability and Misplaced Pages:No original research. REX 11:26, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Theathenae (talk · contribs)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (1/0/0/0)

• Reject, I might entertain a complaint against REX (talk · contribs) for repeatedly insisting on referring to a language used by Greeks as "Albanian" (which I know to be insulting), but in the absence of input by Theathenae (talk · contribs) making such a complaint and in consideration of our considerable docket, I will refrain. As Stephen Gaskin a spiritual teacher once said. "When you are wrong; quit" Fred Bauder 15:21, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept to consider the behavior of REX (talk · contribs) Fred Bauder 19:29, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Rangerdude

Involved parties

• Rangerdude (talk · contribs)
• Willmcw (talk · contribs)
• Katefan0 (talk · contribs)
• Johntex (talk · contribs)

Summary

Rangerdude is harassing editors who disagree with his POV.

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

User talk:Rangerdude#Requests for Arbitration 19:59, August 23, 2005

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

On June 10, I received a request from mediator user:MacGyverMagic to enter mediation on "Houston Chronicle". I acknowledged my interest in mediation, and on June 14 I saw a mediation page had been set up so I tried to participate. Rangerdude refused.

Rangerdude and I filed cross-complaints on June 15, including and Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Rangerdude. We subsequently agreed to mediation and the RfC was withdrawn.

We both agreed to a mediator, Andrevan. Mediation never proceeded because we couldn't agree on how to proceed, despite the mediator's repeated inquiries (Rangerdude said that I might stalk him via email, and I said that I did not want a public mediation). Rangerdude referred in some places to "mediation against" me, possibly indicating bad faith in the dispute resolution process.

Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Cberlet & Willmcw was posted by Rangerdude on July 25, 2005 and closed by him on July 30, 2005.

Statement by Willmcw

Harassment of editors Rangerdude is harassing and bullying editors who disagree with him or his edits. His goal seems to be either to end our involvement as editors or to punish us for disagreeing with him.

Cberlet Rangerdude brought an RfC against Cberlet and myself on account of our edit work on Ludwig von Mises Institute. The RfC charged us with "lack of civility, disruption, POV pushing, personal attacks on other editors, disregard of WP policies, disregard of talk page and consensus-building efforts, bad faith edits and assumptions". Only four editors (two of them LvMI associates) certified or endorsed Rangerdude's statement, while 14 endorsed Cberlet's statement and a total of ten editors posted separate views, most of which were against Rangerdude and some which received wide support. On the basis of that outcome, it appears that the community strongly rejected Rangerdude's view.

Rangerdude then heavily and contentiously edited Chip Berlet's biography and sought to have Berlet's published research deemed too extreme to use as a source for Misplaced Pages articles. At the same time he actively edited and created articles about one of Berlet's real-life adversaries, David Horowitz, with a positive POV.

FuelWagon FuelWagon was one of the more vocal editors in the RfC, despite having had no prior involvement with either of us. He wrote a clearly-worded and boldy-formatted comment saying that the problem lay more with Rangerdude than with Cberlet or me. Rangerdude first reformatted his comment then effectively tried to add FuelWagon to the RfC. Shortly after the close of that RfC Rangerdude filed a separate RfC against FuelWagon. Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/FuelWagon. The charges include having a "belligerent" tone in RfCs and filing a "false 3RR warning against another user". The RfC against FuelWagon received no endorsements or co-certifications. An opposing view received four endorsements within the initial 48-hour period.

SlimVirgin Rangerdude has also harassed SlimVirgin, who had had no editing interactions with him prior to commenting on the Cberlet/Willmcw RfC, and whose crime seems to have been speaking positively about us. In a number of edits he attacked her by name and he has made attacks on "wiki-cliques" that seem directed at SlimVirgin and other editors. He apparently opposed Misplaced Pages:Requests for adminship/FeloniousMonk simply because SlimVirgin was the nominator.

Willmcw Rangerdude has been attacking me as a "stalker" since June, 2005. He uses the de-listed RfC as an "attack file" with an ever-growing list of charges. I responded initially, but have not replied to every new addition. Rangerdude has copied and extended that file (minus my responses and other discussion) at User:Rangerdude/sandbox1/Evidence of willmcws wiki-stalking. He brandishes the charge as an attack in talk pages and edit summaries. (Recent instances: ) He seeks out other editors to warn them about my supposedly-abusive behavior, encourages them to bring dispute actions, and repeats the charges as a reason for editors to disregard my opinion.

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson.

Other issues From his earliest edits Rangerdude has been a POV warrior with a strongly pro/neo-confederate bias. He both shows bad faith and fails to assume good faith in others. He has followed my edits with an apparent intent to harass, in ways that mimic his own definition of wikistalking.

Statement by Katefan0

Rangerdude has made unfounded and potentially damaging personal attacks against me and has attacked other editors, has bullied and harassed editors who disagreed with him, disrupted Misplaced Pages to make a point, and aggressively inserted biased information throughout Misplaced Pages, while bludgeoning and smearing good faith editors who disagree with him. I have engaged Rangerdude in extensive dialogues on talk pages, largely to no effect. I opened an RfC over our main disputed article, Houston Chronicle, which received no replies. I then requested mediation, which formally opened on June 10. However, the mediator has been absent since that time and the dispute remains stalemated. Rangerdude continues to bully editors on Misplaced Pages:Stalking, through RfC’s and on other articles.

Personal attacks and harrassment

Rangerdude made a serious (and potentially libelous) attack against my personal and professional integrity . When I protested, Rangerdude’s response was to escalate . He has also targeted other editors who have disagreed with his conduct or biased edits: , , edit summary, , , among others.

Rangerdude often bullies and intimidates people who disagree with his positions (particularly during RfCs and other instances in which a vote or poll is taken) by commenting on their votes or comments, sometimes extensively, with the intent of discrediting (and thereby discounting) their opinions. , , , , , , .

He has purposefully misrepresented my position in a debate to further his own position my original posting here. Misrepresentations: , , . Despite my admonitions to the contrary, , he continued harass me about my own opinions , , .

He does not truly seek to resolve conflicts, seemingly preferring to argue his opponents into submission or deflect blame (here suggesting I alone am creating an impasse ), often reverting up to his limit under 3RR and haranguing dissenters on related talk pages. Reversions: , , , . Talk: .

Dismissing or manipulating consensus

Rangerdude rarely accepts consensus unless it furthers his position or he is forced to yield. (Here he harangues Tony Sidaway, the VfD closer on Jim Robinson ). Or, he interprets consensus to suit his needs: Here, a consensus of two editors is enough when it furthers his position , but when it does not, a consensus of two (myself and Johntex) isn't enough; moreover, he harasses Johntex in an attempt to discredit his opinions: , .

He has manipulated policies to circumvent or defy consensus: (here he adds a {{disputed}} tag to the VfD vote on Jim Robinson ), and later on the redirect created as a result of the VfD vote ), .

He has violated WP:POINT when consensus has not gone his way. When Jim Robinson was properly VfD’d, and then failed to be undeleted through VfU, Rangerdude began voting keep on several other articles up for VfU at the same time. , , , . He has not voted on VfU since.

Bias

Rangerdude seems primarily interested in editing articles into which he can insert conservative viewpoints both positive (Ludwig von Mises Institute) and negative (Sheila Jackson Lee). This would not be a problem, except that Rangerdude doesn’t seem to care about ensuring that articles he works on are balanced; he regularly inserts so much conservative criticism into articles that it makes them biased, then washes his hands of the article. After these additions , , , the article referenced contained three short paragraphs of bio information on a multi-term member of the U.S. Congress, and more than a page of cheap shots: . Rangerdude left it up to others (primarily, me) to insert bio information that would serve as a balance to his additions. He later created what basically amounts to a hatchet page on her husband and, similarly, on a liberal university professor . When challenged on these edits and the directive on balance in WP:NPOV, Rangerdude’s response is to say, essentially, that he doesn’t have time to make it balanced (while continuing to work on other articles almost daily). , , , , , , , .

Additionally, he often justifies his biased edits with dubious sources which he deems reliable, including partisan blogs, partisan student-published tabloids, organizations with misleading mandates such as this one (which is criticized here) and unverifiable radio broadcasts , which he insists be retained when challenged. He has also been known to delete or oppose criticism of conservative figures (here scrubbing information critical of Tom DeLay (and edit warring in the process)): , , , , ). Other biased edits: , , .

Statement by Johntex

Rangerdude has harassed Misplaced Pages editors, including myself. He has violated Misplaced Pages policies, including WP:NPOV, WP:CIV, WP:DEL, and also Misplaced Pages guidelines, including WP:POINT.

Much of his harassing behavior is an attempt to inject his POV into article, such as in the example I illustrate below, where he harasses me by maliciously listing for VfD an article I created.

POV-pushing

User:Rangerdude has shown a history of POV-pushing on Houston Chronicle. His edits attempt to include as much negative information about the paper as possible. He even admits he does not feel responsible for making balanced edits, as in this exchange:

It is not enough to add information that unbalances an article and then wash your hands of it by saying "you can add other things if you wish…” User:Katefan0

• Since edits here are made on a voluntary basis, it is more than enough..” User:Rangerdude

In his attempts to create a biased article, he displays a willingness to cite any source that agrees with his POV, regardless of how un-noteworthy or biased the source. He also tries to create Misplaced Pages articles about these sources in an effort to bolster their apparent credibility in his arguments.

Introducing spurious sources

Rangerdude created an article on Texas_Media_Watch (TMW) because he wanted to quote TMW in POV arguments he wished to make on Houston Chronicle. I looked into TMW and found evidence that it was simply a one-person “organization” pushing the agenda of Sherry Sylvester and that the “organization” had not even been active since her departure. TMW did not qualify as a reputable source to be quoting at Houston Chronicle, and she/they certainly did not meet the notability standard for her/its own article. Thus at I listed TMW for VfD. The result of the VfD discussion was "Delete":

Harassment of editor

After I listed TMW for deletion, Rangerdude took a sudden interest in an article I created on college football player Dusty Mangum and listed that page for VfD. I believe he did this in an attempt to intimidate me and anyone else who might dare consider listing one of his non-notable articles for VfD. Looking at Rangerdude’s last 3 months of edits: He has made no other edits to topics relating to college football, The University of Texas at Austin, or similar topics that would lead one to believe he was interested in Dusty Mangum for any other reason than to harass me. He has nominated no other article for VfD. He rarely even votes on VfD at all.

Among this discussion on the Dusty Mangum VfD was this statement:

• Comment. Misplaced Pages:Don't disrupt Misplaced Pages to illustrate a point. -Willmcw 07:14, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

To which Rangerdude made this unsigned reply:

• • Comment. Misplaced Pages:Don't_disrupt_Wikipedia_to_illustrate_a_point#If_you_must...

Thus, Rangerdude ‘’’admitted’’’ that he violated WP:POINT by listing Dusty Mangum on VfD solely because I had created the article. This is also a violation of WP:DEL which states that users should sign their posts of VfD pages. The VfD result on Dusty Mangum was "Keep"

According to Rangerdude's own postings, he has shown himself to be harassing me. He is causing serious detriment to the project.

Statement by Rangerdude

Given the timing of this dispute and the editors involved in it, I can only respond by noting that it appears to be a frivolous retaliatory move by User:Willmcw against me for filing a request for arbitration against him and User:SlimVirgin following an extensive pattern of harassment and belligerency by both of these editors towards myself. It should also be noted that this is not the first time that Willmcw has made retaliatory complaints against other users who have reported him for violation of Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines. Willmcw filed a similar frivolous retaliatory RfC against me in June 2005 only hours after I posted my initial complaint report against him on the incident noticeboard for wikistalking. His purpose in both cases should accordingly be viewed as a disruptive and bad faith attempt to deflect investigation into his own repeated bad behavior and policy violations by way of initiating a competing complaint against his accusers.

As I detailed and documented at length in my arbitration case against Willmcw and in a list of evidence assembled for that case and its related RfCs , Willmcw has engaged in a continuous pattern of harassment and wiki-stalking against myself since shortly after I arrived on wikipedia. In my experience with Willmcw I have found him to be an extremely vocal POV pusher who actively promotes a liberal/leftist viewpoint in his edits and who uses his editing privileges on Misplaced Pages to engage in political activism on a number of pet causes, among them: pro-illegal immigration, political correctness, environmentalism, and politically motivated attacks on conservatism, libertarianism, the U.S. Republican Party, and figures, groups, organizations, and publications affiliated with each.

Recent examples of POV pushing by Willmcw:

• Use of POV weasel words - Willmcw adds/restores the scare-term "controversial" to the opening sentence of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a libertarian philsopher who is of the opposite political viewpoint of his own. Willmcw removes the same scare-term "controversial" out of the opening sentence of Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal organization that he agrees with.
• Use of POV qualifiers - Willmcw adds the term "neo-confederate," a pejorative, as a descriptive qualifier of the Ludwig von Mises Institute (LVMI), a libertarian think tank he disagrees with. Willmcw removes the word "leftist" as a descriptive qualifier of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) from the same sentence, calling it a "POV term". Willmcw removes "leftist" from SPLC and reinserts "neo-confederate" before LVMI (thus keeping the pejorative on the group he dislikes and removing it from the group he likes) after I pointed out the inconsistency and noted that NPOV dictates the article should contain both, to balance each other out, or neither.

Willmcw has a bad habit of harassing other editors who differ with this viewpoint both on political and non-political articles alike. He has done this to me since we first encountered each other and I have seen him treat other editors who come from conservative or libertarian viewpoints similiarly. His stalking of me includes his following me to over 40 different articles on such diverse subject matters as United States trade law, astronomy, libertarian philosophy, the American Civil War, historians, think tanks, newspaper and radio outlets, and academic biographies. As I described in detail here, many of these cases of following were for the explicit purpose of disrupting and harassing my edits including staging challenges against settled and documented factual material and generally trolling for reasons to delete, disrupt, or even make minor unnecessary alterations to my contributions on wikipedia for no other reason than the fact that I am the one who made them. As Willmcw noted, this did indeed lead to me filing an RfC against him and another user over POV pushing and belligerency on the Ludwig von Mises Institute article (located here). What he fails to inform you of are the reasons behind this RfC, which included a blatantly inappropriate attempt by Willmcw to disrupt this article's content with quotations from David Duke, the notorious Ku Klux Klan activist. Other inappropriate behavior by Willmcw on this article included attempts to disguise edits in which he removed content as "adding citations" and censoring out sourced material that differed from his political POV. It should also be noted that several other editors involved in that article concurred that this behavior was inappropriate and others who read the RfC subsequently helped with extensive work on the LVMI article to remove the biased and inappropriate material Willmcw was pushing there at the time.

I find it unusual that User:Katefan0 and User:Johntex would choose to join this arbitration request based almost entirely upon an ongoing editing dispute at the Houston Chronicle article. As the matters involving the Houston Chronicle article are currently the subject of a still-pending mediation case on that article, I consider it inappropriate and premature that they would seek to join Willmcw's arbitration case as other dispute resolution mechanisms on that article have NOT yet been exhausted, and as far as I am aware all parties to that dispute had previously agreed to mediation including Katefan0, who described her position there at length. The dispute on this particular article is political in nature and entails difference in content regarding opinion. While Katefan0 accuses of "POV pushing" on this article, she fails to disclose that she is guilty of the very same offense in her own right and perhaps even more so. Examples include deleting = sources that she deems to be critical of the Houston Chronicle ; Adding passages from far-left wing sources containing unrelated political attack information on sources used in the article ; Making ad hominem attacks on conservative sources, such as the Houston Review and Texas Media Watch, to portray them as politicized or unreliable while simultaneously adding and promoting politicized left wing sources like the Austin Chronicle.; adding original research on indirectly related subject matter for the purpose of attacking U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. Katefan0 has also pushed a pro-Chronicle POV by multiple reversions and extreme stubbornness exhibited on the talk page in which she has sought to remove the word "criminal complaint" from a description of a legal motion the newspaper filed (Katefan0 quote- "I will resist any attempts to use "criminal" as an adjective for the complaint") despite the fact that Texas law and even the newspaper itself described it as a criminal complaint. When the statute itself was directly cited in the article text to show that the complaint was classified as criminal under state law Katefan0 also deleted the reference. It should be noted on the Houston Chronicle article that Katefan0 has repeatedly volunteered that she is a former employee of the Houston Chronicle and cited that employment as a basis for her desired edits and in discussions about those edits . While she has been accusing everybody else who says anything critical about the Houston Chronicle of being "biased" or "POV" since the moment she arrived at this article, Katefan0 seems to exhibit a strong personal POV of her own toward this paper as a former employee and many of her edits have been aimed at removing, watering down, or spinning any criticism that's been made of the paper by another source or media outlet.

I also suspect that this move by Katefan0 may be in part retaliatory dating back to an unrelated disagreement we had many months ago on the Jim Robinson article. From that time until the present Katefan0 has been occassionally following my edits to such articles as the Houston Chronicle, Sheila Jackson Lee, various VfD's and RfA's, RfC's I have initiated on other unrelated matters (including the earlier stages of the dispute with Willmcw) and most recently Misplaced Pages:Stalking - typically for the purpose of opposing whatever position I am advocating or voting against whatever way I vote, seemingly for no other reason than for my involvement. This particular editor also has very strong political opinions on many articles and frequently confuses differences of opinion with "personal attacks" on herself. Thus, opposing her opinion on article content, article subject matter, a wikipedia administrative matter, or even a vote is, in her mind, "personal attacks" or "bullying." This description has been applied by her to dozens of links to our past disputes in her case above, yet virtually every one of them is a content dispute where she has mistaken differences on wording or opinion for a personal affront to herself.

Katefan0 also seems unaware of or unwilling to abide by Misplaced Pages:NPOV_tutorial#Space_and_balance, which states of articles that have viewpoint imbalance on sourced material that they "should be considered an NPOV work in progress, not an irredeemable piece of propaganda." This provision also specifically says that "The remedy is to add to the article—not to subtract from it." Yet as her complaint above evidences, Katefan0 has both used a temporary imbalance in articles such as the Houston Chronicle as a reason to justify her subtraction of critical material, no matter how sourced it is, and as a basis to attack me personally with allegations of pushing propaganda. When I suggested many times that she should add to the article instead of subtracting from it as this guideline instructs Katefan0 responded in hostility toward me personally, shunned this suggestion, and now even cites the fact that I made it in her RfAr complaint against me! If adding to the article is not the remedy for balancing it then why does the guideline say that it is and why should I be held at fault for simply informing her of the same thing that the guideline says to do?

I am at loss for an explanation of what could have induced JohnTex to seek this case beyond the fact that he was on Katefan0's side of the Houston Chronicle dispute (and was personally recruited by her to participate there). Beyond that, I have not even had substantial interaction with JohnTex on wikipedia since early June! As I have no current disputes with JohnTex and rarely if ever even encounter him on wikipedia, and as his case her pertains entirely to subjects involving an article that is currently still in mediation, I see little purpose that his arbitration request could accomplish and consider it little more than a bad faith attempt to assist Willmcw and/or Katefan0 in pressing what ultimately comes down to a frivolous complaint that was intiated without any doubt for retaliatory reasons. I do find it curious that he would choose to make WP:POINT allegations against me for a VfD at the time of the Houston Chronicle dispute given that he himself was simultaneously VfD'ing new pages I created for WP:POINT reasons and consider it outright bizarre that he would try to make a case upon the fact that I forgot to sign a single message post out of dozens in my exchanges with him. Such behavior on his part could rightly be described as a nitpicking personal vendetta and appears to offer very little if anything of relevance wikipedia's quality, content, or even genuine editing disputes. It should be noted that Johntex seems to be similarly unaware of Misplaced Pages:NPOV_tutorial#Space_and_balance, hence his support for Katefan0's attempts to subtract legitimate sourced information from articles.

As a concluding note - should this case proceed involving the allegations made here, I will similarly be asking the arbitrators to examine evidence of severe POV pushing on the part of Willmcw and Katefan0 as well as the disruptive retaliatory behavior entailed in filing this case, which constitute WP:POINT abuses, in the case of all three editors. Rangerdude 03:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by third party (Willmcw RFA v Rangerdude): FuelWagon

I already posted my comment about Rangerdude's RFC against Cberlet and Willmcw in this diff. It is my statement as a third party in the Rangerdude RFA against Wilmcw and SlimVirgin bookmarked here. That comment applies to this RFA as well. FuelWagon 20:36, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by MacGyverMagic

My apologies for allowing this dispute to end in arbitration. Obligations outside of Misplaced Pages have prevented me from doing anything as time-consuming as mediation for a while now, and this particular case turned out more difficult than I initially thought. I've taken steps to ensure active people are tending to the mediation requests now. - Mgm| 07:28, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (3/0/0/0)

• Accept. Merge into below case, if both are accepted. James F. (talk) 22:24, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
• Accept and merge Fred Bauder 19:10, August 29, 2005 (UTC)
• Accept and merge ➥the Epopt 03:30, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

UninvitedCompany

Involved parties

• -Ril- ("party 1")
• UninvitedCompany ("party 2")

Summary

• Abuse of adminship
• Blocking, permanently, without support from the arbitration comittee, a user who opposes the admin's POV being pushed

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

• -Ril- is the initiating party
• UninvitedCompany has been made aware

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

• Prior RFC - Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/UninvitedCompany resulted in name calling against -Ril- by -Ril-'s "enemies"
• Statements at WP:AN/I mostly resulted in name calling, despite having partial support from two arbitrators -

• • AHEM! Haven't you forgotten the Mediation Committee? (Me and Brandon Yusuf had an outstandingly successful mediation.) Uncle Ed 02:40, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Statement by party 1 (-Ril-)

Getting inappropriately involved in Edit Wars

• An important detail is that UninvitedCompany is anti-Islamic in the extreme (UninvitedCompany admits this)
• Religious conflict and Islam was the subject of an edit war over alleged anti-Islamic POV between Germen (who has strong anti-Islamic views - see Germen's RFC that was co-signed by 3 editors, and endorsed by 10 more) and -Ril- (the differences between Germen and -Ril-'s versions)
• UninvitedCompany protected Religious conflict and Islam at Germen's version (on 6th august - it is still protected three weeks later)
  • While there definitely was an edit war going on, someone with an extreme POV on the issue shouldn't really be getting involved in protecting a version that supports their extreme POV
• The Bible and history was the subject of an edit war over a week between Noitall and -Ril- (the differences between Noitall and -Ril-'s versions).
  • Important background notes:Noitall is an editor with a right wing christian agenda e.g.
    • calling Mustafaa "beyond redemption"
    • being one of the founders - the number 2 - of Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Wikipedians for Decency
    • see also Noitall's user page)
    • particularly with regards to Islam and its position as an Abrahamic religion e.g.
      • Ishmael,
      • Abraham
    • etc., and related "Islamic" issues - e.g. Suicide Bombing
  • I am pointing this out only to demonstrate that Noitall's views on Islam are not exactly pro-Islamic, and thus would find support with UninvitedCompany's "extremely anti-Islamic" POV
• UninvitedCompany protected The Bible and History at Noitall's version (on 10th august - it is still protected two weeks later)
  • The time between -Ril-'s edit and Noitall's was 1 hour and 40 minutes
  • The time between Noitall's edit and UninvitedCompany's protection was 5 minutes
  • Therefore I alledge that UninvitedCompany deliberately waited for Noitall to make the edit before protecting the page.

Taking revenge for preventing POV pushing

• UninvitedCompany then blocked (at 01:14 7th August UTC) -Ril- alledging a violation of 3RR
  • Ril's 4 previous edits were at 22:51 5 August 2005 UTC, 23:00 5 August 2005 UTC, 08:58 6 August 2005 UTC, 23:12 6 August 2005 UTC
  • Between 22:51 5 August UTC and 22:51 6 August UTC, there were 3 reverts
  • Between 23:00 5 August UTC and 23:00 6 August UTC, there were 2 reverts
  • Between 23:11 5 August UTC and 23:11 6 August UTC, there was 1 revert
  • The edit at 23:12 6 August 2005 therefore constitutes the 2nd revert in 24 hours
  • There is no 1RR rule.
  • -Ril- was not personally subjected to a specially created 1RR nor a 2RR rule
  • There is also no reason to block for 72 hours rather than only 24
• When challanged about the block, Uninvited company admits he broke the blocking policy, but won't do anything about it
  • -Ril- was later unblocked by a responsible admin

Taking further revenge

• -Ril- later made an edit to Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Wikipedians for Decency in order to provide illustrations and examples as per normal "ideal article" principles including
  • A renaissance image that is usually considered decent, together with a modern photograph of a similar, and indeed more clothed, pose, to demonstrate how ideas of decency vary depending on the context of use, not the raw image
  • an image of two women that wouldn't be that indecent if it was added to illustrate Lesbian
  • An image of a nude in shadow suitable to illustrate shadow, demonstrating that nudity can be quite artistic, particularly in fine art
  • An image from the Stanley Kubrick film "eyes wide shut" to illustrate the section discussing "full frontal nudity"
• Violet/Riga claimed this was vandalism, and blocked -Ril- for 24 hours
• During discussion of this block on -Ril-'s talk page, UninvitedCompany blocked -Ril- indefinitely (03:34 18 August 2004)
• UninvitedCompany then vandalised -Ril-'s User page
• UninvitedCompany also organised a lynch mob
• and UninvitedCompany additionally protected -Ril-'s talk page so that -Ril- was completely unable to respond at all
  • UninvitedCompany claimed this was due to the images placed there (the same images placed at Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Wikipedians for Decency, for the purposes of discussing their merits, and permissable usage)
    • If UninvitedCompany has a problem with the images then they should be taken to WP:IFD
    • If the images have survived IFD or haven't been taken there, then the community clearly doesn't have a problem with them
    • Additionally, User space can be used how that user wishes, consistent with not breaking laws, etc., e.g. User:Evil Monkey/Nudity (now deleted by Evil Monkey to avoid being brought into issues with Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Wikipedians for Decency)

Summary

UninvitedCompany is clearly an involved user, who clearly has an opinion of -Ril-, and is clearly, and self-admittedly, extremely anti-Islamic, in contrast to -Ril-. Therefore, UninvitedCompany should not be blocking -Ril- unilaterally, or indefinitely.

Requested Temporary injuctions

I, -Ril-, would like, solely for the duration of this RFAR, the following temporary injunctions

• UninvitedCompany to be de-sysopped ("adminship is no big deal, so why should de-adminship be" - paraphrase of Ed Poor)
• -Ril- to be unblocked
• -Ril-'s talk page to be unprotected
• UninvitedCompany to be prohibited from editing -Ril-'s user page

--~~~~ ( ! | ? | * ) 15:19, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by party 2 (UninvitedCompany)

My position, and that of the Misplaced Pages community, with regard to -Ril- is already summarized at these locations:

• Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/UninvitedCompany
• User talk:-Ril-/ban

I would be happy to provide a further statement if any of the arbiters request it.

The Uninvited Co., Inc. 13:17, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Statements by other parties

Michael Snow

Please note that -Ril- is still subject to the indefinite block imposed by UninvitedCompany. -Ril- has resorted to a number of sockpuppets and IP addresses to evade the block. There has been a notable lack of enthusiasm for lifting this block (this is what -Ril- characterizes as a "lynch mob"). Given the concerns expressed by two arbitrators and alluded to by -Ril-, I offered to lift it if the Arbitration Committee devised an appropriate temporary injunction against -Ril-, but no such injunction has been forthcoming.

Additionally, a number of users suspect -Ril- to be a reincarnation of banned user Lir. Actually, I personally do not believe this, but have instead come to the conclusion that -Ril- is a different banned user. Based on language and IP evidence, -Ril- is clearly British, whereas Lir as I recall was in the US. Additionally, -Ril- has a couple notable characteristics, a tendency to latch onto particular biblical topics, and a habit of naming sockpuppet accounts along a particular theme. This combination leads me to believe that -Ril- is another notoriously disruptive user of sockpuppets, specifically CheeseDreams. --Michael Snow 16:13, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Phroziac

This has gone a little too far, in my opinion. It is gaming the system to make a fourth revert 24:20 after the first, and say it is not 3rr. There is never an excuse to violate 3rr. I have never violated 1rr personally. The block was an obvious example of a perfect IAR use. WikiProject Wikipedians for Decency did not need pictures of "indecency". This is no different then putting a picture of a penis on the main page. UninvitedCompany should probably not use admin features on a page he has a very strong POV in, except for obvious vandalism, 3rr, etc. An indefinite block is not the same as permanent, and UninvitedCompany was well within IAR to do that. The "vandalism" on -Ril-'s userpage was useful information, but perhaps it should not have been blanked. There is nothing wrong with those images, but they are there to illustrate articles in the encyclopedia. They are not there to put on wikiprojects, the main page, or anywhere else that they obviously do not belong. That was not a lynch mob. -Ril- should not excessively use loaded words to push his argument. This RFAr is very silly. --Phroziac 23:40, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by User:Ed Poor

It's not true that UninvitedCompany is pushing any POV, least of all an anit-Islamic one. Ril has misconstrued UC's reply to a comment Ril made (see diff).

Furthermore, it is a complete waste of everyone's time to allow an RFArb for this sort of thing. Ril is not helping this project, and is abusing this page to thwart UC's enforcement of policy.

This entire RFArb amounts to a personal attack on UC and is in itelf ample grounds for a ban. I would have done it myself, if UC hadn't beat me to it.

Misplaced Pages accounts are only for those who are trying to help organize and present the world's knowledge. Those who interfere with, or thwart, this goal should be shown to the door. Uncle Ed 16:43, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Statement by smoddy

I urge the Arbitration Committee to take on the views of the community. -Ril- made the point himself that no-one had unblocked him. If anyone seriously thought he should be unblocked, he would have been. No admin has seen fit to unblock him. Many have supported the block on the relevant page. The Misplaced Pages community does not want -Ril- around. It would be foolish to unban -Ril- simply because there was no reason in policy for the block. Sometimes what is needed goes beyond policy, hence we have Misplaced Pages:Ignore all rules. If any editor is really unhappy that -Ril- has gone, I urge them to come and say their piece. But, in my opinion, UC has done a great service. ] 18:05, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Bmicomp

The mere fact that nobody has unblocked -Ril-, but instead congratulated TUC on the block speaks volumes. From Misplaced Pages:Banning policy:

"The decision to ban a user can arise from four places. Bans from all places are equally legitimate.

1. The Misplaced Pages community, taking decisions according to appropriate community-designed policies with consensus support, or (more rarely) following consensus on the case itself. The quickpolls policy was one example of this. Some editors are so odious that not one of the 500+ admins will unblock them."

Statement by Klonimus

Ril is a disruptive user, if there is any controversy about TUC's actions they should she be merged into the Ril Case, and delt with in that context. Given the general issue with slowness of ArbCom, TUC was being predictive of what that outcome would be. Klonimus 23:35, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Erwin Walsh

Locking Ril's talk page seems poor form, as this prevents Ril from legitimately querying the block. Erwin

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (3/2/0/0)

• Accept Fred Bauder 13:58, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
• Reject - innuendo and supposition aside, this request is wholly without merit. →Raul654 16:46, August 24, 2005 (UTC)
• Accept; possible merge into current case? James F. (talk) 22:14, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
• Accept and merge ➥the Epopt 03:32, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
• Reject. Jayjg 18:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Anonymous Editor 24.147.97.230 and other addresses

Involved parties

• Party 1 (requesting arbitration): Robert McClenon
• Party 2 (against whom arbitration is requested): 24.147.97.230 and other addresses.

Statement by party 1

Either a single anonymous editor, using multiple IP addresses but primarily 24.147.97.230 , or multiple anonymous editors, have been engaged in an extended edit war on the Ted Kennedy page, and now also the Rosemary Kennedy page.

A complete list of addresses in use is found at Misplaced Pages: Requests for comment/24.147.97.230.

There are two issues, content issues and conduct issues. I am not asking the ArbCom to resolve the content issues. However, the conduct issues make it impossible to resolve the content issues. The page has been under page protection twice in the past two months to stop the edit wars and revert wars.

The content issues are whether particular sections that are negative to Ted Kennedy and to Joseph Kennedy Sr. should be included. The majority of signed-in editors think that these sections are non-encyclopedic and should not be included. The anonymous editors have insisted on continuing to add (revert) the same sections. They have accused the other editors of failing to negotiate in good faith.

The first content issue was the inclusion of an external link to an attack web site from the Ted Kennedy page. Multiple anonymous IP addresses added the link, no more than three addresses in a 24-hour period, which appears to be gaming the system. The page was then protected by an admin. After some search for a mediator, Kelly Martin agreed to try to mediate. This resulted in her conclusion that there was a consensus against inclusion of the link.

The anonymous editors have now tried to add the link to the web site for Rosemary Kennedy, who was only a victim and should not be the subject of having her family ridiculed. Claims that there was a consensus against the inclusion of the link are being rejected.

There were two more revert wars over the inclusion of material of little encyclopedic value. Editors who think that these paragraphs should not be included have been willing to have quickpolls on their relevance. However, the anonymous editors have altered the polls, and have accused their opponents (incorrectly) of POV pushing and disregard for consensus.

Since discussion is not working, and requests for other methods of discussion are not working, I request arbitration as a last resort.

ArbCom actions requested by party 1

I am requesting, as an interim measure, that the ArbCom issue a temporary injunction against anonymous edits to the Ted Kennedy and Rosemary Kennedy articles until this matter is arbitrated.

When the ArbCom accepts this case, I request that the principles cited include a statement that disputes should be resolved by consensus, but that consensus does not mean unanimous consent. (These anonymous editors are arguing, based on competing dictionary definitions, that consensus does mean unanimity, and so are demanding a liberum veto.) I also request that a statement be made that, in an encyclopedia, which is a compendium of knowledge, editorial judgment is required as to what is appropriate for inclusion in an encyclopedia.

Statement by party 2

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Hello, I'm not sure exactly what User:Robert McClenon is really looking for here. This user has filed FOUR RFCs to have users blocked in 30 days, the same 30 days of his new membership. I am the target of one of these RFCs. This is an average of one per week. As to my conduct, my conduct is proper. The issues I have involve a group of editors who delete and revert material on pages related to Kennedys. They are extreme POV pushers and refuse to negociate. As to User:Robert McClenon, If he can give a specific and exact description of what his is looking to come to an agreement on I would be willing to participate. It is a bit of a surprise as this user wrote this today, "I have no interest in mediation with any anonymous editor. Robert McClenon 22:32, 21 August 2005 (UTC)" 24.147.97.230 02:47, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Interested third parties

I urge ArbCom to deal with this matter. This editor's conduct has not been proper in any way, shape, or form. This IP address initially started editing here by inserting a promotional link for the fatboy.cc anti-Kennedy website and now is intent on inserting large chunks of material derived from that website. S/he has unleashed an army of sockpuppets to start a revert war to insert two large, POV sections of dubious encyclopedic value. A large consensus of editors of numerous political persuasions opposes the insertion of the material in its current form. Instead of seeking a compromise or an alternative way to insert some of the same facts in the article (as many of those editors have repeatedly stated they were open to) this editor insists that everyone who disagrees with the insertion of those two sections is a pro-Kennedy partisan, a vandal, a POV warrior, etc., etc. This editor is essentially a one issue POV war and this sort of anti-wiki behavior should be stopped now. Gamaliel 04:49, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

If taken to ArbCom, Gamaliel needs to be a party to this. He/She is one of the most POV editors at the Kennedy Site and has co-written an RFC against me. 24.147.97.230 15:50, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

For the record, I did not write the RFC, though I did sign it, as did four other editors to date, and I agree with what Robert McClenon wrote. Also, if I am drafted into this proceeding, so should the rest of the ten or so editors who have participated in forming the consensus against 24.147's POV edits in that article. Gamaliel 16:12, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

comment from third party (Robert McClenon RFA v 24.147.97.230): FuelWagon

My involvment in this article was to post a reply to an article RFC some time ago regarding whether or not the article should include the "fatboy.cc" link. My comment at the time was something to the effect that the website seemed one step above juvenile bathroom humor, its only claim to fame is several pictures of Kennedy's naked stomach and a picture with a roadmap superimposed over his nose. This site is equivalent to finding a comment about someone scribbled on a bathroom wall with anatomically correct sketches included. I consider the site to be an embarrassment to be listed on wikipedia. And to use policy-language: it is unencyclopedic and non-notable. a number of editors agreed and the consensus seemed to be drop it. several anon IP editors voted to keep the link, but user jpgordon pointed out that most of these anon votes are from IP addresses that made only 1 edit, which would indicate ballot stuffing by one of the editors engaged in the dispute or the strangest voting dynamic I've seen on wikipedia. Despite consensus to drop it, 24.147.97.230 continues to push to have the fatboy.cc website listed. The ballot stuffing incident and the insistence to include a grout-writing URL despite consensus to drop it (at least among the registered users) is enough of a red-flag that good faith can no longer be assumed and that processes for dispute resolution that require good-faith (RFC's and mediation) will not work. FuelWagon 00:15, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

RE: ballot stuffing. In any wikipedia poll, I could find a website or mailing list or blog that supports my position and spam them saying "hey people, wikipedia is trying to suppress your point of view. Your vote is needed now!" or some equally partisan bit of propaganda, give them a URL to a wikipedia talk page with the poll in question, and then sit back and watch the votes tally up. I could do that, but I wouldn't. To me, polls are among editors who are actually doing the work, making the contributions, and investing the time to make the article better. i.e. polls are a way for editors to resolve disputes amongst themselves. The idea of getting outside, non-contributers to vote in a poll simply to force the result a certain way is not what I would call a good-faith attempt to resolve a dispute between editors who are actually working and contributing to an article. FuelWagon 14:53, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Previous Dispute Resolution

There have been three previous article Requests for Comments to try to resolve these content and conduct issues.

There was one previous attempt at mediation (via a non-MedCom procedure), by Kelly Martin. She concluded that there was a consensus against adding the "fatboy.cc" link to the Ted Kennedy site. However, the advocates of adding the link dispute the claim of consensus.

Please understand that I, the "anon" initiated this previous attempt at mediation and contacted Kelly Martin24.147.97.230 02:51, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Since a previous RFM has not resulted in a truce, I have no reason to believe that mediation will have any effect again.

A Request for Comments was posted about the conduct of the anonymous editors. Their response was to post a Request for Comments about my conduct. This does not seem to provide any evidence that they are willing to try to change their conduct.

Again, please understand the user Robert McClenon has posted the above mentioned RFC...as he has done to 3 other users in 30 days, his first 30 days at Misplaced Pages24.147.97.230 02:51, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

This arbitration request is premature. The last step of dispute resolution should be a request for arbitration. User:Robert_McClenon has, to date, refused to engage in mediation with User:24.147.97.230,. An attempt at mediation should always be made before it reaches this stage.--Agiantman 21:33, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Response to claim of premature arbitration request:

1. Mediation, as noted above and below, has been attempted. I see no reason to delay arbitration simply to permit another round of mediation, which I expect will not result in a compromise, to delay arbitration.
2. The above statement that the RfAr is premature is being filed by someone who is not a first, second, or third party to this proceeding at this time. I have stated that I am willing to go to mediation with Agiantman, but not with 24.147.97.230. Robert McClenon 22:44, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Confirmation of Parties' Awareness

1. Party 1 Robert McClenon 01:43, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
2. Party 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=User_talk:24.147.97.230&diff=21539886&oldid=21536212

Statement by involved third party

I was invited to mediate a dispute on this article related to the inclusion of a specific external link. However, I concluded that the dispute was not mediatable as there was no middle ground that the parties would consider acceptable. The parties were (understandably) unwilling to submit to third-party arbitration of the acceptability of the link. At that point, I listed the issue on RFC and a reasonably civil discussion ensued, in which a number of editors (all save one posting from anonymous addresses) argued in support of the link, and a number of established Wikipedians argued against inclusion of the link. At the point where it appeared to me that the discussion had terminated, I offered my opinion as to the apparent consensus of the Misplaced Pages community regarding the issue. At the time the lead anon advocating for this link (the only one with any significant edit history) appeared to accept that conclusion. I have not, however, continued to monitor the article after the point at which the dispute seemed to be resolved, nor have I monitored the editing of any of the parties on other related or unrelated articles.

It is my impression that the flock of anons are not sockpuppets of the lead anon, but instead distinct likeminded individuals acting at his direction or urging: this appears to be a "grassroots" effort to influence Misplaced Pages consensus rather than a single individual trying to appear to be more than one person. Kelly Martin 18:58, August 22, 2005 (UTC)

Statement by jpgordon

I urge Arbcom to involve themselves in this case. Though it may seem like a simple content dispute, the intransigence of the "fatboy anon", which has led to Ted Kennedy being protected for much of the last several months, is a classic case of a user with no grasp whatsoever of Misplaced Pages principles of cooperation, NPOV, and simple honesty. The RFC on the anon makes it clear that he is willing to call in non-Wikipedians (I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that they are not outright sockpuppets) to stack the deck to make it appear that he has the support that in reality is almost completely missing; he simply refuses to accept that consensus is overwhelmingly against him, and instead insists on inserting exactly the same text that he has been trying to insert for months. Please help. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 04:58, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Expansion on statement

As the first party to this RfAr, I see an issue of whether Misplaced Pages can develop quality NPOV articles on controversial politicians and similar public figures. There is a consensus (in Misplaced Pages terms, which does not mean unanimity) on whether particular text should be included in full (that it should not) or abridged (that it should). The user in question then repeatedly refers to the removal of sections that are considered non-encyclopedic as vandalism. He then requests page protection against "vandalism", which has resulted in the article being page-protected at least three times, each time for more than a week. Robert McClenon 15:35, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (2/0/1/1)

• Abstain, for the time being. →Raul654 02:54, August 22, 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. James F. (talk) 11:42, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
• Recuse Fred Bauder 14:25, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
• Accept ➥the Epopt 03:33, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
• Accept. Jayjg 18:55, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

User:Willmcw and User:SlimVirgin

Summary

Willmcw is stalking and harassing other editors who disagree with his political POV for disruptive purposes. SlimVirgin has engaged in extreme personal belligerency toward other editors, has made repeated personal attacks, and has engaged in coordinated disruptive actions with Willmcw.

Involved parties

An administrator incident complaint was filed by User:Rangerdude against Willmcw for wiki-stalking and general harassment on June 15th. Willmcw filed a retaliatory RfC against Rangerdude later the same evening, alleging that Rangerdude's wiki-stalking allegation against him was a personal attack. Mediation was suggested in response to Rangerdude's complaint, both parties agreed to mediation with User:Andrevan, notice was posted to the incident board and the RfC, which was then withdrawn. Attempts to proceed with mediation from then until the present have been unproductive due to mediation backlogs and disagreement over the format for conducting mediation. In the meantime the conflict has intensified. Allegations of Willmcw's harassing behavior and wiki-stalking of Rangerdude continue to the present. User:SlimVirgin has also become involved in the controversy, supporting Willmcw. Additional incident complaints were filed yesterday by Rangerdude against Willmcw for disruption of Rangerdude's edits and against SlimVirgin for harassment, promotion of Willmcw's disruptive activities, and abuse of her administrator powers in page protecting Rangerdude's user page at a time she was a party to the disputes. Page protection was removed by SlimVirgin after Rangerdude complained, but additional disputes remain. Rangerdude subsequently posted an additional request for mediation disputing Willmcw's recent activities as harassment and requesting mediation with SlimVirgin for the same. SlimVirgin refused this mediation and Willmcw denied that Rangerdude's original complaint, located here had ever been filed against him.

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request

• Post by Rangerdude informing SlimVirgin of RfAr after SlimVirgin refused mediation.
• SlimVirgin acknowledges Rangerdude's intent to file RfAr
• Notice posted to Willmcw of Rangerdude's intent to file RfAr
• Willmcw acknowledges RfAr has been filed

Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

If not, then explain why that would be fruitless

• - Incident complaint by Rangerdude against Willmcw for wikistalking and harassment, June 15th.
• - Incident complaint against Willmcw for continued harassment, August 18th
• - Incident complaint against SlimVirgin for harassment and abuse of page protection policy, August 18th
• - Request for Mediation by Rangerdude with SlimVirgin & Willmcw.
• - SlimVirgin refuses mediation request.
• - Willmcw denies original complaint was ever made against him.

Statement by Rangerdude

Rangerdude complaint against Willmcw

• Willmcw has engaged in a pattern of harassment, disruption, and wiki-stalking towards Rangerdude from February 2005 to the present and involving over 40 different articles (evidence). This stalking has been disruptive including dismantling of Rangerdude's additions without justification, removal of source material for political and POV reasons, and general harassment aimed at pestering Rangerdude's day-to-day edits on unrelated articles. This violates Misplaced Pages's policies on civility, disruption, assuming good faith, and existing Arbcom precedent and Jimbo Wales' Recycling Troll case ruling about pestering other users with stalking .
• Willmcw's stalking of me has included disruption of the Houston Chronicle mediation including the unilateral addition of himself to a closed mediation between Rangerdude and another editor and revert warring to retain his self-addition after it was removed.
• Willmcw has repeatedly attempted to disrupt Rangerdude's efforts in the current guideline proposal of Misplaced Pages:Stalking. This includes multiple bad faith edits aimed at dismantling, weakening, and deleting the proposal's text , revert warring to add an unfriendly and undesired change to the proposal , , and removing material authored by Rangerdude from the proposal while it was being drafted on account of its authorship.
• Willmcw has made WP:POINT disruptions aimed at harming the Misplaced Pages:Stalking proposal. Willmcw announced his intent to file a counter-complaint of wiki-stalking against Rangerdude for the purpose of disruption after objections were made to his dismantling edits to the proposal that are described above. He was warned of WP:POINT in response , but subsequently followed through with the complaint posted to Rangerdude's talk page.
• Willmcw has repeatedly attempted to alter and remove a question posed to him by Rangerdude regarding his purposes and disruptive edits on the Stalking article from that article's talk page. Edits were for the purposes of removing the fact that the question was addressed at his edits specifically.
• Willmcw has engaged in and promoted revert warring against Rangerdude's edits and in disregard of talk page discussions that are pending. Note: this particular case of revert warring was on an article that Willmcw has repeatedly stalked me to dating back to February 2005 and has edited in a disruptive manner previously.
• Willmcw has a history of filing retaliatory motions against Rangerdude in response to reports of his policy violations and bad behavior by Rangerdude. Examples include filed 4 hours after Rangerdude reported Willmcw for wikistalking on the administrator incident board ; Threats to post and followthrough on posting a retaliatory wikistalking counter-complaint against Rangerdude after Rangerdude voiced concerns about Willmcw's intent in editing the wiki-stalking proposal despite having a long history of having been accused of that same practice in the past; and filing a retaliatory RfAr against Rangerdude 4 days after this RfAr was posted regarding him. These examples are violations of WP:POINT and are attempts at gaming the system in response to complaints that call his editing behavior into question.
• Willmcw has engaged in heavy POV pushing to promote a liberal/leftist political agenda and to disparage conservative/libertarian viewpoints that disagree with his own. Example: Willmcw added the scare term "controversial" to the opening sentence of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a libertarian philsopher, yet removed it from the opening sentence of Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal organization that he agrees with. In pursuing this political agenda Willmcw has become unusually skilled at content manipulation on wikipedia articles about conservative and libertarian writers, politicians, organizations, and think tanks. One of his most common tactics is to insert insinuations of racist, anti-semitic, neo-nazi, KKK, and other hate group affiliations into articles about mainstream conservative and libertarian topics, thereby trying to discredit them through guilt-by-association links with notorious political extremists. Example: Willmcw attempted to insert David Duke quotations into an article about a libertarian think tank.

Rangerdude complaint against SlimVirgin

• SlimVirgin assisted Willmcw in the WP:POINT disruption described above by posting a coordinated note publicizing it to the Village Pump announcement where community input was solicited for the Misplaced Pages:Stalking guideline proposal. This was done for the apparent purpose of disrupting or discrediting the Village Pump request for community input on forming the guideline, as indicated by her edit summary description and accompanying comments.
• Moments later SlimVirgin abused her administrative powers to page protect my user page, apparently aimed at preserving and promoting Willmcw's WP:POINT complaint that she had just linked to. Misplaced Pages:Page protection prohibits administrators from protecting pages in disputes where they are involved. The protection was removed after Rangerdude complained on both the Admin noticeboard and the Page Protection board. SlimVirgin also made an accompanying second post at this time to the Village Pump aimed at promoting Willmcw's note after another editor removed it apparently for WP:POINT reasons. This post demonstrates that her purpose in protecting the userpage and pursuing the other editor was motivated primarily by her coordinated promotion of Willmcw's note for purposes of disrupting the guideline proposal Rangerdude was working on, rather than a simple case of vandalism as she has claimed.
• SlimVirgin has made repeated personal attacks and bad faith allegations against Rangerdude. SlimVirgin rudely accused Rangerdude of deleting another unrelated user's comments from a noticeboard when the culprit was an apparent scripting bug that has been causing problems to that particular board. SlimVirgin made a similar bad-faith accusation of deletion agaisnt Rangerdude for merging a simultaneous and duplicate request for input on the Misplaced Pages:Stalking proposal into one notice post. SlimVirgin responded with extreme belligerency and personal attacks when Rangerdude responded to this allegation by stating it was a simple attempt to merge two redundant posts. SlimVirgin also removed Rangerdude's comments explaining this merge.
• SlimVirgin has engaged in multiple personal attacks including demeaning personal comments in response to the incidents mentioned above. Examples: "What is wrong with you" and "You're a disruptive editor" .
• SlimVirgin has made similar personal attacks towards Rangerdude previously, has exhibited extreme personal belligerency toward Rangerdude as an editor ("What's wrong with it Rangerdude, is in part that it's you who's suggesting it. My position is that you should not be editing this page") and has made attacks against Rangerdude that could be construed as a legal threat. Note: SlimVirgin has been cautioned by the Arbcom previously for making personal attacks.

Statement by 216.112.42.61; complaint against Willmcw

May I say something here? I just noticed this complaint by chance when looking at this page. Rangerdude is not the only one that has been stalked by Willmcw. I too have been stalked by said user, though it was a while ago so I don't remember it well. I just gave up rather than reporting it, but since others are now reporting on Willmcw, I am also. If I remember correctly, Willmcw was trying to push his own biased POV in the article 'terrorism', and I reverted his edits for a while, then gave up. Willmcw then stalked my IP to the article 'ballotechnics', which I had done substantial work on, in which Willmcw falsely portrayed it by classifying it as a pseudoscience, to discredit my contributions in anger over my attempt to prevent his pushing his biased POV. Being as others have also been stalked by Willmcw, it is clear that he has got to go.

Statement by Herschelkrustofsky; complaint against Willmcw

I wish to second the remarks of 216.112.42.61; I too have been stalked by said user. Willmcw has anticipated my contribution to this discussion in his response below, but I would like to make it official. --HK 14:33, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

...And, Willmcw has resumed stalking me. I have begun compiling a log of frivolous edits, which I will submit as evidence if the Arbcom decides to accept this case. --HK 00:15, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I too have been stalked by WillmcwJonah Ayers

Recusals

As this RfAr involves two fairly well known administrators on Misplaced Pages, I am also requesting in compliance with Misplaced Pages:Arbitration policy on conflict of interest for any arbitration participant who has a strong historical editing relationship with or other personal allegiance to SlimVirgin, Willmcw, or both to disclose this information and, if applicable, recuse him or herself in accordance with this policy. Thank you. Rangerdude 00:34, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Statement by Willmcw

Rangerdude raises five points in his complaint against me. I consider two of them (#1 & #4) serious enough for the ArBCom to arbitrate. I believe that the other three complaints are minor and/or are based on mistaken interpretations of events. Here are my specific responses:

1. I previously responded to Rangerdude's "wiki-stalking" allegation here: Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Rangerdude#Description. Rangerdude also made this accusation during my Misplaced Pages:Requests for adminship/Willmcw. At that time three editors, each barely or not known to me, wrote to say that they'd checked the "wiki-stalking" evidence and found no wrongdoing.. However Rangerdude has continued to attack me with this charge for months. I request that the ArbCom decide whether my own behavior towards Rangerdude has been wikistalking harassment, or whether his repetition of the charges has been harassment. I am eager to reply in detail to any of Rangerdude's specific charges that the ArbCom wishes.

FYI, since Rangerdude began calling me a wikistalker I also have been accused of it by these editors:

• Thodin (talk · contribs) 00:01, June 18, 2005, 08:39, July 14, 2005, 23:06, July 14, 2005, 00:31, July 15, 2005 21:19, July 16, 2005, 21:44, July 16, 2005
• Poetatoe (talk · contribs) 00:06, June 18, 2005
• 24.94.181.211 (talk · contribs)/Chuck0 (talk · contribs) 19:32, August 5, 2005
• Herschelkrustofsky (talk · contribs) 22:35, August 8, 2005 06:53, August 23, 2005
• Steve espinola (talk · contribs) 00:43, August 10, 2005
• Bigelow (talk · contribs) 08:44, August 18, 2005
• Agiantman (talk · contribs) 21:08, August 21, 2005
• 216.112.42.61 (talk · contribs) 02:56, August 23, 2005

2. The mediator invited me to join the Houston Chronicle mediation on June 10th and I promptly accepted.. After hearing no reply I posted a note asking if anything was happening then, having seen a notice of mediation, I just dove in on June 14th. Rangerdude made repeated efforts to remove me from the mediation. Rangerdude had previously demanded that I not be included and the mediator had agreed, but no one had informed me of this agreement. When the mediator asked me to leave the mediation I did so promptly. Prior to my participation, Rangerdude promised to limit his edits "to existing texts to a minimum during mediation excepting extraordinary unforseen circumstances". That restriction did not cover the large new, POV section and other POV material that he added to the article over the next two days. After June 15, Rangerdude never made another contribution to the mediation or to the article.

3. Rangerdude has reverted as much or more than I have. In fact, he recently amended this charge against me after having just violated the 3RR himself.

4. My charge of "wikistalking" against Rangerdude is based on his following me with the apparent intent of harassment. I will address his harassment of myself and other editors in a separate request for arbitration.

5. Rangerdude's question on Misplaced Pages talk:Stalking asked about the personal motivation of my edits and had my username in the heading, both of which I consider to be violations of talk page wikiquette. I first responded by simply removing my name from the header, but Rangerdude wouldn't settle for that. Then I tried to move it to my talk page, but that not would do either. Rangerdude reverted three times, demanding that it be on the proposal's talk page with my name in the header. I finally gave in.

Submitted by -Willmcw 08:24, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Statement by SlimVirgin

It's hard to know how to respond to this, because I don't feel I have a dispute with Rangerdude. My interest in him is only as an admin. I see him as a disruptive editor and a vexatious litigant, who seems to spend most of his time on Misplaced Pages complaining about people.

Rangerdude takes a tiny factoid about an editor, twists it out of all recognition, then inserts it into multiple complaints in long-winded, quasi-legalistic posts to anyone he thinks might listen. Within the last month, he's filed two RfCs — Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Cberlet & Willmcw and Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/FuelWagon, the latter deleted as uncertified and apparently filed because FuelWagon supported Will and Chip during the first RfC, making it WP:POINT — at least one RfM, and now this RfAr. It's practically impossible to defend yourself against his complaints, because he twists any response you make and uses it against you.

I first became aware of him, and began to think he was a disruptive editor, on June 15 when someone set up SlimVirgin's Left Boob (talk · contribs) and used it to post encouragement to Rangerdude on WP:AN/I regarding one of his complaints about Willmcw allegedly "stalking" him. This was the first I'd heard of the allegation against Will. My next encounter with him also saw him on the same side as sockpuppets. On June 18, he defended a malicious vandalism listing made against Will by Poetatoe (talk · contribs), a new account believed to be a sockpuppet of Thodin (talk · contribs), another disruptive editor who thinks everyone's stalking him.

Because of his support of abusive sockpuppets and their support of him, and because he was making (as I saw it, absurd) complaints against a good editor, I formed a view of Rangerdude as disruptive. I therefore left a note on his talk page asking him to reconsider his complaints against Will, and to consider taking a break from interacting with him. He replied complaining about Will's editing of Eric Foner but when I checked the page, it was clear that Rangerdude was reverting to unsourced material, and all Will was doing was politely asking for a source. I therefore told Rangerdude that Will was following policy, as he always does in my experience.

It seems this was enough to turn me into one of Rangerdude's targets. Since then, he was posted a lot of criticism of me (which I see as personal attacks), for example this . I won't give detailed responses to his specific charges unless the case is accepted, except to say that they're nonsense, and in particular I haven't abused any admin powers in relation to him. I once protected his talk page for 10 minutes when a new account Bigelow (talk · contribs) (another abusive sockpuppet who strongly supported Rangerdude) kept deleting a message that Will had posted, so I briefly protected the page from being reverted until I could work out what to do about Bigelow (who responded to the page protection with a personal attack and was therefore blocked). Rangerdude writes above that I unprotected the page only after he complained about the protection, but that isn't correct. The protection log shows:

• 08:48, August 18, 2005 SlimVirgin protected User talk:Rangerdude (vandalism);
• 08:57, August 18, 2005 SlimVirgin protected User talk:Bigelow (abusive account; blocked indefinitely)
• 08:58, August 18, 2005 SlimVirgin unprotected User talk:Rangerdude (vandal has been blocked).
• It was at 09:05 August 18 that Rangerdude made his first complaint. SlimVirgin 12:20, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Statement by third party (Rangerdude RFA v Willmcw and SlimVirgin): FuelWagon

My involvment in this situation stems from an RFC that Rangerdude filed against Willmcw. I was not involved in the original dispute and saw the RFC and made a comment as an outside, uninvolved, and neutral party. Rangerdude was complaining about Cberlet and Willmcw's edits on the Ludwig Von Mises Institute (LVMI) article. I looked at the evidence given and the responses made, then looked at the article and talk page histories, and made my comment that the three people who certified the RFC (DickClarkMises, an LVMI employee, Nskinsell, an "adjunct scholar" for LVMI, and Rangerdude) were far more the root of any POV problem around the LVMI article than Cberlet and Willmcw.

Rangerdude related to this RFC as if he "owned" it. He reacted to my comment by going in and reformatting my comment and then he replied to my comment, calling it "extremely one-sided", "troubling", and "revolting". He claimed my "insinuation ... plainly violates Misplaced Pages:assume good faith" He claimed I "misrepresented" his edits. And he concluded "Given these clear cases of misrepresentation, bad faith personal insinuations, and inconsistenly-applied 'conflict of interest' allegations, I am disinclined to give further credence to the neutrality or accurracty of FuelWagon's take on this matter."

I got the feeling that Rangerdude was using the RFC as an attempt to punish editors who disagreed with him. I told Rangerdude that "an RFC is a mechanism intended to resolve a dispute. It is not a place to "build a case" against an editor to bring punitive measures againt them"

Rangerdude's reply indicated that he believes an RFC is needed prior to arbitration. "Were I to seek arbitration at this point before conducting an RfC into user conduct as this one is plainly categorized and designated, the request would likely be denied"

This only reinforced my opinion that Rangerdude was not using the RFC as a way to resolve his dispute with Cberlet/Willmcw, but as a way to build a case so he could eventually take it to arbitration and punish them. "You're attempting to convict someone of being rude when you broke nearly every traffic law in the book before coming before the judge. ... Take a break. give yourself a day to breathe."

Rangerdude's reply indicated his refusal to change course. "this RfC can and will proceed in a proper and responsible fashion be it with or without your assistance"

Rangerdude continued relating to the RFC as if he "owns" it, and opened an RFC-in-a-RFC, commenting on my comments and asked other editors to endorse his comments.

Throughout that RFC, Rangerdude related to the entire RFC page as if he owned it. He responded to many editors who commented against his position, he resisted attempts to move his replies to that talk page, and he even took it upon himself to put his own comments in the "response" section normally reserved for the individuals being accused of violating policy. He even declared the "requirement" to close the RFC was that "the new revisions (to the LVMI page) are allowed to remain"

Soon thereafter, and in a further demonstration of using RFC's for punitive means, Rangerdude filed an RFC against me for some comment I made on another RFC, accusing me of personal attacks. No one else certified it, so it was removed.

I went back to editing articles and didn't bump into Rangerdude again until I happened upon the proposed policy against "stalking". Rangerdude seemed intent on making it against policy to "stalk" another editor. The overall consensus was largely against the proposed policy, and it was eventually merged in with "harassment". I believe Rangerdude became heavily involved in the policy proposal for wikipedia:stalking with the specific intention of accusing Willmcw of "stalking" him. "stalking" is an accusation that is easy to make and is extremely difficult even for an innocent editor to disprove.

While I haven't been involved in the current dispute that Rangerdude is requestion arbitration for around Willmcw and SlimVirgin, it is my opinion that Rangerdude's edits qualify as POV-pushing and he wikilawyers against anyone who opposes his POV edits. In my opinion, this request for arbitration was his intention from the start when he filed the RFC against Willmcw and Cberlet. Rangerdude's edits were consistently POV. And he consistently reacted to anyone who opposed his POV edits by RFC'ing them, building a case against them, and accusing them of countless policy violations. His reaction to my comment read more like a prosecuting attorney than someone attempting to resolve anything: "Given these clear cases of misrepresentation, bad faith personal insinuations, and inconsistenly-applied 'conflict of interest' allegations, I am disinclined to give further credence to the neutrality or accurracty of FuelWagon's take on this matter." )

It's my opinion that Rangerdude's approach to dealing with editors who have a different point of view than him is to wikilawyer them, find a way to punish them, file RFC's and negotiate a change to the article in exchange for closing the RFC, attempt to change policy to make it easier to accuse them of policy violations, and accumulate enough empty charges to bring it to arbitration. FuelWagon 16:10, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't have direct experience of SlimVirgin's behaviour around this specific incident. However, my experience of SlimVirgin saw three good editors leave wikipedia in disgust after a run-in with her. While not directly related, it may reflect a pattern of behaviour on SlimVirgin's part that may have contributed to the above situation.

On 11 July, 2005, the Terri Schiavo article looked like this. The talk page marked the article as "controversial topic" and "in mediation". Ed Poor was mediator. SlimVirgin came into the article, performed 9 edits over the course of 3 hours. During that time SlimVirgin inserted the "in use" tag , which displays "This article is actively undergoing a major edit."

Several long term editors on the article protested that SlimVirgin's edit qualified as reckless for an article listed as "controversial" and in "mediation" and that her edit contained numerous factual errors.

SlimVirgin never once acknowledge a single factual error in her edit, although she continued to ask us to point out any error. "If I made a factual error, point to it" , "You also mention errors of fact, but again, don't cite any. Please do." , "Show me one factual or grammatical error that I edited into the article" , "Show me one error I made in the article" , "neither of you has said what your objection is" , "If you feel I've introduced errors, please list them on talk" , "please discuss your objections on talk" , "Please say what your specific objections are" .

Several editors pointed out factual errors in her edit, including user:Neuroscientist who posted a 5,000 word explanation here . Rather than acknowledge a single error, SlimVirgin replies " I don't appreciate the personal comments you've lobbed at me." SlimVirgin accused several editors of various policy violations including "POV pushing" , "taking ownership of the page" , "violating NPOV and No original research" , and "arguing for the sake of arguing" . When asked to support her accusations, she neither provided evidence nor withdrew her accusations. Demands for evidence to support these accusations were met with silence. I filed an RFC against SlimVirgin and it was supported by 5 editors. I eventually withdraw my certification to allow the RFC to be deleted.

When the RFC fails to resolve anything, a long time contributer to the Terri Schiavo article, User:Duckecho quit wikipedia, citing SlimVirgin's "arrogance" as one reason for leaving . User:Neuroscientist quits wikipedia soon after .

SlimVirgin withdraws from Terri Schiavo mediation, saying it was "silly". . One editor who had been working on the article "A ghost" called it "self-centered, naked arrogance" . Ten days later, "A ghost" stops contributing to wikipedia .

These three editors (Duckecho, Neuroscientist, A ghost) had been working on the Terri Schiavo and other articles on wikipedia for several months and had 2,000 edits combined. And all of them leave wikipedia immediately after this incident with SlimVirgin. Despite SlimVirgin's accusations of rampant policy violations by these editors on the Terri Shiavo article, none of these three editors had any RFC's or admin blocks against them.

The end result of SlimVirgin's behaviour was that three valuable editors left wikipedia in disgust, two specifically blaming her of arrogance. FuelWagon 19:02, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

update: Having filed the above comment, SlimVirgin informed me she can no longer assume any good faith of me . Later that same day, she questioned the validity of an RFC that I filed against another editor (Bensaccount) about a week and a half prior. SlimVirgin said it looks like "another example of an inappropriate RfC filed by" me . She questioned several aspects of the legitimacy of the RFC on the RFC talk page. I told her that given her declared bias against me, and given that she hadn't said one word about this RFC up until this point, that she shouldn't be involved with this RFC at all. We went back and forth on the talk page. SlimVirgin eventually deleted two posts of mine that comment about her behaviour, she attempted to justify the first delete as a personal attack and saying "reverting" for the second one. . I tell her she's trying to suppress criticism of her behaviour as an admin and as an editor. Some time later, SlimVirgin says that she asked another admin to look at the RFC, and based on what they said, she wasn't going to delete it. , which means the RFC was fine in the first place.

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (3/0/0/0)

• Just noting that I'm waiting for a response before coming to a decision. James F. (talk) 11:14, 22 August 2005 (UTC) Accept. James F. (talk) 22:23, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
• Accept Fred Bauder 14:45, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
• Accept ➥the Epopt 03:34, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Requests for Clarification

If you need to clarify the precise meaning of a previous decision of the Arbitration Committee, your request should go here.

Jarlaxle Artemis

Is Jarlaxle Artemis blocked indefinitely by an admin, or banned by the ArbCom (the ArbCom doesn't usually ban indefinitely)? I ask because he is strongly suspected of still creating articles: if he is banned, they are speedies, if he is merely blocked, they are not. The text of the final decision signed by Raul654 uses the word banned, but the case was closed. -Splash 01:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

As I understand it, Jarlaxle Artemis has been banned by the community. Such bans are rare but not unknown.

James F. (talk) 14:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I concur with James - they are speedies. →Raul654 20:42, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

User:Gavin the Chosen

Gavin the Chosen was blocked for a month as part of a recent arbitration decision, but I'm concerned that this hasn't stopped him from continuing his harassment against me. One of the findings in that case was that he followed me around, posting insulting comments, and doing things to try to interfere with my normal editing here (such as jumping onto articles he had never touched before specifically to undo whatever I had done or to egg fights on).

Even though he is blocked I am still getting harassing emails from him through the WIikipedia email link, which I hesitate to disable as it is a way for people to contact me directly about issues related to the encyclopedia. Furthermore I have run across a number of editors recently who after a single disagreement have escalated into very mean-spirited attacks, claiming that they had been privately emailed and "warned" about my behavior by an editor who wished to give them all the details of my supposed campaigns to destroy articles, etc. which is all the same nonsense Gabriel/Gavin would try to tell people. These editors then pick up the campaign of insults on various talk pages.

The month block was intended to be a way for Gabriel to take a break and think about his actions here, but instead his harassment still continues. He apparently still watches all the articles he was involved in emotional disputes with earlier, as he mentions what has happened recently on them in his emails.

I would request that his account be disabled outright so he cannopt access emails (and since the RfA finding said he should come back under a different name after his block expired, there's no reason for his current one to be active) or that his month long block be reset so that his activities here are completely stopped for the agreed upon month. DreamGuy 21:16, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

It only says he may choose another username, but this is very disturbing and I agree that the block should be reset in addition to disabling his account or something of that sort. I haven't received any emails yet; want to send me one now, Gavin? ~~ N (t/c) 14:32, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

He has sent me the following three messages. ~~ N (t/c) 22:22, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

the requested response

Unfortunatly, it would seem to me that dreamGuy's accusation revenge for the arbitration process that he is undergoing. I have kept my word , as for the end of the baqrgain that is my arbitration. I have sent him nothing, larghely becaseu i wish him to have no contact with me ( frankly hes aggravating) It is my beleif that this unfounded accusaton prooves the accusation i have placed against him in the matter of his methods and bad faitrh in his operating style here on wikipedia. I ame accross this message to s end ytou a message becase u my watchlist contains the RFAr page, (along with many others)

and as for the detaqils about mean spirited attacks, it se ems that the attacks were perpatrated by dfreamGuy, just look at the edit history of his talk page...

Also it would stand to reason if I have been gone for a month and others, some of whoim ive had zero contact with are saying what i was saying about how dreamguy opwerates on wikipedia, then it cant be a coincidance. perhaps this is farther proof of his defamitory adgenda on some articles such as Otherklin and Therianthropy, and his general, totally incurable lack of civillity towards other users in general.

This is the reason why i grew tired of him, and his wayhs of acusations and atte mpting to play the system and fiegn victim status.

in the light that i have done nothing that he accuses me of, i would ask you to disregard his lies, and possibly add attampting to file a false RFAr against me as a revenbge tactic to the eviance page of his RFAr IN that mnatter, my hands are tied, but i w ould appreciate it greatly if you and the other arbitreators would be so kind as to disregard his accusations against me, because they are fabrications.

(i find it intersting how hes trying to have my account destoryed... interesting way of going about it, making false accusations and suich, isnt it?) sorry if i got a little long woinded or a little repetative, but this is being written as the first trhing after i got here from work.

thanks, and feel free to send this message to other arbitrators, or to contact me for conversation at gagb@gabrielsimon.com on MSN or filmbuff42 on YIM.

thanks for listening.

For some little reason, I'm inclined to believe DreamGuy here. Do the developers have any way of logging/checking use of Special:Emailuser? I have asked him what a false RfAr is - does he mean this request for clarification? ~~ N (t/c) 22:22, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Reply: "sorry, i thought it was an RFAr. in any case, the reast of it apllies, i think,. his accusations are totoaly false. i beleive this attempt at deception on his part to be typical of his rather childish behaviour and overall lack of maturity and civillity on this site."

addendum

hew also said that the find9ing of the case was that i followed him around. this is blatently false. its the complete op[posite in fact. but im not trying to be vindictive, only accurate.

thanks for listening again

Um, no, Gabe. I just checked the RfAr, and I didn't see the arbitrators say anything about anyone following anyone around. ~~ N (t/c) 22:22, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

afterthoughts

i do not see the harm in looking at pages and ar ticles while im gone... i already he some changes i plan to make when im back...

i cant see the harm...

No, there's no harm, just don't email people harassing things! ~~ N (t/c) 22:22, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

...

(after I had posted the above)

i still maintain the truith of the matter. i have not and shall not email iuser dreamguym simply because hes not worth my time. his antics have gone on a long, long time, and ecasue he hides behind police, and then goes and beats other people with them, as would a cave dweller bludgeon prey.

it does puzzell me w hy you posted my response though.

Because it's your word against DreamGuy's, and while you both have had civility problems in the past I consider him to be far more trustworthy. DreamGuy, it might help if you posted some evidence, like links to the attacks from users you think Gabriel had been emailing. ~~ N (t/c) 22:38, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, was mostly gone for the weekend. I no longer have he emails in question, as I deleted them in disgust (and now that I think of it, I thought I had blocked his email address because of other harassing emails previously, so I don't know if something about the forward process doesn't work with my filter or if it came from another similar account/email that happened to use Gabriel's language style and so forth, which is pretty distinct). Talk:Urban legend is full of the tirades of an editor claiming that an editor emailed him to "warn" him about me. I believe User:Khaosinfire was the other main one talking about "email warnings" on his/my talk page. There was someone else too, but there are a variety of editors who like to play the same style game of troll accusations so that they hope to prevail (User:Lightbringer maybe? I know he's gone off the deep end lately) but keeping track of which ones claim they got email warnings and which ones are just bad editors in general without that claim can be rough.

I think I'll just not worry about it anymore at this point, as if he does it again (or there are similar accusations from others) there should be plenty enough evidence to hang him, and if he doesn't do it again he's learned that he'll be caught doing this too. like he was caught with all his other nonsense (sockpuppets, anon IP to try to get around 3RR, etc.). And of course his responses above show absolutely no improvement, so I suspect that when he comes back he'll just continue on with his nonsense and get blocked for multiple months, and knowing his history will cntinue to do so until it becomes effectively permanent. DreamGuy 23:47, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

DreamGuy you need not even bring up my name about this for one I do not send people email on Misplaced Pages. I may have had multiple disputes with you, but like I said before I am not going to debate you anymore because it's not even worth my time, I am rarely even here anymore because I found Wikinfo. Furthermore if your going to even try to accuse me of being involved, you better have some evidence..........So put your evidence were your mouth is........that is all Khaosinfire 01:10, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

He didn't say you emailed anybody, he said Gabrielsimon emailed you. In fact... did he? ~~ N (t/c) 14:41, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Archive

• Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Completed requests
• Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Rejected requests (unofficial)

• Misplaced Pages dispute resolution