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Revision as of 09:42, 27 August 2006 view sourceJdforrester (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Administrators21,238 edits →May an administrator take into account prior behavior?: Hmm.← Previous edit Revision as of 09:43, 27 August 2006 view source Jdforrester (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Administrators21,238 edits →Appeal by []: De-list; rejected.Next edit →
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=== Appeal by ] ===


: '''Initiated by ''' ] | ] '''at''' 20:32, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

==== Involved parties ====
{{user|Dbiv}}

This is an appeal against the ban on editing ] which the committee purported to impose today. For the avoidance of doubt, no other part of the judgment is being appealed.

==== Statement by ] ====
The grounds of appeal are eleven in number:

# My contributions to the article ] have been overwhelmingly positive and have raised the article from near-stub status to a fairly comprehensive one which is sourced and neutral.
# No evidence has been presented that I have failed to work together with editors other than ] on this article.
# I resigned as sysop on 20th August and there is therefore no longer any reason to believe that I will misuse rollback, as I no longer have access to it.
# The decision is founded on a factual error (that I used rollback on editors other than Irishpunktom who made good faith contributions). This is untrue.
# The decision failed to take into account a private agreement between myself and Irishpunktom which prevents disruption. (Text available on request)
# No evidence has been presented that I have engaged in disruptive editing generally.
# No temporary injunction was imposed in the case, indicating that the ArbCom knew I was editing the article properly for the period of the case.
# Factual errors in other parts of the case produced a biased judgment. Among these errors was the claim that I was blocked for a 3RR on 15th February, when the truth is that there was no 3RR.
# The arbitrators have been unable to justify, when asked, the proposed decision.
# The proposed decision does not have community support. I am unaware of a single non-arbitrator who has indicated their agreement.
# The excessive time taken by a relatively small case (a record, so far as I can tell) has produced a faulty finding.
==== Statement by ]\<sup>]</sup> ====
David and I have come to an agreement in relation to this article. As David has no history of edit warring with anyone except me, and only in respect of this article, then his Article Ban is surely unwarranted? According to ] "''The Arbitration Committee exists to impose binding solutions to Misplaced Pages disputes''" - But, there is no longer a dispute, so this ruling not needed. ''Please note, I am not questioning the comittees decisions in respect of me, My additions to the article have been rather minor, wheras most of the article was created and then maintained by David''.--]\<sup>]</sup> 15:53, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

====Comment by ]====
Am I the only one troubled by the phrasing ''...the committee '''purported''' to impose...'' ? Does Dbiv doubt they did this? --] | ] 04:07, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

:'''Update:''' I have received a from ]/David in answer to my question. --] | ] 14:40, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

==== Clerk notes ====
: (This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)

==== Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/5/0/0) ====
*I've written a long-ish answer, but it is not an invitation to threaded discussion.
**4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 11 are untrue (In order: You did revert others, you just choose to call them sockpuppets, and it is not founded upon that, but that you edit warred there, edit warring with Irishpunktom being ''very much'' a reason for it; that was taken into account, and as I indicated before, it was deemed insufficient, and non-binding; that is not what the absence of a temporary injunction indicates: that is what the absence of a 9-0 ruling would have indicated; semantics&ndash; you were blocked for 3RR, whether you agree it was 3RR or not; I have responded to your queries before&ndash; what you mean to say is that none have responded ''to your satsfaction''; there is nothing abnormal about the length of time of your case, search harder).
**2, 3, 6, and 10 are red herrings (it is indeed your massive edit wars with Irishpunktom that were the main reason for the ban; misuse of rollback was a factor in the desysopping, ''edit warring'', not rollback, was the reason behind the ban; indeed, you were only banned from one article; I strongly doubt that we don't have support in our ruling, but nobody else was asked, so how you can honestly conclude that is beyond me)
**And we are left with your first point, the only one that gave me pause while making the ruling. You have made very positive additions to the article, but in light of the amount of edit warring, it is my opinion that it is in the best interest of the article and the encyclopedia for you to add your proposed changes to the talk page, and not the article, for others to evaluate and add without fear of edit warring from either you or Irishpunktom; your editing is not severely hampered. I would add that appealing a decision a day after the case was closed, and hours after violating that very ruling is not likely to lead to the desired result. Reject. ]·] 23:47, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
*Reject, per Dmcdevit. The link Fred brought up in the first motion to close is also telling. ] <sup>]</sup> 12:33, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
*Reject. ] (]:]) 18:03, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
*Reject ] 14:12, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
*Reject. - ] 18:23, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
----


=== ] === === ] ===

Revision as of 09:43, 27 August 2006

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A request for arbitration is the last step of dispute resolution. Before requesting 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 (ArbCom).

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See also


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How to list cases

Under the Current requests section below:

  • Click the "" tab on the right of the screen appearing above the section break line;
  • Copy the full formatting template (text will be visible in edit mode), omitting the lines which say "BEGIN" and "END TEMPLATE";
  • Paste template text where it says "ADD CASE BELOW";
  • Follow instructions on comments (indented), and fill out the form;
  • Remove the template comments (indented).

Note: Please do not remove or alter the hidden template

Current requests

Gillberg affair

Initiated by Daphne A at 08:44, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Involved parties

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
  • Denis Diderot:
  • Pia L:
  • Fred Chess:
  • Article Talk (unrequired, but perhaps helpful):


Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

I requested mediation on August 1st, both on the Talk page of the main article and on the Talk page of Denis Diderot. At this point, User:Fred Chess intervened, protecting the article and putting up a Request for Comment. On August 10th, there had been no real progress and little substantive responses to my statements from Denis Diderot; so Fred Chess removed the protection. There were more edit wars; and as before, discussion on the Talk page resolved little. On August 19th, I again asked the other parties to agree to mediation. At this point, User:SandyGeorgia got involved, making some suggestions about how to resolve the dispute, which also had little success. I repeated my request to agree to mediation on August 23rd. Denis Diderot made no response to this, though he did afterwards respond to other issues (raised by another editor) on the Talk page; so he must have seen my request. Pia L did respond to my request: she claimed that there was "no dispute" and she then removed the POV sticker from the article. In conclusion, my repeated requests to agree to mediation have either been ignored or treated rhetorically. (Many of the points that I raised on the Talk page were met similarly.)


This dispute pertains to the article Christopher Gillberg and two daughter articles: Gillberg's Gothenburg study and DAMP.

Statement by Daphne A

BACKGROUND. Christopher Gillberg is a psychiatrist in Sweden. He did a study of 141 children, which lasted many years. (The study suggested increasing the use of psychiatric drugs on children.) Gillberg was alleged to have fabricated much of the data in the study. The study data contains personal, private information about the children, and Gillberg had made promises to all concerned that it would remain confidential. A court, though, ordered Gillberg to make the data available to the two people who made the allegations. Gillberg's wife and two other co-workers then destroyed the data, saying that they had acted to maintain confidentiality. Investigation of the allegations was thereafter infeasible.
____________________

Briefly, I am asserting that the versions of the articles written by Denis Diderot and Pia L have an excessively-positive POV. There are many things in the articles that exemplify this. I list only a few examples here.

1. The articles Christopher Gillberg and Gillberg's Gothenburg study each claim that the "accusations were investigated by the Ethics Council" at Gillberg's university. This claim has also been made in the media. Because of that, the four people who were on the Council at the time published a letter (in 2005) saying "the question about scientific fraud never has been investigated". The letter also explicitly criticized those people who said otherwise. Thus, the claim in the Misplaced Pages article is false. (More details about what the Ethics Committee did and did not do is here. How Denis Diderot and Pia L talk their way around this is here.)

2. The fraud allegations, data destruction, etc. have come to be called the "Gillberg affair" in Sweden; there have tens of stories in the major newspapers, TV programs, etc. about this. The affair has also been the subject of two stories in the British Medical Journal. Gillberg has not received anywhere near such extensive media coverage for anything else. Thus, if someone outside Gillberg's field of research in psychiatry has heard of Gillberg, the affair is what very likely sparked their interest. For that reason, the Introduction of the article on Christopher Gillberg should discuss the affair. The current Intro states only that "Gillberg is also known for his concern about the confidentiality of medical records and his role in a related controversy"; that seems to me to be far too bland and extremely-positive POV. Compare that with the above BACKGROUND paragraph, or the last paragraph of the Intro that I wrote here.

3. Gillberg was awarded a prize for his work (Philips prize). The prize was awarded in part because Gillberg is "well-known in promoting important medical ethical questions in order to defend patients' and participants' personal integrity rights in regard to research studies" (quoted from the official prize announcement). This is a clear reference to Gillberg's refusal to allow the study data to be investigated. Gillberg was later criminally convicted (by a Swedish court) for refusing to hand over the data. I believe that if the article is going to mention the prize, then it should also mention the reasons for which the prize was awarded (the other reason was his work generally in neuropsychiatry and pediatric psychiatry). Denis Diderot and Pia L do not want the quoted reason mentioned in the article. I have tried to discuss this issue in Talk more than once; see especially the discussion here.

4. The article states that "When the study participants were asked if they would be prepared to have the data released, all but one family refused" and that "the participants of the study were strongly opposed" to investigation. Again there is more to this. Gillberg told the participants that if they agreed to the investigation, then all their personal data would become public, and so available to reporters, their worst enemies, etc. Of course participants would be against that. But Gillberg was misleading: the court actually authorized only two people to scrutinize the data, and those people would have been required to sign confidentiality agreements. I pointed this out in Talk. If the article is going to mention what the study participants thought of making the data available, then what Gillberg misleadingly told them should be described. (I did not try to make the requisite change to the article, because by this time it was clear that such a change would be quickly reverted; the false reply that I got in Talk essentially confirmed this.)

5. Gillberg has also done much work on things other than his Gothenburg study. In particular, he developed the concept of "DAMP". The main article has a short section on this. I have written a separate article on DAMP; the last version that I saved is here. The impression given by the main article is that DAMP is an important advance in psychiatry. As my version of the separate article makes clear, that impression has been agreed to by almost no one other than Gillberg's co-workers and is seriously misleading.

I could give other examples, especially because changes to entrench the POV have been accumulating while I requested agreement to mediation (particularly during the past few days), but this statement is already long. My purpose here is to establish that the other parties are trying for an extreme POV. I believe that the above does so.

—Daphne A 08:44, 25 August 2006 (UTC)


Someone has pointed out to me that ArbCom does not resolve disputes over content. Before filing my request, I read Requests for arbitration/How to present a case which states that ArbCom cares "much more about product than process". I am not a newbie, but neither am I an expert Wikipedian, and I interpreted "product" as meaning article; for that reason I worded my request to focus on the article/content.

But I am confused. Consider example 1 in my statement (where the article claims that an investigation was done, but the people who supposedly did it published a letter saying that they didn't). So I changed the article to say they didn't. My change got reverted. And again. Discussion on the Talk page lead nowhere. A RfComment lead nowhere. My repeated requests to agree to mediation were ignored or rejected. So how can the dispute be resolved?

Example 2 is similar: edit wars, etc., and requests to agree to mediation ignored or rejected. (For links to evidence regarding mediation requests, see above section "Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried".) Again, how can the dispute be resolved?

Example 3 is similar. Example 4 did not have an edit war, because by this time I saw little point. For example 5, I did not try much.

Perhaps two other examples will help illustrate.

6. For Gillberg's Gothenburg study, Denis Diderot added many unsourced statements. I reverted the change , and politely explained in Talk that the statements needed sources . Denis then reverted my revert, and ignored what I had said in Talk.

7. A question arose as to whether the Swedish term Etiska rådet should be translated as "Ethics committee" or "Ethics council". I preferred the former and explained why in Talk. Again my change got reverted and what I said in Talk was wholly ignored.

These examples are smaller, but part of the pattern.

—Daphne A 20:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by party 2

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Statement by party 3

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Statement by party 4

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Clerk notes

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

Marudubshinki

Initiated by Snottygobble and I@n at 11:28, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Involved parties

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
  • Snottygobble, I@n and SCZenz have made statements below, so no further confirmation is needed.
  • Marudubshinki: ,
Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

Other steps in dispute resolution were tried during earlier stages of the dispute. The situation has now escalated to the point where a number of editors feel that removal of Marudubshinki's sysop flag is an appropriate remedy. As only the ArbCom has the power to direct such a remedy, other steps are no longer relevant.

The ArbCom is invited to consider whether Marudubshinki should be desysopped for running an unauthorised admin-bot through his own account; unblocking himself in order to re-start the bot; and evading a block through the use of a sockpuppet.

Statement by User:Snottygobble

Marudubshinki was promoted to admin in October 2005. On 10 May 2006 he began running an unauthorised, unsupervised bot at Bot-maru (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). This was blocked on 22 May, and a WP:B/RFA request denied. He then began running the bot on his own account. In addition to these violations, the bot ran way too fast, and made mistakes. Marudubshinki was asked many time to stop violating WP:BOT policy. His responses can be summaried by this exchange between Marudubshinki and SCZenz:

Hi Marudubshinki. Can you please stop running unauthorized bots in any form? There's a reason for the authorization process, which is that if more people think about what the bot is doing and then it has a trial period, mistakes are less likely to be made. It is against policy to run unauthorized bots; see Misplaced Pages:Bots, please. -- SCZenz 08:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
That is true, but I find running a bot to be extremely useful. Finding all these bugs are simply handy side-effects. --maru 11:26, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

On 28 July, following discussions at User talk:Marudubshinki and WP:AN/I (now at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive124#User:Marudubshinki running unauthorized robots), I@n blocked Marudubshinki indefinitely with edit summary "(blocked per misuse of bot - see note on users talk page)". During the AN/I discussion it came to public notice that

  1. Marudubshinki had previously unblocked himself despite being explicitly told not to by the admin that blocked him. In that previous case the block was for running an unapproved bot; Marudubshinki unblocked with edit summary "(bot's shut down)", then restarted his bot the next day.
  2. Marudubshinki had lent his bot his sysop flag, allowing the bot to make deletions.

Essjay described this as

...greatly concerning, as the use of bots with admin privs is opposed very strongly on en.wiki... and by the Foundation.... Given that he's been warned numerous times not to run a bot under his admin account, has refused to comply, has added features which utilize his admin status without approval, and has unblocked himself in order to re-start the bot, I'm inclined to request a desysopping.

A number of editors expressed similar opinions re: desysopping, but nothing was done to instigate that remedy. Marudubshinki was told that he must not unblock himself, and that he would not be unblocked until he agreed to abide by the WP:BOT policy. He was also told that he was extremely close to losing his sysop flag.

On 18 August, Marudubshinki placed the {{unblock}} template on his talk page, with reason

The editors concerned wanted a promise from me to go and sin no more against the bot policy. They have it. --maru 00:03, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I@n then unblocked, and posted a message to that effect at WP:AN/I#User:Marudubshinki. One of Marudubshinki's first edits after unblocking was to add to his user page a disclosure that he sometimes uses the alternative account Rhwawn (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). An examination of Rhwawn's contributions revealed that Marudubshinki had created the account three days after he was blocked, had used the alternative account to evade his block, and had made over 500 unauthorised bot edits through the account. Snottygobble then restored the indefinite block with edit summary "evasion of previous block - see AN/I discussion", leaving on Marudubshinki's talk page the message:

I have blocked both your accounts indefinitely while we thrash out the implications of you running unauthorised bot edits through an alternative account created to avoid an indefinite block applied for running unauthorised bot edits. --Snottygobble 01:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Following further discussion at WP:AN/I#User:Marudubshinki, User:ZScout370 unblocked Marudubshinki with edit summary "reducing to time served; but user is reminded to not run any automated edits until a new account is set up and approved)".

The AN/I discussion showed some support for Marudubshinki to be deprived of his sysop flag; and also some support for Marudubshinki to be given one last chance. The ArbCom is now asked to consider this question.

Snottygobble 00:47, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by User:I@n

I concur with Snottygobble's summation above. A timeline of applicable actions of Marudubshinki and others can be read here.

I first encountered Marudubshinki (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) on July 27 when I noticed a page on my watchlist was updated with an edit summary of "(robot: Reporting unavailable external link)". The bot had incorrectly identified an external link as being unavailable because the link had a pipe "|" character immediately following a url address. This was a perfectly normal occurrence when the url was inside a template such as {{cite}}. I had a dialog with Maru on his talk page concerning these edits and suggested that he should fix the bot. I found Maru to be strangely dismissive of what seemed to me to be a reasonable request. I noticed many similar incidents in his talk page.

In this edit on August 18, Maru said "Henceforth I promise not to run fully automatic bots without a bot flag; I shall go and sin no more. Is that sufficient?"

I feel that Maru's violation of WP:BOT policy and deliberate evasion by use of a sockpuppet to be behaviour unbecoming of an administrator. He cannot plea ignorance as he has been blocked 5 times over several months (once on User:Bot-maru, three on his main account and once on sockpuppet account User:Rhwawn). He has been requested to modify his behaviour on numerous occasions and promised to do so, presumably to get his block removed. I see no reason why he won't continue to violate policies in the future. He has unblocked himself in violation of WP:BLOCK ("...Sysops are technically able to unblock themselves ... but should absolutely not do so") policy.

Maru is a valuable editor. Arbcom needs to consider whether his sysop rights should be removed or retained.

Statement by SCZenz

I am involved party, as I was involved in encouraging Maru to reform his bot use from a relatively early time. His bot scripts had a tendency to break things or upset people (i.e. by changing talk page comments to fix typos), and he was at times rather insensitive to requests to change them (for example, he argued at some length that changing talk page comments was ok, despite many requests. They also ran too fast for unauthorized bots. I blocked a preliminary bot account he had after it persisted in unwanted behavior despite requests, and told him it could be unblocked if it behaved properly for an unapproved bot. He never dealt with this, but instead started intermittently making the same edits from his main account, resulting in this colorful blocking history. In short, it took an extraordinary amount of time and drama to convince Maru to follow bot policy, even though he was fully aware of it.

Then of course there are the issues of self-unblocking, running bots with admin powers, and evading blocks through sockpuppetry as described above.

In short, Maru has shown extraordinarily poor judgement and set a very bad example for other users when as an admin he should have been doing the opposite. All this must be balanced against the fact that he is a solid contributor aside from these issues—in particular the question of whether we might lose his contributions entirely if ArbCom reacts strongly to misbehaviors that may now have ceased.

Comment by Cyde Weys

I was the one who originally advised on ANI that Maru be indefinitely blocked (per the bot policy) until he stopped running his unauthorized bot. I thought that was the end of it, but evidently it wasn't. I'm very saddened that Maru went back to the same stuff that got him in trouble in the first place and would ask the ArbCom to take action, since apparently no one else can get through to him. --Cyde Weys 02:16, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Marudubshinki

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Clerk notes

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Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (5/0/0/0)

Rainbow Gathering

Initiated by Oceankat at 17:36, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Involved parties

  • I will post on the user's talk pages as well as the Rainbow Gathering discussion page.
  • There is an unresolved disagreement and edit war occuring over the additions of several gatherings by to the list of National/Annual Rainbow Gatherings.

Statement by oceankat

  • Several gatherings have been added to the list of National/Annual Rainbow Gatherings by Lookingheart (talk · contribs). Lookingheart (talk · contribs) has stated in discussion that next year he intends to add more. Most of my attempts at discussion before informal mediation were ignored by lookingheart as well as most of my posts during informal mediation. Lookingheart refused formal mediation. Without arbitration I see no way to end this edit war. These gatherings are not National but small local gatherings. The National Gatherings have 10,000 to 25,000 people in attendance, Lookiingheart's additions have maybe 200. There have been several hundred similar and larger local, regional, or alternative gatherings over the last 34 years. These rainbow gatherings, which have been called "a gathering of the tribes" or AGOTT or among the newest and the smallest of the expansions or alternatives. I could easily list over a hundred on the east coast that have been in existance far longer than AGOTT and have the same or much greater attendance. I'm sure those on the west coast could list twice that. If lookingheart's gatherings are listed then any equavalent gathering can be listed and eventually would be. Every little local gathering of 25 people as well as gatherings that have never happened before with no reasonable expectation that it even will occur. Often on rainbow calanders people would list gatherings that were only a wish and a dream but the energy never manifested to pull it off. The article would be flooded with trivia as well as non-factual information, ie. gatherings listed that will not occur. I have seen no independant verification of these gatherings. No newspaper articles. No discussion on rainbow websites with reports from the gathering. While its rumored maybe 200 people were at the Mossouri AGOTT, I have no rumors at all about the WV AGOTT lookingheart listed and all requests for information before and during informal mediation were ignored. I can't with any assurance state that the gathering even occured or that anyone besides the few focalizers showed up. The WV AGOTT was clearly in violation of wikipedia guidelines concerning the posting of future events. In my opinion, no alternative gatherings should be listed, not even the florida annual which has had annual gatherings for over 20 years. None are sufficiently notable and the difficulty of manufacturing a standard to include some and exclude others is nearly impossible. Yet if we were to craft a standard any standard for inclusion would have to exclude AGOTT as it is the among the smallest and newest of the expansions and any standard that included it would include all gatherings that have ever occured or will occur. Oceankat 18:48, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Bstone

I hope some thoughts from me might be helpful. I fully admit I have been in a constant edit war with Lookingheart regarding the listing of National/Annual Rainbow Gatherings. I attempted to work out these issued by participating in informal mediation located at Talk:Rainbow Gathering. One will see there that various Administrators attempted to work through the process. While I admit I was not the most open minded, I was willing to compromise on some issues. Lookingheart, however, was entirely unagreeable to any form of compromise. As a result, information mediation failed.

After informal mediation failed, a request for formal mediation was put in. This request failed due to Lookingheart's utter refusal to participate in the mediation attempt. This can be found at Misplaced Pages:Requests for mediation/rainbow gathering.

As a result of this I put in a request to have the page fully protected, even from myself, until this arbitration process could proceed.

It should be noted that Lookingheart has made some striking and entirely basless accusations against myself. On the request for mediation page he likened my response to "Nazi tactics" and "detract from your earning concerning your personal Paypal account for what you call a CALM Unit", referring to the free, volunteer medical team which sets up shop at the Rainbow Gathering and alleging I embezzle donated funds for my own purpose. This is undeinabley false for a variety of reasons which I shall not get into there. This does, however, paint the picture of Lookingheart as someone who is incredibly difficult to work with, unwilling to accept impartial mediation and alleging actual legal crimes without any sort of proof.

I do hope that this arbitration process can proceed and investigate all the various infractions and settle this issue, once and for all. Bstone 12:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by uninvolved User:JzG

I have looked into this and find that Lookingheart's contributions in mainspace are restricted almost exclusively to this subject (the single exception being to create an article on Cottman Transmission, which contradicted some of the information in AAMCO, and to link a single local franchise of Cottman in both the aforementioned articles. Make of that what you will).
So, to all intents and purposes, Lookingheart is a single-purpose account, and the sole proponent of adding these minor local gatherings to the Rainbow Gathering article. At this point I guess we could go one of two ways: Lookingheart could be banned from the Rainbow Gathering article, in the hope that he begins to contriute content in other areas, or he could be politely shown the door as having demonstrated obstinate refusal to accept the way Misplaced Pages works. Just zis Guy you know? 13:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by party 2

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Clerk notes

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Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (0/2/0/0)

Request for Clarification on Arbitrators Decision

Sorry for asking such a seemingly foolish question. I am still rather new to wikipedia and entirely new the arbitration. Does the "reject" decision from the arbcom mean that the "A Gathering of the Tribes" will *not* be allowed on the listing of Annual Gatherings? Thanks for the feedback. Bstone 00:36, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

No, just that the Arbitration Committee will not decide the matter one way or another. Fred Bauder 01:09, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, Fred, for the reply. I wonder what you might suggest in the meantime? Since Lookingheart has entirely rejected mediation and the edit war continues I am wondering what the next step might be? Thanks. Bstone 02:46, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
I, too, have the same question. Will the page remain protected? For how long? You state, "local Rainbow Gatherings don't belong in a list of the national Gatherings" which is my contention. But that hasn't stopped them from being added again and again. You, "suggest an article on local Gatherings." So did Aguerriero during informal mediation. Lookingheart rejected that suggestion. That didn't stop the on-going edit war. What happens if lookingheart adds 10 AGOTT gatherings before next year's National as he said he might in discussion? At the moment I see only 2 options, continue the edit war or let lookingheart post what ever he wants. Oceankat 03:19, 27 August 2006 (UTC)


MyWikiBiz

Initiated by Cyde Weys at 14:29, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Involved parties and confirmations
MyWikiBiz
Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried
ArbCom is the only kind of dispute resolution that is liable to work in this instance.

MyWikiBiz (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been writing and influencing articles on Misplaced Pages on a contract basis for pay.

Statement by Cyde Weys

MyWikiBiz is admittedly writing articles on a for-pay basis. This was noticed and he was briefly blocked and then unblocked by Jimbo after he promised that he wasn't going to do anything bad. Well, it appears that he has. Here we see him voting delete in an AFD, saying the subject of the article should have employed him if they wanted an article that should be kept. This reeks of a protection racket. He's also nominated a few other articles about businesses for deletion; one wonders if he did so because he offered to improve their articles for pay and they refused? I believe this case needs to be accepted to establish some sort of precedent about whether such an egregious conflict of interest with the core goals of the project should be tolerated. --Cyde Weys 14:29, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

More stuff to look at: Look at the deleted edits on Gregory Kohs and Gregory J. Kohs. I'm not quite sure what's going on here but User:Thekohser is self-admittedly an alternate account of "MyWikiBiz", and appears also to have been doing some suspicious business-related edits. --Cyde Weys 16:20, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by MyWikiBiz

OFFICIAL STATEMENT: I hope that the Arbitration Committee will review the entire legacy of Conflicts, of PaidEditing, of the threads at WikiEN-l and of Options (which took quite some time and effort on my part, to create a fair discussion forum), and weigh the effort and thoughtfulness of those discussions against the three-word reply of "Absolutely unacceptable, sorry" by Jimbo Wales, regarding Conflicts. In light of that, I hope that (a) my most recent juvenile attempts at WP:POINT will be understood as a one-off spurt of activity (where I actually identified some pretty awful non-notable or spam-linked articles, but did so in the wrong way), and that (b) the ArbCom will elect to view this "case" not so much as a means to punish MyWikiBiz, but to address the larger issue of "paid editing" on Misplaced Pages. The herd of horses is already out of the barn, as evidenced by the Reward Board and by PRSA article. Are Misplaced Pages admins resolved in attempting to remedy the situation one AfD, one block, and one IP ban at a time? If so, then Misplaced Pages admins will have a ton of arduous work before them, and the prejudice against MyWikiBiz is going to be insurmountable, anyway, and this "statement" will have been just more wasted time. -- MyWikiBiz 15:40, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

(posted on behalf of MyWikiBiz --Deathphoenix ʕ 15:47, 22 August 2006 (UTC))

Outside statement by Doc

Jimbo has had some discussion with this editor/firm, and allowed them to edit. That's fine. (I might quibble but his word is final). However, it appears that the editor has breached the guidelines Jimbo set. Further, the conflict of interests means that we shouldn't quite treat this user like any private individual. Since Jimbo is involved, it is difficult for the community to make decisions here. This is new territory. I suggest arbcom accept this case, and confer with Jimbo to firmly establish what is and is not acceptable in these cases. This clearly won't be the last issue like this, so some precedents may be useful here. --Doc 15:47, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by Thatcher131

"You should have used MyWikiBiz" might be an acceptable slogan in commercial advertising but is highly inappropriate on Misplaced Pages. In additional to the commercial implications, having a paid writer !voting to delete articles about non-clients is an unacceptable conflict of interest. Thatcher131 (talk) 15:57, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment: For what it's worth, MyWikiBiz claims this was a joke on his talk page and has accepted the 7 day ban that resulted from it without further complaint. ---J.S (t|c) 02:03, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Further comment I agree with Kelly Martin below in all respects. Maybe this should be discussed at WP:ANI instead to solicit support for a community ban on MyWikiBiz nominating or participating in AfD. Morven is essentially correct, but even if the admins ignore him he may sway other participants and his advertising-like comments will still be visible for anyone to see. A community-approved ban on AfD would allow admins to simply blank his contributions rather than having to go through the drama of adding strikeouts and warnings. I hope MWB can see why his participation in AfD is not a good idea in general, even if any specific case was a "joke." Thatcher131 (talk) 16:11, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by JChap

Aside from the comments in the diffs in Cyde's statements, what bothers me about this user is a pattern of participation in AfD, always with respect to business articles. In Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Norman Technologies he really went to the wall to save an article that I can only assume from the redirects in his contribution history he had written. Is he also going to be allowed to advocate for these articles? In his comments in AfD'd for articles he hasn't written he has a pattern of voting delete' and suggesting that the article could be saved when written differently or by someone unconnected to the company (hint, hint) that go even beyond these two diffs. He also nominates articles (once again, on businesses) that he hasn't written. This is a clear conflict of interest and I doubt it was what was intended when he was allowed to edit. The proper party, either ArbCom or Jimbo Wales (or both), should determine whether this user has acted appropriately in this case. JChap2007 16:16, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by Improv

I would like to suggest that arbcom reject the case and allow an admin to simply permablock the account (or alternatively execute summary judgement and do it themselves). The purpose of the account is unacceptable and outrageous to the community -- similarly, the actions are not something that should be tolerated. This is not a troublesome-but-productive user, nor is it something that can or should go through a RFC. I don't believe there's a basis for arbitration. --Improv 16:51, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by LinaMishima

To say that The purpose of the account is unacceptable and outrageous to the community would be wrong, as there is currently a healthy discussion on the subject at Misplaced Pages:Conflicts of interest, started by the community as a reaction to the plans of MyWikiBiz. MyWikiBiz has been fruitfully involved with this process and appears to be willing to accept any consensus reached. However there is, perhaps, an understandable, if somewhat undesirable, impatience to be allowed to get to work. I do not believe that ArbCon is the only solution that would work, however it does have to be said that the purported actions listed above are distinctly non-ethical, and as yet the community discussions on paid editing and related matters have not reached a conclusion as to how to deal with a breach of ethical guidelines. LinaMishima 23:00, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by Phil Sandifer

I am not certain the arbcom has jurisdiction here, since an agreement was reached with Jimbo on this matter. Phil Sandifer 00:49, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by Sam Blanning

This is partly but not just a response to Phil Sandifer's comment above. As I understand it, Jimbo's agreement with MyWikiBiz centred on the writing of articles. It did not cover comments in Articles for Deletion discussions. That said, perhaps Jimbo should be asked if he wants to try to extend the scope of his agreement with MyWikiBiz; if he doesn't want to then perhaps there is something for Arbcom.

On reflection, though, I'm not sure there is much. Looked at one way, this is a content dispute. MyWikiBiz is creating articles that some may feel should be deleted, and arguing against their deletion (as he would be expected to). That's a matter for AfD. On the other hand, he's being paid to do so. The conflict of interest there seems to be a 'foundation matter', and if Jimbo has already stepped in perhaps it is in fact beyond Arbcom. Apart from that, we have - well, nothing. As far as I'm aware, MyWikiBiz has started no edit wars over 'his' articles, made no personal attacks, made no legal threats, recreated no deleted articles... The worst we seem to have is his "Should have gone to MyWikiBiz" comment which he claims as a joke - the comment as it stood had a smiley face which has not been included in many of the instances it was quoted. Regardless, he's already apologised and accepted a week's block for it.

Essentially, an Arbcom case would seem to me to boil down to a vote on whether accounts should openly advertise that they are writing articles for money. --Sam Blanning 12:15, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by Deathphoenix

I believe that Jimbo has jurisdiction here, but if he defers to Arbcom in this case, I would like to make the following statement.

I believe that MyWikiBiz's AfD comments were ill-advised given the sensitivity of his Misplaced Pages activities, but I do not believe these "first offense" activities deserve a long sanction. Indeed, outside of his AfD activities, I commend MyWikiBiz for being so open and honest about his Misplaced Pages activities. If every single PR firm and corporate hack were to adhere to his standards, we'd have a lot less vanity and spam articles to nominate, vote, and close in AfD. Whether the current week-long block is appropriate or not, I believe MyWikiBiz is willing to sit out the block as a lesson for a newbie-mistake. I believe he deserves another chance. I'm sure this block has already indicated how serious we take his activities, and he will be more careful with his on-Misplaced Pages activities as a result. --Deathphoenix ʕ 15:53, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment of Geo.plrd

I urge the Committee to dismiss and send this case to Jimbo as it involves interpretation of an Act of Jimbo and he has jurisdiction. Geo. 23:42, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by JzG

This might be an opportunity to exercise a little creativity, perhaps by banning MyWikiBiz from AfDing articles or making more than one statement of up to 500 words (allowing updates ot the statement) on any given AfD. Just zis Guy you know? 01:37, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Tyrenius

This needs a strategic solution, as it's going to occur increasingly in the future. The advantage of MyWikiBiz's openness is that we can work with him constructively to achieve articles we want, as well as ones his clients want. Another approach would be to make it known that there should be no stated connection between a business such as his and a user. The user may have been paid, but should present himself as any other user, without making any connection with such a business. He would then be judged as any other user on contributions and conduct. Tyrenius 18:06, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Stephen B Streater

I would like Arbom to take this case on. It's always good to know the rules before they are enforced, and this could elucidate not just this specific case, but related areas too.

My company has had several offers from professionals to craft a Misplaced Pages friendly article. Apparently this happens anonymously for many companies. I have always said they are welcome to write an article for fun, but not for money. This always gets a laugh. You can see the combined result of their work at Forbidden Technologies plc. We have hundreds if not thousands of press reports and articles in reliable sources about the company, and I'm sure any article would be informative and accurate.

But looking at it from the other side, having an article about your company is a double edged sword. As Misplaced Pages can be edited by anyone, we would constantly have to keep an eye out for vandalism. There are similar issues for biographies. Misleading and inaccurate information has the potential to cause real harm to a small company. Perhaps MyWikiBiz could start a business deleting rogue articles about small companies.

I have a more general proposal - articles should have something like AfC, but automated. The biggest risk is not that articles are put up in an imperfect state. Many articles are started by hobbyists/supporters and contain significant bias to start with. The problem arises when there is not enough interest to maintain them. With multiple independent editors, the risks of a rogue article diminish rapidly. Even a single concerned editor can bring others in to check the situation. I would include a warning on those articles with fewer than ten distinct editors in the last twelve months saying: Warning, this article is not highly maintained, or something similar. These articles would then be in a sort of grey zone. No individual or small clique could promote an article to full status on their own. However, a professionally initiated article in a genuinely interesting subject, after being knocked into shape by the community, would gain a life of its own - and would continue to be kept in shape.

I have always been open about my involvement with my company, but even then have got into trouble talking about Video Policy on the Video Policy Talk Page - which turns out to be the wrong area to discuss this subject. The level of paranoia here is quite remarkable to me, even though I am in business. This simple automated solution would tidy up most of the problem articles, leaving only a minority for overworked Admins, and generally allow people to relax and enjoy it here a bit more.

Comment by Kelly Martin

Unlike some people, I have no objection to people being paid to edit Misplaced Pages. If you can find people to pay you to edit Misplaced Pages without compromising your obligation as a Misplaced Pages editor toward NPOV and our other foundational principles, great, more power to you. The problem here is most certainly not that MyWikiBiz is accepting money from people to edit wikipedia. Rather, there are two, not really related issues: first, whether MyWikiBiz's editing practices tend to introduce bias into Misplaced Pages, and second, whether MyWikiBiz's use of AfD as a forum to advertise his business is inappropriate. I take no position on the first issue, since I haven't researched it. As to the second issue, MyWikiBiz is, in my mind, unquestionably guilty, and he should be forbidden in the clearest of possible terms from doing that.

Paid editors are the least of our problems when it comes to biased editing. Misplaced Pages is overrun with people who have agendas; most of them are not being paid for their efforts. If anything, the paid editors are the ones who are going to be more careful about bias because they are at least aware of those biases and are able to make the rational decisions to control them. I think it would be a gross mistake for Misplaced Pages to adopt the principle that paid editors are irreparably biased and categorically unable to edit; we should instead use our established policy that people who are unable to edit without bias for whatever reason will be asked to leave. We would have categorically ban all Eastern European editors long before we got to paid editors, when it comes to groups that are categorically prone to unmanageable bias. Kelly Martin (talk) 16:04, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Clerk notes

(This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)

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

Ackoz appeal of community ban

Initiated by Ackoz at 23:00, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Involved parties and confirmations

I request a community ban review for my case, as I think the bans on both accounts and my IP are unfair and over-strict.

Involved parties are me (usernames and IP above) and the blocking admins. I am unable to notify them about this because I was granted a conditional unblock only to edit ArbCom pages and I don't want to breach this in any way. (I posted notifications for you. Thatcher131 (talk) 15:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC))


I would like to ask the arbitrators to consider JzG's and Geni's requests to accept the review. JzG is the administrator I had most contact with, I sincerely hope he wouldn't be requesting you to accept the case if he thought it's a mere waste of your time.

Statement by Ackoz (original username)

I started editing wikipedia like in March 2006. I was quite busy at that time, that's why I actually started contributing more around June, I created some articles (that were well-researched and I spent a lot of time on them), also uploaded some self-made illustrations (which actually ment a lot of work to me), I joined the wikiproject medicine and took part in its collaborations. I was blocked for 3 days as a result of a heated discussion on AfD or something. Whatever lead to this block, I decided I wouldn't contribute to wikipedia anymore, used the right to vanish, as I felt that my efforts here weren't fully appreciated. I came back as an IP editor to check how the vote on Caron goes, and re-registered so that my vote would be counted. I chose a new username, Azmoc, and I admit that I did some trolling on wp talk pages since then. I would, however, like to be unblocked so I can edit articles, especially medicine-related ones from time to time. If I get unblocked, I will not post on WP project talk pages, other than wikiproject medicine. I already said this on IRC to Centrx as I requested unblock for my IP, his reaction was however extending the block from Azmoc to Ackoz, replacing the userpages with "sockpuppet warning" and changing the lenght of the IP block to 6 months. He also warned the other admins about my "clever or annoying" reasons for getting unblocked. But my reasons are clear - I would like to have the access to editing wikipedia articles, not project talk, and I think my contributions or the articles I created (Abdominal_aortic_aneurysm, Antyllus, Transfusion-associated_graft_versus_host_disease etc.) or the other edits I made could convince you that I can be beneficial to the project, if I restrain from discussing the functioning of WP. The last two trolling things I did as the IP was that I posted "I concur" and "I second that" on ANI, that's why I was blocked. I think that 1/2 admins-issued 6 months ban is too much of a punishment for something like this. I would also accept probation or something similar. PS: I would like 1 account, preferably Ackoz, to be unblocked.

Statement by JzG

User is communtiy blocked, this is the logical avenue of appeal. I request that ArbCom accept the case. Just zis Guy you know? 23:28, 20 August 2006 (UTC)


Statement by Geni

As long as the user agrees to stop the behaviour that got him blocked and agrees to stick to one account I have no objection to and unblock (would probably have done it myself if contacted).Geni 20:06, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Centrx

I first encountered this person after he complained on IRC for about an hour asking to be unblocked. Seeing that he had repeatedly made disruptive comments, had made no actual contributions for two months, and had previously been blocked by 8 different administrators (, , ) for various disruptive behavior, I extended the block to username Ackoz (talk • contribs). The latest blocks by other admins were indefinite for Azmoc (talk • contribs) and 1 month for the IP, the short block for the IP being under the impression that it was not static, as he had falsely placed a "dynamic IP" notice on the IP talk page right after the first IP block, when it has been this person and only this person since April, as clearly indicated by its interest in Caron, Expulsion of Germans after World War II, and User:Ackoz; there was also "archiving" of the IP talk page. In addition to the long history of blocks culminating in a ban, he has made no contributions to Misplaced Pages for 2 months. Aside from his lengthy complaints on ANI and proposals to change the blocking policy, he has been attacking other users, spamming talk pages encouraging people to leave Misplaced Pages, and threatening vandalism (e.g.: , , , , , ). I am not inclined to believe that this person being away from Misplaced Pages would be a bad thing, and his red-herring comments here do not lead me to think that he recognizes why he was blocked all these times. If Ackoz (talk · contribs) were to be unblocked, the IP should be blocked anon. only & account creation blocked to ensure confinement to one account, and the user should be confined to articles and article-related activities, prohibited from commenting on administrative actions and policy, in general and specifically on administrative, policy, and user talk pages. —Centrx→talk • 02:16, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Statement by Mark

As far as I can recall, my only involvement with this user was to temporarily block him/her for personal attacks and trollish, offensive behaviour. That block (had it not been lengthened by other administrators) would have long expired by now, so my opinion as to whether this user should continue to be blocked is mostly irrelevant. Obviously, I encourage ArbCom to accept and review this block.

If he or she is to be unblocked, however, then I strongly encourage some form of probation or mentorship be instituted. - Mark 03:51, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment I would be happy to accept probation or mentorship. Ackoz 08:35, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Clerk notes

(This area is used for notes by non-recused clerks.)

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

* Reject, righteous block Fred Bauder 14:04, 26 August 2006 (UTC)


Requests for clarification

Requests for clarification from the Committee on matters related to the Arbitration process.

Internal spamming/campaigning

There's an ongoing discussion at WP:SPAM about what constitutes acceptable talk page contact between users regarding discussions, votes, polls, etc. Prior rulings that have been pointed to are this prior ruling and this one. Could you offer any more specific information about what is and is not allowed/discouraged, for example: is it the use of mass userbox messaging that is disallowed (if it is), or is internal spamming/campaigning disallowed only if disruptive? Thanks. IronDuke 17:48, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Briefly, I think a reasonable amount of communication about issues is fine. Aggressive propaganda campaigns are not. The difference lies in the disruption involved. If what is happening is getting everyone upset then it is a problem. Often the dividing line is crossed when you are contacting a number of people who do not ordinarily edit the disputed article. Fred Bauder 16:58, 4 August 2006 (UTC)


Zeq wikistalking and block count

I've been having a difficult time applying arbitration enforcement for Zeq and feel I have since been targetted by him. For example, after I blocked Kelly Martin for her B-list attack page, Zeq just happens to come along so as to caution me from blocking a user with whom you have a dispute" (what dispute? he fails to mention). Or, after removing and protecting the attack page by Sarasto777, Zeq just happens to come along, again. These are not isolated examples. Then today, Zeq questions my administrative compotence and speaks of an "edit conflict" after I delete his copyvio entry, twice. Many blocks later, how should I proceed with the tendencious edits by the user? Should I implement Misplaced Pages:Requests_for_arbitration/Zeq#Enforcement_by_block next time — it will be the 6th block. Or will it? I am inclined to count article bans as blocks, and am seeking clarification as to this approach, and Zeq's conduct overall as illustrated above. Thanks in advance. El_C 13:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Please do take the time to examine this request's threaded dialogue (it was removed without an accompanying diff being cited). Thanks. El_C 14:33, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
To answer your original question: article bans are not considered to count towards the escalating block periods, only vioations of bans. Having said that, if an editor is incorrigible, perhaps a general admin-discretionary block rather than, or in addition to, an arbcom article ban is warranted (by an uninvolved party of course, which I am not sure you are). I'd say take it to ANI, and try to avoid scaring admins awy with long-winded, dead-end discussions like the one that happened here. Dmcdevit·t 00:36, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
Whatever. I plead for minimal respect on Dmcdevit's part. El_C 12:44, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Moby Dick's article ban - projectspace?

"Moby Dick is banned from editing articles which concern Turkey or Kurdish issues." Does this include Articles for Deletion discussions related to those issues? Cool Cat believes the diff above is part of a pattern of harrassment on AfDs, according to a post of his on the admins' incidents noticeboard. The simplest way to sort this out in my view would be to confirm whether his article ban does or should cover projectspace pages. --Sam Blanning 12:32, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to clarify my reasoning. While one keep vote does not constitute as stalking, Moby Dick's continuing pattern of behaviour does.
The pattern of behaviour presented in the Arbitration cases evidence page is in my view continuing for one and a half years now. Two arbitration cases have been filed over the issue. Now those arbitration hearings need to be enforced.
--Cat out 14:24, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, the ambiguous term "article" is to cover all namespaces. Sam Korn 22:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Agreed per Sam. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 18:15, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
To be fair to all parties, I propose that someone alter the decision to read "page" and make an annotation to explain why the change was made (referring to this clarification with a diff). I could not make the change myself because I was an involved party in the case. --Tony Sidaway 01:52, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

May an administrator take into account prior behavior?

I recently imposed what seemed to me to be a straightforward article ban on an editor who had been disrupting the article over a period of several months. The arbitration remedy is in a case that was closed yesterday and the ban doesn't seem to have been opposed for any substantive reason; only the procedure is questioned.

The case is Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Irishpunktom and the ban is on Karl Meier editing Islamophobia, on which he almost invariably edit wars.

I would like to see the Committee clarify whether it is pertinent for an administrator, in making a decision on whether to impose a restriction under a remedy passed in an arbitration case, may take into account the behavior of the editor prior to the closing of the case. --Tony Sidaway 01:02, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Comment by User:Netscott

This WP:AN thread is pertinent to this question. (→Netscott) 03:08, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I would say that under most circumstances, the day the case closes is the day the restrictions start and the day the behaviour has to change. Why else do we have injunctions? However, if an editor attempts to get their digs in just before a ban, I suspect the committee will be quite willing to extend a ruling. In this case, I think, Karl will either behave - or not - in which case I'm sure the community will ban him quickly. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 18:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
I'm not comfortable with the notion of judgements being applied retroactively; if the Committee had wanted to ban Karl Meier from editing an article for 3 months, it certainly could have done so as one of its remedies. Jayjg 02:24, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
I've rescinded the ban. On reflection I think this ban was not acceptable to the community. --Tony Sidaway 01:54, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
FWIW, certainly, I think that "justice is blind" is not a useful process to use on Misplaced Pages. Sysops should use their common sense.
James F. (talk) 09:42, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Motions in prior cases

(Only Arbitrators may make such motions)


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