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Request name Motions Initiated Votes
Skipsievert   3 November 2009 {{{votes}}}
Rcool35   1 November 2009 {{{votes}}}
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Skipsievert

Initiated by The Four Deuces (talk) at 19:07, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Involved parties


Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

Statement by The Four Deuces

Skipsievert has come into conflict with other editors on articles relating to Economics and Technocracy. Technocracy is a movement that combines political theory, economics and philosophy and has organizations that support it. Editors have complained that Skipseivert edits Economics articles to give undue weight to Technocracy and edits Technocracy articles to insert a POV, and that his comments directed against other editors are inappropriate. Skipsievert has said that his edits are NPOV and accuses other editors of "tandem editing". RfC, RfM, ANI and WQA have all been attempted to resolve conflict but have been unsuccessful. Skipseivert is currently under discussion at both ANI and WQA. I am notifying all editors who participated in the current ANI and WQA and the recent RfM.

Statement by Protonk

Old statement redacted for brevity.

Skip Sievert fits the profile of a civil POV pusher. In very few of his edits will you find outright hostility, defiance of process/policy, or extreme stances. But in many of his edits in conflict areas you will find a refusal to admit contradictory positions, a refusal to step away from the horse, and a dogged persistence which has deterred avocational editors in the topic areas of Economics, sustainability, technocracy and bio-economics.

Skip treats solitary objections to his positions as the actions of POV pushers and treats unified objection from a diverse group of editors as the actions of a conspiracy. This statement requires no inference. It is present in his repeated allegations that JQ, JK, and myself (among others) constitute a conspiracy of "mainstream academic economists" (which he defines as Keynesian, monetarist or broadly neo-classical to suit his fancy) to suppress diversity of views about the discipline (see broadly the recent AN/I, the abortive mediation thread and the bulk of WT:ECON from thread #11 down). He insists that editors opposing him hold some nebulous 'conflict of interest' (which bears no resemblance to our definition) which prevent them from speaking about the subject neutrally. I have personally observed this behavior (as an involved editor) on WT:ECON, but it is alleged to have happened for months at Sustainability and various technocracy articles (see this archived AN/I).

More to the point, skip's intransigence has had negative material results across multiple articles and topic areas. The mediation request (linked in the request above) foundered solely on skip's refusal to participate and refusal to disengage from the proposed guidelines. My participation on Adam Smith started with a GA review I conducted and ended largely due to skip's bizarre content demands (discussion is here, see the linked section and below). I haven't made substantive content contributions since then (aside from some image info) because the thought of having to run them by Skip is so distasteful. Multiple editors are going to tell similar stories. These stories are the tracks of a POV pusher. Someone with enough time and patience to gum the works up so much that editors with diverse interest (or occasional editors) begin to step back from the article. When enough people step away, the POV pusher nets complete control over content.

Arbcom's role here is simple. Determine whether or not relief is within the capacity of the community to grant, and offer it if the community cannot. Protonk (talk) 01:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by llywrch

I agree with Protonk: this list of involved parties can be trimmed. My involvement in this matter is limited to being little more than a spectator: I offered my opinion & a gentle nudge, but have had no other relevant interaction with Skip Sievert or articles related to economics. AFAIK, the same could be said about Bali ultimate, whose relationship has been limited to posting to the WP:AN/I thread. All of that being said, based the visible frustration I've seen about this matter I recommend the ArbCom to take up this case in order to bring it to a speedy resolution.

Statement by Bali ultimate

Don't really see myself as a party to this - I just made a few comments in the latest AN/I thread on skip to the effect that i'm convinced that restrictions for Skip appear long past due (based on a 15 minute look at his behavior and his method of engaging content disputes). It's my opinion that he's a net negative to the project at the moment (whatever my opinion is worth). But I'm not involved in editing in the area that led to the dispute at all, and so have nothing more to offer here.Bali ultimate (talk) 20:46, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by CRGreathouse

I don't feel that I have wronged or been wronged by skip seivert. (Looking through his Talk page and my history, most of our interactions seemed positive or at least not particularly bad.) There does seem to be a need for an outside party or parties to address the issue, though; bad blood seems to run deep. CRGreathouse (t | c) 21:03, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Datheisen

I've been little more than an observer as well, but given how saddening the entire situation is and I'm incredibly frustrated that it won't go away I don't at all mind a statement. At no point have I contributed to nor edited nor reverted a single thing on any of the pages where these conflicts seem refined to. I have no interest in the knowledge contained in them, and don't care what direction the articles take. Also, at no point have I socialized with any of the other parties listed. The first time I ran into Skipsievert was here, in an AfD where I came in and asked a pretty basic question. The end result was my being bitten to death, even though (ironically) I didn't side against Skipsievert in the AfD outcome. I saw some odd thigns on the talk page of another user in that discussion and then realized I had no place deciding what solicitation/canvassing was. That ended in one of the ANIs here where I very literally apologized for stepping in and commenting, but I had evidence I wanted to submit. I then walked away. Since then I've read a lot, and I question words spoken and actions taken by both "sides" in the past few weeks. My comments are always regarding a piece of evidence or a diff, and/or tying things into a guideline/policy. I can't imagine much in my posting history that would say otherwise. Since I have no idea how long these statements are supposed to be, I'll stop now versus go on for several hours. This needs to be addressed and no other venue has come up with anything, for the sake of all the passion and efforts of all contributors and tens of hours of research strange third-party observers such as myself have spent on these cases in a desperate attempt to try to help. After feeling like a gnome running around blowing a whistle trying to get people to calm down I'll do whatever I can do to help see it done. ♪ daTheisen(talk) 21:13, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by SlamDiego

Given the statement by The Four Deuces (the filing party) of the nature of this dispute to be Arbitrated, I am not sure that I should be listed as an involved party. I have done little or no editing of the two articles that he mentions, and have not much observed the behavior of Skipsievert in editing any articles. My involvement with the dispute is indirect, as it has spilled onto efforts by some parties to add guidelines at WikiProject Economics, which efforts have often been de facto attempts to extend or otherwise to rewrite actual Misplaced Pages policy. —21:17, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

(If Arbitration becomes sufficiently wide ranging as to cover the content of the debate over guidelines, or the conduct of participants in that debate, then I am an essential party.) —22:27, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Cretog8

Skipsievert and I have a fairly long history of heated interaction. My behavior/judgment has had lapses in that time. I agree with The Four Deuces about the origins of the conflicts, which are long-standing, but the issues have expanded. Skip pushes POV conflicts and exhausts or aggravates editors who try in good faith to work toward a consensus. In some cases this leads to editors giving up. Skip has argued to leave parts of articles unaltered because they've been stable for a long while, when in fact they were stable because other editors decided it wasn't worth the fight to clean them up. Other times, it leads to editors ceasing to treat Skip's contributions as serious good-faith efforts.

Skip's POV problem seems to mainly a matter of not recognizing the importance of weight. I'm not sure about this, because they have also indicated repeatedly that economics as a discipline should not be accorded the respect of "real sciences". This has been an issue in issues related (or apparently related, I'm no expert) to technocracy and thermoeconomics, but has expanded to broadly assign high weight to any criticism of economics.

The way Skip handles the POV problems is a serious issue, but how it extends to civility toward other editors makes it more serious. Skip accuses editors who have conflicts on multiple articles of wikihounding. Skip argues that those who agree in disagreeing with Skip are "tandem editing" or a "faction" and so should be treated as a single voice. There is some amazing unwillingness to recognize consensus.

As a parallel note, I suspect part of the difficulty in dealing with Skip is an issue of written language. It is often difficult to parse Skip's contributions and discussions, which would make reaching consensus more difficult in any circumstances. CRETOG8(t/c) 21:47, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Fifelfoo

I was involved here as a result of the RfM as a result of an RfC drawing me to the economics group. Prior to this, I have known Skipsievert in relation to content disputes at Technocracy a number of years ago, where he was tendentious, but there was no major conduct issue. The recent situation is more concerning and Cretog8 articulates it well. Conduct, disruptive editing and disruptive discussion are the core. Large scale POV pushing would be resolvable without these other two issues. Fifelfoo (talk) 22:15, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by User:John Quiggin

This has been dragging on interminably, across a range of articles, as comments above have shown. Cretog8's summary is fairly good. In addition to damaging POV pushing, personal attacks and so on, I would mention Skip's assumption that anyone with expertise in a topic such as economics automatically has a COI. This is an extreme form of anti-expert prejudices I would hope Misplaced Pages has outgrown. In the absence of a lengthy ban, this is just going to drag on. JQ (talk) 22:20, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Comment by AGK

Multiple unresolved ANI threads suggest to me that the community is finding it difficult to dispose of this particular case. Neutralising the conduct of a single editor should not be a task that the arbitrators find onerous. AGK 22:37, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Comment by User:Carolmooredc

Frankly I don't know why this has gone to arbitration since there have been more than enough complaints about Skip Sievert's violation of a variety of policies by a variety of editors, many of whom write from different economic perspectives, to trigger appropriate action. In any case, hopefully the result of arbitration will be an economics topic ban (and any other subject relevant to his favorite hobby horses) for at least a month, preferably 2 or 3, to cool his heels and study wikipedia policies. As I've written previously, I ran into Skip in Representative money and you can read my complaints in sections 5-8 of Talk:Representative_money, i.e., totally POV misuse of sources, deleting WP:RS info in favor of WP:OR, and negative and accusatory comments if you try to remind him of Misplaced Pages policies. CarolMooreDC (talk) 23:53, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Johnfos

I am one of the editors who has come into conflict with Skipsievert, mainly in relation to the Technocracy articles. Skipsievert is often involved in POV pushing, edit-warring against consensus, and personal attacks against those who don't agree with him. This has led to much time-wasting and in some editors leaving WP (or at least thinking of leaving) and others taking wikibreaks. I urge the committee to accept this case as many attempts at dispute resolution have been made, but there has been little progress, and the wider WP community is now looking for answers. Johnfos (talk) 00:12, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Dmcq

I haven't been involved in editing the same article as Skipsievert and could probably profitably be removed from any more detailed discussion. I was interested in resolving a general problem the Economics project has of NPOV because some people feel very strongly about the importance of various aress or approaches. Where Skipsievert goes way over the line though is he seems to treat anyone who disagrees with him as an enemy and is unable to involve himself in a civilized dialogue. Perhaps if someone could talk with him that is not involved at all in economics they might be able to get some agreement about a less emotional approach in future. Dmcq (talk) 01:02, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by uninvolved User:JayHenry

I strongly urge ArbCom to accept and resolve this matter. I am not a member of WikiProject Economics, nor have I participated in these disputes, but I do work on economics articles. This dispute is a significant problem During a recent economics FLC, I was unable to locate reviewers for a long time because nearly the entire active economics WikiProject was consumed attempting to resolve this dispute. I have worked with Protonk and LawrenceKhoo and chatted with Cretog and can say firstly that it's clear to me that their editing is consistent with NPOV. The irony about the POV accusations is that the economics editors don't seem to have a matching POV to push. I'm not very sympathetic to Keynesianism, and I'm relatively open to Austrian ideas, for example, and I suspect some of the others differ quite a bit, but I've never had any difficulty agreeing to basic facts, or working constructively with these editors even when we've disagreed, or finding mutually agreeable ways to word content. As testament to this are a number of Good and Featured Articles on which I've successfully collaborated with WP:ECON members who have disparate views. It is clear 1) there is no conspiracy and 2) who the POV pusher is. --JayHenry (talk) 01:53, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Sunray

For over a year now, Skipsievert has been causing disruptions to the editing of the Sustainability article. During that time there have been repeated personal attacks on other editors of the Sustainability pages. He has frequently engaged in edit warring against consensus and has, several times, brought collaborative editing of the article to a standstill. His tendentiousness and refusal to drop a point are highly disruptive. There have been many attempts at informal mediation, referrals to noticeboards and intervention by administrators. Nothing has worked. He responds to civil requests and attempts to offer feedback or advice as "personal attacks" and scorns attempts to establish policy-based editing groundules. Lately his pattern of personal attacks has accelerated, as evident in recent referrals to ANI. Something must be done to prevent this kind of destructive behaviour or Misplaced Pages will suffer immeasurably. I urge the Arbitration Committee to accept this case and be prepared to mete out appropriate sanctions for the good of the community. I will provide detailed evidence to support this summary if the case is accepted. Sunray (talk) 01:58, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Xavexgoem

My involvement largely stems from a medcom attempt. Obviously, I will not be discussing that part.

After the AN/I thread, I made a note to folks to contact me if skip went out-of-bounds in their opinions, and I'll deal with it then. User:John Quiggen contacted me about this edit, and I responded on the article talk with this edit, which resulted in this response. All par for the course in any general dispute.

That marks my involvement in this dispute. 02:04, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Moreschi

This is quite clearly a case of massive POV-pushing by someone with a quirky (WP:FRINGE) set of beliefs who has far too much time on their hands. Skip has created a vast amount of content, most of which looks to be highly-technocrat biased: I see multiple AFDs for the more obscure subjects and a lot of cleanup work needed for the rest. Given the level of the disruption here, and the unwillingess of the editor in question to form any sort of compromise (or indeed budge an inch), I have blocked them indefinitely. Moreschi (talk) 02:21, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Clerk notes

This area is used for notes by non-recused Clerks.

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

Rcool35

Initiated by Taylor Karras (talk) at 18:26, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Involved parties

Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request
Confirmation that other steps in dispute resolution have been tried

Statement by Taylor Karras

The first time I encountered him was on the Roc-A-Fella Records article where he was changing details, I thought it was someone harmless but this is where the bad part comes in, he keeps adding and citing websites which have a questionable amount of notability. Primarily he has vandalized the article Nas and his albums. He has also been found to bump the album's rating by .5 and has also directly copied text from copyrighted sources. When he was banned, he created sockpuppets to evade his ban and he is now using his dynamic IP to evade his ban and also make him unbannable (since the IP's are numerous) The user's attitude is even worse. In my attempts of resolution, he kept bragging on about how he's a man and has pecks and how I'm just a guy in a mother's basement (I'm not). Even when I provided him links to Misplaced Pages policies and ways he can get himself unbanned, he just replied with a smirky remark. While he has promise, he is uncivil and ignorant and he is not fit to be a Wikipedian unless he changes his ways.

Discussion with Newyorkbrad

Comment. While I agree with your stance, none of the community has taken any action on him. I've made multiple requests on WP:ANI all of them ending with that he cannot be blocked, I've even posted his IP on WP:AIV and it went by unnoticed. While I have most of the pages he vandalizes on my watchlist, his IP changes daily and I don't have time to place every single IP he uses on WP:AIV. I'm just wondering if Misplaced Pages will do something about this. Taylor Karras (talk) 01:51, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Reply to Brandon

So can it be done as soon as possible? Taylor Karras (talk) 20:58, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Statement by Explicit

Statement by JpGrB

Comment by Brandon

99.147.216.0/22 and 76.197.240.0/20 can be anon blocked without too much collateral. Those ranges should take cover the majority of the IPs the user has access to on their home connection. Brandon (talk) 17:57, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Clerk notes

This area is used for notes by non-recused Clerks.

I've refactored this to move everyone's comments to the proper section - RFAR doesn't do threaded conversation like elsewhere, we ask that comments be made in your own section only. Thanks. Hersfold 21:44, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

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

  • Decline. I understand the filing party's level of exasperation with this user's misbehavior and sockpuppetry. However, as the statement correctly notes, Rcool35 was blocked indefinitely a few months ago, and for the reasons stated above, is unlikely to be unblocked anytime soon. Because the user is blocked indefinitely, any new accounts or IPs that he uses should also be blocked, especially if they continue engaging in the same misconduct that led to his being blocked in the first place. Because there doesn't appear to be any dispute that Rcool35 is unwelcome on Misplaced Pages and will stay blocked, I don't see what further meaningful action the Arbitration Committee could take, and therefore I don't think that there is an actual dispute for us to arbitrate. Newyorkbrad (talk) 00:32, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
    • What do you suggest we should do? If any checkusers with rangeblock expertise are reading here, please feel free to take a look into this situation and see if we can implement that without too much collateral damage. Newyorkbrad (talk) 03:39, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
      • I have drawn this discussion to the attention of one of the checkusers and asked him/her to review the information in this request to determine if preventative action may be appropriate. Risker (talk) 03:49, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
  • Decline - Concur with Newyorkbrad. Risker (talk) 00:35, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
  • Decline Wizardman 00:47, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
  • Decline Carcharoth (talk) 01:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
  • Decline - Concur with Newyorkbrad. — Rlevse • Talk • 22:22, 3 November 2009 (UTC)