Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SW3 5DL (talk | contribs) at 16:22, 21 June 2013 (→Violations of WP:Disrupt, WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL, etc., at the Tea Party movement Moderated discussion: cmt). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

• WP:ANI
• WP:AN/I

This page is for urgent incidents or chronic, intractable behavioral problems.

• Before posting:
  • Read these tips for dealing with incivility
  • If the issue concerns a specific user, try discussing it with them on their talk page
  • Try dispute resolution
  • Just want an admin? Contact a recently active admin directly.
• Be brief and include diffs demonstrating the problem
• Do not report breaches of personal information on this highly visible page – instead go to Requests for oversight.

When starting a discussion about an editor, you must leave a notice on their talk page; pinging is not enough.
You may use {{subst:ANI-notice}} ~~~~ to do so.

Closed discussions are usually not archived for at least 24 hours. Routine matters might be archived more quickly; complex or controversial matters should remain longer. Sections inactive for 72 hours are archived automatically by Lowercase sigmabot III. Editors unable to edit here are sent to the /Non-autoconfirmed posts subpage. (archives, search)

• A request for adminship is open for discussion.
• Voluntary RfAs after resignation
• Allowing page movers to enable two-factor authentication
• Rewriting the guideline Misplaced Pages:Please do not bite the newcomers
• Should comments made using LLMs or chatbots be discounted or even removed?

Persistent edit stalking

I have asked User:Nikkimaria to stop stalking my edits, more than once:

• User talk:Nikkimaria/Archive 18#Enough
• User talk:Nikkimaria/Archive 19#Removal of infoboxes
• Talk:Hans-Joachim Hessler#Infobox
• Talk:St Mary's, Bryanston Square
• And in edit summaries and talk pages not logged

as have other editors (e.g. User:RexxS in the first link above and at User talk:Nikkimaria/Archive 19#Infobox; User:Gerda Arendt; User:PumpkinSky at User talk:Nikkimaria/Archive 19#Please stop). Despite this, she has continued to do so for some months. Examples, almost always on articles she had never previously edited, include:

• (newly created by me)
• at Mabel Richardson - since deleted
• at Eric Brooke Dunlop - since deleted
• (newly created by me)
• (newly created by another editor)
• (diff added 18:27, 7 June 2013 (UTC))

and most recently, today: ).

This is both stressful for me; and has (as I suspect is the intention) an inhibiting effect on my editing. I am here to ask an uninvolved adminstartor to caution her not to do so, in accordance with Arbcom rulings (e.g.), on pain of escalating blocks. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:06, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I have asked the editor to address the issues, and warned of a block or ban, at User_talk:Nikkimaria#Persistent_edit_stalking. Bearian (talk) 20:29, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Well gee, I think we should wait for the other side of the story before threatening to ban her, don't you? Ed  20:31, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• I'm going to refrain from any administrative actions (for several reasons) for the moment, but I do think this is an issue that needs to be addressed. While I had primarily had concerns over some of the "Classical music" articles which Gerda had worked on, if there are multiple editors expressing a similar concern on the issue then I think it's worth exploring. The "info box" issue is a massive time-sink and it appears that there's no resolution in sight - but for now perhaps it's best to just focus on the issue of an admin. edit warring and whatever the proper terminology of the day happens to be. Awaiting input from Nikkimaria. — Ched :  ?  20:36, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
  • All I am saying is that Pigsonthewing has made a prima facie case of Wikibullying, which could result in a ban. I am not sure that Nikkimaria quite understands how serious this issues has become. After the Qworty incident, I think we need to wield the mop a little more. Bearian (talk) 20:55, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
    • Rushing to wield the mop is just as bad, if not worse, than taking too long. Ed  21:28, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

It does look a little obvious. This does appear serious (✉→BWilkins←✎) 20:56, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• Several articles which I think deserve attention in regards to this problem:

• Mass in B minor structure
• Sparrow Mass
• Hans-Joachim Hessler

there are others. Also, re: Bearian, I was certainly not discounting your thoughts - in fact I very much agree, I'd just prefer to hear all sides before dropping any hammers on folks. (per Ed and not wishing to rush to judgement on any topic). — Ched :  ?  21:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Pigsonthewing has a long history of aggressively pushing infoboxes in articles against the objections of those writing the articles, in many cases edit-warring or being incivil in his efforts. Talk:Pilgrim_at_Tinker_Creek#Infobox and Talk:Cosima_Wagner/Archive_1#Infobox are among many examples, going back years, of these actions. He has continued to argue in the face of strong consensus against his position (for example at Talk:The_Rite_of_Spring#Infobox) and has a history of refusing efforts to compromise (see for example the last few posts at Talk:Hans-Joachim_Hessler - a compromise was suggested, I agreed, Andy rejected it entirely) or answer good-faith questions (see for example Talk:Little_Moreton_Hall#Infobox, right before the "Re-Start" heading). As the ArbCom decision Andy cites makes clear, the use of contributions to address related issues on multiple articles is appropriate if done in good faith and for good cause, both of which I believe apply in this case (and many editors agree that Andy's behaviour has been problematic, although some do not). As is clear from the list Andy provides, most of my changes have been simple fixes of his formatting - removing blank parameters, delinking common terms, etc - while others have involved instances where Andy has been unable or unwilling to justify his changes (see for example Talk:St_Mary's,_Bryanston_Square). The two discussions on my talk page also demonstrate that I have explained my reasoning civilly to Andy on multiple occasions and that he has refused to discuss the issue with me. It is not my intention to cause stress for Andy, but I would appreciate it if he would stop causing stress for other editors and make more of an effort to work with others and find means of compromising, whether or not he agrees with the opinions of other editors. I would be quite happy to agree to leave alone any article that he has written, if that would help us to move forward. Nikkimaria (talk) 21:22, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Anyone reading this, needs to be aware that User:Pigsonthewing has been literally causing problems with infoboxes for years. It's understandable that someone would monitor his edits in this area more closely than usual. 78.149.172.10 (talk) 21:39, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

And anyone reading your comment likely wonders why you choose not to sign-in to voice your thoughts. — Ched :  ?  21:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

@ Nikki: re: "I would be quite happy to agree to leave alone any article that he has written, if that would help us to move forward. " - I think that would go a LONG way towards moving forward here. Would you be willing to extend the same courtesy to Gerda?

Now, the infamous "info box wars" are not going to be resolved in this thread - but I offer this: I think it's a common courtesy that would serve the project well to allow the principle author of an article the choice in many formatting areas; including the choice to include or exclude an infobox. — Ched :  ?  21:47, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Please see Richard_Wagner — No infobox and following discussions. In this case the wishes of the principle author Smerus were not respected by Gerda Arendt and Pigsonthewing. There are many other examples, but this was recent. It was provocative because of the high standard of this article, DYKs, the Wagner anniversary etc. --Kleinzach 05:06, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda would be a bit trickier, as our interests overlap quite a bit - I've been doing quite a lot of work lately in expanding Bach cantata articles, and as she too has been working in this area, we already share authorship on a few of them (for example both of us contributed to BWV 39, recently on the main page). Your larger point about infoboxes, though, I think we might agree on. Andy has objected strongly to that reasoning, which has been part of the problem. Nikkimaria (talk) 22:00, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm not on board with the notion that the principle author should be accorded this latitude. In fact, as I was formulating my response, I started with the notion that the answer was generally yes, but I didn't agree on the infobox, but as I considered other examples, I began to reject them. Maybe there are some examples, but none come to mind. One of the aspects of Misplaced Pages that is useful to readers, is that they know what to expect—there will be a lede, there will be references, there will be sections, it will be written in a certain style (not a first narrative, for example). While I wouldn't expect an article on a Bach Cantata to follow the same cookie cutter style as an article on a member of the 1927 Yankees, I would expect some similarity between structures of articles in the same category. Maybe we are not yet ready to resolve the infobox wars, but leaving the decision to the principle author is not a step in the right direction.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 13:34, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

• I've interacted with Nikkimaria in the past and I can say from experience that although she seems to have Misplaced Pages's best interests at heart, the zeal with which she accomplishes her missions can go over the top at times. Indeed her block log shows that the line between zeal and combativeness have become blurred for her a number of times in the past. While passion is an important part of what makes good editors great, if the same passion is directed into a negative channel by one of our trusted mop-wielders then the results can be quite unsettling for us mere mortals. Because this isn't the first (or even second) time that this issue of over-the-top passion has become an issue for Nikkimaria, I wonder whether something more formal than her promise to stop editing only those articles that Pigsonthewing has written would be a good idea. Nikkimaria is a valuable contributor here and it would be a shame to see her further tarred by this issue. I'd recommend that she avoid watching Pigsonthewings' edits altogether. There are so many more positive ways that an editor can contribute to Misplaced Pages and Nikkimaria surely has the passion to make great improvements elsewhere on the 'pedia. -Thibbs (talk) 22:01, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

• I saw this or an RFC/u re Nikki coming weeks ago and divorced myself from the inevitable wiki mess. But Andy posted on my talk and mentioned me above, so I will comment. Agreeing to avoid Andy is a start, but what about Gerda Arendt, and your infobox warring in general? Let's not forget your teamed edit warring over an entry in Franz Kafka's infobox, not mention numerous other articles that had infoboxes. Nikki clearly has an excessive zeal for infoboxes and IMHO should be banned from editing them until she learns that infoboxes serve a valid purpose and many, if not most, users, like them. That an admin is doing this is even more troubling. With that said, I again divorce myself from these proceedings. PumpkinSky talk 22:07, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
• My 2 cents: Thank you, everyone, for taking this concern seriously. Bearian (talk) 22:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh without a doubt this is very serious Bearian, and I never meant to be dismissive of the situation. My own personal choice however is to "fix" things, rather than just toss them out. I think it's very VERY important to understand that .. for lack of a better word .. "stalking another contributor's edits" should be completely unacceptable. And by that I mean in the sense that any attempts to make another editor's time on wiki unpleasant should be quickly stopped. There are and have been accounts which were primarily disruptive, and to research those things is always acceptable. Now, rather than "demand" apologies, or some sort of submissive "I will comply" - I tend to favor a "how do we move forward in a way that's productive to the project" approach. (and I assume everyone here feels that moving forward in productive ways is a good thing). Nikki has offered one step in the right direction here in agreeing to avoid Andy's articles - good! The issue as far as Gerda may be a bit more complicated however. Since both edit in the same topic area (classical music), then they will obviously cross paths. From what I've seen there have been honest attempts on both sides to find a common ground, all in good faith. My suggestion would be that whoever gets to working on an article first be given the latitude to create or improve the article without any harassment. I have some further thoughts developing at the moment, but it may take some time for me to flesh them out. Either way, I think it's imperative that Nikkimaria stop researching what other editors are working on, and going to those pages to impose a particular preference. Nikki has done some amazing work from DYK to FA, and I'd hate to lose that. With that I will leave further commentary to the rest of the community. — Ched :  ?  00:39, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I have been called to this scene. I assume in good faith that you, Nikkimaria, are as sincerely interested in Bach's works is as I am. However, I don't understand why you needed to change almost every infobox for them BEFORE the talk about the template, {{infobox Bach composition}}, came to a conclusion, sometimes just hiding three lines of a list, sometimes (but not lately any more, thank you) doing so using {{Collapsed infobox section begin}} which I don't accept as a compromise for articles I feel responsible for, as explained on your talk. I would like to get the planned article on Baroque instuments to Main space first and THEN adjust the infoboxes. (No reader has been hurt so far by an abbreviation he doesn't understand.) I trust that we can work it out, confessing that I sometimes thought that a series of reverts was a waste of time, - for those who want to understand what I mean, have a look at history and talk of Mass in B minor structure (a work in progress). With less assuming good faith, it might have looked a lot like stalking. - I would like you and others to show more good faith toward Andy whom I haven't seen "pushing" recently (see the above mentioned The Rite of Spring discussion), but helping (!) with {{infobox opera}}, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:46, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I've been on the fringes of this issue with the classical music infobox issue. I don't think an interaction ban is appropriate, nor a general editing ban. HOWEVEr, I do have a proposal: Seems to me that the best solution is to ask that Nikki simply NOT edit infoboxes where they exist and not to remove them where they have been placed by others. She can call actual factual infobox errors to the attention of other editors at the respective article talk pages if she sees them, and I see no reason that she cannot continue to discuss the general issue in appropriate fora (the project pages, for example, but not across a dozen different articles),. Thus, I think that a restriction on Nikki either editing or removing infoboxes would be appropriate, as she appears to have lost perspective on the issue. Nikki, is this something you could live with, at least for a while? Montanabw 17:00, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

• Hmm. This is a one-sided discussion with all the pro-boxers out in force, and those who have reservations about boxes absent. I only found it by accident. (The common non-specific title Persistent edit stalking minus Nikkimaria’s name serves to obscure the discussion — assembled admins please note).

In my experience, Nikkimaria has been reasonable and considerably less aggressive than Andy Mabbett and Gerda Arendt. The latter have been developing new infoboxes and applying them to articles without notifying concerned editors. (In this connection, see for example here and here).

I was surprised that Andy Mabbett should make this kind of accusation against Nikkimaria, given that he consistently reverts my own edits (for example: , , , , ], , . As I observe WP:1RR and never complain here, I guess I'm an easy target. I am not sure what 'edit stalking' means in a WP context, but I assume it involves watching another editor's contribution list and then jumping in with an edit or reversion. Well, is anyone seriously suggesting that Andy Mabbett doesn't do this? Kleinzach 04:37, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree, for what it's worth. Pigsonthewing's behaviour with regard to infoboxes at WP:COMPOSERS has usually added nothing but bad vibes to many talk pages. Toccata quarta (talk) 04:49, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Whenever I have noticed editor Nikkimaria's work, it has been very thoughtful and helpful. I think she deserves full backup here. It's Pigsonthewing who is the big Wiki-problem; he's an incredibly disruptive editor who wastes a vast amount of other editors' time through harassment, wiki-lawyering, and forum-shopping. This guy has been banned before, and it's really time now to make it permanent. Opus33 (talk) 05:46, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I disagree. I have been called aggressive above, and disagree with that as well. Yes, I have added infoboxes to articles other than mine, such as Sparrow Mass, and found the agreement of the principal author. No, I have not added an infobox on Bach, just suggested one. No, I have not even suggested to use one for Richard Wagner, knowing that the principal authors are against it, I only showed how could look, following an advice of Nikkimaria to have an infobox on the talk page if it was not wanted on the article. The way "vibes" are raised every time something that should be factual and simple (an infobox) is mentioned doesn't cease to surprise me. - What do you think of the compromise that in cases of a known conflict of interests on the topic, changes are not made to the infobox but discussed on the talk? This includes adding one and socalled "cleanup". - This was done for The Rite of Spring, have a look at the ratio of facts and vibes. - If it had been respected for BWV 103 - , , , , , , , , ... ) - we would have wasted less time. Btw, the cantata title translates to "You will weep and wail" ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:13, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I am repeatedly surprised by the passion that this infobox thing arouses in the classical music project. For someone who spends most of his Misplaced Pages time hanging around middle east disputes, where the fate of nations seems to hang on this or that word, this particular issue seems so, so bland. That said, the agreement achieved in the last major discussion on this seems to me a good one- that you should seek consensus on the talk page before adding an infobox. I have done this occasionally at articles about those extremely esoteric composers who interest me, gotten no feedback whatsoever, and then did what I wanted. The one who has consistently ignored this agreement is Pigsonthewing, who goes about planting infoboxes in articles as though they (the articles,I mean) were the octopus's garden. So I join (without a great deal of enthusiasm) Toccata's and Opus's assessment that it is Pigs, and not Maria, who deserves censure here. --Ravpapa (talk) 06:02, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, we had an edit conflict, - see the above examples, - I think we agree on less passion on the topic, - censuring anybody seems not the right approach to achieve — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gerda Arendt (talk • contribs)

Your statement that prior consent is needed to add an infobox to some articles (presumably classical music) puzzles me. I read both Help:Infobox and Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Infoboxes, both of which discuss article by article consensus, but neither mentions that there are different rules for classical music article. I'm not so sure that such special rules are a good idea, but if the community has decided that classical music articles follow different rules than every other articles, shouldn't this be prominently mentioned in the relevant guidelines?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 13:37, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Censure is indeed not the correct approach whilst one retains any hope that the contenders in a dispute are amenable to reason and consideration for others. Where one or both (or their partisans) show themselves not thus amenable - and in particular where there is a history of such implacability - what then? I put this question as dispassionately as possible. In this particular instance of pot-and-kettle, my inclination is towards the opinion of Ravpapa (talk). However - Declaration of interest: I have lodged a quite separate - but not entirely spiritually unconnected - complaint about Mr. Mabbett here.--Smerus (talk) 09:17, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Is anyone going to look into what the origins of this editorial disagreement is? Its not uncommon for Andy to try and bully his changes through against well-established consensus with wikilawyering in order to avoid actual debate. Don't let him do it. Make him actually make his case and try to achieve consensus.DavidRF (talk) 10:53, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

How does that excuse, in any way, an editor following Andy around the project, including making plainly pointy edits to pages he's just created? It's one thing for the classical music project and its various affiliates to go around owning pages that its members were the primary contibutors to (it's not a good thing in any way whatsoever, but at least it's something everyone is used to by now), but it's quite another to go stalking new pages created by the Filthy Outsiders (Andy in particular) and enforcing that group's idiosyncracies on them as well. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 13:00, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow. You've completely misrepresented everyone's complaints about Andy. We'd welcome being overruled by "filthy outsiders" (your strawman characterization, not mine) if someone of authority came in and made the ruling. But we play by the rules, we debate for a week or two, we reach a consensus and update the wikiproject style guide and then Andy ignores the consensus and pretends to be unaware of any debate that had occurred. We repeat the debate for another week, reach consensus again and again its ignored. Repeat again, etc. If you get angry and overreact, then Andy uses your overreaction against you. Its infuriating and extremely hard to assume good faith when interacting with him. I don't understand how debate and reaching consensus is considered "owning" while ignoring consensus and refusing to debate is not "owning", although we're used to it by now too. I don't know User:Nikkimaria very well, if she overreacted way too far, then do what you have to do, but don't go around mischaracterizing people's complaints like you've just done. I thought admins at ANI were the supposed to be the voice of reason, but you guys are just as petty and snipey as any other editor.DavidRF (talk) 17:32, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

"Everyone's complaints about Andy" are not the issue here. I'm well aware of Andy's history on the project and of the various matters in which his behaviour is considered problematic. But as of right now, he's an editor in good standing on the project, and when he's going around making productive contributions to articles (including writing them from scratch) he should not be expected to have to continually look over his shoulder in case an editor holding a grudge is following him and systematically working to undo him. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:30, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Convenience break

Comment I see a troubling tendency of editors lining up into "Andy's right" and "Nikkimaria's right" camps. That approach is rarely helpful, and rarely correct. I see a lot of links included; I've just started looking at them,and asking each about them. I've found less than exemplary behavior by both, so far. I see both trying to make the encyclopedia better, both with views on how that should be achieved, but the views clash. In some cases, they are on opposite sides of a debate which the community has failed to resolve, and unfortunately, have chosen to push their particular view if what is right. While it is undoubtedly more work than picking one to smack around, it would be better if we identified the open issues and attempted to resolve them.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 13:52, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

My comment above was the results of looking at some of the edits identified by Andy, and observing some editorial decisions made by Nikkimaria. In some cases I agree, in some cases I did not. In no case did I feel that it was as clear cut as a violation of policy, rather it was an interpretation or a gray are where we differ. I've commented at her talk page, and see no need to revisit it here, partly because I reread Andy's report, and see no mention that he disagreed with any particular edit, the only charge is stalking.

As all know, the charge of stalking, or Misplaced Pages:WIKIHOUNDING is problematic. A common set of facts showing up at this notice board involves an editor who makes some mistake, is corrected by a second editor, and then the second editor decides it would be prudent to check through other contributions of the first editor to see if there are other issues. That results in editor one observing that editor two is showing up at articles they've never edited before and making quite a few changes in short order. It sure looks like wikihounding. This behavior is not just tolerated, it is encouraged. As an extreme case, when some has enough copyvios, we go through a CCI which involves review of every single edit. In more benign cases, it involves review of many recent edits by some editor, the placing of that editor on their watchlist (which may be automatic), followed by subsequent changes. All acceptable. In other cases, some editor gets upset at another editor, and decide to stalk their every edit, reverting often, commenting acrimoniously, and not always within policy. Our policy notes that one set of actions occurs "with good cause", while the other is prohibited, but doesn't provide much guidance on how to tell the difference. It doesn't sound amenable to a simple metric, and may need the Potter Stewart treatment.

Andy wants to know what we are going to do about it. Step one is to determine if, in fact, the evidence supports the charge.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:16, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

To pre-empt concerns such as "Our policy ... doesn't provide much guidance on how to tell the difference" I provided a link, above, to a recent Arbcom ruling. Since it clearly wasn't obvious enough, so allow me to quote:

...relevant factors include whether the subject editor's contributions are actually viewed as problematic by multiple users or the community; whether the concerned editor raises concerns appropriately on talkpages or noticeboards and explains why the edits are problematic; and ultimately, whether the concerns raised reasonably appear to be motivated by good-faith, substantiated concerns about the quality of the encyclopedia, rather than personal animus against a particular editor.

Also, please do not confuse my not commenting on the content of the edits given as agreeing with them; my concern here is stalking, and I deliberately addressed only that. You will note that I have challenged the majority, either by reverting, or on the respective talk pages. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:34, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy, thanks for the link to the Arbcom ruing. I just reviewed five cases of wikihounding, which weren't very helpful. I missed the link you gave earlier, and will review it.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:02, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy thanks for the clarification that not commenting on the substance of the edits should not be construed as agreement. I do see disagreement about editing policy and appreciate that those were not brought here, which for review of behavior. I had started a post on how to address some of those editing policies, but it didn't belong here, and then I realized you hadn't raised it. I did not mean to imply that your silence here on those issues was concurrence.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:07, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I reviewed 50 edits of Nikkimaria, those just prior to the filing by Andy. (That is probably not enough, but it is tedious, and if viewed as a useful metric, we should find someone to automate it.) In each edit, I checked to see if Nikkimaria was editing just after Andy, or not. In 2 of the 50 edits, her edit followed his. In 48, it did not. This does not preclude the possibility that there were intervening edits, and she was editing something he had edited. That can be checked.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:02, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Numbers don't tell the whole story, but here are some counts

Andy identified 22 diffs in the list above in which Nikkimaria edited immediately after Andy. (The list is characterized as examples, so may not be exhaustive.) 22 seems like a lot, and I confess if some editor reverted me 22 times I'd not treat it as coincidence. But it is relevant to look at the count in light of Nikkimaria's contributions. The 22 diffs cover the time range 21 December 2012 to 5 June 2013. If I count correctly (and I did it quickly) Nikkimaria has over 7000 edits in the same time period. That means less than one third of one per cent of Nikkimaria's edits are in that list, which doesn't, on its face, sound like single minded obsession with another editor. It might be useful to have metrics for cases in which wikihounding has been upheld as well as cases in which it has been dismissed, to see if the metric is useful and how this compares. I do not have those numbers, but if a case of wikihounding exists, it will (IMO) have to be on the nature of the edits, not on the counts. I have identified one edit that troubled me, and asked Nikkimaria about it. I'll keep looking.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 16:26, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

It is also relevant to look at Andy's count over the same time period. If I counted correctly there are about 9500 edits in the same time period. Which means the 22 edits identified are less than one quarter of one per cent of Andy's edits. This isn't presented as definitive proof, but if editor A targets editor B in violation of policy, I would expect significantly higher percentages.

That would appear to excuse bad behaviour based on good behaviour elsewhere. I don't believe we've ever defined stalking to specifically involve a particular ratio of one editor's contributions in any case. One does not have to devote one's entire wikicareer to following a particular editor for it to be obvious that one has a pattern of following that editor around and making combative edits that have a deleterious effect on community relations. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:19, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Suggested close

I'm too involved to close this myself, but I've read enough, and seen too many deficiencies on both sides such that I cannot to recommend that Nikkimaria be sanctioned for wikihouding or Andy for provoking. I know it sounds like the easy way out, but it isn't simply that both have flaws—I've searched several of the edits listed by Andy to look for evidence that either has attempted editing101—go to the article talk page to discuss the issue, and came up empty. (Addendum, I reviewed the 21 diffs and see three cases where Andy bought it up on the talk page. I see three other instances of talk page edits, 2 by Andy, one by Nikkimaria, but not related to each other's edits)

As I posted on each of their talk pages:

I feel both of you deserve trouts, and request that you both drop the sticks, start over, and follow Editing 101 processes. Then, if one or the other does violate policies, guidelines or editing protocol expected by the community, it will be far easier to admonish the guilty party.

I hope an uninvolved admin will close this and urge that they both start over.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 18:36, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

What on Earth does that have to do with the fact that she's stalking my edits - and has tacitly acknowledged doing so here and when I raised the matter on her talk page?

Here's where I raised one such staking on an article talk page (she didn't respond): ; and another: (which is clearly linked in my fist set of links, above( and another: .

But even had I not done so; stalking is prohibited, with few exceptions, that are not applicable here. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:32, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I for one, did not mention Andy before simply because I know much about this background. The problem with SPB's proposal is that it won't solve anything and we'll see another ANI or RFCU or (yuck) Arbcom case. Something more than a dual trout slapping is needed here.PumpkinSky talk 20:58, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Pumpkinsky, do you have something specific in mind? While I'm still getting up to speed, and may well not have the understanding that others have in these incidents, I see an editor who thinks that anyone wishing to add an infobox to an article requires a consensus discussion at the talk page if an editor disagrees. I think that's a perversion of the intent of BRD, but maybe I'm wrong. We should have a community discussion to see what the community thinks. The same editor thinks empty parameters in infoboxes should be removed, even though the policy doesn't support that conclusion, so as a community, we should clarify what to do with empty parameters. It also appears that some subset of articles (classical music) has their own special rules appliable to infoboxes, which are not discussed in the logical locations. Let's find out if the community agrees, and decide, one way or the other. Several of the disputed edits are traceable to two editors taking a different position on these issues. It is hard to declare that one, or the other editor is in the wrong, if the policies are silent, conflicting or unclear. Color me naive, but I see two editors, both intent on improving the encyclopedia, who have different views about specific aspects of editing policy, and if we resolve those issue, either the issues will go away (ok, no, I'm not that naive) or we will have clearer policy planks to smack around violators.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 21:34, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

How many editors do you see stalking? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:14, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy, I'm happy to see that there are some cases where you posted on the talk page, as is the desired process. I see that Nikkimaria did not respond, as she should have. As I mentioned, I did not review everyone of the edits you cited. I found some early in the list that had no such notice on the talk page, and some late in the list. If you think I coincidentally stumbled on a misrepresentation subset, feel free to let me know how many of the reverts were followed by talk page discussions. If that is important. However, your point, it seems, is that she engaged in stalking and has tacitly admitted it. I don't see diffs. You have over 9500 edits during this period, so I don't have time to review them all to search. Can you point out what you mean?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 21:20, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I have to agree that Nikki seems to be stalking Andy and Gerda and that issue is more than just the infobox war issue. I've seen many cases like this in my years and I fear the whole case won't be known unless an AC case is opened. That doesn't mean AC is the only solution. This is what I propose: 1) Nikki and Andy banned from editing, adding, or removing any infobox (that way one side can't say they're being picked on) until an RFC on Infoboxes is concluded, 2) the RFC on Infoboxes runs for 1-3 months and covers scope of their use and what to do if disagreements arise, 3) both of them agree to the outcome of the RFC or said person is banned from them for one year, 4) IMHO Nikki is lucky she hasn't been blocked and/or de-adminned for stalking. Just my 2 cents and keep in mind I know much more about Nikki re Gerda than Nikki re Andy. PumpkinSky talk 22:05, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

I'd like to see an RfC on infoboxes. There are a number of issues that should be resolved. You stated that the issue is more than infoboxes. What else? I just reviewed every one of the 21 edits listed by Andy and every single one involves the edit of an infobox. Andy raised this at ANI, not as a referendum on infobox edits, but as a claim of stalking. I think that claim is weak, and should be dismissed. Any proposal to ban should be brought up at AN, not ANI, and should be brought up as a new item. We have set, IMO, a bad precedent in some threads of an editor raising one issue, and the community jumping into different areas. I see that as an abuse of process. (Which does not mean I am opposed to boomerang, or using editors other edits to decide upon remedies). If someone wants to propose a ban covering one or both, they should propose it at AN with the relevant diffs. While the one's that Andy listed might be part of that list, and proposal to ban them both ought to be done by another party looking at contributions of both. If someone wants an Arbcom case, they can propose one. That sounds like overkill, as I have yet to see that this is broader than policy disagreements in several narrowly defined areas of infoboxes. Arbcom's remit is behavior, not tweaking editorial policy.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 23:09, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Nobody else here - not even those seeing me as some kind of satan; not even Nikki herself - has said that there is no stalking. The evidence is plain to see. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:39, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

The diffs are given in my initial post, at the head of this section. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:14, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Sphil, you say you would like to see an RFC on infoboxes. I call your attention to Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Composers/Infoboxes RfC, an extensive RFC on the subject that took place in 2010. To summarize, there was a clear majority of editors who opposed inclusion of infoboxes in classical music articles, and a strong minority in favor (I was in the minority). The conclusion of the discussion was that editors should post to the talk page before creating an infobox. I thought that was an eminently fair and reasonable solution to the problem, and I think that if everyone follows that community decision, the problem will be largely solved. If Andy, Maria and Gerda agree to abide by that decision, it seems we can close this whole thing amicably. --Ravpapa (talk) 08:50, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

That's an extreme simplification of the outcome of that RfC, and under no circumstances does it excuse an editor systematically stripping infoboxes from pages that another editor has written from scratch. A large part of the debate in question stemmed from the fetishing of Original Authors and not editing in ways that would discourage them from creating content. Stalking someone's new pages and stripping content from them couldn't be a clearer violation of that. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 09:35, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you, Chris, but it's not an over-simlification, it's a gross misrepresentation. (If I'm wrong, Ravpapa will obviously quote the part of the closing remarks which mandate "that editors should post to the talk page before creating an infobox".) Furthermore, many of the examples I give at the top of this section have nothing to do with classical music. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:29, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

New day, this is (again) too much for me to read. How did we get from stalking to infobox again? - I hope I will live to see the day that the addition of an infobox is considered added (useful, structured, accessible) content and not as "aggressive" or "provoking". - "Did you know ... that infoboxes on Misplaced Pages are used to extract structured content using machine learning algorithms?" (Yesterday's Main page) - Until that day, I will add one only to my own articles and others where I assume the main author(s) will be happy about it. In other cases, I will only mention it on the talk page - or not at all. I will not revert one nor collapse sections. - If everybody involved did the same, we might get a bit closer to the envisioned day, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:54, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the outcome of the RFC. Here are the remarks by the closing admin:

Wikiproject Composers does not recommend the use of biographical infoboxes for classical composer articles.

• WikiProjects are free to publish guidelines and recommendations but do not have the authority to override a local consensus on the talk page of an article.
• The guideline on Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Composers has been rewritten according to consensus found in this discussion. (my emphasis)
• There is sufficient support for Template:Infobox classical composer to be created, with a minimal set of fields, and added to articles where there is consensus to do so.
• Infoboxes are not to be added nor removed systematically from articles. Such actions would be considered disruptive.

and here is the guideline that the admin is referring to:

We think it is normally best, therefore, to avoid infoboxes altogether for classical musicians, and we prefer to add an infobox to an article only following consensus for that inclusion on the article's talk page. (again, my emphasis) Particular care should be taken with Featured Articles as these have been carefully crafted according to clear consensus on their talkpages. (See the Request for Comment about composers' infoboxes and earlier infobox debates.

I understand that to mean that you should discuss on the talk page before adding an infobox. Am I missing something? --Ravpapa (talk) 11:06, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

On the contrary, that's an expression of how the members of one particular project prefer to behave. It has the same status as a paragraph on a single editor's user page. Neither the project nor its members own or control articles they chose to regard as within its scope. This is, though, irrelevant to the issue of stalking. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:46, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)MOS states: The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article. Whether to include an infobox, which infobox to include, and which parts of the infobox to use, is determined through discussion and consensus among the editors at each individual article. and that notice above the edit window says Work submitted to Misplaced Pages can be edited, used, and redistributed—by anyone (emphasis mine). So this concept that there is a "principal author" and they get to decide whether a given article has a box or not isn't supported by the policy. Looking at the first example provided, Forsbrook Pendant, I see that PotW added the box, Nm removed it -- which is in alignment per bold, and PotW restored it and editing ceased. Which is fine. On that particular article, the box provides no information -- it just repeats what's in a very short article and therefore just strikes me as just clutter. In any event, this whole thread strikes me as PotW doesn't want to discuss on a case by case basis whether given articles have boxes or not. Support close as no admin action appropriate. NE Ent 11:11, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

It is not required by policy to have to ask permission every time you add an infobox, there's the concept to be bold. - BUT: I still recommend to do so, at least for a while, for reasons of politeness and respect. But that includes politeness and respect towards those who want an uncollapsed infobox - like me - also. (If you look at the history of BWV 103, mentioned above, that doesn't always happen.) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:43, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

My desire for an RfC was not simply to determine whether infobox inclusion in a subset of articles should be handled differently; there are other open issues: how should empty parameters be treated, and what should the rules be for subjective fields. Both of those issues arose in the diffs above, and I have seen the issue of subjective fields causing edits wars elsewhere, so I want an RfC on infoboxes, not an RfC on infoboxes in composer articles. The RfC you linked did not reach conclusions on either of those issues.

Andy notes that the ANI was filed on a stalker issue. I see the discussion drifting to the substance underlying the conflict. I personally think if the underlying issues are resolved, it will make it easier to solve the conflict, but ANI is not the place to debate editorial policy.

Can we return to determining whether Andy has a case, and then we can determine where and how to open an RfC to address the editorial questions?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 12:34, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

No, NE Ent, it's that another editor is staking my edits. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:53, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy, you keep saying that, but I don't see a lot of support for your position. As you pointed out, Arbcom gave some guidance and indicated that a relevant factor includes "whether the subject editor's contributions are actually viewed as problematic by multiple users or the community". So while you keep posting that I'm missing the point when I focus on the content, I'm doing so because of the ArbCom guidance. I happen to think that the position that infoboxes in certain articles have an exception which isn't even mentioned in Misplaced Pages:Infobox is unlikely to be sustained by the community, if actually discussed, but I could be wrong. If the community clearly points out that the handling of infoboxes should be consistent everywhere, then the reversion of your edits will be a violation and can be handled appropriately. If the community decides that the treatment should have an exception in the case of one Wikiproject, then it should note that in the guidelines, and you will have to accept the ruling. Whether you are being wikihounded is dependent on whether your edits are viewed as problematic, or whether Nikkimaria's are. At the moment, it isn't clear, and I cannot imagine the community will conclude wikihounding has occurred in such a gray area.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:27, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

If you don't see support for my assertion that my edits are being stalked, then you need to re-read the above thread. I have already pointed out to you that you are the only person to have asserted that no stalking has taken place. The viewed as problematic point (disputable in the cases concerned) has several qualifiers in the Arbcom ruling, which you seem to ignore. Your focus on content remains irrelevant. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:19, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy, a number of editors have weighed in and we need more. I count one, PumpkinSky, who has supported the stalking claim. You might point to Bearian, but that editor made an early comment before much of the evidence was reviewed, and hasn't weighed in since. At most, that's two, and that's counting generously. You are the one who linked to the Arbcom guidance which suggests we need to find edits by Nikkimaria that are not supported by policy. I've reviewed every single one of her edits, and do not recall that any were challenged by the community, and if I missed one, we need a pattern, not a single edit. That's the standard you linked to, and it does not support you. Ironically, I may be one of your bigger supporters. I do not like someone reverting the addition of an infobox, and I personally think the burden should be on the editor wanting to remove it, so that's why I'd like to see an RfC—I think it might support you and I will be supporting your position in it. But absent that community decision, we have 22 edits by Nikkimaria out of many thousands, none of which were challenged by the community. As stalking claims go, that's pretty weak tea.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 16:54, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Let me put it differently. In how many of the 22 edits listed did you bring the issue to the talk page, and get community support that your edit was appropriate? I can only find a single post of support, that by User:Magioladitis in Talk:Arthur Worsley. Can you point me to the clause in wp:consensus stating that getting a single editor to agree with you equates to community support?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 17:04, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• Very simple solution here - will Andy and Nikki agree to avoid each other for the next (amount of time here). From what I see here its clear they are at odds about these boxes. We are talking about just a box....something that if there or not is not harming the project - however there interaction is causing problems. So lets deal with what is more disruptive...the behavior.Moxy (talk) 17:15, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

In most, possibly all cases, Andy chose to add an infobox to an article, and Nikkimaria chose to remove it on the basis that she believes it doesn't belong. If we adopt your simple solution, Andy can add infoboxes wherever he chooses, and she can do nothing about it. Is that your intended solution? Andy gets to decide which articles have infoboxes, and Nikkimaria has no say? (FTR, I do not agree with how Nikkimaria is responding, but I'm not willing to buy in to this extreme measure.)--SPhilbrick(Talk) 19:38, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

It is not only Andy adding infoboxes - there are many many editors that do just this and a project dedicate to this task. But there is however only one editor following the other correct? They should simply avoid each-other. I take it noone else feels they are being stocked in this manner correct? Moxy (talk) 21:00, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

First, I appreciate the time and research you've put into this SPhilbrick - and do want to make that clear. Now, as I read this in pertaining to the original post: Bearian, BWilkins, PumpkinSky, Thumperward, and I have all taken this as a serious situation. So I'm not sure exactly how weak that tea really is. I doubt it was ever intended that this thread be developed into a "info box" discussion, although I can't say I'm surprised that it has. I also understand how you would object to my "outside the box" thinking in regards to a common courtesy of a principle author; and fully understood that it is in ways contrary to WP:OWN, however - it's simply my own approach to a situation, rather than something I thought should be codified. Now, getting back to the stalking issue, I think it's only fair to say that Nikki has said: "I would be quite happy to agree to leave alone any article that he has written, if that would help us to move forward.]". Now perhaps that's not a full admission of anything, but I think it's implied that improvements can be made, and I trust that effort will be made. I also have concerns about this response, but note that both Gerda and Nikki seem willing to continue to work through this without intervention; so I'm inclined to respect that as well. I think Andy has made a good case for his complaint, but I'd like to think that with Nikki's agreement that we could mark this as closed, noted, and archived for future reference if needed. I can't say I'll be surprised if I see the term "info box" further up the road, but I'd also suspect that it would be a very unpleasant experience for MANY editors if/when it happens. I hadn't expected to comment further on this topic, but now I have. Hopefully I can walk away from this now unimpeded. — Ched :  ?  20:16, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

If I've said anything to suggest I don't think it this is serious, please point it out so I can correct it. I think when two editors with 140K edits between them are at loggerheads, it is serious. When the underlying editorial issues are issues that have been festering for years without resolution, it is serious. However, Andy insists that the issue is narrow - Wikihounding to be precise. It is that charge which is weak tea. I challenge anyone to identify an ANI case where Wikihounding was upheld where the edits in question were a fraction of one per cent of the total edits. And no, Nikkimaria willingness to leave alone any article he has written is not an admission of wikihounding, it is a good faith attempt to resolve a conflict. What exactly, do you think should happen? Are you proposing that Nikkimaria should be blocked? How long, for what reason, and what rationale? We pretend that the purpose of a block is to prevent further harm, but she's already agreed not to edit an article he writes, so what would a block stop, other than the hundreds of good edits she is making even as we type?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 20:36, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Weak tea? Perhaps I have another language problem. I don't want to waste time in digging up diffs, and Nikkimaria will certainly have good explanations why she showed up at Peter Planyavsky for the first time the same day I installed an infobox (see talk), and on Andreas Scholl right after I reverted the collapsing of one (that I didn't create). - I am interested in an approach for working together better in the future, letting go of the past, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:00, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

• Whilst it may seem reasonable to insist that the case be narrowly focussed on the 'Wikihounding' issue, it's a ploy often used to avoid a WP:BOOMERANG. Let's be clear, though, that I'm not saying that its being so used here. The problem with this dance of tango is that one dancer seems to want the floor all to himself, so that he can do as he wants without interference, but the other dancer just wants to be consulted on the steps and is upset when no request is forthcoming from the party whose onus it's on to make it. In the absence of a demonstrable preparedness to pro-actively seek and then abide by consensus, blocking or granting unilateral restraining orders just won't solve the problem. Nobody owns any given WP article, and if the collective editors of a page (or a category in this case) wants no infoboxes, then the article creator must cede to consensus. -- Ohc _{¿que pasa?} 03:41, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Question for Andy, Gerda and Nikkimaria

Would Andy and Gerda agree not to add infoboxes to classical music articles, or to any others where they can anticipate that a group of editors already at the article will object? And in return would Nikkimaria agree not to follow Andy's or Gerda's edits, and not to remove infoboxes that they have added? SlimVirgin 01:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

This is a positive approach, however any kind of understanding must cover infobox templates as well as articles. The latter is an area where Andy Mabbett and Gerda Arendt have been extremely active— though not Nikkimaria. --Kleinzach 10:46, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

I have the impression that we leave the original case more and more. What I did in templates was create one for Bach's compositions (within Classical music from the start), making template Musical composition compatible with it (only because Nikkimaria insisted on not using Bach composition for the Mass in B minor), and help with the wanted one for opera. What Andy did I don't know because I don't follow his edits, but I know that he helped with all three. I don't see problems nor would I call it "extremely active". Back to the original case: with Andy not around, I would simply ask Nikkimaria to avoid edits that can be interpreted as stalking. Peace could be rather easy here, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:05, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, we're talking about the addition of extra fields to boxes. For example, Template:Infobox musical composition which now has 44 fields (31 of them visible). About half of these were added by you . Are you willing to undertake to stop doing this? That would be a big step forward.Kleinzach 12:55, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

They were added - as said above - to be compatible with Bach composition when Nikkimaria used this template instead of Bach. (I confess that I was a bit furious when that happened. If such things don't happen again, I will not do it again.) I suggest to continue talking about this very general template (how many fields does Infobox church have?) on the template talk. Back to here, back to my suggestion, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:49, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, we all appreciate that you don't edit war, and are willing to discuss infobox issues in a calm way. The problem is that you make changes that affect large numbers of articles, without consulting other editors. Moreover, instead of participating in centralized discussions and respecting their outcomes, you've initiated a whole series of distributed debates, that are repetitive and waste everybody's time. Instead of working on content, we've all been chasing around trying to locate and respond to your latest initiatives. Leaving aside the extensive template changes and just looking at articles, you've started at least five discussions since February: Robert Stoepel on 27 February 2013, Peter Planyavsky on 5 March 2013, Johann Sebastian Bach on 21 March 2013, George Frideric Handel on 25 March 2013, and Richard Wagner on 16 May 2013. Kleinzach 00:23, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Please look a little closer: 1) Stoepel was in response to a discussion on project:Opera (I DO try to work with projects.) The author installed an infobox. 2) I didn't start a discussion on Peter Planyavsky, I installed an infobox for an article that I had created. (It was promptly reverted.) 3) I started a discussion on Bach, agreed. Some editors said it was too long, and could only be accepted if it contained only a minimum. 4) Trying to learn, I suggested a minimum for Handel. 5) I did NOT start a discussion for Wagner, I followed advice for a solution, see below, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:47, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

For clarity: In only one case did I insert an infobox in an article: my "own". Please have a look at the Stoepel discussion, that was efficient and encouraging, if you ask me. It was an article I knew well, I had nominated it for DYK. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:59, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, All you have to do is follow the links I have given above. In each case you started the discussion. I think it would help you if you can be frank about what happened. --Kleinzach 15:32, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I was learning. From 1) and 2) I learned that an infobox was possible for a composer, from 3) that my suggestion was too long, from 4) that it was not wanted even short, therefore 5) only talk, no hope to have it in the article, no discussion. Why we still had a discussion, I don't know. - I will not even try Infobox on composer talk again - and said so several times in this thread. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:53, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

ps: link to another Planyavsky discussion, in case of interest, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:29, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

For Andy: "I'll respond to SPhilbrick's questions when I'm able." That goes for other questions as well, please see his talk.

For myself, reply to Slim Virgin: I think my approach (outlined above) covers it, please read. Classical music is against infoboxes for composers. Infoboxes for compositions are used and discussed, an infobox for orchestras was recently developed. I don't think that I EVER added an infobox where I expected a controversy. - Nikkimaria already stopped reverting complete infoboxes (at least mine), but I would appreciate if she would discuss changes rather than making them, see above, diffs of BWV 103, and those are just one example. - My thoughts are more with Andy's health now than with infoboxes. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Andy's health, o come on. Andy is a battle hardned troll, if you cant see that, then I dont know what to say. You surely noticed himslef and jack routinly target editor's pages and go through the same old arguments, bit by bit. And this gang tend to swarm. A nice eg of the MO is . But whatever, keep on going. Ceoil (talk) 08:18, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I have the odd scar myself from locking horns with Andy, but the very prominent banner suddenly posted to the top of his talk page makes me think it would be seemly to put this discussion on hold until he is back in circulation. What is amiss I cannot say, but you don't post banners like that for something minor. Pax? Tim riley (talk) 21:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, what I'm getting at is that, if this goes to ArbCom – and it has been going on for so long that this seems likely – all parties risk being topic-banned from infobox additions or discussions. So the best thing would be for the three of you (or two if it's mostly Andy and Nikki) to get together and agree a compromise position: I'll stop doing X and you stop doing Y. That's infinitely preferable to having ArbCom decide it for you. SlimVirgin 01:08, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

SV I think this is a sensible suggestion. To begin, I'd like to add to the suggestion that anyone, whether Andy or another editor, cease adding infoboxes as was done here at the time an article is featured on the main page. Editors who curate articles that are featured on the main page have enough to deal with during the stressful days leading up to TFA, (polishing, etc.), and the days after, (clean up, etc.) and should be not subjected to hostile infobox conversations. Thanking our editors for writing featured content would go a long way toward bringing about peace instead of deriding them. My two cents. Victoria (talk) 12:31, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

As far as I know that was the last time (August 2012), so the ceasing you ask for seems to have happened already. - News from Andy is that surgery went well but he will not be able to edit for a week. Can this be closed, asking everybody to assume good faith and look forward? Nikkimaria and I had a nice conversation today ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:37, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

This is alas not quite far enough if you want to stop storms of this sort. I evidence the state of affiars at Richard Wagner when Gerda 'playfully' inserted a infobox on the article talk page while the article was coming up for front page feature. When I archived the lengthy and futile discussion over this the day before the article was front-paged, (and incidentally was thus enabled to feature Gerda's very nice Wagner DYK box there), Mr.Mabbett stormed in with a assumed fury to agitate about the archiving. This is presently the subject of a complaint elsewhere, as Mr. Mabbett is under a permanent ban from interfering with articles when they are coming up for front-page. So Gerda is perfectly aware that the 'ceasing' has not taken place (at the very least in spirit, although I note Mr. Mabbett quibbles about the details). Mr.Mabbett's surgery - and of course I wish the man good health - does not somehow restore the GF which many of us have alas found it impossible, from bitter experience, to assume in his case. It is because Mr. Mabbett and some of those in his train play these silly games that time which could be spent on editing is spent on mutual masturbation (oops - did I say that?) of this sort. I don't exempt myself totally for being such a prat as to rise to their provocations, but occasionally even an equable soul like myself feels the need to try to draw a line.--Smerus (talk) 21:00, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• September 2012, same thing here, and February 2013, another instance. I keep a very small watchlist and so am only showing the instances of which I'm aware. We lost a very good and productive editor because the September event. I have to ask, why? Victoria (talk) 21:14, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• "Same thing"? - The "Pilgrim"-Infobox was not added on TFA day but later, Little Moreton Hall HAD an infobox, only "invisible". It has a visible collapsed infobox now. Some editors learn, - I miss George, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:39, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• Hi Gerda, just to clarify - I posted here in response to a very sensible suggestion SlimVirgin made and I added a concrete example using the words "the days before and the days after TFA" with the suggestion that perhaps that behavior should cease. As SV said "I'll stop doing X and you'll stop doing Y" - my example can be seen as X. This has now degenerated into a "that didn't happen", "that's ceased", "that doesn't happen anymore" when in fact three more examples have been presented. SV is quite right in saying that it's better to hash it out rather than having it go to Arbom, but we'll never get anywhere if it always degenerates in this fashion. I'll step out now; I was simply seconding SV's suggestion. Victoria (talk) 23:30, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• (ec) Cease is not stop, right? - Putting something on a talk page a week or so before TFA, explicitly stating that it was not to be considered for the article but the talk, is not the same as on the article on TFA day, right. (And I will not do even do that again.) When the talk was archived Andy complained that it was in the way of automatic archiving, - was that "stormed in with a assumed fury to agitate about the archiving"? - That's what I am aware of, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:20, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, do not misrepresent! - and do not imply that I interfered with an auto-archive. The page had always been manually archived, until Mr. Mabbett in his self-righteousness unilaterally (without any discussion) converted it to auto-archiving. This is all evident in the page history. I had no wish on the day of the article being front-paged to start another futile argument thread, so left it alone. When issues which I raise are turned into implicit accusations against myself, I detect that the spirit of the master temporarily in exile has found a worthy inheritor.--Smerus (talk) 04:56, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the details of the dispute, so I don't know all the loopholes, but the best way forward is for everyone relying on a loophole to stop that way of thinking (e.g. I didn't add one, I just made an invisible one visible). The best situation would be if Gerda and Andy would agree not to add infoboxes to pages they didn't create or weren't in the process of significantly improving, and none to pages where they know editors will object (e.g. composers); and if Nikki would agree not to remove any, and not to look at Andy's contribs anymore. If someone does add an infobox and others disagree, open an RfC on the talk page, let it run for 30 days, have an uninvolved editor close it, and stick to the outcome.

Ask yourselves whether you want to go through an ArbCom case about this, and if not make every effort to avoid it. SlimVirgin 03:28, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Since February, we have had at least 16 classical music-related infobox debates/discussions, plus an unknown number relating to architecture, visual arts etc. Anything that can bring this to an end will be welcome, even an ArbCom case. --Kleinzach 09:44, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree that a lot of time was wasted. Did you count Richard Wagner? No discussion was needed, the infobox could just have stayed on the talk as proposed by me, following advice by Newyorkbrad and Nikkimaria as a possible solution when an infobox is not wanted in the article. I thought that was a good solution, but if you are so strongly against it, I will not do that again. I don't have to stop adding one to a composer someone else created, because I never did that (as far as I remember). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:43, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

ps: for those who don't look at that discussion (but it's enlightening, promised), here is the link to the advice mentioned (which was removed in the meantime): Place infoboxes on article talk instead of article where their inclusion is disputed (per NYB) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:56, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda: So are you willing to stop doing this? That would be positive. Kleinzach 06:33, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

I stopped with Wagner, - that one experience of a "discussion" was enough for life, remember? See also Tristan, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:42, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

• Bach cantatas are among my key areas of expertise, although I hardly ever visit the articles in that topic. I have to side with Slim et al. here: those articles are far better off without an infobox. I have a bunch of reasons. Let me know if you want me to list them. Tony (talk) 02:17, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

• It might be helpful to list the reasons, Tony, if you have time. SlimVirgin 02:24, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

• Yes; but I expressed these reasons—or something like them—at infobox discussions some time ago, so I'm not sure I'm adding anything new. I'm not per se against infoboxes in every situation, but for articles on complex-music composers and their works they add nothing and risk detracting from the articles. They present packaged and stripped-down information that is often not useful and is sometimes misleading outside a larger context ("Related" in the Mass in B minor box, for example). They can't help but repeat information that is or should be treated in proper context and detail in the main text. Why repeat it? Who is going to flip from one article to the next just to read the infobox info? We shouldn't encourage superficial reading, if the motivation exists for it (which I doubt for readers of these topics). They sacrifice what would often be an opportunity for an image right at the top, larger than can reasonably fit into an infobox. And I find the meta-data argument most uncompelling, I have to say. Infoboxes might be tolerable for pop-music articles and pop-bios, but not for complex-music topics, where greater reading motivation can be assumed. Tony (talk) 09:11, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

• Tony, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Would you mind having this discussion at a more appropriate venue, for example project Classical music, where these infoboxes were discussed before introduction, or the template talk of {{infobox Bach composition}}. Please don't miss the Wikipedias de-fr-nn, where every Bach cantata has an infobox, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:27, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
• Thanks for explaining, Tony. SlimVirgin 00:56, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

• There's an unfortunate tendency to cram the infoboxes with unexplained stuff even in pop music articles. Look at Metallica (FA) for example. What is the giant list of "Associated acts" in the infobox telling you? 86.121.18.17 (talk) 20:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Wagner for example

I am all interested in a good way forward. The past is shown here in a nutshell: "I am entirely against having a infobox for this article. Wagner's life and music is a very complex topic and I am certain that an infobox would damage the article by giving inappropriate or highly debatable prominence to some aspects, and/or by under-reporting other aspects. Moreover, Gerda, as you know, the whole issue of infoboxes is extremely ontroversial and the overwhelming opinion of editors on the Opera, Wagner, and Classical Music Projects is against having them.--Smerus (talk) 15:31, 19 January 2013 (UTC)" (quoted from the FAC in which I was involved)

When I read that I had an infobox ready in a sandbox. I put it on the talk (!) stating that it was not meant to be included in the article. There still was a discussion that would better be archived. I did not mind the manual archiving at all, please see.

I will have to understand how an infobox would damage the article but simply accept that view. I don't add infoboxes to articles (!) where I expect controversy, - as far as I remember I never did that, so I can easily agree to the request just above. - I just added one more item to the Wagner "DYK" collection, feel free to take it to the Wagner talk, Smerus ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:27, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I suppose I wonder why, if an infobox is known to be controversial, it has to be placed on the talk page, rather than not introduced at all. Can you agree not to add infoboxes to articles (or talk pages) where you know it is going to cause a problem? If you would agree to that, that would be a start. If Andy will agree too, and if Nikki will agree not to remove them and not to follow Andy's or Gerda's contribs, the dispute will be over. SlimVirgin 01:00, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

I support the above modest proposal 100%.--Smerus (talk) 08:23, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda's part:

• The infobox didn't "have to be placed". It WAS placed because I saw the recommendation, as part of a solution (!): Place infoboxes on article talk instead of article where their inclusion is disputed (per NYB)". This link preceded the infobox on the talk, - not everybody saw that, if you belong to those please take another look. I said above that I will not do that again even if I don't understand why an infobox sitting quietly on a talk page would cause ANY problem, or how any infobox would "damage" an article.
• Nikkimaria: I ask you formally to keep following my edits, - I need help with English and formalities. Just please don't revert a complete infobox with an edit summary I may not understand, and consider to have mercy when I ask for it (it wasn't often).
• Andy: he can't contribute at the moment nor for days to come. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:53, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Gerda, the possibility of placing infoboxes was not a 'recommendation', it was a 'thinking-out-of-the-box' suggestion for consideration by Nikkimaria, which indeed the latter subsequently withdrew. It had no endorsements or I think even comments by any other editors or Misplaced Pages fora. You were perfectly aware that the Wagner article was coming up for front-page featuring, and you were perfectly aware of the feelings of myself and other editors about info-boxes for the article; indeed as you mention you participated in the FA discussion, and you also participated in the TFA discussion. I am aware of the significant contributions you have made in many Misplaced Pages articles, which I unreservedly acknowledge, and thus I would never have credited that you had the naivety not to imagine or foresee that posting an infobox on the Wagner talk page, especially at this time, without prior discussion, would provoke animated debate; and moreover to realise that such discussion would inevitably bring in the causeurs who feed on such issues, whether or not they have any interst or contribution to make to the articles concerned. Clearly, I must accept your word that you had never anticipated this; but I am sure you have learnt from the experience. Best, --Smerus (talk) 10:10, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Smerus, thanks for thoughts and feelings, - Fact: It was not Nikkimaria's thinking, she quoted Newyorkbrad, another respected user. - I will try to learn to anticipate feelings better, and there will be no next time, as said twice above. Thank you for a constructive GA review, I enjoy collaboration here, especially with you "after Wagner"! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:36, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Redux

I don't know whether this discussion is worth continuing. Whether Gerda is agreeing isn't clear to me, Nikkimaria sees the issue as mainly one for Andy to respond to (see discussion here), and Andy hasn't been posting, although he did email Wikimedia-l today so he may be back soon. Perhaps we should wait for his return. SlimVirgin 01:01, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Can we ask Gerda, Nikkimaria and Andy Mabbett to make statements in turn, clarifying whether they will (1) stop edit warring (e.g. by observing WP:1RR), (2) stop provoking other editors by adding or removing infoboxes against local consensus, (3) respect the results of past and future centralized discussions on boxes, and (4) agree not to radically alter or develop boxes that have already been created by compromise and consensus (typically at the project level).

If we do have satisfactory undertakings from all three, I suggest we end this here — if not, the alternative to be topic bans. Kleinzach 01:58, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

I received an email from Andy yesterday saying that it will be at least five more days until he may edit again, and my personal impression is that he should take it easy, no pressure, after recovery.

My statements are above, repeating:

I didn't edit war and don't plan to do so. (1)

I will not add infoboxes to articles where I expect conflict. (2, 3)

To please editors, I will not even add an infobox to the talk page of an article where I expect conflict, although I still don't understand what can be wrong about an infobox on a talk page. (2, 3)

I don't understand (4), and certainly not what it has to do with this discussion. (I once expanded an infobox to make it compatible with another one that another editor chose to use it instead of the suitable one, - is that what you call "radically alter"?)

I ask Nikkimaria to follow my edits to improve English and formatting, but please not revert an infobox without prior discussion.

From Andy's last email: he invites (uninvolved) admins to follow his edits, as SandyGeorgia suggested here. That should solve 1–4.

May I remind that this was a initiative about stalking, not topics, and I question whose satisfaction should be established in a conclusion? I thought this was over and could be archived. I vaguely remember that I was told "Be bold" when I started editing the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:19, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Someone needs to write WP:STALEMATE. 86.121.18.17 (talk) 02:15, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

I see a request by Kleinzach on Gerda's page to post here, why do I not see such a request on Nikki's page? If it's there and I've missed it, sorry, but I'm not seeing it. PumpkinSky talk 12:37, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

You are absolutely right. I got distracted Just as I was about to post something to Nikkimaria. I will do it now. Thanks for the reminder. --Kleinzach 13:12, 16 June 2013 (UTC) Done Kleinzach 13:20, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I think Kleinzach's suggested solution would work for this dispute, assuming Andy is amenable. Nikkimaria (talk) 20:06, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. I think a statement from you would be positive, just as Gerda's one (above) at least moves us in the right direction. Whether Andy Mabbett is 'amenable' or not is up to him — other editors can draw their own conclusions based what he says when he gets back to WP. --Kleinzach 01:08, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

The section started below is off topic or at least off process. We are here to stop the edit warring, not to start it up again. It isn't helping. May we collapse it? --Kleinzach 22:51, 16 June 2013 (UTC) Too late. WP:NOTSOAPBOX should apply, but the self-fulfilling Ugly actions by a number of intractable parties already has lift off. Kleinzach 01:05, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Ugly actions by a number of intractable parties

As some here will recall, a number of weeks ago I made a drive-by comment on the talk page J.S. Bach talk page regarding what I consider to be the inevitability of infoboxes on classical music articles. Profanity was used in the reply by one of the anti-infobox parties, which to my mind is about as unwelcoming a response to a first-time editor in a particular article as I can recall in a half-decade of being a Wikipedian, so I brought my very first case to ANI. The anti-infobox clique fended off meaningful sanctions, so I put several pages on my watchlist and took a step back.

I continue to feel there is a serious problem with the anti-infobox people, who insist on having their way and employ a number of, to my thinking, questionable methods to ensure that that happens. Indeed, in the reason this matter is again at ANI, an admin is stalking an editor; this means User:Nikkimaria creates a deliberate chilling effect. It was pointed out earlier in this thread that admin Nikkimaria has been blocked by other admins, and I will point out most recently in the service of the anti-infobox goal at Sparrow Mass. where a infobox deletion was disingenuously labeled "clean-up" in an edit summary. This is one unacceptable example of the sort of thing that will most likely continue until the community gets to the "sick of it" stage, which I hope we have reached.

I suggest strong action against Nikkimaria - This administrator has been blocked several times for edit warring. I include consideration of de-adminship. It is clear to me something must be done in this case. I do not buy the "But they didn't abuse the tools" argument because an admin wields power and must be squeaky clean in their actions.

I suggest a strong warning for Andy - He is hardly blameless either, but is not culpable to the effect NM is.

A Misplaced Pages-wide Rfc on infoboxes. This grinding infobox debate will continue to be an endless bone of contention until the root cause is addressed. Let the entire Misplaced Pages community decide if infoboxes are ok for every appropriate article, not just a small number of editors with a rigid agenda. If an Rfc doesn't solve the issue, then the last resort will have to be ArbCom. Let's make a dedicated push to get this nagging problem over with, and move on to more worthy pursuits. Jusdafax 11:48, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I have the obvious social handicap as far as User:Jusdafax is concerned of not being partial to infoboxes; but is it that alone which prevents me from comprehending the logically consequential link between his first two proposals and the third? As a Jew I'm not entirely unfamiliar with being classed as a member of an evil minority determined to destabilize the universe; now I find I'm the member of another similar 'clique'. Perhaps User:Jusdafax can tell me where I can find psychiatric help; or is it just, as Richard Wagner advises, that I need to seek Untergang? We seem to be dealing here with a classic case, on User:Jusdafax's part, of the declension: 'I have principles; you have obsessions; they are an anti-social conspiracy'. I don't disagree that in principle both Nikkimaria and Mr. Mabbett should receive some raps; but User:Jusdafax's pompous and portentous heading 'Ugly actions by a number of intractable parties' seems to indicate that his scope is not focussed on the issue here, and that his conclusions may not be entirely dispassionate. Worriedly, --Smerus (talk) 12:49, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

"Pompous and portentous." Attack the messenger when you don't want the actual issues addressed... all too predictable. Perhaps we could have some commentary here from those a bit less involved than Smerus, who in my view is in clear violation of WP:NPA in the service of his agenda. For the record: I have created a very modest article on a bit of classical music, Le Pas d'acier. Notice there is no info box. I don't give a fig either way, you see, and attempts to paint me as partisan are merely a smear, which I strongly resent. What we need to do is fix the problems I have outlined, not indulge in "clever" attempts to change the subject. See how this matter is being gamed, folks? Jusdafax 13:17, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Gaming - an interesting allegation. This thread started because a big boy accused a big girl of bullying. Neither of the two are strangers to knockabout stuff on Misplaced Pages. And I find it difficult to believe that either suffered sleepless nights because of this discussion. But User:Jusdafax says that the outcome must include a WP wide debate on infoboxes. Gaming? Changing the subject? - As Schopenhauer says somewhere, when we blame others, we are blaming ourselves. The extent to which I am 'involved': I have made it clear here as elsewhere that I don't like infoboxes. I have never deleted an infobox. I do not want yet another debate on infoboxes as a whole because: 1) if it comes to a resolution either one way or the other, it will drive away from WP a substantial body of experienced editors and 2) if it comes, as in the past, to no decision, then a lot of hot air and time will have been wasted. There are better things to do in life. We can live with this sort of trivial knockabout stuff, if it's the price we have to pay for keeping everyone on board. Best, --Smerus (talk) 14:22, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

"Attack the messenger when you don't want the actual issues addressed... all too predictable." User:Smerus wrote, "pompous and portentous heading". That's not a personal attack; it's a description of a heading. "Ugly actions by a number of intractable parties" and "The anti-infobox clique" are closer to personal attacks, although I wouldn't classify them as such either. Get real. Toccata quarta (talk) 03:48, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

As in the former case, I think no actions are required. I like to work "amicably" with all editors involved (thank you for the phrase, Smerus!), and I do (thank you, Smerus and Nikkimaria). Putting people in a "clique" or "gang" does not help. I can speak only for myself: I am nobodies follower here, the spirit is my own. If someone can explain to me why putting an infobox on a talk page with the intention to keep it there is a "digression", they are welcome. Talk pages are for talk, there's "freedom of speech", right? - I think this whole thread can be closed. Andy, who wanted satisfaction, cannot edit, those who want different satisfaction can start a thread of their own. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:17, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

My dear Gerda, in my view the answer to your question is a simple one. It's about power: the power to tell others what to do. Heaven forbid editors should ever have to contemplate one of your infoboxes on even a talk page, oh, how defiant of right-thinking! Someone might get the idea that an infobox could just be an asset to those casual readers interested in classical music, and copy and paste one elsewhere. No, you must be condemned and attacked as "disruptive" and the offending infobox cleansed away by rapid archiving or outraged removal, and various semi-threats made to silence anyone pointing out inconvenient facts. I have seen cliques before in my years here, but this one takes the cake. Or as a warning to me back in April goes on my talkpage (with apologies to the editor who wrote it, for my reposting it here): It looks like you messed with the Classical Music wikiproject. This insular group of editors has stonewalled the infobox issue for years against many users' objections and has fought to control the debate through canvassing, cementing it within their own nonbinding policy, and generally bullying those who disagree with them. If you keep it up they may even try to ban you from discussing the issue, as they have tried with Pigsonthewing in the past. Good luck dealing with them! I say again: I really don't care that much about the short term outcome on infoboxes on classical music articles, as I am an eventualist and believe it all will get right over time, seeing as the vast majority of Misplaced Pages articles have infoboxes. What offends me is the rampant Wiki-bullying on display here, mostly by the anti-infobox faction who I deem morally bankrupt because of the way they try to push people around. It would be so much easier to walk away from this absurd mess and not deal with any of it, but the fact is that this no-infobox mess is an ugly boil on Misplaced Pages that is demonstrably driving away good editors, as you have seen. Again, power-mongering is the core of the problem here, exemplified by an admin, User:Nikkimaria who follows Andy around the 'pedia, but also others who I believe exhibit a clear WP:BATTLEGROUND mentality towards Andy, and you, and now me for daring to stand up to them. What kind of an online encyclopedia are we to be? That's the deeper question here, and the attempts above to inject ethnicity, crypto-threats like "interesting allegation" etc, etc. are merely transparent devices to shame and blame. Conduct a well-publicized Wiki-wide Rfc on infoboxes. Nothing else directly attacks the root cause of this deeply unpleasant and ultimately absurd ongoing issue, although the alternative is to just file a case at ArbCom and see if that body cares to pour through years of edits to discern the long-term pattern, which I contend would reveal a breathtaking architecture of outright abuse. To do nothing just kicks the can down the road until finally a reckoning comes. Jusdafax 18:42, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

"It looks like you messed with the Classical Music wikiproject. This insular group of editors has stonewalled the infobox issue for years against many users' objections and has fought to control the debate through canvassing, cementing it within their own nonbinding policy, and generally bullying those who disagree with them. If you keep it up they may even try to ban you from discussing the issue, as they have tried with Pigsonthewing in the past. Good luck dealing with them!" There goes a "wall" of personal attacks and straw men (which you did not write, but apparently approve of). I notice that you have made the "bullying" accusation again; when you previously accused me of bullying, you weren't even capable of producing any evidence for your claim.

Editors may also like to note another straw man in the quote above: you omit to mention the fact that we have arguments: "has fought to control the debate through canvassing, cementing it within their own nonbinding policy, and generally bullying those who disagree with them. " Toccata quarta (talk) 04:00, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

A number of stalemates that were probably similar have been documented in guidelines, for example WP:CITEVAR or WP:SHE4SHIPS. I see the MOS lead itself has the catch-all provision "If discussion cannot determine which style to use in an article, defer to the style used by the first major contributor." 86.121.18.17 (talk) 22:38, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

As a long-term observer largely uninvolved with the issue (all but one of my peer-reviewed articles, IIRC, has an infobox, and I have no particular interest in classical music), I think your assessment is almost completely wrongheaded, Jusdafax. The current state of play for infoboxes, which I think is largely reflected in policy (and would probably be borne out in an RfC) is that they are appropriate for some, indeed, most articles; inappropriate for a very few; and that there is some gray area of articles in between for which an infobox may or may not be appropriate. The provisions about forming consensus on an article-by-article basis and so forth are intended to encourage rational discussion and consensus formation among interested editors. Of course, the "problem" with that approach is that editors might decide *not* to have an infobox on a given article, which for Pigsonthewing is an unacceptable outcome. He, with the occasional aid and support of other technically-inclined editors, has spent years filibustering these "gray area" articles to try to prevent discussions from reaching the no-infobox answer. (One of the more ingenious tactics that I recall was to show up at an article, declare that the author's opinion could be discounted because of WP:OWN, that of WikiProject participants could be discounted because of WP:LOCALCONSENSUS, and that as the last person left standing, his opinion determined consensus and the article should have an infobox.) This insistence on shoving infoboxes into articles where they aren't generally desired, to demonstrate that no editor or group of editors can block them, earned him a topic ban last year.

This is not a new phenomenon. He was banned for a year by ArbCom in 2007 for abusive conduct, largely surrounding his attempts to...force infoboxes onto articles about opera and composers! SIX. YEARS. Trying to make these WikiProject kiss his ring and accept that he could force an infobox into any article he chose, regardless of their arguments. Frankly, looking over the behavior complained of in that ArbCom case (not only music infoboxes, but the use of coord templates) and seeing that he's largely recapitulated it within the past year, it's a wonder he's escaped more serious sanctions.

Now, all that said, I am concerned about some of the actions on the other side, more so as regards interference with Gerda's use of infoboxes in her articles than any response to Pigsonthewing. But the major "chilling effect" here has been that created by his behavior, which regards good-faith discussion and compromise by other parties as way stations to getting his way in its entirety. Deal with that problem, and you'll go a long way towards clearing the unpleasant atmosphere in this area. Choess (talk) 06:43, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

I don't see how you come to the conclusion that Andy's behaviour results in a chilling effect. There would have to be demonstration of some obvious trend not to participate for fear of reprisal for that to be the case. What reprisal is supposed? The worst that happens is a talk page thread, and the occasional reinstatement of an infobox that is invariably summarily removed again the next time one of the bloc happens to chance upon it. It's unfortunate that certain WikiProjects take such umbrage with occasionally being asked to actually explain themselves to outsiders (and no, "we decided this a long time ago, and we worked hard on these articles, and you're hurting our fee-fees" is not an explanation), but there's plainly only one party here who genuinely has to worry about reprisal (including but not limited to flagrant personal attacks, hounding and general degradation on any soapbox that's handy, along with being threatened with a new topic ban every other day). Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 11:40, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Advice from my daughter

My daughter visited for father's day, and we went for a walk. We talked about a number of things, but I asked her for advice on a Misplaced Pages issue. I couldn't give her all the background—we were only out for two hours, but I covered the basics, including BRD, and WP:LOCALCONSENSUS. When I mentioned that Andy had documented 22 cases where his edit was reverted, but only three edits were followed by a post to the talk page, and none included a response by Nikkimaria, she suggested that we tell each party that they should be using the talk page to reach consensus. If one does regularly, and the other does not, we will be able to identify the problematic editor. My initial instincts were to suggest that this was too simple, but now I'm wondering why. While I won't pretend it will make the entire problem go away, it seems like a reasonable request. Does anyone disagree?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:57, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

The situation has been clearly explained, but it's difficult to see unless you have participated in one of the punch-ups on the talk page of a contested article. The problem is that people who are unwilling or unable to make useful contributions to a serious encyclopedic article on a composer nevertheless feel an urge to add an infobox. Since everyone is equal, the view of an editor new to an article is just as valid as that of the editors who created and maintain the article—in fact the outsider's view is more valid because the creators and maintainers are just violators of WP:OWN who do not understand the policy that all articles must comply with technical standards. I have seen a couple of the discussions and they are extremely unhelpful because editors are human, and they don't like being pushed around by people with an agenda—good editors become frustrated and stop editing. It only takes a moment for someone to add an infobox, and there are lots of people who like to do things like that, and then the editors who build the content have to spend another six hours in pointless back-and-forth. There is no good solution to a problem like this because the infobox adders can rely on relentless pressure to win (there are more of them than there are content builders), and those on the other side can only grind their teeth. One not-good solution would be to have the ultimate RfC to decide whether it is mandatory for every article to have an infobox. If yes, add them. If no, block those who persist past 1RR. Johnuniq (talk) 23:29, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

• Sphilbrick: Yes, in fact, I do disagree. The editors involved have been drowning one by one in these discussions. Here is a list of music-related box infobox discussions since February:

Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents (ANI)

• Bullying and ownership concerns at Talk:Johann Sebastian Bach and Sparrow Mass over the use of infoboxes Report by Jusdafax, 2 April 2013
• Persistent edit stalking Report by Andy Mabbett, 5 June 2013 against Nikkimaria.

User pages

• User:Ched/RfC - Infobox and User talk:Ched/RfC - Infobox Rfc plan started by Ched, 5 April 2013

Classical Music Project

• Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Classical_music#Orchestra_infobox:_proposal new box proposed by Kleinzach, 16 March 2013 (see also Template talk:Infobox orchestra)
• Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Classical_music#Abbreviations_in_infoboxes by Kleinzach, 23 April 2013

Composition articles

• Talk:Sparrow Mass Infobox discussion started by RexxS, 30 March 2013.
• Talk:The Rite of Spring Infobox discussion started by Andy Mabbett, 30 May 2013.
• Talk:Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103 Infobox discussion started by Nikkimaria 27 May

Composer articles

• Talk:Robert_Stoepel#Infobox_proposal infobox proposal by Gerda Arendt, 27 February 2013
• Talk:Enrique_Granados#Infobox_on_this_article: discussion started by Kleinzach, 4 March 2013
• Talk:Peter_Planyavsky#Infobox discussion started by Gerda Arendt, 5 March 2013
• Talk:Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Infobox_proposal infobox proposal by Gerda Arendt, 21 March 2013
• Talk:George_Frideric_Handel#Mini-infobox infobox proposal by Gerda Arendt, 25 March 2013
• Talk:Richard_Wagner#No_infobox ‘no infobox’ proposal by Gerda Arendt, 16 May 2013

MOS

• Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Infoboxes/Archive_7#Collapsed_or_hidden_infoboxes protest against collapsing infoboxes started by Andy Mabbett, 6 March 2013

Templates for deletion (TFD)

• Misplaced Pages:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2013_March_15#Template:Collapsed_infobox_section_begin now closed as keep. nomination by Andy Mabbett 15 March 2013
• Misplaced Pages:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2013_June_5#Template:Infobox_Bruckner_symphony proposed by Andy Mabbett 5 June 2013
• Misplaced Pages:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2013_June_5#Template:Infobox_musical_work proposed by Andy Mabbett 5 June 2013

IMO a one revert rule-based approach would be more practical. Of course, we can have talk page discussions when necessary, but not used as an attrition tactic to wear out the music editors. Kleinzach 02:23, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• @ Sphilbrick: as regards the issue of this thread, yes, your daughter's proposal is of course highly relevant. (What a way to spend Father's Day!). I don't myself see the point or relevance of pursuing the infobox theme further under this discussion.--Smerus (talk) 05:40, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• The issue of this thread - a little reminder - is NOT the infobox. I invite everybody to look at the (18?) linked discussions. The cantata BWV 103: The discussion was constructive, the infobox improved, Smerus reviewed the article and approved as it GA: peace can be so simple if we respect each other and talk instead of revert, - that seems to be daughter's advice. For those who still think this thread is about infobox: project opera introduced their optional use for operas yesterday, the template {{infobox opera}} was developed with Andy's great help and has a cute example, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:49, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Kleinzach for those links. While I am aware that the infobox wars have been contentious, I haven't read all of the background, and that is a useful resource when it comes time to revisit the infobox question. However, that's not why we are here. As Gerda pointed out, the issue in this thread is not infoboxes, nor even the broader problems as pointed out by Johnuniq. The issue is that Andy alleges he was being stalked, and wants to know what the community plans to do about that. Andy points to 22 instances where edits of his were reverted, but the evidence is that neither he nor Nikkimaria followed up as required by accepted community practice in almost all of the cases. I am a firm believer that the community ought to address the underlying issues (but not here) as we ought to be resolving the policy questions, not just papering over the symptoms. However our narrow remit at the moment is to determine whether Andy's claims have merit, and if so what response is appropriate. My view is that, in view of the failure of both parties to follow accepted community protocols, there's nothing to be done here. I do appreciate that much virtual ink has been spilled over the underlying questions in other places, but the burden is on Andy to provide the evidence to support the claim, and I find the claim wanting. I think it is time to close this thread.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 12:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I feel the strong need to emphasize again that, for an admin with a checkered past who is clearly subject to WP:INVOLVED, it is not ok to stalk Andy's edits, no matter how much he has blundered in the past. That's the immediate core problem here (aside from the overriding infobox stuff), and to do nothing just means more time wasted down the road. Fix this now, please. Jusdafax 06:34, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

WP:INVOLVED is not relevant in this situation because INVOLVED concerns an involved admin using, or proposing to use, administrative tools. The actual problem is that a small team of technical editors are unnecessarily disrupting content builders—that is the problem which should be fixed. Johnuniq (talk) 11:36, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Day by day I hop this thread will archive. "The problem" in it is NOT the infobox, NOT "technical editors are unnecessarily disrupting content builders", - the problem is that one editor feels stalked by another, and I of all people certainly know how that feels. With other problems, go to other threads. 18 discussions have been listed above as "drowning" content work, please look yourself if that is true, I don't see it. Show me one of those where an infobox was added to an article in a way that could be called "disruptive". Perhaps check your premises. Are you aware that Andy can't even edit, while Nikkimaria keeps reverting? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:32, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

User:Laurel Lodged: topic ban

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Laurel Lodged has a history (years) of making mass changes to articles on issues to do Irish counties. Typically his/her changes involve making "corrections" to whole swathes of articles at a go changing references to "traditional" counties to "administrative" counties (e.g. County Tipperary to Tipperary North). Typically, these changes are controversial and without consensus (or under the pretence of some consensus).

The problem with Laurel Lodged making changes like these has been raised at WikiProject Ireland-related pages on many occasions. At this stage, Laurel Lodged knows that these changes are controversial and that the community does not appreciate his/her contributions of this kind. One of the last times this happend, I raised the question of a topic ban. There wasn't consensus then as to whether Laurel Lodged should be topic banned or forced to first seek consensus before making changes like these.

A new thread has been opened on WikiProject Ireland to do with a new set of mass changes Laurel Lodged's has made. I propose now that Laurel Lodged be topic banned from making changes to do with Irish counties and their names.

I've left a message on the WikiProject Ireland thread inviting comment here on whether Laurel Lodged should be topic banned. --RA (talk) 00:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support topic ban. For some idea of the seriousness of the issue, see this AN/I thread, Request from uninvolved admin, from January this year. I might add that none of the other editors in that discussion have been involved in any disruptive mass editing since then, but Laurel Lodged still continues as before. Scolaire (talk) 08:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to Scolaire 1. the quoted ANI case has nothing to do with the current case. The two are unrelated. This is about Counties of Ireland whereas the cited case concerned the Gaelic Athletic Association and their peculiar use of GAA county. 2. That case did not result in any censure for me or the other cited user - Brocach. So my account is still in good standing despite your attempt to impugn my reputation with the slur. 3. I have abided by the ruling in that case, even though I argued against at the time. 4. I defy you to find any edit of mine since that date that is in defiance of the decisions arrived at in that case. 5. No evidence of any misuse of wiki guidelines has been produced in support of the current case as presented (as opposed to the different case cited). 5.On any reading of our interactions over the years, which have usually been on opposite sides, it will become obvious to an uninvolved reader what may have been the true motivation for Scolaire's support in this case. There was a passing bandwagon and Scolaire gleefully jumped aboard. Laurel Lodged (talk) 11:09, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Disagree. Both cases involve you trying to substitute all county names with the administrative county name. How many times have you been involved in discussions that point out to you that the traditional name is the most commonly used name, and the one that currently enjoys consensus? The point *you* should have taken from previous discussions and ANI wasn't that you "weren't censured", but that the reasons you provided for switching to using the administrative county names haven't been accepted by the community, and although the previous ANI was focused on the context of GAA county names, it did not give you license to switch to a different usage context and carry on as before. --HighKing (talk) 11:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to HK In the cited ANI case, it was not about my inserting county names. It was about my inserting the letters GAA into (shock/horror) GAA articles. So the two are not comparable. Laurel Lodged (talk) 18:31, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support The strength of the previous case noted, plus the current case - added to the incredibly vindictive and attacking post above - all add together to say "topic ban as a minimum". Past behaviour always comes into play - especially if that behaviour has not demonstrably improved. To actually say what Laural said above in full view of administrators and the community really shows that they're not here to play nicely with others. As such, a 6 month topic ban and indefinite civility parole is supportable AND supported (✉→BWilkins←✎) 11:14, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support I thought a Topic Ban has received support previously, and I support the current request for one. This editor is simply not learning that these edits have really no support or consensus. Given that these exact types of edits from this editor have been discussed on several occasions before (especially the whole "traditional" county vs "administrative" county) and didn't find support, the onus was on the editor to ensure that future edits were in line with existing norms. --HighKing (talk) 11:35, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support County names should be used sensible. Sometimes "North Tipperary" is the best option, sometimes "North Tipperary" is the best option. But the endless edit wars and disputes are tiresome and damaging to the encyclopaedia. So I support a) a six month topic ban for Laurel Lodged, b) a 2 month topic ban for everyone who starts edit warring about county names, and c) an investigation into ways of avoiding these conflict (i.e. rules when to use the name of an administrative county and when to use the name of the "classic" county) The Banner talk 12:38, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to Banner I agree that edit warring is tiresome and damaging. I fail to see how topic banning me while leaving the other warring parties untouched is either just or sensible or in the best interests of Wiki. There are always at least two parties to a war. Why would you assume that my arguments are less worthy than the arguments of the other parties? Let them present their arguments and then come to judgement. Those arguments will probably revolve around WP:Common. My arguments revolve around Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (geographic names)#Use modern names. As HighKing commented in the WikiProjectIreland page, "There's a difference of opinion on what the "county" name is, as a location for towns especially in Tipperary.". That's very true - there is a difference of opinion and there is conflicting Wiki policy guidelines. In my opinion, I am perfectly entitled to rely on the "Use modern names" guideline. There is nothing, nothing to say that it is in any way inferior to "Common". To say otherwise is just a matter of opinion. In short, who's to say that the edit warring is not caused by those editors who obstinately stick to the "Common" policy while refusing to acknowledge the presence, let along validity of "Use modern names". Let he who is without sin in this edit war cast the first stone. Secondly, I also agree with Banner when he says "sometimes "North Tipperary" is the best option.". That is to say, context is all important. To give an example, there are times when it is best to speak of Byzantium, other times when it's best to speak of Constantinople and still others when it's best to speak of Istanbul. To stick rigidly to Istanbul when speaking of Constantine the Great would be wrong, even though the 3 sites occupied the same ground at various times. Conversely, to say that the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is located in Constantinople is also wrong. Yet this is precisely what many of the supporters here would have us do - to ascribe historical, defunct administrative names to current realities. Context is important; when dealing with modern realities, use modern names. This position in neither capricious, OR, disruptive or unsupported by wiki guidelines. I have every reason to believe that the opposite is true. That there is a claque of irredentist editors (excepting Banner) with a misty-eyed vision of a 32-county state who wish to pursue an "A Nation Once Again" agenda through wiki, is no reason for me to admit that facts are not facts. Laurel Lodged (talk) 18:59, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to Laurel Lodged - there's the flaw right there. You're pushing "I've got a policy on my side" while ignoring the general consensus and other policies. Also, name-calling won't get you very far no matter how frustrated you feel. --HighKing (talk) 12:50, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support - North and South Tipp have been around a very long time and have never really caught on as a method of location. They are just local government areas. It's the same in the UK. There are plenty of boroughs and districts which are never used in addresses and, effectively, these instances are also addresses in the sense that their usage is intended to convey to the reader where a place is. Tipp on its own locates a place perfectly adequately. Thats the sensible option. Atlas-maker (talk) 16:09, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to Atlas I'm afraid there are a number of holes in your argument. Firstly, this is not about post codes or addressing issues, it's about counties. As proof of this, see Dublin 4 which is a perfectly legitimate postal district but is not a county (though the denizens of that district might like it to be. But that's another story). You say that "They are just local government areas". This is incorrect - they are counties per the Local Government Act 2001. County Tipperary, by contrast is not listed in that Act as a county. While we may speculate about that omission (was it an accident of legal draftsmanship? Was it deliberate? Was it a sop to nostalgia?), such musings cannot find their way into Wiki. It is what it is. The use of the word "just" is also inappropriate as it implies that NT and ST somehow occupy a space and status that is less than County Tipperary(CT). It is as if CT fulfills some function other than demarcating areas of local government. It does not. If you know of some higher order functions that CT fulfills but which NT / ST do not fulfill, please let us know. Laurel Lodged (talk) 21:38, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

I never said it was about post codes. On the contrary I made clear it is about location. The reason we write that Dublin is in Ireland, or Clonmel is in Tipp, or Atlanta is in Georgia, is to assists users in 'locating' those places in their own minds as they read. Funnily enough, what most people use (and I guess there is a possibility that you don't do this, but most people do) is the various parts of an address. If you were posting a letter in Dublin to Clonmel, you wouldn't need to add 'Ireland' at the end of the address cos the chaps in An Phost would be quite capable of 'locating' Clonmel without it. Readers here c×an't be relied on to have the same knowledge as An Post workers, so we give them some help. We add some extra geo-location info to help. That this info is also shared by address databases is neither here nor there. It's just useful geo-location meta-information that we format and structure into readable prose. Atlas-maker (talk) 06:46, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Thread was automatically archived by automatically archived by MiszaBot II. Unarchived to allow further input/action. --RA (talk) 20:30, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support - I previously withheld support for a similar topic ban in the hope that the editor would see that their position was not generally supported and even disruptive. My mistake. I particularly resent the accusation above that editors who disagree with LL are a claque (sic) of irredentist editors (excepting Banner) with a misty-eyed vision of a 32-county state who wish to pursue an "A Nation Once Again" agenda through wiki. False! This clearly shows their ideological motivation. Iwould have supported an indef. topic ban as I have seen not a scintilla of evidence, over an extended period, that the message is getting through. RashersTierney (talk) 21:00, 13 June 2013 (UTC)
• The case for the defence Now that the Prosecution has had it's say and has rested, it's time for the defence arguments. (1) Just because I'm paranoid, that doesn't mean that they're not out to get me. A claque exists (yes Rashers, claque, not clique - look it up) and has been very united in its position over the years. While I have no evidence of organising or canvassing, they have been sufficiently effective so as to drown out or bully off any dissenting voices. But that does not mean that they are right. Don't be fooled by the pious posturing. (2) Apart from the anticipated ad hominem attacks, it's interesting that much of the debate has been about the merits of the "Common" versus the "Modern" argument. It's also clear that neither argument is so solid as to overwhelm the other. This is typical of what happens in a regular debate; what's unusual about it is that it should be taking place at ANI. From this observation, one may legitimately conclude that it would not be possible to have such a debate in any of the usual fora due to WP:ICANTHEARYOU from the claque and that my actions have a basis in policy, not vandalism. (3) It is usually the case that a user is nominated in ANI only for the most egregious behaviour such as we see with mobile IP attacks, sock puppets, rabid holocaust deniers etc. From the total absence of any such evidence, either from the nominators or from the other supporters, one has to wonder why it was brought to ANI at all. To my mind there is only one reason - to silence a voice that would not kowtow to the irredentist agenda. (4) Nowhere has it been demonstrated that any of the actions complained of are as a result of bad faith, vandalism or gross ineptitude. Rather, what we have is a difference of opinion between me any a vociferous cabal. I have every right to believe that all my edits on restoring the integrity of North Tipperary and South Tipperary are justified by the facts. While the cabal will not publicly admit to their belief that NT and ST are not counties, by their actions they demonstrate that this is the underlying motive. (5) In the absence of evidence of bad faith, vandalism or gross ineptitude, one is left with the relative merits of the actions undertaken (i.e. does "Common" trump "Modern"). In which case, ANI is not the appropriate forum. Another forum ought to arbitrate on this question of policy (as opposed to discipline). (6) The citation of the GAA case that was brought to ANI some months ago is irrelevant (see comments at top). Even if it is relevant, let it be noted that there is no evidence that I have violated any of the agreed points. This is because I have abided by all ANI decisions. Thank you. Laurel Lodged (talk) 20:40, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Note A contributor to this debate, Scolaire, has, against all etiquette, reverted an edit by another editor on this topic of NT / County Tipperary. See here. Had I done something similar, I'd have been hauled over the coals by him. Instead, he seems to think that my temporary, self-imposed suspension of NT/ST edits means that he can feel free to undo all references to NT. This should be condemned. Laurel Lodged (talk) 21:17, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

• Consensus is as clear as can be. Can some Admin please action this or are we to wait for the 36 hr bot to archive again? RashersTierney (talk) 00:15, 15 June 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose I don't think a topic ban is really all that necessarily. I feel like this is more personal than it is defending the wiki. Just an uninvolved parties comment. (FYI I don't think its wise to call consensus when there is still an active discussion and !vote going on) MaskedHero (talk) 04:16, 15 June 2013 (UTC)
  • I don't see how waiting for MiszaBot II to archive again is a measure of wisdom. RashersTierney (talk) 08:54, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

As consensus is quite obvious (and Laurel's "defense" is well, indefensible), can we just get a confirmation of the exact wording to be used on this topic ban. This is clearly not a topic ban on Ireland articles, it's titles .. which will include article titles themselves AND anywhere in an article where an article title is referenced (✉→BWilkins←✎) 11:48, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

As I understand it, the request is for a ban on edits relating to counties of Ireland i.e. a ban on editing any article on a county, changing the name of a county in any article, changing a link to a county in any article, or any edit that reflects a POV on Irish counties. Scolaire (talk) 21:02, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Rebuttal Consensus on what exactly? What exactly is it that I'm guilty of that warrants the penalty of a ban? The only clue is in the nominator's rationale. Let's parse that line by line. (A) "has a history (years) of making mass changes to articles on issues to do Irish counties.". Guilty as charged. Normally this would result in a round of applause, but not here. I assume that the nominator meant to attach some evidence that these changes were wrong and made in the knowledge that they were wrong. Unfortunately, he adduced no such evidence. (B) "Typically his/her changes involve making "corrections" to whole swathes of articles at a go changing references to "traditional" counties to "administrative" counties (e.g. County Tipperary to Tipperary North)". Guilty as charged. Normally this would result in a round of applause, but not here. I assume that the nominator meant to attach some evidence that these changes were wrong and made in the knowledge that they were wrong. Unfortunately, he adduced no such evidence. (C) "Typically, these changes are controversial and without consensus (or under the pretence of some consensus)." This is true. I have had a lot of opposition from a group that likes to hide it's true motives behind a veneer of wiki policy - when they can be bothered justifying the reversions at all that is. But again, just because they are controversial does not mean that they were wrong. I have (different) wiki policies on my side to justify the actions undertaken. (D) er.. that's it. So then, no evidence to support two charges, if indeed they are punishable things at all, and nothing more than "controversy" in the third, caused by the nominator himself in many cases. Not the strongest ANI case that I've ever seen. Laurel Lodged (talk) 14:17, 15 June 2013 (UT)

Comment Dear LL, Will you please clarify why you believe a claque exists? Especially as by your own admission you have no evidence! Can you clarify which editors you are accusing of membership of this secret subversive group? In addition, can you elaborate as why you believe they are "out to get me".Moreover, can you please state what you believe to be the "true motives" of this group? Finnegas (talk) 10:21, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Just for Finnegas All together now...] Laurel Lodged (talk) 15:18, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately LL, a video of a children's cartoon aptly conveys your frequently, rather infantile and immature behaviour.

• Support topic ban for all Irish and GAA topics anywhere the word county exists. Consider extending to England to protect Yorkshire and the like. Finnegas (talk) 15:35, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
• Comment - Surely this is an issue which will solve itself? In June 2014, North and South Tipperary county councils (and counties) are to be abolished and replaced with a single county council (and county). Say what you like about LL, but they are a stickler for the law of the land, and when the law says North and South Tipperary have been abolished, I'm sure they will edit Misplaced Pages accordingly. Snappy (talk) 14:46, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Reply to Snappy If/when the county councils for NT and ST are merged and the counties are abolished, bearing in mind that the two might not happen simultaneously, then I would be happy to edit accordingly. As Snappy observes, I'm a stickler for the law of the land, which is why I edit for NT and ST as I do - it's the law of the land. However, that will not solve the Fingal and South Dublin issue as there are no proposals to re-animate the rotting carcass of County Dublin. Laurel Lodged (talk) 15:05, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

@Snappy, the up-coming change may mean that the problem with LL RE: County Tipperary may resolve itself. The issue with regard to County Dublin and Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown won't. And (without wanting to provide WP:BEANS), LL may then go on a crusade against Limerick city. So, no, I don't see this as a problem that will go away. --RA (talk) 19:03, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

• Strong oppose: the user may or may not deserve a topic ban, but the proposal offers no evidence besides a vague wave to "controversial changes" that the user makes. No diffs are provided. Proposer readily admits to canvassing a WikiProject. Without diffs, it is near impossible for an uninvolved user to knowledgeably comment on the accused behavior without going through the user entire contribution history. No one should come under editing restrictions in this manner. -Nathan Johnson (talk) 15:38, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

  With regard to posting a notification of this thread to WikiProject Ireland, please see Misplaced Pages:Canvassing for examples of appropriate notifications.

  With regard to providing diffs, the issue is not individual changes but rather mass changes. So, unfortunately, you will need to look at the editor's contribution history. However, the more significant point is the community's patience breaking with regard to this editor (after several years). Hence, links to previous community discussions of his/her behaviour is more informative. --RA (talk) 19:03, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Proposed wording

In reply to Bwilkins, here's a proposed wording for the topic ban:

Laurel Lodged is placed under an editing restriction from adding, removing or altering the names or significance of Irish counties (broadly construed). This restriction applies to all namespaces but does not prevent Laurel Lodged from participating in or initiating talk-page discussions with respect to the names or significance of Irish counties. The restriction will be recorded at Misplaced Pages:Editing restrictions and may be removed by any administrator at Laurel Lodged's request after a period of 6 months.

--RA (talk) 19:22, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I've asked this thread be closed at the administrators noticeboard. --RA (talk) 12:59, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Comment about broadly construed

I do not agree with the language broadly construed. This language has been used in other restrictions and ends up turning into a means for abuse because its too open to interpretation. The sanction needs be defined and if need be can be revisited later. We shouldn't be using weak language like broadly construed, whenever you feel like it or on the admins whim. They all mean the same thing. If the intent is that the user be restricted from editing adding, removing or altering the names or significance of Irish counties then let that be it. Kumioko (talk) 17:46, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

To my mind, "broadly construed" is a way to ward off gaming. In the past, Laurel Lodged has sworn innocence by making distinction between "GAA counties", "administrative counties", "traditional counties", for example. It is what is mean by "Irish counties" that I mean to be "broadly construed".

But, I'm happy to delete it (and I've struck it now). --RA (talk) 19:19, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. Kumioko (talk) 19:26, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I guess that it means that discussions like Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Ireland#Overarching category structure and the GAA can go on. With the addition of "broadly construed" it is blocked off in my opinion. The Banner talk 18:17, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Discussions are explicitly exempted from the proposed wording. So while LL couldn't go and make changes in the area, he/she certainly could raise discussion on it and get consensus that way.

If the closing admin determines there is consensus for a restriction then, he/she can determine if "broadly construed" should be in or out. I'd be happy to have the restriction in place and if trouble continues then "broadly construed" can be added later. --RA (talk) 08:07, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Closure requested

Can we close this thread? It's been open for nearly two weeks and hasn't attracted further comments to the main body in a few days. --RA (talk) 08:07, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Tabarez = Tabarez2

Hi everyone. I think it is obvious that User:Tabarez (banned indefinitely on 11 June 2013 for copyright violations) returned with User:Tabarez2 as his sockpuppet. It just takes to look at their names and contributions to see they are the same person (WP:DUCK). It really looks like WP:SOCK to me, so I guess an admin should look at this case. Cheers! --Sundostund (talk) 11:52, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

I explained fully this with admin that blocked me. Please leave it in his opinion. Tabarez2 (talk) 12:10, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) To my mind, very obvious - but possibly mistaken in intent (WP:AGF). Blocked and warned. Peridon (talk) 12:24, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

There's no doubt about it being a sock of Tabarez, he even admits it here. Thomas.W (talk) 12:31, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I've posted at the Tabarez blocking admin's page too. I've pointed out to Tabarez2 that a block on one account applies across the board, and feel there has been a misunderstanding on their part of how we work. Peridon (talk) 12:33, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

He returned again, this time as 2.178.181.147. Again, same contributions as Tabarez and Tabarez2. --Sundostund (talk) 16:03, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Thereby moving his actions from the category "possibly good faith" to the category "bad faith". Creating socks even though he now knows that the indef block applies to him as a person, and not to a specific user account. Thomas.W (talk) 16:09, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Now it seems that he plans to start an edit war on List of Presidents of Iran. Of course, I have no plan to follow him in that. I guess he wants to add edit warring to his breaches of Wiki rules (copyright violations, sock puppetry and block evasion). --Sundostund (talk) 17:37, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

The IP has been blocked 48 h for block evasion by User:Future Perfect. Thomas.W (talk) 18:46, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

He's back again, now as 2.178.181.45. --Sundostund (talk) 20:59, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

He's now 2.178.185.87, this really becomes pathetic. --Sundostund (talk) 21:35, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

He's now Namejavid, same contributions as before. --Sundostund (talk) 12:31, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Blocked by FuturePerfect. De728631 (talk) 19:43, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

That guy is really stubborn. I've caught him on five different IPs by now, plus this sock account. Fut.Perf. ☼ 19:49, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I think an RFCU should help, considering he's evading this block now. I'll open one now. Dusti 19:58, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

 Done Misplaced Pages:Sockpuppet_investigations/Tabarez Dusti 20:04, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Apparently, some additional information is needed to kick off that SPI. --Sundostund (talk) 14:03, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

They declined that SPI request. I don't understand why, its so obvious this is a sockpuppet case... Maybe a new SPI request should be open. --Sundostund (talk) 12:14, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I appealed the decision, but whomever that dick of an clerk is apparently disagrees with logic. Maybe an admin can open a SPI request? Dusti 06:24, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Enough with the personal attacks. The clerk didn't reject your case, he just said that it was so obvious that admins could handle it without checkuser assistance. Admins have blocked everybody in sight now, so there's nothing to complain about.—Kww(talk) 06:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

There's no personal attack there KWW. I'm voicing my opinion on the clerk who denied the case. The CU is actually needed to get those "out of sight" as well, and to help with a potential range block to ensure that those who need to be blocked, stay blocked. That's just my $0.02. S/he has figured out IP's get blocked, the obvious sock got blocked, and now there's a new username. That's where a CU is called into play - apparently I didn't format a "request" well enough to "document the case" - so WP:DUCK doesn't quite work with CU SPI requests. Dusti 06:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Referring to the clerk as a "dick" isn't a personal attack? And Rschen is actually an admin, if you had bothered to check. Obvious DUCK cases do not usually require a CU, all admins are able to do rangeblocks but only a few are confident enough with that tool to do it. Tabarez isn't sophisticated enough to do more than just randomly create accounts and use IPs. To an admin well versed in rangeblocking, how severe would the collateral damage be to apply a rangeblock to these IPs? Blackmane (talk) 09:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I already rangeblocked them and that seems to have stopped them for the time being. Fut.Perf. ☼ 09:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Actually, it's not. "Dick" may have been poor descriptor to choose, and I struck it. Dusti 14:38, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Blocked editor

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This ia a case of where the user, originally as User talk:202.43.188.6 ‎ has WP:PA another editor in editing the article Suharto with little or no explanation as to why, has been blocked for edit warring, , the article was also edit protected (expires 11:47, 30 June 2013 (UTC)) ‎ (expires 11:47, 30 June 2013 (UTC)) ‎(Persistent vandalism)] and the editor is now wandering around the various scenes of the crime with a sock (duck tested not needed, so obvious) User:Purnomor as if his/her version is the 'right way' to edit the article , and that normal protocols of wikipedian editing or behaviour can be totally ignored.

Seasoned editors of the Indonesian project had tried over time to reduce the size of the article, and have had similar issues with very similar editors - if it isnt the same editor as previous attempts on changing the article. It is highly likely that the language of the editor is not native english, which might have created some of the total reversals of the actual situation in the editors attempts to deal with the issues so far.

It seems the protection of the article encouraged this editor to do and also almost surreal comments at .

Also re-tracing steps at Page protection - with comments in odd locations

If there is indeed someone prepared to look at this, please be careful not to be misled as to who it doing what, a careful examination of edit history should explain the issue.

I suspect such an intrepid and incessant candidate for totally reversing the actual issue, might be a somewhat difficult character to hold a mirror to, in explanation. sats 15:37, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I have appealed against the tyranny of editors who seems to insist that their way of editing is the only right way, and always seek to undo the hardwork and research done by others. This attitude is certainly very negative and will discourage others from positively contributing to Misplaced Pages. The editors show contempt and disrespect for contribution made by volunteer editor using well-balance reference articles. Hence, I've made formal complaint against this particular editor (Merbabu). Purnomor (talk) 15:45, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Which I think goes to show what we are dealing with here. A limited of understanding what WP:ABOUT actually involves. sats 15:51, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

So with the IP number blocked, and the new sock created - It is my understanding that a sock of a blocked editor cannot launch http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/merbabu - as it would in effect be allowing a blocked editor to continue WP:PA unabated. I believe other remedies for the IP and the user need to be rectified beforer further damage to other processes within wp en ensue. sats 15:56, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I will not be silenced on this issue. I also do not accept constant undoing and vandalization of valuable hardwork based on solid references done by certain editors. I also object to the constant personal attacks used by some editors to intimidate people attempting to add valuable information into Misplaced Pages. Purnomor (talk) 15:59, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

• @Puronomor, you should sign your posts at the end of each post, not at the beginning. It is obvious that the IP who was editing the Suharto article and Purnomor are the same individual. However, in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with an IP deciding to register an account and stop editing as an IP. The article itself is semi-protected, meaning that Puronomor cannot edit the article as he's not yet auto-confirmed. That said, his brief history here has been disruptive. He has asked that the Suharto article be unprotected. He has started an abusrd RFC/U against User:Merbabu, in addition to posting at WP:AIV that Merbabu is vandalizing the article. He has also contacted User:Crisco 1492 and complained. He should probably be blocked for disruptive editing, which any admin is welcome to do, but I'll give him a little more rope to see if he has the ability to change course.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:13, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

User:KhabarNegar

I believe that User:KhabarNegar lacks the social skills and competence to contribute.

He was taken to WP:DRN from his behavior on Sanctions Against Iran, the result is here. They refused/recommended WP:RFC/U or WP:ANB/I. He was taken here before but it feel through the cracks (result here).

Every edit he disagrees with is harassment, trolling, vandalism. He does not participate coherently in the talk page. He is incapable of understanding basic concepts like the difference between an opinion piece and a news article (eg here). He introduces copyvio's into articles. He's got so far as to edit war over over archival, apparently not understanding what it actually does (edit war and confusion). I took specific opinion-piece-supported passages to a RfC and he obliged but continues edit warring over similar usages of one of the articles which is also a copyvio (article history). He ignored the discussion in the talk page unless his version of the article is not the current version (eg here).

Currently, there's an opinion piece being used to support facts, rather than opinions (WP:RS#Statements_of_opinion demands an inline qualifier). Furthermore, the supported text is taken directly from the article without quotes in violation of WP:COPYVIO. I don't think he actually understands any of these concepts, due to a language barrier. TippyGoomba (talk) 20:03, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree that User:KhabarNegar lacks the social skills and competence to contribute.--Isaacsirup (talk) 21:20, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

• I agree that Khabar's edits are problematic. First, they are edit warring. Second, their version has three copyright violations, two in the lead, and one in the body. Third, their edits are non-neutral as they are supported by opinion pieces (mainly one). I don't think their language skills are the problem. They may not be perfectly fluent in English, but their communication skills appear more than adequate. At best, they have some fundamental misunderstandings about Misplaced Pages policy.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:58, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Another editor's viewpoint: User:KhabarNegar has been frustrating to work with because he doesn't seem to understand policies and takes offense easily. Just one example below; too tired to look up a few more:

• June 7 at Right-Libertarianism using very poor sources he attempted to define the term as an actual philosophy, against the existing sources which support the consensus on the talk page.
• June 7th I reverted this writing in relevant portion: "can't used self-published webpages and little known groups as refs"
• His response was to revert to his material and put "citation needed" next to every one of his sentences.
• At this June 8 diff left an edit warring notice on his talk page
• Complaint on my talk page about edit warring notice: "When I see your harassment on my talk page, based on nothing just a harassment attack I couldn't believe what I seen there. Never try to put your view on anyone using force even if you think you will make him frightened. It is just not good, & I think it is not just you. I really cannot believe your harassment there based on nothing when actually you were not true, where actually I talked to you on Talk page of the article."

At the very least he needs some strong mentoring. CarolMooreDC - talkie talkie🗽 01:10, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

As one of those who has been patiently trying to explain to this user for many months why his behavior on Sanctions against Iran is inappropriate, I am glad to see some serious discussion. Mentoring hardly seems sufficient. He has had his chance. Even though he sometimes makes valid edits, he often makes problematic ones and then will not permit any corrections to his edits, even with a clear consensus against him. As a result, any article he edits loses credibility. I don't know what the appropriate sanction is for this behavior, but something needs to be done to correct the damage he has done and prevent further damage. NPguy (talk) 03:06, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

User Comment

Thank you guys, First of all The stories you have given are not true stories... I will come here in next few hours, meanwhile kindly please gather anything else you may think is useful because I will comment just once, so please don't make anything remain. Specially Users:TippyGoomba & User:Isaacsirup you better have explanation for some edits by you. So, I will be here in few hours(right now I'm busy) please gather everything you think may can be useful. Regards, KhabarNegar 06:30, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

If that's the beginning of your statement, and is a precursor to seeing your overall attitude, this will not be going well for you in the near future ... (✉→BWilkins←✎) 10:52, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

KhabarNegar, please remember that contributors to this page are not paid staffers, but unpaid volunteers, many of whom lead busy lives as well. Each will contribute when they can. There is no deadline, so this doesn't have to be resolved today. While I haven't been here forever, I've been following this thread for quite some time, and do not recall anyone whenever requesting that all other parties should respond quickly so that a single response will be sufficient. I'm quite sure that no such request has been granted. If you would like to propose a change in policy, we can show you where to make such a request, but I urge you not to waste your time, as I am quite sure the community will not find such a request reasonable.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:20, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Above there are lots of words mostly wrong stories and lies, and only 11links provided which are about 5 different interesting issues:

1-

2-

3-

4-

5-

6-

7-

8-

9-

10-

11-

1- According links (1&2&3&7&8) User:CarolMooreDC should be warned not to give fake wrong warning to other user and should be mentioned about WP:Ownership.

2- According link (4) I should give one explanation and some links, although it doesn't against about violation of a Misplaced Pages rule.

3- According links (5,9) User:TippyGoomba acted against WP:3RR, and done WP:Trolling. Its easy to prove that and you will read it below...

4- According link (6) you will see its actually again removing sourced parts of the article ignoring Talk page of article & again WP:Trolling, all details provided below.

5- According links (10,11) you see personal attacks and trying WP:harassment, which is continued till now by making this section here.

OK, now details and the real story with more links:

Case 1:

The lead section of Right-libertarianism have no source so editors come and add anything they thing is true to the lead .

And this continues ,

I was watching that , and so I decided to make the lead section sourced so to stop this . User:Carolmooredc revert me, and made the lead without sourced again the reason she gave was that the sources are not Reliable! my reason was at least they are better than no source original research so why you revert me? Then she gave an alert of edit waring in to my talk page also actually she was the one which revert me twice, plus in talk page of the article I was discussing and they are users who tell she is wrong. This is the warning she gave me just because of editing on the article, she had told I will be blocked? The question is why? and isn't it an attack?! When there is actually no edit waring giving warning for what? telling you are going to be blocked?

You may check Talk Page of the article for more information. It is so useful, I strongly recommend checking the talk page of the so called article.

Case2:

Case tow is the only case which is actually not a lie. I'm talking about these edit.

And now the reason of this edit:

Here in this edit User:NickCT joined User:RightCowLeftCoast & User:TippyGoomba in remove of a part of the article. In this RfC . As you see the reason he gave is "Remove' - Poorly referenced. Clearly a matter of opinion and Misplaced Pages is not opinion."

He is talking about this ,

By the way when I explain to him that & , because it was obvious he didn't even see the sources, as you see.

Then instead of changing his vote, he changed the words.

So then I said this at last ,

and he told this, that is the main whole story.

Case3:

About this User:TippyGoomba Forcing to archive the Talk page of the article and the reason I am disagree with that now.

User:TippyGoomba starts this RfC,

although we have talked about anything before in the same page above.

When I joined the RfC User:TippyGoomba said:"I'm glad you've finally joined the discussion."!

Then I said!:

""I'm glad you've finally joined the discussion.", Nice joke, Thank you. But don't forget all people are able to read and understand this.... "

Then suddenly he decided to archive the talk page!

...

Once again read above if anyone don't get the point...

...

No Comment...

Then he went to Village pump on about this Talk page & the answer he got is interesting:

But he continued putting archive bot on page...! again. & plus again & again...

I said: "They are necessary PLEASE DON'T DELETE THEM AGAIN. STOP IT."

and this continued by him again & again & again...

I said:"Its says It is helpful to archive or refactor a page either when it exceeds 75 KB, there is no rule. Its helpful, There is active dispute in this article do not archive previous discussions." There was active discussions and RfC in the Talk page

No Use:

I got tired...

and its done, talk page is archived...

and this is the only link he is giving to you  :))

He this time make it 60d Archive bot...

Case 4:

About this removing by him ,

I asked him to say which part have problem and he wants to remove first in Talk page, so we can see if he is right...

But no use he didn't answer and continue removing parts of article,

and this removing continued:

Case 5:

I want an admin take action I'm tired of these attacks and harassment, here User:NPguy , Then he copy pasted the same thing in WP:ANI! I was unaware of this!,

Thanks, if anything else is there please bring it here. Regards, KhabarNegar 18:28, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow. WP: TLDR is another issue added to the list. Herr Kommisar 18:40, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Friendly bump :). TippyGoomba (talk) 15:14, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Still hoping someone can have a look at this. TippyGoomba (talk) 15:15, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Holy cow, I would rather slam my head repeatedly in a car door than read all this mess, but I'm reading all this mess. I don't have the full story yet, but it doesn't look good for KhabarNegar so far. I see a serious clue deficiency, warring over archiving using arguments like "don't worry about performance" (we don't worry about server performance, we DO worry about people trying to read using a smart phone or tablet, or who don't want to read a million lines of text on any computer...). Still reading, but wanted to say I'm looking at it, and encourage any other input here as well. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 16:25, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• I have read virtually everything here, trying to understand the context of the entire sequence of events to the best of my ability. I absolutely hate these types of conundrums. The short version is that KhabarNegar's enthusiasm exceeds his clue to the degree that it is causing disruption for a number of people. While he may have some good intentions mixed in there, his methods are fatally flawed. Edit warring, copyvios, misunderstanding policy to an extreme degree, not understanding what is and isn't a reliable source. I don't want to claim incompetence, but it is an inability to cooperate in a collaborative environment and abject misunderstanding of how Misplaced Pages works. I think his language skills are adequate to communicate, even if not perfect, but there is a serious listening problem. There are only two possible scenarios here and both require mentoring, learning the policies on sources and copyright as well as pledging to cooperate in a way that does violate the spirit of WP:TE. The only real question is whether or not a block is needed. At this point, the disruption and intensity is such that I can't help but to think an indef block is the only way to immediately stop the disruption while he works on the other issues. This shouldn't be seen as an infinite block, but it should stay in place long enough that the editor is able to gain some clue on what the community expects from every editor, themselves included. Unfortunately, I feel like I don't have a choice here. I have implemented this block and would ask that volunteers work with him to get him up to speed on the expectations around here. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER- I 16:53, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

UPDATE - I'd like to point out that KhabarNegar has been helpful to WP:MEDICINE in the past with some translation efforts. Is a full indef really necessary? KhabarNegar has posted an unblock request at User Talk:KhabarNegar and there's some talk about agreement to avoid problematic areas, could an uninvolved admin please check that out? Thanks... Zad68 19:18, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

User:Roscelese behavior

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

User:Roscelese has issues edit warring, violating the 3RR, taking ownership of articles, and frivolously using warning templates to intimidate others. My first (and last) interactions with this user occurred tonight, so this really isn't about me. If Roscelese has this much disdain for the rules and has bullied and stalked at least 2 editors this month, then it's probably safe to assume that this has been going on for a while, pushing other editors away from wikipedia and lowering the quality of articles. I'm sure that this intimidation and warring will happen again without some formal intervention. After my encounter with Roscelese, I glanced at her editing history for this month and observed a disrupting pattern. I'm sure there's more than what I include, but I don't have the time or will to dig through months/years of her history.

Issues in the False accusation of rape article

Falsely accusing others of POV edits and assuming bad faith

My edit that simply restored someone else's addition and my subsequent edit elaborating upon rationale to avoid any disputes . My edit reason: "Article is 'false accusation,' not 'false accusation by a fake victim.' (And the text isn't ambiguous) . adding more colour: perhaps the lede should be explicit if this is only to cover false accusations by victims. as of now, it's general so the re-added text fits"

Roscelese's reversion of my edit (which was merely the restoration of someone else's sourced content) where she maliciously accuses me of doing personal unsourced POV edits -

Violating the three revert rule and edit warring

More Edit Warring

Stalking, edit warring, and attempt at intimidation

It also seems like Roscelese stalked me after she made the false POV accusation above. 2 minutes after she made that reversion, she reverted another edit of mine in a separate article.

My edit adding specifics and sources (in fact, my source for this change was the lede, which i conformed the paragraph to)

Reversion/ownership

Based on my two edits detailed here, which clearly included 0 personal analysis or commentary and which were not even related to any POV, Roscelese issued me an obviously frivolous "POV" warning:

I responded with a notice asking her to please stop misusing warning templates, , which she promptly deleted .

Intimidation and personal attacks on others

Roscelese also seems to accuse others of bad faith and assumes they have agendas

"No, really, it's not okay to misrepresent research to push an agenda..."

"Rv agenda edits."

And I don't know anything about this user or incident, but this seems like another frivolous POV warning:

User:Danpiedra's reversion claiming POV at 19:00 on 5/30 when there doesn't appear to be any POV issue (if anything, Roscelese's edit seems to be more of a POV issue)

warning user for POV for that edit at 19:06

This is the type of troubling conduct by an editor that has made me avoid editing in the past and should not be tolerated. I don't think the intervention should be something permanent, but I do think it should be more than slap on the wrist given previous warnings. Thank you. 69.127.235.74 (talk) 04:39, 17 June 2013 (UTC) I'm also posting a notice of this on the user talk page of the other editor that was involved in the edit war I linked to, User:Federales. I do not anything about him/her other than seeing the name on the differences I linked to 69.127.235.74 (talk) 04:52, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Is this dispute simply because Roscelese interprets "false accusation" in this context to mean only deliberate lies, while you take it to include mistaken accusations as well? At a first glance, I agree that it should include both because that makes for a more informative article, but why did the two of you not try to discuss the issue to resolve the ambiguity? Instead of throwing clearly frivolous warning templates at each other. Reyk _YO! 04:54, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Honestly, I thought my edit history was clear enough to defeat the need for a talk discussion. I even added a second edit to add more detail. But the assumption of bad faith and labeling it as a POV edit plus the warning really made me think that my effort would be wasted. And then I looked at the page history and it's clear that this was part of a long pattern of behavior (evidenced by the subsequent reversion of my edits in another article). I didn't really open this to solve the content dispute; it's more because of the fact that it's clear that everything is going to be disputed and because I'm sure that other newbie editors have just gotten frustrated and walked away. I just think something formal (but not permanent) needs to be done to stamp out incivility like this 69.127.235.74 (talk) 05:02, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

@IP. If you want edit controversial subjects like PRISM or rape, please register as a named account rather than editing as an IP. This is very important for accountability reasons. If there was a WP:3RR violation, this should be reported to WP:3RR noticeboard. If this is related to abortion (which I am not sure), this should be reported to WP:AE noticeboard , not here. My very best wishes (talk) 05:13, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

MVBW; agree IP would have an easier time if registered, but that SHOULD NOT be an issue here. Similarly, while it is best if 3rr goes to the 3rr noticeboard, ANI is set up to be flexible and CAN consider 3rr complaints, especially within the context of other behavioral problems. Just in case the above was not helpful advice to a newbie (which I assume it was), but passing the buck. --Anonymous209.6 (talk) 14:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I'm avoiding registering because I have a big work project coming up soon and know that I'll get too addicted to this once I sign up (I already feel addicted from the past few days!). I looked at the discretionary sanction page but that seems geared more towards repeated content issues with an editor rather than behavioural issues. Does the 3RR noticeboard also deal with the related incivility and bad faith stuff? If so, I will move this there. Thank you. 69.127.235.74 (talk) 05:18, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, 3rr does deal with edit warring, and incivility and bad faith would play into that, but are not the primary topics for the page; it has to be 3rr and....--Anonymous209.6 (talk) 01:42, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• The IP user is apparently unhappy that the definition of "false accusation" in all the relevant literature isn't in tune with his own personal definition. (I'm sure the desire to grossly inflate the rate of false accusations plays no role in these edits.) The troubling thing here is his acting on this unhappiness by going through several weeks of my edit history and coming straight to ANI (with, pardon the term, false accusations about my behavior - such as the ludicrous claim that I "stalked" him to an article that I've been editing for many months and that I edited almost immediately before he showed up - I must be prescient!) without even trying the talkpage. –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 05:20, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• I think my point about incessant incivility, assumptions of bad faith, and frivolous POV accusations was just confirmed. And just to repeat, the notice I put on Roscelese's talk page was immediately deleted. 69.127.235.74 (talk) 05:26, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Just FYI; removal of a notice from a personal Talk page is not regarded as a violation of WP rules, unless there is a RULING. Your 3rr and edit warring allegations, though, have merit. --Anonymous209.6 (talk) 01:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• As best I can tell, the IP editor has not made any attempt to resolve this issue at Talk:False accusation of rape, nor even made a single post there. This matter is probably best referred back to the article talkpage, and the IP editor gently instructed to make at least a token effort to resolve disputes on the article talkpage before filing a lengthy AN/I complaint. MastCell  05:26, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• I apologize if I was unclear, but I'm really not interested in solving this particular content dispute. I came across the relevant articles haphazardly and I simply don't care enough about the topic to resolve that dispute. This is about an editor's behaviour. While I may be the only one who has spoken out about this terrible behaviour, I'm sure that I am not the only IP editor/newbie/veteran who has been negatively affected by it. Solving this problem will do more for wikipedia than putting so much effort into some minor content dispute. 69.127.235.74 (talk) 05:32, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Not saying it's intentional, but that seems a bit biased against an "IP" editor. Roscelese was just as capable of starting a talk page discussion.--v/r - TP 13:49, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Of course, but Roscelese didn't bring the issue to AN/I - the IP editor did. You need to make some effort to engage with an editor - like at least a single talkpage post - before filing a grievance at AN/I. That's pretty basic. MastCell  17:08, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• I really cannot fathom that your ONLY defense of Roscelese, whose violations are clear, is to insult newbies (DONT BITE) and to basically blame the victim...... On an article on rape accusations.......If everyone's head hasn't exploded, let me add that, as several editors have noted, while IP did not go to Talk, their edit summaries are pretty easy to understand, and factual (meaning that explanations are there, just according to WP, technically not in the right place). Roscelese's arguments, while they can eventually be understood, aren't at all obvious, aren't civil and are problematic, since you really can't ascribe the same legitimate ignorance of best process (AGF) to a senior editor.--Anonymous209.6 (talk) 14:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Neither Roscelese nor IP went to Talk, but Roscelese is the one who violated 3rr, AND has been on Talk before when OTHER editors raised the same objections to the non-obvious, highly limited definition of the subject Roscelese favors. I understand the specific technical definition that Roscelese wishes to apply, but given that over several years, it has become absolutely apparent that that definition is NOT obvious to someone who would assume COMMON usage, the behavior of Roscelese is unjustified. The IP would not be expected to follow a definition that is NOT stated on the Article page, nor one an average reader would expect. I had to read the whole article, the Talk page, the fights AND read the references themselves to understand why Roscelese is being so narrow. A page on False accusations would almost universally be expected to include sections on those who were Falsely accused, as covered by such things as the Innocence Project. --Anonymous209.6 (talk) 01:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Propose a topic ban for Roscelese covering all articles related to sexuality, broadly construed. Federales (talk) 05:38, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
  • From this incident alone such a measure seems unjustified. I think MastCell's solution is far more reasonable. 86.121.18.17 (talk) 05:44, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
  • That does seem overly hasty. If there are issues which can't be resolved through the use of the talk page, then is the time to start proposing wide-ranging topic bans. —Tom Morris (talk) 11:11, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Agreed - hasty.--v/r - TP 13:49, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Agreed - very hasty Thereandnot (talk) 01:15, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Support topic ban--Miacek and his crime-fighting dog (woof!) 13:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Do not support Too harsh, but a sanction of some kind is needed--Anonymous209.6 (talk) 13:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Article sanctions This could either fall under the Arbcom Sexology case or the Community Men's Right's sanction, I suggest we wrap this under one of those and call it a day.--v/r - TP 13:49, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
• Propose Tabling This - IMHO I don't see any serious violations as of right now(except for a possible 3R rule). The IP editor never tried talking with him about the issue. Btw, the user Danpiedra was most likely to be an employee of the Thomas More Law Center for which he was editing against conflict of interest. Roscelese did us a favor there. As for assuming bad faith Federales is not exactly an angel. He also refuses to discuss changes and then pretends like nothing happened. Dealing with Federales can be frustrating for anybody- see discussion on rape being forced. Once again, IMHO, if something like this happens again(3R), then I think it would be fair to reopen this and discuss the merits of a possible topic sanction. Thereandnot (talk) 02:14, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

PantherLeapord, again.

PantherLeapord (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) is continuing to show conduct that I have concerns about, such as an aggressive stance on several NFCC 1-related discussions. He has also publicly accused several editors (such as me and Masem) of being "deletionists", and listed them on his user page; which I had removed for being an attack page. After being warned of this policy, he then refactored the warning given on his page to say "Please do not create pages that show the truth about their subject. These pages and files are not tolerated by the people having the truth revealed about them." (in violation of the talk page guidelines). He also removed further comments clarifying the rules on refactoring talk page comments with increasingly aggressive remarks ("Is this YOUR talk page now" "EXCUSE ME!? AFAIK I AM ALLOWED TO DELETE SUCH COMMENTS ON MY OWN TALK PAGE" "Again; WHO'S talk page is this!?" "Stop harassing me about removing comments from MY talk page")

He was blocked for edit warring an image out of Xbox One that he felt was of a poor quality (and then began campaigning to have a non-free image restored because his interpretation of NFCC 1 does not consider the free image to be of good enough quality), on the condition that he stop edit warring over PlayStation and Xbox images. I don't think any of the things he's done today are worthy of blocks, but I'm becoming concerned about his conduct. ViperSnake151  Talk  06:31, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Why do you insist on making a mountain out of a molehill? PantherLeapord (talk) 06:47, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

This was not a molehill. As has been explained in a statement that you deleted with no apparent effort to read and understand it, if you repeat an edit like that, you will be blocked again. I'm unlikely to repeat the last go round where you were unblocked after a few hours, as your behaviour since your last block has been pretty abysmal, including using your user page as an attack page.—Kww(talk) 07:02, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Well pardon me for pointing out how stupidly powerful free content purists that always prefer worse content that is DETRIMENTAL to the encyclopedia because free have become! PantherLeapord (talk) 08:21, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

If you continue to fail to understand that the exception to using non-free content is when suitable (note: I did not say high-quality) content is available, AND your attitude is going to be one where you create attack pages to disparage those who actually uphold the law, the rules, and policies, then I do not foresee your username appearing on Misplaced Pages for much longer. Do it again - ever - and you will be blocked, period (✉→BWilkins←✎) 10:45, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

The problem is that if you're going to express your opposition to our non-free policies, it is probably best to (a) dial back the attacks on people with different opinions, and (b) perhaps choose an issue to debate which isn't actually cut and dried - the PS4 image issue was absolutely straightforward as regarding our policies and not even close to a grey area. People are far more likely to engage with you if you make your points in a reasoned manner. Black Kite (talk) 10:43, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

No; the only problem here is how free image purists have brainwashed people into thinking that fair use is bad and the crappy and unencyclopedic free > encyclopedic fair use. PantherLeapord (talk) 11:25, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Your level of cluefullness < 0 ... you have not read a single fricking thing that has been presented to you? You can't make your own shit up - especially regarding copyright and fair use. (✉→BWilkins←✎) 12:32, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

I think claiming that anyone on a project that contains many dozens of thousands of non-free images - most (if by no means all) of which actually do meet WP:NFCC - is a "free image purist" is never going to fly. Black Kite (talk) 12:35, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

~473k non-free files exist on wikipedia. Werieth (talk) 13:19, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Well, it looks like everyone sees what's going on pretty clearly, but just to chime in: this user has been rather difficult to work with. There's no discussing policy with them, every time its "I want to use this image, so IAR!" And every time they're told "No, that's not how it works", then we get an earful about "power hungry admin", "conspiracy", etc etc. Its one continuous example of WP:IDHT. Sergecross73 msg me 12:49, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Suggest topic ban from NFCC and related areas since this user refuses to get a clue, is extremely hostile, combative, and rude. Werieth (talk) 13:21, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
• I support that, but will note that I am "involved"- I have been discussing non-free content issues with this user this morning, and I am one of the people listed on the deleted userpage. J Milburn (talk) 13:35, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
• I think that a very clear warning that such a topic ban will be imposed if the behaviour continues would be better at this stage. A very last chance, but leaving no doubt as to what the next step will be. That'll probably still mean we are a bunch of brainwashing dictators, but at least we will have offered every possible opportunity for change before sanctions. I know, I'm an old softy... Begoon  14:38, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Can we add IMMEDIATELY that ANY referring to an editor or group of editors as "deletionists" lead to immediate block? This guy is quite clearly creating a WP:BATTLE by his sheer forceful lack of competence and compassion for the community (✉→BWilkins←✎) 16:04, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

If we were to apply that as a criteria, Dream Focus would have been banned ages ago. For better or worse, we've legitimized the use of that term by not acting on it in the past.—Kww(talk) 16:14, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Sadly, that's a very good point. But regardless of the use of that term or not, WP:BATTLE is the crux, and that's what mustn't be allowed to continue. Competence can sometimes be learnt or taught, battling with other editors is a style choice. Begoon  17:00, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Personally, being called a "deletionist" as a pejorative merely elicits a "yeah, whatever" from me and an assumption that the person using it isn't capable of creating a policy-based argument; however the major problem here is incorrectly accusing other editors of being detrimental to the encyclopedia, which definitely is a personal attack. That needs to stop. As I said above, it isn't constructive and will result in editors not engaging with even any reasonable points one makes. Black Kite (talk) 18:14, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

As on involved presently and in past issued with DF, at least DF argues the point for decent debate, which is the core of consensus building, even if DF refuses to budge. On the other hand, PantherLeopard is making no attempt to understand the rational of non-free and thus making any chance of debate nil. --MASEM (t) 22:47, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

• Still going - . Black Kite (talk) 23:35, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah. That kinda undermines my earlier suggestion of a "very last" warning, doesn't it? You'd have to assume he's reading this, and that's his reaction. I support the topic ban immediately now, since I agree with incorrectly accusing other editors of being detrimental to the encyclopedia ... definitely is a personal attack. Begoon  00:27, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Here's my cynical take; what we have here is a generation gap, a wave of new adolescent-to-young-adult editors who grew up in an age of having every virtual thing at their fingertips. Want a song or movie? Torrent it. Want a picture for meme generation? Google it. Welcome to the collision of Web 2.0 and the 21st century, this is just a taste of things to come. Tarc (talk) 00:40, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that's cynical at all. Just observant and realistic. A whole new use for the term "free culture" perhaps..? Begoon  00:44, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Proposed topic ban

Although User:Werieth proposed it, let's formalize the wording, as it appears to be necessity:

I propose: User:PantherLeapord is topic banned from uploading images, participating in all image-related discussions, and from any other mention of images or those who have uploaded images across the English Misplaced Pages, added broadly construed. This topic ban is for a period of 6 months. After 3 months, User:PantherLeapord may appeal for a loosening of these restrictions on WP:ANI. Violations of these restrictions will be met by escalating blocks. The restrictions will be logged at WP:RESTRICT

• Support as proposer (✉→BWilkins←✎) 15:37, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support, broadly construed. GiantSnowman 15:39, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support - if an editor won't abide by image policies, then they should not get to work with images at all. (Though I think any future appeal should be at WP:AN rather than WP:ANI?) -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 15:59, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

  Actually, I can understand Kumioko's concerns about "broadly construed", below, and I prefer BlackKite's alternative wording - it's not enough to make me withdraw my support as worded, but I do think we'd be on more solid ground with the more specific wording -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 19:30, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support as above. — Richard BB 16:00, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support with clause, it should be indefinite, (IE until it can be demonstrated that the user's behavior has changed) setting a hard time limit just delays the issue. Werieth (talk) 17:29, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support with regret, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but the repeated attacks on other editors, after warnings, who are actually following policy is not acceptable. Black Kite (talk) 17:36, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose with the broadly construed language - As mentioned in detail in the subsection below.Kumioko (talk) 17:51, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support The user has continued the behaviour without any sign that they even acknowledge the concerns. After 3 months of non-disruptive editing elsewhere they can appeal for relaxation. It would be a different matter if there were any indication that they recognise this problem and intend to address it. I don't see that, and continued personal attacks and disruption of discussion must not be allowed to continue. Begoon  00:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support - Obviously some harsh re-education is needed! PantherLeapord (talk) 01:59, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support - As per reasons given above. (wasn't sure where to put my vote so i put it here, dont hesitate to move it if its in the wrong spot) ★★RetroLord★★ 11:49, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support - well, if the subject of this topic ban seems to support this (hurr), so shall I. ViperSnake151  Talk  05:33, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

  Lol, I was about to point that out. OhanaUnited 05:49, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose #1 I'm not seeing any truly troubling links. Kww's link is certainly combative, but it's own his on talk page. Modifying a templated message isn't that horrible. His edit warring on images is a more serious problem, but he was blocked for that. He needs to have it made clear that he needs to act like a reasonable person. That said, his views on NFCC are fairly similar to my own. I don't like the idea of banning someone from an area because they hold a minority view. Especially when (IMO) the view is quite reasonable. I feel this is moving into WP:CENSOR range. Hobit (talk) 18:04, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• So what you are saying, is that editors are free to (clearly, and absolutely) violate our policies and then (clearly, and repeatedly, after warnings) personally attack those that point this out, calling them destructive? Interesting idea, can't help thinking it wouldn't be generally constructive though. Although, given that the issue is NFCC it doesn't surprise me; there appears to be some sort of exception for WP:NPA when it is aimed at editors upholding NFCC. Nothing changes. Black Kite (talk) 18:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• You make a good point. I will point out that NPA isn't exactly our most enforced set of rules--I think you'd agree many editors get away with personal attacks stronger than these. Though yes, this user has going past what I think is blockable under NPA (Kww's block was a good one and further blocks for NPA would have been quite reasonable). But I'd personally prefer a short block for NPA (week?) rather than a topic ban in the hopes of improvement. That's what we generally do I think.

Further, I do think our NFCC enforcement is broken. And I can fully understand why people get extremely frustrated with it, because I'm extremely frustrated with it. When we have people speedying pictures when it is claimed to be the only picture of the creature (and that wasn't disputed at the time of the speedy though it is false) or arguing that a picture of an 80-year old is sufficient for an article on a person famous for his boyish looks. Yes, it's frustrating. And yes, I understand the anger. Further, and more generically, I really don't like topic banning people with minority opinions without first trying other options. Mentoring, escalating blocks or other options haven't been explored. Not sure it would work, but it hasn't been tried. Hobit (talk) 18:47, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Well, I'm on the other side of that one. I would have thought, given that the user does have constructive edits away from his obvious problem with images, that a topic ban on images would be better than escalating blocks, especially as it would keep them away from the issue that clearly irritates them and which is likely to get them blocked (if that makes sense). I agree that our NFCC enforcement is broken though; that's because it's actually impossible to enforce - even to the extent of admins backing up those violating NFCC - which is why we have so many non-free images. Black Kite (talk) 04:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I think a 6 month topic ban shouldn't be the first step--especially on a wiki-political topic. A block associated with the NPA policy would have been a better first step. I don't think I've seen a topic ban before with only one previous block on the account. I'm sure they've existed, but... And if you think the NFCC policy is broken on the side of over-including non-free images, I can't imagine what you would want FfD to look like. I suspect the delete rate there is already over 90%. Hobit (talk) 06:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Comment about broadly construed

I do not agree with the language broadly construed. This language has been used in other restrictions and ends up turning into a means for abuse because its too open to interpretation. The sanction needs be defined and if need be can be revisited later. We shouldn't be using weak language like broadly construed, whenever you feel like it or on the admins whim. They all mean the same thing. If the intent is that the user be restricted then it needs to be clearly stated what the restriction is. Kumioko (talk) 17:46, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I take this as anything regarding files/images. Upload, FFD, DRV, NFCR, and anything else that we may have forgotten to spell out in regards to files. This basically means anything to do with files is topic banned. Using a broad brush prevents attempts at wikilawyering around the edges Werieth (talk) 18:47, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

But it also allows 1400 people with differing views and interpretations of the rules that they can do whatever they want. If you say anything to do with files fine. But adding broadly construed some admin that doesn't like the editor could justify that editing Photoshop is a blockable offense because its releated to files "broadly construed". It has happened a lot. Kumioko (talk) 18:57, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I think that's pushing it a bit, but I get your point. How about "User:PantherLeapord is topic banned from uploading images, commenting on image files or their usage, and participating in image-related discussions or discussions of policy related to images, across the English Misplaced Pages"? Black Kite (talk) 19:13, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

No admin would make that leap. You are building quite the strawman. -DJSasso (talk) 19:17, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

@Black Kite, I think that's much better thank you.

@Djsasso, I wish I was just building a strawman, but I'm not. It has happened many times. Liberal blocks have been doled out many times by admins, frequently involved ones, for things that are far removed from the purpose or intent of the block. I've seen it here on this page, at Arbitration Enforcment and in other venues and frankly I'm tired of editors being beaten up over poorly worded sanctions. I'm also a little disappointed you think so little of me for trying to improve the project....but I don't really care either. Kumioko (talk) 19:25, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Commenting specifically on the language as I've not read the rest of the thread. The counter argument is of course that many editors have tried gaming a ban by editing a closely related topic in the same problematic way while technically obeying the wording of the ban. This is an attempt to avoid this happening. Although I agree somewhat with your concern we also don't want editors gaming a ban. Striking the right balance is difficult. I do hope however that if a single admin interpreted "broadly construed" too broadly their action would be overturned here. Dpmuk (talk) 20:20, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I would hope that as well but historically that has not occurred. I also understand and I sympethize to a degree but we shouldn't be dealing in what if's. If we say they can't edit images because editing images and we are afraid they may start editing videos, then by all means say images, video's and files. But we should leave it completely to the discretion of the admins becaue unfortunatly best intentions aside we don't operate in a utopian society where best wishes prevail. If the user starts editing something else (infoboxes maybe or Portals) in the same problematic manner then they can be brought back and we can revisit the issue. But we shouldn't be so generic that we have this "and stuff" language. On a related point and although I didn't fight this issue yet we should be specifying a duration. Is it 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, forever? The way these are written they infer forever when in many cases 6 months might be sufficient. Kumioko (talk) 20:45, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Kumioko and Dpmuk's views. Not to mention that having a "broadly construed" topic ban implies that the editor being topic banned has been consistently disruptive in too many places such that a broad ban is required when in reality this is not necessarily the case. It's analogous to being banned from going into all bars in a city because you got rowdy in one or two places. Blackmane (talk) 00:01, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Statement from PantherLeapord

Someone probably needs to close this and make the topic ban official before this thread is moved by the bot to the archive... PantherLeapord (talk) 00:32, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

User:173.68.110.16

This IP editor's mainspace edits are relatively normal, but his conduct on talk pages and in edit summaries is quite rude (he generally called people "idiots" in one instance). It's hard to describe, so I'd rather you take a look at it yourself. ViperSnake151  Talk  05:28, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree - completely ridiculous. Who does he think he is - trying to be helpful to actual users??? 173.68.110.16 (talk) 05:32, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Trying to be helpful, with an attitude is a different story. ViperSnake151  Talk  05:38, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. 173.68.110.16 has been rather hostile with edit summaries such as "soulless android strikes again?", "The link is not "dead" - learn to recover it, idiots!" and "Misplaced Pages being worthless again? You don't say!" doing the exact opposite of helping matters... and the edits themselves are not really much better! PantherLeapord (talk) 05:51, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I do not see the difference. As long as the readers (who are by and large not interested in wasting time on editing the articles by themselves or on article's Talk pages) will find relevant, objective, non-offensive information useful - it is irrelevant how and in which way the info appeared in an article, or what actually happened on miscellaneous pages between editors themselves. I am certainly not here to find "virtual friends" or anything like that. If you believe otherwise and more concerned about playing "morality policeman" instead of spending more time on articles themselves - well, then, that's your choice, I cannot do anything about that. That is my final reply on this page. Enjoy your another "achievement" (whatever you intended it to be).173.68.110.16 (talk) 06:03, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Civility is one of the five pillars of Misplaced Pages. Whether or not your edits to articles are good, you are still required to speak politely to other editors, and can be blocked for not doing so.Euchrid (talk) 06:17, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

He has edit warred in Microsoft Security Essentials over a rude contribution of his, which is reverted twice, once by 108.82.12.77 and once by User:Codename Lisa. Then he has started this talk page thread, calling one of the editors a "soulless android". Fleet Command (talk) 06:29, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you kindly for intentionally misrepresenting my actions. Also, thank you kindly for replying to me on that exact talk page with an intentional use of a "WP:HITLER" template shortcut (a template which also has more neutral shortcuts) - my grandfather fought against and perished in a war started by that murderer and you were most thoughtful to remind me about that part of our family's history and compare me to that person. It is great that Misplaced Pages is filled with such helpful editors as you are.

P.S: There's a big difference between using a harmless sarcasm and an intentional use of inappropriate insults targeted at a person's sex/religion/nationality or family members, something which YOU apparently do not understand, judging by a previous use of same "WP:HITLER" shortcut towards a German person here. I feel sorry for you, whomever you are. 173.68.110.16 (talk) 01:57, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Deny recognition: Hello everyone. Currently, an administrative action is not necessary, because so far, the users seems to have not been persistent in his disruptive actions. However, there is little hope in telling him to stop being rude – as evidenced by the fact that even after three people have expressed their disagreements with one of his edits, he is yet to get the point. I advise denying recognition for the time being. We will deal with any future development accordingly. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 11:24, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• Temporary Block, Editor should understand that a certain amount of civility needs to be used in the edit summary too. Amit (talk) 16:23, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• This IP sounds like The Artist Formerly Known As Malleus Look at this recent edit summary and message, from one of our top contributors. Is he facing a block for that? If our IP friend is anything like Eric, he should be welcomed with open arms. -- Hillbillyholiday 02:17, 20 June 2013 (UTC),

Alas, poor Malleus! I knew him, Hillbillyholiday; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy... Srsly, though, I am most certainly not like him, nor am I attempting to be. But thank you for such thought, kind sir! 173.68.110.16 (talk) 03:38, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Three solid days of bullying, insults and incivility by User:Flagrantedelicto

Stemming from a conflict regarding WP:COPYPASTE at Talk:Muawiyah I, User:Flagrantedelicto has engaged in three days of WP:CIVIL and WP:NPA breaches despite having been warned for such behavior by multiple users over the past few months.

• From the original content dispute itself:

1. " I am also going to reinstate some of my CITED entries. And if you delete again without discussing it with me, I will REINSTATE it again."
2. "Don't mistake me for a non-Muslim WP editor who is unfamiliar with Islamic protocol and etiquette."
3. "And who are you to decide what the "facts" are ?"
4. "And please do not offer me anymore unsolicited advice as to where to discuss matters here on WP."
5. "Don't go into any WP guideline bureacracy with me. You are a POV pusher who appears to be manipulating WP guideline policies to what you deem "neutrality"...There is nothing contested here. The sources have been cited and that is that."
6. "And where do you suddenly come out of the blue and question and accuse me of copy-pasting from polemical websites ?"
7. "lol...You must have me mistaken for your friend Johnleeds1...And I could care less what you suspect. Who exactly are you to accuse any WP editor?"
8. " you are a latent pro-Muawiyah Salafi/Wahhabi POV pusher who is manipulating WP guidelines and policies to impose your latent POV"
9. "First of all, my supposed or perceived "bad attitude" toward other WP editors is none of your business. Don't mix up your issues with someone else's."
10. "I don't really need to know who you are, nor do I particularly care to. But I am aware of your POV"

• Flagrantedelicto being uncivil due to my attempts at seeking conduct dispute resolution

1. "Where do you come across with such wild accusations ?"
2. "If anything, your actions give the impression of someone who is out of control."
3. " I shall introduce (or perhaps re-introduce) myself as the editor who is supposedly "out of control", or so I have been labelled...lol"
4. "And I don't need to report you, since you already brought attention to yourself when you went and cried to WP admin Diannaa."
5. "Your above semi-rhetoric of a response would even have been mildly effective had it not been for you running to a WP Admin and crying...You also falsely stated that I was "out of control" and had "outbursts"...lol"
6. You ask me to assume good faith, but lodge a false complaint of me being "out of control" and engaging in "outbursts"...You can offer all the policy rhetoric you want, but your POV is transparent"

• Flagrantedelicto's rejection of attempts at solving the dispute

1. By User:Toddy1 at 01:04, 17 June 2013, flat out rejected at 01:13, 17 June 2013
2. I asked Flagrantedelicto to cease his unprovoked mockery of me for quoting Stephen Jay Gould at 08:03, 17 June 2013, he simply denied what he was doing at 19:25, 17 June 2013
3. Toddy1 also expressed the view that Flagrantedelicto's comment was rude at 01:59, 18 June 2013, Flagrantedelicto once again flatly rejected this at 12:29, 18 June 2013 and denies that such concerns exist at 13:34, 18 June 2013.

• Flagrantedelicto's seeking of a third opinion even contains incivility

1. "::@MezzoMezzo. Your Stephen Jay Gould adage to Faiz Haider certainly sounds profound. It would be nice if you applied it to yourself."

• Flagrantedelicto's speculating about the religion of other editors

1. "Toddy1 (who gave the impression of being a non-Muslim) titled a new section header in Johnleeds1 personal Talk Page HAZRAT MUAWIYAH--Which almost no non-Muslim WP editor would have used. This reveals a Muslim affiliation..."

There is quite a bit more, but I'm only describing what requires urgent attention. In six years of editing, I've seen this maybe twice, and both instances ended with blocks. The longer this continues, the more bold this editor becomes, and thus I feel this requires immediate attention now. It is also worth noting that the admin I contacted, who previously warned Flagrantedelicto for incivility (he responded by saying "Before you start lecturing me, I couldn't care if you are the founder WP, please review both sides and don't cop to a double standard. If I am blocked do you think that really scares me ? LOL I don't like threats...Not from you or anyone. I also don't like your tone, either"), politely declined to mediate the dispute this morning due to other commitments. I don't see any other solution other than ANI at this point; this is a rather extreme case, at least in my experience. MezzoMezzo (talk) 08:01, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Editor seems rude which cant be helped, otherwise the only issue I see is his use of religious beliefs as a reason to question other editors capability (as noted above and also in some of his talk page contribs). WP:PERSONAL Amit (talk) 16:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• MezzoMezzo must learn how to handle talk page disputes himself..this is the 2nd time he has opened an ANI thread in these couple weeks..whats ironic is that there are cases of him being uncivil but he turns a blind eye on his own actions..apparently this user isnt aware that talk pages sometimes do get heated during discussion...this is another frivolous filing on Mezzo's part instead of attempting to calm things down he expects other users to do it for him. Baboon43 (talk) 19:09, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• The last thread was regarding you, Baboon. Nobody called it frivolous; I simply chose the wrong place and was encouraged to file an RFC/U by multiple editors, with one even calling it necessary. I thank you for your advice and perhaps I have made mistakes, but given that I drafted an RFC/U about your conduct I am inclined to be somewhat reserved in accepting your constructive criticism. MezzoMezzo (talk) 20:05, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• There are two related articles Muawiyah I and Yazid I. Flagrantedelicto has made more edits to these articles in the past six months than everyone else put together. Flagrantedelicto was asked to provide further details about sources that he/she was citing, so that other users can verify that these sources support the statements allegedly based on them. He/she has been asked this before. The kind of details requested include, publisher, date of publication, ISBN (if any), etc. Page numbers would also be useful. These details are not difficult to provide if you really have seen the source you are citing (though finding the right page numbers is more time consuming that providing publishing details). I would of course entirely understand a delay - a "hold on" message would have been acceptable.
• When I asked for further details on sources being cited on Talk:Yazid I on 2 February 2013, Flagrantedelicto did not answer, but instead a reply was posted by someone who has only ever edited Misplaced Pages on 8-9 September 2012 and 5 February 2013 explaining that other parts of the article had no citations, and giving reasons why there was no need/point in providing further details on citations.
• I raised this issue again on 9 and 11 May 2013 on Talk:Muawiyah I. Flagrantedelicto's reply was the other stuff exists argument, listing some problems with some citations by other people, which I fixed on 12 May, but he/she did not respond by fixing the problem with his/her citations.
• MezzoMezzo has raised the same issue (using different wording) on 16 June. He/she has advanced the theory that the citations have been cut and pasted from online forums, which is certainly a plausible hypothesis. If Flagrantedelicto is acting in good faith, why does he/she refuse to provide further details on the books that he/she claims to be citing?

• Flagrantedelicto has a habit of providing walls of text on talk pages. It is often hard to see the relevance of these.

• The question is whether or not the article should have sufficient details on sources for other editors to know what book is being cited and verify statements in the articles. What possible relevance is outing me?

• Personally I find some of the remarks that Flagrantedelicto makes to be uncivil. For example, please see User talk:Toddy1#Yazid I Talk Page, which was in response to my asking him to remove some uncivil words from one of his postings about a new user. Unfortunately Flagrantedelicto appears to believe that everybody apart from him/herself is a POV-pusher...--Toddy1 (talk) 22:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

By the way, please can the comments by Flagrantedelicto outing me be removed by admins from Talk:Muawiyah I and any other talk pages with them on. I have a right to privacy, and speculation about my religion is not relevant to the topic.--Toddy1 (talk) 22:32, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I didn't even realize that, his speculation about your (Toddy's) private beliefs does seem like outing. He was already warned by two admins for trying to out another person back in January - User:Someguy1221 and User:The Bushranger - and his reply was that "My contributions on WP outweigh any undesired conflict. Is that understood (?)" and to accuse one of those admins of threatening him. An outing attempt in January isn't directly relevant now, but it does show that there is no excuse for this current outing attempt.

Look. The guy gets warned by an admin for incivility and he tells her "I also don't like your tone"; I don't know why User:Diannaa didn't slap a temporary block there but I admit I know little of how that works. He tries to out an editor that same month and accuses the warning admin of threatening him. Apparently on the Yazid article he's also behaving rudely and now, he launches into a tirade of insults and abuse for three straight days (hence my feeling that this is urgent and appropriate for ANI). This is clearly a case of a person who has been emboldened by the lack of action. He's violated WP:PERSONAL and WP:CIVIL enough times in three days alone to warrant administrative action and his history indicates no reason to believe that this behavior will stop. The two or three articles for which he has very openly claimed ownership are now essentially locked from discussion due to his rudeness. Something needs to be done not only in response to all these violations but for the good of the encyclopedia as well. MezzoMezzo (talk) 04:09, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

As of a few hours ago, the user is still directing rude personal remarks at myself and Toddy1 as well, including on talk spaces that neither of us had previously commented on. I am looking bacj now and there were also more attempts than the one above to dig up private information in Toddy1 but I don't know how to post diffs because I am using my mobile browser and I'm not skilled with it. Look, this is a case of repeated incivility without provoking in our part in addition to what seems like attempts at outing. Something needs to be done. MezzoMezzo (talk) 05:16, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Looks like a clear-cut case of WP:NOTHERE to me - constant attempts to out people, deliberately seeking out conflict, horrendous uncivil comments, etc. A lengthy block, or even an indef, appears to be required. With response to Baboon's comment, well, that appears to be quite clear trolling as well - MezzoMezzo has clearly attempted to discuss the situation, failed, and come here looking for valid sanctions - as is the point of ANI. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 08:06, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

GA review trainwrecked by overzealous "peerreviewers" and Mos enforcers

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The GA review of Phineas Gage has turned into a train wreck. The article was written by a subject matter expert in a somewhat personal style. Some of our fine reviewers (User:Eric Corbett and user:John) turned up and started to enforce the MOS in an overtly antagonistic manner with no respect for either the main contributor's style choices. Eric has no reverted twice to instate his preferred italization of et al. no less. Mos compliance is not among the GA criteria and antagonizing the main editor and the reviewer certainly isn't either.Could some admin tell them to go harass some other poor content contributor so that we can get on eth the GA review.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 22:17, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Translation: your fishing expedition at WT:GAN didn't find anyone to take your bait and ban every person who dared to disagree with you, so you thought you might find a better reception forum-shopping here. – iridescent 22:23, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I actually didn't go back and see the responses there. And it was several days ago after which the situation has escalated. Thanks for your good faith.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 22:26, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Let's be clear about this. I didn't just "turn up", I was invited by the article's main contributor to comment on some of the issues that Maunus had raised during the review. And I find it quite incredible that any editor would object to their article being MoS-compliant. I think this report is despicable. Eric Corbett 22:32, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

You were invited by the main contributor whom you then antagonized and editwarred with. Despicable? I don't know. Bad manners? Definitely.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 23:17, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Are you folks really having an edit war over whether or not to italicize "et al"? Facepalm Gamaliel (talk) 22:31, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• Unarchived. This is not about italics it is about an established editor going 4RR to enforce his MOS preference during a GA review. That is disruptive. He then goes on to say that "he knows it is not the Misplaced Pages way, but then I have never been a wikipedian". GA reviews are not FA reviews. GA reviews are supposed to be collegial and collaborative and not an arduous torment of the poor person whose article was nominated. IF we are going to want a Misplaced Pages with content creators we cannot allow GA to degrade into the ridiculous torture that is FAC.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 22:52, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Wait...What? Are you saying that FA reviews are supposed to be an arduous torment of the poor person whose article was nominated? --Guy Macon (talk) 03:22, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Alas many things related to MOS "enforcement" quickly become highly adversarial. I don't know what can be done about it. Does MOS say "et al." needs to be in italics? (MOS doesn't contain the exact phrase "et al." as of right now.) 86.121.18.17 (talk) 23:18, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
    • No it does not it says that as a rule of thumb words appearing in Merriam Webster Online should not be italicized. Some styleguide require italiczation of 'et al.' others don't. This is not a clearcut or important issue. If I were the main contributor I would not have reverted when Eric removed the italics, but I really think it is unreasonable to make an "I am right you are wrong" contest out of this on an article that one has not contributed substantially to at all.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 23:22, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Then report the 3RR violation at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring. Why bring it here? Gamaliel (talk) 23:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• What Maunus has signally failed to explain is that the minor MoS compliance issues were not part of the GA review, and MoS compliance is not one of the GA criteria in any case. So the only people who made a train-wreck out of the review are him and the nominator. Eric Corbett 23:26, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• I really don't want to have to protect an article and stop a GA due to italicizing a single phrase. This really isn't an admin issue, it is a GA editorial issue. I strongly recommend NO ONE revert back until a discussion is had on the talk page. This isn't rocket science, and it doesn't change the article in a way that the reader will even give a damn about. Go to the talk page and please don't make us play "admin" on this. You guys are really way too experienced to need an admin to jump in here. Otherwise, I will full protect the article. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 23:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I have already failed the article since Eric stated on his talk page that he would take it to GAR immediately if it were passed. I took that as a threat of retaliation if his preferences weren't accommodated.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 23:35, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Looking at the talk page, that seems to be a very unfair comment. It would seem that he and John both felt that change was for MoS compliance, not personal preferences. And I would hope you wouldn't fail an article you thought passes based on the comment of someone else. It would seem the most logical conclusion would be to leave out the italics (right or wrong, they provided a LOT of material to prove that point) and pass it. Failing it just to keep something italicized seems rather pointy and unfair, and that is what this boils down to. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 23:52, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I don't give a fuck about the italics and neither do the GA criteria. John has been poisoning the review with antagonist claims of ownership whenever the article writer argued against the arbitrary changes of his editing choices. Eric has said that he will take it directly to GAR if it is passed. I am not going to deal with that kind of battle ground mentality. GA reviews should be collegial and collaborative. This is no longer possible here.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 00:15, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I didn't like Eric saying he would go to GAR or his reverting (although he appears to be right on the content portion), yet at the same time he was defending the article being GA ready saying that a few people cleaning up the prose shouldn't stop the GA. In the "Captions style" section of the talk page, he and John were giving advice that was clearly backed by policy and you were hostile and resorted to ad hominem. "You would do Misplaced Pages a favor by finding somewhere else to show off your grand editorship and knowledge of what is right and wrong so that we can get on with reviewing this article in a collegial fashion. You think you can do that?" Come on now, both sides are shoving here. You don't need to come tattle to ANI when you are at least as aggressive in your wording than John and Eric. None of this is admin action worthy. Go hammer it out on the talk page. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 00:35, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

No, he is basically saying that he has the right to interrupt any ongoing review and make the final decision of whether an article passes or not. The GA criteria are not bright line criteria but open to different interpretations and different temperaments and tastes. The entire GA process is at risk if this kind of behavior is endorsed. WHo is going to want to review GAs if Eric can come by anytime and say you are both idiots and you have to follow my rules or i'll immediately take the article to GAR and waste your time and make you feel little and unimportant. He is basically appointing himself the new de-facto GA delegate. How the hell does that help us build a collaborative encyclopedia with a collegial editing environment? And as for the "aggressive" quote of mine you apparently didn't read the comment that it was a response to which it was mimicking - I was responding IN KIND. User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 00:45, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Why do you continue with these lies? I was invited to the review, and I made no decision about whether the article should pass or not, that would be you. I merely expressed an opinion. Eric Corbett 00:53, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh for heaven's sake. Just an hour before posting this denial, you posted on your own Talk: "I don't really know what it is, but if the article is listed in its current state I'll likely be taking it to GAR." I won't call you a liar, but let's just say you're being disingenuous. EEng (talk) 06:14, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Also at Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/Edit_warring#User:Eric_Corbett_reported_by_User:Andy_Dingley_.28Result:_.29, because I'm tired of Malleus' Olympian posturing. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:30, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • And I've recommended closing it there because it is already open here. Andy, I hate having multiple venues open on the same problem. Eric has already said he will not revert again, it would be irresponsible to block him. Admin are not (supposed to be) revert counting robots, otherwise you could replace us with a bot. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 23:42, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Why do we have a 3rr (the only bright line) if some editors can apparently revert four times without anyone getting on their case?User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 00:16, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Eric already said he wouldn't revert again. To block now would be abusive. I'm not as impressed with "bright lines" as others, and prefer using judgement. For instance, I seldom block, and more often I will full protect. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 00:35, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

well he doesn't really have any reason to revert when his version is standing and you have threatened with protecting the page if anyone reverts. That is an easy promise to make.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 00:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

He said that before I talked about protecting. Maybe I'm wrong then, maybe you guys can't act like a bunch of adults, but none of this seems large enough that it requires an admin. I give up. Between the obvious intent of some to get Eric blocked for any reason, and Eric's inability to resist calling someone an idiot, you all are making your own problems worse and causing your own drama. Maybe you all do need a nanny, I don't know, but I'm not a nanny. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 00:51, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I don't want to get Eric blocked - I also don't care about him calling me an idiot (not just because I have in fact acted like one, as has he, but because it doesn't matter). I want someone to tell him that it is not OK to take over a GA and threaten with GAR if the reviewer doesn't follow one's style recommendations. I want someone to tell him that content contributors are a valuable resource that should be appreciated and interacted with in a respectful and collegial way. And I want someone to tell him that a peer review doesn't have to be a game about who knows more of the irrelevant details in the MOS - especially not at the GA level. User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 01:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Why do you continue to misrepresent the situation? It was you who constructed this mountain out of a mole hill, not me. Eric Corbett 01:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Much the same as, "I think you're a dishonest idiot. Now fuck off.". Malleus has a free pass to do whatever he likes. Policy only applies to the little people, not to him. Andy Dingley (talk) 00:39, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

If I had a free pass to do whatever I liked then how do you explain my block log? If I really could do whatever I liked then Misplaced Pages would be a much better place than the shit hole it is now. Eric Corbett 00:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

You mean after Maunus called him a "flaming asshole"? It does seem that some editors are free to be goaded and insulted without any form of comeback. Maybe we should advertise this more widely: “If you ever feel like letting off steam, just go and insult Eric at his talkpage. No one will do anything about. More likely is that he will end up being reported. Bonus.” Polequant (talk) 08:13, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Eric has well like 500 GANs to his credit...maybe try and see if you can simply look at his suggestions and sleep on it...it takes two to tango.--MONGO 01:40, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

If he had made any suggestions I am sure no one would have objected, and they would probably even have followed them. He didn't - he made demands and threatened to take the article to GAr if they weren't followed. When the main article author disagreed with one of his MOS changes he reverted four times and told him that hhe was "wrong" - which he wasn't. Its great and fine that he is a prolific reviewer - and I'd be happy to consider his advice and suggestions, but few adults appreciate being taken to school by a selfrighteous schoolmaster when they are themselves volunteering their time and efforts.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 02:09, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Thanks MONGO. The irony is that I fixed some of the prose problems Maunus was complaining about in his review, for no thanks whatsoever, and would have been quite happy to help with the rest of the article, but not now. Eric Corbett 01:55, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The double irony is that I didn't complain at all, and much less ask for anyone but the nominator to come along and "fix" it. I made suggestions, for improvement, not commands or ultimatums. And if you expect thanks and a cupcake for a few measly gnome edits then how do you think the guy who actually wrote and researched the article feels about you and John's dismissive attitude. User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 02:03, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

"The guy" comments: I knew that my very unusual style (which, BTW, has been praised by two sitting Supreme Court justices; one assistant editor each from The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harpers; one Harvard English Department chairman; and several very kind Misplaced Pages editors -- thus I don't feel the need to be defensive) would attract scrutiny someday, so when another editor nominated for GA I invited comment from everyone who had made at least X edits or had posted Talk in the last Y years, to get it over with. I did realize that included M.F., and I was pretty sure what we were in for. He doesn't stress me personally but I think it's a shame what he does to others. EEng (talk) 05:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

What I think is that it's time you took a break, to clear your head. Eric Corbett 02:08, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

So if I went ahead and blocked for 3RR violations and personal attacks, is someone going to claim that Eric has a free pass for that behaviour again? This is a classic example of how good content contribution is completely irrelevant when one is considering bad behaviour.—Kww(talk) 02:24, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Good luck with that. I'll say something nice for you at your funeral. --Jayron32 03:01, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

So you oppose in principle, or just recognize the inevitable futility?—Kww(talk) 03:09, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

For the record, MOS does specify

EEng rises from his comfortable desk in Widener 2E and, rubbing his eyes as he emerges from the quiet solitude of the library, is astounded to find the streets occupied by angry mobs battling one another. Civil defense vehicles are firing water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowd, much the way one might turn the hose on fighting dogs.

I guess I'm the aforementioned subject matter expert with the somewhat personal style. I didn't know all this was going on.

I've already pointed out twice -- before all this argument even started -- that MOS specifically lists et al. as taking italics. (And no, I'm not going to apologize for coining the moniker "Malevolent Fatuous".)

EEng (talk) 04:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Different parts of the MOS are mutually contradictory about this, and discussions have failed to resolve the discrepancy. We should work on that, not take it to articles to fight about. Dicklyon (talk) 05:07, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Well, as far as I can see there are some vague rules of thumb ("not italics if it's an accepted standard part of English", or whatever) versus a very clear direction that et al., specifically, should be in italics. But that's not the point here. It's the strident, superior, arrogant, denigrating, fuck-you attitude from Malevolent Fatuous who is, indeed, a smart person and a valuable editor, but not so smart and so valuable that it makes up for everyone having to put up with his public urination, defecating in the flower pots, and writing of obscenities on the walls. EEng (talk) 05:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

• I would like to request that User:Eric Corbett be topic banned from the article Phineas Gage (or at least from participation in any future reviews of it) so that he cannot sour the review after it is nominated, or use it to carry out petty revenge on the main content writer with whom he is now in a personal dispute. He has stated that he will take it to GAR if it is passed and that he has absolutely no intention of staying out of the review that he played a significant role in turning into a failure. Such statements does not suggest that he is able to approach the article neutrally or dispassionately.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:19, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• That is not what he said here. - Sitush (talk) 14:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

No, this is what he said here:"if the article is listed in its current state I'll likely be taking it to GAR" . User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Note "in its current state". That is fair enough: there is another review going on and most likely the state will change. Eric does usually know what he is talking about and he usually selects his words carefully - oddly enough, these are reasons why he is a bloody good reviewer. In any event, if i goes to GAR then what is the big deal? GAR is where these things can get hashed out if people consider something to be unacceptable. It is part of the process and not necessarily disruptive. You are pre-empting, I think. - Sitush (talk) 14:38, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

He clearly did that as a threat to get his way with a formatting issue. I guess I can look forward to my GAs being taken to GAR shortly then. I doubt it will be hard for Eric to make up reasons for delisting them - or any other article that he hasn't personally reviewed and passed.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? Eric Corbett 14:29, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose topic ban. Absolutely no need for this; the very small issues involved should be worked out by standard talk page discussion. Eric not only has a right to appeal an article to GAR if he doesn't think it meets the criteria, he's correct to do so. Fresh, uninvolved editors could take a look there and hopefully break the talk page deadlock. -- Khazar2 (talk) 14:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

So we encourage revenge reviews now?User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:39, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm finding your tone increasingly offensive. Do you have any evidence that I've ever, or ever would, conduct a "revenge review"? Eric Corbett 14:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

In the past twenty hours I have encountered a lot of evidence that you are a petty and vengeful individual yes. I care little if you find my tone offensive, just as you clearly care very little about causing offense to others.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:43, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps you ought to read a little more deeply then, and refresh your understanding of WP:NPA. Eric Corbett 14:48, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

It is a distinct pleasure to have the honor of being lectured in NPA and civility by Malleus Fatuorum. That is something I can tell my grandchildren about. User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I think you must be confusing me with Malevolent Fatuous. Eric Corbett 14:53, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

That is a distinct possibility.User:Maunus ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 14:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Russavia subject to community ban

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

WP:CBAN states:

Editors who remain indefinitely blocked after due consideration by the community are considered "banned by the Misplaced Pages community".

Given the overwhelming consensus supporting his latest indefinite block that was demonstrated in the section above, I believe due consideration has been had. Consequently, I have added him to Misplaced Pages:List of banned users. I'm posting this notification not for another round of "I agree"s, but as a courtesy to readers and for any disagreements. My edit is subject to WP:BRD, as everything else is. — Scott • talk 22:29, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

• That would be improper. I did not endorse a ban, I endorsed a block. I have reverted the ban listing. If you want to start a ban discussion, WP:AN is the place to do that. I know this may seem bureaucratic, but we have process for a reason. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 22:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
• I have to agree with Dennis; I closed a block review, not a ban discussion (which I would have left open for at least 24 hours, no matter how snowy.) Yes, it may seem like nitpicking, but as Dennis says, there is a mechanism for turning a block into a ban if that's what's needed. 28bytes (talk) 22:41, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Then let's proceed to a ban. Can someone please open a ban discussion at AN? Thanks. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:43, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
    • My singular preference is to allow a few days to pass before starting ban proceedings, so the decision isn't a knee jerk affair but a weighted decision. In a nutshell, I prefer to treat everyone the same, regardless of my personal opinions. That doesn't mean you can't, only that I think it is wise to wait. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 22:47, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
      • Re all of the above; fine with me. — Scott • talk 22:49, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Besides opening an office in Qatar, the Taliban has also opened an office here at Misplaced Pages, it seems. :( . Count Iblis (talk) 22:55, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Umm, what? Are you suggesting people wanting to ban Russavia are the Taliban? There's a new takeoff on Godwin. Heimstern Läufer (talk) 00:42, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The proper context is this issue. This leads to disputes involving editors who are "politically incorrect", it's then possible to get this dispute to escalate so much that one editor will step over some vaguely defined "red line" like "trolling" or whatever. That editor will then be blocked, but that's then not good enough, a discussion will then start about banning that editor. Count Iblis (talk) 01:15, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

And all this means that people on Misplaced Pages are comparable to a regime that killed countless civilians, treated women as subhumans and mutilated people for transgressing religious laws. Yeah, that makes all kinds of sense. Heimstern Läufer (talk) 02:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Par for the course with that "editor". Beyond My Ken (talk) 03:40, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Instead of beginning an argument over "I endorsed this, not that", why doesn't someone begin a vote discussion? Dusti 06:28, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Brocach once again

I'm posting this straight here as Brocach has been brought here before for similar behaviour and talking with ordinary editors will not work. Doesn't help that there is little good faith either between us either, as I frequently call him up for his bias, which will be highlighted here.

It was only back in February that Brocach was previously reported here for his manner of editing on Misplaced Pages, and well he is still persisting to forge on with making groundless edits. To modify what TheBanner said in Brocach's last report: There are no effective reasons for his edits but he just invents excuses for them.

Firstly Brocach has a history of trying to remove "County Londonderry" from GAA articles, this included back in September/October 2012, trying to have all the GAA related County Londonderry categories either deleted or renamed, having went ahead and emptied them without discussion or consensus and populated County Derry ones to replace them. These County Derry ones where deleted.

More recently Brocach has been removing from certain GAA player articles "County Londonderry" citing no source that the player was born or is from the place in the county they are attributed to being from: , , , , , , , , . As far as I am concerned Brocach is gaming the system here to remove the mentions. This view I feel is backed up by the fact they didn't do this on articles of players from other counties and their insistence on ignoring sources in the article that make it clear that the person is from the place that is in the county and then trying to keep it out of the article. Case example being the Eoin Bradley article:

• 13 May 2013, removal of birth place citing "no source for place of birth". In response I add "from Glenullin, County Londonderry" into the lede as is the manual of style for Northern Irish and Irish biographical articles, and if anyone looks at the article, this is sourced in the personal life section.
• 15 May 2013, Brocach reverts citing "no source for birthplace but unlikely to be a rural valley with no medical facilities", despite the fact it doesn't even state "birthplace" but "from". I reverted this stating the obvious " doesn't state born in, states he is from which is sourced in the article, see personal life".
• Brocach removes it again citing the same reason "no source given for birthplace or "from"; stick to "plays for". Yet again I restore. Just to make it crystal clear for Brocach who didn't seem able to look past the lede I added a name to the source citation in Personal Life and then link to it in the lede.
• Once again Brocach reverts it this time stating bemusingly "club should be in lede; clarify NFL win was as team member; add Irish name". Nowhere does he explain his removal. I revert again. At the same time he removed the name tag in the source citation in Personal Life.
• This causes AnomieBOT to cite the source in the lede to be an orphan, which gives Brocach another excuse to remove it.
• I have reverted the article back to the sourced version as that is how Misplaced Pages works - by sources.

Brocach also removed for no reason "County Londonderry" from the Draperstown and Ballymaguigan GAC articles. There was no justification for these edits whatsoever.

Secondly, whilst the above shows quite well his manner of editing, there are other examples of his poor editing behaviour:

In one of those articles stated above where Brocach removed "County Londonderry", Gabriel Bradley, I removed the nationality "Irish" from it as we only state a nationality in Northern Irish biography articles if we have a source for it or they have chosen to represent NI/RoI/UK etc. in a particular sport. GAA on this island is based on an all-Ireland basis, and despite being a nationalist organisation does not make all participants automatically Irish. We have no evidence of what he identifies as. Yet the no source thing only seems to work one way for Brocach:

• Brocach reverts this stating "suggest you try telling Gabriel that you don't know his nationality"
• In an effort to enforce Misplaced Pages guidelines I restore my edit citing the obvious "requires a source just as much as stating where they are from or does that only work for co lderry?"
• Brocach reverts again citing another bewildering reason "nationality has been static since creation of article - up to anyone changing it to provide justification"
• Restored by me citing the obvious which is the justification: "Static doesn't mean it can circumvent need for reliable souces."
• Despite this Brocach once again reverts stating "revert change to long-established nationality statement - the vast majority of Irish bio articles lack a specific source for nationality; add Irish name".

So here we have an instance where something is removed by Brocach as it's unsourced, however his insistence on keeping something in despite being unsourced.

More of the "my way" includes his insistence that his knowledge of Gaelic outweighs sources. In the Lavey GAC article I amended the clubs name in Irish to include "CLG". Brocach has reverted the positioning of this term 3 times. Despite providing my evidence for "Leamhaigh CLG" at Talk:Lavey_GAC, Brocach still argues that instead it is "CLG Leamhaigh" without providing a single source other than his knowledge of the language. This is not how we work on Misplaced Pages.

I would of taken action on all the articles rather than just a few as there are many GAA aritcles that need amended to abide by Misplaced Pages standards, however that would only have turned into a massive edit-war between us. However to tidy up those articles, I will take it to the appropriate venue to get community consensus for it.

I know that me and Brocach have probably both violated 3RR somewhere in the above, and are guilty of edit-warring, even on a slow basis. If that merits a sanction against me, fair enough, however I propose a long-term topic-ban on Brocach in regards to County Londonderry and some form of sanction to encourage him to stop his "my way" editing behaviour that no doubt will be raised again at some point in the future. Mabuska 23:44, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Just driving by and noticed. WP:ROLLBACK is likely necessary. This is a tribal and political divide that is never going to be resolved in this venue, so the letter, not necessarily the spirit, of the rules regarding Derry/Londonderry must be the driving principle. Quis separabit? 23:50, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Nothing "tribal" on my part, "Quis Separabit", and the Derry/Londonderry usage is not a "rule" but guidance that, as the record shows, I have repeatedly supported in a non-partisan manner. Anyone else driving by (and preferably not using the motto of the UDA as their username) might want to check out the very recent discussion that resulted in a topic-ban on Laurel Lodged, a long-standing ally of my accuser Mabuska, for matters relating to Irish geographical nomenclature. I have, for some time, resisted LL's tedious attempts to insert egregious references to "North Tipperary", "South Tipperary" and "Londonderry" into articles on GAA matters since the GAA county system does not use any of those administrative or (in the last case) former administrative divisions.

Let's start with Mabuska's "I'm posting this straight here"... the record shows that when I revert changes, I have frequently tried to engage on the relevant talk pages, without much response from Mabuska or others.

Anyone momentarily prejudiced by Mabuska's reference to a previous discussion of my editing should take the trouble to follow the link and find out that I was not sanctioned in any way, and the closing admin strongly supported my effort to establish consensus at the proper venue. Being mentioned at ANI is not a criminal record, least of all when the outcome supports my proposed way forward!

In relation to birthplaces of Glenullin and other Derry GAA players, I happen to know that many Derry people (some in my family) were born in a maternity facility outside the county, and that very few, if any, current WP-listed GAA players were born in Glenullin, which is a small rural area convenient to two urban centres with maternity facilities. I was thus entirely justified in removing unsourced refs to birthplaces. I don't know whether this applies to any or all other counties, so I haven't edited those other articles in the same way; that doesn't invalidate the approach I have taken on Derry.

For anyone still awake, I will answer some further points as follows. "CLG" (i.e. Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, Gaelic Athletic Club) is required by the grammar of the Irish language to come before, rather than after, the name of the club; thus "Leamhaigh CLG" is nonsense and any English-language source that uses that corrupted version is not reliable. Anyone wanting to revert to the wrong Irish-language version should produce an Irish-language source that uses it (which would still be wrong).

As for Mabuska's repeated attempts to boldly change the long-standing assertion that the Irish GAA star Gabriel Bradley is Irish, I have reverted these because (a) a vanishingly small number of the thousands of articles on Irish GAA players contain a reference relating to their nationality, and I don't see why Bradley should be treated differently; and (b) I reckon that a statement of nationality re any living public figure in a WP article that has not been challenged for many years, as in this case, acquires some degree of currency, and the onus to provide a source shifts to the editor who wants to delete the nationality.

In conclusion: there is nothing in this complaint that merits the attention of ANI, since everything complained of could have been discussed by the complainant at the relevant talk pages, but in nearly every case wasn't. Every single edit that I have made in the articles mentioned has been within WP policy. Brocach (talk) 23:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

James Gandolfini

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Will an admin please look at the rampant vandalism at James Gandolfini. The pace and range of IP and new account abuse is perplexing. A request is at wp:rfpp but they can be slow and this recently deceased actor is getting seriously distorted. :) John Cline (talk) 00:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I SPP'ed it. Thanks for your maitenance work. :) ·Salvidrim!· ✉ 00:52, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

You're welcome, and thank you! :) John Cline (talk) 01:01, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Salvidrim! saves the day again. Thanks! Taroaldo ✉ 01:13, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Around 2013-06-19 10:00 UTC, there was a similar battle among various previously-unseen IPs and newly-created accounts in Christopher Dorner and a related article. Any clue what's going on here? —— 01:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit summaries

.. User:Johnuniq has undertaken the task to discuss the problem with the user. TY John. — Ched :  ?  13:57, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Could someone have a look at this and this please? I don't have the time to research the history, but note it's a clean block log and don't want to over-react. — Ched :  ?  03:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The first diff linked, way too much. The second, a bit over the top. Perhaps the best way forward is a conversation with the user in question, instead of jumping here. (I did not look at the history of the utalk, just its state as of the time of this comment, ignore if that conversation has been attempted.) — The Potato Hose 07:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Disagree. Blockquotes of that size are rarely justified. The editor(s) using WP as a dumping ground for soundbytes and assorted quotefarms should be warned. -- Ohc _{¿que pasa?} 09:39, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• I left some thoughts on the user's talk. Johnuniq (talk) 11:18, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit warring at Edward Snowden

@Fangorn-Y: back from a forced "holiday" of 31 hours, immediately made this edit and this edit, clearly in continuation of his pursuit (123456)for which they were blocked. There is pretty clear consensus that such content should not be in the article, but Fangorn keeps ignoring it by arguing that the info is interesting and source is reliable, or some repetition thereof. -- Ohc _{¿que pasa?} 03:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

First, the consensus is not clear - at least Surfer43 and A1candidate agree with my main proposals. Other editors differ widely by their proposals. Second, you 'forget' to say that YOU was recently blocked for the same action here: User_talk:Ohconfucius#Block, which was made immediatedly after a admin's warning: User_talk:Ohconfucius#ANEW. To faster undo my revision, you even reverted together another revision by A1candidate, without any reason (it was not related to petitions): User_talk:A1candidate#About_the_edit_war_in_.22Edward_Snowden.22. You has already been blocked 8 times by various admins. http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Special:Log/block&page=User%3AOhconfucius And do you ask about the edit war? Fangorn-Y (talk) 09:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Looks like you missed Ohconfusius' unblock 7 minutes later which was reviewed as not an edit warring block. Having read through the section, my take on it is that there is consensus for a brief line on the content you want to add in but not using the source you seek to use as it is not considered reliable. The consenus seems to be that anything more than a brief mention is undue focus on a comparatively minor point. Blackmane (talk) 11:10, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The wrong information. First, Ohconfusius was unblocked 15 hours later (not 7 minutes, as Blackmane wrote) by another admin. Maybe this admin didn't know the previous history User_talk:Ohconfucius#ANEW ? Of course, his last reversion itself is not a sufficient cause for blocking. Second, the discussion was not about 'a comparatively minor point'. Third, all information I inserted is based on sources considered reliable by all (including my opponents). Fangorn-Y (talk) 18:27, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

It was in fact about 15 hours later. You've got that right. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 18:33, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I'll concede that point, I saw the time stamp but misread the date. Blackmane (talk) 09:04, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Fang appears to be trying to use Misplaced Pages as an advocacy tool for the White House "petition" about Snowden. He's been stymied from doing that on the Snowden page, but he's still active on the White House "petition" page We the People (petitioning system). ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 15:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

On the White House "petition" page We the People (petitioning system) I simple copied the update of secondary sources from the Edward Snowden page. This update was made by Surfer43, and has never been criticized. It only replaces an old secondary source claiming 30K signatures to a newer secondary source claiming >80K signatures (really now there is 86K signatures). It is now on the Edward Snowden page, and nobody ever appealed to revert it. Fangorn-Y (talk) 18:18, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

However, when I copied it to the We the People (petitioning system), it was reverted two times for two hours, first time without any explanation, second time by an unregistered user with the 'explanation' "(BRD revert. Snowden content not justified)" . If it is not a promotion, what is it? May I consider such reversion is vandalism? May I revert it? Fangorn-Y (talk) 18:24, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The "We the People" thing has to be discussed on its talk page. As the remover pointed out, there are many of these so-called petitions, and until or if the President responds to this one, having it on that page is undue weight and amounts to advocacy. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:29, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Keeping such counts up to date smacks of advocacy. It's also worth pointing out that Fang's previous entries were about biology. He stopped editing on October 1. Then he started again in early June, totally focused on this one thing. Beware of possible sockpuppetry and/or possible hijacking of someone else's account. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 18:28, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Even though it is a little suspicious, WP:AGF. Surfer43 (talk) 00:24, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Since the editor is clearly pushing a political agenda, he's pretty much eroded whatever good faith he might have started with. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 00:39, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Serious IDHT in any case. It would have been a whole lot more sensible to just wait for the petition to peter out and then look for a secondary source that gave a final tally. Any other use is WP:UNDUE and WP:ADVOCACY per Bugs and Surfer. Blackmane (talk) 09:04, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

User:Reisio, disruptive editing and combative behaviour, again

Reisio's behaviour does once again (for the umpteenth time, judging by a quick search of the ANI archives) merit a report here at WP:ANI. Three weeks ago he was sternly warned by Rannpháirtí anaithnid for edit warring on all pages relating to the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and for systematically marking his edits as minor edits in an attempt to fly under the radar and avoid scrutiny. Which didn't stop him, because he's still marking his edits as minor, whether they're minor or not. But he has shifted his attention from letters of the alphabet to maintenance tags, deleting maintenance tags en masse without making even the slightest attempt at solving the underlying problems in the articles, that is just deleting the tags. In spite of protests from numerous other users. And warnings from numerous other users. His combative mood can be seen both in his edit summaries and in his standard response to criticism and warnings: copying all warnings on his own talk page (thousands of bytes worth of it) and pasting it, along with a short comment at the end of it, on the talk page of whoever dares criticise him (diffs showing that behaviour on the user talk pages of User:Tedickey: , User:Randykitty: , and , and me ,, and ). His disregard for the opinions of others can also be clearly seen on some articles where his deletions of maintenance tags have been observed and opposed, in the form of edit wars, with Reisio making three reverts on each article during a 24 hour period, but stopping there, deliberately (ab)using the system to the max (, , ). So there's a clear need for some administrator action, and a forced leave from WP for Reisio (which wouldn't be his first block, because his disruptive editing and combative behaviour has been going on for years, with no improvement shown). Thomas.W (talk) 10:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Agreed. Will someone please LART that thing with the bouncing warning templates: Andy Dingley (talk) 10:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

BTW - Someone, claiming to be Reisio, has been following this up with a bunch of trolling email. I didn't think it was him, but given how combative his behaviour seems to be generally, I'm no longer sure. Andy Dingley (talk) 10:52, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Even the ANI-notice that I posted on Reisio's talk page bounced and found it's way to my talk page, which makes me believe that there might even be a competence problem involved. Thomas.W (talk) 11:53, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I’m beginning to believe there might be a competence problem as well. ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:23, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I see Reisio has been blocked - but meanwhile he had chosen to provide clearly-misleading legal advice on Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Computing. Further grounds to question competence... AndyTheGrump (talk) 13:11, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I've given him a week off, which is the next step up from his previous couple of 72-hour holidays (along the same lines of edit warring, hostility and tag-removal). My overall impression of Reisio is that he treats other editors and the collaborative process with something resembling contempt, which isn't a good fit for the project no matter how good or knowledgeable an editor one is. Any recidivism post-block should be responded to promptly. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 13:08, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Blocks aside, can we please have a clear ex cathedra statement here that bouncing the warning templates back is not an appropriate action. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:21, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
  • We don't need to codify every example of obnoxious behaviour. It should have earned him a block before this, and will certainly earn him a block of twice the duration if it happens again. If anyone else decides this is a clever thing to do we could put something in our guidelines about it, but I think it's a fairly unusual tactic of annoyance. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 13:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Thumperward. User/Abuser:Reisio seems to enjoy pissing others off in pure trolling fashion. He should not be answering questions at the help desk with such immaturity. 50.160.220.114 (talk) 23:30, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• IMHO, this user needs to be introduced to the use of {{talkback}}.--Auric talk 07:23, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit warring at Jamshedpur

IP editor User:182.74.7.154 repeatedly changing major languages in the infobox to remove Bengali without explanation. This is inconsistent with the article text and the user has not responded to requests on their talk page to stop or justify the change. Warned multiple times and still no change in behaviour.

Diff of last change noq (talk)

• Hi. I fully appreciate this can be frustrating as hell, and you've tried reaching out to the IP to get them to discuss on the talk page in your edit summaries, but even so, you shouldn't keep reverting, as you can be called out for edit-warring yourself. I'd recommend starting your own discussion at Talk:Jamshedpur yourself, explaining your concerns, as a first step. Also, you say that the infobox matches what's in the article, but the paragraph stating "The major conversational languages are Bengali, Hindi and English" isn't cited to a source. I realise from your point of view this is probably akin to stating the sky is blue or the Pope is Catholic, but if you can provide a source, it's a great way to make consensus go in your direction. Hope that helps. Ritchie333 11:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

  Here's a link for the state that it's in - http://www.mapsofindia.com/jharkhand/language.html (I found it used in the Jharkhand article) -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 16:30, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Spam links?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

WARNING: read full post before accessing the link. I noticed that alumnac.com appears in hundreds of high school articles. Is this useful information? I can't tell because Chrome tells me that the site contains malware. That is, is this useful like "find a grave" or spam like "classmates.com"? Rklawton (talk) 12:13, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• This tells a little bit more. Maybe we need to a bot to remove those links, and a filter to prevent them from being added? Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 14:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• I only found links to that site in six articles; I manually removed those. They were all in the "external links" section, so it didn't appear they were there to support any referenced information. If there were hundreds of other articles using them either someone else cleared them out before I got there, or I'm not searching in the right way. 28bytes (talk) 14:55, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Someone should add that to the spam blacklist, something I've not done before. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 14:59, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Good point. I will do that. 28bytes (talk) 15:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
•  Done. 28bytes (talk) 15:12, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

There weren't hundreds. I misread the search results. Rklawton (talk) 15:35, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Block of User:Kiefer.Wolfowitz‎

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Sorry if this is being discussed formally elsewhere; I have not seen any formal discussion.

KW was blocked, apparently for an off-Wiki action. The blocking admin, User:Geni originally removed e-mail access. This was removed by User:Bishonen, but re-added moments later by Geni.

First, I'm concerned about this off-wiki-action block - there are very very few off-wiki actions that can ever lead to an on-wiki block

Second, the WP:WHEEL by Geni is concerning.

(✉→BWilkins←✎) 12:33, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm struggling to see any policy basis for this block. 28bytes (talk) 12:43, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Same as the previous block combined with further evidence of an ongoing pattern of behavior.Geni (talk) 12:48, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Me too. Are we planning our own version of PRISM? --regentspark (comment) 12:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I've not looked into that closely but I don't think it has anything to do with reading posts on publicly viable forums.Geni (talk) 12:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

There are millions of "publicly viable forums" to monitor. Why should we care only about the ones you happen to haunt? If off-wiki activity is fair game then perhaps we do need to set up our own version of PRISM to be fair.--regentspark (comment) 13:14, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I hardly think that secret surveillance would be required in this case (or indeed in any other case of off-site drama). The purpose of such things is to draw attention to oneself. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 14:02, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh WP:WHEEL doesn't apply. "Do not repeat a reversed administrative action when you know that another administrator opposes it." since the reason for the action incorrectly assumed it was a mistake I there is no reason for me to assume (let alone know) that that Bishonen opposed it. Bishonen seems to have thought I accidentally clicked the wrong box which is fair enough and chose to act directly rather than contacting me. Since it wasn't an accident I responded in kind. I understand that discussing things in the block log may be less than idea but then I didn't chose the venue.Geni (talk) 12:48, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

(ecx2) It wasn't really wheel warring because the other admin assumed it was a mistake. So being that his assumption was incorrect Geni fixed it back to what he had. -DJSasso (talk) 12:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• It's worth noting that KW's posting at the off-wiki site at the time the block was imposed, was very substantially different from what is now found at the off-wiki site if one follows the link provided by Geni at KW's talk page. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 12:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) x millions I'm not sure the egregiousness of the original comment compared to its current version has any impact on the issue of the block, though. Whilst I can accept Geni's misunderstanding of Bishonen's email unblock (although since Bishonen has now made it clear that she considers it to be wheel-warring, perhaps Geni might consider undoing the email block again), the block itself is quite clearly for off-wiki activity. I condemn Keifer's attack at the site we do not name, but at the same time, blocks are for dealing with threats to Misplaced Pages, and I fail to see how this one does so. There is nothing stopping KW from continuing to post at you-know-where, and there's no indication that Misplaced Pages is made any safer as a result of him being unable to edit here. A bad block, in my opinion. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:58, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Block seems to be directly contradicted by policy, i.e. Misplaced Pages:NPA#Off-wiki attacks. If Kiefer ever goes before Arbcom, this kind of stuff is available fuel for the fire, but you can't block for off-wiki insults alone, unless it is a crystal-clear egregious circumstance, e.g. when Geni tossed this felon off en.wiki, that was the right call. This ain't that, though. Tarc (talk) 12:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

It doesn't. Remember last time around Kiefer.Wolfowitz's excuse was basically that he didn't mean it. Since we have now established a pattern of behavior we no longer need to assume good faith with regards to that excuse. Thus blocking becomes an appropriate action.Geni (talk) 13:01, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Like a JJ Abrams tv show, you're just making this up as you go along. You can't block someone solely for off-wiki actions of this nature, period. Tarc (talk) 13:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• This is exactly why I didn't just unblock Kiefer and instead posted a note, to get community support. Policy seems to support using off-site comments and actions as evidence, but not as sole determining factors when issuing sanctions. I don't like what he said, and if the community wanted to block him, that would overrule any singular policy since the community as a whole can overrule or change any policy, but no admin has the authority to do that on their own. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 12:52, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Bad block - blocks specifically for off-wiki activity will not stop that activity and thus are purely punitive. - Sitush (talk) 12:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Bad block, though I have few doubts that Keifer will be blocked again soon enough unless they are very careful. As a side note, I'm disappointed in the argument being made by Keifer. Using 2009 to prove a 2013 hypothesis is a little silly. We've all changed a lot in these last four years. Ed  12:55, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

"concerning" is an understatement IMO. IIRC, KW did not have an email option enabled just a few short days ago, so I'm indeed curious as to why the "block email" box is ticked. It's difficult for me to see this turning out well. — Ched :  ?  13:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

NB: KW does have email enabled - he has just selected the option to not receive email. Worm(talk) 13:14, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Bad block for all the reasons stated above and for the grave consequences blocking based on off site commentary will create. I do think we're needing to stop Demiurge1000 from commenting on Kiefer matters too, his commentary is seriously not helping matters. Nick (talk) 13:09, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Interesting - I've made exactly one comment relating to KW since his last block (not this one) was lifted, and that was to neutrally correct a likely misapprehension. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 13:15, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Perhaps, but during the block discussion you posted over a dozen comments about him. Nick is not the first person to recommend that you and KW give each other a wide berth, and I do wish you would consider doing so voluntarily for everyone's sake. 28bytes (talk) 13:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Given the circumstances, only commenting that many times was a remarkable example of restraint. Some, including myself, preferred to consider that past incident as water under the bridge, rather than raking it up again here. But, since you ask politely, I'll see what I can do. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 13:47, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Thank you, I appreciate that. 28bytes (talk) 13:50, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Horrible block, and I was giving serious thought to unilaterally undoing it before seeing the wheel-warring that's already in the block log. We are not the police, and the entire Internet is not our beat. We were given the tools (in part) to prevent disruption of Misplaced Pages, and there is no disruption of Misplaced Pages here being prevented, and not even a pretext of one. This is the very definition of a punitive block. The post was mean and stupid, yes, but it is outside our so-called jurisdiction. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 13:13, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

An argument from practicalities. The disruption is that its rather hard to ask editors to collaborate with people who then may go off and make accusations in a venue that is closely linked with wikipedia. In the end he's making accusations about wikipedians in the context of wikipedia on a site that is very much focused on wikipedia. I quite understand that we can't stop him from doing that however we should not be asking people to collaborate with him while such behavior is ongoing.Geni (talk) 13:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Another round of what borders on WP:BADSITES thinking. If we feel we must police the internet, this isn't the way to do it. KW is "welcome" to make negative comments about what happens here off-site without being subjected to what is plainly retribution and censorship. This implies no sympathy with his statements, but rather a principled standard about the right of editors to discuss Misplaced Pages without our administration acting like a petty oligarchy. Mangoe (talk) 13:20, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Indeed he is. The problem occurs when it continues a pattern and style of onwiki attacks on individual wikipedians.Geni (talk) 13:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

@ Worm TT - thank you for that clarification. I noticed your explanation of details on Ms. 'Shonen's page after posting here. I'm still unclear as to the reason for his email abilities be restricted by Geni; hopefully that will be explained shortly. I'm also quite perplexed as to our remit as administrators in policing sites outside en.wp. As we have no power at even "commons", I don't see how it follows that we can dictate what happens at WO. Hopefully the dots will be connected soon in a fashion that I'm able to grasp (or "grok" if you prefer) — Ched :  ?  13:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Certainly. For the record, I see the block as inappropriate - for reasons Dennis outlined on Kiefer's page and removing email access is not necessary either - it should only be removed if the subject is abusing it. Worm(talk) 13:29, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Copy of comment by KW

Please remind Geni that WTT and another posted concerns about WP:CHILDPROTECT at Sue Gardner's WMF talk page, and obviously WMF has a toothless child-protection policy, which shall be commented on by the community on- and off-Wiki. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 13:18, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• copied by — Ched :  ?  13:37, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Geni, no admin has the authority to act unilaterally in a case like this. This should be clear now. You could have brought it to WP:AN or WP:ARB, but just because you have the technical capability to do an action does not mean you have the community sanctioned authority to do so. In this case, you clearly overreached your authority, encroaching onto the authority that is reserved for either ArbCom or the community as a whole. Does the community want admin to patrol Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other websites looking for reasons to block someone? The answer is a resounding no. The honorable thing to do would be to learn from and accept the community consensus here, undo your block and offer a sincere apology to the community for misusing the tools in this way. Allow us the opportunity to assume it was a one time mistake. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 13:38, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Regardless of the merits of who blocked what, where and when, I cannot believe that it is not obvious to everyone concerned that slapping a year block on Kiefer's page and directly linking to another site is not going to make him think "You know what, I see your point of view, I'll take a year's holiday from editing. Thanks for the heads up," and it was a certainty that it would lead to discussion on ANI, while giving "that other site" a massive amount of Streisand Effect-induced free publicity, and making their criticisms seem very justified. It's also a bit of a slap in the face to Drmies' rather difficult but brave unblock last week. Is that all something we really want? Ritchie333 13:40, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Has this place really hit the point where some think it's ok to begin monitoring people's activities on other sites and then take administrative action based on that? Or is it selectively applied to "enemies of the state"? Foolish block. Intothatdarkness 13:42, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Comment the general idea is that if there's some doubt regarding the intentions of an editor here on Wikipedida (i.e. are they really baiting another user, wiki-stalking, etc., or was it just poor word choice), then we can use off-wiki evidence to support one theory or the other. Otherwise we're better served leaving off-wiki well enough alone. Rklawton (talk) 13:43, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Even as an editor who voted for Kiefer to be blocked originally, and who was unconvinced by the unblock by Drmies, I still feel this is a very, very poor decision. If we're going to start having people blocked for a single off-wiki remark, where no outing, legal threat or any other kind of threat has occurred, then there are a hell of a lot of editors that need blocking. Kiefer should be unblocked fairly promptly, and Geni should be heavily trouted. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 13:44, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Astonishingly bad block, completely out of policy, and made worse by the insistence on blocking email for apparently no reason whatsoever - which if it is the case is also in violation of WP:BLOCK. Kiefer is not exactly short on giving admins excuses to block him, but I think it's probably if we, you know, stick to the actual blocking policy. And I'm trying not to think how much of a slippery slope blocking people for off-wiki activity would be ... Black Kite (talk) 13:45, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Comment (EC) So its okay to sanction people based on their comments at other websites but its not okay to actually listen to what they are saying... Well its an interesting way to go. Personally I think if you are going to sanction someone on Misplaced Pages, taking into account their activities off-wiki, then you should have a frank and open discussion about what they are saying/doing off-wiki.

Lets face it, no one really wants to do that given all the muck that is being raked up (correctly or incorrectly) at WPO, so the sensible course of ignoring off-wiki actions is the best all-round for everyone. Only in death does duty end (talk) 13:52, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Unblocked

Per the very, very clear consensus here, I've unblocked. 28bytes (talk) 13:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Good unblock.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• (after edit conflicts). Note on the block log war: I don't think KW's e-mail should be blocked. I didn't mean in my block comment that Geni made a "mistake" in the sense of a mere misclick, but more that he did it without thinking. (Jimbo used to routinely block e-mail access in his blocks, until I called him on it. Those were mistakes but not misclicks.) I understand that it was reasonable for Geni to read it differently and thus not consciously wheel-war. But what do I know, I'm most likely an atheist or even a Democrat, anyway. Bishonen | talk 13:51, 20 June 2013 (UTC).

Support — Ched :  ?  13:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Fair enough.Geni (talk) 13:57, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

IP repeatedly removing shared IP template from own talk page

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

• 12.71.77.121 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) – On User talk:12.71.77.121: vandalism after final warning. IP-user repeatedly removing shared IP template from own user talk page, in violation of WP:REMOVED. The user has been edit warring on Google Nexus to the extent that the article has been semi protected, and seems to have just realised that the shared IP template clearly identifies the I'net connection he/she is on as belonging to AT&T Corporate HQ, and now wants to remove that embarassing fact from sight. Also note his/her less than polite edit summary in the latest deletion of the template. If the user is blocked removing talk page access might be a wise move since that's were the disruptive editing is taking place. I first reported it at WP:AIV but struck it there and moved it here, both because I'm asking for talk page access to be removed for the duration of whatever block, if any, is metered out, and because blocking an IP at AT&T Corporate HQ might be seen as a trifle sensitive by some (other reports filed after this one at AIV were taken care of, but this one wasn't...). Thomas.W (talk) 16:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

This diff might also be interesting. Thomas.W (talk) 16:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Stay off of my talk page. Final warning. 12.71.77.121 (talk) 16:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Given that it's a corporate IP address, perhaps an email to the responsible IT department would be helpful. Federales (talk) 16:37, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

IP blocked 3 days for edit warring. I will replace the sharedip notice and tell them that if it is removed again talk page access will be revoked. JohnCD (talk) 16:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Three minutes after you posted your message on his/her talk page both the shared IP template and your message was gone. Thomas.W (talk) 16:45, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Restored, talk page access revoked, IP advised to read WP:BRD. JohnCD (talk) 16:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Violations of WP:Disrupt, WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL, etc., at the Tea Party movement Moderated discussion

Counterparty: Malke 2010 (talk)

Though the following issues arose in the context of a moderated discussion with an Arbcom member as moderator in relation to a suspended case, the burden on said moderator may have become too much, or he may be wanting to see what results when matters are left to the community. In any case, I’m compelled to seek input on the following matters. I have, incidentally, attempted to contact Silk Tork by email in relation to this matter, but he hasn't responded.

Earlier I posted a working draft for the major part of the Agenda section Talk:Tea_Party_movement/Moderated_discussion#Working_draft_of_Agenda_section_.28partial.29_with_section_on_the_Constitution, largely consisting of material on the Constitution. As it is a “working draft”, the object of posting it was to solicit input and comments toward further editing on the way to achieving a presentable text which could be put to a vote to assess consensus (SOP on that page).

Before posting the text, there had been a question as to whether I intended to put it to a vote, to which I responded

Of course, a vote will be called to assess consensus once a text has been composed.--Ubikwit 連絡 見学/迷惑 15:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Granted, the response says "composed", but the that was made in haste, an as per past instances of proposing drafts and editing until a final consensus achieving text has been reached on the moderated discussion page, I as simply proceeding according to SOP. Moreover, the title of the section makes it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt what the intended status of the text was "Working draft of Agenda section (partial) with section on the Constitution". Naturally the text was to be a working draft subject to revision based on the response and ensuing commentary, as per SOP.

Malke called a premature vote for no stated reason other than to dismiss the text outright before anyone had a chance to comment. Obviously that would serve to curtail discussion on the substance of the text, not to mention potential modifications, thereto. The section heading she chose read, “iVoteon proposal to add enormous amount of non-relevant text about the U.S. Constitution” , She subsequently revised that to remove the hostile an insulting portions. Prior to that, I had hatted that premature vote and left a comment. She the reverted my hatting

The objective of the editing behavior raised here would seem to be to cut off discussion and force a vote before the text has been assessed, commented on and revised accordingly, which would seem to raise issues with WP:DISRUPT. Obviously I feel that the text is relevant, so there is an issue with WP:AGF in regard to the characterization that the text was “non-relevant”. The reversion of my hatting of her premature call for vote and comment clearly indicating the situation and pointing to previous related comments would seem to raise issues with WP:CIVIL.

There has also been some POV pushing in the following comments. --Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 18:11, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Not sure about others, but a previous situation where there was a previous vague and unclear discussion that went on that looked similar and then Ubikwit made a controversial edit saying that there was no opposition in the discussion. This I think has made me and possibly other folks want to weigh in clearly and early now on Ubikwit-led items. North8000 (talk) 18:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

What exactly are you talking about? "Not sure" and "previous vague and unclear discussion" leave a lot to be desired in terms of specificity.

Indeed, I would prefer that you "weigh in clearly" and not in ambiguous term without providing diffs to that to which you are referring.--Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 19:11, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Just to be clear, I am not "reporting" anybody....there is too much of that there already. My point is that some have become concerned of TLDR and unclear discussions where the inevitable resultant low participation might get interpreted as an "OK to change" and thus tend to clearly weigh in before that happens. North8000 (talk) 19:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Reporting party should remove this and post diff to User talk:SilkTork. He has been our babysitter at Talk:Tea_Party_movement/Moderated_discussion. †TE†Talk 22:20, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Comment to admins:

1. Over the weekend of June 15-16, Ubikwit started a thread about a contentious topic and proposed an edit to the lede, which is probably the most contentious section in the whole of the Tea Party movement article.

2. Another editor supported his proposed edit. Ubikwit voted his support, and then actioned the edit. He then informed Silk Tork of what he'd done. .

3. The moderated discussion has been progressing well, but often it takes up to two weeks of revisions and input from other editors before edits are actioned. Ubikwit is a lead contributor to that page and therefore knows very well that his vote and the vote of one other editor is not enough to action any edit to the article and especially not to the lede. And particularly, not over a slow weekend when participation by the others tends to be down.

4. He did not wait for wider discussion or for input from other editors. He was met with opposition . As a result, Silk Tork had him revert the edit.

5. Since then, Ubikwit has again opened another thread regarding the same topic with a large wall of text as his proposed edit. This appeared to be the edit he intended to make. Having the experience of how he handled that last edit, and as the weekend is approaching, I opened the ivote section and others have since opposed his proposal.

6. Per the rules laid down by Silk Tork, any issues with the moderated discussion belong on that page and any complaints about editors are to be brought to Silk Tork's talk page.

7. Since Ubikwit has said he emailed Silk Tork and has commented on ST's talk page, there doesn't seem any reason to bring this here. It appears to be another example of Ubikwit hounding me. He's been doing that since February. He's often confrontational, mentions my name at every venue he can, makes comments like this: ], and makes frequent personal attacks. If any admins want evidence of the hounding I will be happy to provide diffs. Otherwise, I agree with ThinkEnemies. This is best addressed at the Tea Party moderated discussion page. Malke 2010 (talk) 01:52, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

There are a number of misleading statements above. First, there was a third editor that voiced support for the proposed edit to the lead before I actioned it, and not a single "oppose" vote. Meanwhile, it had been more than two days since the vote was called and more than 24 hours since the last voicing of support.

I reported the edit to Silk Tork User_talk:SilkTork#Actioned_edit_of_reference_to_Constitution_in_lead

Silk Stork did not state that my edit was improper or against the rules, just laid out the principle that the main body of the text should be worked on first, and the lead edited subsequently to summarize the main body of the article:

Talk:Tea_Party_movement/Moderated_discussion#The_Lead

Talk:Tea_Party_movement/Moderated_discussion#Working_on_Agenda_section

After recommending that the lead be returned to the form it was in at the time the article was locked (I carried that out), he unhatted the section on the Constitution and the Agenda that Malke had arbitrarily hatted, which was another behavior I brought to the his attention.

Malke has been making efforts to obstruct discussion of the Constitution for some time now. Whereas she hatted the earlier section and refused to participate in discussion regarding the edit to the lead (which has bee edited and reverted even prior to the discussion on the moderated page and ensuing edit), now she appears to have adopted a reverse tactic of prematurely calling a vote before anyone has had a chance to participate in the discussion and editing of the sample text. Moreover, it was her revert-warring of precisely an earlier version of this text while refusing to engage in a discussion of the substance of the content on the Talk page that resulted in the article being locked.

The diffs posted above also include Malke commenting on my WP:Competence in an unwarranted manner

Plus, huge walls of text with block quotes suggests to me a lack of understanding of the topic to begin with. When a writer can't paraphrase something and relies on block quotes instead, it usually means a lack of understanding of the topic to begin with.

Silk Tork has prohibited such commenting on editors instead of the edit.

In addition, this is now the second time she has leveled the false accusation of WP:Hounding against me . In that case, I responded by email to Silk Tork in order to avoid inflaming the situation. --Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 02:41, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• As long as there is an open, albeit suspended AC case, as well as an attempt to moderate this issue, I think it's unlikely that an admin. with a modicum of knowledge on the background will be willing to take action on this thread alone. If Silk Tork, or any other admin following the discussions at that moderated discussion feel that some administrative actions in regards to behavior are required, then I'm sure they will not hesitate to take the appropriate action. As this board was not designed to determine "content issues", I'm not sure that actions on this thread would be appropriate. Perhaps this should be kept at the talk page discussion level. — Ched :  ?  03:13, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Understood. I have notified Silk Tork of this thread.

I drafted this complaint in a manner such as to address the disruptive editing and related behavior, not the content issues in relation to which that has arisen, but I appreciate the complexity of the context.

At any rate, if Silk Tork declines to comment here, then this thread can be closed and I will simply add a link to this thread and a summary to one of the AC case pages.--Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 03:29, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Wait, Ched, please do look into this. In suspending the case, we authorized discretionary sanctions for a purpose. If there is an editor who you feel is being disruptive, do not hesitate to topic ban them right out without fear of prejudicing the ArbCom case. NW (Talk) 03:37, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Fair enough, but as it entails a LOT of reading, I must beg a few hours sleep first. I'll do some research and reading tomorrow. (East coast USA time zone) .. and thank you for such trust - it is appreciated. — Ched :  ?  04:14, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

The following links might save a little time and effort:

1. An example of the work flow that has been established for proposing, discussing, and revising text until it is presentable for a vote to assess consensusTalk:Tea_Party_movement/Moderated_discussion/Closed_discussions("Trimming 2" section)
2. Relevant discussions relating to editing and other behavior issues as per AC case pages

Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Tea_Party_movement/Workshop#Malke_2010 (“Comments by others” section)

Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Tea_Party_movement/Workshop#Malke_2010_2 (“Comments by others” section)--Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 05:45, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• I have made it clear on several occasions that I am not always readily available to sort out issues, but that they should be brought to me, and then people wait. There is no issue important enough in that discussion that it has to be responded to urgently. I have advised people that obvious vandalism or BLP violations should be dealt with immediately - everything else is to be notified to me, and then people wait. Indeed, there can be a benefit for everyone involved in simply ignoring minor issues, and getting on with the more important task of building the article. Complaining about the actions of others is a huge part of the problem with that article. Walls of text, which are not about how to improve the article, but are about the behaviour of other editors, is not encouraging. I don't have the time today to look into the issue - I'm travelling - but I may have time to look into the matter this evening. I have no objection to an admin looking at the matter and making a judgement, and would indeed encourage that. The more independent eyes we have looking into the situation the better. SilkTork 08:53, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Ched's Review which is limited with respect to the topic in its entirety, and focused solely on the thread before this board. After approximately 2 hours of reading last night, and another 2 hours this morning, I must say that staying focused on the core of this thread can be difficult. In the end my view is to try to remain on the "behavior" topics which I believe this board's function should be. I appreciate the passion of politics, but often find that editing in those areas to be contentious, frustrating, and un-enjoyable - and since I don't get paid for my time here, I tend to avoid it; but I digress. Ubikwit, my view is that you are attempting to rush to judgement here. While I understand that you may feel that others are stalling and filibustering to avoid your edits, I think you need to give others the time to review and consider things without the "I want an answer now" approach. While there is validity to the "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" syndrome on Misplaced Pages, I don't believe it's always been in the project's best interest to provide said grease. You need to stop, read, look, and listen to those around you rather than trying to >>>force>>> your views through with continuous rhetoric, regardless of its validity or merit. To continue with the tired old cliche' sayings I was raised with: "Patience Is A Virtue". In conclusion: I will not be taking any administrative action toward any of the editors in this dispute/discussion at this time; other than to suggest to Ubikwit that he take a deep breath and accept the fact that often the path to the proper end is end is not always a quick and easy one. To be more clear; I suspect that others may be considering whether or not your efforts may be edging ever closer to that disruptive line that nobody should want to get near. — Ched :  ?  11:19, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• Followup I appreciate the amount of time you put into your work to evaluate the scenario, as it is rather involved. My concern in coming here with these issues was not to rush to judgement, but to seek relief against what I perceive as attempts to obstruct and impede progress on the article by running the clock out on the moderated discussion before issues that have proven intractable are addressed.

The moderated discussion is a time consuming process, and the discussion at hand was just getting underway before there was an attempt t prematurely vote down a text that was proffered as a working draft for comment, not presented as a proposed edit. Rather than stalling and filibustering of my edits, the concerns I intended to articulate were of the opposite nature of attempting to "I want an answer now" from everyone that this incomplete and unconsidered text is unacceptable for discussion.

I must admit that I do not see what you are addressing with respect to the statement "trying to >>>force>>> your views through with continuous rhetoric".

Thank you.--Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 11:57, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

See WP:Cup of tea please. Everyone can read your posts here, on multiple drama boards, on SilkTork's user talk page, and in the moderated discussion, and note the nature of your own edits, and see your multiple accusations of incivility etc. That is why we have the "cup of tea." Collect (talk) 12:27, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) No problem in taking the time. I do understand the passion involved with political issues. I have friends on both sides of the isle, and to say that the 2012 election was a difficult time for us would be an understatement. :). If you would have seen some of my Facebook discussions - you likely wouldn't have know whether to laugh or cry. I do understand that some folks may feel they are under a time constraint in that the moderated discussion has a deadline; but my point is that article improvement does not have that same time constraint. The trick here is finding a way forward, and often that means trying to understand where others are coming from. Once you find the "HOW" of collaboration, then the "what" becomes clearer and easier. For example: When I see the section heading "Agenda", I immediately put on my "this might not be good" hat. While indeed it may be the most accurate descriptor, it can also be a highly charged and divisive word. There is the misnomer that we provide no "POV" here, when in reality what we must do is provide ALL POVs. The "neutrality" of NPOV comes in when both (or all) sides are given fair and equal treatment. Just IMO, but there ya go. Anyway - I do wish you all the very best in resolving this very difficult situation, and wish you all enjoyable editing once everyone emerges out the other side of the ride. Best. — Ched :  ?  12:33, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the amicable discussion. I think that the advise regarding the "how" of collaboration is very important, and will make more of an effort to bear that in mind.

I don't want to belabor the point regarding the content issues, as they are extremely involved, but with regard to the Agenda section, since you mention it, that has been in the article for a very long time, and the issue with that is that it has consisted almost exclusively of primary source material, which is a position still being advocated by some editors. Silk Tork posted the following comment recently, for example, that draws attention to the issue sourcing.

There is a paragraph which consists almost entirely of a quote from Ron Paul. A paragraph with information gathered from a primary source - govtrack.us, rather than a secondary source. And a paragraph on an essay by Mead, which is the most useful paragraph, though is only one source on one aspect of the party, and leans too close to an editorial interpretation of the article.

The present discussion at the moderated page is focused on introducing the most focused on aspects by academics, and the entire section as it stands is sourced only to academic sources, but I am open to people introducing primary sources (in a policy compliant manner) so that corollaries can be drawn, weight evaluated, etc. I am aware that the text I have posted soliciting input has problems, but it does effectively illustrate a common thread in academic discourse that the article should include in some capacity.

Thanks again.--Ubikwit_{見学/迷惑} 13:04, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

If time will permit, I'd like to bring some evidence regarding Ubikwit's behaviours. Since he's naming me here, I'd like that opportunity. I wasn't able to do so yesterday because of RL work commitments, but I have some time this morning before I'm off again. I'd appreciate being able to do so. But if admins feel otherwise, I won't. Please let me know, thanks. I'll keep a eye on this thread. Malke 2010 (talk) 16:22, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Should this maybe get a RevDel?

It's been reverted - ClueBot got it - but I thought I should bring this here to see if any admins thought it should be stricken from the record, so to speak. It is a BLP, after all. Cheers, Dawn Bard (talk) 18:45, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

No objection. It looks like we get similar garbage from that IP every time it edits, and over a period of some months. Any thoughts on a block? UltraExactZZ ~ Did 19:00, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Requests of this type can be sent directly to oversight using the instructions at the top of this page. I have rev-del'ed the revision and sent a request for oversight. The IP is assigned to West Alabama University, and is now templated as such. The level of disruption does not yet warrant a block imo. -- Diannaa (talk) 19:17, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the info re: oversight - I'll remember that for next time. Cheers, Dawn Bard (talk) 19:22, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Dawn. We do want to oversight the majority of diffs of this type, so contacting them directly saves a step and avoids posting the potentially libellous diff on this board. -- Diannaa (talk) 20:02, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Removal of Speedy template

User:DFCola keeps removing a speedy deletion template from Roland Baines, a page that he created (it is being deleted for being a blatant hoax). He has been warned four times by me and User:Eyesnore combined. Citrusbowler (talk) (contribs) (email me) 20:01, 20 June 2013 (UTC) Diffs: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Citrusbowler (talk) (contribs) (email me) 20:03, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Well, the immediate step has been taken: I've deleted the article in question. I'm watching the user's contributions to see if further sanctions are justified. —C.Fred (talk) 20:04, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I have blocked User:DFCola as a duck sock of User:RJCola, who was blocked by Material Scientist at 03:22, 20 June. Watchlisting Roland Baines for re-creation. -- Diannaa (talk) 20:09, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

User is back, apparently, see Roland Atwood Baines by User talk:PWCola. Cheers, Dawn Bard (talk) 21:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Some admins (Material Scientist and Nawlin Wiki) have dealt with the new article and the new sock. He must be on a dynamic IP to be able to create new accounts, otherwise he would be autoblockd. -- Diannaa (talk) 23:27, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

User:IP98

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

IP98 (talk · contribs) has decided to unleash a flurry of attacks against The Rambling Man (talk · contribs). Their userpage was what alerted me to this; it's mostly dedicated to attacking TRM. This is not a new occurence, even on their userpage: see the content added here, and the edit summaries. I queried what was going on with their userpage - perhaps the wording was imperfect, but I was just calling it as I saw it, and, well, the discussion is frankly ludicrous (they were editing whilst logged out, but it's clearly them.) It appears this user is WP:NOTHERE for the encyclopedia, and is here just to attack The Rambling Man - I can see talk page comments from February that were incredibly hostile as well. In addition to this, there is at least one page in userspace that this user has written as attacks on TRM - I can't see them as they've been deleted, but the one I know of was located here: . So, what should be done about this user? A block, or a final warning, or an interaction ban? It's ironic for them to publicly state "I do not engage in sarcasm and name calling", only to then make the edit summary remarks "two faced conflictinator" and "bully". Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 20:30, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I reset my password to a random string, and have no recovery. I do not intend to return. It makes me so sad that I've been a victim of this guy for so long, have presented evidence to the same, and am now facing a block. If you could reach out to User:Medeis and User:ThaddeusB, maybe they have something to add. I'm done. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 20:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I mean, seriously, restore the second to last version of his sandbox, find the comment from my edit history, and his edit comment "typically stupid". Typically stupid. And I'm the bad guy. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 20:35, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

And one last thing actually. A year and a half I'm here, reading articles nominated at ITN, offering feedback. TRM comes out of no where and relentlessly attacks me, and you honestly suggest that I'm only here to attack TRM. Really? Come on. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 20:37, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Am I claiming TRM is innocent? No. I can see one talkpage thread on your talk where TRM had a disagreement with you, and ever since, you've been incredibly incivil. TRM has not dedicated the majority of pages to attacking you, so you've gone above and beyond anything they've done. And your comments in the latest discussion were utterly out of line. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 20:39, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• He's been incredibly incivil to me for a very long time. I'm so sick of it. The walls of text, the sarcastic quips, the manufactured conflict. Look at the WT:ITNR discussion on the Heineken Cup. Am I out of line? Sure. But this has been a long, long time building. I have no way to recover this account, block me if you want. He won. I just don't enjoy WP anymore. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 20:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Comment IP98 and I have disagreed on a number of issues, (and yet even only a few days ago agreed on some, bizarre), but I would be happy to never engage with this user ever again and would abide by any kind of interaction ban. On the flipside, I've never resorted to calling IP98 a "gobshite", or telling him/her to "go to hell" or accused him/her of being "the worst piece of garbage" or suggesting "You fuck off" or "You're horrible, truly horrible. God, may he damn you to hell". IP98 has a host of diffs about me which he/her claims as a catalogue of my misdemeanours, I'd prefer it all to be opened up here and resolved, once and for all. I've got zero energy for a fight here, so much more to do in real life and here, so this will be my only post. Please decide amongst you the way forward, examine the "evidence" and let me know the outcome. Many thanks to all concerned. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:41, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• "Typically stupid" TRM, those were your words, when pasting a direct quote from my edit summary to your sandbox. Typically stupid. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 20:46, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• Well, what's worse? Damning someone to hell, or calling someone stupid? Both are evidently inappropriate, but... Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 20:49, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• But he did it weeks ago... Like I said, I'm done, so close this however you see fit, but I enjoyed ITN/C, liked the other editors there, liked reading the articles nominated, liked being able to offer feedback. The only person I ever had conflict with was TRM, yet you can see he's had it with ThaddeusB, tariqabjotu, 331dot, and certainly Medeis. So I snapped, I'm out of line, and I'm sorry that I lost my cool. I just honestly couldn't take it anymore. It's not fair to label me as WP:NOTHERE. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 21:01, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

These are comments and records kept on IP98's talk page, correct? Unless there's some campaign by him outside his user space this should be dropped now--it's only provocation, and he's entitled to his own records and thoughts. I don't even see TRM starting anything over this. I have had issues with both users, so I'll recuse myself at that. μηδείς (talk) 21:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• I fail to see how anything IP98 has kept, on either their userpage or talkpage about this user, is appropriate. And, you're right, TRM didn't ask to start anything - this is my request for action, not his. And, IP98, you really should've sort some kind of friendly assistance before spewing bile about this user. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 21:21, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
  • We're talking about a guy who was unrepentant in calling me a liar. An AN/I would have failed. He's not uncivil by the classic definition, but he's very unpleasant to me. I snapped, and I'm sorry for that. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 21:32, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Comment IP98 has apparently scrambled his password and left. The Rambling Man has clearly stated he won't be posting anything further in respect of this report. I think it's very sad to see this (I follow ITN/C a lot, even if I rarely post - I spend most of my time logged out these days), but what admin action is now required? As far as I can tell, none. Pedro :  Chat  21:28, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• A short-term block for the 76.110.201.132 IP, presuming it's a static IP - for someone who has said they're walking away, they've not really shown that they genuinely intend to comply with that. If that's inappropriate, and/or the 76.110.201.132 IP (or any IPs used by this user) doesn't edit again, then I'm happy to have this closed. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 21:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• It's a cable internet IP, probably won't change. Do a 48 hour block just to help make sure I don't respond to another TRM provocation. I'll clear out the TRM section of my old userpage before I do. Plz don't delete the user, I may want to reference it's contrib history in the future. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 21:34, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
• Turns out I can't, the spam filter stops me. --76.110.201.132 (talk) 21:36, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

There is no way I (and I doubt any admin) will block the 76.110 address. Luke - you seem to requesting a punitive block IMO. TRM has stepped away, so has IP98 (I'm willing to accept 7.100.... is the same person). looks like no further action to me, accept perhaps some regret from both sides might not go amiss. Pedro :  Chat  21:51, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• For the record, I have no idea how the fight between IP98 and TRM started. For a while it spilled over into ITN on a regular basis and I asked both parties to stop. As far as ITN goes anyway, they did. I don't know how the latest round started, but I'm quite sure the whole thing was a personality clash. I think both acted poorly at times, but both also made numerous positive contributions. Perhaps IP98 acted worse, but on the other hand TRM is an admin and should have known better. I'm sorry to see IP98 go, but I don't think there is any admin action required. --ThaddeusB (talk) 22:00, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Agreed. I'm closing this for now. Luke is commended for his concern in keeping Misplaced Pages civil, but at this point I don't see how any admin action is likely based on where we are right now. It is an unfortunate series of events that is in the past, but right now I don't see any action forthcoming. --Jayron32 22:04, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Problematic behavior by user Smarojit

This editor thinks that he owns the Misplaced Pages-article on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and edit-wars with any editor who he disagrees with

Recently, he has been repeatedly attacking me and vandalising my Talk-page:

Any help to restrain him will be highly appreciated. Thank you and regards.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 22:40, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• A rather strange request, given that practically all your recent edits appear to have been reverting another editor over multiple articles. One might even suggest WP:STALKING. Black Kite (talk) 23:55, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

• I wasn't aware of WP:STALKING. But it is unwarranted here anyways. When you see an editor removing massive chunks from articles, suspicion arises naturally that something might be wrong.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 00:19, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• I guess you weren't aware that you are required to notify someone when you report them either, but you are. I did that for you. Please remember to do that in the future. I'm off for the night, but wanted to make sure that was taken care of. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | © | WER 01:27, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• I was aware of it yet I decided to not interact with him. He has been haranguing me on my talk-page in a regular manner, vandalising my talk-page and thanking me for all of my edits. But I think that I should've done it in any case, so thanks a bunch for your help. He is most welcome to disagree with me over the content in the article, but he has no right to curse me out.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 02:05, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• When that editor is experienced and routinely leaves informative edit summaries, it's probably better to simply ask him or her about those edits rather than assuming bad faith. But since you didn't do that other editors have had to revert your problematic edits and even more time has been wasted. Slow down and ask more questions, please. ElKevbo (talk) 01:45, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• This edit proves that I didn't assume bad faith. Being an old editor certainly doesn't keep you from getting monitored. And likewise, doesn't give you the carte blanche to do whatever you want on Misplaced Pages. I collectively made a mistake and I duly apologize to the people (or person) who may have been offended by this deed of mine.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 05:22, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• It's true, empty vessels make the most noise. I am not even going to lend dignity to this baseless accusation by trying to justify myself, but here are some samples of this user's disruptive editing on Misplaced Pages:

1.Blindly reverted edits by User: Ssg2442 and me, without citing any reference here: .

2. After I opened a talk page discussion here and asked him to provide sources for his claims, there was no response!

3. Disruptive editing at it's best can be seen at Talk:Dil Se..#Young Megha where he deliberately engaged in arguments with User:Vivvt and User:Bollyjeff for no rational reason whatsoever. His comments were crass and cheap. Again, he blindly reverted the edits of several senior editors which can seen here: .

4. More deliberate arguments can be seen at Talk:Karisma Kapoor#Sunjay Kapur or Kapoor?.

5. He has a history of edit warring, and was blocked for it. See this:

6. After I posted talk page messages to him, asking him to stop his crass, rude behaviour (which he has kindly linked above), he promptly deleted my messages. On asking him to read about civility in Misplaced Pages, he deleted my message with an edit summaries that said: "learn some manners before posting here" and "you need to mind your tongue and learn some manners".

7. Since then, he has blindly reverted my edits on two separate occasions, one at Krrish 3 and the other at Salman Khan. For the former, I removed an unofficial poster of the unreleased film, which he reverted without citing any reason for doing so. See here: .

Given this is the way this user conducts himself on Misplaced Pages, I am not surprised that he takes joy in wasting the time of other editors at every opportunity he gets. (P.S: His user page reads: "I am quite powerful on Misplaced Pages") --smarojit 05:53, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• His profanity is evident on this very page. Since he mentioned Krrish 3 and Salman Khan, I am going to clear the air. In the former (Krrish 3), I restored the poster but didn't refer to it as the official poster. In the latter (Salman Khan), I mentioned that Khan has starred in several commercially successful top ten highest-grossing domestic films of their respective years, then I listed them. His vandalistic retaliation was simply his revenge-edit. Note that he reverted my edit in the article on Salman Khan while he was persistently vandalising my talk page.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 06:25, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• As can be seen from the respective talk pages, I provided four reliable references to back my point on Talk:Dil Se..#Young Megha and two reliable references to back my point on Talk:Karisma Kapoor#Sunjay Kapur or Kapoor?. It's about time that someone take action against this user for his profane behavior.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 06:38, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Update: This editor is trying to rally other editors against me --Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 06:42, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Smarojit, ignore this thread and do your works. --Tito☸Dutta 07:12, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• Yeah, Smarojit, ignore it. He is really wasting everyone's time. I have wasted my precious one day on this guy. If you give helpful advise to them in their tough times, they feel we are trying to take some advantage.--Vigyani_talk 07:32, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Vigyani is referring to this edit of mine. This happened when both me and user Vivvt were blocked for edit-warring over content in the article Dil Se... Vigyani, you need to stop bearing a grudge against me. Let go of it.--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 07:57, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• No, I don't bear any grudge if you think so. After that edit of yours, this is the first time probably I am talking about it. I was not interested in addressing to you, but since I am now, I will ask you to assume good faith, which you are seriously lacking. Also I am surprised that you still think that your references at Talk:Karisma Kapoor are reliable.--Vigyani_talk 08:13, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• (off topic) What a bad choice of color. I could not read anything and had to select the name to read it. --Tito☸Dutta 08:28, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Vigyani, we met on Dhoom 2 and its talk page, then on Dil Se..'s talk page, then on my talk page when I was blocked and now we are meeting here. You have been hounding me. As can be seen from Talk:Dil Se.. and Talk:Karisma Kapoor, I have cited 'Mid-day', 'Mumbai Mirror', 'THE TIMES OF INDIA', 'The Indian Express', 'OneIndia' and 'IndiaToday' but all have been called unreliable--meaning all Indian media outlets are unreliable. I need a break from this relationship--Isaacsirup_ReadMe!! 08:39, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

What a pity to see that everyone on Misplaced Pages is "hounding", "haranguing" and "harassing" you. We must be the devil! --smarojit 08:44, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• @Iscrp I thought you had suggest someone to read WP:BOOMERANG --Vigyani_talk 10:56, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Admins, please close this unproductive thread asap. Smarojit is one of our most productive Bollywood editors and wouldn't revert editors without a valid reason. Isaac, move onto something more constructive and please change the ridiculous colour of your user name which nobody can see.♦ Dr. ☠ Blofeld 09:00, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

As I was notified by smarojit to comment on this, I can tell you that this user (Isaacsirup) is simply wasting other's time and doing no constructive editing since beginning. He/she either does not understand anything or does not want to. No matter how many talk messages you post on his/her talk page or on article's talk page, it does not help. (and only gets you blocked!) On Dil Se... talk page, he/she stared an argument providing hell lot of sources saying these are RS in support of Jiah Khan and declined to see the visuals. The discussion went for a week and got both of us blocked. When I asked other editors to list down their support/oppose for Jiah Khan and Priya Parulekar, this user listed his/her oppose for Jiah Khan saying "Obviously-all Indian media outlets are unreliable"!! - Vivvt (Talk) 13:52, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Problematic editor

• and best wishes with your daughter BK. — Ched :  ?  03:18, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Really sorry to ditch this on people and run, but it's 1.30am here and I have a small daughter with a rather messy health issue. It's probably related to the Darkness Shines thread above - contribs and name. Will notify, Cheers, Black Kite (talk) 00:34, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Read the talk page and read the sources. They are attributing my sources to material which it does not support. Read the page's first line. It is perfectly fine now. If it is reverted, you have a vandal by the very definition of vandal. And calling a user "problematic" when there is no other way to describe his SOURCED contributions you or the majority does not want to hear is not acceptable. Yesitwasgenocide (talk) 00:37, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• We're dealing with an SPA, who sounds like a professional crusader (note the name). The belligerent attitude suggests someone with a grudge--like a returning user. At any rate, I've blocked them for 31 hours on the strict charge of edit warring following the report at ANEW. Take it easy Black Kite. Drmies (talk) 01:54, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Should we start an SPI? Mr T 11:40, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

User:Stemoc and 2013 mid-year rugby union tests

Can someone please take a look at Stemoc's conduct on this article? He has been repeatedly un-civil about me, and about User:PeeJay2K3. See Talk:2013 mid-year rugby union tests, this deletion discussion, and edit summaries here -

I now realise he has also breached WP:3RR -

I'm not looking for him to be blocked, but if someone could warn him to play nice, it would be appreciated. --hippo43 (talk) 03:18, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Believe me, no 3RR was breached, I changed it to an earlier version which i didn't consider the first time and what i reverted is regarded as vandalism in wikipedia i.e "removing sourced or verified information relating to an article", 3RR does to include vandalism and the user in question, PeeJay2K3 has a long history of being banned for 3RR. Secondly, you nominated that article for deletion and when the deletion request was DENIED, you started removing things from that article and many other related articles. What you did is what we class as WP:DRAMA and I should have reported you here but i chose not to.

I hope you admins consider this. The only thing i'm guilty of is incivility. When someone starts removing things without a valid explanation, its considered vandalism and reverting vandalism is NOT a crime on wikipedia...--Stemoc (talk) 04:16, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

User:UnrepentantTaco -- Disruptive creation of groundless AFDs, probable sockpuppetry

UnrepentantTaco created an account three weeks ago and since then has done virtually nothing but initiate deletion discussions and respond brusquely if not rudely to commenters who disagree with their nominations. The editor displays technical skills and policy familiarity not at all consistent with being a new editor, and a willingness to brandish WP:AGF against those who (quite properly) criticize his rapid-fire, poorly checked or conspicuously unresearched nominations that strongly signals past problematic behavior. Their complete failure to notify article creators of deletion proposals of any type is also a clear red flag. These comments to User:Dolovis also suggest an experienced editor with past troubles resurfacing with a new account. Most (but not all) of the deletion proposals have gone down in flames, usually quite rapidly. Among the recent problem nominations are:

Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Lee Yong-Cheol (Olympic athlete)
Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Thon (river) (river whose existence is undisputed)
Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/The Sheep Look Up (rather well-known, award-nominated book)
Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Helga þáttr Þórissonar (a medieval Icelandic saga!)
Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Thomas Metcalfe (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) (councillor to Richard III of England)
Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Gil Skeate (1920's era NFL player)

There are many more. It appears evident to me that this editor is the same as User:Jamminjimmy, blocked for sockpuppetry in May (that block has expired). Some of their comments, including the rather odd motto on their userpage ("If these articles were a people, I would embrace their genocide") make me wonder if this is not yet another appearance by the indef-blocked User:IronKnuckle, who self-immolated in "a spectacular anti-Semetic meltdown" and has before and since been caught socking several times. I don't see any intent to edit competently or in good faith, and call for an indef block. Hullaballoo Wolfowitz (talk) 03:25, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

I too suspected (independently from Hullaballoo, but he posted first) it is the same user as User:Jamminjimmy. There is overlapping interest and to cite two examples. Paul Erik 03:52, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• I am looking at them and haven't yet made up my mind. The Sheep AfD is now closed: that was indeed ridiculous--at the very least it was incompetent, BEFORE not being followed. But a few others seem reasonable. In all, though, I do get the feeling that they're just nominating for the hell of it. Drmies (talk) 03:54, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

And a totally inappropriate AfD here Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/H. C. Ørsted Medal. It is worth taking a look at the user's user page. Xxanthippe (talk) 04:04, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm just an ordinary but hard-working editor who was completely dumbfounded by the AFD posted for The Sheep Look Up, especially since the AFD notice pointed to a redlink for discussion. I had no idea where to protest this inappropriate nomination, but was relieved to see it closed as "Keep" some hours later. Whoever proposed the AFD appeared not to care about actually discussing this, or enabling anyone else to discuss it either. This rude and peremptory behavior is extremely upsetting and dispiriting to ordinary contributors not experienced with the AFD process. Reify-tech (talk) 05:09, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

The lack of repentance is alarming too. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 05:34, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

The red link in AfD boxes within the articles is a Misplaced Pages software problem, not some malevolent action of this guy. He did create discussion pages. If you click on the red link(s) it takes you to a "blue"/existing discussion page. 86.121.18.17 (talk) 08:22, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

When I tried clicking on that particular redlink, it did lead to creating a new, blank edit box, implying that the AFD proposer did not see fit so say anything about why the article should be deleted. Fortunately, other concerned editors more familiar with AFD proceedings later piled on in the article's defense. If what you say is true (and I have little reason to doubt it), that is a rather unfortunate bug. I did take a quick look at User:UnrepentantTaco's contribs and user page, and felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume and span of the AFDs. Some, perhaps even many of them were valid, but the casually issued AFDs on serious and useful articles were very dispiriting. Rampant deletionism is very corrosive to volunteer contributions. Thoughtful pruning is certainly necessary, but the mechanisms for appeal and discussion should be very clear, and must work as advertised. I'm glad this particularly destructive sockpuppet has been stopped, and hope that the Misplaced Pages admin mechanisms for identifying and stopping similar meta-level vandals work as efficiently and quickly as possible. Reify-tech (talk) 16:07, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• I have personally closed one of the AfD as a clear speedy keep. I recommend topic banning User:UnrepentantTaco from AfD, a self confessed deletionist, to prevent further disruption by creating needless AfDs. Without prejudice to someone more familiar with the edits from opening an SPI with substantial evidence. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 05:23, 21 June 2013 (UTC).
• I ran a basic set of checkusers on this, looking for any obvious matches... but there were none. Any other CU is free to pick up where I left off, but there are no low-hanging fruit on this one. I would just indef the account and be done with it, given the polemicist user page, but topic banning would be fine, too. Jclemens (talk) 05:32, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Replying to myself because I forgot to do one other simple check.  Confirmed that these are the same person. Jclemens (talk) 06:52, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

I suggest a ban from AfD nominations and prods. Xxanthippe (talk) 05:50, 21 June 2013 (UTC).

• Just closed the Thon AFD as an obvious SK as well. §FreeRangeFrog 05:53, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• Support AfD topic ban, broadly construed per related disruption . Given the WP:SPA nature of the account, an indef block would work just as well. 86.121.18.17 (talk) 06:41, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• I should note that a number of his nominations (his earlier ones, not those in the list above) were legit. I'm not sure if that was done to confuse things or what. Anyway, each should be evaluated individually, some were good, some were bad. I see he was blocked for sock-puppetry in the mean time. Sock of who? 86.121.18.17 (talk) 07:26, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• The motto on their user page is a variant of "If these words were people, I would embrace their genocide." from The Best Page in the Universe. 86.121.18.17 (talk) 08:14, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
• I had a look through some of the AfDs, and like other editors concluded some were valid and some weren't. His comments demonstrated a lack of clue about how notability and the AfD process works, but I don't think he was being particularly uncivil. He's not editing in bad faith, he just thinks a one line "microstub" (his words) article with no cited sources must be non-notable by definition and he thinks AfDs are the best way he can help the encyclopedia. Ritchie333 09:54, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Competence is required to edit Misplaced Pages. Good faith (doubtful here) is not enough. Xxanthippe (talk) 10:29, 21 June 2013 (UTC).

sockpuppet accusation

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Not sure whether this is the right place. In the edit-summary of this edit User:Delicious carbuncle seems to openly accuse two users of sockpuppeting. As he doesn't provide any evidence for that, I doubt such accusation is o.k.. --Túrelio (talk) 15:06, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• What administrator action would you like taken? He could just have been using sarcasm.... Ritchie333 15:41, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages noticeboards