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Statement of the dispute
QG displays tendentious editing at acupuncture-related articles, especially at Acupuncture and German acupuncture trials (GERAC).
Desired outcome
- Make QG realize that his current behavior is making the GERAC article worse, and have him voluntarily limit his contributions to this article to making suggestions on the talk page, for one month
- Make QG realize that his attitude of the end (i.e., fighting against alleged quackery) justifying the means (WP:IDHT, deletion of reliably sourced material, disruptive tagging) is not constructive, and voluntarily improve his editing style.
Description
QG is a notoriously difficult editor who now seems to be on an anti-acupuncture crusade, to the point that he is willing to skew the facts.
In talk page discussions, he very often refuses to get to the point and to explain his criticism (usually: allegations of WP:OR, POV language, WP:WEIGHT violations, "discredited" sources, etc.); on the other hand, he seems to be unable or unwilling to understand other editors' explanations. This results in other editors recurrently complaining of his WP:IDHT.
He routinely disputes apparently good sources (on grounds that successively change if needed) if they seem too pro-acupuncture or too useful for the GERAC article.
The situation at the GERAC article is complicated by the fact that this article attracts a lot of controversy; it is (ironically and wrongfully) seen as a pro-acupuncture article and/or WP:COATHOOK by several editors of the "skeptic" faction, and survived AfD just two months ago.
As a direct result, QG's tendentious editing routinely is defended by skeptic editors like User:Roxy the dog and jps (, , ). This only emboldens him and is why we need broader community input.
Two AN/Is have been filed against QG's edits at the GERAC article (I. Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive820#QuackGuru, filed by User:A1candidate; II. Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive822#Disruptive editing by User:QuackGuru, filed by myself) but both were largely ignored by admins.
As there was ongoing dispute about how much information about the trials should be included in the article, with QG and me regularly reverting each others' edits, QG filed a report at Misplaced Pages:Fringe theories/Noticeboard/Archive 39#Edits against WP:LOCALCON at German acupuncture trials, which resulted in admin User:Guy Macon recommending an RfC and securing a page protection for one week.
I have refrained from reverting QG's edits since then, which resulted in him deleting the disputed material as soon the page protection ran out (). He's also been deleting any edits I've done since then (, , , ).
Evidence of disputed behavior
Persistent history of AN/Is, RfC, Arbitration etc.
RfC
Arbitration enforcements
(2 week block, 2009); (topic banned from pseudoscience for 1 year; 2011)
AN (general)
AN/Community sanctions
AN/Is
Wikiquette assistance
Skewing the facts because of anti-acupuncture bias
Talk:Acupuncture#Edits on "Legal and political status" vol. I (The diff of QG's controversial edit is here)
WP:IDHT
Note: context for the above three diffs is here: Talk:Acupuncture#Rate_of_serious_adverse_events. Much ado over nothing more than restoring a review article. QG's initial objection about the publication date was quickly addressed, and the IDHT that followed was surreal. (He even tried to argue -- among science editors -- that rendering "0.05/10,000" as "five in one million" was "confusing"; see third diff above, and ).
others:
Other avoidance of WP:DR
- Blanks anything on his user talk page: User talk:QuackGuru (history).
- Blanks anything on his user talk page: User talk:QuackGuru (history).
Disruptive tagging
Disputing reliability of apparently good sources
Applicable policies and guidelines
Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute
Attempts by certifier User:Mallexikon
Attempts by certifier User:Middle 8
Other attempts
Users certifying the basis for this dispute
{Users who tried and failed to resolve the dispute}
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Response
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Views
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Outside view by Jojalozzo
Quackguru was topic banned from pseudoscience and chiropractic, broadly construed, for 6 months in 2009 and for one year in 2011, the latter with the explanation: "Since there is no apparent progress in QG's approach to editing pseudoscience topics since the previous ban, a doubling of the duration is logical" (). I was involved in the 2011 dispute and resolution process and have noticed a similar lack of progress in QG's approach since that topic ban. The scenario described here is very familiar to me and I consider QG's tenditious style to be intransigent, irremediable and toxic to the project. I foresee no lasting remedy short of a lifetime topic ban for science and health, broadly construed. Jojalozzo 17:24, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
Users who endorse this summary:
- Middle 8 (leave me alone • talk to me) 13:37, 13 February 2014 (UTC) Maybe just alt-med, but indef topic ban for sure
Outside view by Guy Macon
QuackGuru is an interesting case. If you look at the battles he keeps getting into, much of the time he has a legitimate point. Areas such as Chiropractic and Acupuncture do attract a fair number of editors who would very much like to make the articles on those topics overwhelmingly positive, and there is an ongoing struggle to achieve a neutral point of view in the areas of alternative medicine and pseudoscience.
That being said, QuackGuru comes close to being the worst possible choice to fight these battles. The proponents of alternative medicine and/or pseudoscience are, for the most part, well-meaning and willing, after some gentle persuasion, to work with us to create balanced articles. This takes a calm, friendly, evidence-based approach with lots of polite explanations about the reasoning behind our policies. QuackGuru interferes with this by turning the article talk pages into a battleground and causing the proponents to dig in their heels. In many cases, QuackGuru is right but he isn't persuasive, and he gets in the way of those who prefer a more calm, measured approach to dealing with these sort of issues.
Because of this, I must reluctantly recommend that QuackGuru be given a lengthy topic ban on all articles relating to pseudoscience and/or alternative medicine, broadly construed. There are plenty of other editors keeping an eye on these articles, and QuackGuru's efforts are hurting more than they are helping.
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