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Purpose of the workshop: The case Workshop exists so that parties to the case, other interested members of the community, and members of the Arbitration Committee can post possible components of the final decision for review and comment by others. Components proposed here may be general principles of site policy and procedure, findings of fact about the dispute, remedies to resolve the dispute, and arrangements for remedy enforcement. These are the four types of proposals that can be included in committee final decisions. There are also sections for analysis of /Evidence, and for general discussion of the case. Any user may edit this workshop page; please sign all posts and proposals. Arbitrators will place components they wish to propose be adopted into the final decision on the /Proposed decision page. Only Arbitrators and clerks may edit that page, for voting, clarification as well as implementation purposes.

Behaviour on this page: Arbitration case pages exist to assist the Arbitration Committee in arriving at fair, well-informed decisions. You are required to act with appropriate decorum during this case. While grievances must often be aired during a case, you are expected to air them without being rude or hostile, and to respond calmly to allegations against you. Accusations of misbehaviour posted in this case must be proven with clear evidence (and otherwise not made at all). Editors who conduct themselves inappropriately during a case may be sanctioned by an arbitrator or clerk, without further warning, by being banned from further participation in the case, or being blocked altogether. Behavior during a case may be considered by the committee in arriving at a final decision.

Motions and requests by the parties

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Proposed temporary injunctions

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Questions to the parties

Arbitrators may ask questions of the parties in this section.

Proposed final decision

Proposals by User:S Marshall

Proposed principles

I hold these truths to be self-evident.

Purpose of Misplaced Pages

1) The purpose of Misplaced Pages is to create a high-quality, free-content encyclopaedia in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect among contributors. Use of the site for other purposes, such as advocacy or propaganda, furtherance of outside conflicts, or publishing or promoting original research is prohibited. Contributors whose actions are detrimental to that goal may be asked to refrain from them, even when these actions are undertaken in good faith.

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Making allegations against other editors

2) An editor alleging misconduct by another editor is responsible for providing clear evidence of the alleged misconduct. An editor who is unable or unwilling to support such an accusation should refrain from making it at all. A claim of misconduct should be raised directly with the other user himself or herself in the first instance, unless there are compelling reasons for not doing so. If direct discussion does not resolve the issue, it should be raised in the appropriate forum for reporting or discussing such conduct, and should not generally be spread across multiple forums. Claims of misconduct should be made with the goal of resolving the problem, not of impugning another editor's reputation.

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Neutral point of view

3) All Misplaced Pages articles must be written from a neutral point of view, with all relevant points of view represented in reasonable proportion to their importance and relevance to the subject-matter of the article. Undue weight should not be given to aspects that are peripheral to the topic. Original research and synthesized claims are prohibited. Use of a Misplaced Pages article for advocacy or promotion, either in favour of or against an individual, institution, or idea that is the subject of the article, is prohibited.

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Conduct during arbitration cases

4) Policy states: "Editors are expected to conduct themselves with appropriate decorum during arbitration cases, and may face sanctions if they fail to do so". Editors who conduct themselves inappropriately during a case may be sanctioned by arbitrators or clerks including by warnings, blocks, or bans from further participation in the case. Behaviour during a case may be considered as part of an editor's overall conduct in the matter at hand.

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The day after the evidence phase closed, controlling behaviour on the talk page: 1, 2, 3. "Let me know what you would like summarised for a specific section. I need to know the page number." QuackGuru continues to feel that all edits made to the article should be made by him.—S Marshall T/C 20:58, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

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Recidivism

5) Editors who have already been sanctioned for disruptive behaviour may be sanctioned more harshly for repeated instances of similar behaviour.

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Role of the Arbitration Committee

6) It is not the role of the Arbitration Committee to settle good-faith content disputes among editors.

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Proposed findings of fact

History 1

1) The dispute on electronic cigarettes has been long and involved, with a number of incidents of sockpuppetry, inappropriate edits for pay, and other disruptive behaviour. Editors have been subject to attacks which have spread off-wiki. During this time, editors adopted assertive article management techniques intended to maintain a NPOV article in the face of a large number of inappropriate edits. As a result of the disruptive behaviour, the community decided to impose discretionary sanctions on 1 April 2015.

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"number of incidents of.. inappropriate edits for pay". User:FergusM1970 was blocked for being paid to edit Derwick Associates, see .FergusM1970 did frequently edit e-cig articles but denied being paid to edit them. Whilst this denial may not be true, we have no evidence to the contrary that I'm aware of. So we don't actually have any evidence of paid editing to e-cig articles.Levelledout (talk) 23:04, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

"assertive article management techniques" often translated to ownership, edit-warring, filibustering and other plain rule-braking - two wrongs don't make a right. Not clear that some of the editors using the "assertive article management techniques" were trying to implement NPOV.Levelledout (talk) 23:31, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

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History 2

2) Although discretionary sanctions were enacted, they have not hardly been enforced.

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User:SPACKlick was "prohibited from adding images to or removing images from articles related to electronic cigarettes, broadly construed" by uninvolved admin Darkwind. , so yes they have been enforced. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 11:50, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

I see that there has been one occasion. Corrected.—S Marshall T/C 19:36, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

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History 3

3) No Very little evidence of sockpuppetry or COI editing that post-dates the imposition of discretionary sanctions has been presented to the Committee.

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Possibly so, though the absence of SPI's doesn't always mean the absence of sockpuppets. Interested however in the point of this as a proposed Finding - there doesn't seem much evidence the discretionary sanctions have achieved much, how have they helped in reducing sockpuppetry?

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Arbitrary example: User:OutOfCheeseError was banned for sockpuppeting (SPI). Last e-cig edit July 7th – this was detailed. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 12:26, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Comment moved, answer to Arbitrator

I really don't know. It's possible that the threat of discretionary sanctions was sufficient deterrent?

What I do know is that those who would like to excuse QuackGuru's behaviour on the basis that he was dealing with sockpuppetry, haven't produced much recent evidence to support that. Yobol's intervention, for example, was surprising to me because in upwards of six months editing the article I've never noticed him participating there.—S Marshall T/C 15:21, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't think discretionary sanctions have deterred sockpuppets whatsoever, there have been at least 3 new SPAs (with under 50 edits, mainly if not only active on ecigs) who started editing after I filed evidence here (Aug 18). I did not anticipate being challenged on the grounds of insufficient recent examples (4 banned sockpuppet accounts these last months), but I can apply for an addendum with evidence of post discretionary sanction cases if need be. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 11:43, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

I'd have no objection to submitting further evidence on this score. I do want to query CFCF, who seems to be going off on a tangent. I'm talking about evidence of sockpuppetry and/or COI editing. CFCF seems to be talking about new editors, people with less than 50 edits, who he characterises as SPAs. How do we know someone's a SPA if they have fewer than 50 edits, and what does that have to do with sockpuppetry and/or COI editing?—S Marshall T/C 18:02, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

@S Marshall: My evidence was to provide context to the dispute, and clearly that evidence applies to conduct that occurred before your involvement in the article. I think context, including the disruption caused by multiple SPAs, etc. was important in this case, since it is in regards to editor conduct in e-cig articles in general (which seems to be the proposed scope of the arbitration case according to the title), and not just a dispute about only the last 6 months or only about Quackguru's conduct. Yobol (talk) 18:44, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

I concur and would also like to add I never meant to be exhaustive in my evidence. To your point S Marshall, new editors with ~20 edits on this topic with few elsewhere are highly likely to be sockpuppets. An SPA is indication of sockpuppeting, though not conclusive – which is why WP:Checkuser exists.-- CFCF 🍌 (email) 06:06, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. I'm trying to show Arbcom some of the reasons why this is a really fraught environment, and I'm sure that comment will help them see. I'm also sure that Quackguru would strongly agree with you on this point if he was participating here.—S Marshall T/C 18:08, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

S Marshall, I'm not throwing baseless allegations around here – I beg of you to look at the editing patterns of these new accounts since the 20th: Jim bexley speed (talk · contribs), JoLincoln (talk · contribs), MorphRv (talk · contribs) and say that their editing conduct is not suspicious. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 21:54, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

CFCF you are on the money there. Those three editors are great examples of the behavior that drives problems in the e-cig suite of articles. Jytdog (talk) 00:47, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

CFCF, I'm unfairly singling you out and this is happening because you're choosing to engage with the process and talk to me. There are others who are not. I don't want to give Arbcom the wrong impression based on that.

I must say that I'm unaccustomed to dealing with bad faith users. I'm a rather experienced editor but up to now I've been active in the less contentious areas of the encyclopaedia; I've translated biographies of Europeans and written articles about rural England and its local history. I don't have to deal with sockpuppets or SPAs on agriculture in the United Kingdom or forestry in the United Kingdom. And I genuinely can't see anything suspicious about the contributions of those new accounts, so you'll have to explain to me what I'm looking at.

Incidentally, if you read those two articles I linked, they're ones where I've been able to work unobstructed and get to a stage where I'm reasonably happy with the language, style and structure. I beg you to compare and contrast them with electronic cigarette, which might help you see why I think the latter article is so horribly defective.—S Marshall T/C 07:46, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Johnbod The editing patterns are not suspicious in and of themselves (and maybe Jim bexley speed is the odd one out) – but in light of the proven excessive sock-puppeting they become suspicious. As I detailed in my evidence it is very difficult to see which editors are good faith editors and which are socks – when both clearly exist. I would like to point out that this entire discussion surrounds a supposed lack of evidence of sock-puppeting, which is simply not true. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 12:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

I think everyone's good faith has been warn down by this past process. Causing some to see boogeymen in every corner. There has been very limited COI or puppetry. There are some SPA's but that's less of an issue. I generally agree with the point that COI and Sockputtry are oft brought up in relation to this dispute but are of limited effect in causing this dispute. SPACKlick (talk) 13:25, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

There is a significant degree of socking here and even discounting specific cases – SPAs are very problematic. Many of the users ignore relevant sourcing policies and only edit on these articles – making it impossible for any general editor to keep up. I don't think I need to remind anyone that WP:NOTADVOCATE is a central policy.

Without pointing fingers – AlbinoFerret (talk · contribs) was neither a sockpuppet nor a COI-editor – but was very passionate and under two months created an insurmountable degree of talk-page discussion (see talk page link at 570,000kB) – it just simply isn't possible to keep up for an average editor. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 07:12, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

I agree that highly passionate and active editors make the page impossible to keep up with, although AlbinoFerret is far from the worst offender. Shall we make a table of who has edited the page and the talk page most frequently since discretionary sanctions were imposed? The data would be easily extracted and would I think shed some light on this aspect.—S Marshall T/C 07:46, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

 Doing..., since Johnbod asked for it. My parameters will be 1 April 2015 to this timestamp.—S Marshall T/C 18:25, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Done for the page, results in my sandbox. I haven't done the talk page yet but will see if I can get it done tomorrow.—S Marshall T/C 23:49, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

... and done for the talk page, which is a bit less ridiculously one-sided. Note that evil Lowercase sigmabot III who's clearly a malevolent SPA! Results again in my sandbox.—S Marshall T/C 22:41, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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Yes, I've looked "at the editing patterns of these new accounts since the 20th: Jim bexley speed (talk · contribs), JoLincoln (talk · contribs), MorphRv (talk · contribs)" and I do "say that their editing conduct is not suspicious." Not at all. The first has been editing since 2011 btw. Johnbod (talk) 14:02, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

WP:AGF is a core policy. I'm not pursuaded. Johnbod (talk) 13:07, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

I have repeatedly assumed that e-cigarette advocates were not socks or COI, and I have repeatedly been proven wrong. I have been surprised; perhaps I have been naive. At this point the evidence of socks is perfectly clear. As is the resulting damage. Cloudjpk (talk) 17:04, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

"repeatedly" as in twice?

• User:InfiniteBratwurst was a sock of User:FergusM1970
• User:OutofCheeseError was a fairly obvious sock of User:CheesyAppleFlake

Those are the only two incidents that I am aware of.Levelledout (talk) 22:04, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

• "Shall we make a table of who has edited the page and the talk page most frequently since discretionary sanctions were imposed?" - yes, this would be useful I think. Johnbod (talk) 18:07, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
• @S Marshall, your comment "although AlbinoFerret is far from the worst offender" had me wondering, what would happen if you ran the same tests with AlbinoFerret's edits before they were banned from the article to compare. That would also be interesting as that was by far the highest volume of edits overall. Yobol (talk) 00:03, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

History 4

4) However, the assertive article management techniques have continued, and these have inappropriately affected good faith editors with legitimate concerns about the article's content. The talk page has become fraught and difficult to use, and the editing environment has become hostile.

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I think this presentation is a little one sided. There has been some backlash against the "assertive article management techniques" however it perfectly encapsulates my understanding of the problems to that point. To be more explicit with it. People stopped displaying assumptions of good faith. Others responded by stopping displaying assumptions of good faith. SPACKlick (talk) 13:31, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

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Proposed remedies

Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.

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Casting aspersions to the point of harassment without linking to evidence or policy or making any type of supplementary comments whatsoever. This IP user is asked not to edit this case's case pages and email all pertinent info to the Arbitration Committee at arbcom-llists.wikimedia.org. L235 (t / c / ping in reply) 19:05, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed by an arbitration clerk. Please do not modify or continue it.
Proposed principles Template 1) {text of Proposed principle} Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Template 2) {text of Proposed principle} Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Proposed findings of fact SPACKlick claims consensus when there is none 1) SPACKlick claims consensus when there is none Comment by arbitrators Comment by parties: Comment by others: SPACKlick invents policy which he puts forward as fact 2) SPACKlick invents policy which he puts forward as fact Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: SPACKlick misrepresents sources to bolster his argument 3) SPACKlick misrepresents sources to bolster his argument Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: SPACKlick fails to understand that it is inadmissible to add a picture of an apple captioned as a picture of an orange using the spurious argument that the artist is representing an orange by an apple 4) SPACKlick fails to understand that it is inadmissible to add a picture of an apple captioned as a picture of an orange using the spurious argument that the artist is representing an orange by an apple Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: When challenged SPACKlick descends into incoherence 5) When challenged SPACKlick descends into incoherence Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: SPACKlick cannot control his use of bad language 6) SPACKlick cannot control his use of bad language Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Bishonen got so fed up of being sworn at by SPACKlick that she removed him from her watchlist 7) Bishonen got so fed up of being sworn at by SPACKlick that she removed him from her watchlist Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: SPACKlick tag teams with AstroLynx, CambridgeBayWeather and NeilN to remove the sources added by other editors confirming that a picture is not Muhammad prohibiting intercalation and to revert editors removing it as irrelevant 8) SPACKlick tag teams with AstroLynx, CambridgeBayWeather and NeilN to remove the sources added by other editors confirming that a picture is not Muhammad prohibiting intercalation and to revert editors removing it as irrelevant Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Despite warnings, SPACKlick disregards General Sanctions to needle other editors and disrupt the project 9) Despite warnings, SPACKlick disregards General Sanctions to needle other editors and disrupt the project Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Proposed remedies Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated. SPACKlick 1) SPACKlick Site/Community banned with appeal after 1 year Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Template 2) {text of proposed remedy} Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Proposed enforcement Template 1) {text of proposed enforcement} Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others: Template 2) {text of proposed enforcement} Comment by Arbitrators: Comment by parties: Comment by others:

Proposals by User:Müdigkeit

I have been involved with this user here

Proposed principles

Discussion after reverts

1) After something has been reverted, and is disputed, someone may propose another solution or simply present arguments. Sufficient time should be given to respond.

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I agree but I'm also aware others feel swamped on the sometimes fast moving talk pages. Would some sort of limit to one comment per contributor per discussion per 24 hours or something help slow discussion down and so make edits to the article, while slower, more reasoned when they get there?SPACKlick (talk) 13:27, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

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Reverting without reasoning

2) Reverting good faith edits without evident reasoning is disruptive editing.

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I would clarify this as "without given reasoning" or "without evident reasoning" most of the infuriating reverts will have a reason, however reasonable it is. However they're infuritating when the reason isn't given to be discussed if disputed. SPACKlick (talk) 13:28, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Comment by others:

Good suggestion by User:SPACKlick. Implemented.--Müdigkeit (talk) 17:40, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed findings of fact

History of disruptive editing for User:Quackguru

1) User:QuackGuru has previously partipiciated in disruptive editing multiple times, and has been blocked for it again and again, as evident from his block log

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Disruptive reverts

2) User:Quackguru reverts too fast, as evident here

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Proposed remedies

Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.

Quackguru:0RR

1) User:Quackguru is subject to 0RR restrictions, for a period of...

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Too strong.—S Marshall T/C 20:33, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Not too strong given the evidence presented against QuackGuru. I'm not sure exactly what else QuackGuru could actually do in order to have some firm action taken against them. As demonstrated on the evidence page they have already partaken in ownership, edit-warring, gaming the system, abuse of process, honesty issues, disrupting to prove a point, using Misplaced Pages as a platform for fighting quackery, etc, etc.Levelledout (talk) 21:32, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

No, it really is too strong. QG's zeal for sourcing is valuable to the encyclopaedia and we shouldn't stop him reverting in medical fields. If Arbcom does decides to go as far as 0RR on QuackGuru it should be limited in scope to just electronic cigarette, and its subarticles if any survive AfD. I would prefer something less extreme than that, although I'm blessed if I know what. We could try to make a laundry list of his problem behaviours and ask him to stop them all, but I wonder whether a mentorship of some kind could be made to work?—S Marshall T/C 00:05, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes that's the problem S Marshall. It's not that I particularly want to see QG or any other editor sanctioned. It's more the fact that to do nothing or very little is to give QG a license to continue braking every rule in the book. Which means we have to put up with that. Or in my case and others, not put up with it and get driven away from the articles. That's not an acceptable option to me. QG does make a valuable contribution but he's just one editor. He's not more important than the project and when one editor is driving multiple other editors away from articles and preventing many others from from editing the article, firm action has to be taken. In QG's case he has already been blocked many times before and banned by ArbCom at least twice previously. So firm action is certainly appropriate. 0RR is the least we should be looking at, quite possibly a topic ban to prevent talk page disruption. Mentorship, yes but in addition to other measures given the evidence and history.Levelledout (talk) 00:53, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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Quackguru:1RR

2) User:Quackguru is subject to 1RR restrictions, for a period of...

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Too strong.—S Marshall T/C 20:33, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Could a more general 1RR restriction calm things down a bit? With standard exclusions for obvious vandalism? Making it so edits only remain when there's consensus would be a big help. SPACKlick (talk) 13:22, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

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Quackguru:Siteban

3) User:Quackguru is sitebanned, for a period of...

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Far too strong.—S Marshall T/C 20:33, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Don't particularly want to see any editor site-banned unnecessarily. With respect to QG, something does need to be done with regard to their disruption to talk pages and that will not come about via plain editing restrictions (e.g 0RR). The evidence presented in this case is restricted only to electronic cigarettes and therefore I am not sure a site-ban can be justified in any case, a topic ban possibly, but not a site-ban. What I do know is that QG has a very long block log and has been sanctioned and banned by ArbCom at least twice previously. Some type of action is needed on QG that will mean we don't keep going round in circles and ending up back at ANI and ArbCom.Levelledout (talk) 21:45, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

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General sanctions:Standard discretionary sanctions

4)The topic Electronic Cigarette is subject to standard discretionary sanctions, broadly construed. This replaces any community authorized discretionary sanctions regarding electronic cigarettes.

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General sanctions:1RR

5)All reverts in the Electronic Cigarette article and its content forks are restricted to one revert in 48 hours, subject to the standard exceptions

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Agree with Johnbod that this might help. Am also attracted to the idea applied in Gamergate, of a minimum edit history for accounts in this space. Other views welcome. -- Euryalus (talk) 03:36, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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There are already discretionary sanctions. We don't need to pile on new sanctions at the article level ---- it would be sufficient if Arbcom could arrange for the sanctions that are already in effect to be enforced strongly and consistently. A restriction on the number of reverts would only be workable if it had intelligently-designed parameters (more intelligent than one revert per editor every 48 hours, which is easily-gameable). I feel that if any additional sanctions are to be created these should be at the editor level rather than the article level.

I'm not overenthusiastic about Gamergate-style minimum edit histories; it seems un-Wikipedian and counter to the basic principles of our encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. Are we in the process of creating a new class of supersemiprotected article?—S Marshall T/C 23:23, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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This might help. Johnbod (talk) 01:42, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed enforcement

QuackGuru:Violations

1) If QuackGuru violates any restrictions placed on him, he should be blocked for at least one month for the first violation, and indefinitely if he violates them again or tries to evade a block.

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In general this whole series of proposals is ax-grinding against Quackguru and I don't see support for much of it. I agree with opposes above. Jytdog (talk) 22:52, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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Ax- grinding? No. I have identified this user as long-term disruptive editor, and that means that we need to make clear that really bad things will happen if the undesired behaviour continues. If we want to give this user another chance.--Müdigkeit (talk) 07:36, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposals by User:Jytdog

Proposed principles

Neutral point of view

1) All encyclopedic content on Misplaced Pages must be written from a NPOV, which means representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without bias, all of the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic. This is particular important for content related to science and medicine, including public health. Misplaced Pages's scientific and medical content is solidly grounded on the scientific and medical mainstream.

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Reliable sources

2) Reliable sources for content related to health are defined in WP:MEDRS, which calls for content related to health to be based on secondary sources, which in turn are defined as reviews in the biomedical literature and statements produced by major medical and scientific bodies.

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Not a platform for advocacy

3) Per WP:NOT, Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox, a battleground, or a vehicle for propaganda, advertising and showcasing.... Therefore, content hosted in Misplaced Pages is not for Advocacy, propaganda, or recruitment of any kind: commercial, political, scientific, religious, national, sports-related, or otherwise. An article can report objectively about such things, as long as an attempt is made to describe the topic from a neutral point of view.

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4) Per the widely cited essay, WP:SPA, Misplaced Pages's Arbitration Committee has determined that "single purpose accounts and editors who hold a strong personal viewpoint on a particular topic covered within Misplaced Pages are expected to contribute neutrally instead of following their own agenda and, in particular, should take care to avoid creating the impression that their focus on one topic is non-neutral, which could strongly suggest that their editing is not compatible with the goals of this project."

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Decorum

5) Misplaced Pages users are expected to behave reasonably, calmly, and courteously in their interactions with other users; to approach even difficult situations in a dignified fashion and with a constructive and collaborative outlook; and to avoid acting in a manner that brings the project into disrepute. Unseemly conduct, such as personal attacks, incivility, assumptions of bad faith, trolling, harassment, disruptive point-making, and gaming the system, is prohibited.

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6) Per the useful essay WP:Controversial articles, editors working on such topics are strongly encouraged to use the best quality sources available, to propose significant content changes on the Talk page rather than being bold, to comment on content and sources, not contributors, and generally to exercise self-retraint in editing and on Talk pages.

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Content disputes

7) Restrictions are placed on users only in cases where their behavior seriously disrupts the wiki process or fulfillment of Misplaced Pages's mission to produce an accurate and useful reference work.

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Proposed findings of fact

1) Articles related to electronic cigarettes have been subject to pro-vaping advocacy editing with regard to health effects and regulation, by sockpuppets, editors with declared conflicts of interest, SPA accounts, and others.

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They have also been subject to excessive anti-vaping edits of various kinds, by various types of editors. Johnbod (talk) 02:40, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Johnbod I am not sure what you mean by "anti-vaping - would you please define that? Also, please point me to the evidence discussing "anti-vaping" advocacy (although it may be obvious, once you define the term). Thanks. . Jytdog (talk) 03:29, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

2) Despite many ANI discussions and community-imposed discretionary sanctions, interactions among editors remains difficult and the suite of articles continues to generate activity on noticeboards that distracts the community from editing and dealing with tractable problems. Long term NPOV and advocacy issues are among the thorniest issues to resolve in Misplaced Pages.

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3) Disputes among editors have become overly personalized, with Talk page discussions too often focused on contributors, not content. Quackguru has been a particular focus of comments.

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4) Quackguru's editing of the e-cigarette article and its content forks is too aggressive.

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Agree, but it is his defensive mode that is worse. Johnbod (talk) 02:40, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed remedies

Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.

1) Similar to a sanction imposed on Gamergate articles per this, articles related to electronic cigarettes and their Talk pages are not editable by accounts with fewer than 500 edits and age less than 30 days.

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2) Pro-vaping advocacy in edits or talk page discussions is subject to action via arbitration enforcement. "Pro-vaping advocacy" is limited to the fields of health and regulation, and includes promoting health benefits of vaping, downplaying the health risks, or negative toward regulation of electronic cigarettes, in a way that does not reflect the best source(s) (plural) available. "A pattern" is defined as more than 50% of contribs to electronic cigarette articles and Talk pages in the fields of health and regulation (not all contribs to e-cigarette articles, nor all contribs across Misplaced Pages), over any 14 day period.

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Make that any advocacy please. We don't need the anti-vaping zealots either.—S Marshall T/C 00:17, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

In my view, the evidence is clear that the disruption stems from pro-vaping advocacy. I have not seen evidence presented for disruption by anti-vaping zealots and should that arise, this can be amended. Jytdog (talk) 00:28, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps historically. Recently, it hasn't stemmed from that at all. QuackGuru is not an advocate of any kind. However, he personally is the editor who behaves most disruptively ---- obsessive (I've shown that he is by a truly massive margin the most active person on the page), controlling (I've shown him implying that he personally should make all edits to the article), totally unwilling to change in response to reason or evidence (as I've shown), and when we get to a page where we can discuss content I'll show you the many problems he has composing a paragraph of comprehensible English as well. He's appointed himself as article manager and I can't think of a less suitable person for the post.—S Marshall T/C 00:45, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

If he is not an advocate, I don't understand why you are mentioning him here, at this particular remedy, which is focused on advocacy. I do understand that you are very upset with him. Jytdog (talk) 00:55, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

I have presented such evidence against QuackGuru. Adjwilley, when sanctioning him, has previously told him that he needs to stop using Misplaced Pages as a "platform for exposing quackery". Quackery which apparently includes e-cigs. I think there are other editors that take a similar stance on similar grounds but I do not have the evidence to back that up so I won't name them. The point is Jytdog, that I think proposing to only clampdown on "pro" advocates but not "anti" is illogical and makes no sense if the aim is to uphold NPOV.Levelledout (talk) 16:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

• I want to comment on this proposed remedy myself. Dealing with advocacy editing is hard in Misplaced Pages, as it comes down to a close examination of edits and sources, and needs to be dealt with holistically. It is very easy to cherry-pick diffs and it takes time and patience for someone outside to accurate assess what is going on. I have worked a lot on controversial articles (genetically modified food) where I deal with a consistent flow of people with very strong feelings, and little grounding in the science and law. Those advocates would surely love to try to nail me to the wall with something like this, so I raise it with some trepidation. I also worry about the burden this would place on Arbcom. I am very open to other suggestions for how to address advocacy editing effectively. Jytdog (talk) 01:11, 30 August 2015‎ (UTC)

• I'm mentioning him because you said the disruption stems from pro-vaping advocacy, and I've tried hard to show that since the discretionary sanctions were enacted, that's simply false. I've exhaustively challenged editors to show disruptive recent editing from vaping advocates and nobody has come close to showing any activity that's half as disruptive as QuackGuru's behaviour, or for that matter CFCF's.—S Marshall T/C 10:12, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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Hopeless to restrict this to "anti-vaping advocates". The subject is highly controvesial, and fast-moving, among the experts - a high proportion of who would I think regard our articles as showing anti e-cig bias at various points, though many would no doubt think them just fine. I dare say most of the edits I have made recently could be regarded as "pro e-cig", a) because I have been adding points from the new Public Health England report, universally recognized as more "pro-e-cig" than most other major reviews and statements, and also b) because I think the articles were already tilted against e-cigs even using the previous sources. I do see QK as an advocate, of one particular shade of the medical view. His summaries of sources are often not neutral, and sometimes not accurate. Note that PHE were highly critical of media coverage of some aspects of recent research, and our articles, until mid-August, exhibited what they were criticizing. Johnbod (talk) 02:50, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Johnbod please note that the proposal says " in a way that does not reflect the best source(s) (plural) available." I added that specifically so that arguing for content based on the UK report and other sources would not count as advocacy; trying to assert the UK report as superior to all others would, of course. Jytdog (talk) 03:31, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

It will be hopeless to try to distinguish at the margins. Where the advocacy is crude, regular editors have no great difficulty uniting to overcome it. This is not what has kept the editing process stalled in recent months. Johnbod (talk) 12:24, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

"Where the advocacy is crude, regular editors have no great difficulty uniting to overcome it." This is most definitely not true. For months, the article(s) were kept hostage to a dedicated core of pro-vaping SPAs that kept making improvements a tooth pulling process and ground things down to a halt. We cannot let this happen again. Yobol (talk) 14:43, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

When was this? I was talking about the current situation, when it is still "a tooth pulling process" but not because of "pro-vaping SPAs". See S. Marshall above. Johnbod (talk) 14:51, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

During the time I was active (end of 2014). No real idea what it is like now, since I largely gave up trying to improve the article due to the above mentioned tendentious behavior. I would like to emphasize that there is a history of poor and tendentious behavior on this article, and while it may have occurred before certain commentators here paid attention to the article, this is still a relevant history that needs to be addressed. Yobol (talk) 16:09, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed enforcement

AE for advocacy

1) Editors who exhibit a pattern of pro-vaping advocacy in edits or talk page discussions may be brought to AE, where a finding of advocacy will result in a one month topic ban on the first finding and an indefinite topic ban on the second finding. Edit counts can only begin on the date this decision is made by Arbcom and is not retroactive.

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As before - absurd to restrict this to one side, especially when our articles are probably imbalanced against that side. Johnbod (talk) 02:52, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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2) All contributors to the electronic cigarette articles and its content forks are warned that per the talk page guidelines commenting on contributors, not content, is unacceptable behavior and "saying something negative about another person" will be subject to topic bans of 24 hours, then 1 week, then 1 month, then indefinite.

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Naturally, editors will continue to complain about behaviour in the topic area until the problem behaviours stop. These discussions don't need to take place on Talk:Electronic cigarette; we can send them to AN/I or Arbitration Enforcement instead, if you like.—S Marshall T/C 16:16, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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Quackguru

3) Quackguru is warned to edit less aggressively. Specifically, this means fewer trivial edits re-arranging content or small re-wordings, and waiting longer for consensus to become more clear on Talk pages before making major edits. I am hopeful that if Arbcom takes clear action against advocacy, that QG would in any case settle.

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Note - this did not come out in the evidence phase, but a large percentage of QG's edits are "nervous" small edits. Jytdog (talk) 02:35, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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He needs to accept that there is such a thing as consensus, when it is against him - earlier episodes have shown he rarely does this, hence his topic bans. He does in fact tidy up references etc rather usefully, and many of his small changes are fine, but others aren't & the need to check everything he does contributes to his highly effective tactics of attrition. Johnbod (talk) 02:57, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Your comment doesn't take into account that QG edits pretty much only on articles where there is fierce advocacy against the medical establishment, where consensus is difficult/impossible to find - it is not a valid description. Jytdog (talk) 03:27, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

His record, going back years, shows that he is equally effective at pissing off and driving away scientific editors as fringe/non-scientific ones. Johnbod (talk) 14:56, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

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Exceedingly interesting that this case was brought up just now when the UK government released a report the 19th of August called E-cigarettes: an evidence update seemingly very much in favor of electronic cigarettes – (it also includes a policy statement). As the report is 111 pages and needs to be balanced into the articles against other strong statements (e.g. the 2014 WHO report) I can't think of a better time for this to come to ArbCom. I've made my thoughts clear at Talk:Electronic cigarette. -- CFCF 🍌 (email) 11:22, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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Or a worse time, given it was released the day after the evidence phase closed! Johnbod (talk) 19:42, 24 August 2015 (UTC)