Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents
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Discussion
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A little background: Talk:Muhammad/images is a special talk page created to deal with the large number of editors who come to complain about showing depictions of Muhammad on the Muhammad article, due mostly to religious considerations. Consensus has been decided on multiple occasions that images of Muhammad are acceptable on the page, this has been truly exhaustively discussed in the past as you can tell by the large disclaimer on the top of the talk page, and by reading the archives. This does not mean that consensus cannot change, but it's unlikely and doesn't seem to be happening now. Furthermore, WP:NOTCENSORED is unambiguous when it states "Any rules that forbid members of a given organization, fraternity, or religion to show a name or image do not apply to Wikipedia because Wikipedia is not a member of those organizations." User talk:Ludwigs2 has made it goal recently to strip the article of images of Muhammad on the basis that it offends Muslims. It is true that some sects of Islam consider it unethical to depict Muhammad as I'm sure most people here know. It has been explained ad nauseum to Ludwig that policy does not allow us to consider religious beliefs when writing this encyclopedia and his response is that we should invoke WP:IAR. I explained to him that IAR still needs to be determined by a consensus and that he cannot unilaterally invoke it to force a POV into the article. His response was that other editors are abusing the rules by enforcing them and if we stop abusing the rules then he will stop IAR. This conversation has been going back and forth with the same points being explained by several editors many times, and it has now crossed the WP:TE line - the entire page is one large WP:BATTLEGROUND at this point, with several WP:IDHT, WP:NPA and WP:AGF issues such as accusing all the other editors opposing removal ( I'm asking that an uninvolved admin assess the situation and determine if Lugwigs2 requires some kind of a warning or if I'm being overly dramatic, and I thank you in advance for reading the talk page thread because it is a bit long. The relevant thread is here. I'm not posting diffs because the entire thread demonstrates the points I am attempting to illustrate, as it's not a single comment that is at issue here. There are other threads involved in this discussion, but this is the most recent and best highlights my complaint. Noformation Talk 01:11, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
A small portion of Ludwigs2 behavior and comments
Added by ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 01:51, 3 November 2011 (UTC) We need to limit this discussion to Ludwigs2's behavior. We *really* don't want to hash out the image controversy here as it's one that will never achieve consensus anyway. Rklawton (talk) 02:29, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
My OPINION: Summary of this whole eventThis was intended to be part of the AN/I I held off filing and was to go with the diffs I provided above and below. It has been modified to note the two locations of the diffs, as I never finished moving them from off-Wiki to my userspace) (diffs representative of most or all of this are already posted here) When it comes to removal of the images, whether one or all or something inbetween, there are two camps involved:
It is at that point where things continue to spiral out of control. Multiple attempts have been made to restart discussions, but the end result is always the same. I can provide diffs to various such conversations where those at odds with Ludwigs2's actions were working in good faith with those in "Camp #1" - and where he sidetracked things for his single minded objective. Due to his preliminary support of some of these (before he reverts to his true objective), a person only giving the page a quick read may come to a grossly wrong conclusion about his objectives as he himself (diff below in response to Anthony, many more available) had admitted is his goal. This is just my perceptions of the matter, with diffs in the section above I created, as well as below to support my interpretation. Your's may vary (or not). Best, ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 08:20, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
Topic Ban Proposal
Can I suggest that we, those of us involved on Muhammad, stop adding to this thread for a while. If we want uninvolved editors to offer their advice about this situation, the least we can do is cut down the amount of tangental reading. --Anthonyhcole (talk) 09:24, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
Re: "shouting to loud and it annoys us"
These are just the examples that struck me, there are probably more. There are other editors who agree with Ludwigs2 on the subject matter, including Jayen466 and Griswaldo, but these guys seem able to disagree without being so disagreeable. ASCIIn2Bme (talk) 15:18, 7 November 2011 (UTC) Please close the topic-ban subthreadCan an uninvolved admin please close this subthread now? The only people who have commented here, myself included, have strongly held opinions about the content dispute(s) that precipitated the thread. Almost all, if not all the people who want him topic banned, for instance, have diametrically opposed POVs to his. Clearly we are not about to enact a topic ban based on those voices. So have we had enough of this? Cheers.Griswaldo (talk) 13:15, 5 November 2011 (UTC)
Perhaps a reasonable compromise?All the participants in the talk page discussion have come here and are basically continuing the same sorts and styles of arguments, it's all just looping. Perhaps I might suggest a compromising position. Someone start an RFC and contact, neutrally mind you, some of the relevant wikiprojects to participate. To prevent a rehash of the talk page, the opposing sides in this debate should state their positions and refrain from substantially trying to sway other participants. Having re-read the discussion, and being totally uninvolved, I can see the arguments of both sides. Run the RCC< don't just talk about it. --Blackmane (talk) 09:39, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
Blackmane: I'd agree that an RfC would be a good starting point, but even trying to determine the proper language for an RfC becomes a major point of strife. For instance, every RfC approach I've suggested starts from my perception of the problem - that the images have no appreciable value which justifies the offense they cause to our readers - but any such wording is instantly nixed by Tarc, Robert, and Resolute as being against NOTCENSORED. I could start an RfC on my own (and I will if that's what you suggest), but the RfC will most likely devolve into more of the same dispute as the editors opposed to change dispute its validity (in fact, at least a couple of threads currently on the page show exactly that devolution as we've tried to discuss proper wording for the RfC). As far as I can see, the page is locked down in such a way that any discussion about removing the images is declared to be against policy. I don't know how to get past that obstruction except to keep trying to talk through it. --Ludwigs2 14:45, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
This argument belongs elswhere, not at ANI. GoodDay (talk) 19:37, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
Small note: I've struck RobertMfromLI's name from my earlier post. Only one time did Robert ever imply an RfC wasn't necessary, and he did in fact try to restart the RfC several times. I don't know what made me think that he was one of the people trying to derail process in this case; my apologies. Qwyrxian (talk) 23:42, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
Brass tacks straw poll
For anyone who wants a discussion of NOTCENSORED, I've just started one at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not#What WP:NOTCENSORED is not. Robofish (talk) 18:02, 3 November 2011 (UTC) Notice: I've decided I'm going to copy this RfC over to wp:NOT, and wait for a result to be reached there before re-entering the discussion at talk:Muhammad/Images. that should end the discussion there for for a while (at least as far as I'm concerned). It also likely resolves this thread, though I'll leave that up to you. I'll post the link to the RfC here after I've made it. --Ludwigs2 00:11, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
Comments on ongoing conduct of Ludwigs2Despite having given assurances that he has reformed, Ludwigs2 has recently continued to ridicule and belittle those editors disagreeing with him. One of the difficulties is that he is being extremely slippery about why he is objecting to the images of Muhammad. It would appear that he believes, for whatever reason, that the courtly images of the Prophet Muhammad produced in illuminated manuscripts of the Ottoman Empire, Persia and elsewhere cause offense to some parts of the international Muslim community for religious reasons. However, when pressed on the subject by Kww, he has accused those repeating this statement of "making up cheap lies". In a conversation on his user talk page with Kww he wrote: [66]
It is an example of Ludwigs2 deliberately misunderstanding other users and switching from one argument to another. Already on User talk:Jimbo wales, he wrote of thise disagreeing with him:[67]
These statements are not accurate and are indeed a highly inflammatory way of describing other editors. It creates an impasse for any future discussion. (I personally have not voted in any image discussions but have located commentaries in WP:RS on the historical use of images of the Prophet, written by Islamic scholars from the East and the West.) On the same user talk page, Ludwigs2 later made this personal attack on Tarc, [68]
These remarks were later redacted by Ludwigs2 after Short Brigade Harvester Boris criticized them. Ludwigs2's conduct has not reformed and these personal attacks seem completely counterproductive at this stage. Mathsci (talk) 07:03, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
Comments by ChzzSheesh, that's long. Forgive me collapsing it. The arguments on what is/is not 'appropriate' re. certain images on certain pages will go on forever. There's some non-collegiate behaviour on the part of several editors, but that'd be better handled via an RFC/U or whatever. I can't see any admin action as appropriate at this time. If I'm wrong, can someone cut out the tl;dr and just say "X should be blocked for Y and Z". Otherwise, feel free to continue the eternal arguments on the article talks. ANI is not the right place to discuss content/consensus. Nor is it the right place to discuss vague ongoing concerns with user conduct; if you can present a WP:DIFF/diffs, showing "XE did THIS which was WRONG according to THIS policy, please do so. Thanks, Chzz ► 01:25, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
QueryIs it reasonable to say
An then on the sub page:
I understand that people don't wish to rehash the same arguments again and again, however consensus does change (See GNAA AfDs for example), and singling out this issue as one that shall never be discussed seems both counter to Wiki-philosophy and likely to be effective only in stopping more thoughtful folk from discussing the issues. Rich Farmbrough, 11:43, 10 November 2011 (UTC).
Please bury this dead horse in a deep, dark holeAt this point it is just being used by Ludwigs to troll...yes, troll, in the fullest "intentionally posting to provoke a reaction" sense of the word. Sorry if that rubs someone the wrong way, but there's no other explanation for "anyone without my (formidable) intellectual resources.... Chzz looked into it all earlier but didn't find anything actionable at the time, perhaps that'll change after this, perhaps not. Others have weighed in that topic bans need to go to WP:AN. We've long passed the point where this is going to reach anything meaningful here, so a call to the proverbial "uninvolved admin" to make the next call. Thank you. Tarc (talk) 02:50, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
It's just an observation, but in almost 6 1/2 years of contributing to Wikipedia, I've noticed that editors who provoke strong feelings from other editors – pro and con – generating multiple threads of this size and polarity on the noticeboards, tend to, eventually, be indef blocked or even community banned. That's not a recommendation or a desire, simply a statement of probability based on empirical observation. Ludwigs2 might want to take that into account and moderate his behavior if he wishes to avoid that end result. Beyond My Ken (talk) 06:14, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
Epilogue: Light in our darknessChanging the subject of the thread to something more positive, on User talk:Jimbo Wales I noticed that Jayen466, Anthonyhcole and I have agreed that it would be a good idea to use an image of the Night Journey in the section of Muhammad devoted to his depiction, with an improved text to accompany it. I would be quite happy to help creating that improved text (multiple good sources are already available) and to help selecting which of the images is appropriate. As I said there and on Talk:Muhammad/Images, I don't see any reason to keep the same number of images. The statements of Jayen466 and Anthonyhcole were short and direct: I was happy when I found them. Mathsci (talk) 03:58, 13 November 2011 (UTC) |
Unarchiving
The previous discussion was not closed by an administrator, so I have restored the lengthy thread. (Partly this was due to Ludwigs2 resuming his activities on-wiki regarding images and related policy, after a brief lull.) Please could an uninvolved administrator reassess the voting on the topic ban (in case of doubt, I voted for a topic ban). If the discussion was inconclusive and there is truly no consensus, so be it. Mathsci (talk) 21:52, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Ludwigs2 has pointed out that Gimmetoo (talk · contribs) (not identified as an admin [77]) is an alternative account of Gimmetrow (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), In view of the renewed activity of Ludwigs2 after a two day lull, a review might still be in order. Mathsci (talk) 22:22, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Aren't you afraid of food poisoning? Hans Adler 22:27, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- What he means, Mathsci, is that trying to reopen a closed thread simply because I have entered a discussion (as is my right, until there's a consensus I shouldn't) looks more like a personal issue than anything else. I'll note also that this is maybe the fourth or fifth time over the last year or so that you've tried to get administrative sanctions against me, usually on topics with which you were not previously involved…
- If there is a personal issue that you and I need to discuss we can do that in talk, unless you really want to do it here. But as Hans points out this horse is kinda dead. let's all just get back to editing. --Ludwigs2 23:36, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Discussion has been reviewed and closed by an uninvolved admin. Tachfin (talk) 14:43, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Bold doesn't make your opinion seem more official and it fails to note the resumption of behavior once the AN/I thread was closed. Not sure why you're only commenting on the portion of the unarchive that's already been covered above. ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 19:32, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Oh, great, let's have a meta-discussion party to insure that the prejudicial anti-Ludwigs2 headings that didn't get support stay at the top of ANI and burn themselves into everybody's mind. Hans Adler 13:58, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Robert, when something is wrong from the premise it raises red flags. Mathsci unarchived the discussion and removed Gimmetrow closing comment assuming he's not an admin (see the edit summary); well undoing another admin's work based on wrong assumptions is uncourteous and unhelpful. If you do not agree with how the closing went, that is another issue and was not addressed here as far as I can see. If you think Ludwig is doing something wrong there are alternatives for addressing it properly but dragging it over weeks in ANI, when it proved ineffective, is frankly not the best option. P.S: I've notified Gimmetoo of this, since it hasn't been done before. Tachfin (talk) 15:57, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm sorry, you missed this part " (Partly this was due to Ludwigs2 resuming his activities on-wiki regarding images and related policy, after a brief lull.)" which I did not write. And apologies, but what other venue would you suggest? Also at almost 70% support for a topic ban, it's not quite nearly the indecisive results people claim. If one removes the (grossly paraphrased) "it's ok for him to attack others to make his voice heard" opposes, it raises to well over 80%. Again, this wasn't about a content dispute or his opinions on the matter - it was about his conduct, including disruptiveness, tendentiousness and many many personal attacks. Best, Rob ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 19:45, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- As far as I can tell, only involved opponents of Ludwigs2 and some of his long-standing enemies found anything in his behaviour that could have justified singling him out. I think the closing admin also saw it that way. The mere fact that Ludwigs2 became more active in the discussion again, with no claims that he did anything wrong, is
an obvious bad-faith argumentridiculous as a reason for reviving this discussion. The fact that it was Mathsci who did this doesn't make it better, either. Besides, I find it interesting that you are bold enough repeat your unfounded accusations against Ludwigs2 here. I noticed that in the time since I made clear to you what I think about your behaviour in this discussion, others have done the same. Hans Adler 19:52, 19 November 2011 (UTC)- If the problem is as serious as you believe then WP:RFC/U is your friend. As someone noted, "this is too complex for mob justice". There were no convincing diffs and it's difficult to read through the wall of posts above let alone come to a sane unbiased conclusion.--Tachfin (talk) 20:23, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Hans, stop being contrary. I made no accusations in this re-open. I simply pointed out that the issue presented by someone else was a two parter - the close and the continued behavior. You twisting such gets tiring. I actually made no commentary on my opinion on the matter. I simply pointed out there was a second part that was not addressed.
- Tachfin: yes, it became a nightmare here - and on that talk page. Thus, your point is noted and probably very representative of the situation. Best, ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 22:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- If the problem is as serious as you believe then WP:RFC/U is your friend. As someone noted, "this is too complex for mob justice". There were no convincing diffs and it's difficult to read through the wall of posts above let alone come to a sane unbiased conclusion.--Tachfin (talk) 20:23, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- As far as I can tell, only involved opponents of Ludwigs2 and some of his long-standing enemies found anything in his behaviour that could have justified singling him out. I think the closing admin also saw it that way. The mere fact that Ludwigs2 became more active in the discussion again, with no claims that he did anything wrong, is
- I'm sorry, you missed this part " (Partly this was due to Ludwigs2 resuming his activities on-wiki regarding images and related policy, after a brief lull.)" which I did not write. And apologies, but what other venue would you suggest? Also at almost 70% support for a topic ban, it's not quite nearly the indecisive results people claim. If one removes the (grossly paraphrased) "it's ok for him to attack others to make his voice heard" opposes, it raises to well over 80%. Again, this wasn't about a content dispute or his opinions on the matter - it was about his conduct, including disruptiveness, tendentiousness and many many personal attacks. Best, Rob ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 19:45, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Robert, when something is wrong from the premise it raises red flags. Mathsci unarchived the discussion and removed Gimmetrow closing comment assuming he's not an admin (see the edit summary); well undoing another admin's work based on wrong assumptions is uncourteous and unhelpful. If you do not agree with how the closing went, that is another issue and was not addressed here as far as I can see. If you think Ludwig is doing something wrong there are alternatives for addressing it properly but dragging it over weeks in ANI, when it proved ineffective, is frankly not the best option. P.S: I've notified Gimmetoo of this, since it hasn't been done before. Tachfin (talk) 15:57, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Oh, great, let's have a meta-discussion party to insure that the prejudicial anti-Ludwigs2 headings that didn't get support stay at the top of ANI and burn themselves into everybody's mind. Hans Adler 13:58, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Discussion moved to /WP:V RFC. Timestamp changed to future until the discussion is over. Alexandria (talk) 15:50, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
- Well, this move was made just after I made a comment that I intended to be on ANI. I hope, at least, that those who are paying attention will continue to watch the new page. --Tryptofish (talk) 15:58, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
Closing the RfC at WP:V (a preemptive request)
OK... we are now at 30 days (remember, October had 31 days)... we don't have to close yet, but we could close today if we want to. I could close it myself (as the initiator of the RfC), except that I have certainly been heavily involved (far more than Sarek was) and I don't want give anyone (on either side of the debate) grounds to object to the closure when it happens and cause more unneeded drama. Given the tensions and general bad faith that has permeated the discussion recently, I think we need the closer to be someone who not only is neutral, but also has the appearance of neutrality. That means someone who has not commented at all. So... I thought I would ask...who is going to close it? I would like to announce who it will be, so we don't get a drama fest of closures and unclosures and counter closures when it happens. Blueboar (talk) 01:57, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
- Looks messy! 115.64.182.73 (talk) 08:28, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
- You need 3 closers to reach an agreed outcome to avoid further drama. Not me.. :-) Spartaz Humbug! 07:34, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
- Valid idea... although I don't think anyone involved would insist on 3 closers. The point is, a) the closer(s) should be someone who has not yet commented, b) have the clout that comes with admin status so the decision (what ever it may be) is accepted, and c) we need to inform those who have commented who the closer(s) will be (along with a polite request that those involved not add to the drama by closing it themselves). So... could we get some volunteers please. Blueboar (talk) 12:59, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
- I assume you didn't read ANI recently, as we have an ANI subpage devoted to this now. Over there at least 3 admins have volunteered to close it: User:HJ Mitchell, User:Newyorkbrad and User:Black Kite. I personally think a triumvirate closure, like recently on the China RFC is a good idea, but I will leave it to the admins in question to work this out amongst themselfs. I am curious where you got the idea that the an iniator of an RFC should close it? The iniator is by definition heavily involved, so that is always a bad idea. Yoenit (talk) 15:41, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
- Valid idea... although I don't think anyone involved would insist on 3 closers. The point is, a) the closer(s) should be someone who has not yet commented, b) have the clout that comes with admin status so the decision (what ever it may be) is accepted, and c) we need to inform those who have commented who the closer(s) will be (along with a polite request that those involved not add to the drama by closing it themselves). So... could we get some volunteers please. Blueboar (talk) 12:59, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks Yoenit. That is all I needed to know (I too am happy to leave the rest up to the admins in question). I got the idea that an initiator could close from reading the instructions at WP:RFC. Perhaps I have misunderstood. Doesn't really matter since I was not planning on doing so in any case. Blueboar (talk) 15:53, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
Civility
Resolved – Blocked for a week Risker (talk) 05:45, 15 November 2011 (UTC)The civility at Talk:pregnancy is descending further as in these edits by User:Dreadstar [78] [79] --Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:02, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
Dreadstar should not have used the words "liar" and some form of block/warning was in order. Risker's block, however, seems precipitous; she has subsequently expressed her bemusement at Dreadstar's sudden retirement. Underlying this episode and the report here by Doc James (without informing Dreadstar), there were (and still are) unresolved issues concerning the legitimacy and timing of the present RfC on Talk:pregnancy in the wake of the very recently closed previous RfC. I would not be surprised if this results in an ArbCom case (for conduct and procedural reasons, not because of actual issues involving images). Mathsci (talk) 06:45, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
This case has been marked as resolved.(olive (talk) 23:54, 17 November 2011 (UTC))
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Disruptive editing by User:Oncenawhile
Please excuse me if I'm doing anything incorrectly in this report, as to my recollection it's the first time I've reported a user.
Oncenawhile (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been engaging in disruptive editing relevant to a naming dispute involving two articles, History of the Southern Levant, and History of Palestine. On February 25, 2011 Oncenawhile moved History of the Southern Levant to History of Palestine despite History of the Southern Levant being in place for over two years and functioning as the only name for the article which hadn't lead to consistent move wars, and with History of the Southern Levant being praised as a good name for the article.
After the article was restored to History of the Southern Levant, Oncenawhile created a new page called History of Palestine, copying most of the content of History of the Southern Levant, and merely changing a few details here and there. The disruptive editing began as Oncenawhile then proceeded to redirect multiple wikilinks from History of the Southern Levant to History of Palestine. Here, here, here as well as here where he instead directed away from the History of the Southern Levant article to Ancient Israel and Judah. I spoke to him on his talk page, and informed him that I considered this disruptive editing, and that there were no problems with both articles existing, but redirecting links away from one and to the other in such a way was disruptive.
A few months later Oncenawhile did the same thing again by removing more links to History of the Southern Levant here and here and here as well as in two instances moving additional articles from History of the Southern Levant to History of Palestine here and here
After I restored the original wikilinks, Oncenawhile wrote on my talk page, attempting to debate why Palestine was a better name than Southern Levant. After I replied that it would be better to discuss this on the relevant article talk page, he said due to my "refusal to discuss" the issue on my talk page, he had "reverted my changes" Drsmoo (talk) 12:36, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
- The community (or the AN/I cabal) might decide to take action here. But for allegedly long-term problems like this, WP:RFC/U may be a better venue, in case nothing comes of this AN/I. causa sui (talk) 19:09, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
- Thank you Drsmoo (talk) 22:49, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
Hi Drsmoo, your post above is misrepresentative. It includes incorrect facts, statements out of context, and neglects to mention key points.
- You neglected to disclose your authorship interest, as you were the editor who renamed the article to History of the Southern Levant in 2008. Your references to "the only name for the article" and "consistent move wars" regarding the original name of History of Palestine are misrepresentative. The article was stable under that name for seven years, until two isolated and immediately-reverted vandalisms in 2007 followed by the unilateral renaming which you carried out in 2008.
- You neglected to mention that you were blocked on 13 March 2011 for move warring re the article name. You also neglected to mention that the article had been stable following my February 2011 revert to History of Palestine for a meaningful period with numerous third party edits being made, before you began warring over the change.
- You made a highly misrepresentative statement re the current History of Palestine article, which you stated was built by "copying most of the content of History of the Southern Levant, and merely changing a few details here and there". Both the move and the content build were done slowly, with clear talk page discussion, and by painstakingly merging the content with the history section from the Palestine article. Discussion of this process took place over many months, and is recorded in the following places here, here and here.
- You neglected to mention that you partook in exactly the same practice in late March regarding swapping of links (rather than the better practice of simply adding a new link) and that our subsequent discussion on my talkpage which you linked to was cordial and mutual acknowledgement and understanding was reached between us immediately. And you have misrepresented my actions regarding the specific link changes you linked to. For example in this edit you linked to I removed a number of extraneous links, including to BOTH History of Palestine and History of the Southern Levant and in this edit you linked to I clarified a statement and removed an in-line link which violated WP:MOS
- Your final statement is again misrepresentative and places statements out of context to paint a picture. Your statement says "After I replied that it would be better to discuss this on the relevant article talk page, he said due to my "refusal to discuss" the issue on my talk page, he had "reverted my changes"", which bears absolutely no relation to the logic, cordiality and detail of the full discussion as recorded here.
If you wish to debate this matter further, please could I ask you to take more care with how you represent the facts in future. Perhaps in parallel we can get back to trying to debate the underlying substance of your editorial issue. Oncenawhile (talk) 01:08, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- You haven't responded to any of the accusations on here, you just immediately went and tried to make this about me. You replaced links from the original article to your new one over and over and over again, as the edits showed, I reverted your disruptive edits. Are you seriously coming on here and accusing me of doing what you flagrantly did because I reverted your improper edits? In addition it's blatantly untrue as I inserted a link to History of Palestine in the Archaeology of Israel article after you removed it. And two weeks with 18 edits is a "meaningful period" but over two years with hundreds is not? It is fine to have more than one article, but to try and replace one with the other in a way which avoids community consensus (for example, trying to discuss it on my talk page while avoiding the relevant article talk pages) is not. Wholesale removal of links and references to a long standing article is a clear cut example of disruptive editing. It is worth noting that Oncenawhile has also been cited for uncivil behavior on another noticeboard recently Drsmoo (talk) 07:44, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Drsmoo, I remain very keen to find a way to remove the emotion from this and move on, but you appear to be obsessed with making our interactions in to a long term WP:BATTLEGROUND (exactly as you did with the first user who made the mistake of being responsible for getting you blocked, as documented here).
- Your post above is again misrepresentative, for example: (1) "it's blatantly untrue" (despite evidence here, here and here amongst others), (2) you make no reference to either my explanation that the articles in question related only to the concept of Palestine and not to the Southern Levant or to our immediate consensual resolution which I referred to above, (3) "avoids community consensus" (despite the detailed article talk page discussions I linked to above, e.g. here), (4) "avoiding the relevant article talk pages" (ignoring the explanation provided on your talk page that since you made the same changes across multiple articles it seemed sensible to try to centralise the debate; (5) "cited for uncivil behavior" (when you mean "cleared").
- Oncenawhile (talk) 10:02, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- I would recommend that you read the diffs you're citing, if you did you would see that the editor you referenced was in fact criticized for forum shopping and for not assuming good faith and told her accusations were untrue. In every single example you posted it was a case of me reverting your changes to the wikilinks. What you claimed is a blatant untruth. I reverted your changes. What you have done, has been to go around from page to page and methodically remove links to History of the Southern Levant. You made a talk page post on your new article, but no talk page discussion regarding any of the moves in their relevant talk pages, nor any talk page discussion of any of the changes of the wikilinks which you've made far and wide. Instead you tried to engage me on my talk page, which makes no sense as I am not heavily involved in any of those articles, and when I suggested that you instead bring it up on the relevant talk pages, you changed the names abruptly. This is not acceptable editing practice. Drsmoo (talk) 07:22, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
I couldn't give two hoots about this dispute - however, this is a cut and paste move of content without attribution - so in it's current form most of that page should be deleted as an administrative rather than editorial matter. --Cameron Scott (talk) 10:50, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- I don't understand your post. There was very clear attribution given on the talk page. Either way, the edit you've linked to is 8 months old - the article is completely different now having been merged with the history section from Palestine.Oncenawhile (talk) 21:58, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- The talk page is a nice addition, but the attribution must at minimum be in the edit summary. Please see Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia for more information. And please repair the attribution as described there. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:31, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Thank you for your explanation - this has now been fixed. Oncenawhile (talk) 22:49, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- The talk page is a nice addition, but the attribution must at minimum be in the edit summary. Please see Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia for more information. And please repair the attribution as described there. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:31, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I don't understand your post. There was very clear attribution given on the talk page. Either way, the edit you've linked to is 8 months old - the article is completely different now having been merged with the history section from Palestine.Oncenawhile (talk) 21:58, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
Disruptive editing by User:Hullaballoo Wolfowitz
This user has been consistantly editing entries I have made on a number of pages and has made no attempt to engage with me directly to address any concerns he may have about the fact based information I am adding. I believe a disturbing pattern of behaviour has emerged here and indeed his talk page provides examples of other complaints against his disruptive behaviour. Here are examples of his disruptive edits: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Criticism_of_the_Food_and_Drug_Administration&diff=prev&oldid=461335026 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Irish_Blood_Transfusion_Service&diff=prev&oldid=461125594 I request that this user be investigated. Many Thanks.
Deletions by involved editor under claim of "close paraphrases"; Mkativerata
A colleague, Mkativerata, who is an involved administrator in respect of the Israel-Palestinian conflict as defined by WP:ARBPIA, has today deleted variations of 2 sentences in an ARBPIA bio of Ilan Berman (3 times in half an hour).[96][97][98] Claiming that they are "close paraphrases". The 2 sentences were edited three times to seek to address his claims, and additional refs added.
Whether or not he may have been correct initially, certainly by his most recent deletion IMHO there was no merit to his claim. I'm concerned with the aggressiveness of his deletions, without talkpage discussion, especially given the ARBPIA aspect of this. I've myself opened up discussion of the issue on the article's talkpage, but not received any response there.
Perhaps an admin can keep an eye on this matter? I'm concerned that it is spiraling. I'm not asking for any other action as to Mkat. Full disclosure: In the past I've communicated concern to this editor about his behavior, and have felt that he responded aggressively and sought to exact retribution inappropriately for my having having voiced my view, so I am hoping that this is not a continuation of that, and that I will not suffer from retribution from him. Many thanks.--Epeefleche (talk) 20:59, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Epeefleche is the subject of a long-running CCI that has uncovered a long history of copyright violations. I'm working through the CCI and I'm not going to be distracted by obstructionism. Working on a CCI requires the deletion of substantive amounts of a contributor's work. And I'm not going to be bullied out of it. And nor am I going to let the fact that I have declared myself "not uninvolved" in respect of ARBPIA stop me from removing copyright violations, being a non-POV matter. CCI needs whatever help it can get. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:06, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- My noting that you are "an involved administrator in respect of the Israel-Palestinian conflict" as defined by WP:ARBPIA is simply a reflection of what you have yourself indicated. Given the sensitivities in that area, and your being an involved editor, when you delete material such as the above under the claim that it is a copyright violation, and the claim appears baseless, that raises a concern that your "involvement" is an issue.
- I agree of course that copyright violations should be addressed. Your most recent deletion, certainly, was nothing of the sort. You also failed to discuss the matter on the talkpage, despite making 3 deletions in half an hour. When unwarranted deletions are made by involved editors, that can perhaps be a problem. Involved editors can always alert other editors when they believe there is a problem, especially if it is not a clear-cut matter--I find it hard to believe that you felt that your last deletion, for example, was a clear-cut copyright violation. I'm not asking that action be taken against you. I'm simply asking for more admin eyes, as I feel you reacted with aggressive retribution in the past. Thanks.--Epeefleche (talk) 21:23, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
(edit conflict) If it's possibly a copyright violation, it should be removed immediately pending peer review. There is no suggestion being made that Mkati is using copyright policy to game the system, which would be a problem. This would also be a problem if Mkati were ignoring some discussion that had already taken place, but the petitioner doesn't suggest that is happening. According to the complaint itself there is nothing here requiring administrative action. causa sui (talk) 21:28, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Involved editors can of course delete blatant vandalism. And I would extend that to blatant copyright violations. Mkat's most recent deletion was certainly nothing of the sort, however -- not a copyvio at all, and certainly not a blatant copyvio.
- As with involved editors in wp:admin, by analogy, "administrators may have, or may be seen as having, a conflict of interest in disputes they have been a party to or have strong feelings about. Involvement is generally construed very broadly by the community, to include current or past conflicts with an editor ... and disputes on topics". As WP:ADMIN indicates, it is best practice in cases where an administrator may be seen to be involved to pass the matter to another administrator via the relevant noticeboards.--Epeefleche (talk) 21:38, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- This is a stretch. Involvement is construed broadly so that we can discourage administrators from gaming the system to enforce their own positions in content disputes. According to your own account there isn't any reason to believe that that is what he is doing, and I don't understand you to be implying that either. If I'm reading you correctly, your argument is strictly procedural. Since it is a much bigger danger to include a copyvio than to remove a non-copyvio, it would be better to convince the interested parties that the edits aren't actually copyvios. Then we could move on. causa sui (talk) 22:15, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Not a stretch at all. WP:ADMIN clearly indicates the concern: "involved administrators may have, or may be seen as having, a conflict of interest in disputes they have been a party to or have strong feelings about." Such is the case here. Repeated deletions, at an article in the ARBPIA content area, by an admittedly involved sysop. No credible claim of copyvio. Zero talk page discussion, while making the deletions. That this is being done in the highly sensitive ARBPIA area heightens concern as to the approach. There's no need to throw around an accusation such as "gaming the system to enforce their own positions", however apt it might be. Hopefully, the eyes of admins on this will help us avoid future problems.--Epeefleche (talk) 22:51, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- I don't think you get it. You violated copyright policies for years. Our policies now allow the "indiscriminate removal" of the information you added during that period. You are fortunate that I am not taking "indiscriminate removal" to the full extent to which it is allowed. Any editor can remove your information -- it has nothing to do with being an administrator, I am not acting as one, but even if I was, I will not hesitate to block you if you continue to disrupt the resolution of your CCI. --Mkativerata (talk) 01:56, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Indiscriminate removal should mean being fairly liberal in removing copyvios that are discovered from Epeefleche's edits, it does not mean removing information Epeefleche wrote just for the sake that he wrote it. That is disruptive. SilverserenC 16:17, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, it does mean that. Policy is that "If contributors have been shown to have a history of extensive copyright violation, it may be assumed without further evidence that all of their major contributions are copyright violations, and they may be removed indiscriminately. See Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations." --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:01, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Basically, once things reach the point of a CCI, all contributions by an editor are to be assumed copyvio unless proven otherwise. - The Bushranger One ping only 21:02, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- That seems like it could be very disruptive though, especially when you're considering articles that other users have likely worked on and expanded afterwards as well. SilverserenC 21:26, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- This isn't a matter of "assuming copyvios". We are talking about Mkat's deletions yesterday -- years (and 50-80,000 edits?) after I wasn't familiar with our copyvio rules. And the material Mkat deleted here was by no means a copyvio. His assertion to the contrary notwithstanding. Mkat wasn't "assuming" anything. He looked at the language and the source and made a completely unfounded assertion, without tp discussion, in his COI area.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:48, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- In that case, uploading copyvios is what is disruptive. That subsequent editors then rework the copyrighted content (making the Wikimedia Foundation a distributor of an unlicensed derivative work) that then has to be removed is disruption caused by the person who uploaded the copyvio, not the person who removed it. A lot of thought has gone into this and the legal implications of unlicensed derivatives combined with the high ratio of (effort to detect copyvios:effort to add copyvios) make wholesale removal of legally dubious content a cost of doing business around here. causa sui (talk) 21:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- The issue here, above, involved Mkat hiding behind the dubious assertion of copyvio. I doubt an objective editor would find this -- his most recent deletion -- to be a copyvio. When an editor deletes material under such a dubious claim of copyvio, that could easily be seen as disruptive if it is part of a problem. He also failed to use the talkpage for discussion -- or even respond to discussion opened on the talkpage. That is also not good practice where one is deleting material three times in an hour. This is compounded by the fact that this matter is in the ARBPIA area, where sensitivities are heightened. And, of course, it is further compounded where (as here) the sysop is without question an involved editor. I've no problem at all with real copyvios being struck. But that's not what was at issue here at all, as you can see if you look at the diff provided.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:39, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- In that case, uploading copyvios is what is disruptive. That subsequent editors then rework the copyrighted content (making the Wikimedia Foundation a distributor of an unlicensed derivative work) that then has to be removed is disruption caused by the person who uploaded the copyvio, not the person who removed it. A lot of thought has gone into this and the legal implications of unlicensed derivatives combined with the high ratio of (effort to detect copyvios:effort to add copyvios) make wholesale removal of legally dubious content a cost of doing business around here. causa sui (talk) 21:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Basically, once things reach the point of a CCI, all contributions by an editor are to be assumed copyvio unless proven otherwise. - The Bushranger One ping only 21:02, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, it does mean that. Policy is that "If contributors have been shown to have a history of extensive copyright violation, it may be assumed without further evidence that all of their major contributions are copyright violations, and they may be removed indiscriminately. See Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations." --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:01, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- My initial concern was prompted by the fact that Mkat: a) deleted material 3 times in half an hour; b) with a wholly dubious claim of copyvio (see his most recent deletion), c) failed to communicate via talkpage; d) in the sensitive ARBPIA area; e) where Mkat is an involved editor; f) without modeling best behavior as called for by wp:admin. I raised the issue here so others could keep an eye on this, and ensure that it does not inflate, as I've felt he has lashed out in the past when I've disagreed with him. I agree with Silver that Mkat's edits here were leaning towards the disruptive.
- Indiscriminate removal should mean being fairly liberal in removing copyvios that are discovered from Epeefleche's edits, it does not mean removing information Epeefleche wrote just for the sake that he wrote it. That is disruptive. SilverserenC 16:17, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I don't think you get it. You violated copyright policies for years. Our policies now allow the "indiscriminate removal" of the information you added during that period. You are fortunate that I am not taking "indiscriminate removal" to the full extent to which it is allowed. Any editor can remove your information -- it has nothing to do with being an administrator, I am not acting as one, but even if I was, I will not hesitate to block you if you continue to disrupt the resolution of your CCI. --Mkativerata (talk) 01:56, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Not a stretch at all. WP:ADMIN clearly indicates the concern: "involved administrators may have, or may be seen as having, a conflict of interest in disputes they have been a party to or have strong feelings about." Such is the case here. Repeated deletions, at an article in the ARBPIA content area, by an admittedly involved sysop. No credible claim of copyvio. Zero talk page discussion, while making the deletions. That this is being done in the highly sensitive ARBPIA area heightens concern as to the approach. There's no need to throw around an accusation such as "gaming the system to enforce their own positions", however apt it might be. Hopefully, the eyes of admins on this will help us avoid future problems.--Epeefleche (talk) 22:51, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
- Mkat today appears to be reacting to my having disagreed with him, by seeking retribution. As background, when I first started at wikipedia -- many years ago -- I followed what I saw as wp practice; practice that was not in compliance with our rules. Not knowing our rules in this area, I did indeed make errors at that time, and years ago added some material that should properly be cited, revised, or redacted. I have years of editing since then, with tens of thousands of edits, and now that I have read our rules I've complied carefully with them.
- But Mkat -- directly after I disagreed with him yesterday -- has now undertaken to delete in toto some articles I've worked on. Articles of Olympic athletes. As in this deletion of the Yves Dreyfus article today. And this deletion of the Vivian Joseph article today I can't see what he deleted, so I don't know whether some level of deletion is appropriate ; it may be. But certainly, I can't imagine that there is a need to delete such articles of Olympic athletes in toto. This is just this sort of retribution by Mkat that I was afraid of.--Epeefleche (talk) 21:24, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Epeefleche, this is what happens to serial copyright violators. I had to do it to User:Gavin.Collins. If it makes you feel any better, I'll do the next batch of content removal. If you could provide a list of all your copyright violations...but given the volume, I doubt you'd remember. Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:59, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- This is a very transparent modus operandi: file an ANI report and then claim that any subsequent action is "retribution". Then canvas (for which you've been blocked before) your mates who tried to prevent a CCI being opened ([99], [100]) under the guise of being neutral (soliciting the uninvolved Yoenit as well [101]). --Mkativerata (talk) 22:10, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Ugh. causa sui (talk) 22:13, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Mkat -- you've not addressed the concerns I raised above about your recent deletions. Instead, you seem to be seeking to deflect the discussion. Weren't you an involved editor, deleting material multiple times, the last time (at least) clearly not a copyvio (though you claimed it was), who despite being an involved editor failed both to engage in talkpage discussion and to -- given your being an involved editors -- post the issue elsewhere so it could be addressed? Rather than seeking to engage in character assassination, over what happened years ago (and I don't have clear recollections as to edits from five years ago), and many tens of thousands of edits ago, when I did not know our rules -- let's focus on what you did the past two days. As to your accusation of canvassing -- are you serious? Take a look at wp:CANVASS -- that is an absurd and unwarranted accusation -- it does little for the conversation when editors make baseless assertions. That's not canvassing -- quite the opposite, it is what wp:CANVASS indicates is not canvassing. As to "M.O." -- let's be clear. You are the involved editor who under the baseless (certainly, as to the most recent edit) guise of copyvio deleted material in an area you are involved in, refused to use or respond on the talkpage. And now in retribution, immediately after I disagree with you at a wholly unrelated article, you delete in toto bios of Olympic athletes. I've no problem as I've indicated with copyvios being redacted. But the fact that your reaction to someone disagreeing with you is to do this is problematic -- surely, the entire articles are not copyvios, and surely, the fact that athlete x, from country y, won medal z in the Olympics of xxxx is not a copyvio ... yet you delete even that.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:39, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Mkativerata began working on your CCI in January 2011. It's pretty obvious looking at the history of the CCI that what brought him to the article in question was resuming work on your CCI. (<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Contributor_copyright_investigations/Epeefleche&action=history>) He had never touched that article before. It isn't wholly unrelated; it is in fact intrinsically linked to the copyright work -- midway down this section, and he had moved to the next article in that list before you ever disagreed at the other article. Given that Mkativerata's approach to the CCI now is the same as it was in January, it's hard to see this as retribution.
- Mkat -- you've not addressed the concerns I raised above about your recent deletions. Instead, you seem to be seeking to deflect the discussion. Weren't you an involved editor, deleting material multiple times, the last time (at least) clearly not a copyvio (though you claimed it was), who despite being an involved editor failed both to engage in talkpage discussion and to -- given your being an involved editors -- post the issue elsewhere so it could be addressed? Rather than seeking to engage in character assassination, over what happened years ago (and I don't have clear recollections as to edits from five years ago), and many tens of thousands of edits ago, when I did not know our rules -- let's focus on what you did the past two days. As to your accusation of canvassing -- are you serious? Take a look at wp:CANVASS -- that is an absurd and unwarranted accusation -- it does little for the conversation when editors make baseless assertions. That's not canvassing -- quite the opposite, it is what wp:CANVASS indicates is not canvassing. As to "M.O." -- let's be clear. You are the involved editor who under the baseless (certainly, as to the most recent edit) guise of copyvio deleted material in an area you are involved in, refused to use or respond on the talkpage. And now in retribution, immediately after I disagree with you at a wholly unrelated article, you delete in toto bios of Olympic athletes. I've no problem as I've indicated with copyvios being redacted. But the fact that your reaction to someone disagreeing with you is to do this is problematic -- surely, the entire articles are not copyvios, and surely, the fact that athlete x, from country y, won medal z in the Olympics of xxxx is not a copyvio ... yet you delete even that.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:39, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Ugh. causa sui (talk) 22:13, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- But Mkat -- directly after I disagreed with him yesterday -- has now undertaken to delete in toto some articles I've worked on. Articles of Olympic athletes. As in this deletion of the Yves Dreyfus article today. And this deletion of the Vivian Joseph article today I can't see what he deleted, so I don't know whether some level of deletion is appropriate ; it may be. But certainly, I can't imagine that there is a need to delete such articles of Olympic athletes in toto. This is just this sort of retribution by Mkat that I was afraid of.--Epeefleche (talk) 21:24, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I have in one capacity or another worked on most or perhaps all of the CCIs we've completed. Your CCI has not had much progress yet, so you may not know, but blanking articles listed at CCI where any copying is found is common. This flags that concerns have been located. Reviewers are not expected to rewrite content, although of course they can. They've done a service simply by confirming the problem. Once the article is blanked, you have a week at minimum to work on it. (Anyone else may work on a rewrite, too.) If a rewrite that fixes the problem is not proposed, the article may be stubbed or deleted if the content added by the subject of the CCI is extensive. This is standard operating procedure for CCIs. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:15, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Come-on people; let’s cease with wikislogans like If it's possibly a copyright violation, it should be removed immediately pending peer review. Even Wikipedia sometimes uses *real evidence* here at ANIs. “Close paraphrases” are not copyright violations by any stretch of the imagination nor do they constitute plagiarism if it they are merely a “close paraphrase”; the litmus test is stricter than that. Anyone who editwars under such pretense has no leg to stand on. Given that Mkativerata is an involved editor, he must abide by the 3RR and edit warring restrictions everyone else are expected to abide by.
I note Mkativerata’s fine posturing like how he won’t be “distracted by obstructionism,” but there are only so many ways short pithy English-langauge sentences that are grammatically correct can be constructed. The proper test for whether close paraphrasing must also be accompanied by an in-line citation is paraphrasing very closely. It is irrelevant whether a collaboration between Zeus and Oprah “uncovered a long history of copyright violations” and this caused Mkativerata to role his eyes *extra-extra* far into his forehead, nor does it matter if these two editors hate each others guts, nor does it matter if Mkativerata postures with Great Determination®™© and speaks of overcoming obstructionism; the only relevant issue here in this ANI is whether Mkativerata’s serial reverting has a proper foundation. And that means the basis must pass the “Reasonable Man” test: Let’s see hard evidence one way or another as to whether the deleted text is a paraphrasing “very closely” and is deserving of having an in-line citation.
It might also be interesting to see if we have an 800-pound gorilla in the room no one is talking about. Is this about a pro-Israeli editor and an anti-Israeli editor bashing each other, trying to make substantial changes to the message point of the articles, and are trying to justify their actions by hiding behind the apron strings of misapplied policies? Who is *really* doing what, and why? Is there *really* “very close” paraphrasing? If that’s the case (and I see no evidence yet that it is) are Mkativerata’s remedies (wholesale deletion of text along with accompanying citations) best serving the project(?) or is are his edits just POV-pushing under a pretense that can’t be buttressed with real evidence? Greg L (talk) 23:22, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- A close paraphrase of a copyrighted work is indeed a copyright violation as an unauthorized derivative work. T. Canens (talk) 23:54, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Can be, but not always. Paraphrasing a single sentence is out of a long article is generally fair use and thus not a copyright violation. A cited statement that is reworded from a single sentence of a source is, AFAIK, generally acceptable in any setting as long as it is cited. Academics do this all the time (summarizing someone's work by using a close paraphrase of a sentence or two of an abstract is extremely common). Hobit (talk) 00:06, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
(edit conflict) The blanking Epeefleche describes is typical procedure in copyvio situations, and you need merely to look in the history to find what has been blanked. As to what has been covered over, let's take the Vivian Joseph article. The major source says:
They finished in fourth place, but in 1966, the silver medal-winning German team of Hans-Jurgen Baumler and Marika Kilius were stripped of their medals after they were alleged to have signed a professional contract prior to the 1964 Olympics. The Josephs were then moved to third place and awarded bronze medals. In 1987, however, the German duo was officially reinstated by the IOC and the original results were restored; the Josephs, who had held the bronze for over 20 years, were moved back to fourth place and the USOC does not officially recognize them as medalists.
This is what Epeefleche placed in the article
They finished in 4th place. But in 1966 the silver medal-winning team of Hans-Jurgen Baumler and Marika Kilius of Germany were stripped of their medals, after they were alleged to have signed a professional contract prior to the 1964 Olympics. The Josephs were then moved up to 3rd place, and awarded bronze medals. In 1987, however, the Germans were officially reinstated by the IOC, and the original results were restored. The Josephs, who had held the bronze medal for over 20 years, were moved back to 4th place. The USOC does not recognize them as medalists.
The rest of the Joseph article contains similar copy-and-paste-with-a-few-words-changed blatant copyright violations and its blanking was both utterly necessary and required. If Epeefleche does not want this to happen, then the best course of action would be to actually work with the CCI to correct the problems that s/he admits exists, before they get blanked. A much more productive course of action. --Slp1 (talk) 23:40, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- As I said above, "I can't see what he deleted, so I don't know whether some level of deletion is appropriate; it may be. But certainly, I can't imagine that there is a need to delete such articles of Olympic athletes in toto. This is just this sort of retribution by Mkat that I was afraid of. BTW -- can you tell us what date that edit was added? Also, Mkat -- directly after I disagreed with him yesterday -- has now undertaken to delete completely some articles I've worked on on Olympic athletes. It stretches the assumption of good faith past the breaking point to think that the timing of his deletions is not accidental, but rather direct retribution. And it is hard to believe that there is not material capable of saving--without any risk of copvio whatsoever--along the lines of "Joe T is an American boxer who won a gold glove in boxing as a heavyweight at the 1976 Summer Olympics".--Epeefleche (talk) 08:01, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'll try again. Mkativerata has deleted nothing. He has blanked an obvious copyright problem, and the complete history, including when you added the information is still in the history. Mkativerata has posted it on the WP:CP board where other editors and administrators will, in 5-7 days, process the listing, checking Mkativerata's claim of copyvio and acting upon it or not as they find appropriate. At any point, you could rewrite the articles to avoid deletion or stubbing. This was explained to you by Moonriddengirl in January, and it is clearly written clearly on the page blanking the articles. Please stop these disruptive claims of "retribution". You added massive copyright violations, and have done nothing to participate in the clean up. Somebody else obviously has to do it for you, and you don't get to obstruct the process by attacking the cleaners. --Slp1 (talk) 13:21, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Very good. Thank you for providing the much-needed, hard evidence, Slp1. Indeed, that is not merely the “close paraphrase” that Mkativerata cited for his deletions but passes the “reasonable man” test for being what plagiarism states as requiring an in-line citation (very close paraphrasing). So why doesn’t someone (Epeefleche?) just add in-line citations to the paragraph? This seems to be an edit dispute where the content and thrust of the article is being changed by the deletion. If Epeefleche objects to that, why not add a citation? Greg L (talk) 00:09, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- You appear to have a very serious misunderstanding of copyright issues. In-line citations will not solve this issue in any way. This is neither close paraphrasing nor plagiarism. It is a very clear cut copyright infringement. May I suggest that you read WP's policies on this matter? WP:COPYVIO.--Slp1 (talk) 00:25, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- What I actually understand and what you think I understand are two different things. I’m done with you today, too. Adios. Greg L (talk) 00:47, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:Plagiarism is pretty clear that adding an in-line citation to closely paraphrased content taken from non-free sources is not a solution; of "works under copyright that are not available under a compatible free license", it says "They cannot be closely paraphrased for copyright concerns, but must be substantially rewritten in original language." --Moonriddengirl (talk) 01:14, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- But ... the edit that Mkat most recently deleted, under the dubious guise of copyvio, wasn't copyvio at all. The fact that he failed to engage in talkpage discussion, and did it in a sensitive area in which he has a conflict of interest, merely compounds the matter -- if there were even a gray area of concern as to copyvio, and for some reason he was opposed to talk page discussion, he could simply have posted his concern on the appropriate noticeboard so that an uninvolved editor could address it. But the main point is -- Mkat seems to be asserting copyvio where there is none, in an eare where he has a conflict of interest.--Epeefleche (talk) 08:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- It is your opinion, not an objective truth, that there were not copyright problems with that revision. Your judgement on copyright matters have to be taken with a pinch of salt, frankly, given your history. --Slp1 (talk) 13:21, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- But ... the edit that Mkat most recently deleted, under the dubious guise of copyvio, wasn't copyvio at all. The fact that he failed to engage in talkpage discussion, and did it in a sensitive area in which he has a conflict of interest, merely compounds the matter -- if there were even a gray area of concern as to copyvio, and for some reason he was opposed to talk page discussion, he could simply have posted his concern on the appropriate noticeboard so that an uninvolved editor could address it. But the main point is -- Mkat seems to be asserting copyvio where there is none, in an eare where he has a conflict of interest.--Epeefleche (talk) 08:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
If Greg L thinks close paraphrasing is "not copyright violations by any stretch of the imagination" and indisputably not plagiarism then Greg L's opinion on this matter is to be actively mistrusted. In fact, given the precedent of long-standing editors turning up at ANI and making such statements, it'd be good if someone took a fine-toothed comb to Greg L's longer contributions to confirm that this wasn't indicative of additional copyvio problems. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 23:52, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- If you can’t understand what others write, then you ought not spout off as you just did Thumperward. I now know I can ignore the nonsense you write here. Greg L (talk) 00:03, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- An ad hominem response to a serious copyright situation is not helpful. Actively suspicious, in fact. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 00:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Now you are just trying to bait me. Try looking in the mirror next time when it comes to ad hominem responses. You started it with your “actively mistrusted” bit and then jump up and down and cry foul when someone gives you a dose of your own medicine. Then you further tried to bait me by writing it'd be good if someone took a fine-toothed comb to Greg L's longer contributions to confirm that this wasn't indicative of additional copyvio problems, which is straight out of 6th grade. How the hell old are you?? Stop acting childish and attacking others and try reading what they actually write before spouting off with something half-baked; the operative point in my above point was the adjective “very”; that point was obviously lost on you. I’m done responding to you today since I’ve got your number now, fella, and it’s obvious you enjoy personal attacks and baiting (I’d sorta bother with an ANI of my own for that hogwash, but that would be lowering myself to your level). Why not find another venue at which you can be an ornery, miserable cuss? There is ample electronic white space to get the last word. Happy editing and goodbye. Greg L (talk) 00:14, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- An ad hominem response to a serious copyright situation is not helpful. Actively suspicious, in fact. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 00:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- If you can’t understand what others write, then you ought not spout off as you just did Thumperward. I now know I can ignore the nonsense you write here. Greg L (talk) 00:03, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I've little interest in being drawn into some interminable flame war, especially not with you. My comments were directed at that wider part of the community whose concern with copyright both in the hard legal sense of "we are liable to be sued here" and in the broader sense of "Wikipedia is best avoiding a reputation for a lax attitude to potential copyright issues". Your comment in defense of presented diffs showing at least the latter was troublesome. My experience in this area on WP strongly indicates that editors who make statements defending such things are more likely than average to have made such considerations regarding their own edits in the past. Your response to this was "I now know I can ignore the nonsense you write here", which as a rebuttal is seriously lacking. Forgive me for also not taking you at your word that you're disinterested in having the last word here when my current edit conflict indicates you spent at least five minutes editing this response in order to add the "ornery, miserable cuss" comment, a readaibly blockable personal attack only overlooked because there are bigger issues here (serious allegations of copyvio). Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 00:28, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Didn't we just topic ban someone for refusing to work on their own CCI? Why isn't the same thing done here, especially since this CCI has now been around for about a year and Epeefleche has yet to help clean up the mess he created? T. Canens (talk) 23:54, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
For the record, here are the two sentences in question (AFICT)
- Source
In the new book "Tehran Rising," author Ilan Berman notes that the U.S. war on terrorism has inadvertently removed two of the major brakes on Iranian power in the region: Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq and the Islamist Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
- Wikipedia
He wrote in his 2005 book Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States that in displacing Saddam Hussein, in Iraq, and the Taliban, in Afghanistan, the United States had unintentionally taken away two significant checks on the power of Iran in the Middle East.[8]
- I think that the "inadvertently" is arguable a WP:OR problem (though common sense probably applies). I think that there are only so many ways to communicate the idea of the sentence and this one would seem reasonable to me. But others, more versed in copyright issues, should probably comment. Hobit (talk) 23:58, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Even if you think that this version is adequate, it is worth noting what Mkativerata first removed as a paraphrase.
- What mkativerata removed
In his 2005 book Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States], Berman noted that the U.S. had inadvertently removed two major brakes on Iranian regional power: Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan
which is much, much too close to the original source. Epeefleche made incremental changes[102] [103] all of which which Mkativerata stated, I think legitimately, remained too close to the source, before arriving at this current. --Slp1 (talk) 00:16, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Does making incremental changes to a copyvio until the wording is sufficiently different from the original make it no longer a derivative? INAL but my sources say "no". causa sui (talk) 00:19, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I certainly hope so. Otherwise we should just delete, rather than fix, any detected copyright violations. Plus, a quote that short in a non-profit (yes it matters) is almost certainly fair use so the issue is fairly moot. I personally think the first version is highly problematic, the last was fine and shouldn't have been deleted. Hobit (talk) 01:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Sorry you don't overcome close paraphrasing with a thesaurus. --Mkativerata (talk) 02:01, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- OK, I don't have anything better. Could you provide a way to say that same thing without being a close paraphrase? Or is it the attempt to say the same thing, in a single sentence, that was in the original, as a single sentence, that is a problem? (Sorry that sentence sucked, did I mention I don't write well?) Hobit (talk) 02:10, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- If an editor lacks the skills to do it (and I don't mean that perjoratively), in-text attribution is a safe way around the problem. And does the sentence need to be in the article in the first place? If the sentence derives from one sentence in one source, it's probably not important. So yes, it can be the very attempt to say the same thing, in a single sentence, that was in the original, as a single sentence, that is a problem --Mkativerata (talk) 02:15, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I believe I understand your points, but I will disagree. There are times that a single sentence can and should be paraphrased from a source. Ignoring if this is such a case, I think that the (final) paraphrasing used is about as far from the source as it could be while still making the same point. Would "In his 2005 book Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States], Berman claims that by displacing Saddam Hussein and the Taliban from the Middle East, the United States left room for Iran to fill the vacuum they left." be any better? Eh. Like I said, I think the final version was acceptable, but I agree the first was certainly not. YMMV. Hobit (talk) 03:00, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I agree w/Hobit. And my focus is, as well, on the third deletion that Mkat made (in half an hour, without talkpage discussion). I don't think that unwarranted assertions of copyvio should be used by a sysop, who is bound by wp:admin, and who is without question an involved editor, to delete material he doesn't like. Copyvio is a serious and important concern. But simply saying "I assert it is a copyvio" does not entitle Mkat to bludgeon other editors, where there is no copyvio.--Epeefleche (talk) 08:15, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I agree with most of what hobit says but would make the further point that we are dealing with here may not even be a close paraphrase of the source stated - that is if the source "Tehran Rising," by Ilan Berman contains a sentence reading
then the first version is a correctly attributed quote. From memory epeefleche's CCI was mostly filled with examples like this where one secondary source correctly attributes a piece of information to another secondary source and this attribution has been closely paraphrased to wikipedia. The material being paraphrased in these cases does not begin to approach the threshold of originality required by law to assert a copyvio. That said in these cases our concern should be one of sourcing we should endeavour to cite the claim in the book rather than citing an article discussing the book as the latter is more likely to appear to be a copyvio even if it isn't. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 10:37, 19 November 2011 (UTC)the U.S. war on terrorism has inadvertently removed two of the major brakes on Iranian power in the region: Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq and the Islamist Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
- I believe I understand your points, but I will disagree. There are times that a single sentence can and should be paraphrased from a source. Ignoring if this is such a case, I think that the (final) paraphrasing used is about as far from the source as it could be while still making the same point. Would "In his 2005 book Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States], Berman claims that by displacing Saddam Hussein and the Taliban from the Middle East, the United States left room for Iran to fill the vacuum they left." be any better? Eh. Like I said, I think the final version was acceptable, but I agree the first was certainly not. YMMV. Hobit (talk) 03:00, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- If an editor lacks the skills to do it (and I don't mean that perjoratively), in-text attribution is a safe way around the problem. And does the sentence need to be in the article in the first place? If the sentence derives from one sentence in one source, it's probably not important. So yes, it can be the very attempt to say the same thing, in a single sentence, that was in the original, as a single sentence, that is a problem --Mkativerata (talk) 02:15, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- OK, I don't have anything better. Could you provide a way to say that same thing without being a close paraphrase? Or is it the attempt to say the same thing, in a single sentence, that was in the original, as a single sentence, that is a problem? (Sorry that sentence sucked, did I mention I don't write well?) Hobit (talk) 02:10, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Sorry you don't overcome close paraphrasing with a thesaurus. --Mkativerata (talk) 02:01, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I certainly hope so. Otherwise we should just delete, rather than fix, any detected copyright violations. Plus, a quote that short in a non-profit (yes it matters) is almost certainly fair use so the issue is fairly moot. I personally think the first version is highly problematic, the last was fine and shouldn't have been deleted. Hobit (talk) 01:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Does making incremental changes to a copyvio until the wording is sufficiently different from the original make it no longer a derivative? INAL but my sources say "no". causa sui (talk) 00:19, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
This issue involves an article that has not received attention for most of a year, but appears to be being investigated as part of a CCI investigation. However, the current dispute does not involve copyright violation, because we would not allow a copyright violation to be retained in the edit history of the article. Instead, this is an editorial dispute over non-copyright-violating "close paraphrasing" by the target of the CCI investigation. Regarding the initial recent edit to the article, the target of the CCI investigation does not dispute the concern of "close paraphrasing", and does not dispute the initial revert of the material, but instead seeks to restore the work product of the encyclopedia without the concern. This is where the dispute begins, because the subject of this ANI review refuses to allow improvements to the encyclopedia, refuses to engage in talk page discussion, and on this ANI page escalates by threatening to use administrative tools. This discussion can be resolved by reminding Mkativerata to discuss editorial disputes on the talk page. Unscintillating (talk) 17:22, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- That's not really an accurate understanding of how we handle copyright problems. We allow them to be retained in the edit history of articles routinely. User:Flatscan and I have just been talking about how that should be addressed. But even I only revdelete extensive issues. (And Mkativerata is more conservative there than I am: [104]) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:52, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
User:Who R you?
Pretty gross civility violation here by Who R you? (talk · contribs), who remains unrepentant after receiving friendly advice. Not the first time – his talk page is littered with incivilities, and he is polluting the atmosphere with his flaming at WT:UE. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 04:36, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- There's no call for that, or for this either for that matter. I've issued a warning but given just what little I've seen of his behavior would have no problem with a block. - The Bushranger One ping only 05:53, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
He posted yet another blatant personal attack just a few moments ago.--Ohconfucius ¡digame! 06:01, 15 November 2011 (UTC)- This hot off the presses. I suppose you could count me as part of the "scum [that is] always around to abuse the process and whine and complain how they aren't treated nicely by the people they're fucking over". --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 06:32, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- It's part of a broader problem; there's plenty more like this Apparently I'm pulling a "slimy scumbag trick" by alluding to a source; Who R U is quite sure that sources don't exist and I'm making it up, although they carefully avoid calling me a liar. I've since explicitly linked to a source; but I'm sure we'll get another bad-faith TL;DR rant on that thread and in many others. Also, creating that wikiproject was just an attempted end-run around all those people who disagree with Who at the proper page; Who has a mission to remove diacritics, and mere consensus cannot be allowed to stand in the way of that mission. bobrayner (talk) 11:58, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- Please don't abbreviate his name as "Who". It tends to creates the Who's on First? effect. GoodDay (talk) 05:13, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
- For another example, anybody who takes the time to read through the epic comments here will find an abundance of bad faith and sniping at other editors - for instance "P.S. Did they not even try to make the word lé to make it appear more foreign? Incroyable, ces enfants stupides!". bobrayner (talk) 12:07, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- As one of the non-scum and also a non-admin, I think temporary ban from all discussions involving English language might circumvent this, as the English language discussions seems to be the trigger of these outbursts. Then again, saying that probably makes me scum. ;-) --OpenFuture (talk) 14:05, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- I love this rant. In the very same paragraph where he complains of people "abusing process", he insists that the solution to the likely deletion of his project is to find an admin willing to restore to user space... in abuse of process. Less concerning than his incivility (which to me are merely the ramblings of a zealot) is various comments about how it is better to let him keep his project rather than force them to rely on email, etc. Such comments have a very WP:EEML feel to them, and are of a far greater concern to this project than Who R's inability to handle dissenting viewpoints. Resolute 14:29, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- That is plain ridiculous. Talks about people abusing the system and wasting peoples time all the while he is attempting to do both. But you are right that does sound like a similar case to the WP:EEML. -DJSasso (talk) 14:35, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- I believe there may have been some kind of offsite coordination in the diacriticals controversy in the past, although the attempt at creating a pov-pushing project is at least open to all viewers (but participation is limited to those who agree with Who R U). However, offsite coordination is very hard to prove (it's all very well suspecting it, but I've only actually uncovered it once, on Astrology). I'm curious as to how a couple of people on that side of the debate found and joined the wikiproject so soon - at first glance I didn't see any talkpage notification (which would have been canvassing anyway). Perhaps it's mere coincidence, and there are people who check the directory of wikiprojects every day for interesting new projects to join... bobrayner (talk) 16:02, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm not sure if I'm a suspect, but I discovered the new WikiProject via following the creator's contributions. GoodDay (talk) 05:19, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
- I believe there may have been some kind of offsite coordination in the diacriticals controversy in the past, although the attempt at creating a pov-pushing project is at least open to all viewers (but participation is limited to those who agree with Who R U). However, offsite coordination is very hard to prove (it's all very well suspecting it, but I've only actually uncovered it once, on Astrology). I'm curious as to how a couple of people on that side of the debate found and joined the wikiproject so soon - at first glance I didn't see any talkpage notification (which would have been canvassing anyway). Perhaps it's mere coincidence, and there are people who check the directory of wikiprojects every day for interesting new projects to join... bobrayner (talk) 16:02, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- That is plain ridiculous. Talks about people abusing the system and wasting peoples time all the while he is attempting to do both. But you are right that does sound like a similar case to the WP:EEML. -DJSasso (talk) 14:35, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- Who R you? (talk · contribs) has also used more "conventional" canvassing; see this and this for example. Just by reading the RMs one gets the impression that the community's position on many moves is evenly split, or swinging towards removal of diacriticals; but in reality, one side is very good at "getting out the vote". bobrayner (talk) 16:06, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- FWIW, it looks like there's not much good faith on either side [105] [106]. causa sui (talk) 17:46, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- Unfortunately, tempers are fraying on both sides, and I fear it may become a vicious circle. I would argue that the diff you present is not an ideal response to this rant, but it's certainly understandable: "Apparently living in Czechoslovakia has left you out of touch with the real world... Regardless of your inability to comprehend... scum are always around to abuse the process and whine and complain how they aren't treated nicely by the people they're fucking over..." - and there are many other diffs with a similar tone. Even if Who R you's canvassing and manipulation and mendacious misinterpretation of policy were to stop instantly, it is almost impossible for other editors to have a reasoned and civil discussion amid so many angry comments. Even hitherto calm editors can get sucked into the maelstrom. bobrayner (talk) 18:02, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- Furthermore, this little gem shows that they're willing to game the system to stay "on the right side of" the PA line. Even without directly making an attack against anyone, there is still sufficient sustained violation of civility that this warrants a block. --Blackmane (talk) 21:28, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- For someone so involved in matters like does he really not realise Czechoslovakia hasn't existed for nearly 19 years or is he just being dumb? Nil Einne (talk) 13:54, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Unfortunately, tempers are fraying on both sides, and I fear it may become a vicious circle. I would argue that the diff you present is not an ideal response to this rant, but it's certainly understandable: "Apparently living in Czechoslovakia has left you out of touch with the real world... Regardless of your inability to comprehend... scum are always around to abuse the process and whine and complain how they aren't treated nicely by the people they're fucking over..." - and there are many other diffs with a similar tone. Even if Who R you's canvassing and manipulation and mendacious misinterpretation of policy were to stop instantly, it is almost impossible for other editors to have a reasoned and civil discussion amid so many angry comments. Even hitherto calm editors can get sucked into the maelstrom. bobrayner (talk) 18:02, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
- Good faith should be assumed only until overwhelming evidence of the contrary. --OpenFuture (talk) 04:51, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
- And he's at it again. I'm pretty sure, given his history of personal attacks and a warning to cease and desist from them - [107] - that this is blockable; see the comments in the third new section and his closing at the bottom of the diff. - The Bushranger One ping only 08:03, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, he is not the only editor commenting on other editors there. The real problem is that what he says about the other editors' behaviour is verifiably false. Contrast this:
- "The purpose [of WikiProject English] is to enforce one particular interpretation of policy. An interpretation that does not have consensus, and in fact if anything is in a minority when it comes to actual practice." -- "You and your buddies keep making the same claims that there is no consensus and that I'm only following one interpretation, and yet I keep providing word-for-word quotes of the policies and asking you to explain how it is that you're intepreting them and you never respond. I take that to mean that you can't figure out how to twist words like "… follow the general usage in reliable sources that are written in the English language …" to your purposes, and you know you'd look like a fool if you tried; so instead you use the common childish tactic of baseless accusation in the hopes that no one will consider your words too carefully." [108]
- With this, this or this gem:
- "[...] I'm still waiting for your reply as to why WP should ignore the sources; or is it the ol', because a small group of people continuously bring this subject up in one forum after another, fail to get consensus, and repeat, justification. And I've noticed that other people get complaints filed against them for disruptive editing for having dared to violate the private rules that WP:Hockey made up to replace all the other rules that say follow the RS. Funny how sometimes if you harass people enough they just give up rather than try to combat the private agenda of some. Maybe now more people can comment here as well as at Talk:Marek Židlický and this continuous disruption that's been going on for years can finally be stopped. [...]" -- "Because not all reliable sources are reliable for the spelling of a name. You've read all the discussions by the looks of the lists you wrote so you have likely seen the large number of reasons that have been given ad naseum. [...] Most likely things would have changed by now to include them had it not been for some hardline 'not in my country' editors who keep trying to bring it up in every forum possible and while making attacks on anyone who disagrees with them stating that they are only doing it because of mother country pride and the like. We are an encyclopedia, our goal is to provide information. Cutting out the proper spelling of someones name is counter to that goal. We should follow the establish usage of other reference works which in many (not all) cases use them as well as the highly respected manuals of style such as the AMA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style. It is crazy that wikipedia wants to be a reference work but we would ignore what reference works and the major style guides suggest we do and instead rely on sports reporters. Sports reporters are hardly reliable for the proper spelling of a name in a lot of cases." [109]
- That guy is repeating the same nonsense over and over. When you bother to refute it, he drops out of the conversation and occasionally one of his allies comes in instead, although more often there is no response at all. Then shortly afterwards, in a different thread or elsewhere in the same thread, he makes the same absurd claims again, and sometimes even explicitly denies the mere existence of the responses to which he closes his ears. If a project built on WP:CONSENSUS as its main decision making process tolerates this kind of behaviour for too long, it may as well close down. Hans Adler 10:06, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm interested in the tagteaming too. Is an SPI warranted? causa sui (talk) 20:02, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- It's refreshing, to know that the editors who're seeking disciplinary actions against WRy, aren't from the pro-dios side. GoodDay (talk) 20:08, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I might add that the statement you obviously fully understand that we 80s head-bangers were contemplating the Wagnerian look of the name and viewed the losers of WWII as our tough role models. It couldn't have been that selecting a foreign, non-English symbol, the umlaut, symbol of our parents enemies during the war, what they fought, killed, and died to destroy, that we thought that it would piss them off that the heavy metal that we blared contained a symbol that represented that which they at one time despised. No, you're right of course; we teenagers were contemplating the Wagnerian influence and wanted to follow in the footsteps of those tough losers that surrendered. (in the original diff when I restored this from archive) seems to me to either be accusing the other side of being Nazis, or accusing them of accusing his "side" as being Nazis. - The Bushranger One ping only 20:16, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Sorry, but your accusation seems a bit over the top to me. The sarcasm wasn't optimal here, but it was a detailed explanation of Who R You?'s position on a specific point, which in this case was actually more than reasonable. Spellings such as "Motörhead" (in which, by the way, the umlaut makes no sense at all) can definitely not be used as proof that umlauts are not foreign to English. The frequent use of black letters by the same scene clearly demonstrates that. Hans Adler 21:44, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Nobody ever claimed that umlauts didn't look foreign, so that's not what he is trying to say. His point was rather that using umlauts somehow associate you with Nazism, and that the usage of umlauts therefore upset those who fought against Germany in WWII and that the usage of it therefore was there to intentionally piss of the parenting generation of those who listened to Blue Öyster Cult etc. This is of course is completely absurd. But I'm sure he isn't trying to insult anyone with that statement. -OpenFuture (talk) 12:57, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- It's not absurd to me at all but sounds perfectly plausible. Provocation is a typical motivation for many elements of youth culture, and I can see no point in that kind of music other than provocation and expression of aggression. Hans Adler 18:00, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Nobody ever claimed that umlauts didn't look foreign, so that's not what he is trying to say. His point was rather that using umlauts somehow associate you with Nazism, and that the usage of umlauts therefore upset those who fought against Germany in WWII and that the usage of it therefore was there to intentionally piss of the parenting generation of those who listened to Blue Öyster Cult etc. This is of course is completely absurd. But I'm sure he isn't trying to insult anyone with that statement. -OpenFuture (talk) 12:57, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Sorry, but your accusation seems a bit over the top to me. The sarcasm wasn't optimal here, but it was a detailed explanation of Who R You?'s position on a specific point, which in this case was actually more than reasonable. Spellings such as "Motörhead" (in which, by the way, the umlaut makes no sense at all) can definitely not be used as proof that umlauts are not foreign to English. The frequent use of black letters by the same scene clearly demonstrates that. Hans Adler 21:44, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- @causa sui, it probably would be a good idea. Seems like a strong possibility looking at his edit history how he jumped from new editor to doing things that don't look like something a new user would do. @Bushranger it's funny you mention Goodwin's law as I almost posted something about that when I noticed him calling people Communists down below. Not exactly the same thing but a twist on Goodwins law. -DJSasso (talk) 20:20, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- All right. I'm not familiar enough to compile a comprehensive list of suspects. But if there are a lot then a sleeper check isn't a bad idea either. causa sui (talk) 21:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm interested in the tagteaming too. Is an SPI warranted? causa sui (talk) 20:02, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, he is not the only editor commenting on other editors there. The real problem is that what he says about the other editors' behaviour is verifiably false. Contrast this:
Block review
User: Wheres Dan is fairly new and displays some trouble understanding what is and what is not a reliable source at Talk:Tribe of Dan and User talk:Wheres Dan. After he called another editor an anti-semite here I've blocked him for 24 hours for violating WP:NPA. I don't really block that often, so a review would be welcome. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:49, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Perfectly cromulent block. Not only was that particular diff about a clear a personal attack as you get, but it was after a series of equally troublesome interactions. If 24 hours doesn't result in the required attitude adjustment I'd just up it to indef. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 14:03, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Well within reasonable to me.--v/r - TP 14:33, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Good block. I only wish other examples of incivility when they're coming from not-so-new editors were dealt with this swiftly. causa sui (talk) 17:23, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
Perfectly good block--Cailil talk 17:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Doncram creating unacceptable articles in mainspace again
Doncram (talk · contribs), after coming back from a 3-month break for disruptive editing, has created this article. Either he or I need an indef block, and at this point, I don't think I care which. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 17:33, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Note also this edit, where he claims that
there's athere will be a redirect pointing there.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 17:37, 18 November 2011 (UTC)- That seems to be an indiscriminate dump of a WP search result for "Chambers building". Hmm... T. Canens (talk) 17:44, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- (ec) I don't see the issue. SarekOfVulcan is complaining that I added a hidden comment in a dab page, relating to an appropriate merger proposal, clearly laid out at Talk:Oak Hill#Merger proposal. After SarekOfVulcan deleted the comment, I restored (and updated) it. Is there a need for an ANI discussion?!???!!! If you have a view about the merger proposal that suggests the redirect, please comment in the merger proposal. For this you open an ANI case? --doncram 17:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- About the Chambers Building disambiguation page, I identified that there are multiple wikipedia-notable topics of that name, and began the disambiguation page. In one or more edits since then, i went back and forth to pages that linked to it and developed several valid entries. In the version S points to, the page is not fully developed, obviously, it was in progress. It was/is clearly tagged as "Under Construction" and has "NRHP dab needing cleanup" tag as well. If S objects to the dab page, he should open an AFD i suppose. For another example, see Chambers House disambiguation page, created by me in this edit, revised in several edits to this version. Do you have a problem with that. --doncram 17:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- KHCAA Golden Jubilee Chamber Complex is a topic "of that name"? And Everett Chambers? And considering "Chambers House" includes A. E. Chambers Octagonal Barn, yes, I have a problem with it.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 18:05, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- It happens that there are two places Chambers barns that seem worth mentioning in the Chambers House dab page. The dab page covers places named exactly "Chambers House" or "Chambers Farm" or "Chambers Farmstead" or "Chambers Barn", and variations that are likely shortened to any one of those, in practice. There are many such dab pages. I don't see the relevance of any of this for ANI. I can't discuss further now, sorry. --doncram 18:17, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- KHCAA Golden Jubilee Chamber Complex is a topic "of that name"? And Everett Chambers? And considering "Chambers House" includes A. E. Chambers Octagonal Barn, yes, I have a problem with it.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 18:05, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- About the Chambers Building disambiguation page, I identified that there are multiple wikipedia-notable topics of that name, and began the disambiguation page. In one or more edits since then, i went back and forth to pages that linked to it and developed several valid entries. In the version S points to, the page is not fully developed, obviously, it was in progress. It was/is clearly tagged as "Under Construction" and has "NRHP dab needing cleanup" tag as well. If S objects to the dab page, he should open an AFD i suppose. For another example, see Chambers House disambiguation page, created by me in this edit, revised in several edits to this version. Do you have a problem with that. --doncram 17:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
For the record, "Unacceptable articles" would include articles that might seriously violate BLP. Doncram's articles appear to be made in good faith and have a reasonable chance of withstanding closer scrutiny. So perhaps an indef block for SarekOfVulcan is called for per his own suggestion. Rklawton (talk) 18:24, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Perhaps, but if you're accusing me of creating articles that violate BLP, I'd really like to see examples instead of insinuations. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 18:28, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Read what you and I wrote again. You are complaining about "unacceptable articles" - so I gave you an example of an unacceptable article. I then defended Doncram's article as not unacceptable. Finally, since you stated that either Doncram or you should get an indef block, and since Doncram's edits aren't blatantly problematic, then you, per your own suggestion, should receive the indef block. Rklawton (talk) 18:33, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- You're saying that an article that included the text "The City Chambers in Glasgow , Scotland has functioned as the headquarters of ... 1889 The building originally had an area of 5,016 square metres. ... 8 KB (1,275 words) - 15:44, 3 November 2011" wasn't blatantly problematic? Doncram left it in that state and edited other articles until I posted here, at which point he cleaned it up.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 18:36, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Nope, I don't. I'd just fix it or tag it for cleanup, but I certainly wouldn't complain about it on AN/I. Rklawton (talk) 18:45, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- You're saying that an article that included the text "The City Chambers in Glasgow , Scotland has functioned as the headquarters of ... 1889 The building originally had an area of 5,016 square metres. ... 8 KB (1,275 words) - 15:44, 3 November 2011" wasn't blatantly problematic? Doncram left it in that state and edited other articles until I posted here, at which point he cleaned it up.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 18:36, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Read what you and I wrote again. You are complaining about "unacceptable articles" - so I gave you an example of an unacceptable article. I then defended Doncram's article as not unacceptable. Finally, since you stated that either Doncram or you should get an indef block, and since Doncram's edits aren't blatantly problematic, then you, per your own suggestion, should receive the indef block. Rklawton (talk) 18:33, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Doncram's first edit summary on Chambers Building indicates that he was uploading work done in the midst of having lost his internet connection, so it is possible that the initial creation was something he submitted quickly in the midst of frustration over internet problems. Regardless, Doncram knows that he could easily avoid this kind of confrontation by the simple measure of putting his draft pages in user space, then moving them to article space when he has finished improving them to an acceptable condition. --Orlady (talk) 19:32, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I don't like Sarek jumping on Doncram immediately after Domcram's return from a 3 month block. He should assume good faith and gently discuss problems, rather than essentially starting the discussion here. I'd think it's fair to ask Doncram to start some of these articles in user space, but confronted immediately (well, 2nd sentence) with "Either he or I need an indef block, and at this point, I don't think I care which." by Sarek, I'd say a 1-day block to S would be an appropriate response. I would also like to personally ask Doncram to get back into editing gradually, in a manner guaranteed not to upset anybody immediately. Smallbones (talk) 19:38, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I agree with both Orlady and Smallbones here. Doncram should ease back into editing, making discrete, complete changes and in general, trying to keep a lower profile. SarekOfVulcan should not be making either/or declarations and should ideally help encourage better behavior by word and example, rather than drop people back into ANI on their second day. dm (talk) 18:18, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- The original version of this article was definitely terrible and should have been created in userspace if that's the process that doncram wants to use for creating dab pages. However, after a bit of nudging he quickly cleaned it up. Nudging on his talk page probably would have gotten the same result as nudging on the drama board. Without very much knowledge of the circumstances of doncram's 3-month break, I'd say that an immediate kneejerk ANI complaint was uncalled for. —SW— comment 21:27, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Circumstance of the break can be found at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive713#Doncram, 1 August 2011. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 21:52, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- If he's now cleaning up after himself, he has learned something from his three month break. The block details here was to stop him transferring the content of another database into Wikipedia without any check being made on the quality of what was being imported (there were a lot of problems with the other database). All the time. Without stopping. And endlessly abusing both the guy who wrote the script that he used, and anyone who tried to clean up the mess. However, as I say, if he is now prepared to correct his own problems, then that's progress. Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:56, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
IP hopper at Wikipedia:OTRS noticeboard
Can anyone think of anything useful to do about the IP hopper at Wikipedia:OTRS noticeboard who thinks we're violating his civil legal rights, and doesn't understand why we won't let him link to a Russian site that streams Beatles tunes? --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:45, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Perhaps making clear that we are discussing the copyright law of the United States (under which we operate), not of Russia, and adding that we want to avoid breaching copyright anywhere? I'd rather not do it myself; this would be most impressive with short, linked quotations, and somebody who's up on it could find them much more easily. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 20:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Russian Federation is a signatory to the Berne convention (most ex Soviet countries are). He is breaching copyright under the Berne convention, Apple Records/The Beatles have not licensed their product for free streaming to anyone (not the BBC, not Steve Jobs, no one). He almost certainly knows this, and knows that his hack cannot last forever, hence his increasingly colourful demands. Recomend no response and reverting further edits - this isn't a language difficulty, nor is it our duty to explain to him how he is violating Apple Records copyright. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Current edit reverted via this discussion. Should the noticeboard perhaps be protected? Calabe1992 21:57, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Quick Suggestion: add the domain name beatles1.ru to the blacklist. At least make it difficult for him to post it anywhere - as well as prevent him from using Wikipedia to advertise a site that violates copyright law. Best, ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 22:00, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- See if he posts again. Elen of the Roads (talk) 22:01, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Seems on a spamming run elsewhere as well from what I can dig up. Also, get this, there's claims posted about the content being licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported license. Heh. ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 22:04, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Still at it. Could someone else please revert; I'm not going to war over it. Calabe1992 22:39, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Second thought - see edit summary. Legal threat justifying rangeblock? Calabe1992 22:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Yes, that's a legal threat in my book. (Note he also throws the S-word ("slander") out there in the edit itself.) - The Bushranger One ping only 22:52, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Second thought - see edit summary. Legal threat justifying rangeblock? Calabe1992 22:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Still at it. Could someone else please revert; I'm not going to war over it. Calabe1992 22:39, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Seems on a spamming run elsewhere as well from what I can dig up. Also, get this, there's claims posted about the content being licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported license. Heh. ROBERTMFROMLI | TK/CN 22:04, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Current edit reverted via this discussion. Should the noticeboard perhaps be protected? Calabe1992 21:57, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Russian Federation is a signatory to the Berne convention (most ex Soviet countries are). He is breaching copyright under the Berne convention, Apple Records/The Beatles have not licensed their product for free streaming to anyone (not the BBC, not Steve Jobs, no one). He almost certainly knows this, and knows that his hack cannot last forever, hence his increasingly colourful demands. Recomend no response and reverting further edits - this isn't a language difficulty, nor is it our duty to explain to him how he is violating Apple Records copyright. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- As the editor who apparently is restricting the IP hopper's civil rights, I have warned them multiple times (though it never seems to stick because they keep ip hopping). Shall we apply the DUCK test and blacklist the site, the email that they want to correspond on, and move on. I simply asked the OTRS volunteers to close the conversation in the "No, you can't link from WP to that site" manner. Hasteur (talk) 22:46, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Blacklist ahoy. - The Bushranger One ping only 22:52, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I've added the link beatles1.ru to the spam blacklist due to the spamming/disruption. I'll look into if this needs to be also submitted for blacklisting at meta:Spam blacklist. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 22:54, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm also seeing the link at ru.wikipedia.org and fi.wikipedia.org ... will post at meta later today to request adding the link to the global blacklist (first need to step away from my system for a few hours). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 23:05, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- D'oh, you beat me to adding it. I added a notice explaining the server location/local copyright law matter. Personally, I don't think this is bad faith, just totally and utterly misguided. From my experience, Russians often resent, give no consideration to, or even reject copyright - usually because of the draconian restrictions and limitations on artistic freedom they have experienced in their modern history. WilliamH (talk) 23:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- FWIW, I tried to look into this but my firewall would not let me. Webroot says it is a site known to be related to spyware. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong, but it's enough to concern me. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:30, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- D'oh, you beat me to adding it. I added a notice explaining the server location/local copyright law matter. Personally, I don't think this is bad faith, just totally and utterly misguided. From my experience, Russians often resent, give no consideration to, or even reject copyright - usually because of the draconian restrictions and limitations on artistic freedom they have experienced in their modern history. WilliamH (talk) 23:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm also seeing the link at ru.wikipedia.org and fi.wikipedia.org ... will post at meta later today to request adding the link to the global blacklist (first need to step away from my system for a few hours). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 23:05, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
Ray Nagin
Can I get some admin eyes on Ray Nagin? Since 5 November quite a bit of the article has been rewritten to cast Nagin in a more favorable light, including the removal of cited text [110]. All of the edits in that time period were by Craynagin (talk · contribs), an IP that geolocates to New Orleans, and a bot. I'm suspicious that Craynagin is Nagin himself or someone editing on his behalf (Nagin's first name according to the article is Clarence). —KuyaBriBriTalk 22:10, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Most of what has been added is blatantly unsourced. Unless anyone argues otherwise, I think virtually all of it can be reverted. Calabe1992 22:22, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- Reported to WP:UAA as well. - The Bushranger One ping only 22:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
- And I've just blocked him using
{{Uw-ublock-famous}}
. Salvio Let's talk about it! 00:33, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- And I've just blocked him using
- Reported to WP:UAA as well. - The Bushranger One ping only 22:55, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
Vituzzu vs Spam
Hello,
I would like to bring to your attention a problem with an Italian Administator, Vituzzu : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Vituzzu
He is keeping deleting all posts made by a group of sport fans who contact sport fanatics asking them if they are interested in an international forum about Olympic sports (completely non profit and totally free) that is absolutely not a Wikipedia's competitor.
He considers it spam and we don't, anyway even if whole Wikipedia considers it too, this doesn't justify what he started doing for some days.
As you can see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Biodin#Vietnam he started telling users that they will be FORCED to SPAM the forum on wikipedia.
That's absolutely false and that's a heavy damage against the forum.
Contact single users asking them if they would be interested in the forum could be considered spam (at least for Vituzzu) but that's a defamation and we really hope some decisions will be taken about that to stop him with his actions to damage Totallympics reputation.
Hope to receive good news.
Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.161.224.5 (talk) 00:08, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- He's right. You're wrong. Stop. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:13, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Third opinion, just as you were informed here User talk:Smartse#Problem with an Administrator, please dont spam unsolicited material about your forum on Wikipedia. Heiro 00:16, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- You have been told countless times, by numerous different editors, that your contributions are spam and unwanted, yet you keep coming back under different account names and different IP addresses attempting to evade your various blocks. You know that sockpuppets aren't permitted on Wikipedia. Please desist. - David Biddulph (talk) 00:40, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- He considers it spam because it is spam. Spam is generally defined as the mass sending of unsolicited messages. Here's an idea: if you don't want your forum to be associated with spam on Wikipedia and among its editors, stop sending it out in unsolicited messages to masses of Wikipedia editors. WilliamH (talk) 01:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I have blacklisted the domain on the English Wikipedia per the long term abuse. WilliamH (talk) 01:36, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- And the boomerang spins on round and round...I see the D-word (defamation) in that OP too. - The Bushranger One ping only 05:20, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, these domains were blacklisted globally a few months ago. It's still a WP:BOOMERANG as these posts will be used as reasons to summarily reject any future delisting requests. MER-C 10:40, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- He considers it spam because it is spam. Spam is generally defined as the mass sending of unsolicited messages. Here's an idea: if you don't want your forum to be associated with spam on Wikipedia and among its editors, stop sending it out in unsolicited messages to masses of Wikipedia editors. WilliamH (talk) 01:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm trying to find out why the fact that he's an admin on the Italian Wikipedia makes it into the OP's rationale ... "welcome to the English Wikipedia". (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 10:43, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- "Logic and reason, m'boy...logic and reason." I forget where I first saw that used in this ironic context...but it fits so well...in unfortunatly far too many places. - The Bushranger One ping only 11:31, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Here my rectification according Italian and international Law, by forcing I meant asking them regardless of anything, it was just a clear fault of me.--Vituzzu (talk) 12:33, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- FYI plus a lot of emails sent via Wikipedia and some legal threats to me and childish trolling... is getting quite boring...--Vituzzu (talk) 12:33, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Wow, I didn't expect that they would follow my advice and come here. If there's anyone around who can set up edit filters, can you create one to stop totallympics being added? AFAIK it's the only way to deal with spam once people stop posting it as actual links. (I'll post a request here too in a moment.) SmartSE (talk) 13:01, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Actually I can create a filter but this will probably bring our spammers to change target, to me we need a radical solution. --Vituzzu (talk) 14:06, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
You can do whatever you want as I'm not even the owner of the site, but you have already threaten to lock someone's email and internet connection and I'm still waiting for that. It was also interesting to see how these messages just disappeared few hours later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.33.125.137 (talk) 15:53, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Writing from a different provider? ROTFL. Tempo al tempo trolluzzo mio :D --Vituzzu (talk) 18:48, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
So should I be scared that my mail, provider and the forum will be closed as you promised ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.156.178.11 (talk) 20:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Edit-warring as "method" for pushing article changes
The Chetniks article has recently seen two separate attempts to introduce changes to the article through coordinated edit-warring, in spite of active opposition on the talkpage. I cannot emphasize enough that the lede version being altered, and the section that was removed, are sourced thoroughly with numerous sources and stood in the article for literally several years. The changes also include POV blanking of sourced facts personally disagreeable to two users, and the misquoting of sources previously listed in the article. In other words, information was replaced with an opposed new draft, and the references that supported the (long-standing) previous version were simply moved to another piece of text they have little to do with (i.e. they were blatantly misquoted). The new draft proposal being introduced via edit-warring is actively opposed on the talkpage on the basis of bias through omission, as it ignores several sources (that were brought-up), and generally sports a pronounced POV.
Specifically: 1) an opposed draft of the lede has been introduced, with sourced text deleted, and 2) all long-standing (and fully sourced) mention of ethnic cleansing has been deleted through WP:SECTION BLANKING of the relevant article section. The two users edit-warring in concert to push these changes are User:Nuujinn (who writes the changes) and User:FkpCascais (who is acting as a sort of "enforcer").
- 1. edit war to introduce opposed lede changes
- 2. edit war to blank the Ethnic cleansing section
It is important to note that the users, since they are in fact gaming the 3RR system, are no doubt hoping to have the article protected - with their version on top. I will also point out that while I also did revert the users, I was restoring the status quo version, and refrained from violations of WP:3RR at all times. I had been attempting to establish WP:BRD, and have no intention whatsoever of reverting them at all in the future.
This is, of course, a classic method of pushing new opposed edits that exploits Wikipedia's own guidelines. Note the numerous benefits: two users keep restoring their new changes; if they are reverted then the user that reverted them can expect to be sanctioned also ("it takes two to edit-war") and will thus avoid reporting them, but if reported, their version is likely to get protected for good ("there is no wrong version") in spite of any sanctions (if any). If they are not reverted, then they're not really edit-warring to push their edits in the first place. Either way, the new changes find their way into the article, are there to stay, and they've successfully WP:GAMED THE SYSTEM. In my experience, it works almost every time. I am requesting that the edit be reverted, and the users be warned with regard to WP:BRD, in order to facilitate talkpage discussion. In the alternative, there is no point to any continuation of discussion when the users have twice now shown that they can basically do whatever they like. --DIREKTOR (TALK) 07:12, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Perhaps it is really time for admin intervention against DIREKTOR who made an incredible number of exactly 80 reverts (check by yourselfs) on Chetniks article since the day he inserted the highly controversial disputed text with manipulated and descontextualised sources. I restored the text that User:Nuujinn a neutral editor with much experiance has created in order to archive balance but DIREKTOR reverted. Then I removed the exagerated unsourced claim and left with what is sourced, but DIREKTOR reverts that as well. We are in front of a highly biased editor who is doing his best to manipulate the article in a way one side POV is represented and boicoting all attempts many other users are doing to archive balance in this article. DIREKTOR already had his version changed during the mediation at Draža Mihailović article, and now is doing all the efforts to keep his highly biased version on this other related article. Btw, DIREKTOR has using highly uncivil behaviour at discussions including numerous ethnically motivated accusations to a number of editors. FkpCascais (talk) 07:50, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- The lede is perfectly accurate and the statement you dispute is more thoroughly sourced than most on Wikipedia. The fact that it insults the "national honour" of a large number of right-wing-leaning Serbian users is another matter entirely. It stood for 3 years, and the fact that this was in spite of strong nationalism-inspired opposition, on an obscure Serbian history article, is if anything a testament to its accuracy and sourcing. Even if the utterly nonsensical "80 reverts" claim was anything more than your "estimate", taken as it is over a period three years it has absolutely nothing to do with the matter at hand. User:Nuujinn is a "neutral" editor only as far as you yourself are concerned. He is in fact part of your own pro-Chetnik group, and that is actually quite an easily demonstrable fact. His proposal is opposed on good grounds, but he is content to have the edit-warrior notified and has beem avoiding discussion for days npw.
- It looks like this gang-edit-war might not receive the appropriate attention from the community. That would, without question, constitute a vindication of edit-warring as the appropriate tool for proposing new edits on the article at question. --DIREKTOR (TALK) 10:23, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Direktor, I often have some degree of sympathy for your position. The above statement just destroyed it. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 10:36, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- It looks like this gang-edit-war might not receive the appropriate attention from the community. That would, without question, constitute a vindication of edit-warring as the appropriate tool for proposing new edits on the article at question. --DIREKTOR (TALK) 10:23, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- (Sigh). I'm pretty well tied up right now finishing up house consolidation/improvement in RL right now, but any criticism of my actions or how they might have been better done is certainly welcome, either here or on my talk page. I'll have some time later today to catch up on what's happened in the last few days since I've been off line here. --Nuujinn (talk) 11:43, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Constant attacks by User:Deterence
From what I understand, User:Deterence was blocked a little a week ago for personal attacks on another user. In the few days after the block expired, he has launched another barrage of insults on other users participating in WP:ITN/C. Most disturbingly, he seems to be targeting the user who reported him for the first block. I'll let the facts speak for themselves:
Incivility and derogatory remarks:
- 01:59, 16 November 2011 "Ashishg55, it's taking a hell of a lot of personal self-control not to tear you a new one over that remark."
- 22:17, 16 November 2011 "Mamyles, that has got to be the most ignorant comment I have read all week."
- 20:01, 18 November 2011 "You've got to wonder about the mentality of someone who seems positively happy to have been the victim of police brutality.."
- 11:46, 18 November 2011 "I am not the least bit surprised to see that Doktorbuk made this AfD nomination. He is fanatically obsessed with removing all traces of the Occupy movement from Wikipedia and, as recent discussions with him have demonstrated, there is absolutely no reasoning with him whatsoever."
- 12:06, 18 November 2011 "The POV-pushing agenda behind this nomination/censorship could hardly be more obvious."
- 11:50, 18 November 2011 "Another pointless AfD nomination by an editor with too much time on their hands."
Personal attacks:
- 00:41, 16 November 2011 "Your assessment is so utterly simplistic that it is bordering on the ridiculous. Or you are trolling."
- 05:55, 17 November 2011 "This place seriously needs an IQ prerequisite."
- 07:24, 17 November 2011 "Yeah, go have another cry to mummy."
- 21:42, 17 November 2011 "Are you even REMOTELY capable of actually coming to grips about what we're even talking about?!"
- 21:59, 17 November 2011 "It's official. You're brain-dead."
- 22:05, 17 November 2011 "Were you in the Special Ed classes in school? Are you still in the Special Ed classes in school?"
This is only a small fraction of the edits he has made since he was blocked for incivility. After wasting ten minutes of my time "trolling" through his recent edit history, I cannot find a single edit in which he made a comment that was not confrontational or insulting in some way. I think this suffices to show that Deterence has not learned the lesson from his previous block; in fact, his behavior has became demonstrably worse. Perhaps a longer block or a topic ban would lead him to a better direction. JimSukwutput 07:52, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Funniest read I've had all week. However, I will make one point: only one of those quotes was addressed to "the user who reported him for the first block", so it's a bit of an exaggeration to suggest that I am "targeting" that particular editor. If anything, doktorb is the addressee of a disproportionate share of my wise commentary. But, that's only because he has learning difficulties. Or because he's a Republican. I'm not sure which because it's rather difficult to tell the difference. Perhaps I'll make a second point: harden-up you great girl's blouse. Deterence Talk 08:23, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Fully agree with Jim. I am at a loss at what should be done, as blocks apparently do not work. Warnings do not work either, see for example this very recent discussion at ANI or this recent warning. The reply above doesn't make me feel confident in that the incivility and soapboxing will stop either. Pantherskin (talk) 09:01, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Blocked for a week. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 09:12, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Comment I have only just logged onto to Wikipedia today. I find the language used in his reply ("that's only because he has learning difficulties") hideously offensive. I welcome the one week block, but would like someone to confirm if the tone of his reply on this page was taken into account (or will be) for any later ruling. Thank you for the swift response, it's great to see that these issues are sorted out quickly. doktorb wordsdeeds 10:22, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- This is his 3rd block for WP:NPA, and his 2nd in a week for it. Considering the brutal level of attacks he's now at (mental capabilities), I'd be willing to indef at this point - it's clear that the same antisocial/anti-rules tendencies that draw him to the Occupy- series of article are showing their very ugly face on Wikipedia, and it's not going to get better. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 10:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'd support indef - in fact, I was thinking of proposing it myself as I don't see any way a 1 week block will be effective -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 10:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Firmly supporting indef. - The Bushranger One ping only 11:30, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Fine with me. I just wanted to make sure they stopped right now. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 11:38, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Block duration increased to indefinite. Salvio Let's talk about it! 11:54, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- This users behavior has been inapropriate at every turn, and the community has given them a hell of a lot of leeway and many opportunities to correct it. Rather than learning from the warnings and blocks, however, their behavior has gotten definitively worse over the past several days. Firmly support the indef as well. Swarm X 15:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Good decision, entirely appropriate block. WilliamH (talk) 15:45, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Good heavens, this was long overdue. Glad to finally see sanity restored to ITNC. Strong support of indef.--WaltCip (talk) 21:07, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- This users behavior has been inapropriate at every turn, and the community has given them a hell of a lot of leeway and many opportunities to correct it. Rather than learning from the warnings and blocks, however, their behavior has gotten definitively worse over the past several days. Firmly support the indef as well. Swarm X 15:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Block duration increased to indefinite. Salvio Let's talk about it! 11:54, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Fine with me. I just wanted to make sure they stopped right now. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 11:38, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Firmly supporting indef. - The Bushranger One ping only 11:30, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'd support indef - in fact, I was thinking of proposing it myself as I don't see any way a 1 week block will be effective -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 10:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- This is his 3rd block for WP:NPA, and his 2nd in a week for it. Considering the brutal level of attacks he's now at (mental capabilities), I'd be willing to indef at this point - it's clear that the same antisocial/anti-rules tendencies that draw him to the Occupy- series of article are showing their very ugly face on Wikipedia, and it's not going to get better. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 10:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Merger proposals by User:Shakinglord
A couple of weeks back, immediately prior to being blocked, this user placed merger proposal tags on the month articles relating to 1962, eg January 1962. There appears to be no interest in debating this nor any consensus to merge. Please would someone remove the tags? I could be said to have a conflict of interest as some of these articles were created by me. Deb (talk) 17:50, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
90.196.241.238
Does 90.196.241.238 (talk · contribs) look familiar to anyone? They seem to me to be a returning nationalist POV warrior who's familiar with Vintagekits; they've been altering nationalities on British-related bios and have made the extraordinary claim that they're fighting a kind of war, and so are justified in edit-warring. They seem to believe that sufficient bluster will be a smokescreen for their activities. See my talkpage for a sample: [125], [126] and [127]. I've blocked them for a week for edit-warring with intent on Amir Khan. Full disclosure: I did revert once there, but self-reverted. Acroterion (talk) 19:08, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Discussion
31 October 2011 User:Geni requests citation for Cymru am byth for national_motto infobox field at the article talk page, See Talk:Wales#Cymru_am_byth
- Edits at Wales
- 21:28, 2 November 2011 Geni removes the content "rm "national motto" pending someone finding a decent citation for it."
- 21:28, 2 November 2011 User:FruitMonkey undid revision by Geni "Take it to the talk page. It was accepted in the GA review."
- 22:05, 2 November 2011 Geni undid revision by FruitMonkey "I did raise it on the talk page"
- 22:13, 2 November 2011 User:Snowded undid revision by Geni "identified as vandalism"
- 22:38, 2 November 2011 Geni adds a couple of {{Citation needed}}. "So far requests on talk and googling have hit a brick wall"
- 14:34, 3 November 2011 User:Daicaregos removes cn and adds "de facto"
- 19:52, 3 November 2011 Geni re-adds cn, removing de-facto "drop citation needed back in. See talk"
- 20:03, 3 November 2011 Daicaregos removes cn and re-adds "de-facto" "Reverted good faith edits by Geni (talk): Drop cn templates back out. See talk. "
- 16:35, 6 November 2011 Geni re-adds cn "drop {{citation needed}} back in. Still no citations despite extensive requests on talk page"
- 20:10, 14 November 2011 Geni removes the moto "rming "motto". Still no citations"
- 20:32, 14 November 2011 Snowded undid revision by Geni "You can add a de facto if you want but you do not have agreement to that"
- 21:17, 14 November 2011 Geni undid revision by Snowded "rv. WP:V is an agreeded standard. For Aeron's sake if it's true it shouldn't be that hard for you to find a reliable source now should it?"
- 21:25, 14 November 2011 Daicaregos undid revision by Geni "Please discuss before reverting"
- Comment
I am just a by-stander and don't have an opinion about the content changes. Nothing is urgent about this request, though the edit pattern appears strange to me. AgadaUrbanit (talk) 19:48, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- The disputed content is being discussed on the talk page. It is unsourced by WP:RS, is in the infobox of the article yet not mentioned in the article itself. It should not be there and (IMO) its presence is being maintained for the wrong reasons. Leaky Caldron 19:52, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Natalie Wood case
A review of the Natalie Wood article ASAP is warranted. Her "mysterious" death case by drowning 30 years ago has been reopened in Los Angeles and has become a major news item. As there seemed to be excessive detail in the "death" section of the article when the recent story broke, I suggested trimming it on the Talk page, which I did the following day.
However, an editor later replaced, and even expanded, that pruned section, relying on original research and even adding inferences. I then explained the new problems created on the Talk page and reverted to the earlier version. Again, the editor restored all of the material with no apparent attempt to even fix the OR problem, besides ignoring the others.
The article has received nearly a half million readers just yesterday. This is a new headline-making investigation, and the section describing events should be watched carefully to avoid abuse. I'm not sure if there's any relationship, but there was some edit-warring that took place last year.--Wikiwatcher1 (talk) 19:52, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Comment: I can't imagine what the above editor is referring to in regard to WP:OR. Everything added is referenced. As expressed on the article talk page, the above editor's rationale for unilaterally deleting nearly the entire section was based on anyone reading it being biased in relation to the case being reopened by the LASO. There was also mention of the section "affect[ing] a pending case". Huh? I have outlined my reasoning for the rewritten section as it is on the article talk page. Further, I know of no WP policy that prevents content being included on the basis of an open criminal investigation. If there is one, I'd be interested to see it. Lhb1239 (talk) 20:09, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
I'm not sure why this content dispute has been brought here or what kind of administrative action is being requested. That said and FWIW, I've read the current version and the trimmed version, and I don't like either of them. Something in between, better worded, and more source-compliant would be better. Should be hashed out on the Talk page, though, not here. If necessary, it can be escalated through the ususal channels of content disputes.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:22, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'm not sure why it was brought here, either. I took the content issue(s) to the talk page, the other editor has yet to address what was added there. As far as the above comment, "read the current version and the trimmed version, and I don't like either of them" - well, WP:IDON'TLIKEIT is applicable in response to that comment, eliciting me from me: So? "That alone isn't enough by itself for something to be deleted". Lhb1239 (talk) 20:29, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Uh, okay, my comment wasn't intended to be a full-blown analysis of what's wrong with both versions, but you're certainly welcome to be snippy.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:50, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I fail to see how quoting policy is being "snippy". And just for the record, that comment along with the edit summary you provided for same ("touchy, aren't we?") could very easily be classified as a personal attack and is neither necessary, accurate, nor the proper use of an edit summary. Lhb1239 (talk) 21:10, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- Uh, okay, my comment wasn't intended to be a full-blown analysis of what's wrong with both versions, but you're certainly welcome to be snippy.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:50, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
I don't think I'm putting this at the right place, AN confuses me. Anyway, JaMikePA, refuses to build consensus and would rather revert repeatedly. Recently, the Miami Marlins and and Toronto Blue Jays had a makeover of their logos and uniforms. As such the article for the two was updated. I updated the the colors using a graphic design industry trusted blog. Determined he was right he's revert me at least 20 times of the past 6 days saying blogs cannot be reliable sources and citing this failed proposal. As the blog is reliable, I and other have reverted him every time and asked him a couple times to stop and if disputes the reliability to start a discussion on the talk page. He hasn't, instead he's continued to revert and redo the colors. I would like someone to either tell him to stop or block him for disruptive edit warring. Thanks. CRRaysHead90 | We Believe! 20:05, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
Personal attack by Udibi
The user Udibi made a personal attack against me, and indirectly against all the users in discussion with him, by calling me "profoundly insane, misogynistic, revisionist, sick-fantasy" on Talk:Rape during the occupation of Germany. He also did the same on his talk page. Anonyma Madel 22:27, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- No, he said "You have the audacity to make such profoundly insane, misogynistic, revisionist, sick-fantasy statements". It's a bit uncivil, but certainly not a WP:NPA. Have you discussed this at WP:WQA? (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 22:33, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- ...and will you be notifying him of this thread, as required? (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 22:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- No. He was trying to imply that I am a Communist revisonist. --Anonyma Madel 22:37, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- ...and will you be notifying him of this thread, as required? (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 22:34, 19 November 2011 (UTC)