Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification and Amendment
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Currently, there are no requests for arbitration.
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Request name | Motions | Case | Posted |
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Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland | none | (orig. case) | 8 January 2020 |
Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland (2) | none | (orig. case) | 8 January 2020 |
Amendment request: The Rambling Man | Motion | (orig. case) | 8 January 2020 |
Amendment request: Magioladitis 2 | Motion | (orig. case) | 8 January 2020 |
Amendment request: Crouch, Swale Original Ban Appeal | Motion | none | 31 December 2019 |
Motion name | Date posted |
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Arbitrator workflow motions | 1 December 2024 |
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Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland
Archived to Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Antisemitism in Poland#Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland (January 2020) CodeLyokotalk 05:38, 8 January 2020 (UTC) | |||
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. | |||
. Initiated by My very best wishes at 22:12, 14 November 2019 (UTC) List of any users involved or directly affected, and confirmation that all are aware of the request:
Statement by My very best wishesAccording to the Article sourcing expectation remedy [1], "The sourcing expectations applied to the article Collaboration in German-occupied Poland are expanded and adapted to cover all articles on the topic of Polish history during World War II (1933-45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Only high quality sources may be used, specifically peer-reviewed scholarly journals, academically focused books by reputable publishers, and/or articles published by reputable institutions." The question. Does that sourcing restriction covers only content on the "Polish history during World War II (1933-45)" or it covers any other content that appear on the same page where anything related to the Polish history during World War II was mentioned? For example, there is a page Gas chamber. It includes a section about Nazi Germany that seems to be related to the Polish history during World War II [2]. However, it also includes sections about other countries, such as North Korea [3], USA and Lithuania [4]. Would these sections also be covered by such sourcing restriction? Meaning, should the section about North Korea be removed? In other words, can content completely unrelated to Poland be removed based on this sourcing restriction, as in this edit (note edit summary)? Note that the page in question is not about Poland, but about Gas chamber. It only includes some content related to Poland. Why. I am asking because the subjects related to other countries often have only a limited coverage in RS and were not subjects of significant scholarly studies. A lot of subjects are simply not science. I would also suggest an amendment. I think this sourcing restriction for Poland should be removed for the following reasons:
@Worm TT. Enforcing WP:RS would be great, but you want it in WP:AE setting to sanction people. Therefore, you need to establish very clear rules which would be obvious for everyone. This is nearly impossible. Even something as simple as 1RR/3RR causes a lot of confusion. A more complex "consensus required" remedy caused more harm than good in AP area. But this is even a more complex restriction. A lot of sources are not inherently reliable or unreliable. Their usage should be discussed on a case to case basis and be decided per WP:Consensus. In other words, to impose such restriction you should answer the following questions:
The bottom line (in my opinion). Arbcom and admins should not change the "five pillars". That restriction changes rather than just enforces WP:RS policy (and adversely affects the WP:NPOV by default). My very best wishes (talk) 14:39, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
However, if you absolutely want to keep some restriction, I think Nick-D get it almost right (I omit only his first phrase as too ambiguous):
Statement by Paul SiebertIt seems the request was inspired mostly by this. Briefly, My Very Best Wishes' edits of the Gas van article are heavily dependent on questionable primary sources (an RSN discussion of one of key sources used by MVBW can be found here). The "Soviet Gas Van" topic is based literally on few sentences taken from one tabloid article, which were reproduced by several secondary sources, and handful of testimonies, part of them state that "Soviet gas van" was used to incapacitate victims before execution, not to kill them, and some of them say that NKVD documents the whole story is based upon cannot be trusted. For comparison, this article about Holocaust in Yugoslavia performs detailed analysis of real and perceived cases of gas van usage in Holocaust, and concludes that some witness testimonies should be treated with great cautions, and usage of gas vans to kill non-Jews is, most likely, a post-WWII myth. As compared with that article, the sources telling about Soviet gas van look like a school student essay.
Comments on MVBW's comments
--Paul Siebert (talk) 23:05, 14 November 2019 (UTC) Regarding Brief reply to comment by Paul Siebert below, a comparison with my most recent proposal demonstrates MVBW's statement is FALSE: I do not propose to remove Solzhenitsyn. Other two sources are primary, and per WP:REDFLAG they cannot be used for such exceptional claims, and the newspaper article just briefly repeats what other sources say. In general, editorial style of MVBW can be characterized as manipulation with poor sources to push certain POVs. A typical example is this edit, where MVBW added one primary source and one newspaper article, each of which provide the identical text. Although the latter may formally be considered as a secondary source (more precisely, op-ed, per NEWSORG), the author does not comment on the cited memoirs, so there is no analysis, evaluation or synthesis (which are necessary traits of any secondary source). In other words, MVBW uses a primary source to advance some exceptional claim, and he duplicates the source to create a false impression of wider coverage of this topic. I think this behaviour deserves more detailed analysis of ArbCom, and I am going to prepare and submit full scale case, because the discussions on talk pages and various noticeboards aimed to convince MVBW to abandon this type behaviour lead just to repetition of the same arguments, which MVBW ignores.--Paul Siebert (talk) 19:07, 16 November 2019 (UTC) @Assayer:
@Mkdw:,@Worm That Turned: and other ArbCom members. This and some other related discussions forced me to reconsider my initial opinion. I propose a different, more global, solution at WP:V talk page. In addition, independently on the outcome of the discussion at the policy talk page, a solution for the Holocaust in Poland related area should be:
To explain how that should work, let's take a look at the recent MyMoloboaccount case as an example (see this page below). Instead of reporting him, FR could just revert MyMoloboaccount's edits, and make a reference to DS and WP:REDFLAG in the edit summary. If MyMoloboaccount tried to re-add the contested material again, FR could file a standard AE request, and, had admins approached this issue in accordance with DS's letter and spirit, they would block or topic ban MyMoloboaccount. In other words, no specific source restrictions are needed, and, therefore, the users who add non-controversial or non-contested materials to the Holocaust related articles are not at risk to be sanctioned. Only those who made contested edits using low quality reliable source will be at risk, and, in my opinion, that would in accordance with DS spirit. Remember, the very idea of DS is to prevent conflicts, which means a user who is editing without being involved in a conflict should not be sanctioned. Based on my own experience, overwhelming majority of conflicts occurs in the areas covered by WP:REDFLAG, which means enforcement of REDFLAG violations resolves lion's share of conflicts. In other words: the actual DS spirit should be as follows:
The problem is that, as a rule, many admins do not see REDFLAG violations as deserving AE attention. However, that is a problems with DS implementation, not with DS themselves. --Paul Siebert (talk) 22:09, 7 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by El_CThis question was already posed at WP:AE#Gas_Van_and_sourcing_requirements — I closed it with (nominal) consensus that restrictions in topical articles do cover untopical sections therein. Mind you, the question became moot with the article having been split into topical and untopical entries. El_C 01:58, 15 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by NugThis is a thorny issue. If the presence of the section Gas_chamber#Nazi_Germany requires the entire article Gas_chamber to be subject to the same strict Antisemitism-in-Poland sourcing expectation, then the section Gas_chamber#North_Korea would have to be deleted, as is it entirely sourced from newspapers and first hand witness accounts. Alternately Gas_chamber#Nazi_Germany would have to be split out into a separate article Nazi gas chambers (which currently redirects to Gas_chamber#Nazi_Germany). --Nug (talk) 05:35, 15 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by François RobereI've not been involved in the particular discussion mentioned here, though I have been involved in the topic area and the ArbCom case that resulted in the sourcing restrictions subject of this ARCA request. The discussions span four articles: Gas chamber, Gas van, Nazi gas van and Soviet gas van. Two of these were split[7][8] from the main article[9][10] - splits which may or may not be justified on content grounds, but which were done during an ongoing discussion on sourcing, raising the concern that they were done to avoid the sourcing restrictions placed on the main article. I've reverted all of them while discussion is ongoing,[11][12][13] and asked for clarifications on the main TP.[14] François Robere (talk) 15:53, 15 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by JzGThe core argument here seems to be that because something is covered only in questionable sources, we should relax the sourcing requirement to allow it to be included from those questionable sources. I think I'm reading that right. I don't think it needs ArbCom to tell us that's a terrible idea. What are the restrictions, you ask?
Who thinks it would be a bad thing if this were applied over more articles or sections? Given the abundance of excellent sources covering these topics and this timeframe, anything that does not appear in sources of this quality is very likely to be WP:UNDUE even if it's not POV-pushing. Guy (help!) 00:14, 17 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by Thryduulf (re Antisemitism in Poland)I think the pragmatic thing to do here would be to apply the sourcing restrictions to (i) content regarding Polish history during World War II (1933-45), including the Holocaust in Poland; and (ii) sections of articles which relate exclusively or primarily to Polish history during World War II (1933-45), including the Holocaust in Poland. This would mean that on the Gas chamber article, the restrictions would apply to the whole of the Nazi Germany section (as that section is primarily related to Polish history during WWII), but not other sections of that article. Thryduulf (talk) 13:52, 16 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by AssayerThe Antisemitism in Poland case found, that much of the evidence and thus much of the dispute, centered on disputed sourcing and use of low-quality sources, specifically, whether a particular source was reliable, whether a particular author was qualified, and whether a source is being misunderstood or misrepresented. The dispute which fuels My very best wishes’ clarification request is very much of the same kind. RSN has failed to settle these questions, in part because the sources are largely written in Russian and there are few uninvolved editors able to read them. The sourcing restrictions imposed on the article Collaboration in German-occupied Poland have been found to have had a positive effect by stabilizing the article and limiting disputes. Since the Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism is a highly controversial and a much disputed field, content on Stalinism that is raised and connected to Nazism within an article largely dealing with the Holocaust in Poland should not be exempted from these restrictions, and these restrictions should certainly not be removed altogether. I may note that not only is the article gas chamber, which should provide some sort of overview, an ill-conceived example for the urgent need of detailed information. The way My very best wishes expanded [20] the article basically by copying huge chunks of text including notes from the stand-alone article - all the while knowing that the “invention” of gas vans was disputed[21] - is quite revealing as is the way they put the sections “in a chronological order”[22], effectively ignoring the Nevada gas chamber of 1924. Nevertheless, quick research turns up better sources for Lithuania and North Korea, sources which would meet the high-quality sourcing restrictions. Thus, the use of better sources would improve the encyclopedia.--Assayer (talk) 18:28, 17 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Francis Schonken@Mkdw: I think what you write would work fine, except that I would add (for completeness) that whatever is summarized from the WWII/Poland related sections elsewhere in the broad article (e.g. in the article's introductory paragraphs, in a table grouping data from several sections of the article, etc), irrespective of whether such summaries carry their own references or rely on references elsewhere in the article, would also be subject to the strict sourcing requirements of the "Antisemitism in Poland" ArbCom case. Similar for Standard appendices and footers, e.g. a "Further reading" section should not list literature of a lesser quality on WWII/Poland topics. --Francis Schonken (talk) 13:18, 18 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by Nick-DI've been active on Wikipedia since 2005 with a focus on World War II, and for as long as I can remember our coverage of Poland, and especially 1920s-1940s era Poland, has been a deeply troubled topic area. I think it's entirely sensible to require a strict adherence to WP:RS as an attempt to ease these problems.
Statement by SlaterstevenI am wary of any topic specific polices at the best of times. But when it is loaded with subjective criteria (As this is) I start to get very alarmed as to intent. I have no issue with "peer-reviewed scholarly journals", but what is an "academically focused book"? As to "reputable institutions", who decides this, what is reputable (and why is a newspaper not a reputable institution?)? This is all too fuzzy and ill defined for me. I find it odd that it did not just read ""peer-reviewed scholarly journals or works by recognized academics".Slatersteven (talk) 10:08, 19 November 2019 (UTC) Unsure about "recognized institutions", it would be best if we stuck to as narrow a definition as possible. One answer may be "academic institutions", but may still be open to abuse.Slatersteven (talk) 11:45, 19 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by ErmenrichWorm That Turned, I do not think that adding Statement by DGGThe wording was too rigid. Making a sharp division between academic and no academic sources is not necessarily helpful--there are multiple works in any field that defy easy classification, and also many works not strictly academic that are of equal standing and reliability. Nor is being academic a guarantee of reliability--I mention for example Soviet Lysenkoism and Nazi racial science, both with high national academic standing, and, in the case of Nazi science, considerable international recognition. I'd suggest a much more flexible wording Only high quality sources may be used, specifically peer-reviewed scholarly journals, academically focused books by reputable publishers, and/or articles published by reputable institutions. and works of similar quality and responsibility". Considering the examples given in the request, I think that this would deal with much of it. Newspapers, however, are a more difficult problem, and the responsibility of content of serious topics published is newspapers is variable. Depending on the topic covered, I think there is no reason not to use them, if they are used with caution, and for some related topics, they may be essential. I'd would perhaps say Newspapers andmagazines can be used ,but with caution and agreement, and in context.. I understand the felling of the arbs who have commented that this is too early to make the change, but I think the original conception was overly simplistic, and would impair rational consideration of sourcing. DGG ( talk ) 22:14, 19 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by Peacemaker67I've been following this and the original case with interest. I have plenty of experience with disputed sourcing in ARBEE from my work on Yugoslavia in WWII articles and have never once thought this level of ArbCom intervention was needed. I am fundamentally opposed to this remedy because it enters into content areas, and the arbitration process exists to impose binding solutions to Wikipedia conduct disputes, not content ones. If ArbCom wants to get involved in content matters, then it should ask the community for the scope of ArbCom to be expanded and receive that imprimatur before sticking its oar into content areas. We have a perfectly serviceable reliable sources policy, and questions about whether a particular source is reliable are determined by consensus, supplemented by outside opinions via RSN and dispute resolution mechanisms like RfC if a consensus cannot be arrived at between the regular editors of the article in question. As has been noted above, if the editor that wants to use a source cannot get a consensus that a source is reliable, it cannot be used. The Article sourcing expectations remedy should be voided as it was made outside the scope of ArbCom's remit. If article sourcing guidance beyond WP:RS is needed for a particular contentious area, it should be developed by the content creators who actually know the subject area, not by ArbCom. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:37, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by {other-editor}Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should opine whether and how the Committee should clarify or amend the decision or provide additional information. Antisemitism in Poland: Clerk notes
Antisemitism in Poland: Arbitrator views and discussion
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Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland (2)
Archived to Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Antisemitism in Poland#Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland (2) (January 2020) CodeLyokotalk 05:46, 8 January 2020 (UTC) |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
Initiated by Piotrus at 04:44, 19 November 2019 (UTC) List of any users involved or directly affected, and confirmation that all are aware of the request:
Confirmation that all parties are aware of the request Statement by PiotrusThe Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Antisemitism_in_Poland#Article_sourcing_expectations remedy from the recent case seemed like a good idea at a time. When I thought about the restriction passed, I thought it would reinforce WP:BRD: someone (re)adds a problematic reference, they get reverted, their source is discussed on talk or at WP:RSN, and they are warned that they should not re-add it or such until a consensus is reached. A sort of 1RR for problematic sources, particularly in case of WP:REDFLAGs. However, this recent AE ruling, where an editor (User:MyMoloboaccount) was blocked for a week in about an hour after the request was made, for restoring a problematic source or two, with no discussion on talk anywhere, just a straight report and near insta block, gave me a major pause. It is good to require editors to use quality sources; there is a ton of bad sources to be weeded out, and adding more low quality ones needs to be discouraged (I habitually remove low quality refs and there's a lot of garbage in this topic area: ex. [23], [24]). But discouragement should not be achieved by a wiki equivalent of nuking people for small infractions. Now, I have personally written hundreds of articles related to this topic area, and I am speaking with my content creator hat now: the above AE ruling has made me scared of creating any new topics in this area, expanding them or even of reverting problematic edits by likely socks/SPIs. Because if one can get a week long block for a first infraction with no need for an explicit warning, this is an invitation to create a battleground populated by said socks/SPIs, and in a short while we will have nobody else editing this topic area. If one can get blocked for a week+ in an hour after adding a borderline source, this opens a major can of worms. Sure, we can all agree that some sources like personal webpages, blogs or forums are unacceptable, but there are plenty that fall in a gray area, and I find it scary that a single admin is now not only apparently empowered to decide what is reliable or not, bypassing prior talk consensuses, RSN and such, but per DS could even impose year blocks and topic bans of up to a year at a whim. Let me illustrate this with some practical example of what has been used in this topic area. In the linked AE thread, for example, a newspaper was among the sources reported as 'bad', through the closing admin judged it acceptable. That was for Rzeczpospolita (newspaper). But which other newspaper will make the cut and which will be seen as not reliable? If someone uses a more controversial paper like Sieci or Do Rzeczy as a source, will they get a week long block? A year long topic ban? For the first infraction? What about an article from a news portal like Onet.pl? Can a city portal be used to reference information about unveiling of a local monument or celebration of a remembrance event? Or a March of the Living coverage? Yes, newspapers and such are not the best sources, but are they now a gamble with a potential block or ban? Is an average admin that does probably does not speak Polish empowered to make such calls based on what they see in an English Wikipedia article on a Polish newspaper, magazine or portal (if one event exists)? If it mentions words like controversial, right-wing, left-wing, or whatever is it that they see as a red flag, it's ban hammer time? More examples. In my talk post at Talk:Home Army where I reviewed some sources recently challenged on that talk page (and that were shortly after discussed in that AE thread) I noted that I think course notes by a reliable academic are probably ok. Apparently, they are not, since lecture notes are not peer reviewed. Ok. How about [25], a source used in recently created Warsaw Ghetto Hunger Study (by the same editor who made the complain about said course notes...)? That appears to be a non-peer reviewed lecture delivered at an unspecified place (I have attended such events as a grad student and later, they can be very informal and address a room of <10 people). Ban editor for using such a source or not? What if someone cites a popular history magazine such as Histmag? Reliable or not? Toss a coin? How about a source published by Institute of National Remembrance? That institution has been criticized for some recent politicization (as described in the article body), what if the reviewing admin decides that an editor using this source, until now generally seen as acceptable, merits a ban because they find the criticism section in the IPN article convincing and feel that IPN is no longer a reliable source? How about articles from a a museum website? How about an educational website maintained by IPN, like [26] or [27]? How is it better than the course notes that were ruled 'not good enough'? Did I mention popular history magazines? IPN publishes several (pl:Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, pl:Biuletyn IPN „pamięć.pl”). What about a portal like [28], which contains information on Polish Righteous Among the Nations, co-financed by by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also by a controversial NGO associated with unreliable Radio Maryja? Is that portal unreliable because it received financing from a problematic NGO? Even if it is unreliable, an average editor using it may not even be aware of the connection. Block people because they didn't investigate who funds a website sufficiently? I am an academic and an editor experienced in this topic area and in finding reliable sources myself, yet I didn't even realize some of those sources were problematic until someone else pointed it out (that a magazine I assumed was peer reviewed might not be, or that this website received some financing from a shady NGO). Can a website about local tourist attractions be used a source to note that some World War II fortifications survive as said tourist attractions ([29])? How about websites on shipwrecks? I recently became aware of articles like List of shipwrecks in August 1941 that use many substandard sources ([30]). If someone adds a source like this about a Polish WWII shipwreck, how many weeks of a block are they looking at? Shortly after the ArbCom case closed I asked one of our milhist ship experts to create an article on a minor ship SMS M85, and he replied that "I think that the recent Arbcom ruling on articles associated with Poland in WW2 makes writing an article impossible." He created it nonetheless, but if he used a less then impeccable source (perhaps [31] that I see in German minesweeper M18 (1939)), would he be looking a ta block? Is using a site like [32] to reference some non-WP:REDFLAG technical details about a ship or another minor detail a major offense now? How about if the article I created on Japanese pilot Naoshi Kanno was Poland-related? I referenced his appearance in an anime series to a source or two that another editor objected to ([33]). If it was a Polish pilot, would I be blocked now? Topic banned for a year, perhaps, if it was my second or third infraction? I hope that the above illustrate clearly that the entire Poland WWII topic has become a minefield now that very few editors will dare to edit until this issue is clarified. In particular, we need to know the answers to:
My constructive suggestion is to revise this remedy to make sure that this applies only to editors who have been warned and who engage in edit warring restoring bad sources. In other words, I think that editors should be allowed to add or readd any sources they wish, but once they have been made aware that there is an issue with a source they added through a talk page message, then a 0RR rule should apply pending an outcome of a RSN discussion that the editor who challenged the source should start. If, after made aware that a source is under review, they restore it, then they can be reported to AE. This should be done on a source basis, not editor, i.e. if an editor adds one problematic source, and few weeks later, a different one, it should be treated as separate case, not as a repeat violation (unless it is the same source). Further, an AE ruling in such a case should be not to block an editor for a first infraction, but to add the problematic source to a dedicated blacklist for this topic area. Only editors who re-add a source from said blacklist, after being made aware of its existence through a DS-like warning, should be eligible to being blocked (in practice, one should get warning "you added a source from this blacklist, if you do it again or add any other source from it you may be subject to escalating blocks and bans). To block editors for a first violation, when a source's reliability is often unclear and can merit further discussion, seems like a major battleground escalation, ignoring BDR, and encouraging editors to report their 'opponents' to AE in hope of a quick block. And yes, given the borderline and difficult to investigate nature of many sources, we need a blacklist that specifically states "this website/book/author are bad", because otherwise people will be blocked for plain ignorance or a simple mistake ("you reverted a likely sock that among other edits removed a problematic source. One year topic ban for you. Sock wins. Move on". I end this with a reminder that I am a content creator and a professional writer, familiar with RS on and off wiki, and in my professional opinion anything more restrictive than the proposal above will create a chilling effect and a major battleground, with editors reporting one another for innocent borderline sources, until no-one is willing to touch this content area with a 10-foot long pole. Remember the adage about good intentions, please. It's enough to look at recent history for Home Army. I am a long standing, experienced contributor, and right now I am abandoning this article, and all related, to likely socks/SPI who have nothing to lose. And I am not going to revert anyone, I will just consider reporting them to AE, since any other course of action is an invitation to get myself blocked. Maybe they will gut this and other articles, removing bad sources, good sources, and whatever else they want, but I am frankly scared or restoring anything, if it is up to a semi-random admin to decide that maybe I merit a year-long topic ban because I added or restored a single borderline source. Is this the type of editing environment this remedy was meant to foster? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 04:45, 19 November 2019 (UTC) PS. Molobo cannot make a statement as he is currently blocked, unreviewed appeal pending. PPS. There is also a simple date error with this finding that I raised here (date 1933 should be 1939). I don't think that merits a separate thread. --> Statement by Sandstein
In fact, MyMoloboaccount is trying to make an appeal on their talk page, but hasn't said in which forum they want to make the appeal. Maybe an admin can help them out with that. The question of whether I was right to block MyMoloboaccount should then properly be discussed in the course of that appeal. As to the broader point raised by Piotrus that it is not a good idea to make individual admins decide which sources are inadequate and therefore blockable, I don't really have a view. It's for ArbCom to decide whether such a measure is necessary in this topic area. I assume they chose to do so after careful consideration because the normal method of determining the appropriateness of sources through consensus has failed. But the authority given to admins here isn't really any broader than under discretionary sanctions, which already apply to the topic area. Sandstein 16:18, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by MyMoloboaccountStatement by JzGMymoloboaccount has been here long enough to know better. [35] is a flagrant misrepresentation of the source. Mymoloboaccount is lucky to have received only a one week block for this. Guy (help!) 11:50, 19 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by ErmenrichMolobo is well aware that their editing is seen as problematic, see here. Their current arguing over the block only demonstrates either a lack of understanding of what a reliable source is, in which case competence issues seem present, or else willful disregard for it. There is no reason to hollow out these requirements because you're "scared". Molobo's block is, if anything, a sign that they are effective. He is fully aware of the remedy and the block, having participated in the case, and he's been here for years and years, so he ought to have a better sense of sourcing anyway. If you have concerns about other editors' edits, you are also free to report them. The hope was this would clean up the area. Relaxing the restrictions would undermine this goal.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:17, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by François RobereIn general, users who are new to Wikipedia or to a topic area aren't blocked immediately upon infringing on a rule - they're notified and asked to participate in the TP, as it should be. Molobo isn't either - he's familiar with the topic area, took part in the ArbCom case,[36] and later used as justification for an edit.[37] He's well aware that his edits are problematic - I can count at least six editors and two admins who expressed their concerns about him, in his presence, in several fora. Editors who regularly discuss their edits, and who do not engage in source misrepresentation or needless edit wars - and I count Piotrus and myself as two - should not feel threatened by these DS. While we in theory we could be served with DS without prior warning, in practice it doesn't happen often. As for the "chilling effect" of the sanctions: the ArbCom case subject of this amendment request had two editors T-banned, who after the case were blocked (one indef). ANI and AE cases resulted in another editor T-banned, and two more blocked. Another editor, who was already T-banned, postponed her appeal. Five editors were "left standing", but they are joined by a handful of editors who frequent the TA less often, and an unknown number of editors who edit in specific articles or on specific issues. All in all, anywhere from 5-15 editors are active in the topic area at any one time (not counting copy editors, reference fixers and bots), some of which have only become active in the TA after the ArbCom case. In short, there's no evidence of a "chilling effect" on the regular editing activities within the TA. François Robere (talk) 15:14, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Nigel IshAs written, this sanction is incredibly vague - it could be argued to apply to almost any subject associated with either the Western or Eastern front in World War II - any area where Polish forces fought, any ship that served with the Polish Navy or with the German navy at the start of the war, any piece of military equipment in service during the German invasion of Poland or the Soviet campaign - and demands that only academic sources be used - a standard that is well in excess of anywhere else on Wikipedia, and if applied strictly will make it impossible to edit in many areas, including most of Military History, as someone can always argue that a source isn't academic enough and demand that the content it supports must be removed on pain of an Arbcom block. Statements by Arbcom members on the case above make it clear that the ruling is expected to be applied widely. This has a clear chilling effect and makes a mockery of Wikipedia being the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, as it means that only someone with access to a high quality university library and with the backing of a large bunch of supporters who can support them at Arbcom. Nigel Ish (talk) 18:43, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by NugI agree with Nigel Ish. This remedy does have a chilling effect and is an impediment to those who don’t have access to a university library. Articles published in academic journals necessarily present new and/or novel perspectives on some topic, the dissemination of these new viewpoints to other academics is the raison d'être of these journals. As such a particular article doesn’t reflect the main stream view, but the viewpoint of the author, by definition a minority viewpoint at the point of publication. It is only when that article is cited by other articles and books that we can get a measure of the acceptance of that viewpoint. It must be noted that the peer review process in history journals isn’t intended to provide a measure of acceptance or endorsement of the view, but, as Anthony Grafton from Princeton University puts it, to assure the authors are not out “wearing their magenta socks”, i.e. to assure themselves their article doesn’t contain glaring mistakes in presentation. Arbcom has always been about conduct, not content, and proscribing the sourcing of an article is surely not what Arbcom should be doing. Wikipedia already has mechanisms in place to deal with sourcing, and whether to impose stricter content source rules on a particular topic area should really be the decision of the wider community via a RFC. A way forward in this case would be for Arbcom to suspend this content related remedy pending an outcome to a RFC to the wider community. --Nug (talk) 21:15, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Paul Siebert
As I already explained in the previous case, I reconsidered my initial opinion, and I think no specific sourcing restrictions are needed in the Holocaust in Poland area. Instead, admins should be advised to strictly enforce any reported WP:REDFLAG violations, because, in my opinion, it is the position of admins who are active on the AE page which makes DS effectively not working, and the "Sourcing expectation" clause is a non-optimal attempt to partially fix that problem. All needed rules are already present in standard DS, concretely, guide.expect say that editors must strictly comply with all applicable policies and guidelines, and one our policy says: Indeed, if someone made an non-controversial edit using a poor but reliable source, that is ok, as soon as such edit has not been contested. Let's take the recent Molobo vs FR case as an example: there were no reason to report him for usage of a single garbage source, a simple revert with explanations would be sufficient. After the revert, Molobo was expected either to demonstrate his claim was not exceptional, or to provide multiple good sources, and, up to that point, there is nothing in this conflict that deserves AE. However, if Molobo ignores FR's concern, FR has a right to report Molobo, and AE admins must take such a report seriously. In my opinion, that scheme, if it is adopted, will decrease both a risk for good faith editors to be sanctioned and admin's burden, for in situation when both parties know that REDFLAG violations may inflict serious sanctions dramatically facilitates their willingness to achieve consensus. Unfortunately, a current admins' attitude makes such scenario unrealistic, because the standard response would be "that is just a content dispute, not actionable". That attitude makes all conflicts in DS areas so long and painful, that that creates an artificial situation when one party looses patience and... and admins perfectly know how to deal with such cases.--Paul Siebert (talk) 22:33, 7 December 2019 (UTC) Statment by DGGWith respect ot the specific request here, I agree with Piotrus that the wording was too rigid. Making a sharp division between academic and no academic sources is not necessarily helpful--there are multiple works in any field that defy easy classification, and also many works not strictly academic that are of equal standing and reliability. Nor is being academic a guarantee of reliability--I mention for example Soviet Lysenkoism and Nazi racial science, both with high national academic standing, and, in the case of Nazi science, considerable international recognition. I'd suggest a much more flexible wording Only high quality sources may be used, specifically peer-reviewed scholarly journals, academically focused books by reputable publishers, and/or articles published by reputable institutions. and works of similar quality and responsibility". Considering the examples given in the request, I think that this would deal with much of it. Newspapers, however, are a more difficult problem, and the responsibility of content of serious topics published is newspapers is variable. I wouldn't rule them out entirely, but I don't know quite how to word it. {Possibly '"and other responsible sources bywide general agreement . ) DGG ( talk ) 22:14, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by ThoughtIdRetiredWhat of the "casual" editor of one of the articles to which these restrictions apply - by that I mean someone who is not deeply involved within the narrow confines of the subject, but adds what they believe to be helpful content from a source that would be OK elsewhere in Wikipedia? How would such an editor know that these restrictions apply or, even, how to comply with them? If the casual editor is going to be sanctioned, how does this fit with WP:GOODFAITH? Surely a central principle of Wikipedia is being subverted in order to control a few So these restrictions should only apply to persistent and knowing offenders who ignore warnings.ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 23:46, 19 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by My very best wishesThis should be a request for amendment. I think this sourcing restriction should be removed and never used again for the reasons I explained in my request. The discretionary sanctions already existing in this subject area are more than sufficient to handle any problems.
Statement by AssayerA lot of scenarios have been developed, where scores of unsuspecting editors are going to be blocked immediately for using anything other than peer-reviewed scholarly studies. This amounts to scare tactics without actual evidence that these threats are real. But, as a matter of fact, RSN and dispute resolution mechanisms like RfC often fail when it comes to certain disputes about whether a particular source is reliable or not. I can name various examples of questionable sources which were determined acceptable and reliable, including interviews with convicted Holocaust perpetrators commenting on “Operation Reinhard”. Instead of discussing abstract scenarios and opening loopholes, the question thus should be: What is the objective of these restrictions? Is this objective acchieved? --Assayer (talk) 20:29, 20 November 2019 (UTC) In my experience there are two main arguments to fend off a more restricted use of sources, e.g. of scholarly sources only. According to the first argument even primary sources are admissible when they are used for “uncontroversial”, “factual” information which may not be covered by scholarly sources, but is allegedly needed to provide for a “comprehensive” article. The second argument, namely “consensus”, is used to subdue criticism by stating that the use of such sources has been decided upon by “consensus” and that critics should “drop the stick”, even though the criticism and the debate itself demonstrate that “consensus” has changed. Thereby primary sources like SS personal files hosted at state archives, self-published publications, publications by SS veteran organizations and scores of militaria literature have all been declared permissible reliable sources. Yes, article sourcing guidance should be developed by “content creators”, but sometimes some “content creators” become a gated community at odds with the guidelines of the community as a whole and in need of some input from the outside. @MvbW If I understand correctly, Molobo has not been blocked, because they inserted references to ‘’Jane’s Fighting Ships’’ in an article on a German minesweeper sunk in 1939. And you have not been blocked at all, yet.--Assayer (talk) 13:05, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Peacemaker67Mostly copied from the first ARCA thread on this case, because it is just as relevant here as there. I have plenty of experience with disputed sourcing in ARBEE from my work on Yugoslavia in WWII articles and have never once thought this sort of ArbCom intervention was needed. I am fundamentally opposed to this remedy because it enters into content areas, and the arbitration process exists to impose binding solutions to Wikipedia conduct disputes, not content ones. If ArbCom wants to get involved in content matters, then it should ask the community for the scope of ArbCom to be expanded and receive that imprimatur before sticking its oar into content areas. We have a perfectly serviceable reliable sources policy, and questions about whether a particular source is reliable are determined by consensus, supplemented by outside opinions via RSN and dispute resolution mechanisms like RfC if a consensus cannot be arrived at between the regular editors of the article in question. As has been noted elsewhere, if the editor that wants to use a source cannot get a consensus that a source is reliable, it cannot be used. The Article sourcing expectations remedy should be voided as it was made outside the scope of ArbCom's remit. I think the comments about the chilling effect of this remedy reflect quite reasonable concerns, and these sanctions have a great deal of potential to be used as weapons in content disputes. If article sourcing guidance beyond WP:RS is needed for a particular contentious area, it should be developed by the content creators who actually know the subject area, not by ArbCom. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:21, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Nick-DLike Peacemaker's comment above, the comment I made at WP:ARCA#Clarification request: Antisemitism in Poland also applies here. In short, while I think that a remedy requiring quality sourcing is justified, the current remedy is too narrow as it rules out high quality but non-scholarly works. I'd suggest changing it to something like "Only high quality sources may be used. Preference should be given to peer-reviewed scholarly journals and books. Other reliable sources may be used to augment scholarly works or where such works are not available." I have no opinion on the mechanism for enforcing this, noting especially that this topic area has subject to very long-running and serious problems so strict penalties are likely justified, but the usual arrangement where editors who are not aware of the sanction are warned first should obviously apply. Nick-D (talk) 09:22, 21 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by SunriseI'd like to point out, since it doesn't seem to have been mentioned in the above discussion, that we already enforce sourcing thresholds requiring a higher level of quality than that of WP:RS alone - they're used in two of the largest areas of Wikipedia, those being BLP and medical content. Since those areas seem to be working fine, many of the claims about major problems arising from this sanction would therefore seem to be incorrect. While the exact threshold is different in this case (being roughly in between the two in terms of restrictiveness), any argument that would apply equally in those areas needs to establish why this particular topic should be considered to be uniquely different. The sanction seems to have been successful at preventing the use of poor sources to cause disruption (an issue of behavior, not content), and that should be recognized. Of course, it is entirely possible this particular threshold could be refined, but requests to do so should be based in reasoned argument as to why specific categories of sources have an equivalent level of reliability to the sources that are already permitted, as opposed to the (IMO quite hyperbolic) rhetoric used in some of the comments above. Sunrise (talk) 09:27, 24 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by BuidheI'm not convinced by the arguments above that using university sources places an undue burden on editors. For one, the militaria sources preferred by these editors are more difficult to obtain and not necessarily cheaper. For another, we have WP:RX where volunteers are happy to help you get the source you need, and an increasing number of academic publications in continental Europe are open-access. I'm also not convinced by the hyperbole that someone is going to be immediately blocked for using a non-compliant source. To the contrary, source restrictions can be very helpful for getting rid of the ethno-nationalist POV pushing that plagues this area, simply because academic sources are not likely to contain ethno-nationalist POV pushing. That said, minor uses of news sources can sometimes be helpful for recent updates on a topic (I cite two of them in this Good Article in the subject area). How can we allow that flexibility while discouraging their use for disputed content? I think that it could be amended to explicitly allow the use of RS but non-academic sources on minor parts of an article that deal with technical information or recent updates that are not covered in academic sources. I hesitate to expand that to all areas of an article that are not covered by academic sources because that would likely lead to unbalanced articles where the areas that are not sourced to as good quality sources are covered in more detail and depth than they should be. Like @JzG, I don't think we should relax our sourcing restrictions at all for areas that are only covered by questionable sources. buidhe 17:47, 7 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by {other-editor}Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should opine whether and how the Committee should clarify or amend the decision or provide additional information. Antisemitism in Poland: Clerk notes
Antisemitism in Poland: Arbitrator views and discussion
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Amendment request: The Rambling Man
Archived to Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/The Rambling Man#Amendment request: The Rambling Man (January 2020) CodeLyokotalk 05:58, 8 January 2020 (UTC) | ||
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. | ||
Initiated by Sandstein at 19:37, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by SandsteinWikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/The Rambling Man#The Rambling Man prohibited provides: "If however, in the opinion of an uninvolved administrator, The Rambling Man does engage in prohibited conduct, he may be blocked for up to 48 hours. If, in the opinion of the enforcing administrator, a longer block, or other sanction, is warranted a request is to be filed at WP:ARCA." This is such a request. In the abovementioned decision, twice amended since 2016, The Rambling Man was "prohibited from posting speculation about the motivations of editors or reflections on their competence." He has been blocked four times by four different admins for violating this restriction (see his block log). A few days ago, Kingofaces43 requested enforcement of the restrictions for recent comments made by The Rambling Man such as:
In my view, as expressed at AE, the comments at issue are "reflections on the competence" of others, and therefore violate the restriction. Other admins in the AE thread have disagreed. If the Committee shares my view, it should ban The Rambling Man. If an explicit ArbCom restriction and four blocks (among many other blocks) are not effective in changing the conduct of an editor, nothing will be. Editors should not have to put up with intractably rude people. We would not accept such people among our friends or at our workplaces. We should not have to accept them in this collaborative, academic project. The merits of their contributions cannot make up for the disruption and bad will (and enforcement overhead) they cause. If the Committee is of the view that the comments at issue are not a violation of the restriction, or are not worth sanctioning, it should lift the restriction, because this would show that the restriction is too vague to be consistently and fairly enforced. Sandstein 19:37, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by The Rambling ManI literally give up. Sandstein has used every chance to see the back of me and I can't take it any longer. The Rambling Man (Staying alive since 2005!) 19:51, 28 November 2019 (UTC) This ARCA demonstrates the ridiculous nature of the wording of the sanction. I made substantiated claims at WP:AN about a number of edits by a certain admin who refused to do anything but bait me, and make false accusations about my motivations. If now, as it seems, I am to be banned because I objected and stated said objections to an admins inserting false information, incorrect sources, badly formatted citations, making false edit summaries and leaving articles in a worse state, half-removing contentious material but leaving the rest, in a meatbot fashion, then I guess that sums the place up now. Absolutely everything I said was factually accurate. There was no discussion over "motivation", just statements of fact about the ever-increasing mess this admin was leaving throughout the vast numbers of edits they were making. Of course, given the wording of the sanction, just about every sentence I've typed here now means I should be banned too. Bravo. The Rambling Man (Staying alive since 2005!) 08:07, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
A general question: does this constitute a "reflection" on this user's "competence"? I corrected them a couple of times, gave reasons for doing so, but yet no-one sought to sanction me for it. Where is the line between correcting mistakes, telling people I'm correcting their mistakes, asking people to stop continually making mistakes I'm having to correct, and accepting personal attacks and aspersions about my motivations, while still asking them to desist from their introductions of errors into the encyclopedia? Is this really what this sanction is about? The Rambling Man (Staying alive since 2005!) 22:32, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Thryduulf (re TRM)It's worth being explicit here that of the administrators to comment at
This matches very closely with the situation detailed in The December 2018 amendment request (see summary in my section there). The underlying disagreement on this occasion is a content dispute between two groups of editors who each feel, apparently in good faith, that their actions are improving the encyclopaedia and the actions of the other group are harming it. I have not looked into it enough to have a view on whether one or other group is right or whether it is more complicated that that. Both sides however have got very annoyed with each other and instead of working out their differences calmly and amicably, heated walls of text are being lobbed from behind barricades. While this conduct is very clearly not what anybody wants to see from editors, I do not believe that it is what the committee intended the sanction to cover as TRM has not speculated about motives, and has not reflected on other editors' general competence but has detailed specific concerns he has and why he has those concerns (albeit phrased very poorly). I would like the Committee to:
Based on his comment above and this edit summary it is clear that TRM is feeling harassed by Sandstein (and given the history I can fully understand why). At the very least I think the committee should take note of this and actively consider an interaction ban or other restriction to help with this. Thryduulf (talk) 23:36, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
@Sandstein: I am not protecting, or attempting to protect, TRM from valid enforcement requests. When I see evidence that TRM has violated both the letter and spirit of a restriction then I will either impose or endorse a proportionate sanction on him. What I will not do is impose or endorse a sanction where nearly everyone who is either (a) uninvolved or (b) you agrees TRMs action did not violate the letter and spirit of his restriction. This is not special treatment: this is exactly the same standard that I hold every editor to. @Johnuniq: The issue with that is that any administrator imposing such a block would be doing so contrary to the consensus of uninvolved administrators at AE (when the discussion was closed there was either no consensus either way or a consensus against, depending how you read it). This sanction would then be appealed and we'd be back where we are now. Thryduulf (talk) 11:08, 29 November 2019 (UTC) @GorillaWarfare: so how should TRM indicate that he believes an editor has made a series of bad judgements over a sustained period of time without violating this restriction? How can he heed this restriction if not even arbitrators can agree what is and is not a violation of it? I agree that TRM's conduct in this dispute is not good (but the conduct of several other parties is equally bad), but I do not understand how, in context, it violates this restriction. Whatever the answers to the above, it is clearly not serving its intended purpose (and is probably actually hindering the resolution of this content dispute) and should be rescinded and replaced with something that clearly states its intent so that everyone (most importantly including TRM himself) can understand what is and what is not appropriate. Ideally with a provision that allows an identical sanction to be placed on any other party in a dispute with TRM that engages in behaviour that is prohibited of TRM and/or baits TRM. Thryduulf (talk) 18:51, 30 November 2019 (UTC) @Awilley: I am not questioning Sandstein's involvedness in the sense of being a party to a dispute, I am questioning his objectivity with regards to The Rambling Man. It's not just coming to a slightly different conclusion about a single borderline issue, it's coming to a diametrically opposite conclusion to nearly every other uninvolved administrator on very nearly every occasion. Thryduulf (talk) 10:06, 3 December 2019 (UTC) @Levivich: That was I think the intent of this sanction. The problem is that TRM has (in the opinion of a consensus of uninvolved administrators almost every time it has come to AE) stopped engaging in the specific behaviours listed, but it hasn't stopped the disruption. Yes, TRM is disruptive and yes, his behaviour is not good enough (and equally so the behaviour of others in this dispute), but it is not a violation of the sanction he was given. I'm not sure what clearer evidence is needed that the current sanction is not working. Thryduulf (talk) 10:13, 3 December 2019 (UTC) @Fish and karate: I very much do disagree that asking whether an admin is open to recall is questioning their competence. As discussed (here or at AE, possibly both) it wasn't necessary to ask, and it did nothing to de-escalate the situation (especially asking it twice), but as there is no standard recall procedure and not every published set of criteria relate exclusive to competence it cannot be said to be questioning whether they are competent. Thryduulf (talk) 17:05, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
@Valereee: You're slightly missing the point that the reason we are where we are is that the current restriction, which prohibits TRM commenting on other editor's competence, has not worked because it has not, in practice, been possible to agree on what is a comment on an editor's competence and what is a criticism of another editor's action(s) (which is not prohibited under the current remedy), so it needs either removing or replacing with something different. Replacing it can only work if what replaces it is better defined than the current remedy. While prohibiting TRM from commenting about other editors seems easy at first glance it wouldn't work in practice, because a statement like "User:Example has repeatedly introduced factual errors to the Grenoble article." will be seen as a comment about edits (and thus allowed) by some admins and a comment about an editor (and thus not allowed) by others and we'll just end up back here. A straight civility restriction (something like "TRM may be blocked by any uninvolved administrator for any uncivil comment") will just end up with TRM permanently blocked because there are people who will go out of their way to take offence at something TRM says (see Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement/Archive217#The Rambling Man for example), even when it really isn't offensive at all. Katie's proposal is not to throw our collective hands in the air and give up, it is to say that TRM should be held to the same standards of civility as any other editor with those standards to be enforced in the same way as they are for any other editor. I don't know whether that will work, but it is the only thing suggested here so far that could. Thryduulf (talk) 15:53, 4 December 2019 (UTC) @Vanamonde93: There are three issues raised here (1) that TRM's behaviour is simultaneously appalling and not a violation of the restriction; (2) Sandstein's blindness to his being consistently at odds with the consensus regarding TRM; (3) Sandstein's conduct at AE more generally. Personally I don't think this is the place to discuss (3) as it is nothing to do with TRM. The problem with many comments here (and at many of the AE filings) is that they see either TRM's bad behaviour and therefore extrapolate that to mean it must be a breach of his sanction; or that TRM hasn't breached his sanction and extrapolate that to mean he must be behaving civilly. Unless and until people understand that the two aspects exist simultaneously the problem will never be solved though because they try to fix something other than the actual problem. Thryduulf (talk) 11:28, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by BanedonI've not read the original thread that led to the AE filing, but looking at the four diffs linked in the AE itself, I think that if we interpret the restrictions as written then the first and fourth diffs should violate the "... prohibited from posting speculation about the motivations of editors or reflections on their competence" restriction. The first diff clearly questions the competence, while the fourth clearly questions the motivation. Problem with that is, in my (completely subjective) opinion none of the four diffs look like actionable, let alone bannable, offenses. In fact I completely don't see any issue with the 2nd and 3rd diffs. I suspect this is at the heart of the difference in opinion between Sandstein and the other AE admins. Banedon (talk) 00:06, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Kingofaces43 (AE filer)As Sandstein mentioned, I filed the most recent AE, mostly as an uninvolved editor, so I don't have any history with TRM, which seems to have been a confounding factor in some previous requests on TRM and comments I see here already. For my background, I first came across TRM at this post at RSN noticing a content dispute was being exacerbated by TRM's behavior. I tried to give some guidance there,[60][61] but their tone and response to that didn't allay concerns about battleground behavior or ignoring WP:ONUS policy: When I filed the AE, TRM saying David Gerard lacked competency as an admin and should be recalled when they said I don't have a horse in this dispute aside from noticing behavior problems exacerbated by TRM at the noticeboards that nearly had me ignore the postings instead as an uninvolved editor. That disruption by TRM just needs to stop. I thought the prohibition was clear, but since it's being tested by TRM, I agree something stricter might be needed since lack of enforcement has apparently been a perennial problem brought up here before. Arbs probably know more history than I do only getting up to speed on this over the last few days, but this seems to be a case where a sort of "topic" ban improvement could cover any inkling of WP:HOUNDING and WP:FOC given the WP:ROPE issue. Kingofaces43 (talk) 01:24, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Cullen328To the best of my recollection, I have had very few if any direct interactions with The Rambling Man. This is because I try to avoid interacting with combative established editors unless absolutely necessary, and I have read an awful lot about TRM over the years. If my memory is correct, then I am uninvolved. I am a logical kind of guy, so here is what I see: TRM is "prohibited from posting speculation about the motivations of editors or reflections on their competence." That seems clear. TRM recently wrote "are you open to recall as an admin who has consistently made bad judgements, false claims in edit summaries, deliberately introduced false claims into articles etc?" That also seems clear to me even though throwing "etc." at the end of it looks like mediocre writing to me. But mediocre writing is not actionable in this context. What is actionable is that TRM's comment looks to me like a clearcut violation of their editing restriction. TRM is reflecting on the competence and motivations of another editor. TRM's defense (defence) seems to be that their speculations and reflections are correct. This is not a valid defense. If, for the sake of discussion, I had an editing restriction regarding elephants, and I added some truly brilliant, well-referenced, neutral and completely correct content about elephants, I would still be in violation of my editing restriction. (This is hypothetical because, unlike TRM, I have conducted myself in such a way that no restrictions have ever been imposed on my editing.) What we have here is what looks to me to be a clearcut violation of an editing restriction. The only open question, in my view, is what type of sanction should be imposed for the violation. That is up to those at a higher pay grade, who should make that decision now. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 08:55, 29 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by IridescentI agree more or less word-for-word with everything Thryduulf says above, and (unusually) disagree with Cullen. It's obvious that the intention behind TRM's restriction was to prevent him from escalating disputes unnecessarily, not to prevent him from ever challenging an edit he deems inappropriate or raising concerns about the conduct of another editor. It's also clear that the "Admin A says there's nothing actionable, Admin B says there's nothing actionable, Admin C says there's nothing actionable, Sandstein not only says this is actionable but demands the harshest sanction allowed" cycle is repeating far too often, to the extent that it's becoming actively disruptive. (I presume none of the current committee needs it explained that Sandstein's "ignore the opinions of anyone who disagrees with me, and always throw the book" approach damages Wikipedia's credibility; it not only leads to bad feeling among those who receive unduly harsh treatment, but it increases the number of successful appeals and thus perpetuates the "arbitrary process" and "unblockable editors" memes.) It also seems to be becoming obvious that Sandstein has a particular fixation on TRM, as no matter what the concern raised about TRM—even if it's on a matter with which Sandstein has never shown any previous interest—Sandstein seems inevitably to be among the first people to pop up, and invariably demanding the harshest possible sanctions. I'm not sure if this is something that would (or should) be appropriate for resolution by motion at ARCA or whether it would need a full case so evidence can be presented and examined in a more formal setting over a longer timescale, but I think we're now reaching the point where Sandstein's interactions with TRM, and Sandstein's activity at AE in general, ought to be formally examined. I've been hearing variations on "Sandstein disregards other AE admins and imposes supervote closures", "Sandstein makes AE decisions based on his personal like or dislike of the parties rather than on the evidence presented" and "Sandstein cherry-picks evidence to suit his preferred result" quite literally for years now. Some of that may just be because Sandstein's obsession with AE means he's by far the most active editor there so he receives blame for decisions that would have been made regardless of who made them, but the nature of the complaints against him seem remarkably specific and consistent over time, with the current spat with TRM just the latest manifestation. An admin consistently accused over a long period of time by multiple editors of the misuse of advanced permissions to pursue personal grudges—regardless of the accuracy of the allegations—is ultimately going to become a trust and safety issue (both with lowercase and uppercase T & S), and we only just finished sacrificing millions of innocent pixels to establish the principle that these situations are for Arbcom to clean up. To avoid the timesink of what would likely be a lengthy and acrimonious case, I also think it would be healthy both for Sandstein and for Wikipedia were he to disengage from closing AE discussions or taking enforcement actions, either voluntarily or at the barrel of an Arbcom motion. That way he could still say his piece on any given issue about why he feels "the maximum sentence" or "no action at all" are the only acceptable courses; if his decisions aren't perverse and against consensus then whoever else closes the discussion and takes the enforcement action will reach the same conclusion so nothing will be lost or disrupted in any way. ‑ Iridescent 09:18, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by JohnuniqWhy all the drama? It appears the 48-hour block rule was imposed in December 2018 and there has only been one block (for 48 hours) since then. Any admin who believes a sanction is warranted should impose a 48-hour block and stop talking about it. Johnuniq (talk) 09:55, 29 November 2019 (UTC) SN54129@Sandstein: By Statement by Black KiteI don't think it's "casting aspersions" on Sandstein to suggest that he has previously been vociferous in seeking sanctions on TRM at AE when there is actual empirical data on the situation. Here, for example, he calls for a block of a month, but the case is eventually closed as "No Violation". Here, exactly the same thing happens again. Previously, Sandstein had actually blocked TRM for a month, which was then reduced to a week on appeal. Even 18 months ago, Sandstein's neutrality was being questioned - from the second link above "Generally I would expect an admin to recognize when their judgement may be compromised regardless of whether they meet the letter of WP:INVOLVED. Failing that I would expect that they would step aside once several editors repeatedly bring the matter up; If for no other reason than to avoid the appearance of impropriety."' Black Kite (talk) 13:37, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by OIDIf Arbcom do not address Sandstein's behaviour towards TRM here, then the next step will be opening an AN discussion with intent to ban him from any interactions with TRM. At which point all of Sandsteins contributions at AE, his habit of ignoring and/or dismissing other admins concerns, the over-eagerness to (not just with TRM) impose the maximum possible penalty, the various instances where he frankly has a basic lack of competence/understanding in certain subjects makes him unsuitable for enforcing restrictions on that subject - I can line up a long list of editors if you want and pages of evidence. The likely outcome of said discussion (for reasons iridescent and others above go into) would either be A)Sandstein gets prevented from interacting with TRM in any editorial or administrative function, or b)it gets punted back to Arbcom as too complicated and too many problems. So feel free to save everyone a lot of time and effort here. Only in death does duty end (talk) 14:24, 29 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by Awilley
Statement by El_CTaking into account that this is not an actual Arbitration request but one seeking clarification —and I would hope the distinction between the two would not become overly blurred— I think both parties here could benefit from advise that encompasses both criticism and praise. TRM for being (still) overly combative in their conduct, but notwithstanding their otherwise potent contributions. Sandstien for being overly strict —and, at times, supervotey— on AE, but who otherwise often does good work on that board. There is also the matter of the restriction itself, which as mentioned in AE, I find confusing. That, indeed, should be clarified by motion. Uninvolved admins should be able to make immediate sense of it. Also, I would be opposed to any sanctions being applied at this juncture, even though I did find TRM's conduct in this latest dispute to have been subpar. Finally, I'm a big believer in not needing to formalize everything. But I also don't know enough about the TRM arbitration case or about the TRM-Sandstien dynamic to offer more definitive input. Still, an awareness of (truly taking to heart) and a willingness by both parties to act upon their perceived strengths (more of) and weaknesses (less of) would be a good thing. It might be enough to turn the tide. Or we may be past that point. I don't really know which it is. But would lean toward giving the former informal approach a chance, if at all possible. El_C 17:10, 29 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by SeraphimbladeStatement by David GerardI'm the admin TRM's comments were focused on (though the actions were purely editorial actions, not admin actions). FWIW, speaking as the target, I'm not too worried about them - non-admins' freedom to complain about admins, even in non-admin matters, is important, and I have a reasonably thick skin. I think he's dead-wrong and he thinks I'm dead-wrong - and the actual issue at hand will hopefully be resolved in an orderly manner with a resolution that all parties can live with in the current discussion at VPR. But the effects of this behaviour on the editing environment need to be considered. I think it's important to note here that TRM's frankly amazing combativeness and junkyard-dog attitude is frankly wearying, and makes for a deeply unpleasant and repelling environment for other editors. This sanction isn't the precise appropriate one, but his behaviour is a serious problem - looking, for example, at the way he went off at Kingofaces43 as literally his first interaction, per above - and could do with some sort of action, because editors who insist on treating every interaction as a knock-down drag-out battle followed by wikistalking, as TRM does, are fundamentally bad for Wikipedia - David Gerard (talk) 23:36, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
The following is not presented with the intention of being some sort of a slam-dunk case for immediate action against TRM - but just as an answer to Sluzzelin's request for edits demonstrating "editors who insist on treating every interaction as a knock-down drag-out battle followed by wikistalking". Just picking a few examples from the last six months (and keeping in mind that this is not the issue this ARCA is about - but I've made a claim and should indeed back up what I said):
Interaction with TRM is unpleasant at best, and requires sifting through what he's saying for the substance amongst the gratuitous aggression - and a substantive response is often answered with an aggressive diversion. I don't doubt his sincerity, or his considerable good work at Wikipedia - I do doubt his outbursts and intimidatory behaviour are appropriate, and he really needs to recognise and stop doing this sort of thing, at all. I hope this answers Sluzzelin's question sufficiently - keeping in mind that this is not concerning what this ARCA is about, but about other behaviour. I do think this is at least some demonstration of an interaction style that is seriously problematic and intimidatory to third party editors, and that this needs attention. It would be good if TRM could just stop interacting with others in this manner, even when he's sure he's right - David Gerard (talk) 19:19, 30 November 2019 (UTC)
Statement by SluzzelinDavid Gerard, please provide diffs showing that TRM belongs to "editors who insist on treating every interaction as a knock-down drag-out battle followed by wikistalking" ("as TRM does"). Thank you. ---Sluzzelin talk 00:22, 30 November 2019 (UTC) Statement by Lord RoemAs much as actual neutrality is important, so too is the perception that the enforcement process is fair and consistent in the severity of sanctions issued. I'd urge Sandstein to consider AGK's suggestion of voluntarily recusing from TRM-related matters. We're obviously in a very unique use case, so I don't think there's a strong risk of this being used to pressure other admins out of AE going forward. The tendency to always pull the trigger for an exorbitantly harsh sanction will naturally make an editor feel singled out. I hardly think the other admins who monitor the AE board will be unequipped to handle a future potential incident should the need arise. At this point, any block issued would be punitive as we're now far removed from the diffs that started this all. For the Committee, I'd request rethinking the sanction itself. I know it's been through the ringer several times already, but my sense is that's evidence it's been unworkable from the get-go and that no perfect wording will make these issues easier for TRM or the admins at AE. I don't have a strong position on what that replacement should be, but clearly what we have is, at bottom, difficult and highly subjective to parse. Lord Roem ~ (talk) 00:54, 1 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by LevivichI never understand why some editors find these situations difficult, nuanced, or unique.
The collapsed section of #Statement by David Gerard shows a significant number of recent uncivil comments and personal attacks. This is not complicated; this is simple. – Levivich 03:57, 1 December 2019 (UTC) I'm going to throw out a crazy idea for a solution:
What I like about this proposed solution is that it's simple, it's easy to enforce, it's effective, and it treats everybody as if they were adults working in a voluntary collegial environment, as opposed to as if we were in a court, or a school, or a prison, or at therapy. – Levivich 00:55, 3 December 2019 (UTC) @Valereee: Re Not enforcing it, not clarifying it, and not lifting it, is not a good idea. Arbcom should do one of those three, or just wait another 12 days for the new arbs to chime in. – Levivich 16:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by DwellerI wasn't going to comment here, but I was pinged by David Gerard. I think AGK absolutely nailed this. Arbcom's badly-worded restrictions on TRM are intended to prevent disruption, not to permit admins to run roughshod over him. He's complained with justification about an admin's actions at that admin's talk page and at AN. AGK correctly points out that of all the diffs complained, one might technically breach the restriction and even that's not at the level where it's reasonable to take action. Even Banedon, in the past an intractable opponent of TRM can see this (to Banedon's enormous credit - hats off to you). Every time Arbcom looks at this, I point out to them that this sanction is backfiring and making future cases more likely not less, and each time I suggest they relax (or actually drop) it they strengthen it. I'm sick of telling them this and will wait for the next committee which may be less entrenched in its own position. You're all good people, but you've been getting this wrong - more and more wrong every time, to the extent that now you're even upbraiding him for despair because he was on the point of quitting. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:03, 1 December 2019 (UTC)
--Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:53, 2 December 2019 (UTC) Robert McClenon and many others contributing here. No, this is not about civility, hostility or the like. TRM is subject to WP:CIVIL the same as anyone else and ArbCom is not the referee for anything and everything people are upset about regarding TRM (which actually is what often happens at AE). The case is specifically about Arbcom's restriction that he is "prohibited from posting speculation about the motivations of editors or reflections on their competence." The uninvolved admins at the AE case found that he hadn't breached that. Sandstein said he had and urged the strongest sanctions, so the admins referred it here. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 08:51, 6 December 2019 (UTC) I echo those calling for Arbcom to lift the sanction. If they're not going to lift it, doing nothing further is merely to concur with the consensus of the admins at the AE case that prompted this. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 18:12, 19 December 2019 (UTC) GorillaWarfare You cite Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/The Rambling Man#Enforcement_log That log shows a ton of activity in 2016/17 and in over two years since then...? What? Yet we have still have periodic AE cases due to this dreadful sanction. And every time I tell you to ditch it, the committee has either ignored me or made it worse. Can't you see you've just made a stick to poke the bear with? Yes, TRM needs to be less bear-like - actually, I think he's already a lot less bearlike as the record shows, but the stick is still offered to every passing bearpoker. Can't you be less sticklike? And guys, this has been open for a heck of a long time. It really is time to wrap it up one way or another. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 18:42, 4 January 2020 (UTC) Statement by Robert McClenonThe troublesome aspects of this case are: 1. The Rambling Man (TRM) and Sandstein dislike each other. 2. The Rambling Man apparently has a crabbed interpretation of the requirement of civility, in that he apparently thinks that he honors it by avoiding profanity while otherwise being hostile and unpleasant to the number of editors whom he dislikes. This interpretation of civility games the fourth pillar of Wikipedia. 3. Sandstein is justified in disliking The Rambling Man because of his gaming of civility. However, that dislike does not justify vindictiveness, and the request to ban The Rambling Man is vindictive. ArbCom should impose some sanction on The Rambling Man that is more severe than a 48-hour block but less severe than a ban. ArbCom should consider a full two-way interaction ban between Sandstein and The Rambling Man. Sandstein should be considered to be involved in any dispute with The Rambling Man, through no fault of either party, simply because the dislike is too strong to permit him to act objectively in an administrative capacity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robert McClenon (talk • contribs) 03:53, 2 December 2019 (UTC) ClarificationEvidently point 2 was not clear to User:Dweller. I never suggested that profanity had anything to do with this case. I meant that The Rambling Man never uses profanity, and may think that that is civility, but he is nonetheless profoundly uncivil without using profanity. There is a crabbed interpretation of the fourth pillar of Wikipedia that it is sufficient to avoid profanity. It is necessary but not sufficient to avoid profanity. This case is about The Rambling Man being hostile and unpleasant. Robert McClenon (talk) 21:02, 5 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by WaltCipThe fact that Sandstein stands alone in wanting to impose the maximum possible punishment of a siteban on TRM for a debatable violation of his sanction is prima facie proof, given his prior history, that he cannot dispassionately act as a finder-of-fact for this individual. At minimum, he should recuse himself from this case, and more preferably, any future ones regarding TRM.--WaltCip (talk) 19:19, 2 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by JzG (TRM)Is it just me, or is that restriction an attempt to legislate Clue? TRM used to be a top bloke, but has become an obnoxious grump. I don't fully understand what happened. Regardless, if this restriction stands then he clearly violated it so the question is probably: do we care? I don't know either way. Guy (help!) 23:18, 2 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by LepricavarkRegardless of the merits of TRM's conduct, I agree with those who have contended that Sandstein needs to recuse himself from taking administrative action with regards to TRM. I believe that admins should avoid even the appearance of taking involved actions. Lepricavark (talk) 06:56, 3 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by Fish and karateI have described Sandstein as someone who Judge Dredds his way around arbitration enforcement before, and would suggest that not only should he be kept away from any kind of administrative decision-making involving TRM, he should probably be kept away from closing arbitration enforcement discussions entirely, irrespective of the user under discussion. Fish+Karate 15:03, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by My very best wishesI think the comment by TRM "are you open to recall as an admin who has consistently made bad judgements, false claims in edit summaries..." was an obvious violation. If something stronger is needed (I have no judgement about it), that could be only a blanket ban to comment anything about any other contributors, with standard exceptions. Some people complain about actions by Sandstein, but I do not think anyone can make a convincing case here. This is because most actions by Sandstein on WP:AE have been either supported or at least not explicitly objected by other admins. Only a couple of his decisions were overturned on WP:AE , as far as I remember. My very best wishes (talk) 15:36, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by Ched (TRM & Sanderstein)I've tried to follow this back to some sort of "source" of disagreement, and my conclusion isn't a pleasant one. While I do agree with some of the others in their assessments (Iridescent, Black Kite, and AGK to name a few), I'm not sure this can be resolved here. I think that even if you outright find someone to hang the albatross on HERE, you'll simply be kicking the can further down the road to THERE. The concept of deprecating sources that were once considered perfectly reliable is proving to be a 'tough row to hoe' (that is to say "it will be difficult to reach agreement"). While the committee is already under a heavy workload with the Portals case, I'd venture to guess that the "Deprecated Sources" case isn't far behind. From here back to AE, back to AN, and back to VPPRO, discussion has been tried. — Ched (talk) 18:29, 3 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by ValereeeI’ve become convinced TRM doesn’t realize what his words feel like from the other side. He excuses making noncollegial comments ‘because it’s the truth.’ I think he sincerely doesn’t comprehend that the fact what he's saying is true doesn’t make the way he says it acceptable. I don't think he realizes there are ways to say this stuff that aren't counterproductive to collegial work. I don’t know what to think, here. The guy is hugely useful. His insights are great, he works incredibly fast, he has a huge capacity for work, he catches 90% of issues that cross his screen. I’d seriously hate to lose that sharp eye. But he really doesn’t seem to understand why (or even that) the way he says something is important. He just doesn’t get it. It’s like this giant blind spot in his perception of reality. I certainly don’t want to see him banned, but I don't want to give him the message that this stuff is okay to say, either. I just wish we could teach him how humans interact collegially online. Sandstein should stop being the TRM police. It's counterproductive. If Sandstein believes there's an issue with TRM, they should bring it to the attention of some other admin.
Statement by Minor4thI am totally uninvolved with the principals in this case. My only knowledge is what I have read here and the links provided. Arb definitely needs to clarify the sanction because, as written, it seems like a clear cut violation, but this type of behavior has been interpreted in the past to not be a violation. Further, Sandstein and TRM obviously have problems with each other. TRM thinks Sandstein lacks judgment in his administrator actions; Sandstein would be happy to see TRM site banned. Both of their opinions about each other may be overblown. I think a two way interaction ban would be appropriate, along with a clarification of the sanction.Minor4th 23:14, 3 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by Vanamonde (TRM)
Statement by WBGTo echo V93:- Statement by AmakuruSupporting the motion to close. It's clear that there's no action going to be taken, and we already have three votes to that effect. Meanwhile TRM has been absent since the end of November thanks to this, which is a great loss to the project. Can't believe the case is still open after all this time. — Amakuru (talk) 22:19, 28 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by Girth SummitI just had reason to drop by TRM's talk page, and wondered why he seemed to have disappeared - a bit lf digging led me here, so I'm late to this party. I empathise with Valereee's sentiments above, and support the motion to close. As a relative newcomer to content creation, I've found TRM's guidance and support tremendously helpful over the course of this past year - that's not to say his behaviour is perfect at all times, especially perhaps when it comes to interactions with long-standing editors with whom he has had a rocky history, but as a mentor for new editors hoping to produce DYKs and GAs he's amongst the best, and his absence is being felt already. GirthSummit (blether) 15:20, 30 December 2019 (UTC)
The Rambling Man: Clerk notes
The Rambling Man: Arbitrator views and discussion
Resolution: The Rambling ManProposed: The amendment request is declined.
The Rambling Man: motion to lift prohibitionProposed: Remedy 4 (The Rambling Man prohibited) of The Rambling Man arbitration case is vacated, together with the associated special enforcement provisions.
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Amendment request: Magioladitis 2
Archiving to Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Magioladitis 2#Amendment request: Magioladitis 2 (January 2020) CodeLyokotalk 07:28, 8 January 2020 (UTC) |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
Initiated by Magioladitis at 10:08, 12 December 2019 (UTC)
Statement by MagioladitisPreventing any fixing was never part of the original restriction. It was for the community to judge which edits are acceptable or not. No errors were reported while using WPCleaner. I would like to be able to run WPCleaner from my main account. This not about bot request but using a toll as aid to edit in semi-automated manner the same way I use HotCat. Recall, that semi-automated tools can also be used to do tasks not suitable as bot tasks and that I regularly used to use AWB/WPCleaner as alternative wiki editors in a similar way other editors use Visual Editor. Also recall, that bot AWB and WPCleaner can be run in non-automated way. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:33, 12 December 2019 (UTC) WTT I think I covered your comment. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:33, 12 December 2019 (UTC) AGK I only care for the "Check Wiki project" feature. Not interested in updating talk page warnings. WP cleaner provides features such as suggestions, highlighting, ISBN check which are not part of Visual Editor nor standard wikicode editor. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:40, 12 December 2019 (UTC) Mkdw I am willing to use WPCleaner to help me with wiki mark-up because of highlighting, editing suggestions and mass loading of similar pages. My task is to improve articles and make changes that affect the visual output of the page. Since, the entire idea of the ban is the prohibit me from making changes that do not affect the visual output, I would like to be able to use the tools in that manner without violating the current rules of editing. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:20, 27 December 2019 (UTC) I would like to add though that I am disappointed that the community hasn't determined for more than 30% of the CHECKWIKI errors whether they constitute cosmetic errors or not. It's been two years where no discussion neither action has happened. I will ofcourse stay on the safe side of the board but I wonder what is the opinion of the involved parties on this. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:24, 27 December 2019 (UTC) User:xeno If we go to AN, I would have more requests because my case has various aspects here. It's the editing part and it's the discussing part too. Right now I am banned from both editing and discussing on editing. I understand this as a temporary measure but it's been two years where I am away from onwiki discussions. People who have violated WP:BRD and were edit warring had lighter consequences for their actions. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:31, 1 January 2020 (UTC) Mkdw I am asking to use WPCleaner to make edits that affect the visual output i.e. "not cosmetic" edits. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:49, 3 January 2020 (UTC) Robert McClenon I don't understand why you think this. I stayed away from any editing that would be considered as causing troubles or conflicts. My main contribution to the project for ten and more years was to fix little things. I started editing by fixing redlinks and I continued fixing any kind of small things including ISBN numbers. The latter can be done with WPCleaner in an easier way that is done by browser editor. Moreover, this is not a bot task. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:48, 4 January 2020 (UTC) Thank you for the motion. I appreciate it. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:23, 5 January 2020 (UTC) Statement by XenoPerhaps would be best to solicit opinions directly from WP:AN, as I believe the remedy took over from previous community restrictions. I agree the break from continually-recurring threads regarding alleged cosmetic edits has been nice. Speaking in my personal capacity. –xenotalk 13:52, 31 December 2019 (UTC) Statement by Robert McClenonI said, two-and-one-half years ago, concerning the second ArbCom case involving User:Magioladitis, that it was terribly sad that things were where they were, but that it appeared that Magioladitis was no longer the editor that he had been for the past ten years. He was needlessly pushing the envelope even after after had limits set and being told to observe those limits. Two-and-one-half years later, he appears to be the same editor that he was then, and not the editor that he was twelve and seven years ago. Unfortunately, the most compassionate response by the ArbCom will be to conclude that Magioladitis does not have the competence to use automated techniques reasonably, and so the ArbCom should deny this request. The alternative would be to give him enough rope to tie himself in more knots, which is a reasonable approach for trolls or flamers, but in this case, I urge the ArbCom to deny this request compassionately. Robert McClenon (talk) 00:27, 4 January 2020 (UTC) Statement by {other-editor}Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should address why or why not the Committee should accept the amendment request or provide additional information. Magioladitis 2: Clerk notes
Magioladitis 2: Arbitrator views and discussion
Motion: MagioladitisRemedy 3: AWB prohibition of the Magioladitis case is lifted subject to a probationary period lasting 1 year from the date this motion is enacted. During this period, any uninvolved administrator may re-impose the remedy as an arbitration enforcement action, subject to appeal only to the Arbitration Committee. If the probationary period elapses without incident, the restriction is to be considered permanently lifted. For clarity, Magioladitis' prohibition on making cosmetic edits will remain in force.
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Amendment request: Crouch, Swale Original Ban Appeal
Initiated by Crouch, Swale at 17:48, 31 December 2019 (UTC)
- Case or decision affected
- Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard/Archive 11#Crouch, Swale ban appeal
- Clauses to which an amendment is requested
- First modification (16 July 2018)
- Second modification (18 January 2019)
- Clarification (10 February 2019)
- Fourth modification (16 July 2019)
- List of any users involved or directly affected, and confirmation that all are aware of the request
- Crouch, Swale (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (initiator)
- Information about amendment request
- First modification (16 July 2018)
- Above
- Second modification (18 January 2019)
- Above
- Clarification (10 February 2019)
- Above
- Fourth modification (16 July 2019)
- Above
Statement by Crouch, Swale
Replacement of the blanked article creation restriction and 1 a week at AFC with the ability to only create current (and recently abolished) civil parishes, recently meaning abolished in 2000 or after. A list of such can be found at User:Crouch, Swale/Civil parishes, note that it lists about 717 but some are alternative names of settlements and probably don't require separate articles from the settlements so the number would probably be less than 700 so I would be creating about 4 a day which would be plenty few enough to be able to add meaningful content to each. There is also 23 missing welsh communities (the equivalent in Wales) at User:Crouch, Swale/Communities and 3 unparished areas listed at User:Crouch, Swale/List of unparished areas#Missing articles that are included in this request. I also request the removal of the page move restriction but that should be with a 1RR or 0RR restriction. I also request the ability to create redirects and DAB pages. As with the geographical NC ban lift these should be lifted with a condition that if there are problems they can be reinstated in the next 6 months, in addition all the creations can be speedily deleted (providing they don't have substantial edits from others) and the moves be reverted with a bot if there are serious concerns. The reason these should be removed is that I have had a 100% success rate at AFC (one was declined but shortly after accepted when I discussed with the reviewer). I also haven't had many requests at RMT contested and have also received a barnstar for my work with disambiguating 3 digit numbers. I understand that I have had competence problems in the past but I have clearly demonstrated that these restrictions are not needed and reflect my behavior years ago rather than today. So can I please have 1 chance see if these are indeed not needed. Similarly I have been allowed to create other pages since February but not one of the categories has been deleted or even questioned out of the hundreds that I have created.
If you think something else is better I'll provide a list of options below:
With the article creation restriction:
- A, remove completely
- B, only allow BUASDs, civil parishes and DABs/redirects
- C, only allow civil parishes and DABs/redirects
- D, only allow settlement civil parishes (those are in bold on the lists)
- E, only allow a certain number of articles (in said classes) such as 1 a day (30/31 a week, 365 a year) and DABs/redirects
- F, only allow DABs/redirects
With the move restriction:
- A, remove completely
- B, remove with a 1RR (or 0RR) restriction
- C, only allow a certain number such as 1 a day (30/31 a week, 365 a year)
- D, only allow moves from "Foo (qualifier)" or "Foo, Qualifier" to "Foo" (in most cases this is impossible since something will be at "Foo" anyway).
I still think C with the creation restriction and B with the move restriction is best but if you think we can remove altogether that's great and if you really think tighter than proposed but still looser than current then that's better than nothing. Note that I have looked into having parishes created by bots but I haven't got anywhere with that because I have been unable to put such a suggestion in a way a bot operator can interpret. If such a bot request was successful then that would drastically reduce the number of the (around) 700 needing creating to probably more like 20. If you have any suggestions or questions please do ask/suggest rather than just declining, thanks.
- @Newyorkbrad: see South Huish, Risga and Fulford, Staffordshire for example (all were in my user space). Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:25, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Worm That Turned: as I have explained these are my primary interests on WP so the editing restrictions are a huge problem for me and expecting 6 months is way more than enough time and if you don't want any more appeals you could !vote A A which would mean no more appeals would be needed. I have considrably tightened up my quality and inclusion criteria for articles. See Wikipedia:Make stubs and WP:NNH #Focusing on particular processes. As noted if these had have been created by a bot in the early days of WP there would be no basis to delete them, if I didn't have these restrictions there would probably never be consensus to implement them today. Creating around 4 a day would surely work fine and is fully compliant with WP:STUB. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:25, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Bradv: see the contributions to the 3 digit number disambiguation as well as many other contributions to disambiguation outside UK geography. User:Iridescent civil parishes are notable per WP:GEOLAND and as noted at Talk:Castle Hill, Suffolk that unlike ward boundaries they tend to be stable for long periods of time and correspond to natural boundaries. Most CPs have parish councils so are likely to be known by people there anyway. Crouch, Swale (talk) 08:19, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Thryduulf: those 3 articles surely contain more than enough content and sources to be acceptable. Fulford and South Huish are about both the villages and parishes. For both cases other than "Malborough With South Huish Church Of England Primary School" all of the features are either in the villages or their parishes. This is standard and normal (take a look at municipalities accross the world or other WPs) Halvergate includes Tunstall for example. Ingatestone and Fryerning is an article about a parish containing 2 settlements, Ingatestone and Fryerning.
I'll ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography about this, there was a previous thread at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography/Archive 18#Bot created articles.
There is still the move restriction (and similar) that I can appeal, any thoughts on removing that? Crouch, Swale (talk) 10:18, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- @GorillaWarfare: of course I appeal my restrictions every 6 months, which is unfortunately the minimum amount, if we're really not prepared to lift much even after that long wait. It should be more like every 2 or 3 months. Crouch, Swale (talk) 10:18, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Thryduulf: as noted most of them do indeed have articles and as noted I have now accepted that there are cases where the CP name is an alternative name of the settlement and thus should redirect to the settlement. We have consensus over the years about the others that do currently exist (the 93%) and WP:GEOLAND that says that they should exist which will deal with most of those that don't exist yet.
- This would be the 2nd chance at creating articles at a faster rate than before. Wouldn't PamD's suggestion of 1 article a day be slow enough so that I can add the other relevant content (other than just the standard such as location, population and name origin). And as noted if there are significant problems I've suggested allowing all the article creations to be allowed to be speedily deleted. Isn't that enough of a precaution? And the request isn't solely about mass creating articles, its also about lifting the page move restriction, which I have suggested with a 1RR (or 0RR) restriction plus that like the article creation restriction that the moves can be mass reverted. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:32, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Thryduulf, SoWhy, and Iridescent: I've now created User:Crouch, Swale/Settlement parishes which lists current (and recently abolished) CPs and communities that are Ordnance Survey settlements too so failing the suggestion of creating 1 a day (or similar) for all current or recently abolished CPs we could allow only settlement CPs. So if we don't accept that CPs are automatically notable then we could try only settlement CPs, thoughts? The amount missing is 104 so that would to 0.571 articles per day over 182 days, I'm not sure how we would do that but it seems sensible. Crouch, Swale (talk) 22:08, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD: there are quite a few at User:Crouch, Swale/CP blacklist that are actually alternative names so the number to actually create would probably be more like 600 (so more like only 6%) and yes you're right that I don't intend to create stand separate articles when the settlement and CP have the same name (except in cases like Scotforth where the CP doesn't include the settlement) and Category:Civil parishes in Cumbria and Category:Civil parishes in Lancashire show many that aren't settlements. @GorillaWarfare: I've spent 2 years editing without the ability to create large numbers of articles, and User:KrakatoaKatie please read the comments made by the other 2 editors above, there is some agreement about loosening these rather than just declining. Crouch, Swale (talk) 11:14, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: largely the same as Ingatestone and Fryerning, the 2 former parishes should contain info specific on them while info that relates to both (such as the current parish council) and future population figures should be in the "Abdon and Heath" article. See Nuneaton and Bedworth as an example of a district that was formed from 2 unparished areas (the areas of the former Municipal Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth Urban District). Info that relates to the entire district is included there but things specific to either of the 2 unparished areas are included in those articles (or a more specific article still) but in some cases material can be briefly summarized in the current CP article.
Statement by Iridescent
I would also like to see some indication that the creation of ~700 new stubs in this topic area is desirable
hits it on the head. In two months it will be 20 years since the founding of Nupedia, and England is not some obscure country where we just haven't got around to full coverage yet. Modern-day civil parishes are a virtually meaningless level of minor bureaucracy which the overwhelming majority of people aren't even aware exist. If you've managed to identify 717 places in England which aren't the subject of articles it's almost certainly the case that an article isn't appropriate, and if you think there's a genuine purpose in creating one article, let alone 700+, the onus is firmly on you to explain why it's necessary we do something nobody has thought worth doing for two decades. The fact that you've repeatedly failed to grasp the point that WP:BOLD isn't a blank cheque and that it's up to you to gain consensus if you want to make a significant change is the reason you keep getting into trouble—there's no indication that anyone other than you has ever thought that separate articles for parish councils is a sensible idea. ‑ Iridescent 20:34, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
Statement by Thryduulf (re Crouch, Swale)
I've just looked at the three example articles Crouch, Swale links to as evidence of what they are asking to be allowed to rapidly create. Risga is about an uninhabited island \which used a mix of imperial and metric units without any conversion (while a UK reader is more likely than average to be familiar with both yards and hectares we are writing for an international audience who would find this unhelpful) and is largely a series of staccato sentences rather than flowing prose. Fulford, Staffordshire appears to be a civil parish consisting of a single village (but this is not clear from the article) and so the article (also full of staccato sentences) is really about the settlement not the parish. South Huish is an article ostensibly about the village and the CP of the same name that also includes two other settlements with articles, but mostly seems to be a prose(ish) listing of things located nearish the village or which have "Huish" or "South Huish" in the name (the second sentence of the Features section is about a school in a place the first section says is adjacent to (not part of) the parish. The remainder of the article contains facts, some interesting, but I'm not sure whether any of them relate to the village, the wider parish, or just happen to be nearby? If these are examples of your best work then you need to improve your writing skills and these articles before creating any more.
Also, as noted by many other people, you need to get consensus for the mass creation of articles first before getting permission to be the one to create them. The only discussion about this I've been able to find is Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography/Archive 1#Insane parish project by user:Morwen in late 2005, which was nothing to do with you. Indeed I see only contribution to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography by you, which was a multi-posted message about bot-creating articles about listed buildings. When I found where this was actually being discussed, it seemed you didn't really engage with the feedback you were getting.
All in all I have strongly recommend that this request is declined. I would also suggest the committee consider a restriction that prevents another appeal until after Crouch, Swale has gained consensus at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography (or in a discussion an an appropriate alternative location that was advertised to that project) that the large scale creation of articles about civil parishes is desirable, has demonstrated the ability (within the existing restriction) to write articles about civil parishes that have good quality prose and are more than stubs. Any appeal before these have been achieved should be summarily rejected by the first arb to see it without the need to waste the time of the committee and community. Thryduulf (talk) 13:34, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Crouch, Swale: Your replies show you have not understood what people are telling you at all. There is no "time served" criterion for lifting restrictions, it is entirely about whether they are still necessary and your comments here demonstrate they are as you still do not demonstrate and understanding of why they were imposed in the first place. My comments on the articles are not about the number of sources or amount of facts, they are about quality of prose. The articles are confusing and difficult to read and someone reading them should not be coming away with the sorts of questions I did - regardless of whether you answer them or not (which you actually didn't). Thryduulf (talk) 11:58, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD: Crouch, Swale already has permission to create individual articles on civil parishes, and I agree that carefully creating articles about them is a good thing - although it is debatable whether he is doing this. This request is to be allowed to mass create several hundred articles of unknown quality. He was originally blocked for disruptively mass creating hundreds of unreferenced stubs about notable and non-notable geographical topics, and then extensively socking to get around the block and continue the mass-creation of stubs. Thryduulf (talk) 03:04, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD: Once again you've missed the point. The issue is not whether these should be blue links, everyone (I think) agrees they should be, but whether Crouch, Swale should be allowed to mass create individual articles about all of them. SoWhy's opinion means that there is clearly, at the moment, no consensus that all of them should have individual articles (rather than coverage as part of a different article) so this needs discussion before mass creation by anybody. Thryduulf (talk) 16:35, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD: except there aren't articles about 93% of parishes - 93% of parishes are blue links. For example the Cheddar, Somerset is almost entirely about the village with a few sentences about the Parish which also includes hamlets Nyland and Bradley Cross. Thryduulf (talk) 00:10, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD: Once again you've missed the point. The issue is not whether these should be blue links, everyone (I think) agrees they should be, but whether Crouch, Swale should be allowed to mass create individual articles about all of them. SoWhy's opinion means that there is clearly, at the moment, no consensus that all of them should have individual articles (rather than coverage as part of a different article) so this needs discussion before mass creation by anybody. Thryduulf (talk) 16:35, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: Yes everybody deserves a second chance, but you're missing the point. This wouldn't be Crouch, Swale's second chance - this would be the fourth or fifth loosening of the unblock conditions but there is still no evidence that they understand why the restrictions were imposed in the first place. There is no evidence they have understood or listened to the feedback they've been given multiple times already. This request is solely to be allowed to mass create articles, but there is no evidence the community wants (or indeed does not want) the mass creation of articles about civil parishes (independently of who creates them) - it has not been discussed so this is putting the cart first before even posing the question "do we want and need a horse and cart?", let alone procuring a horse. We all want the creation of quality articles about notable topics, but the evidence presented here is that mass creation by Crouch, Swale would not achieve that aim. Thryduulf (talk) 12:13, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: I don't have a problem with Crouch, Swale creating articles. I have a problem with them, or anyone else, mass creating articles without discussion, and I have issue with the quality of the articles created being too low. This is very much not the right venue to be discussing whether there is or is not consensus for the creation of articles about anything, and if there is what form they should take. In this case the discussion is best had at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography where there is more likely to be input from those editors who are not following the discussion about this one specific editor's appeal. Thryduulf (talk) 21:08, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: the point is that there needs to be positivie consensus for mass creation before Crouch, Swale requests permission to carry it out. (a) and (b) haven't even been discussed yet, let alone reached consensus. Thryduulf (talk) 21:38, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: I don't have a problem with Crouch, Swale creating articles. I have a problem with them, or anyone else, mass creating articles without discussion, and I have issue with the quality of the articles created being too low. This is very much not the right venue to be discussing whether there is or is not consensus for the creation of articles about anything, and if there is what form they should take. In this case the discussion is best had at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography where there is more likely to be input from those editors who are not following the discussion about this one specific editor's appeal. Thryduulf (talk) 21:08, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
Statement by PamD
Yes, civil parishes are a significant group of entities in England, and worthy of encyclopedia articles. I systematically resolved the red links in Civil parishes in Cumbria in 2016-17 by creating many short articles such as Preston Patrick and Kirklinton Middle. A civil parish has a population recorded in the census, usually a parish council (or occasionally a share in one with adjacent parish(es)), and a list of listed buildings (sometimes there's already a separate article about that), and has significance for its current residents, and for historians studying the area. I don't know the whole background to Crouch, Swale's restrictions, but a permission to carefully create articles on this finite set of well-defined topics seems a sensible step on the route to rehabilitation. Maybe 1/day (plus associated redirects and any necessary dab page creations) for a trial period? PamD 18:43, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Iridescent, Thryduulf, and SoWhy: I have just found that according to civil parish there are 10,449 civil parishes in England (as of 2015), so the 700 that C,S wants to create are about 7% of the total and if his list is all that are missing we have articles already for about 93%, so that consistency suggests that these 700 should be created. I've made Aldcliffe-with-Stodday just now as it was the only red link in Civil parishes in Lancashire (it only came into existence in 2017). PamD 16:26, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Thryduulf: You say
SoWhy's opinion means that there is clearly, at the moment, no consensus that all of them should have individual articles
: on the contrary, it only indicates that the consensus is not unanimous. I think the existence of articles for 93% of a group indicates a consensus that they are notable, unless you can detect some characteristic which makes the 7% different from the others. PamD 23:56, 5 January 2020 (UTC) - @Thryduulf: I don't see any problem with Cheddar, Somerset, which covers both the village and the parish (a lot about the parish council). As far as I can see Crouch is not proposing to make two separate articles where a settlement name and parish name are the same, so I don't see your point. I took "individual" to mean "about this parish rather than just including content alongside other parishes in district article or list": are you taking it to mean "about the parish separately from any settlement of the same name"?PamD 08:19, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
Statement by Amakuru (re Crouch, Swale)
I have watched this form the sidelines with some bemusement, and I wasn't going to get involved because it seemed a foregone conclusion. For the record though, I completely support PamD's suggestion of a trial period. I wasn't involved in the early history regarding Crouch, and there's no doubt that his behaviour back then fully justified the lengthy ban. In the two years since he's been back on-wiki though, there is nothing to suggest a return to socking or disruptive stub creation. I have mainly encountered him at RM discussions, and while we don't always agree, he knows his sources and can make a well-argued policy-based position. If the missing parish/village articles (and nobody here has actually argued that they don't meet GNG) are created along the lines of the three articles mentioned above, I think that would be a net positive for the wiki. Sure they're short, and the prose could be improved, but Nobody has suggested they should be deleted, and as Crouch says, his AFC creations are generally accepted. The proposal by Pam to allow 1 per day, with a promise to make them substantial, not just one line stubs, and see what kind of output it produces, is an excellent one. Thryduulf Worm That Turned I respect you a lot, and I voted for you in the recent ArbCom elections as the kind of quality arbs we need, but I think you've got this one wrong and urge you to reconsider. Everyone deserves a second chance. — Amakuru (talk) 09:17, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- So if I understand SoWhy and Thryduulf correctly, their objection is to Crouch creating articles on parishes where there are already village articles in place? So to take the first example on Crouch's list, which is Abdon and Heath, this is a modern parish covering two villages for which we already have articles - Abdon, Shropshire and Heath, Shropshire. Note that this parish was created in 2017 and was presumably an amalgamation of an earlier pair of parishes covering the two villages. @Crouch, Swale: what would your article for this parish look like? The above examples of South Huish, Risga and Fulford aren't indicators for Abdon and Heath, as they are also villages in their own right. I think if we can establish what form the article would take and what sourcing would be used for such articles, we could make a determination on whether it's really disruptive or useful to create them. — Amakuru (talk) 21:01, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Thryduulf: of course, and I don't disagree with that, but if actually we knew in advance that (a) the articles were all clearly notable and of use, and (b) that they would be of a reasonable minimum size, not just a one-line stub, then all other things being equal I don't think we should object to such a mass creation. Obviously Crouch has history, dating back to their ban in 2011 and the horrendous use of socking that led to it, so this isn't a blank slate. And this isn't my decision to make of course. But, if I were God and I was satisfied that both (a) and (b) would be met for all the articles that are proposed for creation, I would allow them to do so. I personally think it worth our while to consider if that's the case or not. — Amakuru (talk) 21:14, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
Statement by {other-editor}
Other editors are free to make relevant comments on this request as necessary. Comments here should address why or why not the Committee should accept the amendment request or provide additional information.
Crouch, Swale Original Ban Appeal: Clerk notes
- This area is used for notes by the clerks (including clerk recusals).
Crouch, Swale Original Ban Appeal: Arbitrator views and discussion
- @Crouch, Swale: From your past contributions, can you point to a couple of sample articles that would illustrate the format, level of detail, and quality of sourcing of the articles you are proposing? Alternatively, if requested, could you prepare one or two in your sandbox? Newyorkbrad (talk) 01:29, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- Crouch, Swale has provided three examples of the types of articles he wishes to create. The question is whether creation of this type of article is beneficial to the encyclopedia. A couple of very knowledgeable editors have opined that it isn't and explained why, but I'd be interested in knowing a little bit more about this issue, such as whether any of the articles Crouch, Swale has created in userspace or draftspace since the last modification of his restrictions have been accepted into mainspace. Newyorkbrad (talk) 21:31, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- I'd firmly decline this request and would seriously consider putting some sort of restriction on the frequency of Crouch, Swale's requests. He was banned in 2011 for obsessively creating and tweaking large numbers of UK settlement artiles, leading to sockpuppetry. He was unbanned on 31 December 2017, almost exactly 2 years ago, with some restrictions to slow down those behaviours. I agreed with the unban at the time. In July 2018, he came to us to remove the topic ban, which was agreed. However, things started to speed up during 2019. In January, he requested to be allowed to create and move pages. We allowed 1 per week through the AFC process. I stated my opinion a year ago there - However, I'm not willing to endorse, now or in the near future, large creations of articles by Crouch, Swale - in other words, I do not see me voting for a wholesale removal of restrictions in the next few years. @Crouch, Swale: to be clear, if your end goal is the creation of significant numbers of articles, I think you should find another hobby - I have not swayed from that opinion, despite the tweak in February, the further request in July, and the request at [GorillaWarfare's page last month. Basically I've seen no relent on Crouch, Swale's behaviour. He's still not listening to advice - or rather taking a blinked approach and only listening to the advice he wants to. So, despite his insistence that it's been long enough and that I should not quickly decline, I don't agree and I believe this request should be declined. WormTT(talk) 10:46, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- I'm note sure how "you could just lift the restrictions and then I would not have to continue appealing them" is really taking into account what has been said. The whole point of the previous restrictions was to ensure some oversight over these creations as well as ensuring that there are not too many creations as to overwhelm the review system or recreate the problems that led to the previous ban. Going from 1 draft per week to 4 per day would be an 28-fold increase. "There have been no rejections at AFC" is not a compelling argument since that might just be the case because they are forced to take your time on each draft submitted. More importantly though, the "tunnel vision" problems mentioned in the previous ARCAs apparently persist. Appealing restrictions every six months like clockwork makes it seem that Crouchm Swale believes that time elapsed and not change in behavior is the relevant factor. What Premeditated Chaos said in the July 2019 ARCA discussion seems to still ring true. Regards SoWhy 18:11, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- Also noting that just pointing to WP:GEOLAND does not address either Bradv's or Iridescent's concerns. Even if one assumed that parishes fall under GEOLAND (which is imho debatable since "places" might just refer to cities, towns etc., not administrative entities thereof), notability does not automatically mean there needs to be a separate article for each subject (see WP:N#Whether to create standalone pages). Before any restrictions can be lifted, there should be prior consensus that creating so many stand-alone articles is desirable. I have not seen any indication for that. Regards SoWhy 11:10, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD and Amakuru: There seems to be no clear consensus on the notability of parishes in general and on whether there has to be an individual article on each parish (see Iridescent's and Thryduulf's comments). As Thryduulf mentions, the current restrictions are in place because Crouch, Swale has a history of mass creating articles of poor quality and sometimes questionable notability without prior consultation. I'm not against granting a second chance but imho, there should first be clear consensus that these creations are desirable before lifting any restrictions. Regards SoWhy 12:19, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- @Amakuru: I have no opinion whatsoever on those kinds of articles. I merely pointed out that there seems to be no consensus whether the creations are actually useful and thus there should be consensus first before any restrictions are lifted. Unfortunately, Crouch, Swale does not seem to understand that there are such concerns and shows no willingness to have such a discussion before asking for restrictions to be lifted or indeed have such a discussion at all. Regards SoWhy 21:11, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- @PamD and Amakuru: There seems to be no clear consensus on the notability of parishes in general and on whether there has to be an individual article on each parish (see Iridescent's and Thryduulf's comments). As Thryduulf mentions, the current restrictions are in place because Crouch, Swale has a history of mass creating articles of poor quality and sometimes questionable notability without prior consultation. I'm not against granting a second chance but imho, there should first be clear consensus that these creations are desirable before lifting any restrictions. Regards SoWhy 12:19, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
- Also noting that just pointing to WP:GEOLAND does not address either Bradv's or Iridescent's concerns. Even if one assumed that parishes fall under GEOLAND (which is imho debatable since "places" might just refer to cities, towns etc., not administrative entities thereof), notability does not automatically mean there needs to be a separate article for each subject (see WP:N#Whether to create standalone pages). Before any restrictions can be lifted, there should be prior consensus that creating so many stand-alone articles is desirable. I have not seen any indication for that. Regards SoWhy 11:10, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
- Decline. The point of topic bans is to encourage editors to disengage from the problematic topic area completely, and to steer them toward positive contributions in other areas of the project. Highly bespoke sanctions can sometimes have an opposite effect. I could possibly be convinced to relax these restrictions on the basis of positive contributions outside the area of UK geography, but I don't see that here. I would also like to see some indication that the creation of ~700 new stubs in this topic area is desirable. – bradv🍁 20:11, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
- Decline per Thryduulf. Mkdw talk 20:16, 3 January 2020 (UTC)
- Decline, per WTT. Crouch, Swale, you do not appear to understand the impact your past disruption has caused (a fact I pointed out on my talk page when you instructed WTT and I that
6 months is more than enough time
). You seem to be following a tight schedule in which you are trying to whittle away at your restrictions—there is plenty of editing you can be doing while staying within your restrictions, and coming to us so regularly with requests to allow you to perform some new kind of task (in this case, one that is not clearly even wanted by the community) is quickly becoming old. GorillaWarfare (talk) 03:45, 4 January 2020 (UTC)- @Crouch, Swale: I have read all the comments here. GorillaWarfare (talk) 17:15, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
Motion: Crouch, Swale
The request for modification of Crouch, Swale's restrictions is declined. Going forward, he may not request relaxation of his restrictions more frequently than once per year, with the next request not taking place prior to 1 January 2021. In addition, he should ensure that there is consensus for any future large creations of articles, prior to making the request for relaxation of his restrictions.
- For this motion there are 15 active arbitrators. With 0 arbitrators abstaining, 8 support or oppose votes are a majority.
Enacted - CodeLyokotalk 21:16, 8 January 2020 (UTC)
- Support
- Proposed. (wordsmithing welcome) WormTT(talk) 13:02, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- I've just spent some time reviewing all this and I just don't find the appeal compelling, for all the reasons already stated above by my fellow arbitrators. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:50, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- Thryduulf put it well when he said,
This wouldn't be Crouch, Swale's second chance - this would be the fourth or fifth loosening of the unblock conditions but there is still no evidence that they understand why the restrictions were imposed in the first place. There is no evidence they have understood or listened to the feedback they've been given multiple times already.
Crouch, Swale, you need to spend more time editing productively within your restrictions, and demonstrate that you actually understand why the sanctions were imposed. Appealing your sanction with the intention of mass-creating 700 articles without any kind of prior consensus is not a good step in that direction. GorillaWarfare (talk) 01:00, 6 January 2020 (UTC) - There's a whole bunch of IDHT going on here. Crouch, Swale isn't listening – not to us, not to other editors, not to anyone. There are a whole bunch of things to do within these edit restrictions, and I want to see some evidence they've heard all these concerns and understand them before we amend the conditions further. Katietalk 01:25, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs talk 19:47, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- Per my comments above. – bradv🍁 21:16, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
- Not convinced that ongoing concerns are being adequately considered. Maxim(talk) 18:50, 7 January 2020 (UTC)
- Agree with the others. Mass-creating articles in an area in a situation where there have been problems is not a good idea. DGG ( talk ) 18:56, 7 January 2020 (UTC)
- AGK ■ 19:27, 8 January 2020 (UTC)
- Oppose
- Discussion