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Competence and civility issues with Koala15

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

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• Koala15 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

My latest encounter with Koala15 was on the Ted 2 page, where I fixed a fairly simple grammatical error [1] and was blankly reverted on sight [2]. I reverted back with the summary "Unexplained" [3] and he kept edit warring with the summary "Go home, your [sic] drunk" [4]. This happened again, until General Ization issued an EW warning on my talk page, and a civility warning [5] on Koala15's page. Koala15 repeatedly refused to apologize or even acknowledge that he was edit warring, dismissing General Ization with sentences such as "Have a sense of humor" and "There is no need for you to get so worked up over this", assuring him that he matter had been resolved, when in fact, it was not - and still is not. I explained very clearly on my talk page why I performed said edit, which prompted Koala15 to respond with a guideline that directly contradicts his edit - which I also explained. However, he refuses to "get it", while writing replies on the grammar level of a twelve year old - which I extensively tried to explain within the same discussion, examples being seeing him "use patently incorrect expressions like "more clearer", open a sentence with "hence", miss punctuation, or consistently not capitalize "I" as in first person", not to mention his first reply to me via edit summary: "Go home, your drunk".

A quick look on Koala15's talk page will reveal that he has been taunting other editors for a while, in an abrasive and unapologetic manner. A few select examples: User talk:Koala15#Reversions... [6], User talk:Koala15#July 2015 [7], User talk:Koala15#No [8], User talk:Koala15#Redirecting [9]. Another example of insisting on edit warring and being rude is here. I would like to finish this nuisance on the Ted 2 page and move on, but I would like to ensure that he doesn't spite revert me again. Please take care of this matter. Wikipedia isn't supposed to be about this at all. Thank you very much. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 20:38, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Well i tried to work with you, but you don't seem to wanna work with me. Most of the things you are linking from my talk page are simple misunderstandings. And i don't think you can report anyone for a 'lack of competence". Koala15 (talk) 21:19, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

How ironic... you have just given another dismissive and offensive reply. You are either not realizing it or deliberately insulting me, and neither case is welcome on Wikipedia. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 21:24, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

I have had my own run-ins with Koala15, which can be seen at Talk:Penguins of Madagascar and Penguins of Madagascar. Koala15 had initially participated in WP:OWNBEHAVIOR over a copyedit tag about the article with a reason saying "And i do think an IP's suggestion is less valid, cause the majority of them are vandals.". Not all IPs are vandals. Some contribute with no issues at all. I find that comment uncivil and rather a POV statement. They persistently removed the tag until they reached 3 reverts. They stayed quiet on the article, but they removed it again but this time with reasons but not valid ones. There was still WP:Consensus going on in the talk page, which Koala15 dismissed. Instead of participating in WP:Discussion and ask for opinions, they removed the template again. I reverted them, stating that they weren't the user who added the template and to remove it from a user who disagreed with it in the beginning is very questionable. They started edit warring, making 5 reverts within a span of 12 hours, I believe. If they reached the 6th revert, I was going to report them. My warnings can be seen on the user's talk page and PfM's talk page. In terms of Koala15, I do think they make good edits and they help the community, but my only concern is the way they act. Upon disagreements they edit war and so on, it seems. I do agree that saying a user is drunk is uncivil as much as saying to a user they need help. It seems they have had run-ins with other people, excluding me, EauZenCashHaveIt and General Ization. I would suggest a warning about continuing disruptive editing but I'm not sure. Callmemirela (Talk) ♑ 21:34, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Well i apologize, i shouldn't have removed those maintenance templates without asking. And i don't think its fair to say i participated in WP:OWNBEHAVIOR. Koala15 (talk) 21:40, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Per one of the bullets, "An editor reverts a change simply because the editor finds it "unnecessary" without claiming that the change is detrimental." You removed the template with this reasoning: "Uhm, yeah no." which certainly counts as you saying it's unnecessary without valid reasons and follows on of the statements "I can see nothing wrong with the article and there is no need to change anything at all." which you've given the impression (not even at this point) since the beginning and on the talk page. Callmemirela (Talk) ♑ 22:10, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

• Note for reviewing admins: here's the last "clean" version of Koala15's talk page, before he panicked and blanked it in order to invalidate the links I brought up earlier: [10]. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 21:57, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

To be fair, it was time they cleaned their talk page (no offense, Koala15). It was so long, over 200 posts. They kept some stuff, so I don't think it would really matter since it's their talk page. Callmemirela (Talk) ♑ 22:10, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

The timing though... anyway, I've said too much already. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 22:18, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

• First, 200 posts going all the way back to 2012 probably needs archiving (and no, archiving isn't just blanking all the warnings) but that's not the issue here. Second, Wikipedia:Competence is required which includes social competency. Koala15's edits are problematic. Insulting and being uncivil is a concern. Individuals who cannot corroborate effectively have been shown the door before. I'd say there's civility here but I'll let some others chime on what they think should be done. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 09:50, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
• Having had run-ins with Koala15 before, some of which have been referenced in this post, I thought I'd also chime in. While their edits themselves are not disruptive or problematic, aside from a lack of edit summary usage, Koala15's conduct towards other users is condescending, patronizing and downright rude in some cases. On multiple occasions I have been told by the user that I don't understand Wikipedia, ("You don't understand the guidelines") and that I'm a newbie who interprets policies wrong ("I understand that you are new here, but you seem to lack a simple understanding of the rules of Wikipedia."), which if anyone else has been on the receiving end of, would know that it's incredibly frustrating. Initially I thought I was the only one to be scolded as deluded by Koala15, but apparently I'm not the only one. A quick CNTRL+F searching for the word "understand" on an old revision of their talk page shows three distinct immediate instances where Koala15 downplayed other editors, brushing them off as not understanding some aspect of the project: I'm not even gonna bother responding to this nonsense, cause you clearly don't even have a basic understanding of Wikipedia., "Once again you show that you don't understand the guidelines." and "It sounds like you don't understand Wikipedia." and "You are possibly the most clueless editor i have ever met.". While Koala15's talk page only showed a few instances of their incivility, I imagine I wasn't the first to be insulted on their talk page or via edit summaries. A block doesn't seem appropriate to me, and would quite possibly chase Koala15 away, given how bitter and angry they already come off with a near-clean block log, but an assurance from the user that the'll try and be more civil and get off their high horse would be nice. Azealia911 _talk 10:36, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Koala15 care to respond? Azealia911 _talk 10:13, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Well its easy to take my quotes out of context and try to me make me look bad, but in the context of the conversation they were more or less facts. Either way you seem like a good editor, it just took you a while to fully understand the guidelines. Which is fine, it took me a while when i first joined Wikipedia. Koala15 (talk) 15:03, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Oh Koala15, you really are being serious aren't you? You're not even trolling, sigh. I guess that means no chance of an apology for being rude and condescending? (the latter of which is ironically displayed in your most recent reply). Azealia911 _talk 17:21, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Well its definitely not my intention to be "rude and condescending" that's just how I talk. I think its really a matter of how you choose to interpret my words. In the future, i will try to be more thoughtful with my reply's since it bothers everyone so much. Now hopefully we can put this whole thing behind us and move on. Koala15 (talk) 18:12, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

No, we can't... at least not while you maintain these dismissive and unapologetic replies. Each and every one of those reinforces the incompetence claim. You've been told the same thing by everyone here: apologize, show genuine regret, and we will move on. Your telling everyone to move on while sarcastically dismissing every concern raised on this page is nothing short of offensive. Notice that it's you who keeps brushing off every opportunity to make things right. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 23:54, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

I second EauZenCashHaveIt's comments, completely accurate. Koala15, your replies just demonstrate what everyone here is trying to tell you, you just seem to not be hearing us, replying with the behavior and tone that landed you here. Back handed comments like "Either way you seem like a good editor, it just took you a while to fully understand the guidelines" don't do anything but frustrate me, and "I think its really a matter of how you choose to interpret my words" is absurd, so it's our fault for getting offended at what you say? "i will try to be more thoughtful with my reply's since it bothers everyone so much" you say, acting as if we're burdening you with actually being...nice?! Maybe take responsibility for your actions, genuinely apologize (which you have yet to do) and maybe then we can move on. Azealia911 _talk 18:48, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

I thought i did apologize. But yes i apologize if i offended anyone, that was definitely not my intention. Hopefully we can move on now. Koala15 (talk) 18:55, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for apologising Koala15, yep, that's all I needed, take care. Azealia911 _talk 19:06, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

slightly-off-topic discussion on grammar

jeez a bit hypocritical to talk about incivility when you're saying he has the grammar of a 12 year old. and why would you care about grammar on the internet anyway? poli 19:00, 17 July 2015 (UTC) I was wondering when the usual devil's advocate would make their appearance. This is an encyclopedia, grammar is a basic requirement here. And most importantly: while Azealia may or may not have gotten their apology, the general issue is still unresolved. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 19:50, 17 July 2015 (UTC) obsessing over grammar is so pretentious. i promise you're not smarter than anyone else here so chill. poli 22:34, 17 July 2015 (UTC) Would you like your name to be added to the report? EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 00:32, 18 July 2015 (UTC) that's so petty. smh poli 02:22, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

• EauZenCashHaveIt, what exactly are you looking to happen? Koala15 has apologized and said that they will be more thoughtful with their conduct. I say leave it, we've given them the rope, its their choice to hang themselves with more rudeness, land back here, and ultimately be blocked, or lasso their next edits with both hands (yes, that is literally the only analogy I could think of for positive things to do with rope). What else would you propose? Azealia911 _talk 19:14, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

@Azealia911: I am looking for a more permanent solution than an obviously insincere apology with no indication of any behavioral change. But hey, if there are no takers then I guess we both have better things to do than bark up that tree. If you are satisfied then I won't say anything, at least until something new happens. Sadly, I have a feeling I am not mistaken. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 19:30, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

EauZenCashHaveIt I can also see us returning here, but that's up to Koala15. If required, bring it back here and I'll be the first to recommend implications. Azealia911 _talk 16:31, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

• To me, Koala15's contribution to this new discussion on their Talk page suggests that Koala15 has learned nothing from this process. Still arbitrarily removing maintenance templates from articles without participating in the discussions they reference, a behavior just recently discussed with them here. General Ization ^Talk 18:34, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Christ, didn't take them long, I really did think they'd be more considerate. General Ization what do you suggest doing? Azealia911 _talk 18:51, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I really don't know. I know I spent more time than I could really afford to trying to explain to them why this is a problem on their Talk page and here, and what mostly comes back is from the editor is I didn't hear that. I really think it's a competence issue. General Ization ^Talk 18:57, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Definitely seems like the case, considering their edits aren't specific to one or one set of pages, perhaps a short term block would be appropriate. Azealia911 _talk 19:15, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Yes, i make mistakes like everyone else, Jeez, i didn't realize my every edit would be under a microscope. Its also strange that you have my talk page watchlisted. Koala15 (talk) 21:25, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Everyone whose edits cause them to be brought to this page will find their subsequent edits to be "under a microscope" for some period of time, especially while the case is unresolved. Most at least make an effort to not engage in the same behaviors during that time. And it's not strange at all – your Talk page was placed on my watch list when you and I discussed the matter above. General Ization ^Talk 21:29, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

It was my bad, i didn't know what the statute of limitations was on page a split discussion that had no responses. I realized it was a mistake after i did it. I will refrain from making edits like that in the future. I go on Wikipedia for fun, and i'm not here to start trouble or anything like that. I'm gonna try to stay out of things like this and mind my own business. Koala15 (talk) 21:42, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Since the template was just placed this month (and says so within the template as any reader sees it), you might reasonably have assumed it had not expired; if you were unsure, you could click the Discuss link and ask. Your "No need for a discussion" comment linked above shows either a lack of understanding or contempt for editing processes here, not confusion over an expiration date. General Ization ^Talk 21:58, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Since Koala15 has decided to play possum, I am asking the patrolling admins to make the appropriate decision here. This discussion cannot simply vanish as stale. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 20:38, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm definitely seeing Koala15's edits as problematic after going through the diffs. No specific action has been proposed yet, but there may be some lingering hope Koala can improve. My first thought was to just close this with the closer stating that if this kind of issue happens again, that would expedite a block by linking back to that decision. A short term block could be used instead of essentially a warning, but both would take a WP:ROPE approach. Kingofaces43 (talk) 03:16, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

Kingofaces43 EauZenCashHaveIt, I'd be more lenient to go with a short-block, maybe as short as two weeks. Earlier on this post, I urged nothing to happen, giving Koala15 the rope, and within two days they were removing merger notices and playing the old apologetic "I'll never do it again" card, when it had been discussed with them before. I'm not sure how many times Koala15 expects us to take their fake apologies before doing anything. The block may be the wake-up call they need to understand their attitude and actions won't be at all tolerated. Azealia911 _talk 17:28, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

Agree with Azealia911. In fairness, Koala15 has in fact seemed to "stay out of things like this and mind [their] own business" (as they put it above) for the past week or so, but without a real understanding by Koala15 of why their (past) behavior is a problem, all it will take is one editor to object to/revert one of their edits (rightly or wrongly) and I expect we'll be right back here again. I haven't heard or seen anything here that makes me think that understanding exists as yet. General Ization ^Talk 20:51, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

Seems reasonable. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 23:03, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

My experience with Koala15 at Penguins of Madagascar was similar to User:Tokyogirl79's [11] in February. This wasn't a controversial topic or sensitive BLP. The article's about a movie that features talking commando penguins. After copyediting and cleanup edits, I later added a tag regarding prose issues and a thousand-word quotefarm plus explained the tag on the Talk page. Koala15 reverted with a derisory summary. Days later I restore the tag due to the encyclopedic text and non-free content concerns, and post on his talkpage. He responded dismissively and immediately undid my edit as vandalism. Only after multiple other editors become involved did he finally visit the Talk page.

He then engages in IDHT--continuing to say he doesn't see the problem ("as far as I know this is how the majority of reception sections are written") and asking for suggestions on to how to fix it--despite multiple editors having already provided them, edit-wars over the tag, plus adds quoteboxes making the quotefarm even more glaring. We all assume good faith and spend time explaining. ...Only later to discover it's all happened before. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 14:38, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed short-term block for Koala15

I'll repeat a comment I made above, earlier in this post, I urged nothing to happen to Koala15, giving them the "rope", and within two days they were removing merger notices and playing the old apologetic "I'll never do it again" card, when the same issue had been discussed with them before. I'm not sure how many times Koala15 expects us to take their fake apologies before doing anything. A block may be the wake-up call they need to understand their attitude and actions won't be at all tolerated. The amount of said block can be determined by whoever closes the post.

Pinging all past contributors who may not keep track of the post: EauZenCashHaveIt, General Ization, Callmemirela, Ricky81682, Kingofaces43, Politoed89, and most importantly Koala15.

• Support as proposer – recommending a 2-4 week block. Azealia911 _talk 01:23, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Striking my support, may sound odd considering I'm the proposer. I've decided to give Koala15 one last chance, their recent behavior has seemed less aggressive and more open to discussion. Weather that lasts is up to them, but I firmly believe they'll reduce their negativity on the site for the foreseeable future. But this isn't an oppose, I'm staying neutral, I think comments from both sides are equally valid. Azealia911 _talk 22:25, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Support Anddd I switch again. As a result of IP 146's overwhelming evidence, showcasing that Koala15 not only breaks rules over and over after being warned, but doesn't seem to care about the ramifications (apparent from the fact he's hardly contributed to the discussion even trying to defend himself and given that the only response to 146.200.32.196's CCI report was whining that he's a victim and trying to get him blocked is a "trend") A six-month block at the least seems appropriate in my eyes. Azealia911 _talk 02:37, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

• Support per preceding thread. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 01:28, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support per proposer's comments (thanks) and my comments above. General Ization ^Talk 01:32, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
• Comment I don't see why you guys are so against giving me another chance to redeem myself. I admit I made a few mistakes, but I don't think we should overlook all of the good work I have done on here in the past few years. I genuinely promise to have a better attitude when communicating with other editors. I look forward to working with you all again in a positive way. Koala15 (talk) 02:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

No one's against your having, or denying you, a chance to redeem yourself. If we were, we would be proposing an indefinite block (which none of us think is appropriate at this time). You will hopefully redeem yourself in any case. But it's precisely because you're thinking of this matter as so trivial that a block is appropriate. Many editors who produce good edits but cannot collaborate constructively with other editors have been blocked before you and many will be blocked after you. Assuming our proposal is implemented, please spend at least some of the time actually reading the many Wikipedia policies and guidelines we have tried over several weeks to get you to consider carefully. General Ization ^Talk 02:52, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

I don't see why a block is necessary, I'm not gonna learn anything that i already haven't. I am gonna make a change in my behavior on here from this day on. And if you catch me breaking any rules, than block me. Take me at my word on this one. Koala15 (talk) 03:02, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

To me, this attitude right here is the epitome of your problem. You don't get to tell us what is necessary and what is not necessary. You can ask, you can argue your case, or anything else that is genuinely collaborative. You are still trying to take the lead and dictate the outcome. This is why the block is proposed. Azealia911, General Ization and others - I am not sure how else I can put it. @Chillum: this should address your concern. Nothing has changed. Literally, nothing. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 06:51, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

• Neutral. I have no preference on a short term block either way. It's clear that this editor will be back to editing in awhile even if they were blocked, so the the important thing for this conversation is to show that they are sitting on their last chance per WP:ROPE if the issue comes up again. Sometimes ANI closures aren't clear on this, so as long as that point gets across, I'm content with just closing this as such. A block will demonstrate that as much as a well-worded close (and may be warranted given the continued behavior that popped up, but I'm not digging further into this to evaluate that), so I'm fine either way. Kingofaces43 (talk) 03:07, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose The block would not be preventative at this point in my opinion. If anyone can explain how it would be preventative I will gladly reconsider. Chillum 03:13, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

My hope is that it will give the editor some (enforced) time, if they are so inclined, to actually learn how to be a better and more collaborative editor, rather than just editing in a vacuum. A "time out" if you will. We've been hearing a lot of I didn't hear that from Koala15, and my personal opinion is that it's because they won't stop editing long enough to actually read policies and guidelines and learn how to and why they should avoid this kind of issue. If they were not so inclined, then indeed all it would do is give them a reason to remember that incivility and disruptive editing have consequences. General Ization ^Talk 03:23, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

• Oppose per Chillum, it sounds more a punitive than a preventive block. Also, while Koala certainly had been sometimes rude, most of the differences above just document talk page discussions, but not the actual "incidents", or at least not the whole picture, so it is hard to judge who is really innocent here. Eg, it was linked at least three times (if I have not missed some other links) this talk page discussion as a proof of Koala's problematic behavior, yet it all started by an editor boldly redirecting a Koala's article a few hours after it had been created and then edit warring with Koala to have it redirected without any community discussion. The dispute eventually ended in an AfD, where the article was kept with no votes for deletion outside the nominator. The same with the Ted 2 incident, where the opener of this ANI discussion just showed some incompetence (he, not Koala), first battling to add a bizarre and non-standard "Elsewhere in the United States" in the infobox-date of release [12], then, after being explained why he was wrong, still trying to remove the premiere date with a poor rationale [13]. Rudeness is not excusable, and Koala should be more collaborative and use the edit summaries to immediately explain his actions and not to attack other editors, but the context is important, and so far the "incidents" do not rise to a level requiring a block IMO. Cavarrone 07:56, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
  • Comment: it's a shame that the devil's advocate sometimes wears an admin's hat. In their opposing statement, Cavarrone seems to have turned the wheel around and accused me, Koala15's victim, of incompetence, having completely ignored a discussion which I cited earlier. There is a considerable difference between sheer unprovoked rudeness and a stern reaction to sheer unprovoked rudeness, but apparently, to them the two are one and the same. This doesn't look very neutral to me, but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 23:33, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
• Neutral, as stated in my intial comment above. Whilst I do believe Koala15 has good editing-related intentions, discussion-wise is a mess. I do believe that they are aware of the issue of civility and so on. They are being watched and if any further comments that are deemed uncivil, inappropriate, and so on, they will be reported once more and consequently blocked as they were given chances. And I will take their above comment "If I break the rules, block me." (not exact) seriously. I expect them to learn their mistakes and choose their words carefully instead of being rude and uncalled for. I choose to believe they will stop edit warring and stop engaging in OWNBEHAVIOR and start discussing in good matters. And that their competence here will improve. The way they type and what they say are supporting that issue. Thank you for the ping, Eau (I really don't know your username that easily) Callmemirela {Talk} ♑ 20:50, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support short term block up to a month (uninvolved non admin) Clearly preventive block to stop the ongoing problems that resurface in no time. Perhaps the time off will also bring about a change for the better and prevent this from happening again. AlbinoFerret 19:53, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
• Support a block, oppose short-term. I don't think a short-term block would do anything a previous block and about 85 warnings & interventions did not. Then there's a further 15 or so copyright etc. notices. How many warnings does he get? His response to the CCI notification was typical: brushed off as "old news" (I'm positive the blatant copyvios hadn't been mentioned on his talkpage) and a "trend" of trying to get him blocked. The usual way we deal with those who create long-term copyright problems and refuse to mend their ways despite warnings is an indefinite vacation from editing. In this case I think an indef block is necessary. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 22:39, 8 August 2015 (UTC)
• Strong oppose (uninvolved non admin) A suitable warning is sufficient. If this is Koala15's first ANI report after three years of editing, 75,000 edits and creating an incredible 1,713 new articles [14] (the only one that was deleted has since been recreated), this is NOT a competency issue. With those numbers, 15 copyright warnings are really not indicative of a real pattern of violation. If there is a long-term plagiarizing or copyright issue then that needs to be examined as such with actual diffs. Koala15 has genuinely shown good faith by admitting mistakes were made and asked for another chance.[15] "Go home, you're drunk" is a common Internet meme [16] and only shows humour that should not have been used in this case. Additionally, reporter proposer has graciously accepted apology and opposes is neutral on block. —Мандичка^YO 😜 16:24, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Note: I'm not the actual original reporter, if you were referencing me with "reporter has graciously accepted apology and opposes block" which I have a inkling you were per the civility barnstar you kindly just awarded me with (thanks for that by the way!). I also don't oppose the block, just as I don't support it, staying neutral, however 146.200.32.196's slew of evidence isn't pushing me in the opposing direction to be frank. It should also be noted that you reference their article creations, however most are blank film stubs that list a cast list and minor details, with Koala15 even leaving the plot blank with a "section expansion" tag, leaving someone else to do the work after he's quickly filled in the blanks. I may be mistaken but I swear I'd read somewhere that they'd been warned for this in the past under WP:MASSCREATION grounds. Azealia911 _talk 16:45, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

(interject) It's possible you saw something on it in my notes, Az. The mass creation of plotless film substubs was one of the things I left out for length really. While he wasn't specifically warned for violation of that policy, given how effective those relating to other policies were it's unlikely any warning would've done much. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 23:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Oh, oops, hah. Struck through. You still very graciously accepted the apology and went neutral, which is still very nice to see. I don't think this [17] is really a blank stub, just a stub lacking plot, as it's referenced and has a good introduction and everything. Mass creation of blank stubs to me is like that obnoxious sock puppeteer who created hundreds of fish stubs that consisted entirely of the species infobox only and an external link to a Thailand university database in order to linkspam. —Мандичка^YO 😜 20:33, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

@Мандичка, there're plenty more copyright violations besides those for which he received the 15 or so (ineffectual) cautions. Here's one, from February. I've moved another two - made after this thread began - to the CCI report. He continues to post more and shows no sign he'll stop of his own accord. –146.200.32.196 22:01, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

• Support a block, oppose short-term. This editor refuses to abide by WP:COPYRIGHT despite warnings stretching back years. This calls for an indef block. Thanks to 146.xx for compiling such a detailed history. Lagrange613 01:47, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
• Support longterm block, per the "Detailed evidence" (in three green collapsed boxes below this section). Softlavender (talk) 08:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Long term disruption and copyvios

collapsed/non-essential discussion
The following content has been placed in a collapse box to save space.
Hi, I'm the editor who User:Callmemirela indirectly referred to above. I want to put this one to bed so we can all move on, too. Having looked into this a bit more, however, there're some additional aspects that should be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, it'll take me just a little while longer to put the details into a neat orderly manner, dot the i's and cross the t's so to speak, ready to post here. I'm pretty sure I can do so within 24hrs. –146.200.32.196 (talk) (formerly 146.'115 / 146.'207) 02:55, 29 July 2015 (UTC) While we wait, or to help us/admins decide whether we should, it would be helpful to understand your relationship to the case (since you are currently an IP with only this edit in your history). Are you the editor who formerly used IP 146.198.28.207 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) and 146.199.67.6 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (see contribs)? General Ization Talk 03:13, 29 July 2015 (UTC) Yes. (Powercut last night.) Incidentally, thank you for your application of meatball:DefendEachOther at the talkpage. Looking into this took a while (complexity and depth of the edit history among other factors) and, as we can see, a poll began in the meantime. It's preferable that reports here don't stay open for extended periods, so I can understand why Azealia initiated it. 146.200.32.196 (talk)(formerly 146.'115 / 146.'207) 03:53, 29 July 2015 (UTC) @146.200.32.196: Did you plan to provide us with some additional insight concerning this matter, as your post above suggested? If so, please do so quickly or if not, please let us know, so that either way we can move this case toward closure. It's unfair both to the subject editor and the rest of us watching this section to leave it in limbo any longer. General Ization Talk 16:55, 30 July 2015 (UTC) I apologise to the community. In hindsight my 24hrs estimate was over optimistic. I misjudged the time needed wrt the large quantity of edits. Fortunately, having worked through the night, twice, things moved right along. I do intend to provide some additional material facts asap, so we can wrap this up. I'll come back here later today. Thanks. 146.200.32.196 (talk) 09:28, 31 July 2015 (UTC) Seemingly the IP's 72 hour estimate was also unrealistic. Move for closure, as at this point I can't imagine what revelations they could bring to the discussion that would make it worth our waiting any longer. General Ization Talk 18:29, 1 August 2015 (UTC) I see now that the IP has added to the open discussion above today, though they do not offer a closing recommendation. So I again move for closure, but now because it appears all who have an interest in commenting on this matter have done so. General Ization Talk 20:14, 1 August 2015 (UTC) The IP's entry only reinforces the view of Koala15 as ill-faithed (not sure if this is a good antonym for good faith) and a repeat offender that has not shown any signs of real regret for their actions. As far as I see it, they are a ticking time bomb. Closure without action is precisely what they are hoping for. EauZenCashHaveIt (I'm All Ears) 09:23, 3 August 2015 (UTC) List of Warner Bros. films - Hello. I'm having an issue with the same user. He's deleting information that has been proven with citations from reliable sources. He's doing so on the basis of what he thinks is necessary on the page, whereas it's not entirely up to him. StephenCezar15 (talk) 18:41, 4 August 2015 (UTC) Final note to closer: An IP who commented on this post has seemingly been working on an account of Koala15's disruptive behavior, a very detailed account of it to be exact. After checking on it every couple days, work on it seems to have stopped. It may be worth giving it a full read through before making a formal decision on how to proceed with actions upon closure. The account of their behavior can be found <redacted: mv'd to thread inside green {{cot}}s> . Azealia911 talk 23:26, 7 August 2015 (UTC) That is a very interesting and very detailed log. It hasn't been worked on in two days, and the penultimate edit summary is "kinda done with this", so I hope he or she posts it here in the next few days. Especially since this ANI has been here for going on one month at this point, and the IP said a week ago s/he could have it for us "within 24 hrs". Softlavender (talk) 02:55, 8 August 2015 (UTC) Thanks, Softlavender, although I didn't say quite say that. I said I hoped to add additional info and did post a comment (on their recidivist edit-warring). I overran by a day or so on that and apologised for the delay. I do agree the thread's gone on a while, though I only came across it more recently. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 19:27, 8 August 2015 (UTC) @Azealia911: In future please ask or notify a fellow editor before linking their notes (esp. if edited in the last 48hrs) on a highly-watched page and inviting everyone to go look. Please read this. Thanks. 146.200.32.196 (talk) 21:25, 8 August 2015 (UTC) My linking to your notes was a move of panic, not one of ignorance. You'd seemingly finished with the notes, and forgotten to link them here, and had been offline for a couple of days. Myself and another editor had requested this be closed and I didn't want to take the chance of waiting days for you to respond, to only have this be closed while waiting. Yes, in hindsight, I should have, I apologise. I should add though, I gravely resent your request that I read WP:HUMAN. You know full well that I respect you, as I do with all editors exactly the same. I suggest if you don't want something seen by the community, don't save it for the community to see, perhaps write, preview, and copy/paste to an offline document in the future. Best, Azealia911 talk 22:10, 8 August 2015 (UTC) I intentionally worked on it in plain sight, rather than solely offline, so others might see what I was working on. That's not the same as pointing folks to my rough notes on a high-traffic page without so much as a talkpage note (much less 'will you be posting your notes or would you like a hand perhaps?'). And these had after all been edited within the last 48hrs. I wasn't seeking an apology only that you learn what may be learnt and move on. On reflection, if there were do-overs there'd be several things in this whole saga I'd do differently myself. Like you pretty much say, hindsight's a wonderful thing. Best, 146.200.32.196 (talk) 04:27, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

It's been nearly four days since somebody commented on this, and nobody else seems interested to comment, what's been said seems to be all that'll be said, can this be closed please? With the closer doing what they see fit? Azealia911 _talk 21:06, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

Detailed evidence ~ personal attacks, incivility, and the uncollegial

reverts saying "i wrote that myself. We don't take IP's serious." told it's unacceptable by a second editor, he tries to downplay it claiming he "didn't mean it literally" [18] July 2014 reverts saying "Go home, your drunk" [19] a second editor brings it up and he brushes it off as "just a joke", "have a sense of humor" [20] July 2015 [21] [22] warned (template:uw-tdel2) tells another who added a maintenance template "i'm not a lazy editor that just places tags so someone else will do the job", then replies "i didn't call you a "lazy editor" you just assumed i was talking about you". February 2014 puts ==hypocrite== on an editor's talkpage in a content dispute because otherstuffexists [23] 13 October 2013 "its been a pleasure not running into the most stubborn editor on Wikipedia for a while, until now" "You are possibly the most clueless editor i have ever met" tells a ten-year editor he won't respond as "you clearly don't even have a basic understanding of Wikipedia" objects to an admin's page deletion so awards barnstar "for most clueless admin" [24], warns him "It better be reinstated by the next time i log on" [25], that he's "lucky I'm being this polite" [26], and "should be more professional" [27] May 2014 (later, another admin touches on volunteers, attitude of entitlement, and civility; Koala berates him for being snippy and tells him he expects admins to fix their mistakes promptly) "You just sit in your basement and destroy other peoples work?" [28], "just another random know it all editor" [29] and "extremely unreasonable person that i would never want to meet" [30] for over 3hrs, August 2014 "Random IP's do not decide if we keep articles or not" [31] compare with him redirecting: "Theres nothing that makes this page notable. Message me before reverting again" [32] 18 May 2013 "that you think you can revert an article like this is ridiculous." 22 February 2015 (incident led to AN3 warning: you even refused to discuss them here at your talk page, saying that the film is "of course notable") "Quit being a hurt iranian" [33] "This tag is unnecessary, and hiding under ip's i see?" [34] "redacted may be the most difficult editor on Wikipedia and i have met alot of difficult ones" [35] "you are nothing but a WP:GWAR" [36] January 2014 falsely reverts with "poorly written." [37] August 2013 all existing reviews on page are negative. was correctly-formatted cited quote of a positive review (disliked album?) "Your writing is horrible, We can't use it in this article" [38] May 2013 reverts addition restored after he undid it as vandalism with "The grammar is awful" [39] September 2013 editor spends over an hour on wikignomish edits. reverts with "awful fixes" [40] January 2014 "your writing is awful" [41] January 2015 “On at least two occasions it's significantly likely that his hostility drove editors off Wikipedia altogether.” tells a user who'd templated him with uw-genre [42], that'd posted on article talk, "You are a joke for sending me that message" [43] (didn't join discussion) (Nov 2013); user complained, replies: In what why did i insult you? [44]. Other user never edited again new users worked for days on improving the Shrek article [45] and added a themes section using impeccable peer-reviewed scholarly sources. wiped out in two edits with: [46] "very poor" and "The Themes section is very poorly sourced we can't use it"[47] February 2014 baseless and extremely unkind. the users never edited again

Detailed evidence ~ Copyvios and NFC issues, quotefarms, and related

Copyvios and NFC Copyvios and non-free content warnings go from April 2013 to present. Typically copypasted plots, long and/or excessive quotes, and close paraphrasing. Copyright-related Warnings April 2013 Warned. [48] June 2013 exact copying and pasting, overquotes, close paraphrasing at DYK [49] | Warned: [50] (template:uw-copyright-new) [51] August 2013 restores "plagiarized content" inserted by user since indef-blocked for copyright violations, with "these summarys are not plagiarised." [52]. user that removed it responds: "In spite of what Koala15 asserts, some of these episode synopses represent unambiguous copy/pasting from unattributed sources" February 2014 Warned. added copy/pasted synopses then reverts removal saying otherstuff exists "Feel free to reword them" [53] April 2014 [54] revert-warring Moonriddengirl over template:copyvio (copyviocore) [55]/[56] "in the meantime, as the [copyvio] template indicates, it should not be removed" May 2014 CorenSearchBot warning [57]. silently removes warning May 2014 Warned. replies "I don't know how words can be copyrighted, I don't think I'll ever understand why we can't copy a plot". [58] July 2014 reverted "removal of copied tvguide.com plot summaries and then altered only one of them" [59] August 2014 CorenSearchBot warning September 2014 Warned. replies "So your trying get me blocked for this?" says he still doesn't get how sentences can be copyrighted and tells them to "Rewrite the summary's then". The warning user refers to his POV edits, edit-warring reversions, lack of collaborative editing and says attempts to explain to him have proved "unfruitful". [60] 19 October 2014 Warned, again. replies "My bad, that was an error. It won't happen again". [61] An insincere apology and empty promise. 23 October 2014 CorenSearchBot warning [62] re article composed of stitched together quotes. silently blanks warning December 2014 undoes CorenSearchBot warning [63] page creation, large quote [64]. notified re copyvios by CorenSearchBot again, January 2015 June 2015 editor had tagged a quotefarm "Needs copy editing" - reverts saying he made it and in his eyes there's no problem [65] page composed of quotes July 2015 Warned (template:uw-copyright) copypasted episode summaries False claims of having written copyrighted content edit-warring to keep in copyrighted & non-free content, on one occasion deleting a url to conceal the original source then falsely claiming to have written it himself. User:Psychonaut rv's "copyvio of official episode summaries" added a month before episodes air [66] 20:37, 15 June 2014 They're subsequently re-removed as plagiarism/copyvios. Koala15 reverts that as vandalism again and again [67], [68] Finally he removes the source url, re-adds part of the copied content (matches text inserted by another user one month earlier and official site [69] website), without a summary, [70], and repeatedly lies that he wrote it himself [71], [72], with a passing dig at the other editor Quotefarms articles and sections composed entirely or primarily of quotes, and excessive quoting "The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant" [73] composed of brief proseline+quotes May 2013 now has more quotes "Kiss Land" [74] composed of brief proseline+quotes July 2013 now has more quotes Underground Luxury" [75] October 2013 composed of quotes; quotefarm album [76] created page with two thousand words of quotes. promptly speedied; self-removes csd tag, says "they are only quotes". swaps two extensive quotes [77], [78] [79], [80] adds quotes to around 600 words. July 2014 composed of (fewer) quotes "Directors of Photography" [81] August 2014 composed of quotes; quotefarm "Cadillactica" [82] October 2014 composed of quotes; quotefarm "Frankenweenie (2012 film)" [83] February 2014 critical response section quotefarm "Tomorrowland (film)" [84] May 2015 critical response section quotefarm "Fly International Luxurious Art" reverts user trimming quotefarm [85], added more later "American Dad! (S10)"[86] plagiarizing, close paraphrasing Dec 2013 (IP editor fixes it [87]) December 2013 "Shrek" [88] close paraphrasing January 2014 Large copyvios "Aloha" matches synopsis on IMDb [89] 3 June 2015 It flows well. It uses 'there' correctly. It's a copyvio. "Toy Story of Terror!" Here he adds a 1,231 word plot for a 22 min film. [90] 24 December 2013. Example: “Mr. Pricklepants states, á la classic horror films (which he, apparently, believes this to be), "And so it begins."” Note: use of parentheticals, commas to separate clauses and use of French loanwords. It's a copyvio. [91] Two weeks earlier, Koala answered a query about an unexplained revert saying "the plot was at 699 words and has to be under 700 words" 9 December 2013. It wasn't. 661 word count (or 639 with prosesize tool) - with the change it was still under 700 words. [92] and to a later query February 2014: "a lot of editors add to the movie plots and the plots are supposed to be under 700 words" (was 701 words before, 730 after) "The Yellow Badge of Cowardge" [93] 19:45, 19 May 2014 "added a plot feel free to add to it" (comparison) Matches article on Thecelebritycafe.com by regular writer May Chan. Publication date is the same day it was added here. Again the language style is different from Koala15's e.g. "The fireworks go awry". Another recap of hers [94] bears no resemblance to ours. [95] Recurring source matches include IMDb and TheMovieSpoiler.com. Evidence: Source: TheMovieSpoiler.com. Its Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Movie-Spoiler/158384470875779] announces newly published reviews in timestamped entries (mouseover date or view source for 'utime' (converter)). The announcements include 'read the rest at themoviespoiler.com' snippet text that matches Koala's additions. All times given as UTC. "Tomorrowland (film)" [96] 18:57, 23 May 2015 Added to original source: 17:30, 23 May 2015 comparison "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" [97] 23:12, 19 April 2015 (sought semi-prot 00:31, 19 April 2015) Added to original source: 06:37, 19 April 2015 comparison "The Age of Adaline" [98] 01:47, 1 May 2015 UTC Added to original source: 07:45, 27 April 2015 comparison "Hot Tub Time Machine" [99] 19:43, 21 February 2015 UTC Added to original source: 14:02, 20 Feb 2015 comparison There are several authors here: prolific TheMovieSpoiler writer "Jeremy" and first-time author "Elizabeth", plus IMDb contributor "mep1019" and regular Thecelebritycafe.com writer May Chan. Punctuation differences e.g: The Age of Adaline uses a spaced ndash and “curly quotes”; the Toy Story one uses double hyphens and "ascii quotes". Grammar is at odds with Koala's, such as the use of 'whom' in Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Koala15's own writing tends to be short phrases used to stitch together quotes, and 'on date released/interviewed in' proseline sentences. The writing style is pretty different between, say, The Age of Adaline plot (Elizabeth's) and Tomorrowland or HTTM2 (Jeremy's). http://tools.wmflabs.org/contributionsurveyor/survey.php?user=Koala15

Detailed evidence ~ warnings received ∘ diffs/dates  (excludes image-related)

Note i: Excludes image-related warnings. Does not include level 1–4 warnings received for edits while logged out Note ii: Over a hundred warnings and pleas over unexplained removals, edit summaries, wrongly claiming vandalism, ownership, edit-warring and disruptive editing (plus a couple for gaming the system), and copyright violations. At: levels 1–4 Note iii: warned & asked to use edit summaries and not edit/revert-war around 85 times. pretty much every month since he got here [100] unexplained removal, no edit summary <!-- template:uw-delete2 --> 19 October 2012 [101] edit warring 21 October 2012 [102] multiple articles <!-- template:uw-delete3 --> & images <!-- template:uw-nonfree --> 24 October 2012 [103] Let me be a little more clear this time: repeatedly creating articles on non-notable subjects is disruptive 4 November 2012 [104] please use an edit summary 10 November 2012 [105] <!-- template:uw-unsourced2 --> 22 November 2012 [106] <!-- template:uw-unsourced3 --> 4 Dec 2012 [107] "if you continue to make disruptive edits, i.e. edits you know are against policies and guidelines, you may be blocked" 10 December 2012 [108] <!-- template:uw-editsummary --> 16 December 2012 [109] <!-- template:uw-unsourced1 --> 17 January 2013 [110] unexplained content removal <!-- template:uw-delete1 --> 21 February 2013 [111] please fill in the edit summary 15 March 2013 [112] original research 18 March 2013 [113] <!-- template:uw-delete2 --> 14 April 2013 [114] copypasting copyrighted content 19 April 2013 [115] "without edit summaries, then when reverted by another editor using an edit summary, you keep reverting back. Images have to be orphaned for seven continuous days to be deleted. Once the tag has been removed, you cannot simply revert because the process would have to start over again. You are clearly trying to game the system as can be seen in your edits to [[:File:David Banner - Certified.jpg]]. You re-orphaned the image on April 25 after three days of it being back in the article, so you should have tagged it for that date. You clearly tried to speed up the deletion today by changing the date to the 17th, then to the original 20 and eventually to the 18th. These are very disingenuous edits that are not acting in good faith. In summary, I hope that you discuss these edits here instead of reverting back to your preferred versions. 28 April 2013 [116] sarcasm, assuming bad faith ... can lead to blocks 10 May 2013 [117] sourcing, excessive snark in edit summary 19 May 2013 [118] "you've made nominations that barely apply to the articles at all, at times (naming individual musicians as groups). you've nominated far too many, far too quickly. If you didn't have so many edits, I'd think you just didn't understand what notability means, but your long tenure here makes me wonder about your motivation. ...On one AfD you state, "Regardless of the sources, he still does not meet notability guidelines." That simply doesn't make any sense ...hard to AGF here, because I explicitly said, just above, that "--" is clearly notable, as she has received multiple instances of non-trivial coverage in reliable sources" 25 May 2013 [119] queries unexplained revert [120] 25 May 2013 [121] no edit summary, content removal <!-- template:uw-delete2 --> 11 June 2013 [122] <!-- template:uw-editsummary --> 23 June 2013 [123] maintenance template removal <!-- template:uw-tdel1 --> 23 June 2013 [124] <!-- uw-copyright-new --> exact copypasting, overquotes, close paraphrasing [125][126] 23 June 2013 [127] <!-- template:uw-nor2 --> 1 July 2013 [128] edit summaries 1 July 2013 [129] <!-- template:uw-disruptive2 --> 2 July 2013 [130] please stop reverting, WP:3RR warning 14 July 2013 [131] restores "plagiarized content" inserted by user since indef-blocked for copyright violations, with "these summarys are not plagiarised." [132]. user that removed it responds: "In spite of what Koala15 asserts, some of these episode synopses represent unambiguous copy/pasting from unattributed sources" 2 August 2013 [133] queries unexplained revert 8 August 2013 [134] reverting an edit in whole when I fixed other mistakes is kind of disruptive, if you do not agree with one part of an edit, fix that one part 11 September 2013 [135] "Unless you have a source for the deal being "fake" or a "rumor" or incorrect at all, I consider your reverts without discussion pretty disruptive" 17 September 2013 [136] unsourced genre changes 4 October 2013 [137] <!--uw-genre3 --> ([138] 'start a discussion' 'no you') 4 October 2013 [139] personal attacks, refusal to take part in consensus-building 7 November 2013 [140] <!-- template:uw-own1 --> 8 November 2013 [141] unexplained removal of content next time ... blocked from editing 8 November 2013 [142] "could you please explain why you have undone three of my edits on the plot section of [article], even when I had explained my edits the second and third times. 7 December 2013 "As a third party ...I would also appreciate it if you would explain your edits. many of the edits you're reverting were made in good faith, and it's courteous (and considered good practice, especially in this case) to provide some reason." 9 December 2013 [143] "you simply reverted all my changes without an edit summary and without any kind of comment on the talk page of the article" 9 January 2014 [144] edit summaries, reverts 14 January 2014 [145] "you reverted my edit to the Shrek article, with the comment "Not a Universal film.", which leaves me confused as to why you would revert my changes rather than just removing the references and links to Universal Pictures. please explain?" 30 January 2014 [146] edit warring <!-- template:uw-3rr --> January 2014 [147] removal of maintenance templates <!-- template:uw-tdel2 --> 7 February 2014 [148] 3RR warning 8 February 2014 [149] add summaries to your edits 10 February 2014 [150] edit warring and ownership 13 February 2014 [151] warned, added copy/pasted synopses then reverts removal 18 February 2014 [152] edit warring, lack of edit summary 19 February 2014 [153] undid me, no edit summary; my edit wasn't vandalism 23 February 2014 [154] edit-war; unexplained reverts 25 February 2014 [155] undid without non-default edit summary. why was edit considered vandalism 2 March 2014 [156] idontlikeit, idontknowofit; original research. "This time you have deleted the section created by the other user and you said in your comment that it is unsourced material. ... this other contributor gave a source, namely the BBC article. article thread [157] 8 March 2014 [158] revert-warring Moonriddengirl over <!-- template:copyvio --> (copyviocore) [159]/[160] "in the meantime, as the [copyvio] template indicates, it should not be removed" 5 April 2014 [161] CorenSearchBot warning 2 May 2014 [162] maintenance template removal "prose needs improvement so fix it if you wish the tag to be removed" 3 May 2014 [163] <!-- template:uw-3rr --> 25 May 2014 [164] copypasting copyrighted content 25 May 2014 [165] <!-- template:uw-delete3 --> 10 June 2014 [166] "been told several times, and have never given a reason for the removals. You do not own the article, it's not up to you to decide what is or isn't hip hop. Stop trying to covertly delete entries" [167] <!-- template:uw-delete3 --> 23 June 2014 [168] no edit summary, content removal <!-- template:uw-delete2 --> 28 June 2014 [169] <!-- template:uw-delete3 --> 28 June 2014 [170] removing sourced content without reason <!-- template:uw-delete4 --> 4 July 2014 [171] reverted "removal of copied tvguide.com plot summaries and then altered only one of them" 22 July 2014 [172] reverting w/out edit summaries 24 July 2014 [173] <!-- template:uw-delete3 --> 31 July 2014 [174] CorenSearchBot copyright warning 18 August 2014 [175] repeated reversions, ownership, claims otherstuffexists 30 August 2014 [176] copyright warning. replies says he still doesn't get how sentences can be copyrighted. warning user says attempts to explain to him have proved "unfruitful". 23 September 2014 [177] "may I demand an explanation as to why you would remove Carl Thiel as co-composer" 15 October 2014 [178] copyright warning. 19 October 2014 [179] copyright warning, CorenSearchBot 23 October 2014 [180] <!-- template:uw-ew --> 19 November 2014 [181] copyright warning, CorenSearchBot 7 December 2014 [182] edit warring 15 December 2014 [183] why did you revert 19 December 2014 [184] edit warring 8 January 2015 [185] copyright warning, CorenSearchBot 15 January 2015 [186] <!-- template:uw-3rr --> 31 January 2015 [187] Reverting without explanations 1 February 2015 [188] please stop reverting + not discussing + WP:AN3 & warned 23 February 2015 [189] asked to explain sourced edit undone as vandalism (genres) 27 March 2015 [190] <!-- template:uw-genre1 --> 5 April 2015 [191] queries unexplained revert undone as vandalism 11 April 2015 [192] "I obviously looked up the information. I even included the references and he still undoes them" ([193] silent removal). I'm just so angry and frustrated [by] it" 22 April 2015 [194] adding unreferenced material [195] to BLP 24 April 2015 [196] <!-- template:uw-unsourced2 --> 7 May 2015 [197] querying revert undone as vandalism 14 May 2015 [198] or/pov/genre-warring revert on film 18 May 2015 [199] asked to explain revert of edit undone as vandalism 21 May 2015 [200] "wondering why you undid my revision, as you didn't provide an explanation" 5 June 2015 [201] OR, WP:CRYSTAL 24 June 2015 [202] re revert of redirect of an unsourced article, failed general and subject-specific notability guidelines - no it's notable now - not without sources enabling it to pass guidelines it isn't - you don't understand the guidelines 4 July 2015 [203] <!-- template:uw-copyright --> 5 July 2015 [204] persistently reverting 7 July 2015 [205] quotefarming, persistent reverts [206] unexplained content removal <!-- template:uw-delete1 --> 10 July 2015 [207] edit warring <!-- template:uw-ew --> 10 July 2015 [208] ANI notification for edit warring, unexplained reverting 12 July 2015 [209] queries unexplained revert undone as vandalism 14 July 2015 [210] unexplained removal of content <!-- template:uw-vandalism2 --> 15 July 2015

(←) Koala15's been persistently disruptive since he started here in 2012. Despite over a hundred warnings and reminders,[211][212] and a past block, he continues to be uncollaborative, and engage in disruptive behaviour with edit warring and personal attacks. On at least two occasions it's significantly likely that his hostility drove editors off Wikipedia altogether.

Editors' legitimate concerns are routinely met with deflection and gaming. They're fobbed off on a string of pretexts,[213] downplayed to others as "misunderstandings" or "simple disagreement", ignoring his refusal to discuss it (exactly my experience), or met with insincere apologies[214] and empty promises.[215]

Pleas and warnings for edit summaries have been ineffective. Once you discount tool-appended automatic ones, his mainspace edit summary use is around 7%, and those are often uncollegial or deceptive.[216][217]
Policies and norms seem to be used as weapons. He'll caution others to adhere to the very ones he refuses to,[218][219] cherrypick from guidelines;[220] or use one to belatedly excuse a revert, such as falsely claiming the edit pushed the plot over 700 words[221][222] yet he copypastes huge plots from copyrighted sources. Not only has he outright lied that he wrote copyrighted material, he edit-wars to keep it in while accusing editors who try to address it of vandalism.[223]

The community's treated him with kid gloves because it appeared he was also doing good content work. It turns out this consists of serial copyright violations, quotefarming, and plagiarism—see CCI report. Due to the long-term disruption and copyright violations, in my view an indef-block is appropriate. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 19:28, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Well I admit I'm not a perfect editor, I don't think its fair to take edits from 2-3 years ago out of context to fit the narrative that I'm only here to be disruptive. They are from a time when I was less experienced. I know we got started of wrong but I hope you guys can forgive me. I have good intentions and from now on I'm gonna try to follow guidelines more closely. Koala15 (talk) 15:29, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

The narrative is not that you are only here to be disruptive. The narrative is that you have continued to engage in unconstructive and/or prohibited behaviors that you engaged in 2-3 years ago and have been warned about multiple times since then, and that you either are unable to or don't care to learn, despite two to three years of OJT, what is and isn't appropriate under Wikipedia policies. As you yourself put it earlier, "[you're] not gonna learn anything that [you] already haven't", which is what's causing us to look at this from the standpoint of competence, not just arrogance. General Ization ^Talk 23:49, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

No, again, that's more smoke and mirrors. The newbie defense isn't applicable, nor are the claims of unreliable narration or the repeated 'it's all taken out of context' deflection attempts. At least 3 diffs in that comment are from 2015. The collapsed warnings show disruption by way of edit-warring and persistent reverting without explanation throughout 2015. The additional long term evidence shows you are NOTHERE to collaboratively build an encyclopedia or not quite able (CIR) to do so. You've added yet another copyvio in the last few weeks and, the very day you replied, undid more good faith edits as "vandalism". Enough. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 23:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Closure requested

• I've just taken this out of the archive for a second time, please can an uninvolved admin close this ASAP. Azealia911 _talk 08:30, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, COULD AN ADMIN LOOK AT THIS AND TAKE ACTION?

Forgive the shouting, but his thread has been open for well over a month, has an abundance of evidence and opinion, and has been requested to be closed several times. Note to closing admin: Please view in particular the three collapsed lists of Koala15's infractions (in green collapsed boxes). Thank you. Softlavender (talk) 08:47, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

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

CIR at Bhumihar

Please can someone review the efforts of Chrishitch (talk · contribs), in particular at Talk:Bhumihar. While this is underpinned by a content dispute, the real problem seems to be one of competence and tendentiousness. They seem unable to comprehend what our article says regarding the various theories of origin for that caste. We're getting long screeds and after Bgwhite closed the first discussion, Chrishitch began all over again. They still do not understand what our article says and seem to think that the source is giving one theory when in fact it is examining several.

They've had an explanatory note from Bgwhite on their talk page and also formal notification of WP:GS/Caste. They're the latest in a long line of people who have tried to change this reliably sourced article, most apparently being members of the caste in question and several being socks.

We're well into WP:CIR territory and I'm likely to lose my temper sooner rather than later, having kept a lid on it thus far. - Sitush (talk) 20:20, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, there are certainly problems of competence, and at the same time some indications that they're not a new user. I've asked about those indications on their page. Just take it easy, please, Sitush. Sit on the lid. Bishonen | talk 22:28, 9 August 2015 (UTC).

Oh, the indications were there from an early stage and I am gratified to see that someone else has spotted that they might exist. But even without those, this is something that probably should not have required me to raise the issue here. By my standards, which I realise some people think are not that high, I'm sitting remarkably firmly on the lid. It does look like I need yet another break, during which the rubbish will continue to flood umpteen caste-related articles and be accepted by experienced contributors who tinker round the edges with gnomish edits etc, making it harder to spot the real issues that underlie their well-intentioned efforts. They mean well but we really do need to clamp down in this area, especially regarding WP:V - if an addition is not reliably sourced then bin it.

We've lost several of the few admins who take an interest in that area and I'm afraid that it means WP:GS/Caste will lack the support that it should have, sans frequent referrals here. - Sitush (talk) 23:49, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Be more specific than "please review his efforts." The talk page is over 100k, incomprehensible in many places and there's IP addresses, and numerous unsigned comments. Please do a little more than say "look at the talk page" and pointing to a discussion that was closed (without a single link in the discussion to the source in question) and reopened again. Did you ask User:Bgwhite (an administrator who seemed to have forgotten a signature to the close) about it? I still have no idea in all the edits all over the place what is the problematic article edit at issue here (if any). I have zero idea of its a legitimate issue with both sources or just nonsense all around or what. The editor's conduct at Patna seems fine so I don't know what's going on and what sort of ban or block or protection if any is appropriate. As someone who deals with plenty of this caste idiocy, other admins aren't going to jump in if you don't make the discussion easier enough to follow than "here's an editor editing an caste issue, please help." It may be obvious to you what are reliable sources and what are people spouting unsourced dogma about every caste being kings and whatever nonsense de jour but ANI is basically fly-by-screen admins requests. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 05:23, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for that useless commentary, Ricky81682. You clearly cannot see the wood for the trees; for example, the incomprehensibility is a part of the CIR problem with their edits. Please don't bother responding to me in future. - Sitush (talk) 06:26, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Don't be a dick to your fellow contributors. Someone asked you for some helpful followup information and you told them to piss up a rope. How does that help resolve anything? Protonk (talk) 16:23, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

• That attitude is why reports like these goes straight into the archive without a comment and why admins don't care to get into the caste articles. The ones who do get attacked equally for asking for an explanation as much as they do from the trolls. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 23:33, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

• Think whatever you like. I'll always think better when it comes to caste stuff. If you cannot see the blindingly obvious then that is not my fault. - Sitush (talk) 23:37, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

• Think what better? Think that just naming people and saying "it's another caste issue" is going to get these things resolved? Were my questions so ridiculously out of place or offensive or something? I just asked if you spoke with the admin who closed the discussion and what is the actual source at issue (literally not one person once linked to it in the entire discussion section). I read the entire damn discussion, it was nutty as hell, but I don't know who Kumar is, I couldn't find the actual source everyone is arguing about (the entire argument is about a single word so it would be actually helpful to know what the hell everyone is complaining about). Another admin closed the discussion and didn't block Chrishitch which should mean something. You expect someone to just say "hey if Sitush says there's a caste article issue, well let me block him right now, there's no point in even seeing what the actual source anyone is talking about or asking what the admin who was involved there before did or didn't do or if anyone spoke to him, just go right in and be the bull in a china shop because no one should have to provide background information"? If those are the kinds of questions that require too much work to respond to, make you need to take a break from the subject matter. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 10:36, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

• "I'm likely to lose my temper sooner rather than later, having kept a lid on it thus far." Sitush, how would we tell the difference and why should any of us give a rip if you do? Protonk (talk) 13:38, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Ricky81682 asked if I'd comment as I was the one who closed the discussion. I don't think a block is warrantied, yet. Chrishitch does have competency issues. Currently, Chrishitch is correcting grammar on multiple pages and causing the same amount of problems as they are correcting. When I closed the discussion, on Sitush's talk page I left, "I've closed the discussion as it was going nowhere. I'd highly suggest not to respond to them anymore." There is obvious meatpuppet or sockpuppet issues on that page which is why I did page protection. When it comes to Bhumihar, I think the best option is continued page protection if problems resume when current PP is lifted. As for Chrishitch, will need to keep an eye on them. A block will probably warranted if they continue down their current path. Bgwhite (talk) 23:26, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

There seem to have arisen many issues with my conduct and competence viz

1. Tendentious editing
2. Sock issues
3. Content dispute
4. Insolence
5. Incompetence

I don't wish to contest any of the issues here , may be i cannot judge myself . However,plz bother to scrutinize the edits i have attempted to make. I may be an incompetent editor, but in my incompetent endeavour i have tried improving some wiki articles. These articles are in a very very bad shape. They are replete with unsourced , whimsical content. These articles are neither protected nor edited properly. May be they warrant more attention from competent people than my modest efforts at making them a tad better with my perceived incompetence. rahila 10:16, 15 August 2015 (UTC) (talk)

• The talk page is very mysterious. Clearly there is a lot of talking past one another going on. The situation is not helped by obscure wording in the sources. For example (a cite used in one version of the article)

"He consequently ascribed to them kshatriya status. Gait followed suit in his census report at the turn of the century, though he left the question of Bhumihar status officially unresolved..."

From this one protagonist uses "Gait followed suit in his census report at the turn of the century" to show that "Another census classified the Bhumihars as Kshatriyas.", but is reverted because of the second part (and following illustrative quote) "he left the question of Bhumihar status officially unresolved..." One cannot fault either party in this case. Without turning to the GOI census of India vol 6, part 1, page 379, one cannot gain clarity either, even that is not guaranteed to supply it.

Similarly "The Sabha concentrated almost entirely on asserting their claim as Bhumihars to Brahmin status by starting schools to teach Sanskrit and purge the community of Brahmin priests." As Sitush says it is not clear, without context, which community and which Brahmin priests. (It's not even clear if this is a direct quote from the source, or a statement relying on the source.)

Unless Chrishitch can respond to these types of question with pertinent answers (or even "I don't know.") it is hard for other editors to communicate with him.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 02:14, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

WP:COP-related CfD closure review

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

---

Per WP:CLOSECHALLENGE I'd like a closure review on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 25#1st to 5th century BC births:

1. Trying to sort it out with the closer, to no avail: User talk:MER-C#Problem with closure of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 25#1st to 5th century BC births
2. Prior to that I had attempted to stop the bot implementing the closure, but the bot already had completed the task [224]

Problem with the CfD as closed: overrides WP:COPDEF and WP:SEPARATE by adding categories like Category:15 BC to biographical articles. I'm OK with merging BC "birth by year" categories in BC "birth by decade" categories, and recategorizing the affected biographical articles along these lines, not with the "dual upmerge" of "birth by year" categories in biographical articles to both a "birth by decade" and a "by year" category (e.g. [225]) while this is undesirable overcategorization ("birth by date" categories are covered by WP:COPDEF, "by year" categories are not), and makes the BC by year categories mixed people/non-people categories (not allowed by WP:SEPARATE).

I started removing "by year" categories (diff), which is uncontroversial per WP:COP, but there are too many and any cooperation of bot operators seems to be impossible as long as there's no apparent consensus this is indeed what should be done. Also Wikipedia:Bot policy#Categorization of people proved to be ineffective in this case (see Wikipedia talk:Bots/Requests for approval#ArmbrustBot 4)

@Marcocapelle: pinging initiator of the CfD to know their view whether they were aware about the COPDEF/SEPARATE issues when submitting the CfD, and if not, whether it would have made any difference when being aware? Same question to the others participating in the CfD: Peterkingiron, Vegaswikian and Ricky81682.

Tx for considering this. --Francis Schonken (talk) 16:43, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

• Agreed that "dual upmerge" of "birth by year" categories in biographical articles to both a "birth by decade" and a "by year" category, would be highly undesirable. The non-birth year categories would be flooded with birth trivia, when they're suppose to contain other events, and have the births in a subcat.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  13:08, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
• I wasn't aware of any issues, for what it's worth in this stage. Marcocapelle (talk) 06:43, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Similar

The closure at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 30#1st to 6th century BC deaths has the same problem, I notified bot operator [226] and closing admin [227] of the topic being discussed here. --Francis Schonken (talk) 15:25, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Too late – contents already merged, see WP:CFDWM. At least we can hold off deletion of the old categories. – Fayenatic London 17:58, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Forward

Are we in agreement about these points:

1. The closures of MER-C on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 25#1st to 5th century BC births and of Fayenatic london on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 30#1st to 6th century BC deaths are undone, in view of the WP:COP incompatibility;
2. The recategorizations and (partial) category deletions resulting from the now suspended closures are undone by bot
3. Marcocapelle or whoever thinks this a good idea are of course at liberty to resubmit a similar CfD that keeps within the provisions of WP:COP.

I'd agree with a simple removal of "year" categories on biographical articles by bot, but as this may lead to other issues, I think it best to fully retract our steps to the situation "ante", and take it from there. --Francis Schonken (talk) 09:42, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

• I would have no objection against removing them from "year" categories. Marcocapelle (talk) 19:52, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
  • The consensus was a double upmerge. If the bios may not be categorised in the year categories, the other contributors may prefer to revert to the old births-by-year categories, rather than remove biographies from the year hierarchy altogether. Removing the bios from the year cats may make it harder to revert, as we would then not be able simply to reverse the contribs of Armbrustbot – which would be quite an arduous task on its own. – Fayenatic London 17:50, 13 August 2015 (UTC)
• Are we in agreement then to close this thread on the three points I outlined above? --Francis Schonken (talk) 05:17, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

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

• Oppose overturning CFD discussionions on this page. The correct venue is WP:DRV. Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 02:59, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
  • Nah, WP:CfD does not stand for "Categories for deletion", it stands for "Categories for discussion", so, per WP:CLOSECHALLENGE "Challenging other closures" applies for which this is the right venue. @Armbrust: please stop wikilawyering, the consensus is clear. --Francis Schonken (talk) 05:25, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
    • Doesn't matter, whether the D stands for deletion or not. CFD is part of the deletion process, and is therefore reviewed at WP:DRV. Also please don't close this discussion in violation of WP:INVOLVED again. Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 11:50, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
      • Which part of "please stop wikilawyering" was unclear? E.g., WP:INVOLVED is about admins, I'm not. --Francis Schonken (talk) 04:59, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
      • Updated the closure, inviting a closer look from uninvolved users only. --Francis Schonken (talk) 05:01, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
        • You keep to close this as an involved editor, and then say that "a closer look from uninvolved users only". That's boardering on hypocrisy. You can request uninvolved closure at WP:ANRFC. Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 06:50, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
          • Again: which part of "please stop wikilawyering" was unclear? E.g., shouldn't be listed at WP:ANRFC, doesn't meet its criteria. --Francis Schonken (talk) 05:46, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Subtropical-man

I propose that Subtropical-man be topic-banned from all matters concerning deletion of pages concerning pornography, including in particular the removal of PROD nominations.
Subtropical-man rather volubly disagrees with the revisions to WP:PORNBIO enacted early last year, despite their being supported by an "overwhelming consensus among experienced editors." He has, for more than a year, expressed his disagreement by objecting to virtually all proposed deletion nominations of porn performer articles, without regard to the merits of the nominations, with uncommunicative edit summaries. (Examples: [228], [229], [230], [231], [232]. A full listing would require significant work by an administrator, because most of the deprodded articles have gone to AFD and been deleted uncontroversially, removing the relevant edit history from public view.) This indiscriminate PROD removal has led to scores of unnecessary AFDs, leading to complaints about the volume. See comments on @Spartaz:'s talk page here [233]. Subtropical-man's behavior in the resulting and related AFDs has also been disruptive, in recent months including:

• False accusations of personal attacks for criticism of his arguments Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Katrina Kraven
• Striking comments by other editors (in this case, @Tarc:) [234]
• Ridiculously tendentious arguments ("how do I know if current WP:PORNBIO is not prank by some IP?") [235]
• False (and rather obviously false) accusation of topic ban violations Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shane Diesel (this AFD is messy, but see my comment here [236]
• Harassing an editor he disagreed with by refiling an SPI claim without providing any new evidence, after the initial claim was rejected "in the absence of actual evidence". [237] (original); [238] (refile)

The length and range of misbehaviour is striking, but the indiscriminate, WP:POINTY deprodding is itself enough to justify the topic ban. Subtropical-man has pretty clearly acknowledged that his PROD removals are not made in any good faith dispute over the subject's notability under the applicable guidelines, but to force interminable rearguments about the applicable SNG every time an effort is made to enforce it [239][240]. And "arguments" like "how do I know if current WP:PORNBIO is not prank by some IP?" would never be made by a reasonable, good faith user. Eighteen months of this has proved far too disruptive and wasted far too much of the community's time, and it's time for it to stop. The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 16:51, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

• Support topic ban Subtropical man !votes indiscriminately "keep" at all discussions without checking out, pondering and evaluating the actual merit of any particular subject, and thus doesn't add anything of value to the discussion. Kraxler (talk) 17:01, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

There seems to be some misunderstanding: I don't support the topic ban because they vote "keep". The key word here is indiscriminately. They vote, if they vote at porn bios, always "keep" and state "passes PORNBIO", although, as a question of fact, and conceded by all other voters in the few AfDs with a "keep" result, the bio does not pass PORNBIO. The guideline was amended recently, and is very well defined. Obviously they even are on the winning side in a few cases, having voted "keep", but all other voters in these cases voted "keep" because the subject passes GNG, not PORNBIO. Thus, Subtropical man's votes are useless and disruptive, and being topic-banned from porn-related AfDs just lowers the amount of aspersions and unhelpful discussions, without any bad side effects. Kraxler (talk) 20:34, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

• Support Borderline WP:DE - editor should take this as a warning a think themselves lucky it's not going to harsher terms, such as a block. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 17:26, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose -please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Pornography/Deletion, see links to AfD pages from 2014. I voted only in part, not in all AfD about pornography. In many Afd pages I don't vote, if the article was weak or person are not notable. If a person are notable, in my opinion, I voting for keep. Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) wrote: "This indiscriminate PROD removal has led to scores of unnecessary AFDs" - solution of problem: please stop try removed very many pornography articles. My WP:DEPRODs are problem? I did it only a dozen times. AfD is necessary for many articles, instead speedy delection (without discussion), for example: Dee (actress). Why deprod [241]? Please see article, this article is extensive, has a sources, image, 5x interwiki. And speedy delection? No, should be discussion. Please Wikipedia:WikiProject Pornography/Deletion, almost always vote for delete the same users: The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo), Spartaz, Gene93k, Davey2010, Tarc; other users very rarely vote. Now they're trying do topic banned for opposition. Subtropical-man talk
  (en-2) 18:05, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose topic ban - I'm not at all a fan of "Sub-tropicalman's" dePRODing of articles without improvement (I've tried to treat PRODs in the past like actual AfDs without needed the discussion), but the actual PROD guidelines technically allow for that kind of editing behavior: "Any editor may object to the deletion by simply removing the tag" and "To object to and therefore permanently prevent a proposed deletion, remove the 'proposed deletion/dated' tag from the article. You are encouraged, but not required, to" (emphasis mine).

Not all of the above evidence actually shows disruptive behavior either IMO, since Jennifer Luv & Babysitters (film) both won some likely major awards, the Shane Diesel AfD (and resulting DRV) was a huge mess that was mostly caused by a voluminous sockpuppet ("Redban"), and those supposed "bogus" SPI reports yielded some actual, needed results on that front.

What's mostly, really going on here at this time is that some are trying to engage in some (rapid?) "trimming of the fat" from many of the pornography-related BLPs on Wikipedia, which pleases some & possibly upsets some others. In any event, it is what it is... Guy1890 (talk) 02:59, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

• Comment - If I see one more thread here about conduct issues involving pornography, I will propose that pornography be placed under community general sanctions to get a few of the pro-porn and a few of the anti-porn editors topic-banned. For now, try being civil about pornography, even though some of you love it and some of you hate it. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:21, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
• Support topic ban - The deprodding although annoying isn't really that bad, It's the !voting that I'm concerned with, Sub Man has a habit of simply putting "Notable" or "per above" [242][243][244][245][246][247][248][249][250][251][252] and or on occasions will Keep "per nominations"[253][254][255][256][257][258][259][260] (Despite being told nominations don't count inregards to PORNBIO), It's simply distruptive and despite being guided more than once he's simply ignored everyone and continued regardless so personally feel Topic banning is the right move here. –Davey2010^Talk 19:33, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

• Comment: generally, opinion by opposition of Subtropical-man i.e: The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo), Spartaz, Gene93k, Davey2010, Tarc (who always vote differently than Subtropical-man) is clear. The opposition is opposition. Welcome are the opinions of other users, neutral users. Subtropical-man talk
  (en-2) 21:07, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

• Comment. Since you are bringing me in, that "opposition" to your keep votes is the application of consensus guidelines that you reject wholesale and challenging of arguments not supported by facts. • Gene93k (talk) 22:22, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

• Support topic ban for The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) and Davey2010. I agree with opinion by user Robert McClenon (above), there are two sides in case: pro-porn and anti-porn editors, if topic-banned for pro-porn side, must to be also for anti-porn side. Anti-porn editors are responsible for remove hundreds of articles, they vote for the removal in all AfD pages about pornography in the last period. The length and range of misbehaviour is striking (see Wikipedia:WikiProject_Pornography/Deletion#Closed) and their actions can be considered as destructive to Wikipedia. Previously, user Раціональне анархіст (Pax) and earlier user Redban who very many porn-articles marked to deletion got topic-ban (in AN/I). These users doing the same thing, so. Subtropical-man talk
  (en-2) 21:07, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
• Comment I am not seeing the type or depth of disruption that justifies community sanctions here. Without a whole lot more diffs on actionable misbehavior this does not seems like something that should be up for proposal. Proponents, please add more specific history about earlier issues, diffs, interventions, earlier admin actions, etc. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 02:47, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose There doesn't seem to be a great deal of disruptive behavior going on. Simply objecting to an AfD, even a poorly thought out objection, isn't worthy of a topic ban. Looking at his contribution log doesn't show any sort of edit warring or other. His English seems fairly broken so some of his replies come off strangely. I don't see anything on WP:DRN (which would seem a more appropriate venue for this) and no one has apparently tried talking to him (all I see on his talk page is a nomination for a userspace deletion Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Subtropical-man/Catfight by the same person who brought this ANI). According to WP:DDE ANI is one of the last resorts, not the first.--Savonneux (talk) 11:03, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose. Although Subtropical-man's rationales for !keep in various porn-related articles don't always adhere to the current version of WP:PORNBIO (for example, nominations alone), I still think a topic ban is a little premature; in addition, as Guy1890 pointed out, deprodding an article without reason actually is allowed per WP:DEPROD. But to be honest, Robert McClenon's suggestion makes the most sense; and if it came to a topic ban at all with the current behavior that's going on on both sides of the pornography issue ("angry" arguments on the pro-porn side and the anti-porn side), sanctions should be given out to people on both sides of the issue, not just one side (whom those people should be, though, should be determined in their own respective threads, if necessary). Erpert ^{blah, blah, blah...} 23:44, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
• Oppose Although he only votes "delete" 4 or 5 percent of the time and "keep" 95% of the time, I find no reason to debar him from voicing his opinions in a civil manner at XfD discussions. Any more than I would debar those who vote to delete, say, 80% of the time. Wikipedia has enough people that we can afford some "inclusionists" and some "deletionists" to exist, I trust. That noted, I tend to prefer seeking some level of balance in my own positions, but grant forbearance to those who have different mileage. Collect (talk) 23:55, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
• oppose. I have gone through subtropical-man's contributions, and they by and large seem responsible and competent. He also seems to be a natural counterbalance to the surprising amount of triggerhappy deletionists we have on english wiki. 89.243.10.130 (talk) 13:11, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
  • Oh, yes, putting Nelson Rockefeller's mother on a list of performers in "catfight" pornography is just the sort of responsible, competent editing that is expected of Wikipedia editors. Only a ftriggerhappy deletionist would think otherwise. The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 23:01, 16 August 2015 (UTC)
    • bad redirecting, Abby Aldrich is porn actress but in the Wikipedia, Abby Aldrich is redirect to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich Rockefeller). This error is not in article, there is in the sandbox (user space for building and correction data before introduction to articles). Your argument is ridiculous. I suggest you to go on vacation, you've done three personal attacks against another user [261][262][263], and an half of hour before you made nonsensical post here. Subtropical-man talk
      (en-2) 14:52, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
      • Yes, we know. Wolfowitz bad. Wolfowitz is picking on an oh-so-valuable troll who gets his kicks by WP:BITING inexperienced editors. Check out Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dead Sea 1618 for more details. And your vital contribution to this discussion by maligning my character in lieu of, say, correcting the BLP violations in your moribund sandbox draft is a clear demonstration of the value your contributions carry. The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 10:35, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
    • That's a pretty gross mischaracterisation of exactly what happened there. --Savonneux (talk) 10:44, 19 August 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Savonneux (talk • contribs) 10:42, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Disruptive editing

Hi I'm a physician with experience in biomedical ethics. I have added a part of a scientific paper of one of my colleagues which focused on the importance of including medical ethics in training programs to "Ethics" but Jytdog deleted that post without any explanation and finally mentioned conflicts of interest as the reason even when I suggested adding that part without any citation. I believe that it's really inappropriate that a non-expert user abuse his/her administrative ability to just based on a biased judgement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mohammad1985k (talk • contribs) 20:53, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

• (edit conflict) Note: When creating a thread about a user on ANI, you are supposed to leave a notice on their talk page, as it says at the top of the page. In this case, I have done so for you. However, please keep this in mind. Thank you. -- Orduin ^Discuss 21:02, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Please see No original research and Citing sources, along with Conflict of interest. While I'm sure you are expert in biomedical ethics, you seem to have missed the fact that Wikipedia relies on cited, reliable, published sources to ensure that we don't offer an encyclopedia full of misinformation, conjecture and non-expert personal opinion. Your suggestion that the content be posted without any citation was correctly rejected as it does not solve the problem. General Ization ^Talk 20:59, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Also, did you notify Jytdog that you were bringing your objection to his action here, as is required so he can present his side of the dispute? General Ization ^Talk 21:01, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Attention is brought to this note to jytdog and this note on my talkpage left by M1985k. I think he needs to be brought up to speed on how we do things here. "Take a part in a scientific entry if only and only you know enough to talk about" ain't it. — Brianhe (talk) 21:09, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I invited him to the teahouse; hope that helps. Erpert ^{blah, blah, blah...} 23:57, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

• This user seems intent on ramming citations from a certain author into articles. There are communications issues, it seems plausible that English may not be his first language. People are trying to help him and there's nothing more to do in this thread, but.... how come he found his way to the drama board with his 11th edit? This smells of fish to me. Or rather, duck. Guy (Help!) 11:29, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
  • Oops, I didn't realize that the OP was the same user I invited to the teahouse. At any rate, I agree with all of Guy's points; and frankly, maybe the OP should consider other options. Erpert ^{blah, blah, blah...} 22:38, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Bob Lazar

I would not normally post an issue regarding article content here at ANI. But the current state of this article, a BLP, Bob Lazar, is so bizarre and so conspiratorial and so deranged that I believe that it requires immediate attention from an administrator. If I am wrong, let me know and I will pursue other options. Thank you for your consideration. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 05:40, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

An entertaining read, though not very encyclopedic. Chillum 05:56, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

We are not in the business of "entertaining reading" I do not think, Chillum, so I hope that either you, or another administrator, will revdel totally inappropriate BLP violating content, and warn the responsible editors. Please. Thank you very much. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 06:22, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Have you looked through the sources? This guy has claimed much of the stuff being attributed to him. If you think there is a clear and urgent BLP violation then edit the article, if you really think something needs revdel'n then you will need to be more specific. Chillum 06:31, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

I did some housekeeping. Perhaps Chillum can take a look and see if there is improvement. FreeatlastChitchat (talk) 06:41, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

The article's been around for about 10 years, and it started as what could be termed an attack page. Is this guy even notable by Wikipedia standards? Should the article be deleted? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:11, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

I saw him on unsolved mysteries when I was young, so I had heard of him before seeing the article. The guy does have some fame. Chillum 23:11, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Bob Lazar has been the focus of more than one TV show and surely lots of print. Unquestionably notable. He has some outrageous claims, some of which might be considered "out there", but notability isn't about how right a person is, just how notable he is. And I've seen a few shows focused on him, highly entertaining stuff. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 13:39, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

The thing about Bob Lazar is that the craziest of claims about him turn out to be true. He might not be right about 115, but other sources (as we report) are right when they report what he has claimed. There's also a whole pile of "unusual" stuff (rocket Honda for one) that does pan out. It's like claiming that one of the leading lights of early JPL was a colleague of Aleister Crowley, but that's just Jack Parsons for you. Andy Dingley (talk) 12:55, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

False accusation and personal attack

user:Toddy1, has a history of making false and baseless accusations against me. He claimed here [264] that I added the following, when it was there long before I started editing the article: "Under Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab it says "Salafists consider Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab as the first figure in the modern era to push for a return to the religious practices of the salaf as-salih". As we may see here [265], this statement has existed long before I started editing.

Today he posted a menacing personal attack on my talk page, accusing me of being a user I have no connection with and do not know who he/she is. His message may be seen here [266]. This is clearly a violation of a variety of wikipedia policies pertaining to civility and personal attacks. I would recommend that disciplinary action be taken against him. Xtremedood (talk) 14:14, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Okay, I see a big BOOMERANG coming back at Xtremedood. The user hasn't even informed Toddy1 formally. Leaving a manual missive on Toddy1's talk page is bad form. Please put a lid on it. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 23:30, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Uninvolved editor who interacted with Toddy1 sometime ago I had a brief interaction with Toddy1 a while ago. At first I thought that he was quite obnoxious, overbearing and very rude. But when I went to his talk page I found out that he speaks English language as a second language and therefore they sometimes try to say one thing and it comes out as another. Perhaps you can be kind enough to give them some rope?FreeatlastChitchat (talk) 16:32, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Iryna Harpy, I have informed Toddy1 here [267], however he deleted it.

I have seen other users post more "informal" notices on pages and their complaint was not declared a boomerang, see here [268]. Is there a Wikipedia policy as to a specific format upon which a notice must be placed on a user's page? Xtremedood (talk) 00:28, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

No, there is no such required format - as the notice at the top of the page says (with my emphasis)

When you start a discussion about an editor, you must notify them on their user talk page.
You may use {{subst:ANI-notice}} ~~~~ to do so.

The requirement is to notify, the option for using that template is "may" not "should" or "must" - Arjayay (talk) 13:52, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Arjayay, my comment on BOOMERANG was unrelated to the type of notification left for Toddy1. I was referring to Xtremedood's WP:NOTHERE, WP:BATTLEGROUND behavioural pattern which I determined just in a cursory look at the user's editing history, and the fact that this ANI complaint is a tendentious waste of editor time and energy. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 00:57, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Background. Xtremedood is involved in a content dispute concerning the article on the Salafi movement. He/she made changes on 24 July, 25 July, 8 August, and 10 August. I tried reverting on 24 July on the grounds that two citations that I checked did not support the text. He/she reverted back and started a talk page discussion at Talk:Salafi movement#Revert by Toddy1. In the talk page discussion @Brustopher: supported Xtremedood's changes, whilst @MezzoMezzo:, @DeCausa: and myself objected to them. Xtremedood's changes to the article were partially reverted by MezzoMezzo, and completely reverted by me on 11 August.

Xtremedood's complaints about my conduct.

1. I received a message posted by an IP threatening to report me to Interpol on my talk page on 13 August. It seemed obvious that this was from Xtremedood, so I responded by posting a message on User talk:Xtremedood politely asking him/her not to send me threatening messages.[269]
2. Regarding Xtremedood's other complaint - during the discussion on the article talk page I mentioned two citations that I had checked and found not to support the text they were there for.[270] He/she is right that one of those citations was there before his edits. His/her edits of 8 August had moved the paragraph to a different part of the article, and I mistakenly thought that he/she had introduced that part.
3. I do not understand why Xtremedood believes that I deleted his ANI notification from my talk page. It is still there.

-- Toddy1 (talk) 05:31, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

• Ugh. Relatively new editor Xtremedood is trying to POV push a fringe view into Salafi movement and finds established editors MezzoMezzo and Toddy1 resisting on the basis of policy. Xtremedood proceeds on the basis of WP:BATTLE and uses ANI report based on a trivial diff as a tactic to attack one of the editors they're in dispute with. Thread needs to be dismissed with an admin keeping an eye on the OP. That's the story here. DeCausa (talk) 12:22, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
  • It's not POV. It was sourced. I am against dogma being promoted in this article over verifiable facts and sources. Xtremedood (talk) 13:43, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

As we can see above, user:Toddy1, once against falsely accuses me of leaving that message when I have no connection to that user and I do not know who that user is. Clearly this has to stop. Xtremedood (talk) 13:43, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

DeCausa knocked it out of the water, though Iryna Harpy figured it out pretty fast as well. Xtremedood: give it a rest. I advised you more than once that your combative methods got you blocked for edit warring on other articles. You aren't going to get your way by attacking other editors all the time; stop seeing us as adversaries and start treating is as colleagues working together to improve articles, otherwise you're just going to be marginalized and your suggested edits will be rejected. MezzoMezzo (talk) 04:02, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

The complaint is about a false accusation, stay on topic. There is no need to gang up on me if I disagree with your position or Toddy1's position. I did not send Toddy1 that message. Toddy1 should not be falsely accusing me. For the admins who may be confused about this, the dispute this user is mentioning refers to the article Salafi movement and the discussion between MezzoMezzo, Toddy1, DeCausa, and I may be viewed here: [271]. Xtremedood (talk) 05:21, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

No, the fact is that you are being tendentious and nit-picking in order to get your way instead of listening to discussion and consensus on the article's talk page. You're now heading towards pushing the limits of 'they're ganging up on me'. Please pay attention and drop the stick. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 06:39, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I disagree with your accusation that I am being tendentious and nitpicking. My sources are clear and may be seen here [272] before you reverted them. However, this is not the place to discuss this. This is regarding an incident where I was falsely accused of something I did not do. This violates a multitude of wikipedia policies pertaining to civility and personal attacks. I have opened a dispute on the dispute resolution noticeboard here [273] (feel free to state whatever you wish over there), however I now see that a decision should be made here before pursuing a case on the DRN. Regardless, stay on topic. Xtremedood (talk) 15:27, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Nobody is staying on what only you seem to think the topic is, Xtremedood, because your "topic" is a false premise. Nobody attacked you personally and nobody accused you of things falsely. Everybody here recognizes that and your attempt to forum shop won't help you.

Know what will help you? Stop being combative and trying to use debate tactics, and start being cooperative and trying to work together with other editors as colleagues instead of enemies. You're wasting your time doing anything else. MezzoMezzo (talk) 03:42, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Repeated/escalating non-AGF and personal attacks

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

---

My apologies ahead of time for the wall of text below. This report, however is the result of several weeks of continued incivility and personal attacks and deserves -- I believe -- to be looked at from the complete history, not just what it has escalated to be as of today.

In spite of repeated warnings, User:MaverickLittle has continued to make personal attacks and demonstrate non-AGF behavior on talk pages and in edit summaries. I have asked him to stop numerous times and have left warnings on his talk page as the attacks were repeated and escalated. His non-AGF and uncivil behavior have not been limited to me of late, as Cwobeel has also brought it up to him. His rude comments and nasty attitude have not been limited to being directed at just me.

From his talk page history, one can see that the same behavior has been happening for a while with other editors with his comments directed at them escalating into incivility: Edit summary here, here. He was taken to AN3 at the end of June, where an administrator (Darkwind noted the the case was not really edit warring and advised the filer (SanAnMan that the complaint seemed more in line with disruptive editing behavior (AN3 report here). Darkwind further notified MaverickLittle with a Discretionary Sanctions alert here; ML's response was to remove the notice and with uncivil comments in the editing summary - it is at this point where the escalation in ML's aggressive tone is first evident: "Removed info that was attempt to find something that I did wrong, which of course there wasn't. One editor just did not want to add the information to the article and took a lame case to an admin. Nothing came of it. Nothing."; (edit summary found here). Another example of incivility ("Explanation to Jd027 to check his work before he re-inserts--especially when he adds an unnecessary and incorrect to talk page lecture on top of it.") occurred here. Next example of continuing incivility toward editors in an edit summary here. When notified that he was edit warring, his response was less than polite (see here) and was followed by removal of the notice with another curt comment in the edit summary here.

It was at this point where he then went to AN3 to make the following comments directed at me (even though he was not involved in the AN3 filing at all) : "I would take just about any comment that Winkelvi about other people's edit habits with a huge grain of salt. He does not engage in conversation. He just states what he wants the article to be. Period. He reverts you immediately and then states that his version is the stable version, even if it isn't. I have only encounter Winkelvi in the last two days, concerning two different articles, Ted Cruz and Rachel Dolezal, but his actions are the same. His way or the highway. He is not someone to take his comments about other's edit habits seriously. I made one edit to the Ted Cruz article and he reverted me and other information that has been in the article for almost a year and then he puts a warning on my talk page that I was engaged in an edit war. His claim that I was engaging in an edit war was a lie. There is no other way to describe his outrageous claim. I merely walked away from the article instead of attempting in interact with him because he is unreasonable. Yeah, I made these comments, Winkelvi believes that it is his right to be critical of others but he needs the same instruction." - diff here. He was warned by another editor regarding the comments here and they were removed. Everything escalated from that point on - ML's response was "Your comments written above are obnoxious and narrow. You need to find something else to spend your free time on."

I have left the appropriate amount of warnings on ML's talk page since the incident at AN3: #1, #2, #3, #4. His comments regarding the warnings have continued with more personal attacks and all along the same theme as this: ("Stay off my talk page. You are a bully. You like to push others around. I reject all of your comments. You should follow your own advice." (found here. The personal attacks and uncivil behavior at the following talk pages have continued, up to today, even after he has been asked numerous times there to dial it down and behave more civilly: Columba Bush talk page, the Ted Cruz talk page, and the Carly Fiorina talk page.

I know I am far from perfect and have certainly had my moments of anger and incivility; many could probably say I have no room to file a complaint. Even so, it seems to me that even with the amount of warnings and advice and patience by others offered to MaverickLittle, he believes he can continue in the same vein of incivility without consequence. He appears to be fairly new, and his repeated WP:IDHT and WP:NOTTHEM-related comments attest to such. Because he is a relative newbie, I am not asking for nor am I suggesting any kind of block at this time. That said, something needs to be done that will make a stronger impression on him than what he's gotten from several veteran editors. If it doesn't happen soon, he will continue down this road of incivility and personal attacks to the point of where we have a situation of where a Wiki-monster has been created and allowed to flourish. He has made some decent content additions, but the attacks and battleground mentality get in the way to the point of obvious disruption that makes the signal to noise ratio a net negative. The underlying tone of hostility and aggressiveness he has employed pretty much since he started editing here has grown and become, in my opinion, abusive with almost an attitude of "I dare you to report me". I've been putting up with it from him for a while now and am finally at the point of where I'm saying 'enough'. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 18:36, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

• Adding this example of further personal attacks by ML on August 6, 2015 at my talk page: "You are a typical bully of Wikipedia. You should be embarrassed. I'm not going to engage with someone who lies like you did when you claimed that I was engaging in an edit war. That was a damn lie and since you are willing to flat out lie like that it is clear that having an intelligent discussion with you is not possible. It was not just a lie; it was a damnable lie." (diff here). -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 18:44, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I said all of the things above. Yes. It is correct Winkelvi is a very aggressive editor. Yes, Winkelvi does not cooperate when he edits. Yes, he lectures others about things that he does not do himself. Yes, disagrees with my edits constantly and he immediately reverts them. Yes, I follow neutral point of view. Yes, I use reliable sources to back up my edits. Yes, I am good editor. I admit to all of these things. Yes, I have told Winkelvi to follow his own advice. Yes, I refused to read an essay, which is not Wikipedia policy and that made Winkelvi dig down even deeper to give me a second lecture about how I must read everything that he tells me to. Yes, I raised my issues with Winkelvi with an admin. Yes, no matter what article I go to edit to get away from Winkelvi he follows me there and starts reverting my edits. Yes, if Winkelvi does not like my style or working with me why does Winkelvi follow me wherever I go? It is nonsense. He engages in incivility but he complains about incivility. He does every single thing that he complains about. It makes no sense.--ML (talk) 18:49, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

• Note: ML's claim that I am following him to articles is incorrect. All of the articles we have in common have been on my watchlist for months, in some cases, years. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 18:51, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I called Winkelvi a bully because he is constantly following me around bullying me. Why can't he see that? Yes, I called Winkelvi a bully because I make suggestions, no matter what they are, and he immediately disagrees and usually but not always reverts me. I admit that I called him a bully because he tells me that I have to read anything that he tells me to. I admit that I called him a bully because he does not even read the links that I provide him when we are attempting to have a conversation. Yes, I admit I called him a bully because he tells me that I don't listen to the other editors but I response to every editors comments. He just does not like what I have to say to the other editors. Yes, I admit I called him a bully because he acts like a bully.--ML (talk) 18:56, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Hogwash!!! I went to the Jimmy Carter article to get away from him and he followed. I went to the Carly Fiorina article to get away from him and he followed. That is hogwash. Why is he following me around? It is creepy!--ML (talk) 18:56, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

My first edit to the Carter article was on 5 July 2015, yours was on 12 August 2015. Evidence of same here and here. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 19:45, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

MaverickLittle needs to cool it, and do that sooner than later. His approach to editing is highly combative and most definitively not helpful. A strong warning is certainly due. - Cwobeel (talk) 20:23, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

A warning for what? Did you read the comments that Winkelvi quotes. There is nothing there. I would ask anyone who reads this to review the series of edits that led to these claims by Winkelvi. I edited the Carly Fiorina article so that it read correctly that Fiorina is the first woman to lead a "Fortune 20" company. It did not say that before. What is said: (1) in the first place it said something to the effect that "some people believe that Fiorina might be the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company" which left the impression that may be she or may be she didn't and of course the truth is quite clear that she is was, without question, the first woman to be CEO of a Fortune 20 company and (2) in the second place it said she was the first woman to lead a top 20 U.S. company, which is not entirely true. I edited so that it states clearly that she is the first woman to be CEO of a Fortune 20 company. You immediately protested by stating, falsely, that there is no phrase such as "Fortune 20" and you wanted it reverted to back what it was. I pointed out clearly that I was quoting the reliable source word for word. Winkelvi immediately jumped in and stated that my edits needed to be reverted immediately. I told Winkelvi to review the reliable source and I provided him with a link to the reliable source that I quoted word for word. He did not read the correct link and then he immediately stated that my edit needed to be reverted because the incorrect link did not support my edit. I told him pay attention to my comments (the exact same thing that he claims against me constantly) and to read the right link. He then read the right link and he still demanded that my edits be reverted. You supported him during this silliness and so I went and looked up about 27 different reliable sources that supported my wording of the phrase "Fortune 20". And all of my 27 or so reliable sources not only used the phrase "Fortune 20", the exact same phrase that you and Winkelvi were demanding that my edits be reverted and removed from the article. Winkelvi gave me a lecture and told him again (for the sixth or seventh time) to follow his own advice. Neither you or Winkelvi took the time to do the simple research required to see that the phrase "Fortune 20" is a valid term of art and that it applies to Carly Fiorina and that is the correct way to phrase the topic. You both ganged up and attempted to force me to revert my edits immediately. When you say that my edits have "most definitely not helpful" that is just flat out not true. When I started editing the Fiorina article it was mass of POV pushing. For example, I took down a home-made stock price chart for HP that was chock full of false and defamatory information. It made the false and defamatory claim that the stock price for HP fell 65% during Fiorina time period. It had false and incorrect numbers in the stock chart to support this biased false conclusion of 65%. When I removed it you immediately reverted me and then you continued to revert me until I finally got the false and defamatory graph out of the article for good. Moreover, there was a "Controversy" section in the article even though it is long-time policy to remove "Controversy" sections, throw out what needs to go and work the information that is valid into the regular sections of the article. You have been fight that for the last week or so. You have been the rude the whole time. Now, the comments by quoted above might be rude and short, but they are not any less rude or short than the comments made by either you or Winkelvi. This complaint is ultimately about how to edit the Fiorina article and you and Winkelvi have decided that instead of moving forward with a civil debate about what the next step is you want to stop me from editing the article. This is ultimately a content dispute it is not about me being rude because if it was about rudeness then you and Winkelvi would be subject to the same restrictions. It is not a just a coincidence that this complaint happened moments after the two of you attempted to bully me into reverting a well-thoughtout, relevant, reliably source edit that I made in a neutral manner. And it is not just a coincidence that you and him both decided to work together on this complaint. If you were so concerned about rudeness then why don't you file a complaint against yourself or file a complaint against Winkelvi? Lord knows you will find tons of examples for both of you.--ML (talk) 22:38, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

• TL;DR. You need to definitively cool it. - Cwobeel (talk) 00:41, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for adding support to my comments.--ML (talk) 00:48, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

ML: Do you want a civility block? Because if you don't change something quick in how you deal with other editors, that's what you're heading toward. Three veteran editors have told you the same thing as nicely as possible (one being an administrator). Do you really need more people to say the same before you heed the advice you're being given? Making some kind of a sincere indication here that you will change your attitude and behavior would be a good start. Or is a very stern warning something you'd rather see before turning things around? -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 00:56, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

This comment by you is a fine example of what I am talking about. I honestly believe that Cwobeel made the extraneous comment above to poke me in the eye by telling me flat out that he did not read what I wrote and that he just does not care what I have to say. His response makes it clear that he has no intention to work with me in a give and take manner. Now in response I wrote that I think that his comment does add support to what I have been saying. If you read what he directed me to it means "Too Long, Didn't Read". How can we have meaningful communication if he won't read what I wrote? We can't. Also, you have tag teamed with him and gave me a lecture that you do not care that what I wrote what sincere and serious. I think he added support to my comments by just telling me he is not going to read what I wrote. Then you started another lecture to me. Your lectures tell me that you are not serious about having a conversation, but just want me to go away. Also, I am sincere and serious when I say to you that you should apply some the same principals that you lecture me about to yourself. I am sincere when I say please listen to me and stop lecturing me and please follow your own advice. Nothing that I have in here is uncivil. You just don't like what I have to say. Those two things are different.--ML (talk) 01:06, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I give up. I've done everything I can to get you to see that you are going down a path that will lead to somewhere and something you don't want. Two other editors have tried, unsuccessfully, as well. Ironically, while accusing Cwobeel and I of collusion and conspiracy against you and making more non-AGF/uncivil remarks about us here, you took a totally different approach with Drmies at his talk page. Here, you continue to battle and behave in a hostile manner. This duplicity shows you know there are eyes on your behavior and will do what you can to stay out of dutch (no aspersion casting meant, Drmies!) but will still jab and make uncivil remarks toward those you see as enemies who can't hurt you like an administrator could. So, while I once thought you were only going the way of WP:IDHT and WP:NOTTHEM, it's starting to look like gaming the system could be part of this too. Whatever the case, I'm throwing my hands up on this, walking away, and will allow those who can actually do something that will make an impression on you to do exactly that. Obviously, what Cwobeel and I have said means little to nothing to you. So be it. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 01:21, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

• OK. I have not followed every link offered here, but I followed a few. I think we're dealing here with an escalation of tempers, and I hope that these editors can stay away from each other a bit more. Focus on the issues. I settled one, if it needed settling, and I'm sure that these reasonable editors will move on from that particular one. I do not think that the diffs Winkelvi provided are so terrible as to warrant administrative intervention, but I do think that MaverickLittle is a bit on the combative side. It is in their best interest to tone that down some--it makes working with other editors that much easier. And that, of course, goes for everyone involved here, including yours truly. Drmies (talk) 02:05, 14 August 2015 (UTC).

Fair enough.--ML (talk) 02:07, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

• Update: 36 hours later, and nothing has changed with this editor. Still making rude comments directed at specific editors, and after telling an administrator Drmies he would tone it down. Both Cwobeel and I have tried to reason with this editor, asking him numerous times to comment on edits, not editors. When given basic, non-threatening advice, shown policy, asked questions, or reminded to keep his comments about edits alone, his responses are as follows: "That is pure extrapolation on your part. Do not read into the comments that is not there. That is you...Please stop with the false and incorrect lectures and warnings." found here; "did your comment improve the article? No." found here. When Cwobeel also tells him enough is enough, ML responds, "You are absolutely right. WV's comment was absolute nonsense. I agree." found here. Cwobeel informs ML that is was his comments he was referring to, ML responds, "And I was referring to his. Also, if don't want the conversation to keep going why are participating in it? You need to focus on constructive edits. found here. My response was that nothing has changed and he has not lived up to his agreement with Drmies. His response to that was more WP:IDHT: "I agree. You should not be rude such as when you told me that my comments "were not helpful" when they were completely helpful. Please stop being rude. Nothing in your behavior has changed. found here. This editor does not want to change his behavior and attitude -- even after indicating he would do so. My personal feeling is that it has nothing to do with not getting it. It has to do with not caring if he gets it because he believes his edits are so valuable to Wikipedia that no one with any authority here will do anything to keep him from editing. Just like his self-praise in his comments above, the edit summaries he leaves also indicate a very cocky attitude (just one example: "I just provided another great solution...Oh, yes, my work is damn helpful."). Like I said two days ago, unless someone makes a very strong impression on him that his behavior is not acceptable, he won't change. My prediction has come to fruition. How much longer will this go on? -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 01:11, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Winkelvi, MaverickLittle is unlikely to behave differently. If combativeness and lack of good faith was the only problem, somehow we could simple ignore and get on with doing the work. But when the editor starts misusing sources [274] then we have a real problem. - Cwobeel (talk) 01:20, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Cwobeel, frankly, I see it all going hand-in-hand. If one is allowed to slide (lack of AGF and personal attacks), then why wouldn't misuse of sources and synthesis be allowed as well? -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 06:05, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I did not misuse any sources. That is a bald untruth. Do not make things up. That claim is bald faced untruth. Please stop.--ML (talk) 21:16, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

You did, as Cwobeel has pointed out. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 17:40, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Update A couple of days more, and MaverickLittle is still attacking editors with comments designed to belittle their editing and efforts to discuss issues on talk pages as seen here (calling an editor's questions and concerns "silliness". He dares anyone to do anything about it. As I have stated twice, if something isn't done that will make a definite impression on him, the behavior and nastiness will continue (as it is now). There has been no change, no indication that he wants to change or treat fellow editors more kindly. Drmies, I know you are currently busy with the Malik Shabazz "issue", but I am asking for some help. Direction, guidance, something that will give a solution. He appeared to listen to you before, only to return to the same behavior almost immediately. What else can be done except to ignore his biting comments directed at other editors? Are we to employ WP:ROPE? -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 17:40, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I have a suggestion Winkelvi. Please stop following me around. You have started editing the Ted Cruz article and have followed me over there. Why do you have to be everywhere that I am, if you dislike editing with me so much. You seem to enjoy the bickering and the browbeating. Please go find other places to edit.--ML (talk) 18:06, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I have not followed you to the Cruz article or any article. The Ted Cruz article has been on my watchlist for quite some time. -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 18:23, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I'm sorry, Winkelvi, but I don't think that the particular utterance of "silliness" was particularly nasty. At any rate, it's in reference to commentary, not to an editor per se. As you know there are plenty of editors whose means of communication are objectionable; there isn't always something we can do about it except ask for more consideration. Drmies (talk) 22:43, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

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

Cuzkatzimhut and YohanN7

Yesterday, Cuzkatzimhut reported me for edit warring.1. However, he failed so far to provide any diffs for that claim. When admin EdJohnston asked for diffs, the editor responded, I asked the noticeboard to identify the evident pattern of systematic unconstructive editing. WP should be able to police itself, pursuant to whatever format strictures, and not leave things to the successful formatting of the appeals of complainants. Another account, YohanN7 is always present in favor of Cuzkatzimhut edits/opinion. EdJohnston saw then the need to warn of possible sanctions, Calling people idiots or crackpots isn't charming and may cause you to be sanctioned.

• References are often lacking

Initially i've asked editor Cuzkatzimhut to provide proper references for his extensive edits (i.e. recently no references for edits, or here - these edits are very extensive in his edit history, wrong way to add references or here). Additionally his edits are often not in regards to WP:TECHNICAL. Many of the talk pages of the article Cuzkatzimhut edits contain reader comments about too technical or lacking references. (i.e. 1 (See glossary), 2 (No Ref), 3(Insults reader), 4(No ref, claims everything is correct) -- These are just the most recent edits.

• Unexplained reverts

Today, he and YohanN7 begun reverting many of my edits i tagged in regards to references or for OR. An attempt to explain OR to the editors has failed so far. There is this No original research/Noticeboard discussion, where Kingsindian called the incident a classic OR.

Even though with repeated attempts to explain in length the issue of OR (article talk page , or at YohanN7's talk page to the editors, both show no sign of understanding, or willingness to except anything. Yohan's edit summary states several times, Reverting editor showing evident pattern of systematic nonconstructive editing, and Cuzkatzimhut stated about my edits, evident pattern of systematic nonconstructive editing.

• Summary

Even with extensive explanations, links to Wikipedia guidelines or the opinion of other editors, both editors do not seem to understand basic rules. Garchy cautioned in response to Cuzkatzimhut -- let's not make this about WP:OWNBEHAVIOR, which is bordering on Wikipedia:No personal attacks. Thus, besides WP:OR, WP:CIR the editors are just not there where Wikipedia wants to be. I am not sure exactly how to proceed or what exactly should be done about the conflicts mentioned here. prokaryotes (talk) 17:10, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

• Update Yohan now makes threatening comments in response to a support question. prokaryotes (talk) 01:42, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
  • I'm neutral here, but...how is that a threatening comment? Erpert ^{blah, blah, blah...} 04:36, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

He implies i did something wrong then states i should never do this again, implying a threat if i do it again, what the user perceives as stalking. However, if we actually look at the page on harassment (WP:HOUND) it makes clear that i wasn't stalking recent changes by user Cuzkatzimhut. My edits mostly added ref tags. prokaryotes (talk) 10:43, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

He is using unrelated support questions to interfere, for whatever reason. My question was unrelated to the user or any articles in question, initially. Now he hijacks my support question to explain his version of my edits, again look at those edits, which have added ref tags to a couple of articles. prokaryotes (talk) 10:52, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

I was briefly involved with this as an outside editor on the WP:NORN page. I have reviewed some of the diffs above. I see what is going on. The basic issue here is that Cuzkatzimhut and YohanN7 are familiar with the subject matter and assume a level of background knowledge to someone reading the article, which is not unreasonable in itself. If someone is reading these highly technical articles, it is likely they have some familiarity with the relevant background. Often they leave certain statements uncited, because of this. They are indeed cited in the general references contained at the end of the article. Prokaryotes (correct me if I'm wrong), a layman like me, is trying in good faith to have as many inline citations as possible, even for things which the other two believe are obvious to anyone who is familiar with this area.

In discussion at WP:NORN, Cuzkatzimhut did indeed understand the WP:OR issue and tried to address it, though I am not sure Yohan understands it. In my opinion, everyone is acting in good faith, though tempers have become a bit frayed because of the non-aligned expectations of reader's background knowledge. In my opinion, if everyone stays focused on content, this can still end well. I see no evidence of WP:HOUNDing, though I see how it may be perceived that way. There is nothing wrong with looking through an editor's edits and flagging similar issues in other pages. Kingsindian ♝♚ 11:53, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Kingsindian, you are correct, I aim for best verifiability, imho the most important part of Wikipedia is content which is properly referenced, no matter how clear cut something may or not may be. prokaryotes (talk) 11:57, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

• Intervention request Could someone please notify these 2 accounts here, why they post in the wrong spot, i think the accusations of both users are getting out of hands now and require some admin intervention. Thank you. prokaryotes (talk) 12:04, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Both users continue a battleground behavior, and Cuzkatzimhut stated recently, in response to his edit warring request. I will try to fight the good fight away from that disappointing board Besides the continued aggressive tone(you have to read his lengthly replies), the user is unwilling to understand or accept WP rules and sees tagging of articles he edits as a threat to him.prokaryotes (talk) 17:04, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

"Battleground behavior"? After the the highly personalized rampage I reported and documented painstakingly, of Aug 13, UT 15:05 - 27:10?? Rolling back, in rapid-fire succession, pages I had edited last: Adjugate matrix, Fermi's golden rule, scale invariance, special unitary group, non-linear sigma model, De Sitter special relativity, Rotation formalisms in three dimensions, canonical commutation relation, wave packet, Polynomial Wigner–Ville distribution, wave packet, pauli matrices, etc, including references I put in (scale invariance) summary deleted only to be supplanted by requests for references templates? I understand. I have to play "nice". I'll leave the bellicose talk to the cold record and invite the readership to advise me on how they would have responded to the rampage. Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 17:44, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

It is not true that i reverted all above articles (only the first 2), the other articles were just reference taggings, at scale invarience Cuzkatzimhut defends a link to scholarpedia, just the page ofc, no pointers what so ever. To call this a rampage you need to ignore Wikipedia rules.prokaryotes (talk) 18:13, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Aug 13, contris: UT 17:37, 17:47, 17:09, 17:33, 17:48, 18:38, 22:06, 22:38. In that streak, to unjustifiably eschew "rampage", no pages appear to have anyone but me as the last editor. I now appreciate this may well be a part of an aspirational project to tag all technical WP pages with "missing citations" tags? As for myself, I am so nice I have nothing to say. Just behold. Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 18:49, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with tagging recent edits of articles based of 1 editors edit history.prokaryotes (talk) 18:51, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Nothing against it in WP rules, sure. Now, then, close examination of the gratuitous deletions and destruction of content and formatting (red links) accompanying those tags will also let the reader decide what is "wrong" or not. Ad hominem attacks on Yohan when he reverts your reversions is probably also within the purview of the system. The systematic pattern, however, is undeniable: I am baffled you declare yourself its anapologetic practitioner. Is that a warning to everyone here to not call your bluff on that scalar field theory reference? You think everyone will be bullied?? Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 19:56, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

@Prokaryotes: WP:SCG is the standing general guidance on recommended citation practice in technical science articles. Is it something you have had a chance to look at, and would you see yourself in broad agreement with it? Jheald (talk) 08:15, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

SCG is exactly covering my edit motives. prokaryotes (talk) 08:24, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

It is my feeling that Yohan and Cuzkatzimhut are thinking of their practice as falling under Wikipedia:Scientific_citation_guidelines#Uncontroversial_knowledge. Kingsindian ♝♚ 10:49, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• 19 August 2015 Edior YohanN7 keeps removing content and references with a battleground behavior. The editor does not assumes good faith, in his edit he states "Revert vandalism" DIF prokaryotes (talk) 18:42, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

I fear the summary peremptoriness of the original revert today, could give grounds to assume lack of courtesy. I implore, in the talkpage, to desist from reverts (and the required counter-reverts) before reaching some consensus on the talk page. Importantly, the crucial, and much needed references were just gratuitously degraded and yanked out with the bathwater. All this in the wake of hectoring, for 6 days, about the need for meticulous referencing? The changes so blandly smeared were, in fact, salutary and helped the reader. if only the reverter could explain why they hinder him instead of helping him in the talkpage? Why should the readers of the page not benefit from referenced background? Why? Why?Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 18:54, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

A technical note: I did not state "Revert vandalism" when I did the + 1075 edit as the suspect claims. In that edit, a sole sentence (because it made no sense in the context) together with a to the article irrelevant reference was removed. I stated "revert vandalism" only when it was true, i.e. the time after the suspects revert of my edit adding solid referenced (Steven Weinberg) content. YohanN7 (talk) 19:08, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Another response from YohanN7, "Suspect vandal already at ANI whining. I removed one sentence of gibberish of his and a totally irrelevant "reference." DIF - Notice that he removed article structure in his recent edits and is reluctant to properly or at all, reference his edits per Wikipedia guidelines. prokaryotes (talk) 19:15, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Don't lie to the judge my friend. As a blind monkey can see, I referenced my edit with a real reference. Weinberg QFT vol. I in one spot and Weinberg vol. II in another spot. YohanN7 (talk) 19:43, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Another response from YohanN7, "...the vandal would have reverted every any any edit of mine. In fact, I am almost entirely sure he never read it. As for the reference I removed, it is a "perfectly normal paper" (except it is l-o-n-g), but certainly not dedicated to scalar field theory. The whole thing is just a set-up." DIF Notice that YohanN7 has reverted around 10 edits of mien (all linked in this section), i reverted 2 or 3 edits of him. prokaryotes (talk) 19:25, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

The simple reason being that none of my edits should be reverted, while most of your edits have been rubbish, needing a revert. You are vandalizing, and that is it. YohanN7 (talk) 19:43, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Another response from YohanN7, "Don't lie. You can lie when you cry at the ANI, but not here. My edit did not lack references." DIFprokaryotes (talk) 19:52, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

This is the real diff of my edit my friend. Don't try such cheap tricks. The judge, even if a paper shuffler of your liking, will not like your lying. YohanN7 (talk) 20:10, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

That paper, is, as YohanN asserts, definitely not an illuminating review on scalar field theory, by any scholarly standard. The recursive tendentiousness underlying these (by now) routine reverts certainly suggests a setup. The statistical counting is magnificently specious: let the reader look at the size of the reverts. Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 19:30, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Original research by IP 2601:4C1:C001:1878:D16B:6CA7:37BB:F6B9 (and several other addresses)

An IP user keeps adding original research to Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, despite discussions why this is wrong on the article Talk and user's own pages. This person never acknowledges OR or synthesis, just talks about "censorship" of what he considers "common sense" and increases the complexity of his argument on the article page, adding more and more sources, none of which verifies his thesis. Person also switches to several different IP addresses (sockpuppetry?), though I have no proof this is deliberate. He has also made recent similarly contentious edits to Italian sausage, reverted by another editor.

2601:4c1:c001:1878:b8ca:e339:1f3b:7ed8 (talk · contribs) 19 June:Special:Diff/666807252/667575426

2601:4c1:c001:1878:d969:4c02:c5e0:1822 (talk · contribs) 10 July: Special:Diff/669242714/670769577

2601:4c1:c001:1878:c00f:507a:d436:ce86 (talk · contribs) 11 July: Special:Diff/670828010/670984416 Source used for the above is Astronauts Wives Club (book), on which I obtained consensus as unreliable on Reliable Sources noticeboard. After I was able to check this book, I found absolutely no reference to what the user was saying.

68.46.226.6 (talk · contribs) 17 July: Special:Diff/671287921/671805064 and following; obviously same editor starts misusing an already-used reliable source to make it appear to say what it doesn't in fact say.

2601:4c1:c001:1878:cc45:c492:4758:9370 (talk · contribs) 10 August: Special:Diff/674386723/675453615 User now starts to construct his increasingly elaborate argument with sources which don't support his claim, except by his own synthesis.

2601:4c1:c001:1878:d16b:6ca7:37bb:f6b9 (talk · contribs) 13 August: Special:Diff/675506264/675856593 At this point, I have started to warn him on his own talk page.

2601:4c1:c001:1878:d16b:6ca7:37bb:f6b9 (talk · contribs) 14 August: Special:Diff/675936899/675999116

JustinTime55 (talk) 17:30, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

IP Address 68.46.226.6 shows edits consistent with this same IP user. Same articles, same rationale. Editor located in same area too according to Geolocator. 2601:240:C501:3C40:28F3:97FF:F1E4:D19 (talk) 17:21, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment, D19. But no admins seem to have weighed in yet, after four days. Can we have some more comment? Can anything be done in terms of a block of this user, or page protection, or ??? I realize there's lots more exciting drama here on other threads, but I don't want to just see this get archived with no action. JustinTime55 (talk) 20:39, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'd suggest page protection (since the IP keeps changing), and if no one further replies, just make a request at WP:RFPP. -- Orduin ^Discuss 20:47, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Mass salting

Could someone please create-protect all the articles created by Ramzan Kadiryan, SizinGünbəzDoqquz, and MER HAYRENIK? Socks of KunoxTxa keep recreating the articles, some as many as six times. Thanks, Conifer (talk) 09:22, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

I think User:Shirt58 is already on it. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 10:04, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Can someone please provide me with a list, by email if desired. I am looking at this sockmaster for other reasons. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 13:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

@Rich Farmbrough: Deletions for MER HAYRENIK here (tagged with the username), for SizinGünbəzDoqquz here (tagged G5, KunoxTxa). I don't have comprehensive list for Ramzan Kadiryan, unfortunately. Sir Sputnik (talk) 03:10, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll build this information in tomorrow, semi-protecting these would be sensible instead/as well. I am picking up a lot from existing EF logs too. The red-linked players from FC Pyunic are already in the EF, even the Armenian WP does not have articles about them yet (except one). All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 03:29, 20 August 2015 (UTC).

Many problems with cut and paste merger without discussion (several articles)

Editor Lfstevens recently manually cut and pasted several pages. However, as i pointed out, the merging of several articles lacks in many regards (subjective content deletion, rewrite of lede per none RS, selective reference removal, just to name a few issues). The user edit history contains many summaries with merge, all appear to be not in line with WP procedure. The user also was notified on his talk page on August 12 by editor shoy to follow WP:Merge and contact admin Moonriddengirl, which he didn't. I also asked the editor to respond on his talk page. prokaryotes (talk) 11:33, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

I have limited time right now but have left a note at his talk page explaining the situation a bit more completely and asking him to assist with one of the recent issues. A glance shows that this may be a widespread issue in need of repair, but further assessment is needed there. I think it's worth emphasizing to people that this attribution is a legal requirement and mandatory under our Terms of Use. There is an effort to attribute at [275]; I believe this is a good faith effort, although inconsistent as this is also copied, but without attribution. It should be reparable, as long as Lfstevens is willing to assist.

I would very much like to know which administrator he has been working with and references here. I do not see edits to any user talk page other than his own in recent history, or to Wikipedia space or engagement on the issue at any article talk pages. If there is an admin who was notified of "the whole mess" and didn't advise, I'd like to be sure said admin is conscious of the legal issues as well. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 12:31, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi folks. I am just about through with the editing process on a bunch of articles about the Sun. Before beginning, I requested feedback on the project on the talk pages of the major articles involved. The only feedback I got was encouragement. I did not contact an administrator when requested because I had not finished and therefore was unsure of exactly what admin help was required and didn't want to waste anyone's time. I plan only a couple of additional changes at this point. In the end, three existing articles ended up as redirects, one of which has already had its history moved. Most of my changes were moves, rather than copies. Finally, most of my pastes also involved revisions along the way, if that matters.

Sorry for any violations that may have ensued. I am happy to do whatever I can to remedy any problems. I hope that doesn't involve reverting everything. I'm surprised that in all my 10ks of edits I've never run into this before (either as an editor or as an observer). Always more to learn. Lfstevens (talk) 16:06, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Please do the following: Tag the destination page's talk page with , and the source page's talk page with . Place these tags at the top of the talk pages. -- from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Merging#How_to_merge However, it is unclear at this point if a merge must be reverted. If you use sources, links to other wiki websites are not sufficient.

prokaryotes (talk) 16:16, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

I generally retained the sources from the original articles, which generally did not use wiki sources. To summarize, for material that was copied from one article to another, I should used {{copied}} and for material that was moved, I should use {{merge-to/from}}. And for the redirects, the history should be moved. Is that correct? Lfstevens (talk) 16:23, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Re other wiki websites: The edit about you adding links to wiki websites to the lede, can be found here. Someone has to go to all your related activities and assess your decisions when you removed or added content. prokaryotes (talk) 16:28, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Not trying to be obtuse, but I don't see any use of wiki sources in that edit. The refs were to external sites (merriam webster, etc.) Are you referring to the File? Lfstevens (talk) 16:34, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Both links are not reliable (they don't cite any sources, and we do not link to other dictionaries or Enceclopedia. Please read WP:RS, additionally carefully read WP:OR. The lede is wrong, Solar irradiance (also Insolation -- this is not in the cited sources and could be considered original research. prokaryotes (talk) 16:43, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Those links were in the Insolation article where I found the material. Lfstevens (talk) 17:01, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Please explain why you think Insolation and Solar irradiance should be merged, do you have any source for this? According to some websites these are two different things. prokaryotes (talk) 17:10, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

From the version I merged: "Insolation (from Latin insolare, to expose to the sun)[1][2] is the power per unit area produced by the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation. It is also called solar irradiation." (I would so much rather have had this discussion before I did the work. Where were you then?) Lfstevens (talk) 17:21, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

You can hardly complain now when you did a merger without a merger discussion. I guess you just merged the pages because you thought it might be okay, but you have not researched each subject to be sure. prokaryotes (talk) 18:08, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Lfstevens, no deletion should be necessary, as long as the content is properly attributed now. But it does require that you acknowledge the copying in edit summary, and it does require (where taking is extensive) acknowledgement of the copying on the talk pages of the articles. Where content is merged, the template used above is a good idea. Where it's just copied, {{copied}} is the way to go. Even if you modify the content, you have to attribute to meet the requirements of our licenses. The question of whether isolation and solar irradiance should be merged is really a content discussion and likely best at the article's talk page or at personal talk page. Administrative intervention is not need there, at least at this stage, but we do need to address the copyright issues. (Even if a merger is reverted, for attribution history, the edit summary should be used.) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 18:23, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Apparently the user is well aware of merging, see this past edit. I'd like to point out that a merger on these solar articles is a good idea, but he needs to add the required data as mentioned above, and should respond on the talk page about his merge edits. Thanks. prokaryotes (talk) 19:31, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

• Mergers include There is this merger from Solar variation into Solar cycle (See in particular this old content), and a merger from Insolation into Solar irradiance (See also talk page there), and moved Solar and celestial effects on climate to Orbital effects on climate and Solar and celestial effects on climate, and then moved content to new article Solar activity and climate.prokaryotes (talk) 19:38, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps we're getting to closure here. If I understand the rules, what I need to do is:

- use {{merge-to}}/{{merge-from}} on Solar irradiance/Insolation and Solar phenomenon/Solar activity. Administrators will handle the history merge. - use {{copied}} on Solar cycle X, Solar cycle (to Solar phenomenon and Solar activity and climate), Solar activity and Sunspot (to Solar cycle and Solar activity and climate) and Solar irradiance to Solar activity and climate. Happy to make those changes, once they are confirmed. Please let me know of any other things needed. Lfstevens (talk) 06:59, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I looked more closely at the merger of 3 articles and it appears that it is basically okay, though there night be an issue with Solar irradiance and insolation, but this might be covered at one place. There are still some problems, as mentioned above, but i think this can be worked out. When you have specific questions about merging i can only point you to the guides, also linked above. You should at least add the templates to the talk pages, i guess this would resolve the copyright concerns too.prokaryotes (talk) 01:31, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks prokaryotes and Moonriddengirl for sorting this out. shoy (reactions) 13:11, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

What should I do about Tor exit nodes?

When I blocked 2C0F:F930:0:3:0:0:0:221 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) for persistent vandalism today, they kindly informed me that the IP is a Tor exit node. What's that supposed to mean to me? That blocking them is pointless? Bishonen | talk 14:20, 16 August 2015 (UTC).

@Bishonen: It means that it's an exit point for totally anonymous encrypted edits, like an open proxy where even the ones who operate the proxy don't know the real IP of the people using the proxy. And since Tor exit points per WP:Tor should be blocked on sight, it was a good block. Thomas.W ^talk 14:33, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

@Thomas.W: Aren't Tor exit nodes auto-blocked? --QEDK ♠ T ♥ C 14:34, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Tom. It's possible they weren't telling the truth, QEDK. Maybe they know an ignorant admin when they see one, and were having some fun. Anyway, the user will flit elsewhere, I expect. Sigh. Bishonen | talk 14:38, 16 August 2015 (UTC).

(edit conflict) @QEDK: Usually, yes, but no detection system is 100% accurate. Thomas.W ^talk 14:40, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict)@Thomas.W: Oh, so that is it. --QEDK ♠ T ♥ C 15:01, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Genuine ToR nodes don't usually get auto-blocked, but they do get IP blocked as fast as we find them. (I don't know how we find them, but there is someone maintaining a list somewhere.) ToR nodes can be used by people from repressive regimes, both to browse and to edit. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 21:43, 16 August 2015 (UTC).

Which can be a good thing, that's why there's WP:IPBE. FoCuS contribs; talk to me! 22:09, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Tor exit nodes are transitory, however part of the protocol involved keeping a full and up to date list. A copy can be seen here: [276]. Chillum 17:42, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Undiscussed nationalistically motivated page move on Vladimir the Great

A number of IPs have recently, without prior discussion and support on the talk page of the article, changed every instance of the name Vladimir the Great, the common name in English, to the Ukrainian version of the name, Volodymyr in the article, and minutes ago EricLewan, who, judging by their talk page and contributions, have been repeatedly edit-warring over the name Kiev/Kyiv on multiple articles, moved the article, again without prior discussion and support on the talk page, from Vladimir the Great to Volodymyr Sviatoslavych, a name that is totally unknown to English speakers. So I request both a move back to the original name (which I can't do since it was done over a redirect), and full move protection until the matter has been settled on the talk page, the way it should have been done before the move.

I would also welcome a discussion here about both the name of the article and the, to me at least, seemingly organised attempts by several editors to both change all mentions of names that are even loosely connected to the Ukraine, both of cities and of historical persons and entities, to the modern day Ukrainian versions of them, even though for example Vladimir the Great and Kievan Rus' predate both the Ukraine and the Ukrainian language as we know it by several hundred years. Thomas.W ^talk 16:15, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I moved it back, per the previous talk page consensus at a requested move. You don't need admin powers to undo a page move. BethNaught (talk) 16:24, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I tried to move it, but the system wouldn't let me do it. Moves over a redirect often require admin powers, BTW, to remove/delete the redirect and make way for the move... Thomas.W ^talk 16:28, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

I am aware of that; this case falls into the limited exception. Strange it didn't work for you though, since it worked for me and I'm not an admin. BethNaught (talk) 16:31, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

If the redirect has been edited after the move, you need to be an admin to move it back; not otherwise. I don't know how the system could have stopped you, Tom. What exactly happened? Bishonen | talk 16:35, 16 August 2015 (UTC).

I got a message that said that the page had been moved back, even though it obviously hadn't been. (If the name of Vladimir the Great should be changed to the original name it wouldn't be the modern day Ukrainian version of the name, BTW, but to Valdemar Sveinarsson, since he was Scandinavian, not Ukrainian...) Thomas.W ^talk 16:42, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Just guessing, but you might have hit the undo button, which will give you an erroneous "The edit appears to have already been undone." Along with "You may have attempted to undo a pagemove or protection action; these cannot be undone this way." Instead of hitting undo, you should have hit the move button. Just guessing, but that was usually what I saw happen. (Used to do a lot of page move undo's back in the day). Rgrds. --64.85.217.37 (talk) 10:52, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Well, that's possible since I was a bit upset when I did it. The reason I was upset was that I very much dislike attempts to falsify history, such as the repeated attempts to make Vladimir the Great a Ukrainian, even though there was no such thing as a Ukrainian people or a Ukrainian language back then. The Ukraine is also far from the only present day country that can rightfully claim descent from the Rus'. Thomas.W ^talk 12:18, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Rangeblock request to contain excessive sockpuppetry by User:KunoxTxa

This was recently discussed at SPI, and deemed to be not feasible, but I think it needs to be revisited. Their sockpuppetry has grown to frankly ridiculous proportions since then, with no fewer than twenty-two (!!) suspected sockpuppets being blocked in the last six weeks.

This has lead to the repeated deletion, and create protection of a significant number of articles. Add to that the editor's own statement of intending to continue indefinitely, and I think we've gotten to the point were even some level of collateral damage caused by a range block is preferable to allowing the disruption from this editor to continue. Sir Sputnik (talk) 21:43, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Many of these haven't edited. It would take some analysis to see the type of edits and establish if it's worth setting up an edit filter. A range block would require checkuser info, and does sound like it would not be a good idea. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 20:31, 17 August 2015 (UTC).

@Rich Farmbrough: Check their deleted edits. The creation of inappropriate articles is one of the hallmarks of this editor. Sir Sputnik (talk) 20:49, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I have a limited view of deleted edits, not being an admin at the moment. I have set up a draft edit filter entitled Armenian football vandal, but there's more work needed to make it truly effective. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 03:21, 20 August 2015 (UTC).

Possible legal threat at Jerry Speziale

Is this a legal threat? I also received this note from a different, just-registered user on my talk page this morning, which may be related. The article has had legal threats made over it previously, see previous ANI thread and the recent discussion at COIN for context. SPAs and apparent COI editing has been a huge headache on this article - it was semi-protected for 6 months yesterday. Fyddlestix (talk) 22:03, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

• The first diff, IMO, is not a legal threat, but a request to clean up what they believe if defamatory material. The second is closer to the line, but probably still under it as there is no overt threat to go to court, nor a thinly veiled threat. It's probably connected to the COI issue, and based on the language used in all, probably socks. You may have better luck at WP:SPI. GregJackP Boomer! 22:30, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

There is now [277] and [278]. Zarcusian (talk) 15:15, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• All of those comments qualify as legal threats under Wikipedia guidelines. The users posting them must be blocked. However, it would behoove someone to investigate whether the complaints have merit in terms of BLP rules. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:08, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

@Mdann52: removed some material from the article yesterday, I think (though I'm making an assumption here) in response to an OTRS complaint. Even then, I think the problem was that the general tone or balance of the article was too negative rather than that there were any BLP violations as such. Never hurts to have someone heretofore uninvolved look it over though.

As I mentioned above and at COIN, this article has a long history of someone putting a lot of effort into making it read like a PR piece, I think we are very likely dealing with that same person or persons here. Fyddlestix (talk) 18:08, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Just to note, the changes were done completely in my personal volunteer capacity, as opposed to any sort of OTRS action or edit request made via that channel. Mdann52 (talk) 20:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying Mdann52, sorry for jumping to that conclusion! Fyddlestix (talk) 20:33, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• This is a definate legal threat. The rest of the comments have a chilling effect, intended or otherwise. -- Orduin ^Discuss 20:35, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

User:Mqst north

This user continually ignores consensus thinking that his way is the only way. This has been discussed with him on his talk page at User talk:Mqst north#A bit of free advice and the following paragraph also applies following his incorrectly accusing editors who disagree with as sockpuppets. In Talk:Bomaderry railway station#Platform allocations discussion has been taking place concerning changes he has made to that article. He has totally ignored consensus and has continued making similar changes to other stations removing templates which are accepted as being used in stations worldwide and replacing them with his own verbage.Kiama railway station has been totally ruined by him in this way. He has added good historic information but this should not be done at the expense of other information. I believe his attitude in this and other articles such as WestConnex where he has for a third time deleted an infobox against consensus is totally unacceptable in Wikipedia.Fleet Lists (talk) 06:32, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I was under the impression we were reaching agreement on the specifics at the relevant talk pages. Clearly, you regard my suspicions of sock puppetry/meatpuppetry to be a personal attack, and interpreted it as an escalation, but I think there is a reasonable prima facie case to be made there. In any case, this is not an appropriate place to litigate that issue. Mqst north (talk) 07:27, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

We were close to reaching agreement on one point only and that was the non enclyclopedic nature of having full bus route lists within each station. But no agreement or consensus whatsoever on the removal of the universally used templates which define services and neighbouring stations and hence such changes should not be continued until some agreement or consensus is reached. Hence this report or your continual ignoring of wikipedia procedures. It has nothing to do with the sockpuppet allegations about me and User talk:JCN217 although they certainly do not improve our relationship.Fleet Lists (talk) 08:24, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Violation of 1RR on sanctioned article.

User:Jason_from_nyc Has violated the 1RR rule on Margret Sanger, an sanctioned article. He has reverted edits by more than three editors simultaneously. This is becoming a problem as Jason has been pushing against the controversies section for the notably controversial activist and has used his ability of completely ignoring the 1RR to seriously cripple any chance of the article maintaining any neutrality. Chrononem ☎ 12:08, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't understand the complaint. I have discussed and achieved a consensus in the talk for my changes. I have objected to Chrononem's original research and others have agreed. I have left a comment on Chrononem's talk about about his original research and refusal to provide secondary sources. I will be away for most of the day but would like to know exactly what Chrononem is talking about so that I can respond Jason from nyc (talk) 12:22, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't think WP:1RR has been violated. At any rate, a report like this should be at WP:AE because the article (according to boxes at the top of Talk:Margaret Sanger) is under discretionary sanctions. I didn't examine the diff but it superficially seems ok, and Jason from nyc is making a lot of sense on the talk page. A very quick look makes me wonder if this edit is reasonable—are you sure that someone working in the early 1900s was doing anything like the bad things that a modern interpretation of "eugenics" entails? Johnuniq (talk) 12:25, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

My edit was reasonable as I was restoring two good edits along with the bad one. Arxiloxos was doing the same thing as Jason except he stopped when he was told of the 1RR in place. If you examine the diff in the articles you'll see that he reverted multiple edits by at least three editors. All I ask is that he be warned about the 1RR by someone with authority and told to restrict his reversions to one per day. Chrononem ☎ 12:37, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

You're getting confused by the term 1RR. Under 1RR restrictions, a person is allowed one revert in a 24-hour period; it doesn't matter how many edits were caught in that revert, they have still only reverted once. That doesn't mean that revert was correct or anything, but reverting 3 edits (as an example) in one action is not breaking 1RR. Therefore, Jason_from_nyc did not break 1RR - Happysailor ^(Talk) 15:39, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Also, is 24.216.168.184 you editing logged out? Looking at a post on your talk page where you said you reverted multiple times, it suggests that it's you. If it is, you reverted twice in 3 hours on a 1RR article... - Happysailor ^(Talk) 15:50, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

1RR requires that you do not make two reverting edits in a 24-hour period. As you made a revert at 22:23 on 16 August (UTC), your revert at 15:49 on 17 August was a breach of 1RR. NebY (talk) 17:16, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

This discussion made me guess that blocks would be inappropriate: like 3RR blocks, 1RR blocks should be handed out when people are reverting instead of discussing, or reverting while discussing, but here it looked like people were discussing instead of reverting. However, the page history showed me that lots of people were edit-warring, and while not too many were violating 1RR, we had a multi-sided edit war on our hands, so I just protected the whole thing (see "Content disputes" near the top of WP:FPP) for 24 hours. As I said at the talk page, just come to my talk page to request uncontroversial changes, whether typo fixes or simple factual things, or to ask me to lengthen/shorten/remove the protection. Nyttend (talk) 18:44, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I inadvertently made one revert logged out, you can see it was me by the summary. and I wasn't intending to have to make an additional reversion so I was not timing my edits to avoid two in 22 hours. Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding of the 1RR rule if I had understood that an editor could remove many edits I would not have made an additional reversion myself. With this new information I can see that good part of the edit war was a result of my own ignorance. Chrononem ☎ 18:51, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Notification of suspicious behavior by administrator

I have been engaged with Admin JzG/Guy (he does not have a user page - this is his talk page) over the content of two articles, one I created and one I tried to help edit. I have experienced what appears to be a suspicious pattern of behavior that I wanted to share with the group, in the hopes that I can get help and clarification, or at the very least get consensus to put this to rest. If I am wrong for posting this activity here I apologize in advance, but cannot let this go without at least trying to highlight administrative behavior that I feel is at best inconsistent with the spirit of Wikipedia, and at worst harmful to Wikipedia, through what can only be referred to as censorship.

I came across the Academy of Achievement article when I read this Steve Jobs article [[279]] in The Business Insider. It includes a recording of the acceptance speech he gave for an award he received from the Academy on June 26, 1982. I'd never heard of the group or the award, so of course I went right to Wikipedia to learn more. This was the state of the article when I found it: [[280]] There was no information about Steve Jobs, and after reading this article which was one of the sources, [[281]], I realized the article was missing a lot of info. But it was quickly apparent the article itself had issues. There was a history of disclosed paid editing and some patterns of what also appeared to be additional paid editing. Many of the sources were listed as PDFs on an Amazon server, which is something no independent editor would have access to. It also appeared that admin JzG/Guy had nominated the article in March 6 2007 for deletion. The motion was rejected, but I see in the talk that the idea has come up again. I naively thought that I could repair the article, replace the PDFs with proper sources and add information justifying notability, so that when I was done, there would be no question that the group was worthy of inclusion on Wikipedia. I added a direct quote from the Wall Street Journal to the lede "The organization hosts an annual International Achievement Summit, a gathering of speakers and panelists which the Wall Street Journal called 'perhaps the glitziest gathering of intellect and celebrity that no one has ever heard of.'" This was intended to establish the context for readers, and to show that the group eschewed publicity, which is why the group was not more familiar to us. I also wanted to put in information about the awardees and speakers, since they are all notable, are all on Wikipedia and are all mentioned in mainstream press coverage. You can see that my edits were removed, and the article was gutted to a state even more sparse than I found it. I politely asked the admin to discuss before reverting, and restored the content. Properly sourced content shouldn't be removed by an administrator who has in the past made it clear he doesn't want the article on the site. I restored the content, asked for consensus but it was removed again. Only this time JzG/Guy also added some vandalism - he put in as the Academy motto "po" which I assume was supposed to mock me for being "pissed off", only I wasn't. I restored the content, politely templated his user page and asked him to refrain from possible vandalism. He restored the content, vandalism and all, and apparently started a COI investigation into me. I spent several days defending myself against charges that my editing history suggested a non-neutral point of view. I tried to bring in another editor (a disclosed paid editor) who I thought was fair and would help me in my efforts, and to my surprise he agreed with JzG/Guy and gutted the article.

I realize now in retrospect that it is unlikely that a disclosed paid editor would stand up to an admin who has a history of striking content from the site. But is this kind of herd mentality good for Wikipedia? Nonetheless, I wrote a final note on the talk page and decided to move on.

That was apparently not enough for JzG/Guy. In what can only be considered a form of retribution, he just removed all the sources from an article I wrote last year Dave Kurlan, including Inc, Business Week and Huffington Post articles, and after waiting a few days, flagged the article for deletion, saying it had no sources. I just restored the sources and asked that the article be judged in its original form, rather than the heavily gutted version JzG/Guy wants people to see and judge. I can also look for more sources - Googling Dave Kurlan brings up a lot of content.

In the big scheme of things, these two articles aren't going to make or break Wikipedia, but admins targeting volunteers with vindictive edits and bullying cannot be in the spirit that Jimmy Wales had in mind. I bring this to the attention of the group and await consensus.TechnoTalk (talk) 19:59, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

That's not vindictiveness; User:CorporateM was completely correct in removing the primary-sourced material from the article in question. Wikipedia only repeats content from reliable sources and doesn't work from either original research or primary sources—a Wikipedia article should only include what significant and reliable media outlets say about the topic, not what the topic says about themselves. ‑ iridescent 20:17, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I have no comment on the situation described above, but it is wrong to say WP does not use primary sources. We fully allow primary sources, though put more value in information that extends from secondary sources and delete articles that only can be sourced to primary material. But articles can include primary along with secondary sources. --MASEM (t) 20:20, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Not in this context; All analyses and interpretive or synthetic claims about primary sources must be referenced to a secondary source, and must not be an original analysis of the primary-source material by Wikipedia editors if you want policy chapter and verse. Primary sources are valid for "He said xxx on his own website" type comments, but not for commentary. ‑ iridescent 20:23, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Obviously in the case above, yes we can't use primary, but your statement implied that no primary sources may be used anywhere, which is not true; they have to be used with care and with more weight given to secondary. --MASEM (t) 20:27, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

No comment on the merits, but our rules require you to notify users that you report on this board. I have taken the liberty to notify JzG of this thread. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 20:18, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I flagged Guy's page with the notification template - it appears on the top of his talk page. Did I not do it right? Sorry - I'm trying to follow the rules.TechnoTalk (talk) 01:01, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

It usually would go at the bottom, as a new message. That's why I missed it. No worries either way. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 12:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• This seems more like an attempt to lay a smoke screen covering your own behaviour than a legitimate complaint. Anyone and everyone who files a report here can expect to have their own behaviour scrutinised too, so let's start by informing the readers here that you received a formal notice a week ago about Wikipedia's conflict of interest rules, because of being under suspicion of engaging in undisclosed paid editing. With the reason given in the notice being "You have created a series of somewhat promotional articles on companies and people, some of which have been the subject of confirmed promotional editing in the past. This is the pattern of paid editing in Wikipedia.". Just so that people here know what this is about. Thomas.W ^talk 20:21, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I can't see evidence of bullying. I can however see evidence of experienced contributors removing poorly-sourced puffery from articles TechnoTalk has contributed to. I suggest this thread be closed for lack of evidence that JzG has done anything wrong. AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:22, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• Uninvolved editor comment, and several observations. The history of Academy of Achivement shows it to be under near-constant attack by COI editors and spammers. If you are not another COI editor (as you claim), then we can forgive JzG for thinking you were. A lot of your "sources" are from YouTube or their own website, and it is just a list of names that have spoken, a common spammer tactic. Furthermore, both Jytdog and CorporateM have tried to help you on your talk page and the AA talk page, and you have mostly resisted their efforts. As for JzG's part, his comment on your talk page You have virtually no history on Wikipedia. I, on the other hand, have been here a long time - see (admin toolbox). smacks of pulling rank. What we have here is essentially a slow-moving edit war where the participants are not cooperating with eachother. Bottom line: TechnoTalk: you need to become more acquainted with the rules here, and when you feel proficient, come back to the talk page with proposed changes, and do not make them to the article yet. Just put them up for discussion, and see if the others feel it needs tweaking. When there is consensus, you should add the changes. KonveyorBelt 20:23, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I didn't "pull rank", I posted JzG (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), which allows the user to check my entire history there and then and establish whether I genuinely do have the experience to be able to judge. Nothing else. Guy (Help!) 22:33, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• I think the community should consider a boomerang here. At least three experienced editors have tried to advise this editor that their editing is promotional and that they need to slow down and learn what NPOV means, and all that is coming back is WP:IDHT, and now this bogus ANI filing. I did not get involved in the content dispute, but did discuss COI matters with TechnoTalk and reviewed their overall edits in the course of that. I think it may take a short block to get TechnoTalk to stop and listen. Jytdog (talk) 20:26, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• I'm willing to assume good faith for the moment. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that someone would find the topic interesting and decide to bulk it out, without realizing that promotional sources aren't usable, and "new editor gets overly defensive when their edits are reverted" would hardly be a first. If the OP is a spammer, he's just learned that Wikipedia is better at spotting them than we're commonly given credit for; if he's a good faith editor, give him a chance to prove it. ‑ iridescent 20:31, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

My participation in this article was as a result of @TechnoTalk: asking for my input on my Talk page. He felt JzG was treating him unfairly by labeling content as promotion, whereas I felt that not nearly enough promotion had been removed. This version of the article contained language like "a gathering of speakers and panelists which the Wall Street Journal called "perhaps the glitziest gathering of intellect and celebrity that no one has ever heard of,"[2] and the Washington Post called "one of the world's most dazzling gatherings of international celebrities." I felt this was highly inappropriate for Wikipedia and mentioned the advice at Wikipedia:Quotations, that quoting sources directly are often used to introduce non-neutral language that is not appropriate for an encyclopedia. I was disappointed to see TechnoTalk restore this content without discussion and against consensus.

I am not sure if Techno's claims to being a disinterested party are credible. This contains many of the classic signs of promotional paid editing, such as an undue emphasis on awards and "In the News"-type information. His work on the Academy page also contains similar behavioral patterns.

I haven't seen any recent deletion discussions, so I'm confused by this reference. My only minor quip with JzG is that the way he mentioned being an admin was probably not appropriate, but this is still a boomerang situation. CorporateM (Talk) 20:38, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Let's just indef TechnoTalk as WP:NOTHERE and terms of use violations and move on. This is clearly an undisclosed paid editor, perfectly fitting the pattern, and a bad paid editor at that. Bonus troll points for telling Guy to "get a life." Winner 42 Talk to me! 21:18, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I agree, looks like BOMMERANG material to me. BMK (talk) 21:40, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

You don't "politely template" an admin's page. GAB^Hello! 21:45, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

GAB - statements like this do concern me. Templating an admin is no different than templating another user. CorporateM (Talk) 23:46, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

@CorporateM: Perhaps so. But it's not very helpful when you're trying to tell someone specifically what they did wrong. GAB^Hello! 23:53, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

There is "suspicious behavior" here, but on your part, as evidenced by some of those diffs. I suggest a boomerang is in order. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 22:26, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• I think everyone has worked out what's going on here. The history of the article pretty much speaks for itself. This request indicates the OP's poor judgment, IMO. And I am pretty confident that the OP's decision to take on this article was not a coincidence. Guy (Help!) 22:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Nobody except GAB has addressed the administrative vandalism (yes I see the unintended irony). I used the mildest notification template, per the template instructions, and then the next higher level when the vandalism was replicated. I think that's as polite as one can be given the circumstances. From this brief response sample, which I appreciate everyone taking the time to submit, it appears that I'm in the minority. It does not seem to bother anyone that an admin nominated an article for deletion after removing the primary sources showing notability, and that the action appears to be retaliatory for pointing out prior possible vandalism on an earlier article. If it's easier for you to reject my concerns by labeling me as a paid editor and saying I'm throwing up a smokescreen, so be it, but you can look at my edit history and see that I've had no issues with the site before this. None of my handful of articles were flagged for COI or NPOV - and everything was patrolled. Consider the context of this sudden crackdown on my site contributions. Just like that I became a bad editor?TechnoTalk (talk) 22:38, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• If you are going to accuse someone of vandalism, you need to provide proper evidence, not a confusing wall of text. Please do as requested at the top of this page, and provide a diff so we can see what you are referring to. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:47, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
• No, you didn't become a bad editor "just like that", your editing history shows that you've been a "bad editor" since August of last year, your early editing history also shows that you with all probability weren't a new editor when you created your account. So what other accounts have you used before you created the current one? Thomas.W ^talk 23:08, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Since TechnoTalk has suggested that we look at his edit history, I'd like to see what contributors think of Black Book Market Research, which he also created. I'd have to suggest that it appears distinctly promotional, and over-reliant on primary sources. The claims to notability seem to be based on "rankings [that] have been mentioned and referenced" in sources, rather than on in-depth coverage of the company itself. The company might possibly meet our notability guidelines, but an article like this doesn't seem at all appropriate. AndyTheGrump (talk) 23:38, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

That's the one I was thinking of when I wrote that he's been a "bad editor" since August of last year, the Black Book article was created in his sandbox on 1 August last year, with the preparations starting on 25 July 2014, when he copied an existing article and pasted it into his sandbox for use as a template. New editors with only a dozen edits don't do things like that. And before that he had spent four of that dozen edits on an article where he showed that he knew how to pipe internal links from scratch (i.e. not just modifying an existing link). Another thing new users don't do. Thomas.W ^talk 23:48, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I haven't written any articles from scratch. Everything is a cut and paste. You'll see in my edit history that I've made some mistakes and forgot to replace old info. Here's where Guy put in the motto as being "po".[[282]] At first I thought it was an inadvertent typo but I pointed it out and he put it back in, and has refused to acknowledge or explain it. It seems an odd place to have a careless typo. I had moved on to other things when he started challenging my old articles - this is my reaction to system-enabled unfairness.TechnoTalk (talk) 01:01, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

"At first I thought it was an inadvertent typo". Yup. "I pointed it out and he put it back in, and has refused to acknowledge or explain it"? Where? All I can find are edit summaries making vague accusations of 'vandalism', and a post to Guy's talk page doing the same thing. Where exactly did you point out to Guy that he'd added a couple of stray characters to the infobox while deleting something else? AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:08, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Quick timeline. Typo introduced in this diff followed by TechnoTalk's removal. Guy's subsequent reversion of TechnoTalk's edits that added puffery also inadevertently reintroduced the typo, which Technotalk then removed again leading to the vandalism warning. Blackmane (talk) 02:44, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Closure review: Antidiskriminator's topic ban appeal

Hello all,

Here I closed a discussion concerning the topic ban of Antidiskriminator with: "There is, at this point, no consensus to remove or alter Antidiskriminator's topic ban. Several editors have thrown around ideas (probation, etc.), but that is moot if Antidiskriminator cannot demonstrate that he both understands why he was topic banned in the first place (blaming others, as if they have a vendetta out for you, isn't cutting it) and presents a detailed and sensible plan on how he expects to avoid further conflict in the areas in which he is topic banned. As for appeal, Antidiskriminator is advised to not appeal until at least six months have elapsed." It's clear to me that the discussion on my talk page regarding my close is going around in circles, so I defer to the community's judgement.

If I may give some advice to Antidiskriminator, I would be more than will to reconsider my close if you would (A) stop wikilawyering, (B) state specifically what it is that you did to get yourself topic-banned, and (C) state specifically a plan that you would adhere to and other could hold you to, to prevent the behavior that got you topic-banned from recurring.

If my close is allowed to stand, I would also like to ask that Antidiskriminator be strongly advised to let the matter rest until he can appeal again in six months. --ceradon (talk • edits) 21:17, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I believe your closure was appropriate and reflected the opinions expressed. On your talk page, Antid stated that it was what he wrote on the talk pages of articles that got him banned. I believe that is a serious understatement and an attempt to avoid any admission that his behaviour was unwikilike. It was his behaviour that got him banned: creating endless new threads about contentious matters, wikilawyering as soon as anyone questioned his sources or his use of untranslated quotes, tendentious carping about minor issues, creating articles with entirely generic names (like "Muslim Militia" and defending them when others tried to move them) and refusing to edit in article space to address issues he raised on the talk page when there were no objections to him doing so. That's just for starters. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 21:52, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• Endorse close (edit conflict) (Non-administrator comment) - clearly no consensus to unban: I count two supports that were "meh, I guess", one that admitted to having been canvassed, and a plurality of very strong opposes. I also don't see that there was even a weak consensus that the user should be conditionally unbanned, so there's not much point discussing what the conditions of such an unban would be. The community of editors who edit in the Macedonia topic area are not many, but their patience with this editor seems to have long been exhausted. If Antidiskriminator has been a prolific and successful editor in other subject areas, then bravo and keep up the good work, but the very fact that they're bludgeoning the talk page of the closing admin is evidence of their lack of introspection that has apparently led to the failure of these appeals. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 22:00, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
• Firstly I don't fault your close, it follows pretty much the standard appeal close in these circumstances.

• I think there is some mileage in what Antidiskriminator (AD) said at AN namely: "I will stop people from making trouble for me by following the rules." It's a hard furrow to plough, but it need not concern (the rest of) us why they are following the rules - although it may make it harder for AD to stick to them.
• AD's successful avoidance of these problems in related areas indicates a possibility that AD can return successfully to editing in the contested area.
• A typical result of reversing such sanctions is that the behaviour recurs and the sanctions are re-imposed or increased.

Given the above, is it possible to take an innovative approach, and reduce the scope of sanctions incrementally? For example to material before 1910 instead of 1900?

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 22:06, 17 August 2015 (UTC).

• Ceradon, bless your heart. There's some more of AD's wikilawyering on my talk page--and mind you, I'm one of the ones who didn't oppose a lifting of the ban. That whole discussion is sad, because no outside editors are willing to get involved, and so yeah, there's more going around in circles there. As long as no one besides the little cabal of entrenched editors speak out, we'll hear the same thing, and AD is not changing their tune either. Anywayz, I predicted a "no consensus" close a while ago, and there we are. Your close is fine. Rich, if you're willing to stick your neck and propose something else, please go for it. At the same time, yes, AD is really not helping his cause. Drmies (talk) 01:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
  • I resent being referred to as being in an "entrenched cabal" in any way. I deal with Antid based entirely on what I get from him. I was willing to consider raising the ban in a limited way, but Antid did not respond. To my knowledge there is no collusion against Antid, just people who have actual experience of dealing with him in a rarely-traversed subject area that has more than its fair share of POV warriors and disruptive editors. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 04:32, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Perhaps the moral of the story here is that if you're an entrenched POV warrior butting heads with editors in a sparsely populated but highly contentious topic area, it's going to be a tough uphill battle to get your editing privileges back. As an uninvolved non-admin, I'd be open to supporting an alternative unblock proposal (I quite like innovative solutions, actually) if not for two things: 1) Antid continues to avoid answering multiple questions of self-examination, but rather continues to assert that they were blocked simply because more editors were against them than with them, failing to understand (or bother trying to understand) why the behaviour that led to the block was unacceptable; and 2) probably as a result, the most recent unban request clearly didn't have consensus, and reopening that discussion here disrespects the editors who were involved in it. However, if those editors agree that some alternate solution should be tried, then I happily withdraw my objection. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 12:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Now that some of you others have been exposed to all this pointless toxicity, I feel both sort of satisfied that I'm not alone and then also sort of depressed that even more people have had to repeat this lesson. --Joy [shallot] (talk) 20:51, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I think that closuring administrator did not consider the lack of uninvolved input issue. Closing administrator dismissed all concerns for lack of uninvolved input as irrelevant. Even if "no consensus" closure is endorsed, the closing sentence should be amended to mention valid concerns about lack of uninvolved input. Multiple editors speculated about what I think or understand and based on that !voted against my ban. There is a freedom of thought. Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference". Editors who banned me and who want to keep me banned because of what I think should think twice. What only matters is what I do. Not what I think. I respected the ban for more than a year by following the plan I presented, without anybody complaining I repeated the same behavior. That is what I did. And only that can serve as basis for decision whether I should be/remain banned or not.--Antidiskriminator (talk) 13:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• The closing sentence should be amended to mention valid concerns about lack of uninvolved input - to what end? It's hardly admins' nor the community's fault that you misbehaved and got yourself topic-banned from an extremely vitriolic topic area that sane editors don't want to stick their noses into. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 21:06, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I resemble that remark... Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 06:45, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Apologies, I hadn't meant to call any editors sane. ;) Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 16:52, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• I think that closing admin did not interpreted consensus correctly in their closing sentence. The lack of uninvolved input issue concerned some editors on both sides. That is why I said that the closing sentence should be amended to mention valid concerns about lack of uninvolved input Your comment Ivanvector can probably also be seen as confirmation that additional uninvolved input in this topic area would be beneficial, if it is really so extremely vitriolic that other editors don't want to stick their noses into. That is not completely true though. I am not afraid to stick my nose into it.
• I think that my pre-ban behavior can not be valid argument for rejection of my ban appeal.--Antidiskriminator (talk) 21:23, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Erratic behavior by user:Westwind273

Can someone look at these edits by user_talk:Westwind273

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AAndrewgprout&type=revision&diff=676572096&oldid=668422379 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Westwind273

Andrewgprout (talk) 22:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• The edits, while perhaps misguided, are hardly erratic. Westwind273 and Andrewgprout appear to be involved in a content dispute-come-talk page feud, where each editor has deleted the other's talkpage comments. I would advise both to tone down the dispute and to cease removing others' talk page comments. It's fine to do so at one's own user talk page, but nowhere else. North of Eden (talk) 23:54, 17 August 2015 (UTC).

I have stopped removing Andrewgprout's comments, but he continues to try to remove mine. (See his repeated attempts today to re-delete my comments that I restored on the JAL 123 talk page. How can I prevent his repeated attempts to delete my comments? --Westwind273 (talk) 03:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

please detail where I have repeatedly and continued to remove any of your comments your statement regarding this is simply untrue. if you contested my original deletion of your content all you had to do was revert that edit.Andrewgprout (talk) 09:02, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I think perhaps we should leave the situation as it lies. I just want to say I deleted one set of non constructive comments on a talk page a week or so ago - maybe that was misguided, I don't know. user:Westwind273's deleting a whole series of my previous edits on a number of talk pages with nothing to do with the original edit I made - plus the threat on my talk page this morning does to me appear "erratic" (I was picking a nicer word than I probably felt like writing) and way beyond reasonableness.Andrewgprout (talk) 02:41, 18 August 2015 (UTC

It was definitely misguided, and you knew it was when to did it. Do not remove my comments ever again and this matter will be over. It is in your hands. You are the erratic one. You were the one who initially decided to go in a start deleting comments, not me. Do nothing further and the matter is over. I would also note that I have also seen other Wikipedia users who are equally upset with your erratic behavior of deleting other peoples' comments. --Westwind273 (talk) 03:33, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

And I would also have a few choice words to say about you, Andrewgprout, if I were to write what I felt and not stick to nice words. --Westwind273 (talk) 03:56, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Terms of Use

For anyone that doesn't know, much of my work here is done as a paid editor that is sponsored by article-subjects. I disclose my conflict of interest on corresponding pages and rely heavily on the Talk page. To date I've created almost 40 Good Articles in this capacity. @Slimvirgin: has twice now asked me to disclose not just that I have a conflict of interest, but the actual name of the PR agency or client. She has correctly cited the Terms of Use, which not only require disclosure of the existence of a COI, but detailed information on any and all relevant affiliations.

I am concerned about this for four reasons:

1. My sponsor is a one-person PR agency and I feel this degree of disclosure violates their personal privacy
2. I don't see what possible use Wikipedians have for his/her name, since a COI is disclosed
3. Slimvirgin has focused her efforts on finding additional negative information to add to the page and is critical of my COI involvement/conduct. The situation is such that it feels a bit intimidating/threatening. For example, here she cited a source where all the information on Invisalign was positive, but she said the source indicated Invisalign had major issues.
4. If I start offering this information regularly, it becomes easier for someone to figure out my real-world identity

I raised my concerns about privacy and bullying when the new Terms of Use were created. My anonymity is important to me, because as a disclosed paid editor I am often targeted for harassment, etc.. At the time, a WMF staffer told me I should be fine, so long as a COI is disclosed and that nobody was going to bother me for more details. That seems to be challenged now.

Will I be blocked if I refuse to provide more information? Can anyone explain why the community would require me to disclose all of this? I know it's a complicated issue and appreciate your thoughtful input on the matter. This is very important to me. CorporateM (Talk) 01:50, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I assume you read the FAQ? It seems that you do have to disclose your employer/client, or don't get paid for editing. On the other hand, the policy does not allow other editors to engage in outing, harassment, or other violations of policy.- MrX 02:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Hmm. That FAQ could do with a copyedit (Corp?). And in this case it may not be that helpful, since Corp doesn't work for Acme, but for Hip&Hype's PR firm, so on whose behalf is he supposed to claim to be editing? I'm inclined to say Acme, still, since that's the ultimate beneficiary of Corp's work here (and all the hours I've donated to his service)--which means he wouldn't be required to name the agency he's working for. Drmies (talk) 02:18, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

@Drmies: I would say that the Terms of Use do require disclosure of the PR agency and the article-subject and my own business name, which would prohibit me from contributing anonymously entirely. However, as you indicated, I got the impression that this was just poor copyediting due to an overzealous response to Wiki-PR. I didn't think it was ever intended to be used against someone that has disclosed a conflict of interest.

Do you mean to say that my "thank yous" aren't payment enough for your time? ;-) CorporateM (Talk) 02:37, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

@Drmies: Yes the FAQ needs its own FAQ. Here's the salient sentence: "If you have been hired by a public relations firm to edit Wikipedia, you must disclose both the firm and the firm's client." - MrX 02:41, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• The way CorporateM has summarized this is disturbing. First, I haven't "focused [my] efforts on finding additional negative information to add to the page." I've pointed out to CM, as has Doc James, that a Cochrane report concluded that there is insufficient information available for them to reach a conclusion about Invisalign's efficacy. This is clearly stated in the review's conclusion.

That apart, CM has been hired by a PR firm to rewrite the article. He has completed, or almost completed, the rewrite, which he had two other editors add for him. He has not disclosed who he is working for, but the terms of use require this (see WP:PAYDISCLOSE:

As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation.

I have asked CM to abide by the terms of use. This came to my attention, by the way, because he was edit-warring with Doc James. He ought not to be editing the article directly, and getting into battles with a medical expert on a health-related article is not a good idea. Sarah ^(talk) 02:58, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• The Terms of Use are fairly clear on this topic. CM is obligated to disclose the information he objects to disclosing if he wishes to edit for pay on Wikimedia projects (other than Commons and...I think maybe Russian Wikipedia? Something like that). The choice is to disclose or to not edit in a manner that requires disclosure; while I'm sympathetic to CM feeling put-upon by this, it's really not much to ask that the community be made aware of what, exactly, the relevant COI is if someone wants us to give them the extraordinary level of trust involved in letting them edit on behalf of article subjects. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 03:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC) ETA (to clarify): Employer, client, and affiliation can all be different, and thus be different COIs. If I work for PR Agency Y, which is hired by Social Media Company X, to run an ad campaign on behalf of Corporation Z, each step in that chain is relevant to the community's ability to evaluate my work for any COI about Y, X, or Z. Just saying "I have a COI" or "I work for PR Agency Y" or even "I'm editing on behalf of Z" doesn't give us enough information to figure out where all/any issues might be arising in the edits. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 03:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't see that there is anything unclear here. The ToU require that you disclose all three "employer, client, *and* affiliation" (my emphasis). Of course if there is only the employer involved, then all you need to declare is the employer, but the PR firm is involved in this - you are affiliated with them if you accept direction from them, or you direct them, or even if you just report to the employer together. "Affiliation" is a very broad term, and we must assume that the WMF put it in the ToU intentionally. We cannot change this rule or interpret this how we feel is "fairest." We must interpret it in the most straight-forward way. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 03:46, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'm going to go in a slightly different direction. Our enforcement of the paid editing aspects of the ToU is erratic at best, and in practice I think the focus should be on keeping to the intent rather than the letter. We also need to balance privacy issues with disclosure. Personally, I'd be extremely happy to see clearly stated disclosures somewhere where people will actually see them, denoting that there is a paid editing COI and the nature of the COI, and if that was there I would care a lot less about knowing the client's name.

With that said, unless WP forms a clear policy on how to handle the ToU, it is going to be difficult to argue that people should enforce some aspects and not others. (Noting that it has proven hard enough to get a consistent idea on how it enforce it in the first place). - Bilby (talk) 04:40, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

The Foundation's terms of use FAQ is clear about this issue: "If you have been hired by a public relations firm to edit Wikipedia, you must disclose both the firm and the firm's client." See m:Terms of use/FAQ on paid contributions without disclosure, point 1.8. Sarah ^(talk) 06:05, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I know the ToU backwards. :) My problem is that we are doing a poor job of implementing it, and the community has some radically different ideas (all the way to ArbCom) about how we should enforce it, if at all. In that scenario, I can't recommend that people ignore the ToU, but I'd like to at least be following the intent if we fail at the letter.

The question for us is how to balance our long-held principle of not requiring outing of editors and respecting their privacy, while still meeting our needs for disclosure of paid editing. I'm worried that people willing to do everything they can to meet the ToU while still retaining some privacy will get burnt, while those who ignore the ToU terms completely get away with no sanctions at all. - Bilby (talk) 07:25, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Full disclosure required per SV, Fluffernutter and Smallbones. The TOU is straightforward and clear, and that it might interfere with a particular editor's particular situation is irrelevant. CorporateM, you brought this here despite knowing precisely what the TOU says, which implies that you're looking for a personal pass on the policy. I suggest that is inappropriate, that you disclose it all per the TOU, and return to what I am assured is your excellent work for the project. BMK (talk) 06:11, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• As above, really. I can only advise you that if you feel that revealing the client's name will in some way compromise them, that you decline the work. Guy (Help!) 09:40, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• Full disclosure can be, 'Subject's PR firm' I don't agree with several others. The Statement "If you have been hired by a public relations firm to edit Wikipedia, you must disclose both the firm and the firm's client." is fulfilled by specifically identifying the client and stating that you are hired by "their PR firm" - that "identifies the PR firm", sufficient to fulfill the TOU obligation. Fluffernutter, who I usually agree with is only correct that we would have to know the name of the PR firm, if the user is hired to edit the article on the PR firm. Alanscottwalker (talk) 10:30, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• WRT the issue at hand full disclosure is required. They need to state both the PR firm and the subject paying the PR firm (some may have multiple PR firms working for them). Corporate's statements above raise additional concerns of competence and promotional editing. CorporateM states "she cited a source where all the information on Invisalign was positive" Now lets look at the conclusions of the source in question "this review has revealed that there was no evidence from RCTs to show that one intervention was superior to another". How is that a positive conclusion?

Corporate raises the concern of bullying as to why they should be exempt from the terms of use. As someone who has had 300 of their colleagues emailed by paid editors. And had tweets send to their university stating they should reprimand for their work on electronic cigarettes I sympathise. But Corporate your editing is not on your own behalf but on behalf of someone else. We the community deserve to know who is paying for your efforts so that we can appropriately address your edits. Our readers deserve to know aswell. Should CorporateM be banned from paid editing if they decide not to disclose? I would say yes.Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:27, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• What material difference does it make whether we know the name of this PR firm, if we know that their work is being paid for by the subject of the article? I feel like we have an editor who is doing this the right way - as those good articles will attest - and we're shitting on them all the same. I don't dispute that the Terms of Use require full disclosure. Rather, I'm saying that in this case they are harming the encyclopedia by getting rid of what appears to be a good editor who is committed to following our policies and creating good content. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 13:06, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• Full disclosure required. How the heck is this even a question? It's the Terms of Use. It is the legal agreement you agree to follow in order to use the site. It says you need to disclose. Your options are disclose or leave. Pick one. If you have a problem with those being the only options, you should be talking to the legal team, not to miscellaneous Wikipedians who are not in any way, shape or form, as a group or individually, qualified to introduce exceptions to a legal policy. This is, honestly, baffling. Ironholds (talk) 13:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• I have my own COI here, because I offered to be CorporateM's mentor through WP:Cooperation several years ago. I did so because CM was completely transparent about his intentions and (uniquely) asked for guidance on how to do this ethically. While our mentor/mentee relationship has been completed, I still feel a sense of responsibility (sort of as an older brother) for his growth in the project. During our association, the user has consistently demonstrated willingness to follow 5P, policies and guidelines and when seeing a contradiction, has always asked for guidance from the community, as he has in this thread. He has found his own way on the tightrope called the bright line, and is widely respected because he has not abused the privilege. It could be reasonably argued that CM wears the whitest hat of all paid editors on Wikipedia. I say all this not for any special handling, but to give context to his request in this thread. BusterD (talk) 13:24, 18 August 2015 (UTC) Three issues here:

• 1. In a way, Wikipedia's (and the foundation's) rules for COI and paid editing have grown up around CorporateM. The ToU FAQ linked above is fifteen months old; CM has been editing in a paid capacity for much longer. His request here today (as noted by Bilby and Alanscottwalker above) is about balancing the ToU need for personal privacy with the ToU need for full disclosure. This is important not just to CM, but to Wikipedia. If the community makes it impossible for an honest COI editor to function under the ToU, then we're encouraging such editors to participate without full disclosure (as I suspect the vast majority of paid advocates usually do). BusterD (talk) 13:24, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I don't think anyone is saying that CorporateM is a black hat or that he has bad intentions. But I also don't think the choice is between asking paid editors to disclose (and keep editing) or to lie to us (and keep editing). We can't stop paid editors lying to us, and I don't doubt that there are many doing so, but the ToU are in place so that if a paid editor does lie to us by failing to disclose the required information, we can revoke their ability to keep editing on that basis. That would be a loss to the project in CM's case, but the choice is the paid editor's: disclose, stop editing because you value your privacy more than your ability to accept money for edits, or don't disclose and know that when someone notices, you will lose your editing privileges and/or be restricted in some way (and thus lose at least some of your ability to accept money for edits). Either of the first two choices are entirely valid and I wouldn't blame anyone for making the second; the third choice is the road you go down if you decide you're not bound by the ToU we all agree to by using the site. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 14:02, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I disclose a great deal more than Corprate does and I do not accept money for editing. It is not a high bar we are requesting they meet. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:11, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• 2. There are many acceptable forms which balance the need for privacy with the need for disclosure. If I create a new alt account but wish to keep it off my user page for one legitimate reason or another, disclosing to a checkuser or arb is sufficient to stay within policy. When for whatever reason the foundation needs an editor to self-identify, we do it directly, not publicly. When we're dealing with BLP issues, an OTRS ticket is sufficient documentation the subject has given input. For copyright issues, an OTRS ticket can document permission from rights holders. In this case, I believe a disclosure statement (possibly through OTRS) stating complete information has been given to a responsible party (like ARBCOM or the WMF) could suffice to meet ToU. BusterD (talk) 13:24, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

"As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways: a statement on your user page, statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions". "Telling arbcom" is not on that list; every single part of that list has one thing in common and that is that the disclosure is public. Ironholds (talk) 13:28, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• 3. As to the conflict between a paid editor and MEDRS issues, I'll decline to advocate CM's position. I've been wondering when such an issue would arise. It was inevitable some client would put the paid editor in a position where the company's need for precision conflicted with existing medical documentation. BusterD (talk) 13:24, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

What do you mean by "need for precision conflicted with existing medical documentation"? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:14, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Sorry for my delay in responding. I may have used imprecise language myself. I intended to say something along the lines of "the client's desired language versus the language used in independent peer-reviewed studies". BusterD (talk) 13:54, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

The official WMF FAQ says it is sufficient to say "I work for (company)" which makes sense, Asking for precise personal details about anyone is a violation of WP:OUTING as we all know. And if the WMF example is that straightforward, so the answer here should be. [283] " For example, before saving your edits to a Wikipedia article about your client, X, you may write this note in the edit summary box: "X has hired me to update their Wikipedia article" or "I work for X."" which clearly does not say that you need do more to identify what the exact COI might be.

The WP guideline states specifically: When investigating COI editing, be careful not to reveal the identity of editors against their wishes. Wikipedia's policy against harassment takes precedence over this guideline. Which emphasizes that editors cannot ask for any information which would be remotely connected to "outing" anyone. The WP specifies: Paid editors are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to declare their conflict of interest, along with the name of their employer or client which also accords with the WMF example of saying "I work for X" as being sufficient.

Folks who try saying "you must tell me who you work for, where you work, what your exact job description is, who the client is" or the like are specifically and absolutely in violation of WP:OUTING as far as I can tell. Collect (talk) 13:54, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

What we are asking for is CorporateM to state who is paying him for the article Invisalign. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

He clearly identified the company as "Align Technology" in case you missed it. " have a conflict of interest with Invisalign in that I'll be working with Align Technology' and their PR agency to help improve the article " fully complies with the WMF FAQ statement - and was posted 9 January 2014. What more did you wish to have? Collect (talk) 14:34, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

The name of the PR firm was requested. I guess the question is is this one of the PR firms that has been banned from Wikipedia? And if so is them hiring CorporateM okay. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:05, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Where the FAQ contradicts the Terms of Use, it's likely that the TOU applies, not the FAQ. The FAQs are really shitty, but the Terms of Use are pretty unambiguous in that you need to specify employer and client, not employer or client. WilyD 14:35, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

There is a degree of irony here, in that we have thousands upon thousands of socks here who add articles all day long then disappear to create new socks to maintain, all without disclosure, yet we have CorpM, who has been been an good Wikipedian in many ways, contributing all over the place, not just where he is paid, and we enforce the rules on him and not the socks. This isn't intentional, but clearly the TOU is such that it encourages hit and run sockpuppetry and discourages occasional paid editing by worthwhile editors who really want to be a positive part of the community. I don't think anyone demanding disclosure is being unreasonable or acting outside of the TOU at all, but the TOU itself is fatally flawed in that it tempts editors, almost forcefully, to instead be bad members of the community instead of good. And now the shortsightedness (to which I've been an unwilling party to in the past, too many times) comes back to bite us yet again. Socking is very easy to do, and now we are tempting CorpM to become an expert at it. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 14:39, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

(EC)It really is irrelevant unless you want to try to change this part of the ToU in the specified manner (e.g. notify WMF first that you are trying to modify the ToU). The ToU exist and trump all other policies, and we can only try to change them in a very specific manner (e.g. not here). I don't believe that the ToU contradict our policy on Outing (it's voluntary whether to be a paid editor after all, the ToU only state a few minimum requirements of what you have to do if you want to be a paid editor). But if the Outing policy and the ToU did contradict each other, the Outing policy would have to change.

Taken out of context, it might seem that the ToU causes some strange situations involving other rules. But I believe that the ToU are a rock. They stop some things head-on. They also might get in the way of doing certain things, but can be avoided with a bit of contortion. If the contortion seems bizarre, that is not the fault of the ToU, it is the fault of the contortionist. If people fail to follow our rules, that is not a reason to revoke the rules.

CorporateM now has a choice. He can follow the advice overwhelmingly given here, or he can stop paid editing, or he might even be able to go to WMF legal and request a waiver. (I do believe that the WMF has the power to give such a waiver, or at least to ignore what they consider petty violations of the ToU; but I don't think they would give a waiver in this case). Going to WMF legal works both ways of course. Any editor could go to WMF legal and request that the ToU be enforced in this case, which likely would result in CorpM backing down, or even being banned. I won't make such a request, but there's nothing we can do to stop somebody else from doing it. It's CorpM's choice. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 15:29, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Of course, this whole discussion has one fatal flaw - this is a ToU issue, so it's up to the WMF to decide, nor for us lot. Ping User:Philippe (WMF) Mdann52 (talk) 15:11, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I do think that everybody would prefer that we take care of it ourselves. And we do have the power to enforce the WP:TOU since they are Wikipedia policy. Of course the WMF also has the power to enforce the ToU. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 15:32, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, but we do not have the power to introduce an exemption, and that is what CorporateM is asking for. Ironholds (talk) 17:35, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Full disclosure is required. According to the terms of use, this includes naming "employer, client, and affiliation". In the case at hand, the terms of use require CorporateM to disclose his employer (the PR firm in question), the client (which hired the PR firm), and his affiliation (as a paid editor). All three are required. The focus on "outing" is really misguided here. "Outing", in Wikipedia-speak, refers to the involuntary posting of personal information. In this case, it is completely voluntary for CorporateM to act as a paid editor. He can choose not to do so, in which case no personal information is required. Equating his ethical responsibility to disclose his employer with involuntary "outing" is just ridiculous.

  To be more blunt: if he's comfortable enough to cash a PR firm's checks, then he needs to be comfortable enough to disclose their name. Conversely, if he's not comfortable disclosing the name of his employer, then he can't edit Wikipedia on their behalf. This is not a major imposition, and in any case there is no Creator-endowed right to edit Wikipedia for pay while refusing to disclose the name of one's employer (quite the opposite). MastCell ^Talk 17:28, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Questionable editing by CorporateM

I have had issues with USer:CorporateM's editing over the last couple of weeks. This includes WP:Canvassing and attempts to brush over the best available evidence and replace it with expert opinion.

WRT canvassing

• Aug 8 5:33 CorporateM asks a single editor for "help" on a RfC I replied that while it is okay to notify an entire project, notifying a single editor is not kosher
• Aug 14 22:40 they did the same thing. They requested a single editor help them out and provided that editor with their prefered version of the article.

Their prefered version places the lower quality evidence first and leaves out / poorly presents the most recent systematic review. As canvassing was not effective they appear to next try to denigrate the best available evidence by covering it in tags.

• 04:12 Aug 15 CorporateM tags the most recent systematic review we were aware of and tagging the conclusions of the best available research as undue.
• On Aug 15 16:39 I removed these tags as they appear to be an attempt to denigrate the best available literature. While there are newer reviews, commented on, these are not systematic reviews.
• I questioned these tags on the talk page Aug 15, 16:42 [284] to which Corprate replied at 17:55 stating these tags were "annotation"
• Aug 15, 17:56 they tagged the review again
• Aug 15, 18:20 I removed these tags again and commented further on talk [285] All they needed to do was provide a newer systematic review.
• Instead on Aug 15, 18:26 they re added the tags and stopped responded on talk.

I left them a edit warring notice after which they started a 3RR which got the article protected.

P.S. I added the prior systematic review in Jan of 2015. We now have a new systematic review on pubmed which comes to the same conclusions as the last one "The quality level of the studies was not sufficient to draw any evidence-based conclusions." The prior issue should thus be solved. But the concern I have is one of behavior. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:58, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Re: canvassing accusations. I replied on my talk page: "CorporateM works by asking editors to review and approve content he's suggested / written, so that he doesn't violate COI policies adding potentially promotional or problematic content by himself. I've reviewed many of his contributions these past years, and he has taken to directly asking me if the requested edits template is taking a long time (several months) or if something requires more than adding a single sentence. I don't find this canvassing, but rather asking for help to do something which our policies suggest he'd best avoid doing himself."

I read and review things he has requested I look at as a neutral party, and my previous interactions with him allow WP:APPNOTE exceptions ("On the user talk pages of concerned editors. ... Editors who have participated in previous discussions on the same topic (or closely related topics)"; i.e. his possible COI areas). He asked me to write neutral content for the article ("I know it's a big ask, but I thought if you had some time to spend doing this last leg of the article, it would be a huge help to all parties involved.") similar to what I had done on a previous situation. That is all. It's not canvassing.

I refused to write said content not because of his COI (in fact, I didn't notice the link to User:CorporateM/Invisalign until now), but because I am uncomfortable writing about medical issues. I firmly believe that if editors interested in the article discuss things, they can work everything out. I have no comment on the appropriateness of reversions, on either side. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 16:17, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

This was discussed at the edit-warring board. The article said "As of 2005," whereas there were sources on the Talk page to say "As of 2014". I tagged "As of 2005" with a "needs updating" and mentioned on Talk that there were several sources that could be used to update this to "As of 2014". I'm sorry that I reverted, but I was very frustrated by Doc's extensive efforts to prevent me from even being able to communicate such a trivial issue and prevent any contributions from me that would alter the version he wrote.

Just to be clear nobody is contesting that the last systematic review was "inconclusive", but Doc's contributions make it sound like an alt-med article. A professional in a related field verified that dentists require a lower barrier of evidence than real medicine and the sources do say that Invisalign is proven effective for certain types of cases, but is less effective than braces in some other cases. Also, that review is ten years old. This is a product that relies heavily on computer technology and ten years ago people were using floppy drives still. I don't think it should be the only thing in the lead to summarize the entire body of medical literature.

There are literally only three MEDRS sources published in the last five years, per WP:MEDDATE. If anyone wants to get involved in the article itself, I'd really encourage you to take a look at those sources. Since there are literally just three sources, it wouldn't be hard to just read three articles, add their contents to the article and get a sense of what's representative of all three. CorporateM (Talk) 16:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

References

So you are stating that dentistry does not need to follow "evidence based" science? That when a systematic review concludes that there is no high quality evidence to support something, because that something is dentistry it is no longer significant and we should just include what "expert opinion" has claimed?

Alt med practitioners have also argued that they should not be held to evidence based standards but I disagree with you that the majority of dental practitioners would make this request for their profession. Some dental measures are supported by the highest quality evidence such as powered toothbrushes.[286] Stating when a measure does not have high level support is something we do equally for medical, dental and alt med topics. Just because something does not have high level support does not mean that we should not do it. But we should at least know it does not have high level evidence supporting it when we do.

Corporate is attempting to misuse WP:MEDDATE. In a poorly research areas such as this we still include older high quality sources. We specifically say "A newer source which is of lower quality does not necessarily supersede an older source of higher quality."Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:27, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I believe if someone compares the recent medical literature to the article they would find that the article needs further expansion to meet GA requirements for comprehension and is unfair. I want to encourage people to actually read the sources and make bold edits. We need more editors to get involved in the article in a sustained and in-depth manner. I don't oppose the inclusion of the 2005 item, which is mentioned in current medical literature from 2014 (hence "As of 2014" rather than "As of 2005"). I disagree with it being the only thing included to the exclusion of all else. I don't think the sources require a medical professional to interpret. CorporateM (Talk) 16:43, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM, what are your medical credentials? Doc James is a doctor and a long-standing contributor to our medicine articles. I think you might do yourself a favour by taking on board the Doc's comments, because he (unlike you) does not actually have a dog in this fight. Guy (Help!) 16:46, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

He has a very strong opinion about paid editing and most of his editing on this page appears to be driven by that. Again, I want to encourage folks to read the sources and edit boldly! There is so much emphasis on wanting to prove that paid editing is bad or this myth that I'm trying to censor the 2005 item. I want to encourage editors as strongly as I possibly could to just read the sources. Please read the sources! Read them! Please!

Edit boldly, add their information objectively and completely. Then from your opinion after reading the sources for yourself. This shouldn't be a competition for whos reputation is better than the other. CorporateM (Talk) 17:04, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Before this recent interaction I did not really have an opinion on disclosed paid editing. Your attempts to dissuade me from editing the article are not appreciated.[287]

That you state that "most of his editing on this page appears to be driven" by his position on paid editing is bollocks. In my initially edits I added a Cochrane review that was missing. I added the most recent systematic review at that time. I added a 2014 review of the literature. At the same time I removed a bunch of primary sources. This is what I do on thousands of articles. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:26, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

For reference all the MEDRS sources published in the last five years are here:

• Y, Yu; Al., Et (November 9, 2012). "Interventions for managing relapse of the lower front teeth after orthodontic treatment. - PubMed". NCBI. Retrieved August 10, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Malik, Ovals; McMullin, Allbhe; Waring, David (April 2013). "Invisible Orthodontics Part 1: Invisalign" (PDF). Dental Update. PMID 23767109.
• Kuncio, DA (March 2014). "Invisalign: current guidelines for effective treatment" (PDF). The New York state dental journal. 80 (2): 11–4. PMID 24851387.

I can also provide some older ones, if you feel there is not enough current medical literature and we need to dig older. CorporateM (Talk) 17:08, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

CM, you're representing yourself here as the only neutral person, when the opposite is true. There are competence issues – understanding certain terms, how to read medical papers, how to use MEDRS, etc. Doc James is trying to make sure the article reflects the high-quality sources. Sarah ^(talk) 17:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I just do not get it. I mentioned a new systematic review that come out in 2014 above and yet CorporateM still claims their are only three reviews? The have ignored my explanation of the difference between a literature review and a systematic review. I have brought up his misuse of WP:MEDDATE which others commented on here and yet they continue just as before. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:30, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Leaving aside the issues of sourcing, I'm shocked by the spectacle of CorporateM repeatedly reverting Doc James on an article where CorporateM has a financial conflict of interest. According to our guidelines, he should not be editing the article at all, much less revert-warring with an unpaid volunteer. I would have blocked CorporateM if I had seen this happening in real time, and for the avoidance of doubt, I will block him the next time I see something like this happen. It's completely unacceptable. MastCell ^Talk 17:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
  • Citation for "should not be editing the article at all", please. Even WP:NOPAY says "you are very strongly discouraged from editing affected articles where those external relationships could reasonably be said to undermine your ability to remain neutral", not "you are forbidden from ...". — Chris Woodrich (talk) 00:17, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

All three of these sources are currently used in the article and nobody has contested their MEDRS compliance. Though someone reading them may have to look up a term or two, they are easy to understand. @MastCell: Please accept my apologies for edit-warring. I was very frustrated by the situation. I will not do it again. It was my understanding that the benefit of COI compliance was AGF, which I did not receive. CorporateM (Talk) 17:24, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I have long had the same concern as Doc James about CorporateM's practice of asking individual editors to review proposed edits. The way this goes is, a request is made, and sometimes an editor decides to implement the proposed edit -- and sometimes the editor decides not to implement the proposed edit. The result is that if CorporateM asks enough editors, eventually he finds someone willing to implement the proposed edit. This business of asking for favours really needs to stop. Form consensus via discussion on the article talk page, and if consensus is present then CorporateM can use the request-edit template. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 17:54, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• Another issue that has concerned me is mixing volunteer and paid roles. I've seen CM begin work on an article as a volunteer, make edits of interest to the subject (reverting their COI edits or making edits that they like), then come into contact with the subject off-wiki and start editing on their behalf for pay. This is a difficult practice to negotiate ethically. I would like to see CM not accept a paid role once he has worked on an article as a volunteer. Sarah ^(talk) 18:17, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

WMF's position

@Mdann52: said "this is a ToU issue, so it's up to the WMF to decide, nor for us lot. Ping User:Philippe". I pinged Philippe right after starting this string and I hope they will chime in. It is also my understanding that it is not clear whether it is the community's or WMF's responsibility to enforce the Terms of Use. It is the Terms of Use and not a community policy, but it is often brought up as a factor in block discussions. CorporateM (Talk) 16:19, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Response left on Philippe's talk page by Jacob Rogers. Probably not the answer you were hoping for, CorporateM. And sadly, I think the answer will result in more and more paid editors using socks and deceptive techniques. Ravensfire (talk) 17:54, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Jrogers (WMF) has confirmed that "the Terms of Use are pretty clear on this one. You need to disclose your 'employer, client, and affiliation.' If those three things are different (say you are employed by PR company X, your client is person Y, and you are affiliated with company Z) you would need to disclose all three." [288] Sarah ^(talk) 17:57, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I do not buy the arguement that we should not require proper discloser because if we do people will simply sock. One could apply this sort of rational to all sorts of rules. For example why disallow socking when we have no mechanism to prevent it? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:01, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I didn't say to ignore TOU (and clearly so), I said that increased socking is surely one of the outcomes, whether we like it or not, as it makes it more difficult to be a COI editor in a legitimate way. I'm no doctor, but I've gone 1500 SPI blocks behind me, including 300 in one case alone having to do with with paid editing. The reaction by those with power was enough to make me stop working the cases altogether. We can demand all we want, but it is foolish to pretend there is no negative consequences from the policy, just as it is foolish to think the Foundation really cares about COI socking. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 18:12, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

User:Dennis Brown yes agree there is a concern of increased socking. And yes we do have a fair number of paid editors that use through away accounts to write promotional articles. Do we know how many legitimate COI editors we have? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:19, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure if there is a template of some kind that they can use, or would use, so to be honest, I don't think we know how many declared paid editors we have with any precision. The same with socks. I'm conservatively guessing 20k accounts created, but that is probably too low by a mile. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 18:05, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

It seems to me that this is the end of the line on this question. The community certainly can help enforce Wikipedia policies, and there is no question that WP:TOU are policy. Corp has gone over our heads on this (which is his right) and the answer has come back the same. It's time to invoke WP:PAYTALK and end this. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:03, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

If we are going to enforce this, so be it. But more problem is that if we create an environment where it is far more favourable to engage in covert paid editing than it is to try to work within the ToU, we create a situation where we have no hope of ever managing paid editing. Prohibition on its own doesn't work. Control should have been the target. - Bilby (talk) 23:43, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Control-rather-than-prohibition is the point of the disclosure requirement (at least to my interpretation): we can't stop you from paid editing, and we're not necessarily seeking to ban paid editing, but if you're going to edit for pay, we require you provide us with enough information to neutrally evaluate your paid edits when you make them. If you follow this requirement, your company can send (competent) paid editors to your article and know they're not doing anything wrong. If you don't follow this requirement, your employee will find themselves blocked and you will find yourself with PR disaster on your hands. There's very little potential loss in disclosing a paid editing COI - sure, your edits might get reverted if they're bad quality, but they're just about as likely to be reverted anyway if you fly under the radar, because our patrollers are like that - and a lot of potential loss in being caught not disclosing one. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 00:07, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

It should absolutely be that way. But no one has adequately explained why the identity of the PR Firm acting as a go-between is relevant, when the fact that the subject is paying the editor for their work is fully and explicitly acknowledged. That is the disclosure that seems most important, and it does not appear to have been lacking here. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 19:25, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

How do we know if it's irrelevant, if we don't know what the other company/s involved in this is/are? We can't fully evaluate the content he (or any paid editor) is working on to see whether it's neutral with regard to the people paying him to do it if we don't know who the people paying him to do it are. Quite possibly it's irrelevant in this case and nothing CM has done has anything to do with, let's call it Jane Doe, Inc. who's the connection between places like Invisilign and him. But until we have that disclosure, we simply have no way to know if that's the case or not, so we need paid editors to disclose these connections so we're able to identify the cases where it does turn out to be relevant. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 21:28, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed solution

Hi All. It does seem clear that the Terms of Use do require disclosure of personally identifiable information and that this was the actual intention of WMF's policy. For the moment, I'm leaning somewhat towards the following plan of action:

• I will update the agreement I have with clients to include that they must be comfortable with their personal information being known and they accept the risk of being harassed or trolled as a result
• I will stop all volunteer editing on company pages or articles where there are commercial interests, so as to avoid the threat of being sued, doxed, harassed, etc. by those companies
• I will speak with my contact in this case about ending our relationship, so as to avoid the requirement and protect them from harassment. Also, because my ongoing participation doesn't seem terribly useful at this point.
• I will disclose more in the future

I'm sorry that this caused a lot of frustration for a lot of people. I'm disappointed that the community feels that information like the real names of people is important in making editorial decisions. I'm especially surprised that there has been so much resistance to using anonymous data like device IDs, IP addresses and analytics to expose sock networks due to privacy concerns, yet I am being asked to disclose real names that expose that individual to a high probability of heckling. We need to work hard to protect Wikipedia's founding principles and anonymity is one of them - eroding these principles is the real way paid editors are damaging Wikipedia.

While I may not like the outcome, I appreciate everyone's time thoughtfully discussing this important issue and accept the result. CorporateM (Talk) 18:45, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I'd like you to be explicit about what you considering disclosing "more" to mean. "More" isn't really the word I would have picked here so much as "everything the ToU require me to disclose", since "more" implies "more than before...but maybe not all". Your agreements with your clients are your business, and you can word it to them however you like, but I would also point out that we're asking you to disclose the names of companies, not, like, stockholders' home addresses. If you work for "Joe RealName, Inc.", then yeah, I guess that technically requires disclosing their personal information, but generally we're looking for "I work for XYZ PR Agency, on behalf of MegaCorp Y", not "here's my bloodtype and mother's maiden name." And again, the agreement here is that if you wish to be given extra trust by the community and allowed to profit off of its work, then you are required to make those disclosures. If you don't wish to profit off the projects, then you're free to be 100% as anonymous as you wish to be. Similarly, companies that sponsor paid editors must decide whether it's more important to them to tweak content to their liking and have disclosed paid editing associated with their articles, or to stay hands-off with content and remain unassociated with Wikipedia editors. Both are ok, but it's their choice they will need to make. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 19:01, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I'm confused about these references to outing. Align Technology, which makes Invisalign, is a large company. It employs a PR firm. That firm has hired you to rewrite the article. This is business, and you're a PR professional who has written off-wiki about your paid work on Wikipedia. Why would naming the PR firms that pay you entail outing someone? Sarah ^(talk) 18:58, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Again, the PR firm is just a single person. Given the contentious nature of the discussion, I believe there is a high probability of her being harassed/trolled off-wiki if disclosed. The whole "big company" thing is a big misnomer. I am also just a single person that does paid editing part-time. I'm a real human being and so is she. CorporateM (Talk) 19:04, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Forgive the statement of the obvious, but why can someone who wants to know the PR firm not find out for themselves? It took me all of fifteen seconds on Google to find out who the PR firm in question is. I don't understand the need for secrecy here. ‑ iridescent 19:34, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM, if someone has set up a one-person PR agency and called it "John Smith Ltd," that was their choice. There's no evidence that supplying the firm's name would lead to harassment, and disclosure has been required for over a year. Also, you're writing as though you're a Wikipedian who does some occasional paid work, but you're a PR professional and have always been here as a paid editor. If some of the firms who hire you prefer not to be named, the solution is not to take the work from those companies. Sarah ^(talk) 19:53, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Of course there's no evidence of that. Evaluating the claim would require disclosing the name of the firm, which is precisely what they are trying to avoid - because that would OUT at least the editor and the firm's principal. And, quite frankly, given some of the comments here? No, I don't think that off-wiki harassment is an unreasonable thing to fear. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 19:57, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I have no idea what is being claimed here. Some of the PR firms that Invisalign has worked with can be found on Google. They are established companies. CM naming the PR firm that hired him is not going to out CM. Sarah ^(talk) 20:15, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

How would you know? As per below, the company name might be enough to do it. But even if not, it's trivial in many countries to determine who a company's principals are, directors or shareholders or President or whoever. And just like that, his real name and address will show up on some BADSITE and he's outed. It might not be enough of a concern to warrant changes to the Terms of Use, or to policy in other ways, but to say it's not a concern is laughable and offensive. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 15:30, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

I think this misses the point. If his top priority is to avoid being "outed", then he shouldn't be accepting paid editing jobs. If someone is willing to cash a PR agency's check to edit here, then they should be willing to disclose the name of that PR agency. You can't edit for pay and then stand on anonymity to avoid meeting the disclosure requirements. That's a perversion of this site's commitment to anonymity, which was never intended to protect undisclosed paid editing by PR employees. MastCell ^Talk 18:37, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps I was being dense. I saw an editor who disclosed that there was a conflict and seemed, largely, to be doing things the right way (relying on talk ages, etc). I don't get why the name of the PR firm matters at all - the conflict of interest is the subject's, not the go-between. This editor accepted the work and made a good faith effort to comply with their understanding of policy - an understanding that seems to have been flawed, if the consensus here is as clear as it seems. If we intend to require paid editors to reveal their true identities, and thus open themselves up to all of the off-site harassment that our esteemed community is famous for, then we need to be clear about that. Or just ban paid editing, which will not actually end it but just relegate it to editors who can sock effectively, who can be subtle about their edits and avoid suspicion, and who can keep their fucking mouths shut. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 19:17, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Per "so much resistance to using anonymous data like device IDs, IP addresses and analytics to expose sock networks due to privacy concerns" I was not aware there was that much resistance to this. Is this not what checkusers do? Our primary goal here is to write a neutral encyclopdia. We must balance privacy against information required to effectively write said encyclopdia. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 19:26, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• "Disclose more" is not specific. The Terms of Use are clear on what you are required to disclose. Either agree that you will disclose that - specifically that, not "more than you currently do" - or this is not a proposed solution. Let me be clear, here; anything other than what the ToU requires is an exemption to the ToU. The community is not qualified nor permitted to grant you that exception. If "more" violates the ToU it's against reason and isn't satisfactory. Ironholds (talk) 19:31, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

@ CorporateM. When one finds one is trying to swim up hill against a down flowing river of thick (and well thought out) treacle – it could mean, that one is attempting to perform one's PR on the wrong sort of blog. Wikipedia articles - are not the drones you are looking for advertorials.--Aspro (talk) 19:47, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I understand the community's position and would like to volunteer to topic ban myself from the Invisalign page. I have also disclosed my real-name and business name on my user page in order to better comply with the Terms of Use and discontinued my financial relationship related to this topic. I also voluntarily accept a topic ban on volunteer editing on any pages that involve a commercial interest in order to address Sarah's concerns about my dual roles as a volunteer and COI contributor and my own concerns about editing company pages from a disclosed account. I promise to follow the letter of the Terms of Use in the future, including disclosing the real names of any people or organizations involved and to be more cautious of WP:COI. I appreciate the thoughtful discussion on this issue. CorporateM (Talk) 21:47, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM, just to be clear, no one has requested real names. The requirement is that you disclose the name of the PR company that hired you and its client. That will usually be Acme PR and the name of the company the article is about. It will only be in less common cases where no companies are involved that a real name might be exposed, but if you make this clear to the client in advance, it shouldn't be a problem. Sarah ^(talk) 22:13, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't understand how a voluntary topic ban from a single article solves the problem, endorsed by the community and confirmed by the WMF, that you have to fully disclose the name of the PR firm as well as the company. You've already edited the article on their behalf, so how does an ex post facto ban fulfill these requirements? Plus, I'm not sure that you're taking on board that you must disclose the information all the time, for every article you are paid to write or edit. Finally, I believe that what you're asking for is essentially an exemption, and the WMF has clearly stated above that we, the community, cannot give you an exemption, only they can. Given all this, I do not see how your suggestion can conceivably be tenable. BMK (talk) 23:15, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'm concerned that CorporateM seems to have gotten a takeaway from this conversation that's very different than what (I think) people were actually saying. He's edited his userpage to say "In August 2015, there was consensus at ANI that Wikipedia's Terms of Use prohibit a sponsored editor from contributing anonymously and I was required to disclose personally identifiable information.". That's...not what this discussion, or the WMF, have concluded. A paid editor needn't disclose their name or other such "personally identifiable information"; what they're required to do is disclose who's paying for the edits they're making, all along the line. I'm actually concerned now that, because CM is so active in paid editing-related discussions, new paid editors are going to look him up, read his interpretation of this discussion on his userpage, and think that they do need to disclose their name, address, or whatever. As an oversighter, I'd rather not have to clean up after that mess. CorporateM, would you please consider re-wording what you've added to your userpage today to make it clear that editors are not required to disclose their own personal details, but rather the "corporate" details of those paying for the edits? A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 01:01, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, CM. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 01:20, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

The only way that CorporateM's userpage statement can be made to jibe with this discussion is if the one-man PR operation he is attempting very strenuously not to disclose the name of is his own, and bears his name - thus disclosing it would be outing himself. If that is so, then it was exceedingly stupid of him to name his agency after himself, but that deed is sone, and the name needs to be disclosed nevertheless, per WMF, TOU, and the consensus of this discussion. BMK (talk) 02:24, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Not sure why you think the company would need to be named after CorporateM. In a number of countries open record laws mean it's often possible to find out who's a shareholder or director of even small businesses. It's sometimes possible to use various mechanisms to try and set up a company with no public connection to you, even in such countries, but while some people may have good reasons for doing so, more commonly it's actually a sign the person is up to no good, so the lack of such isn't particularly surprising. Even without the use of public records, it's fairly common for someone to disclose they are the owner of a certain business in circumstances where it's expected (like when they're looking for clients). And again, companies which don't do so will often be viewed suspiciously. Now the info which may completely out CorporateM wouldn't be on wikipedia, so anyone mentioning it here should be blocked for outing, but it's not clear CorporateM was referring to that. Nil Einne (talk) 05:03, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Beyond My Ken, CM has said that there are three companies involved in this: Align Technology, which makes Invisalign; a PR firm hired by Align Technology, which CM says is a one-woman operation; and CM's PR firm. He says that his own PR firm was hired by the one-woman company, but he won't name it, so we don't know who paid CM to have Invisalign rewritten or why they wanted the rewrite. The question now is what to do with the article. Sarah ^(talk) 17:44, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

So that CorporateM doesn’t lead unpaid WP editors into becoming unpaid PR consultants for his client, we should just delete all his edits and let him start a fresh. He created this issue. As a self proclaimed professional, he should at least familiarised himself with our T&C first and not leave us with the problem of sorting it out for him. --Aspro (talk) 18:52, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

It would be far safer to delete every article he has ever edited. Best to be sure. Don't forget the siteban. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 20:38, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Extremely opposedto nuking-from-orbit-type suggestions. Although there have been some specific problems mentioned about specific edits on specific articles, I don't believe that the consensus here is for anything as extreme as deleting all of CM's edits, or for site banning him. Just the opposite, in fact, I see a lot of people talking about the good CM has done for the encyclopedia in his non-paid edits, and, in general, about the quality of his paid editing, especially compared to the dreck we get from some PR reps. So radical solutions wouldn't seem to be the answer. However, CM still must follow the terms of use, and if he refuses to do so, an indef block (which I presume would come from WMF, since it's their rule) would be appropriate until he agrees to do so.
  What I am confused by (once again) is why CM's response to this brouhaha was (at least as of this morning when I read his userpage) to out his RL name (which makes it child's play to find his personal PR website) and withdraw from voluntary (i.e. non-paid) editing of the encyclopedia, since this "solution" has solved nothing. If CM continues to get paid for editing he's going to have top disclose all the company names involved, and since he has (in effect) outed his own company name, and the name of the one-woman PR firm takes mere minutes to find online (so one wonders why he was so adamant about protecting it, and his userpage statement seems to be saying that he was protecting the name of his own firm), so what CM has done doesn't appear to me to be a step forward at all -- or else I'm totally misunderstanding what his intention is. BMK (talk) 22:50, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Beyond My Ken, the only firm I'm aware of that has done PR for Align Technology is Gold PR, but that's not a one-woman company. [289] Sarah ^(talk) 01:05, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

• Slim Virgin look at this page or this or this or this or a number of other pages and you'll see Ethos Commnications Inc. of Duluth, Georgia. BMK (talk) 01:44, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Well his website is linked from his userpage, so it's not like you have to search to find it. Reading his userpage more carefully, unless I misunderstood, the reason why he doesn't want to continue voluntary editing on certain pages (not the entire encyclopaedia) is because he feels without the protection of anonymity, he risks too much effect on his real life from his voluntary efforts. (And once he disclosed the company name, the nature of the company meant his real name would be known, so there was little point hiding it.) So from his POV, it does solve something, it removes the, in his opinion, excessive risk he'll be harmed solely due to voluntary efforts. He may still have some degree of risk due to his paid work, I presume he's willing to accept that risk as an expected part of his job. Similarly, the risk for other areas is I presume in his opinion low enough that he's willing to accept it. As for his failure to disclose the PR firm/s who hired him on behalf of other companies in the past, I do agree it's up to the WMF to decide whether they want to ban him for it. Perhaps they will, perhaps they'll feel given the apparent misunderstanding of the requirement, according to him partially a result of some previous communication with the WMF, and his existing partial disclosure, they'll let it be provided he practices full disclosure from now on. If they chose the later, and the community here accepts that, then it seems we have a solution, perhaps not a happy one for many, but sufficient. Nil Einne (talk) 05:18, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

• CorporateM, I appreciate that you are a good guy trying to do the right thing. So was Greg Kohs, but that's another story for another day. What the TOU seeks is transparency with respect to paid editing. So, yeah, who are you, who is she, and let uninvolved editors (who are not assholes trying to drum paid editing out of existence — take a number if this applies to you) review your work dispassionately to make sure that no spam has been committed. Does it increase risk of reprisal by said assholes? Yes, sadly — let us deal with them if problems arise. But the rules are very simple: disclose fully, openly, honestly. best, —Tim Davenport, 5010 NW Shasta, Corvallis, OR 97330 /// 541-745-7862 //// Carrite (talk) 00:12, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

I think the problem is we actually have really little ability to actual deal with them. We aren't some sort of criminal gang in a lawless country who can kill anyone who does something we don't like. All we can really do is ban the stuff from here (which doesn't help when it's elsewhere), offer legal support (which doesn't negate most of the negative effects on your life whatever it is has) and express sympathy (see earlier). Different people may have different tolerances and perceptions of these risks. It seems CorporateM is willing to disclose the info, albeit with reductions in voluntary work given their perception of the risks that come from such work without anonymity. However they're still reluctant to disclose the PR firms that hired them to work on behalf of the disclosed companies. I presume this is because they're reluctant to expose these people to the possible risks of such disclosures (which frankly we have even less ability to affect), when then weren't made aware that this would be happening when they initially hired CorporateM's firm (unlike future firms who will be made aware). If this doesn't change, the WMF should decide if this is acceptable. I think most of us agree that CM and any firms hiring him should have paid more attention to the TOS, but that still leaves open the question of what to do now. Nil Einne (talk) 05:39, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

As an aside, if there's any way we could become a lawless gang who can kill anyone who does something we don't like, I'd be all for that‍—‌with appropriate policies and guidelines in place, of course. EEng (talk) 06:11, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Erratic behavior by user:Andrewgprout

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

---

User Andrewgprout has been erratically deleting my posts to the JAL 123 talk page. How can I stop this? --Westwind273 (talk) 03:31, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

If you stop making comments like this one, they will stop getting deleted. Talk pages are for discussing improvements to the article, not improvements to government policy. Someguy1221 (talk) 03:54, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Describing what actually happened would be an improvement to the article. If you delete my comment on this basis, then you will probably also need to delete about 40% of what is written on Wikipedia talk pages, especially the smaller articles. I am really sick of this hypocrisy toward my comments. --Westwind273 (talk) 03:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

The comments were restored. References were asked for, and supplied. Life goes on.

In an ideal world, the references would have come with the original comments.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 14:10, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

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

'fixed typos'

• 76.65.166.158 (talk · contribs)

Sorry to bring this here, but a spate of misleading edit summaries always raises a flag for me. Would someone more familiar with pop music categories like to take a look at these edits? I'm not buying them, but don't feel comfortable reverting a few dozen on anything more than my gut. Thank you. 2601:188:0:ABE6:5D65:637D:D70A:E45F (talk) 03:49, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• Looks like this user may have been down this road before: [290]. And here [291], so I guess this is a 'thing'.2601:188:0:ABE6:5D65:637D:D70A:E45F (talk) 03:51, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Reported at WP:AIV. General Ization ^Talk 03:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Note that those are Canned edit summaries -- they're one of the default values for the mobile app (you could consider it similar to leaving a blank summary). Doesn't mean that their edits aren't an issue, though. (not an admin) --Pokechu22 (talk) 04:00, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for the explanation, Pokechu22; I didn't know that, but it makes sense now. And thanks, General Ization; I was hesitant to bring it to AIV. Unless the edits are blatant vandalism, some admins will recommend to file here. 2601:188:0:ABE6:5D65:637D:D70A:E45F (talk) 04:03, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Anytime I see an IP editor using that edit summary I revert it without question. I've not been wrong so far. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 07:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

@Lugnuts: if such reverts are standard procedure, could they be done by a bot? Arthur goes shopping (talk) 11:04, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I can't imagine a bot request ever being approved, as some tree-hugger will find one in every 1,000 edits of that nature to be good. It doesn't happen a great deal TBH. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 11:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I am one such tree-hugger. My findings are pretty much the same as Lugnuts' though. Edits from IPs and new accounts using these canned edit summaries are very, very often edits that need to be reverted. Not always necessarily vandalism, but often genre warring, adding pointless trivia, commenting on the subject of the article within the article, just generally unconstructive stuff. There's even a "canned edit summary" tag in recent changes - it almost always shows up alongside "mobile edit, mobile web edit". But assume good faith, y'all. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 11:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I go down the Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper route - "I would sooner accept a few casualties through accidents rather losing the entire base and its personnel through carelessness". Not that I'm some sort of psychotic eager to start a nuclear war. Well, not yet. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 13:03, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

@Arthur, such reverts are not standard procedure. Lugnuts simply gave a personal view. AIUI, users on mobile devices get a dropdown menu of ready-made edit summaries. As for the edits reported above, from a brief look it was spot on to revert those. In contrast, casual reversion of good-faith edits based on actual or perceived aspects of contributors rather than content is very harmful to the project; in pervasive cases doing so leads to restrictions or blocks. Basically, judge edits on their own merits and you'll be fine. –80.229.177.245 (talk) 23:13, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Bingonzaga and Parents for Education

Bingonzaga , who has a COI regarding Parents for Education ("On behalf of PARED Foundation..."),[292] has been repeatedly blanking that page. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

• I've reverted the blanking and left a warning on the user's talk page. If they continue, they can always be reported to WP:AIV. ~ Rob^Talk 05:36, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• User:JJMC89 had previously warned this user about blanking, I warned this user previously about WP:COI. See also this comment at the help desk. DES ^(talk) 12:23, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
• Here is a behavior I have never seen before; adding an AfD notice pointing to a nonexistent Afd page.[293] Clearly WP:NOTHERE. --Guy Macon (talk) 13:02, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
  • Never seen that before? You haven't lived! All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 14:12, 18 August 2015 (UTC).
    
    • Delicate flower that I am, I lead a sheltered life... --Guy Macon (talk) 15:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Long-term abuse, personal attacks and racist comments by disruptive-only account

• Nikmand (talk · contribs)
• Another sleeper account. Last activity 28 December 2013, but suddenly activated this account on 18 August 2015. He came to my talk page and wrote these personal attacks, racist comments and harassment diff1, diff2.
• He trolled Talk:Persian peoples, See his last sentence on this diff3. Obvious racist and hate speech. Then he replaced it with a forum-like comment diff4.
• The guys is not here to contribute. See his disruptive actions on Mahabad. He did them to only pass auto-confirmed user right: [294], [295], [296], [297], [298], [299], [300], [301], [302], [303], [304], [305].
• He's a sock puppet/alternative account of previous blocked users because of their disruptive actions on Persian people. He has a lot of sleeper and stale accounts. I submitted a SPI case, but it was closed without investigation. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Iranmehr27.
• I want admins to find a solution to deal with this guy. He ruined both Persian people and Talk:Persian peoples since 2013–2014, a long-term abuse. --Zyma (talk) 09:29, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Blocked, this edit and the last paragraph of this edit clearly show that the editor is WP:NOTHERE for building an encyclopaedia. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 10:03, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

I should add that if User:Iranmehr2015 and User:Nikmand are not the same person, they're doing an excellent job of giving the impression that they are. Both accounts have vehemently pushed the same POV on Talk:Persian people, and both have engaged in the same unusual practice of filling in their user pages with a single letter "a" (see here and here). I think it passes the WP:DUCK test, but I'm happy to let another unrelated admin review before taking any action. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 10:09, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

I'm sure he's a WP:GHBH-type editor ("Good hand" and "bad hand" accounts). If it's possible to check his IP-range, I want admins find his alternative accounts or related accounts. Because I guess he uses those trollish and disruptive accounts to attack and POV-pushing, so blocking does not affect his "clean and good" account(s). It's possible he's related to some other editors who are involved in editing of Persian people. --Zyma (talk) 10:25, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

While I'm hesitant to offer the benefit of the doubt to accounts that have made comments like this individual has, there isn't any overlap between when the three accounts were used, so I'm not certain that there's an attempt to deceive. Someone not familiar with our practices might serially register accounts rather than recovering a lost password without realising that looks pretty suspicious to regulars here. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 11:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC).

• I've reverted his edits to the talk page due to their nature. -- Orduin ^Discuss 17:06, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

It appears that there is a sock targeting the page right now. Cantoun1000 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) -- Orduin ^Discuss 19:20, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Now checked my talk page and he returned with 2 new accounts. Please see my talk page, Persian people history and its talk page history. They troll those pages and my talk page. A serious action is necessary. IP-range block and please ban all of his active/stale/sleeper accounts. --Zyma (talk) 23:15, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Note I have blocked Kamzad (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) for edit warring and outright vandalism as seen here. Not sure if the account is related or there's an SPI active, but it sure looks like quacking to me, so perhaps an indef as sock once more information is available would be appropriate. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 01:11, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

If these sleepers have been lying dormant for over three years, like User:Kamzad was, then a checkuser isn't going to be of much help in flushing out any other ones that might be lying about, unfortunately. I wonder whether lodging an SPI request just so that this is noted in the records might be a good idea though? Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 13:11, 19 August 2015 (UTC).

SavEyChauhan

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User:SavEyChauhan has created two pages that are a weird mixture of being autobiographies and duplicates of Andy Biersack. The articles are Savey and SavEyChauhan. I couldn't think of a speedy deletion criterion these pages fell under (other than A10 before one was rewritten), but they clearly should not continue existing any longer than necessary. Everymorning (talk) 20:17, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I think WP:CSD#G3 applies, but I'm going for WP:CSD#A7. -- Orduin ^Discuss 20:26, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

The same person also created this Template:Infobox Developer which needs some form of attention as well. MarnetteD|Talk 20:35, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

It's CSD A7: the notability of the subject was not asserted. The template appeared to be a first attempt to create, so I deleted it under CSD G2. I deleted the articles CSD A7. —C.Fred (talk) 20:56, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for filling us in and for taking care of the necessaries C.Fred MarnetteD|Talk 21:00, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

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User ChahatKi

Looking at this editor's few contributions, I think it is clear that ChahatKi (talk · contribs) is more interested in pushing points of view than contributing collegially to the encyclopedia, but I would request another few sets of eyes. Thank you. -- Avi (talk) 00:02, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Examples include [306], [307], [308]. -- Avi (talk) 00:15, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Discretionary sanction alert given. —C.Fred (talk) 00:19, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, C.Fred. I consider myself an involved admin as respects ARBPIA, thus I wanted other sets of eyes. -- Avi (talk) 00:21, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

User:Michael Drew and bare urls

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I hope this is the correct place to raise this matter.

Michael Drew (talk · contribs) is consistently using bare urls for inline citations ([309], [310], [311], [312], [313], [314]; it is more of the same going back many months), seemingly in contradiction to WP:CS#Avoid embedded links and WP:BAREURLS. This has been brought to his attention by at least two editors at his talk page. However, he refuses to respond and continues the habit.

I believe he may require a word from an admin and subsequently some mentorship from an experienced editor. --Ħ MIESIANIACAL 00:10, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Avoid_embedded_links which you link to gives good advice: "Since any citation that accurately identifies the source is better than none, do not revert the good-faith addition of partial citations. They should be considered temporary, and replaced with more complete, properly formatted citations as soon as possible."

The addition of a bare URL while not the ideal state for an article is a step in the correct direction for the purposes of establishing verifiability. I don't think failing to use the correct reference formatting is a behavioural issue. These things can be fixed later through regular editing. Chillum 00:46, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Creating citations can be a drag, I should know. But yeah, bare URLs should be avoided whenever possible. Perhaps Webreflinks or reFill could be used by this editor. They're not perfect, but they usually get you halfway there. I do agree the lack of communication on this issue is worrying. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 01:14, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

As a non-admin who sometimes adds bare URLs and sometimes turns the bare URLs of others into fully formatted URLs, my suggestion is not to hector this editor at all. Someone has already made the suggestion to him. His edits may not leave the article in the idealized state, but as long as they are improving the article - and adding cited information is doing so - then he's not a problem, and he should not be made to feel like he's a problem. If the complaining editor is unhappy with Wikipedia not being idealized in this particular manner, he is free to use his energy to format the citations. --Nat Gertler (talk) 01:27, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

The information added is worthy, yes. However, taken in its totality, it's accompanied by what must be hundreds of bare url inline citations. If you'd like to convert each and every one of those, be my guest!

Of course, the increasing number of bare urls is not the lone issue. There's also the total non-responsiveness to notifications (not hectoring) that we shouldn't be using bare urls for citations. If you look at his talk page, he was back in May gently pointed (by two editors) to all the relevant guidelines. Yet, he posted no response and continued through May, June, July, and August adding bare url after bare url. It's clearly deliberate. Altogether, the actions don't strike me as either responsible or cooperative. --Ħ MIESIANIACAL 01:39, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

So the "issue" is that in addition to doing edits that add sourced information to Wikipedia, he is not bothering to respond to people who are telling him that he's not doing enough good in his volunteer work on this vast project? Good for him. It is not incumbent on him to respond, nor to only do edits that meet your idea of perfection. You are not this person's boss, he has not done harm, he does not owe you or anyone else a response. That you are trying to turn administrators on him is clearly deliberate. If he has chosen to ignore the requests thus far, siccing more folks on him would be harassment. We don't go after people for adding stub articles, so long as they establish notability, even though starting with a viable featured article candidate would of course be better, and we have plenty of guidelines on how that would be achieved. Planting the stub can help the full article eventually appear. Similarly, we may have an ideal for what a reference should look like, but as long as the ref is there, he's given the basis for others to drag the ball closer to the goal line, if that's the work they choose to do. --Nat Gertler (talk) 03:11, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

In other words: Wikipedia guidelines and the manual of style are optional; whether or not one follows them depends upon one's whim. Interesting opinion. --Ħ MIESIANIACAL 04:31, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Uhm, yes, that's what guidelines mean, and they all say so explicitly right at the top. Formatted citations would be better than bare links, but bare links are better than nothing; since they're improved the situation, it's good stuff. Ignoring someone who's pestering you is a pretty civil response, dragging someone to ANI because they're not doing the work you can't be bothered to do is a pretty rude response. WilyD 06:34, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Oh, good grief. I said very clearly at the top I hoped this was the right place to raise the topic; as in: I wasn't sure if this is the appropriate place or not, but I couldn't find anywhere else after looking. The passive-aggressive accusations of persecution are sad and misplaced.

Well, it's good to know I can opt not to follow guidelines and the MoS, if I choose to. I can just dump raw data at the top of articles, without proper syntax or context, with some bare urls for sources, and let other people do the rest of the work. Here I was thinking all this time I was responsible for making sure my work met some kind of project-wide standards. --Ħ MIESIANIACAL 14:43, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Better than fake citations. There's guides on how you can google to get the names of books and just "cite" them for whatever you want. Make people really work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.170.47.204 (talk) 01:18, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

We should accept these positive edits and be thankful that a user is taking the effort to provide an actual source. While bare links have the problem of going stale it is still better than no reference at all and the idea of taking an article so far and letting others finish is the essence of Wikipedia.

If as Miesianiacal says hundreds of such links are being added then hundreds of verifiable claims are being added to the encyclopedia. Sounds like a win to me. If some of them become stale because they never got upgraded to proper refs then they can be removed or have new citations added. I don't think it is disruptive as long as the links support the content being added. Chillum 02:24, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Dealing with the proper form for citations can be difficult until one gets used to them so don't forget that anyone can go to toollabs:refill to get most of the bare URLs in a given article fixed. If an editor is not comfortable using that then the Template:Cleanup-bare URLs can be added in the ref section and that will bring other editors along to fix things. As others have said legit references are better than none and there are ways of bringing those up to snuff. These tools allow us to work together to make any article better. MarnetteD|Talk 04:55, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

"Dealing with the proper form for citations can be difficult" ... you said it. I have watched people edit Wikipedia and there is a class of people for whom {{cite magic|url=http://this.that.other/blablablah#abcd1234666|first=Class|second=Coming|publisher=Creep|isbn=978-0-666-123445|ref=harvester}} is completely indistinguishable from gobbledegook. Frankly, you'll have a losing battle convincing some people to use the full gamut of citation templates as this a voluntary project and I do not believe anyone for whom this stuff is hard will stick around - especially when hectored about it on ANI! I'm sure Derek R Bullamore can fix the raw URLs, he's quite good and diligent about it. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)}

In this case, we have a editor who has stuck around. He's been with the project for over a decade, looks like over 12,000 edits, had created over 100 articles by 2008 (he stopped adding to his user page not long after that) and several categories. He is clearly an asset, and does not show signs of needing an "experienced editor" to mentor him. He seems disinterested in the complaining editor's criticisms, and I suggest that the complaining editor accept his silent response and stop posting to the editor's talk page less he be seen as crossing the line to WP:HARASSment. --Nat Gertler (talk) 14:03, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

If the citations being provided are generally to sources of high quality and relevance (and I see nothing in the above discussion to suggest that they are not) then I can't see getting bent out of shape. There are lots of editors who thrive on Wikignoming tasks, including the conversion and formatting of bare-URL references. The skills required to locate and identify good sources are different from the skills required to properly wikicode a citation; I see nothing wrong with welcoming and encouraging the enthusiastic participation of volunteers who have either one, or both, skill sets. Different people are welcome to contribute in different ways according to their own interests and abilities. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:32, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

For what it is worth, both Wikipedia:Bare URLs and Wikipedia:Embedded citations are essays, not guidelines or policies. Wikipedia:Citing sources#Avoid embedded links is a guideline, but states "…this is no longer recommended. Raw links are not recommended in lieu of properly written out citations….Since any citation that accurately identifies the source is better than none, do not revert the good-faith addition of partial citations. They should be considered temporary, and replaced with more complete, properly formatted citations as soon as possible." While it would be easier for all involved if everyone added properly templated citations, that does not mean that one cannot add the bare links. It is much more important, in my opinion, to uphold WP:V than to have wikified citations; this user is supporting the project and we are better off with his edits than without them. We can leave it to the Wikignomes to wikify the links. -- Avi (talk) 15:02, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Just to add in my understanding, that unlike switching from footnote to Harvard-type referencing, turning bare links into templated citations is not only not a violation of switching reference styles, but desired. -- Avi (talk) 15:04, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't believe anyone questioned the value of sources, nor called the guidelines and manual of style anything other than what they are: guidelines and a manual. However, it seemed evident guidelines and manuals are meant to be followed. I.e. one can insert bare urls as citations, but, the guideline and manual of style advise us not to, and each of us follows that advice so there's consistency across Wikipedia. Now, however, it appears following the guidelines is entirely optional. Just as Michael Drew can endlessly add bare urls, guidelines be damned, so can I consistently add valid material, but in the wrong place in articles, without proper punctuation or grammar, and bare urls as refs, and every time just expect others to maybe clean up after me, or maybe not. I can simply ignore all advice to learn the guidelines and MoS. --Ħ MIESIANIACAL 16:40, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Putting information in the wrong place or not grammatically correct is more of a WP:POINT, is it not? In this case, everything is aas it should be, except that the link is not wrapped in template code. It isn't as if the wrong link, the wrong information, or invalid English is being used. Using proper grammar and writing proper prose is not a suggestion; it is a requirement. Of course it would be better if Michael Drew (talk · contribs) were to develop more facility with template code and one of the two major reference schema, but that is more minor than the proper writing and building of the encyclopedia. At least that is how I see it. -- Avi (talk) 16:45, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Miesianiacal adding a bare URL to accurately cite content to a valid source improves the article. Adding content in the wrong place might well not improve the articles in question, depending on the details. Intentionally doing this because we failed to sanction an editor whose editing methods you disapprove of is a violation of WP:POINT and a form of disruptive editing. If you want to run the reflinks or refill tool over the pages edited by Michael Drew, you would also be improving the articles. Or you could simply tag them with the proper maintenance tag. Or just ignore them and let another editor deal with the matter. The edits you complain about do net seem to disrupt the project or cause anyone (but you) a problem, compared to the situation that would exist if the edits were not made, and that is the real test. I advise you to drop the stick. DES ^(talk) 16:57, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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Overhanded Administrator - Banned For Life from Ukrainian Wikipedia

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Hi I'm having problems with an overly aggressive editor "Green Zero" in Ukrainian Wikipedia who has banned me for life from writing in Ukrainian Wikipedia. He apparently believes that my articles are not unique enough and they are too direct a translation from English and French. He seems to lack the spirit of international corporation. I was writing for over eight years and completed over 1400 articles two of which made the article of the week - NHL Hockey and the second the Space Shuttle. Now I'm banned.

Is there a way that this can be solved? Thank you for reading Chris Kyrzyk. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.156.215.202 (talk) 00:26, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

See the note at the top of this page: "This page is for reporting and discussing incidents on the English Wikipedia that require the intervention of administrators and experienced editors". The English-language Wikipedia has no control whatsoever over Ukrainian Wikipedia. AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:38, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict)There is essentially nothing we can do from here, as each language Wikipedia is governed independently. The only thing you can do is escalate your unblock request up the chain at the Ukrainian Wikipedia. I notice that the Ukrainian Wikipedia has its own arbitration committee, uk:Вікіпедія:Арбітражний комітет, which would be the final point of escalation. I claim no expertise in block/ban appeals on the Ukrainian Wikipedia. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:40, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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• I have a question: if someone's banned for life, do they get unbanned when they die? Just wondering. EEng (talk) 17:24, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• EEng, apparently so: sitebanned users are routinely blocked, and Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/Guidelines says "accounts of deceased Wikipedians should not be blocked unless they have been compromised". If sitebanned, then blocked. Not blocked. Therefore, not sitebanned. Modus tollens. Nyttend (talk) 19:12, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

If, after that, editing activity resumes under that username, do we open a Spiritual/Paranormal Investigation? EEng (talk) 20:25, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

:-) No, just {{Compromised}}. Nyttend (talk) 22:04, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Seeking Clarification on User KH-1 undoing Edits

Hey there
I am trying to get clarification on edits I have made that user KH-1 has undone. These edits have included grammar edits, edits to company infomation, and adding a link that cites the info I was adding. It seems this user feels because I am a newer user I am clueless to the subject I am editing. Here are a few examples...

This edit is not me but its a good place to start. This user is posting links that are directly relevant to the article. [315]
In this instance I corrected the name of the company and added additional info about the company and it was undone. [316]
Here I added a reference to a website that had company documents that showed a timeline of the company during the period I edited.I did this to back up the info that I was editing. His reason is this is spam. I thought the idea of this was to be able to verify the info being submitted? [317]

On another article I get much of the same [318]

And another article [319]. On this one I did simple grammar edits. An example would be "this company" to "This company" . I also added a few weblinks that included one for the actual company in the article instead of the weblink to a website list that has the company's name and address. I also added a new manufacture to the "UK" section of the page. Again not spam but a link to a company that produces a kit car (The article is about kit cars) I have to question how that website kitcarlist.com can be referenced multiple times in the kit car article and not be considered spam but the companies own website cant be used instead. The same would go with me citing the priceofhistoys website that contained the timeline and company documents I linked above.

I tried to get in touch with the user to get clarification but I had no luck. I have been a kit car enthusiast/historian for the better part of 25 years. Any edits I have done have been to add value to the article and based on verifiable information. Not to raise spam flags of any kind.

I just want to get some clarification and perhaps resolution to this
Thanks Kitcarguy (talk) 02:25, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Kitcarguy Looks like what you were adding in wasn't reliable (i.e yahoo groups, forums...etc..) Also, I note your username is very close to a website you're adding in, and this might be a COI. If you want your additions to stay, you'll need a reliable source to back them up , take a look at this as it will explain what a reliable source in on Wikipedia. In addition, it looks like KH-1 should be assuming good faith with you, his first and so far only message on your user page was a final warning, that's a bit much without anything else to back it up. KoshVorlon We are all Kosh 11:27, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

KoshVorlon The first edits I posted were not from me. That was just an example. Yes it did appear to be yahoo groups and such. But at the same time these groups are full of owners, builders, and more information than can be crammed into an article. I did have a look at the reliable sources link and I thank you for that. If you do not mind I would like to toss an example at you or anyone who may be reading

On the page [320] under "United States" My edit was undone. The edit was to remove the referenced page kitcarlist.com from "Acme Car Company" and replace is with the companies own website at acmecarco.com . In that same section Aldino Car Company is referenced to kitcarlist.com when they to have their own website. How is this not spam but is considered reliable info? The person who created a list that shows kit car manufacturers, and has this disclaimer on their submit page "If you do not wish to link to us, we will still post your company... We would prefer to continue to give you free advertising, but if you prefer not to link to us, all we ask is that you pay $19.99 per month for your advertising with us:" or the company that produces the product?

I also understand that "Blogs" may or may not be used as a reliable source. At the same time just going by what is said about reliable sources that can be tricky. For example I would not consider "E! News any more reliable than perez hilton, KBB any more reliable than jalopnik, and so on. Same goes with forums. Funny thing is I was going to remove a forum link from one of the articles I was editing, but I left it because it did have a lot of info about the topic at hand.

Should I change my username, or stop attempting to edit anything in regards to kit cars? I have 25+ years in the field and know it well. I can certainly write about gardening, mowing the lawn, or even physics...lol You get what I am saying. Im not trying to be a smart ass. And I was not even going to bring up the fact that he was immediate in his Final warning, banning me, yada yada, immediately. Seems like a bit of a little man complex but hey whatever. Its the internet everyone is a bad ass ..hahaha

Thanks for your help and I look forward to more insight from people who can help me be a better user and avoid this sort of frustration.
Thanks Kitcarguy (talk) 16:14, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Kitcarguy Did you mean | this edit. Not sure why he did that, but your edit seems correct, the comment about your name is that it's very close to Kitcarlist.com. (I admit when I read that diff the first time, I thought it was you that inserted kitcarlist.com, that's why I made the comment about your name. And no, you don't have to change it, (I'm not a sysop or anything, so no, I can't make you do that). As far as blogs go, they're not reliable , except on what that blog writer thinks, that's it. Anything else needs to have reliable sources on it. I'm sure others will chime in here and offer more advice as well. KoshVorlon We are all Kosh 18:37, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

KoshVorlonYes that was one of the edits. Simple grammar was undone? LOL Now to his defense I did ad a link to a kit car company but that was only because it was in the "Examples of UK Kit Car" Section . I live in the US and that was a new kit car company in the UK and felt it should be there. I changed a car company to reflect the website of the company instead of kitcarlist.com (which I do not own) and it was undone. Is there a reason you can think of that kitcarlist.com (a personal webpage) should be the reference to a company that has a valid website? Only one I can but hey whatever. I also referenced http://priceofhistoys.com/history-of-fiberfab/ in another edit . It is a blog but it had the history of the company, and even supporting documents that were from a former company owner. I will admit I do own priceofhistoys.com but again I only added it to the article because it contained this . http://priceofhistoys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Fiberfab-History-842x1024.jpg . I figured if you would be citing something original company docs are hard to dispute.I know now that something from the company and provided by the former company of the owner is not considered reliable because it is on a blog.

I went back today and corrected grammar again in the article. I guess I will see if it sticks this time. What should be done about the links to kitcarlist.com ? The user seems hellbent on keeping them right as they are. If any link I have posted is "spam" surely that link is not more reliable. Am I mistaken?
Thanks again for all your helpKitcarguy (talk) 19:20, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Legal Threat at Talk:Ketchapp

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Hi, just saw this [321]. Will notify user now of ANI. Zarcusian (talk) 03:11, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

User blocked again. Simply socking / trolling. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:16, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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Problems with 4TheWynne

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Hi Wikipedia, I'm a very frequent contributor to the music band wikis and this guy 4TheWynne is absolutely being rude to me. So I was trying to help the readers get a better idea of what members contributed on releases by adding more than just studio albums onto timelines of the band members and then he messaged me telling me i was tredding on his pages and I needed to stop trying to help people and completely give up contributing because it was going to be removed by him every time. Then, he even went as far as to tell me my contributions were useless and reported me. Then he said i was "vandalizing." Not to mention, he was extremely rude about the whole thing. Also, he told me he "gave me many warnings" but this was the first time I ever heard from him. what sort of position is this guy in to do this to me? Why is he trying to start stuff? Can i get my account back track? thanks, Cameronsmiley2345qwerty (talk) 04:00, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Procedural note: 4TheWynne has been notified about this thread. —C.Fred (talk) 03:42, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Two things:

• Firstly, I actually chose the "disruptive editing" warning on the most recent occasion, so I didn't mean to say "vandalising" on his talk page in this instance (not sure how that happened). Most of this user's edits were made without consensus (discussion on the appropriate talk page), which is part of the reason why I was telling him to stop making these edits. And I definitely made it known to him more than once – along with Sergecross73, an administrator, who agreed with my reasoning. Then, this morning, he went as far as to edit my personal band page, which I saw as a really low blow (I don't like other editors editing within my userspace, as it is personal), before going to my talk page and leaving me a message. I was by no means being rude, I just wasn't happy that he ignored my previous warnings and went onto my personal band page.

• Secondly, half of what this user has accused me of is completely made up. As I said, this user never went to a single talk page before making these edits to timelines. I never asked him to "stop trying to help people and completely give up contributing" and never said that his edits "[were] going to be [reverted] by me every time". And I definitely did not say that his contributions were "useless", nor did I report him. I am by no means trying to "start stuff", nor am I intentionally trying to be rude to this editor.

So, it's clear that this user has panicked and reported me. Additionally, he did so without notifying me first – it took C.Fred to do so. I don't believe I have a case to answer for. 4TheWynne^{(talk)(contribs)} 06:45, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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Bbundu

Requesting a block for Bbundu for consistent disruptive editing to Summerslam (2015). He was warned repeatedly to stop, but he keeps on doing it. Vjmlhds (talk) 14:51, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Where are the diffs that show that he has "kept on doing it"? --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 15:19, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Also, I have taken the liberty of letting Bbindu know that you have opened an ANI case against him (which it quite explicitly states you must do, in a big orange box at the top of the edit page). --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 15:21, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: All due respect, but you sent the ANI to the wrong editor. I clearly sent one to Bbundu, who keeps making disruptive edits. You sent one to Bbindu. Similar name, but the wrong guy. Vjmlhds (talk) 17:33, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

As I followed the first link in the paragraph you typed, it might have been a typo on your part that sent me there. Regardless, any diffs to back up your claims would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 17:39, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: That was on me...I saw what I did - I hit i when I meant u. Easy to do since they're right next to each other on the keyboard. But Bbundu is the focus. Vjmlhds (talk) 17:56, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Indeed. So lets take a look at those diffs I asked for, shall we? :) --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 18:05, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Possible breach of 3RR by both User:Vjmlhds and User:Bbundu

I have taken a quick look at the page history for Summerslam (2015) and I am more concerned with the amount of reverting and re-reverting done by these two (done within the 24 hour time period specified). None of the edits seem like vandalism (although I will continue to look into it), but it seems like both users are stuck in an edit war that could do with being stopped. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 18:47, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Uninvolved comment - I don't think this is an edit war per se, it looks to me like Vjmlhds is trying to enforce their preferred version using the revert button: [322] [323] [324] [325] [326] [327]. That's six reverts today. None of the edits are vandalism, Vjmlhds just disagrees with them, but has made no effort at all to communicate with the new editor Bbundu other than condescending edit summaries and filling their talk page with warnings. Two notes: 1) Summerslam (2015) has recently come off full protection, and 2) Vjmlhds has just come off an indef for gross incivility. I think a WP:3RR block is well in order here. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 19:51, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

I agree. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 20:04, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: I didn't realize it got that far. But if you look at it, it just seems as though Bbundu was going tit for tat just for the sake of going tit for tat. I was just trying to add some details to the article, and Bbundu just seemed as though he reverted for the sake of reverting (his way or the highway). Vjmlhds (talk) 19:55, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Hence why I mentioned both of you in my missive. And I don't buy the whole "I didn't realise" thing. I am sure you are able to count up to three, and this went way beyond that. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 20:04, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: Sometimes you just get caught up in things and you lose track...happens all the time in real life, and it can certainly happen in Wikipedia. I'll refrain from editing the article as a show of good faith and a willingness to tamp things down, but as I said earlier, it was Bbundu who seemed to be hot on my heels ready to pounce after I made an edit. Vjmlhds (talk) 20:20, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Vjmlhds: As I said, ignorance is no excuse, especially not from a user that has been around since 2008 and, whilst your offer to refrain from editing the article is appreciated, it still doesn't change the fact that both of you have breached WP:3RR. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 20:29, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: I'll make life easy on you...if you're willing to overlook this slip up, I'll impose my own embargo on the article until Monday. And if I go against my own word, feel free to drop whatever hammer on me you see fit. I slipped up and I'm willing to go on record as saying I'll self monitor (with oversight) so that it won't happen again...no need to make a drastic decision. Vjmlhds (talk) 20:49, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Vjmlhds:As I am not an admin, I have no power to block you. All I did was look at the history page of an article, notice that you and another user had gone way beyond 3 reverts in 24 hours, and reported it here (because your actions are just as accountable as the user(s) you are complaining about. Whether the reviewing admin will listen to your plea or not will be down to that admin alone, although I have my doubts considering you have just been unblocked. We shall see. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 20:56, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: Wait..if you're not an admin, what are you doing replying to an ANI? Shouldn't that be the job of an admin? I figured you were an admin the way you responded...I kinda feel as though you duped me into thinking you were something you weren't. If you're not an admin, don't present yourself as one. Vjmlhds (talk) 21:03, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Vjmlhds:First thing, scroll to the top of the page. In one of the blue boxes at the top, it states "This page is for reporting and discussing incidents on the English Wikipedia that require the intervention of administrators and experienced editors.". Note, if you would, the experienced editor part and then feel free to strike through the drivel about me not commenting on ANI. Second, nowhere do I claim to be an admin (in fact, I have a user box on my page stating that I have no wish to be an admin), so feel free to strike through that drivel about me supposedly presenting myself as an admin. Third, I would be very careful about your above attitude given that you have not long been unblocked for incivility and some quite horrific personal attacks. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 21:13, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Withdrawing ANI request...more trouble than what it's worth. Vjmlhds (talk) 22:42, 19 August 2015

@Vjmlhds:Fair enough (although there is still the matter of you two breaching 3RR to deal with). --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 23:10, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Skamecrazy123: I'm already on record as saying I've washed my hands of the article, and won't touch it anymore. I can't, won't ,and don't care to speculate what Bbundu will do. I can only tell you where I sit, and as far as that article is concerned, I'm done. Vjmlhds (talk) 00:32, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

@Vjmlhds: That still doesn't absolve you of your transgression, although a reviewing admin may, or may not, take them into account when deciding what to do. We shall see. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 05:27, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Mental illness and NPA

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I am unhappy with the following attack made from the relative "safety" of a user's own talk page: [328] by No names left!! abcd (talk · contribs). (Also here [329].) The user seems mostly to be a troll-only account, and he responded to the user doing the most to clean up after him with attacks accusing him of "mental illness", based on that user very publicly identifying himself as having Asperger's. There is absolutely no excuse for this. I believe such attacks should be treated with the same severity as race-baiting and other grossly incivil behaviors (I'm thinking of the recent WP:ROPE mess and the in-progress WP:ARC mess), and not like the more run-of-the-mill incivilities that seem to have become the institutional norm here. Comments? Choor monster (talk) 16:32, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

That user with the disease was not doing "clean up" but rather re-introducing bad prose and other errors that I fixed. No names left!! abcd (talk) 17:09, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• Seconded And his one contribution is imaginary too. _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 16:48, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

On edit- now attacking me too. I'm mad too. (here) _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 17:02, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Improper discussion because no notification to me.

Fortuna has slapped a speedy delete tag which can be seen as harassment. The article in question is an AFD so it is poor form to short circuit that discussion. Besides, that ariticle is part of a series of articles in a template (List of Airports in Europe, with links to every European country). Even if Fortuna doesn't like the article, discuss it with the template creators, which did it years ago.

Also Fortuna has a history of ANI problems as evidenced by his barnstar of ANI attacks.

Let Wikipedia be a friendly place...people creating and improving articles. No names left!! abcd (talk) 17:06, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

• User:No names left!! abcd blocked as a trolling-only account. --Floquenbeam (talk) 17:11, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@abcd - (edit conflict × 2) Wikipedia will be a much friendlier place if you can manage to make any comment at all without assessing other contributors. Any comment at all. Try it. Comment on content, not contributors. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 17:14, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for saving me the bother of replying! _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 17:13, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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IP continues to vandalize

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IP......if an admin would care to take a look. Looks like a shared IP. (Littleolive oil (talk) 16:58, 19 August 2015 (UTC))

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Further disruption at WOP articles

disruption at WOP articles. Now User:Ricky81682 continues his campaign of harassment by deleting Koto Okubo. It's been kept for years and she was one the world's oldest women for almost a month. I mean, this wasn't random, it was also 28 days as the oldest person in the world. We need a topic ban — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.170.48.75 (talk) 02:38, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Procedural note: When you start a discussion about an editor, you must notify them on their user talk page. I have done so here. — JJMC89 (T·E·C) 02:48, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

sorry. Her page should be speedy kept too — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.170.48.75 (talk) 02:50, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

I initially closed this discussion since the AfD was speedily kept...but then I realized that an IP tried to close the AfD. Erpert ^{blah, blah, blah...} 03:21, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

If a rangeblock is needed, 166.170.48.0/22 would be a good place to start. --MuZemike 04:02, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

• Background history can be found here. As usual, I'm called for a topic ban (at least not a desyop). Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Koto Okubo was closed as merge in 2012 but it was fought repeatedly and so the new discussion is to re-doing the arguments in my view. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 04:33, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

IP vandalism at Summerside, Prince Edward Island

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IP 216.36.168.227 is persistently vandalising Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Citobun (talk) 03:53, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Blocked. —Soap— 03:59, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

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User:E.M.Gregory

I went to take a look at the Matthew C. Whitaker article as an uninvolved editor. I looked it over, and given that the article is about Whitaker's plagiarism and not Whitaker himself, and furthermore does not explain why any of said plagiarism is actually notable, and further seems to be an object of editwarring for no reason, I decided to prod it, and then opened a discussion on the talk page in order to try to figure out what was going on - I would have had no problem unprodding if something useful had been accomplished.

Instead, I'm at ANI because User:E.M.Gregory has edited my signature on a prior comment and addressed me as the article subject. I'm not going to stand for that sort of accusation, period. This isn't a content problem, it's an editor with a serious behavioral issue. It seems that the user has edited tendentiously before aside from the editwarring on the Whitaker article. I'm not even an admin; there shouldn't be any reason for me to get stuck in multiple ANI threads a week. MSJapan (talk) 05:03, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

I changed the sig back and left a comment there telling E.M.Gregory not to do that. Is any more action needed at this time? —David Eppstein (talk) 05:34, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for that, as I didn't want to touch it myself. As for further action, I'm not sure. EMG seems to be preventing any changes to the article he doesn't like, and seeing everyone else being against him, which is classic OWN (which he was warned about before). The use of a BLP article to be about nothing but an event (or events) is really BLP1E, and I'd almost be inclined to call it an attack page, because there's nothing else in the article (nor will there be - the subject's research is nil, and there were issues with his appointment in the department in the first place). EMG's also showing no understanding of policy relating to academics. Those seem to be deeper editing behaviors that go beyond simple content disagreement. So I'm mixed; this problem may or may not be solved, but there's a pattern not being addressed if it drops. MSJapan (talk) 06:07, 20 August 2015 (UTC)