Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Rangerdude

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Case Opened on 15:37, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Case Closed on 21:41, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin has been merged into this case. See Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Willmcw and SlimVirgin for the allegations in that case. The /Evidence, /Workshop and /Proposed decision page redirect to this case.

Please do not edit this page directly unless you wish to become a participant in this request. (All participants are subject to Arbitration Committee decisions, and the ArbCom will consider each participant's role in the dispute.) Comments are very welcome on the Talk page, and will be read, in full. Evidence, no matter who can provide it, is very welcome at /Evidence. Evidence is more useful than comments.

Arbitrators will be working on evidence and suggesting proposed decisions at /Workshop and voting on proposed decisions at /Proposed decision.

Contents

[edit] Involved parties

[edit] Request

[edit] Nominal defendant

[edit] Statement by party 1

Please limit your statement to 500 words

[edit] Statement by Willmcw

Harassment of editors Rangerdude is harassing and bullying editors who disagree with him or his edits. His goal seems to be either to end our involvement as editors or to punish us for disagreeing with him.

Cberlet Rangerdude brought an RfC against Cberlet and myself on account of our edit work on Ludwig von Mises Institute. The RfC charged us with "lack of civility, disruption, POV pushing, personal attacks on other editors, disregard of WP policies, disregard of talk page and consensus-building efforts, bad faith edits and assumptions". Only four editors (two of them LvMI associates) certified or endorsed Rangerdude's statement, while 14 endorsed Cberlet's statement and a total of ten editors posted separate views, most of which were against Rangerdude and some which received wide support. On the basis of that outcome, it appears that the community strongly rejected Rangerdude's view.

Rangerdude then heavily and contentiously edited Chip Berlet's biography and sought to have Berlet's published research deemed too extreme to use as a source for Wikipedia articles. At the same time he actively edited and created articles about one of Berlet's real-life adversaries, David Horowitz, with a positive POV.[1][2][3]

FuelWagon FuelWagon was one of the more vocal editors in the RfC, despite having had no prior involvement with either of us. He wrote a clearly-worded and boldy-formatted comment saying that the problem lay more with Rangerdude than with Cberlet or me.[4] Rangerdude first reformatted his comment then effectively tried to add FuelWagon to the RfC.[5][6] Shortly after the close of that RfC Rangerdude filed a separate RfC against FuelWagon. Wikipedia:Requests for comment/FuelWagon. The charges include having a "belligerent" tone in RfCs and filing a "false 3RR warning against another user". The RfC against FuelWagon received no endorsements or co-certifications. An opposing view received four endorsements within the initial 48-hour period.

SlimVirgin Rangerdude has also harassed SlimVirgin, who had had no editing interactions with him prior to commenting on the Cberlet/Willmcw RfC, and whose crime seems to have been speaking positively about us. In a number of edits he attacked her by name and he has made attacks on "wiki-cliques" that seem directed at SlimVirgin and other editors.[7][8][9][10][11][12] He apparently opposed Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/FeloniousMonk simply because SlimVirgin was the nominator.[13]

Willmcw Rangerdude has been attacking me as a "stalker" since June, 2005. He uses the de-listed RfC as an "attack file" with an ever-growing list of charges. I responded initially, but have not replied to every new addition. Rangerdude has copied and extended that file (minus my responses and other discussion) at User:Rangerdude/sandbox1/Evidence of willmcws wiki-stalking. He brandishes the charge as an attack in talk pages and edit summaries. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] (Recent instances: [27] [28] [29] [30]) He seeks out other editors to warn them about my supposedly-abusive behavior, encourages them to bring dispute actions, and repeats the charges as a reason for editors to disregard my opinion. [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39]

Katefan0 Rangerdude bullies Katefan0 in their editing disagreements, such as in Talk:Jim Robinson and Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Jim Robinson. [40] [41] [42]

Other issues From his earliest edits Rangerdude has been a POV warrior with a strongly pro/neo-confederate bias.[43][44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] He both shows bad faith and fails to assume good faith in others. He has followed my edits with an apparent intent to harass, in ways that mimic his own definition of wikistalking. [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55][56]


[edit] Statement by Katefan0

Rangerdude has made unfounded and potentially damaging personal attacks against me and has attacked other editors, has bullied and harassed editors who disagreed with him, disrupted Wikipedia to make a point, and aggressively inserted biased information throughout Wikipedia, while bludgeoning and smearing good faith editors who disagree with him. I have engaged Rangerdude in extensive dialogues on talk pages, largely to no effect. I opened an RfC over our main disputed article, Houston Chronicle, which received no replies. I then requested mediation, which formally opened on June 10. However, the mediator has been absent since that time and the dispute remains stalemated. Rangerdude continues to bully editors on Wikipedia:Stalking, through RfC’s and on other articles.

Personal attacks and harrassment

Rangerdude made a serious (and potentially libelous) attack against my personal and professional integrity [57]. When I protested, Rangerdude’s response was to escalate [58]. He has also targeted other editors who have disagreed with his conduct or biased edits: [59], [60], edit summary, [61], [62], among others.

Rangerdude often bullies and intimidates people who disagree with his positions (particularly during RfCs and other instances in which a vote or poll is taken) by commenting on their votes or comments, sometimes extensively, with the intent of discrediting (and thereby discounting) their opinions. [63], [64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69].

He has purposefully misrepresented my position in a debate to further his own position my original posting here. Misrepresentations: [70], [71], [72]. Despite my admonitions to the contrary, [73], he continued harass me about my own opinions [74], [75], [76].

He does not truly seek to resolve conflicts, seemingly preferring to argue his opponents into submission or deflect blame (here suggesting I alone am creating an impasse [77]), often reverting up to his limit under 3RR and haranguing dissenters on related talk pages. Reversions: [78], [79], [80], [81]. Talk: [82].

Dismissing or manipulating consensus

Rangerdude rarely accepts consensus unless it furthers his position or he is forced to yield. (Here he harangues Tony Sidaway, the VfD closer on Jim Robinson [83]). Or, he interprets consensus to suit his needs: Here, a consensus of two editors is enough when it furthers his position [84], but when it does not, a consensus of two (myself and Johntex) isn't enough; moreover, he harasses Johntex in an attempt to discredit his opinions: [85] [86] [87], [88].

He has manipulated policies to circumvent or defy consensus: (here he adds a {{disputed}} tag to the VfD vote on Jim Robinson [89]), and later on the redirect created as a result of the VfD vote [90]), [91].

He has violated WP:POINT when consensus has not gone his way. When Jim Robinson was properly VfD’d, and then failed to be undeleted through VfU, Rangerdude began voting keep on several other articles up for VfU at the same time. [92], [93], [94], [95]. He has not voted on VfU since.

Bias

Rangerdude seems primarily interested in editing articles into which he can insert conservative viewpoints both positive (Ludwig von Mises Institute) and negative (Sheila Jackson Lee). This would not be a problem, except that Rangerdude doesn’t seem to care about ensuring that articles he works on are balanced; he regularly inserts so much conservative criticism into articles that it makes them biased, then washes his hands of the article. After these additions [96], [97], [98], the article referenced contained three short paragraphs of bio information on a multi-term member of the U.S. Congress, and more than a page of cheap shots: [99]. Rangerdude left it up to others (primarily, me) to insert bio information that would serve as a balance to his additions. He later created what basically amounts to a hatchet page on her husband [100] and, similarly, on a liberal university professor [101]. When challenged on these edits and the directive on balance in WP:NPOV, Rangerdude’s response is to say, essentially, that he doesn’t have time to make it balanced (while continuing to work on other articles almost daily). [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109].

Additionally, he often justifies his biased edits with dubious sources which he deems reliable, including partisan blogs, partisan student-published tabloids, organizations with misleading mandates such as this one (which is criticized here) and unverifiable radio broadcasts [110], which he insists be retained when challenged. He has also been known to delete or oppose criticism of conservative figures (here scrubbing information critical of Tom DeLay (and edit warring in the process)): [111], [112], [113], [114], [115]). Other biased edits: [116], [117], [118].


[edit] Statement by Johntex

Rangerdude has harassed Wikipedia editors, including myself. He has violated Wikipedia policies, including WP:NPOV, WP:CIV, WP:DEL, and also Wikipedia guidelines, including WP:POINT.

Much of his harassing behavior is an attempt to inject his POV into article, such as in the example I illustrate below, where he harasses me by maliciously listing for VfD an article I created.

POV-pushing

User:Rangerdude has shown a history of POV-pushing on Houston Chronicle. His edits attempt to include as much negative information about the paper as possible. He even admits he does not feel responsible for making balanced edits, as in this exchange:

It is not enough to add information that unbalances an article and then wash your hands of it by saying "you can add other things if you wish…” User:Katefan0

In his attempts to create a biased article, he displays a willingness to cite any source that agrees with his POV, regardless of how un-noteworthy or biased the source. He also tries to create Wikipedia articles about these sources in an effort to bolster their apparent credibility in his arguments.

Introducing spurious sources

Rangerdude created an article on Texas_Media_Watch (TMW) because he wanted to quote TMW in POV arguments he wished to make on Houston Chronicle. I looked into TMW and found evidence that it was simply a one-person “organization” pushing the agenda of Sherry Sylvester and that the “organization” had not even been active since her departure. TMW did not qualify as a reputable source to be quoting at Houston Chronicle, and she/they certainly did not meet the notability standard for her/its own article. Thus at I listed TMW for VfD. The result of the VfD discussion was "Delete": [120]

Harassment of editor

After I listed TMW for deletion, Rangerdude took a sudden interest in an article I created on college football player Dusty Mangum and listed that page for VfD. I believe he did this in an attempt to intimidate me and anyone else who might dare consider listing one of his non-notable articles for VfD. Looking at Rangerdude’s last 3 months of edits: He has made no other edits to topics relating to college football, The University of Texas at Austin, or similar topics that would lead one to believe he was interested in Dusty Mangum for any other reason than to harass me. He has nominated no other article for VfD. He rarely even votes on VfD at all.

Among this discussion on the Dusty Mangum VfD was this statement:

To which Rangerdude made this unsigned reply:

Thus, Rangerdude ‘’’admitted’’’ that he violated WP:POINT by listing Dusty Mangum on VfD solely because I had created the article. [121] This is also a violation of WP:DEL which states that users should sign their posts of VfD pages. The VfD result on Dusty Mangum was "Keep" [122]

According to Rangerdude's own postings, he has shown himself to be harassing me. He is causing serious detriment to the project.

[edit] Statement by party 2

Please limit your statement to 500 words

[edit] Response by Rangerdude

Given the timing of this dispute and the editors involved in it, I can only respond by noting that it appears to be a frivolous retaliatory move by User:Willmcw against me for filing a request for arbitration against him and User:SlimVirgin following an extensive pattern of harassment and belligerency by both of these editors towards myself. It should also be noted that this is not the first time that Willmcw has made retaliatory complaints against other users who have reported him for violation of Wikipedia policies and guidelines. Willmcw filed a similar frivolous retaliatory RfC against me in June 2005 [123] only hours after I posted my initial complaint report against him on the incident noticeboard for wikistalking.[124] His purpose in both cases should accordingly be viewed as a disruptive and bad faith attempt to deflect investigation into his own repeated bad behavior and policy violations by way of initiating a competing complaint against his accusers.

As I detailed and documented at length in my arbitration case against Willmcw [125] and in a list of evidence assembled for that case and its related RfCs [126], Willmcw has engaged in a continuous pattern of harassment and wiki-stalking against myself since shortly after I arrived on wikipedia. In my experience with Willmcw I have found him to be an extremely vocal POV pusher who actively promotes a liberal/leftist viewpoint in his edits and who uses his editing privileges on Wikipedia to engage in political activism on a number of pet causes, among them: pro-illegal immigration, political correctness, environmentalism, and politically motivated attacks on conservatism, libertarianism, the U.S. Republican Party, and figures, groups, organizations, and publications affiliated with each.

Recent examples of POV pushing by Willmcw:

  • Use of POV weasel words - Willmcw adds/restores the scare-term "controversial" to the opening sentence of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a libertarian philsopher who is of the opposite political viewpoint of his own.[127] Willmcw removes the same scare-term "controversial" out of the opening sentence of Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal organization that he agrees with.[128][129]
  • Use of POV qualifiers - Willmcw adds the term "neo-confederate," a pejorative, as a descriptive qualifier of the Ludwig von Mises Institute (LVMI), a libertarian think tank he disagrees with.[130] Willmcw removes the word "leftist" as a descriptive qualifier of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) from the same sentence, calling it a "POV term"[131]. Willmcw removes "leftist" from SPLC[132] and reinserts "neo-confederate" before LVMI [133] (thus keeping the pejorative on the group he dislikes and removing it from the group he likes) after I pointed out the inconsistency and noted that NPOV dictates the article should contain both, to balance each other out, or neither.

Willmcw has a bad habit of harassing other editors who differ with this viewpoint both on political and non-political articles alike. He has done this to me since we first encountered each other and I have seen him treat other editors who come from conservative or libertarian viewpoints similiarly. His stalking of me includes his following me to over 40 different articles on such diverse subject matters as United States trade law, astronomy, libertarian philosophy, the American Civil War, historians, think tanks, newspaper and radio outlets, and academic biographies. As I described in detail here, many of these cases of following were for the explicit purpose of disrupting and harassing my edits including staging challenges against settled and documented factual material and generally trolling for reasons to delete, disrupt, or even make minor unnecessary alterations to my contributions on wikipedia for no other reason than the fact that I am the one who made them. As Willmcw noted, this did indeed lead to me filing an RfC against him and another user over POV pushing and belligerency on the Ludwig von Mises Institute article (located here). What he fails to inform you of are the reasons behind this RfC, which included a blatantly inappropriate attempt by Willmcw to disrupt this article's content with quotations from David Duke, the notorious Ku Klux Klan activist.[134] Other inappropriate behavior by Willmcw on this article included attempts to disguise edits in which he removed content as "adding citations" [135] and censoring out sourced material that differed from his political POV[136]. It should also be noted that several other editors involved in that article concurred that this behavior was inappropriate and others who read the RfC subsequently helped with extensive work on the LVMI article to remove the biased and inappropriate material Willmcw was pushing there at the time.

That Willmcw, who has intentionally targetted and harassed my edits over the better part of a year to degrees that would drive many other editors to leave wikipedia in frustration and disgust (and indeed, Willmcw has done just that to dozens of other editors), would turn around and accuse me of the same is the height of absurdity and suggestive that he engages in psychological projection as a defense mechanism when scrutinized over his actions. A quick review of his bizarre accusations towards me of "pro-neo-confederate POV pushing" found above demonstrate just how deep seated his agenda of harassment is as it includes diffs that were not even authored by me! (for example: [137]) In the same "examples" he seems to even take issue with me for such routine (1) pointing out inappropriate behavior and namecalling by other editors by linking them to the appropriate policy, (2) removing POV and pejorative terminology from articles, (3) using Wikipedia's dispute resolution procedures to resolve a difference with another editor (normally him or one of his allies), which are my right to use, and (4) adding new content to articles! The RfC's mentioned by Willmcw are of particular note as, contrary to his implications, neither constituted the "failure" he alleges. The LVMI RfC succeeded in attracting several new editors to that article, who then stood up against the POV pushing he was engaging in there and successfully rewrote the article. Even the FuelWagon RfC (which was deleted by none other than administrator Willmcw [138] - something that should be done after 48 hours, but it's nevertheless strange that he was apparently the one waiting there to do it at the earliest possible opportunity!) succeeded in getting two other outside editors to give statements supporting my complaint, much to the contrary of Willmcw's assertion that it went unendorsed. What is similarly interesting is that in both RfC cases the opposing votes came almost entirely from none other than Willmcw, SlimVirgin, and a small crowd of allies that frequently edits in tandem with these two. It's also curious that Willmcw takes issue with the fact that I assembled a list of his wikistalking activity on a sandbox page in preparation for this RfAr when he himself has done much worse to other editors he's stalked, including one where he assembled a list of every single article another user had edited.[139] Wait...come to think of it, he did that to me as well![140]

His blatant hypocrisy in making these charges aside, the real dispute Willmcw has with any of my actions is the fact that the edits I made differ with his political POV pushing and the fact that I am the one who made them (excepting, of course, the cases where he's attempted to attribute somebody else's anon IP edit to me!). Elaborating on his assertion, Willmcw accuses me of "harassing" other editors including Katefan0, SlimVirgin, and Cberlet as if to imply that I've somehow wronged each of them independent of my disputes with him. This is an absurdity in its own right, for what Willmcw fails to reveal is that each of these named editors has a strange habit of popping up right in the middle of virtually every article where I've posted a complaint or grievance with Willmcw's own behavior to either defend him in disregard of the facts, assist him in revert wars that target my edits, and generally disrupt anything I'm working on with the seeming aim of driving me off wikipedia articles (an aim that SlimVirgin has openly espoused, as documented in my RfAr against her and Willmcw below [141]). Examples of where this happened include Houston Chronicle, Chip Berlet, Thomas Woods, Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Cberlet_&_Willmcw, talk:Roots of anti-Semitism, and multiple others. As documented here and in my RfAr below, Willmcw and SlimVirgin have also coordinated attacks on my user page and coordinated revert wars with each other to harass my edits, coordinated hits aimed at voting down any RfC I post, and even coordinated attempts to alter my RfC posts in a way that casts their position in a favorable light or removes specific questions that I've requested comment on[142][143]. To put it mildly, for this exact same group of editors - esp. Willmcw, SlimVirgin, and Katefan0 - to show up over and over and over again at virtually any article where I've disputed the edits or behavior of one of their own is anything but coincidental. In fact out of the hundreds of thousands of editors on wikipedia, untold thousands of whom I've edited along side and gotten along with, this small group of politically and personally aligned editors who constantly conduct themselves to support each other in disputes and insulate each other from culpability when one or more breaks the rules are the only editors on wikipedia who I regularly have much of any disagreement with.

I find it unusual that User:Katefan0 and User:Johntex would choose to join this arbitration request based almost entirely upon an ongoing editing dispute at the Houston Chronicle article. As the matters involving the Houston Chronicle article are currently the subject of a still-pending mediation case [144] on that article, I consider it inappropriate and premature that they would seek to join Willmcw's arbitration case as other dispute resolution mechanisms on that article have NOT yet been exhausted, and as far as I am aware all parties to that dispute had previously agreed to mediation including Katefan0, who described her position there at length.[145] The dispute on this particular article is political in nature and entails difference in content regarding opinion. While Katefan0 accuses of "POV pushing" on this article, she fails to disclose that she is guilty of the very same offense in her own right and perhaps even more so. Examples include deleting = sources that she deems to be critical of the Houston Chronicle [146]; Adding passages from far-left wing sources containing unrelated political attack information on sources used in the article [147] [148]; Making ad hominem attacks on conservative sources, such as the Houston Review and Texas Media Watch, to portray them as politicized or unreliable [149][150][151] while simultaneously adding and promoting politicized left wing sources like the Austin Chronicle.[152]; adding original research on indirectly related subject matter for the purpose of attacking U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay[153]. Katefan0 has also pushed a pro-Chronicle POV by multiple reversions and extreme stubbornness exhibited on the talk page in which she has sought to remove the word "criminal complaint" from a description of a legal motion the newspaper filed [154] (Katefan0 quote- "I will resist any attempts to use "criminal" as an adjective for the complaint") despite the fact that Texas law and even the newspaper itself described it as a criminal complaint.[155] When the statute itself was directly cited in the article text to show that the complaint was classified as criminal under state law Katefan0 also deleted the reference.[156] It should be noted on the Houston Chronicle article that Katefan0 has repeatedly volunteered that she is a former employee of the Houston Chronicle and cited that employment as a basis for her desired edits and in discussions about those edits [157] [158]. While she has been accusing everybody else who says anything critical about the Houston Chronicle of being "biased" or "POV" since the moment she arrived at this article, Katefan0 seems to exhibit a strong personal POV of her own toward this paper as a former employee and many of her edits have been aimed at removing, watering down, or spinning any criticism that's been made of the paper by another source or media outlet.

I also suspect that this move by Katefan0 may be in part retaliatory dating back to an unrelated disagreement we had many months ago on the Jim Robinson article. From that time until the present Katefan0 has been occassionally following my edits to such articles as the Houston Chronicle, Sheila Jackson Lee, various VfD's and RfA's, RfC's I have initiated on other unrelated matters (including the earlier stages of the dispute with Willmcw) and most recently Wikipedia:Stalking - typically for the purpose of opposing whatever position I am advocating or voting against whatever way I vote, seemingly for no other reason than for my involvement. This particular editor also has very strong political opinions on many articles and frequently confuses differences of opinion with "personal attacks" on herself. Thus, opposing her opinion on article content, article subject matter, a wikipedia administrative matter, or even a vote is, in her mind, "personal attacks" or "bullying." This description has been applied by her to dozens of links to our past disputes in her case above, yet virtually every one of them is a content dispute where she has mistaken differences on wording or opinion for a personal affront to herself.

Katefan0 also seems unaware of or unwilling to abide by Wikipedia:NPOV_tutorial#Space_and_balance, which states of articles that have viewpoint imbalance on sourced material that they "should be considered an NPOV work in progress, not an irredeemable piece of propaganda." This provision also specifically says that "The remedy is to add to the article—not to subtract from it." Yet as her complaint above evidences, Katefan0 has both used a temporary imbalance in articles such as the Houston Chronicle as a reason to justify her subtraction of critical material, no matter how sourced it is, and as a basis to attack me personally with allegations of pushing propaganda. When I suggested many times that she should add to the article instead of subtracting from it as this guideline instructs Katefan0 responded in hostility toward me personally, shunned this suggestion, and now even cites the fact that I made it in her RfAr complaint against me! If adding to the article is not the remedy for balancing it then why does the guideline say that it is and why should I be held at fault for simply informing her of the same thing that the guideline says to do?

I am at loss for an explanation of what could have induced JohnTex to seek this case beyond the fact that he was on Katefan0's side of the Houston Chronicle dispute (and was personally recruited by her to participate there). Beyond that, I have not even had substantial interaction with JohnTex on wikipedia since early June! As I have no current disputes with JohnTex and rarely if ever even encounter him on wikipedia, and as his case her pertains entirely to subjects involving an article that is currently still in mediation, I see little purpose that his arbitration request could accomplish and consider it little more than a bad faith attempt to assist Willmcw and/or Katefan0 in pressing what ultimately comes down to a frivolous complaint that was intiated without any doubt for retaliatory reasons. I do find it curious that he would choose to make WP:POINT allegations against me for a VfD at the time of the Houston Chronicle dispute given that he himself was simultaneously VfD'ing new pages I created for WP:POINT reasons[159] and consider it outright bizarre that he would try to make a case upon the fact that I forgot to sign a single message post out of dozens in my exchanges with him. Such behavior on his part could rightly be described as a nitpicking personal vendetta and appears to offer very little if anything of relevance wikipedia's quality, content, or even genuine editing disputes. It should be noted that Johntex seems to be similarly unaware of Wikipedia:NPOV_tutorial#Space_and_balance, hence his support for Katefan0's attempts to subtract legitimate sourced information from articles.

As a concluding note - should this case proceed involving the allegations made here, I will similarly be asking the arbitrators to examine evidence of severe POV pushing on the part of Willmcw and Katefan0 as well as the disruptive retaliatory behavior entailed in filing this case, which constitute WP:POINT abuses, in the case of all three editors. Rangerdude 03:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Statement by third party (Willmcw RFA v Rangerdude): FuelWagon

I already posted my comment about Rangerdude's RFC against Cberlet and Willmcw in this diff. It is my statement as a third party in the Rangerdude RFA against Wilmcw and SlimVirgin bookmarked here. That comment applies to this RFA as well. FuelWagon 20:36, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Statement by MacGyverMagic

My apologies for allowing this dispute to end in arbitration. Obligations outside of Wikipedia have prevented me from doing anything as time-consuming as mediation for a while now, and this particular case turned out more difficult than I initially thought. I've taken steps to ensure active people are tending to the mediation requests now. - Mgm|(talk) 07:28, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Statement by Rangerdude

[edit] complaint against Willmcw
  • Willmcw has engaged in a pattern of harassment, disruption, and wiki-stalking towards Rangerdude from February 2005 to the present and involving over 40 different articles (evidence). This stalking has been disruptive including dismantling of Rangerdude's additions without justification, removal of source material for political and POV reasons, and general harassment aimed at pestering Rangerdude's day-to-day edits on unrelated articles. This violates Wikipedia's policies on civility, disruption, assuming good faith, and existing Arbcom precedent and Jimbo Wales' Recycling Troll case ruling about pestering other users with stalking [160][161].
  • Willmcw's stalking of me has included disruption of the Houston Chronicle mediation including the unilateral addition of himself to a closed mediation between Rangerdude and another editor[162] and revert warring to retain his self-addition after it was removed.[163]
  • Willmcw has repeatedly attempted to disrupt Rangerdude's efforts in the current guideline proposal of Wikipedia:Stalking. This includes multiple bad faith edits aimed at dismantling, weakening, and deleting the proposal's text [164], revert warring to add an unfriendly and undesired change to the proposal [165], [166], [167] [168] and removing material authored by Rangerdude from the proposal while it was being drafted on account of its authorship. [169]
  • Willmcw has made WP:POINT disruptions aimed at harming the Wikipedia:Stalking proposal. Willmcw announced his intent to file a counter-complaint of wiki-stalking against Rangerdude for the purpose of disruption after objections were made to his dismantling edits to the proposal that are described above.[170] He was warned of WP:POINT in response [171], but subsequently followed through with the complaint posted to Rangerdude's talk page.[172]
  • Willmcw has repeatedly attempted to alter and remove a question posed to him by Rangerdude regarding his purposes and disruptive edits on the Stalking article from that article's talk page. Edits were for the purposes of removing the fact that the question was addressed at his edits specifically. [173] [174][175]
  • Willmcw has engaged in and promoted revert warring against Rangerdude's edits and in disregard of talk page discussions that are pending. [176] [177] Note: this particular case of revert warring was on an article that Willmcw has repeatedly stalked me to dating back to February 2005 and has edited in a disruptive manner previously.
  • Willmcw has a history of filing retaliatory motions against Rangerdude in response to reports of his policy violations and bad behavior by Rangerdude. Examples include [178] filed 4 hours after Rangerdude reported Willmcw for wikistalking on the administrator incident board [179]; Threats to post [180] and followthrough on posting a retaliatory wikistalking counter-complaint[181] against Rangerdude after Rangerdude voiced concerns about Willmcw's intent in editing the wiki-stalking proposal despite having a long history of having been accused of that same practice in the past; and filing a retaliatory RfAr against Rangerdude 4 days after this RfAr was posted regarding him[182]. These examples are violations of WP:POINT and are attempts at gaming the system in response to complaints that call his editing behavior into question.
  • Willmcw recently responded by disrupting several Wikipedia articles when Rangerdude removed a POV qualifier added by another Wikipedia newcomer from the name of Thomas DiLorenzo, a libertarian economist who Willmcw dislikes, in an article that quoted DiLorenzo. The qualifier attempted to bias the introduction of DiLorenzo's quote with a politically charged statement about his membership in a controversial group & Rangerdude removed it to bring the article into NPOV compliance noting in the edit description "rem. non-encyclopedic non-neutral fact ref. (see WP:NPOV) - already mentioned on DiLorenzo article in fuller context." Willmcw responded by disrupting at least four different articles in which he removed a directly quoted and sourced self-description of Ed Sebesta - a liberal political activist he likes - while mockingly copying Rangerdude's note to apply to Sebesta "rem. non-encyclopedic non-neutral fact ref. (see WP:NPOV) - already mentioned on Sebesta article in fuller context"[183] [184] [185] [186] It appears that Willmcw's sole intent in making these changes was to prompt a reaction and foster further ill will with Rangerdude, all the while disrupting existing Wikipedia content.
  • Willmcw has engaged in heavy POV pushing to promote a liberal/leftist political agenda and to disparage conservative/libertarian viewpoints that disagree with his own. Example: Willmcw added the scare term "controversial" to the opening sentence of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a libertarian philsopher,[187] yet removed it from the opening sentence of Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal organization that he agrees with.[188] In pursuing this political agenda Willmcw has become unusually skilled at content manipulation on wikipedia articles about conservative and libertarian writers, politicians, organizations, and think tanks. One of his most common tactics is to insert insinuations of racist, anti-semitic, neo-nazi, KKK, and other hate group affiliations into articles about mainstream conservative and libertarian topics, thereby trying to discredit them through guilt-by-association links with notorious political extremists. Example: Willmcw attempted to insert David Duke quotations into an article about a libertarian think tank.[189]

[edit] Complaint against SlimVirgin
  • SlimVirgin assisted Willmcw in the WP:POINT disruption described above by posting a coordinated note publicizing it to the Village Pump announcement where community input was solicited for the Wikipedia:Stalking guideline proposal.[190] This was done for the apparent purpose of disrupting or discrediting the Village Pump request for community input on forming the guideline, as indicated by her edit summary description and accompanying comments.
  • Moments later SlimVirgin abused her administrative powers to page protect my user page[191], apparently aimed at preserving and promoting Willmcw's WP:POINT complaint that she had just linked to. Wikipedia:Page protection prohibits administrators from protecting pages in disputes where they are involved. The protection was removed after Rangerdude complained on both the Admin noticeboard and the Page Protection board. SlimVirgin also made an accompanying second post at this time to the Village Pump aimed at promoting Willmcw's note after another editor removed it apparently for WP:POINT reasons. This post demonstrates that her purpose in protecting the userpage and pursuing the other editor was motivated primarily by her coordinated promotion of Willmcw's note for purposes of disrupting the guideline proposal Rangerdude was working on, rather than a simple case of vandalism as she has claimed.[192]
  • SlimVirgin has made repeated personal attacks and bad faith allegations against Rangerdude. SlimVirgin rudely accused Rangerdude of deleting another unrelated user's comments from a noticeboard when the culprit was an apparent scripting bug that has been causing problems to that particular board.[193] SlimVirgin made a similar bad-faith accusation of deletion agaisnt Rangerdude for merging a simultaneous and duplicate request for input on the Wikipedia:Stalking proposal into one notice post.[194] SlimVirgin responded with extreme belligerency and personal attacks when Rangerdude responded to this allegation by stating it was a simple attempt to merge two redundant posts. SlimVirgin also removed Rangerdude's comments explaining this merge.[195]
  • SlimVirgin has engaged in multiple personal attacks including demeaning personal comments in response to the incidents mentioned above. Examples: "What is wrong with you" [196] and "You're a disruptive editor" [197].
  • SlimVirgin has made similar personal attacks towards Rangerdude previously, has exhibited extreme personal belligerency toward Rangerdude as an editor ("What's wrong with it Rangerdude, is in part that it's you who's suggesting it. My position is that you should not be editing this page") and has made attacks against Rangerdude that could be construed as a legal threat. [198]Note: SlimVirgin has been cautioned by the Arbcom previously for making personal attacks.[199]
  • SlimVirgin has engaged in edits aimed at benefitting, insulating, and/or protecting other editor friends of her own, including Willmcw, from adverse scrutiny in the dispute resolution process. In a recent case Rangerdude filed an RfC regarding an edit where Willmcw deleted approx. 72% of the article text on Thomas Woods[200] and revert warred 3 times to retain this deletion. Willmcw attempted to sway the RfC by changing its description to claim the deletion was significantly less than what was noted.[201] Rangerdude restored the original RfC and documented the accurate deletion size on the article talk page[202] but SlimVirgin, seeking to insulate Willmcw, has attempted to revert the RfC to a text more favorable to Willmcw with the intentionally smaller size estimation.[203]

[edit] Statement by 216.112.42.61; complaint against Willmcw

May I say something here? I just noticed this complaint by chance when looking at this page. Rangerdude is not the only one that has been stalked by Willmcw. I too have been stalked by said user, though it was a while ago so I don't remember it well. I just gave up rather than reporting it, but since others are now reporting on Willmcw, I am also. If I remember correctly, Willmcw was trying to push his own biased POV in the article 'terrorism', and I reverted his edits for a while, then gave up. Willmcw then stalked my IP to the article 'ballotechnics', which I had done substantial work on, in which Willmcw falsely portrayed it by classifying it as a pseudoscience, to discredit my contributions in anger over my attempt to prevent his pushing his biased POV. Being as others have also been stalked by Willmcw, it is clear that he has got to go.

[edit] Statement by Herschelkrustofsky; complaint against Willmcw

I wish to second the remarks of 216.112.42.61; I too have been stalked by said user. Willmcw has anticipated my contribution to this discussion in his response below, but I would like to make it official. --HK 14:33, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

...And, Willmcw has resumed stalking me. I have begun compiling a log of frivolous edits, which I will submit as evidence if the Arbcom decides to accept this case. --HK 00:15, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Statement by Jonah Ayers; complaint against Willmcw

I too have been stalked by WillmcwJonah Ayers

[edit] Statement by Gorgonzilla on Jonah Ayers complaint against Willmcw

It does not seem that the claim of Wikistalking is possible as the term is normally understood as the user Jonah Ayers appears to have almost exlusively edited one article Biff Rose and user pages. So this is not a case of following an editor around from page to page, it is a case of staying on the same article. Wikipedia is designed to encourage this, that is what the watch function is for.

Having never heard of Biff Rose and after reading the article not much wanting to I can't comment on the facts in the dispute. But the talk history does suggest that Ayers was deleting relevant information. Biff's choice of album titles does sugggest he is a racist and so the albums are clearly relevant. It would only be reasonable to remove them if there was significant doubt he published those albums. The fact he appears to be reduced to self-publication is also significant.

So the edits Ayers made and the persistence of the edits do appear to be problematic. So even if Ayers was being followed about by administrators and others that would not be at all unreasonable. The real point with wikistalking is intent. If the original edits are in violation of WP:NPOV it is not wikistalking to go around and clean them up. If someone is going round eliminating text to harass another user the issue is the harassment, not the means of harassment.

It is similar to calling someone a liar. If someone is not a liar then it is harassment. If on the other hand the facts are clear and the other person is a liar then the statment is justified in certain limited circumstances.

[edit] Recusal Notice request

As this RfAr involves two fairly well known administrators on Wikipedia, I am also requesting in compliance with Wikipedia:Arbitration policy on conflict of interest for any arbitration participant who has a strong historical editing relationship with or other personal allegiance to SlimVirgin, Willmcw, or both to disclose this information and, if applicable, recuse him or herself in accordance with this policy. Thank you. Rangerdude 06:43, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Preliminary decisions

[edit] Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (4/0/0/0)

[edit] Temporary injunction (none)

[edit] Final decision

[edit] Principles

[edit] Remedies for disruptive editing patterns

1) An otherwise productive editor who edits some articles in an aggressively tendentious way may be banned from editing those articles.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Autobiography

2) Wikipedia:Autobiography, a guideline, discourages persons who have an article about themselves in Wikipedia from editing it, suggesting that they provide input on the talk page, but points out the need for citing published sources for information to be acceptable.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Mercy

3) Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers, a guideline, admonishes Wikipedia users to consider the obvious fact that new users of Wikipedia will do things wrong from time to time. For those who either have or might have an article about themselves it is a temptation, especially if plainly wrong, or strongly negative information is included, to become involved in questions regarding their own article. This can open the door to rather immature behavior and loss of dignity. It is a violation of don't bite the newbies to strongly criticize users who fall into this trap rather than seeing this phenomenon as a newbie mistake.

Passed 6-0-1

[edit] Controversial experts

4) Knowledgeable users, including those who have been engaged in controversial activities are welcome to edit on Wikipedia, provided they cite reliable sources for their contributions and respect Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, especially Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought, Wikipedia is not a propaganda machine and Wikipedia is not a battleground.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Harassment of controversial experts

5) The policy expressed in Wikipedia:Harassment as applied to controversial experts forbids violation of Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_battleground by undue focus on Wikipedia articles regarding them or organizations affiliated with them or on their editing activities.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Focusing attention on controversial users

6) Wikipedia editors who engage in inappropriately focusing their attention on controversial users should be extended some degree of understanding as this is a predictable newbie error.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Findings of Fact

[edit] POV editing by Rangerdude

1) Rangerdude has from time to time engaged in editing which can be fairly characterized as aggressive and tendentious (POV) editing of articles which relate to Houston area politics and media, and the politics of the American South. This pattern of editing is widespread and has drawn the attention of the Wikipedia administrators Slimvirgin and Willmcw, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Evidence#Evidence_presented_by_user:Willmcw_on_user:Rangerdude and Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Willmcw_and_SlimVirgin/Evidence#Evidence_by_Katefan0.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Error by Willmcw

2) Willmcw has in at least one instance been caught up in the struggle over the content of political articles and edited inappropriately, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Evidence#David_Duke.2FLudwig_von_Mises_Institute

Passed 7-0

[edit] Harassment of Cberlet

3) Rangerdude has inappropriately quarreled with and been involved in disputes regarding the articles concerning a controversial and knowledgeable expert who is also an Wikipedia editor, Cberlet, see Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Cberlet & Willmcw and Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Nobs01_and_others/Evidence#Rangerdude Added 18:13, 7 December 2005 (UTC) [204] [205] [206] [207] Fred Bauder 18:13, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Passed 7-0

[edit] Harassment of Nskinsella

4) Willmcw has inappropriately quarreled with, and been involved in disputes regarding the articles concerning, a controversial and knowledgeable expert who is also an Wikipedia editor, Nskinsella, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Evidence#Evidence_from_Nskinsella.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Personal attacks by Nskinsella

5) Nskinsella has made personal attacks on Willmcw [208]

Passed 7-0


[edit] Over-involvement by Nskinsella in Stephan Kinsella

6) Nskinsella, a minor public figure, has involved himself inappropriately in the content of the article on himself Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Rangerdude/Evidence#Evidence_from_Nskinsella.

Passed 5-0-1

[edit] Remedies

[edit] Rangerdude placed on probation

1) Rangerdude is placed on Wikipedia:Probation for one year. Any administrator may ban Rangerdude from editing any article which he disrupts by aggressive tendentious editing.


Passed 7-0


[edit] Rangerdude admonished

2) Rangerdude is admonished to extend respect and forgiveness to users such as User:Cberlet (Chip Berlet) who share the burden of being notable enough to have articles regarding them be included in Wikipedia.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Willmcw admonished

3) Willmcw is admonished to extend respect and forgiveness to users such as User:Nskinsella (Stephan Kinsella) who share the burden of being notable enough to have articles regarding them be included in Wikipedia.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Nskinsella cautioned regarding personal attacks

4) Nskinsella is cautioned to avoid personal attacks.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Cberlet cautioned regarding autobiography

5) Cberlet is cautioned to avoid over-involvement in the article on himself.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Nskinsella cautioned regarding autobiography

6) Nskinsella is cautioned to avoid over-involvement in the article on himself.

Passed 7-0

[edit] Enforcement

[edit] Enforcement by block

1) Should Rangerdude edit any article he is banned from under the terms of his probation he may be briefly blocked, up to a week in the case of repeat offenses. After 5 blocks the maximum block shall increase to one year.

Passed 7-0
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