Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User:Devin79

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Contents

[edit] Statement of the dispute

[edit] Description

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Devin79, who mostly contributes unsigned as IP address 68.35.182.234 [1], Continually makes silent reverts to several pages, including the Provisional Irish Republican Army page, the Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997 page. The same behaviour is also apparent on the Special Activities Division page. He has been blocked numerous times for violating the three revert rule, so now he leaves more time between his reverts. Effectively, this is edit-warring in slow motion.

Regarding the Irish Republican pages, this user pushes a POV agenda talking up the IRA's military effectiveness. He does this by inflating the casualty figures listed. He has used several methods to do this. Firstly, by changing the numbers given by sourced material, thereby falsifying it. Secondly, by inventing sources and or/citing them falsely. He refuses to engage with other users when asked detailed questions about this behaviour, but instead makes personal attacks (specifically calling users loyalist paramilitary supporters) and threatens to get other editors banned from wikipedia. This behaviour has been going on for nearly a year now and is hugely disruptive to the articles in question. This is not only due to the factual inaccuracies and POV he inserts, but also because his reverts delete all the work done on the articles since his previous edits. Additionally, his constant reverts have had the effect of re-posting copyrgiht material that had been removed. Finally, Devin79 has also defamed a living person, Irish journalist Henry McDonald, although he has not engaged in revert wars there when his edits were removed. Jdorney 11:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The most serious aspect of this dispute, in my opinion, is edits such as [2]. Devin79 alters properly cited figures (from BBC News [3]) about the Provisional IRA's weapons arsenal. This change was made not only without providing a reference for the different numbers, but without changing the reference itself. So the article was left in a highly unsatisfactory state where it contradicted its own references, and this has been done several times over the past few months [4] [5]. Not only has Devin79 not responded to attempts by myself and other editors to engage with him on the talk page [6], but he announced his intention to keep on reverting regardless [7]. Demiurge 12:56, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I have repeatedly encountered problems with this user inserting POV edits without any citation at all or talk page discussion to the page Special Activities Division. While I have not met with the user actually logged in, I'm informed by the creators of this RFC that the IP editing there is Devin79. I further endorse the above statements.⇒ SWATJester Ready Aim Fire! 14:13, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Evidence of disputed behavior

(Provide diffs. Links to entire articles aren't helpful unless the editor created the entire article. Edit histories also aren't helpful as they change as new edits are performed.)

  1. Refusal to engage with other usersat the Talk:Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army — three different editors (Demiurge[8], Jdorney[9], User:Fluffy999[10]) raise specific and detailed questions about Devin79's edits, only to be completely ignored as he reverts again.
  1. The latest in a long line of silent reverts, [11] and [12]
  1. Not citing sources, or even worse, making them up and lying about them. Or worse yet again, changing sourced info while leaving the source, thereby falsifying it. See [13] and [14] for details.
  1. Personal abuse, and use of threats, as well as refusal to engage with content questions, eg that users are loyalist paramilitaries [15] Also at [16]
  1. Defamation of Henry MacDonald [17]

[edit] Applicable policies and guidelines

{list the policies and guidelines that apply to the disputed conduct}

  • A violation of verifiability rule; WP:V
  • Constant reverting of other people's work, even when he just wants to change a minor detail but in the process loses all the work done on the article in the interim. A slow motion violation of Wikipedia:Three-revert_rule.

[edit] Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute

(provide diffs and links)

  1. On IP adress talk page [19]
  2. On Devin79 talk page [20]
  3. On PIRA talk page [21]
  4. Through edit summaries on SAD page [22]

[edit] Users certifying the basis for this dispute

{Users who tried and failed to resolve the dispute}

  1. Jdorney 11:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
  2. Demiurge 12:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
  3. ⇒ SWATJester Ready Aim Fire! 16:39, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other users who endorse this summary

  1. --Mal 16:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
  2. --Damac 19:52, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
  3. --FearÉIREANN\(caint) 22:24, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
  4. --Fergananim 11:29, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Response

This is a summary written by the user whose conduct is disputed, or by other users who think that the dispute is unjustified and that the above summary is biased or incomplete. Users signing other sections ("Statement of the dispute" and "Outside Views") should not edit the "Response" section.

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Users who endorse this summary:

The user in question and his IP have been indefinately blocked as per WP:AN/I. As such they will be unable to respond. ⇒ SWATJester Ready Aim Fire! 00:04, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Outside view

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[edit] Discussion

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