Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Eastern European disputes/Workshop

Question for Alex

The last time the two of us - you and me - interacted, it was in August, when you made your first and only edit (revert) to an article that Irpen was also reverting. We have not interacted for months (I can't recall any other interaction we had in 2008!). And now you are here, apparently having read this case in depth, posting proposals that sound very much like what Irpen would say... For the record, could you state how you got involved in this case, and whether the text of your proposals was discussed/suggested to you with anybody? PS. I have no problem with users asking others for input using off-wiki methods, but I believe it should be stated (ex. like I've clearly stated in this arbcom that I asked Lysy, Halibutt and Balcer for input).--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 14:39, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Waiver of the expectation of privacy in this matter

I would like to make a following statement. Upon an accidental discovery of Piotrus' black book several months ago I was shocked beyond what I can describe. Because I put Alex in a very small group of Wikipedian I respect most, I decided to share my frustration with him as what I have seen overwhelmed and distressed me too much. Thus, I communicated to Alex both my discovery and how I felt on this matter. Alex is free to share with the community what his take on this was back then. I just want to free him from any obligation he may feel towards me on preserving the privacy of our correspondence. I assert that there was no collusion of any sort and, of course, some are free to think what they want. However, I want to say that I have no qualms if Alex shares anything I wrote to him on any matter that directly or indirectly relates to Piotrus. --Irpen 22:02, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

• Yes, I have off-wiki contacts with a few wikipedians. Usually it is an administrative business with some users asking for administrative actions or having some private discussion about administrative matters, etc. I have participated in three Melbourne meetups and have some social interactions with people I met there. I have reasonable close relations with Irpen, we discuss a lot of things related to the real life as well as with wiki-related business. He indeed wanted me to help mediate the conflict over the Boleslaw_I's_intervention_in_the_Kievan_succession_crisis,_1018 between you (and your admirer) and Deacon. I am sorry but it was a conflict between an expert in the field and a devoted amateur. You were reverting version based on fundamental university text books to a version based on a newspaper. There was no POV conflict there just plain ownership of an article. I have put my thoughts on the talk page and of course reverted. The conflict eventually led to the present arbcom case. Maybe if I would interfere earlier the conflict could be sought by more gentle way. That is why I would not need anybody to point me out to this case, I was following it from the very beginning. When he found the resurrection of the black book Irpen complained to me first telling me quite bluntly that he would leave the project unless something is done. I have no further options than to recommend to give his grievances to the opened arbcom. Well, to be honest I feel like I have answer while I started my participation so late not to why I have started my participation at all since I was involved in or closely follow many of the editorial conflicts already mentioned here. And well, yes, my edits are mine unless I specifically said so, I have not got screenwriters yet. I am not sure I have provided all the info you wanted, so please continue asking if you need something else Alex Bakharev (talk) 04:32, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you. I have completely no problem with your communications. I wouldn't even have dared to ask about it and thus intervene in your privacy if not for the reason that your honest reply proves my point: we all use off wiki communication to discuss Wikipedia, and usually it's all in good faith and contributes, not detracts to the project. Please note that one could use bad faith to argue that your one comment and one revert in Boleslaw article can be seen as revert warring after off-wiki canvassing and that you were meatpuppeting for some cabal... I don't see it that way as I assume good faith - but there are arguments, right there on the evidence page, that twist innocent, good faithed edits and portray them just like that. If others did assume more good faith, there would be no need for this arbcom... --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 05:25, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Just looking at the edit history and talk page, I can tell: this article was a subject of a long-standing content dispute involving many editors, two of them are Irpen and Piotrus. Then, all the sudden, Deacon joined the "battle" on August 23, just before opening of this case. Why he did it? That is an important question. Irpen, did you also share your frustration with Deacon?Biophys (talk) 23:44, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Piotrus, please think a little higher of our intelligence. This all is not about off-wiki communication per se. There is nothing wrong with off-wiki communication. It is only wrong to use it to call in reverts, to stack votes or to shop for blocks. This is my problem with your off-wiki communication, rather than its mere existence.

Biophys, I lost count on how many times just on the pages of this case you post completely nonsensical statements that contradicts some easily verifiable facts. That you rush into making rash statements instead of checking facts first does not help your statements to be taken seriously.

Now some facts: I completely withdrew from editing Wikipedia on July 8 (and Pitorus' black book was the main reason why I saw editing Wikipedia too stressful to continue it), briefly checked in on August 25 prompted by posting of an outrageous text presented as the nationalist conflict workgoup report, of which I was alerted by email, to post a dissenting opinion [1].

While at it I checked my watchlist. I noticed edits in the article in question (which I edited for a long time before) and a conflict between Deacon who rewrote it based on scholarly books written by top scholars in medieval Rus and Piotrus, who was acting as if he owns the article and was repeatedly making wholesale reverts of all Deacon's edits (including the ones he did not object to) [2] [3] [4]. Noticing that Piotrus does not explain what's wrong with Deacon's version which is based on the most respected book published on Russian medieval history but simply reverts (and repeatedly) to a version based on a relatively obscure article in Rzeczpospolita (newspaper), I reverted Piotrus and posted to the at article's talk. Again, the war raged while I was on a wikibreak!

If you simply checked facts, you would spare us all some waste of time. As for what got Deacon to this article, I assure you that it was not me. I was not even online back then. If you followed Wikipedia coverage of medieval Rus, you would have noticed that Deacon wrote and edited a lot of articles in this field and I was not surprised to see him at this article. If you were, ask him what brought him to this article. I have nothing to do with this. --Irpen 05:34, 22 September 2008 (UTC)