Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Johnpacklambert

Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User conduct/Assistance

Statement of the dispute

Johnpacklambert (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) Johnpacklambert is very active in Category-space, at CfDs, and adding or removing categories from pages. Too active, IMO, and active to the point of OWNership. Among CfD discussions that began in November, JPL has 848 edits; on three of those pages, he made 60 edits or more on a single day's worth of CfDs. This translates to voting in almost every CfD for the month (a practice that's frowned upon), and commenting in many CfDs ten or more times, often to continually reiterate the same point or badger people who disagree with him. A large portion of CfDs are either ones he himself has nominated or ones of pages he himself has created. Meanwhile, he adds or removes categories at a very fast clip; often 20 or 30 more in an hour. Many of these changes are somewhat controversial. He has edit-warred numerous times over categories, and also added or removed categories when that category was in the middle of a CfD (oftentimes, a CfD that wasn't going quite the way he wanted). His talk page is filled with comments imploring him to stop doing what he's doing vis-a-vis categories or reconsider his position; yet he has failed to ameliorate his behavior, and sometimes even to acknowledge their concerns, choosing instead to proclaim how right he is and to accuse his detractors of being "rude" or "combative", then claiming their signatures are "annoying". However, he is quick to comment on talk pages or user talk pages when someone does something that he doesn't approve of. Also troubling is that Xvon, a new user who shares JPL's point-of-view, essentially asked JPL for permission to edit war to place certain categories, and JPL responded with an answer that wasn't a flat-out no.

A final point of concern is that he doesn't add a lot of content, apart from categories, to articles. When he does create articles, they are often unreferenced (see edit filter log, below).

Please note that this is not in response to any one CfD discussion or any one series of category adds or deletes. This is more of a "lifetime achievement" RfC/U

Desired outcome

• Johnpacklambert dials it down in the category department, making fewer edits in Category space, at CfDs, and adding or removing categories

• Because he is making fewer edits, he considers each edit more carefully.

• JPL focuses his efforts in other directions than categories.

Evidence of disputed behavior

• 89 edits on just a single day at CfD
• 66 on another day at CfD
• 60 on another day at CfD
• edit-warring at Dragging Canoe
• Contribution log in Wikipedia-space in late October and November; you'll see in roughly five weeks, there are 1000 contributions to Wikipedia-space; over 900 of which are at WP:CfD
• JPL's edit filter log

Attempts to resolve the dispute

By Purplebackpack89

• First concern about OWNership in category-space; urge him to step away for awhile, mention of 500 edits in less than one month
• A second concern about OWNership and an attempt to get him to step away

By others

• Hmains, 16 Nov
• Good Olfactory, 29 Nov
• Ephebi, 10 Dec
• Jauerback, 11 Dec
• DD2K, 11 Dec
• Nymf, 11 Dec
• Ephebi, 18 Dec
• I could go on...

Relevant policies

• WP:OWN
• WP:NPOV
• WP:3RR
• WP:ITIS
• meta:Don't vote on everything

Users who approve

1. pbp 20:20, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

1. Ephebi (talk) 03:43, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately it seems JPL seems unaware of the mischief he makes with his approach to editing. His edit history shows an avoidance of editing of articles (other than re-categorisation) which makes me wonder about his motives, and his sensitivities towards genuine editors who take trouble and care over the way they develop subjects they are interested and knowledgeable about. His prolific edits to the CfD area frequently is little else than repeating the same points, and comes across as hostile and blind to other POVs. Unfortunately JPL appears unaware or unwilling to carefully consider or prepare for the proposals he submits. This is demonstrated by his ubiquitous comments - does he really know enough to have an opinion everything? - and the rash of proposals eminating from him. This is illustrated by the blunderbuss approach he has taken to reorganising 'By year establishments in Foo', for which he has submitting half a dozen batches of proposals between [Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 December 13 13] and [Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 December 17 17] December. During this period I his approach was obfuscating and aggressive - where people !vote he was instead littering proposals with his own comments and replying dismissively to each dissenting comment. I tried contacting him privately and politely about this but he ignored me. Also that by using the blunderbuss approach, some proposals would overwhelm and sneak through under the radar before being reviewed.

The proposal here caused me concern. I was pleased to see some new participants in the discussion, and was pleased to discover that he had at long last contacted the appropriate WP project for participation. However, he did not paste up a neutral CfD notice, instead he couched it in terms of "muslim state" - so that people that would come to the CfD would be primed and WP:STACK'ed to think the issue at hand was an India-Pakistan partition issue.

I would like to see JPL spend more time developing editing on article pages, getting better with planning and preparation and developing his own research skills, and less time at CfD. I would hope that this could also cool down the heated atmosphere at CfD - very few people have the hard skin to stick around long there.