Wikipedia:Requests for comment/William M. Connolley

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• (William M. Connolley | talk | contributions)

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Statement of the dispute

William M. Connolley pushes POV, and systematically reverts any changes attempting to establish NPOV, including multiple instant reversions of placing NPOV dispute. William M. Connolley refuses to form consensus or accept compromise, and refuses to allow multiple perspectives to exist on controversial topics, and simply uses widespread continual reverting of changes to convert pages to his POV (often even using the Three-revert rule as a counting game to win edit wars). William M. Connolley objects and deletes all sources and documentation that state anything he disagrees with.

This anti-NPOV behavior of William M. Connolley has compromised the integrity of a large number of Wikipedia's climate related articles, such as climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gas, and other articles such as Michael Crichton and Bjørn Lomborg.

Evidence of disputed behavior

(provide diffs and links)

1. Talk:Climate change
2. Talk:Global warming
3. Talk:Greenhouse gas
4. Talk:Michael Crichton
5. Talk:Bjørn Lomborg
6. [1]
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Applicable policies

{list the policies that apply to the disputed conduct}

1. Avoid bias. Articles should be written from a neutral point of view, representing differing views on a subject fairly and sympathetically.
2. Respect other contributors.
3. Wikipedia:Civility
4. Wikipedia:Wikiquette
5. Wikipedia:Writers rules of engagement

Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute

(provide diffs and links)

1. Talk:Global warming
2. Talk:Global warming#NPOV disputed
3. Talk:Global warming#"Skeptics unable to produce model that shows temperatures decreasing"
4. Talk:Greenhouse gas#Sources for wv, co2, etc contributions.
5. Talk:Michael Crichton
6. Talk:Michael Crichton#Editing/Reversion War
7. Talk:Michael Crichton#Shorter text is not bad after all
8. Talk:Michael Crichton#Connolley "crosses the line" or... The Section Header that Connelly Wasn't Allowed to Censor
9. Talk:Michael Crichton#JonGwynne breaks the 3 reverts rule

Users certifying the basis for this dispute

(sign with ~~~~)

1. I certify the statement of dispute. — Cortonin | Talk 12:18, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
2. I also certify the statement of dispute. TDC 13:53, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

Other users who endorse this summary

(sign with ~~~~)

1. PARTIAL endorsement--I have found that where certain personalities are involved, Michael Crichton and Fred Singer for instance, that WMC is likely to insist that his ad hominem nits with these people be included, such as insisting that SEPP be labeled as a "one man band" or that statements POV dismissive of credentials be included in an article about a scientifically literate and respected author like Crichton. I can only give a partial endorsement, because on issues of the science itself, WMC makes valuable contributions and even where he disagrees will yield to allow possible alternative interpretations of the evidence to be included. I would hate to lose his participation in the climate science areas.--Silverback 20:58, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
2. PARTIAL Endorsement--I've been following the latest fracas on Michael Crichton, which started a bit before I watchlisted the page, and reading the talk and history, and it seems to me that Mr. Connolley is in fact engaging in most of the behaviors that Mr. Gwynne accuses him of, and in general attempting to 'game' the rules of Wikiquette. He is, in general, reasonably polite in doing it, but I don't think that excuses the underlying behavior. Who knew MC was such a controversial topic? --Baylink 22:47, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

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.

(William M. Connolley 13:30, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)) Cortonin makes a large number of charges, which I reject. The current dispute is really about the greenhouse gas page (oops, and GW too... OK, I'll come to taht at the end). The large numbers of links he provides is silly: yes there was an edit war over the Michael Crichton page, but in fact I withdrew from that after finding JonGwynne too unpleasant to deal with. The current MC page is biased pro-MC, but since no-one would support me there I decided to abandon it. The Bjorn Lomborg page doesn't sem a very good example for C's POV either.

But to turn to the GHG page, which is what this is really about. C says: objects and deletes all sources and documentation that state anything he disagrees with. This in turn is a ref to him trying to insert a dubious value of 95% for the greenhouse effect of water vapour, based upon this source: http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html. That page isn't a source: its just some bods pet page. The numbers on it are wrong. All this has been, is being, discussed on the talk page of greenhouse gas.

I have done my best to make the climate change related NPOV, despite continual pushing of POV and junk science by skeptics. In contrast to C's assertion, that I have compromised the integrity of a large number of Wikipedia's climate related articles I would say that on of the main reasons they reflect the current state of science is because of my edits to them.

To illustrate this from the GHG page, consider this [41] which is after C's edit. It states that The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 95% of the greenhouse effect on Earth. This is hopelessly wrong (as a glance at the table on the greenhouse effect page will show). Even C now admits (implicitly) this is wrong, because his last version of the page [42] has the correct value of 60-70% for WV, and then continues with the strange The above calculations do not include the effects of clouds. While technically not a "gas",.... No, clouds aren't a gas, so they shouldn't be on the GHG page. I suggested, as a compromise, that the clouds be discussed on the GHE page; C has refused.

If anyone outside this dispute wonders why this gets argued over so much, the answer is that the skeptic of GW like to say "why worry about co2 when WV is the dominant GHG?". The argument is nonsense, but it doesn't stop them pushing it.

OK, the bit about global warming. C added some text there. I didn't much like the text, and I felt that what it discussed fitted better at climate change. We discused this at the GW page, I moved the text (and modified it) to climate change, and I heard no more from C. There was no edit war. An example of dubious text that C inserted (GW page) is Positive feedback mechanisms, due to their dramatic potential, have been popularized in mainstream media such as Al Gore's book Earth in the Balance or the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow.. This is rubbish: DAT shows *cooling* in response to *warming* and thus doesn't show a positive feedback at all. C's understanding of the science he is trying to describe is very weak.

Users who endorse this summary (sign with ~~~~):

1. William M. Connolley 13:47, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
2. PARTIAL endorsement see my corresponding "partial endorsement" above. I would add here that in addition to contributing substantially to the quality of the science on many pages, I have found WMC to be a person whose word is reliable. Since he states that he has withdrawn from participate on the Crichton page, then any conflict with him there can be considered resolved. He is communitarian, also to the extent that even where he has a strongly felt POV, although he stongly defends inclusion of his POV, he is generally open to the alternative POV being fairly represented so that NPOV can be achieved and the views or interpretations can be judged by the readers on their merits, as long as their merits do not misrepresent the evidence. Outside of personalities as described above, the POVs, I am referring to here are not opinions, but scientific interpretations, so perhaps have a different meaning that the usual wikipedia use of the terms.--Silverback 21:14, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
3. Endorsement. William Connolley is a professional scientist who has adopted a couple of controversial topics - areas within his considerable expertice. He does a good job keeping the articles focused on the science and away from the spcial interest skeptics attempts to siderail the issues. He knows the topic and the critical references. Anyone trying to add info with a non-science POV had better have good sources and know his stuff, because Mr. Connolley will call him on it. I agree that Connolley is at times a bit contrary and stubborn :-) , but considering the nonsense he is trying to keep out of the articles and the persistence of those posters, he needs to be. We need more dedicated professionals who know their subject fighting to keep wiki articles useful and on track. And even tho' I have disagreed with him on a couple of minor points in the past, we need his expert abilities and I support him fully. - Vsmith 23:44, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Outside view

This is a summary written by users not directly involved with the dispute but who would like to add an outside view of the dispute.

I have read some of the articles dealing with climate change to which William M. Connolley is a frequent contributor, and occasionally I have edited there as well, but I don't think I have been in the middle of anything resembling an "edit war" in which he has been involved -- at least, not recently.

My impression is that Connolley has definite opinions, which he backs up with evidence based on considerable knowledge of the topics about which he writes. The people who have complained or accused him of POV editing generally tend to have less knowledge but equally strong opinions. Awhile back, for example, he was accused of inserting POV for stating something along the lines of "all climate models predict that an increase in greenhouse gases leads to an increase in global temperatures." His accuser claimed that user of the word "all" was POV. Connolley's response was to ask the accuser to give an example of a climate model that predicts otherwise. The accuser was unable to do so. After some additional back-and-forth, some qualifying language got added to the effect that ""all climate models predict that an increase in greenhouse gases leads to an increase in global temperatures in the absence of other changes in forcing factors" -- a change that Connolley accepted. In this case, therefore, he did not simply revert other people's contributions. Rather, he insisted on evidence-based editing and accepted a compromise.

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Well, Connolley is on the side of the majority of scientists in the relevant field. There is a minority who pooh-pooh the idea of global warming and/or the idea that human activity has anything to do with it. Sometimes in scientific controversies the minority are eventually vindicated - but not often. The article should put the majority view at the forefront whilst noting it is not universally accepted

81.152.194.25

Users who endorse this summary (sign with ~~~~):

1. ~~~~

1. G-Man 23:11, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Discussion

All signed comments and talk not related to a vote or endorsement, should be directed to this page's discussion page.