Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents

This page is for reporting and discussing incidents that require the intervention of administrators, such as blocked users evading blocks. Any user of Wikipedia may post here. Please feel free to leave a message.

Note: Reporting violations of the three revert rule should be done at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/3RR.

If you do post, please sign and date all contributions, using the Wikipedia special form "~~~~", which translates into a signature and a time stamp automagically. (The page archivers really need the time information.)

If you want to make an open informal complaint over the behaviour of an admin, you can do so here, but please only do either that, or file a RFC or RFAr, but not both.

Please be aware that this page isn't the place to bring disputes over content, or reports of abusive behaviour — we aren't referees, and have limited authority to deal with abusive editors. We have a dispute resolution procedure which we recommend you follow. If you bring such disputes here, we will usually advise you to take them elsewhere, such as mediation, requests for comment, or requests for arbitration.

See also:

• Arbitrators' requests for admin enforcement
• Blocking policy
• Controversial blocks
• Block user
• List of blocked IP addresses and usernames
• Block log

User:John Gohde

Consensus on VfD was to delete Index of topics in alternative medicine despite John Gohde's objections. The article cannot be deleted because of the bit compression bug, so it is currently redirected to List of terms and concepts used in alternative medicine. John Gohde reverted the redirect, I re-reverted it and protected the page. John Gohde then placed the following threat on my Talk page:

The index was deleted for bogus reasons.

Either the original index will be restored, or I will simply add a totally brand new index since Wikipedia policy, guidelines, and style guides state point blank that Lists are NOT redundant because of your stupid categories, that are just plain, wrong, incomplete, confusing, and next to impossible to use. Wikipedia, by current vfd on the Buddha Index is total farce.

I also have a private dictionary on alternative medicine on my website which happens to very be public. Wikipedia just likes to trash alternative medicine which happens to be used by half the planet while writing tons of trash articles like tampons. You people without a life don't even realize that dozens and dozens of web sites are selling advertisement on mirror copies of Wikipedia.

STOP trashing the perfectly valid topic of alternative medicine.

I want this index restored. -- John Gohde 06:53, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This is a threat. If he attempts this, I will block him. RickK 06:59, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

Has it been determined that John Gohde is Mr. Natural Health? And what is the status of Mr. Natural Health's right to edit alternative medicine articles? RickK 05:25, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

He has not tried to hide the fact that he is MNH. He is banned from editing iridology and its talk page, but is otherwise unrestricted. [1] —Charles P. ^(Mirv) 05:33, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Complaint about an admin

RickK insists on banning numerous IP addresses of supposed vandals, and in the process is effectively banning any legitimate user who happens to logon with the same IP. I was unable to ask that he desist for the last few days, and when I did he removed it from his talk page and declined to apologise or justify his actions. Trampled 23:50, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

RickK does far more than his fair share of vandal blocking, which means that he gets more than his fair share of complaints. Many of these complaints, from the vandals he blocks, are both unjustified and abusive. Your first message to him was justified, but it was harshly worded ("recklessly" was probably not the right word to use) and may have been dismissed as just another angry vandal. If you do find yourself blocked due to sharing an IP address with a vandal, e-mail an active sysop through the Wikipedia mail function. You can find a complete list at Special:Listadmins, and at least one of them has e-mail turned on. —Charles P. ^(Mirv) 01:01, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

So basically he can ban any IP he wants, and we just have to deal with it? Trampled 09:50, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

no, he is only supposed to block IPs which are the source of vandalism, and in cases of dialup IPs only for a short time (like 30 minutes). If his blocking pattern significantly deviates from this, you may collect evidence and file an RfC, but if it is only a matter of a few isolated cases, it would be better to talk to him directly and point out that his block caused collateral damage, or if he does not react, mail another sysop to have the IP unblocked. dab (ᛏ) 10:48, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Correct use of admin powers?

Did 172 protect Global warming while he was blocked? Strangely Global warming has been protected after a Stirling Newberry revert, however, 172 does not appear on the page history, yet he appears in the protection log (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/protect). Is this he? This is a reimposition of a previous protect that was never needed. Stangely 172 seems to be asking to be banned, perhaps he no longer wants to participate in wikipedia or has a sockpuppet lined up?--Silverback 09:42, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Admins can (un)protect/block & rollback (& delete?) while being blocked. This is normal, and allowed, as long as they do not edit the page that caused them to be blocked. -- Chris 73 Talk 09:49, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

it should not be "normal" that admins exhibit blockable behaviour in the first place, and any admin who finds him/herself blocked should imho use the time for some introspection. dab (ᛏ) 10:48, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

One possible interpretation of this protect is retribution for my reporting of the violations which got him blocked, which he obviously resented since he unblocked himself several times.--Silverback 11:26, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

dab past experiance suggests the odds of that happening are pretty much zilch. Silverback I suspect he was objecting because he didn't relise how he had broken the 3RRGeni 11:45, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I looked into it, briefly, and it would seem that 172 was blocked for 3RRvio for edits to History of Russia. They were all reverts, but three were dealing with Napoleon and one with Stalin. So, as far as I understand, they are not four reverts, since one is unrelated with the other three. What's more, the first "revert" is not part of any edit war, but simply a factual correction of an anon edit [2]. The reoport of 3RRvio seems in bad faith to me, in the light of this. Protection of Global warming, which is pretty much unrelated with the history of Russia, is technically not a violation of the block, but blocked or unlocked, involved admins should not protect the pages themselves, but rather refer to WP:RFP. I would recommend that the page is unprotected, and if necessary relisted on RfP, after which the page can be re-protected by an uninvolved admin, if the request looks reasonable. (i.e. if a couple of people support the protection, I will protect it blindly, after waiting an unspecified time, without looking at the present version) dab (ᛏ) 11:58, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

WP:3RR states that one should not revert a page more than 3 times in a day. It is not intended to be limited to only reverts of some specific piece of information or section. It is per page. -- Netoholic @ 15:51, 2005 Mar 1 (UTC)

that's true, and one reason I didn't unblock 172. Still, if you look at the revert, you will see that it was a very minor thing, uncontroversial, and half a day before the controversial reverts started. I would guess that 172 had simply forgotten the first revert, and it as best guilty of violation of the 3RR in the letter, not the spirit (while his '3.5th' revert may be a violation of the spirit, not the letter, so that arguably the five edits taken together amount to 4.0 reverts :o) dab (ᛏ) 16:00, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Isn't the point of the 3RR to set an absolute threshold? Are you allowed three reverts, or are three reverts the absolute most that will be tolerated? I think arguments about whether a fourth revert was a revert or not are ridiculous - especially for an admin. Something like that might be tolerated for someone new to Wikipedia - experienced users should not be allowed three reverts. Two is plenty, except for vandalism, and there's no limit on reverts of vandalism. If you choose to break the rule, deal with the consequences like an adult. Simple enough. Guettarda 16:49, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Reverting is bad reverting twice is worse reverting three times is very bad reverting four times is not considered acceptible by the wikipedia community. An extreamly large vote has established this. BTW I find people talking about the spirit of the three revert rule with respect to mercy ironic. Dig back through the 3RR arcives to find out what has in the past been justified under that nameGeni 18:19, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Please further note that:-

• There was no request for page protection made;
• User:172 protected the page less than five minutes after a User:Stirling Newberry revert;
• There was no 'protected' tag added to the page;
• The page wasn't added to the list of protected pages.

And: all of the above has happened twice now. Regardless of 172's blocked status, this smacks of collusion, and disregard for all procedure. Alai 16:23, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 18:12, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)) 172 appears to me to have abused his admin powers in protecting the global warming page. His protects, in both cases, occurred only 5 and 2 minutes after Stirling Newberrys version was reverted. This is too short to be coincidence

I would advise you to file an RFC this conflict has moved beyond the scope of what should be handled by this boardGeni 18:19, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I have de-sysopped Geni, 172, Snowspinner, and Chris 73 because they indulged in a blocking war. All these power plays do is distract from the real issue: writing neutral and accurate articles. If they need help, they should ask for it, instead of taking matters into their own hands.

And yes *sigh* I know this is a two-edged sword that applies to myself as well. So I'm placing myself on report, and requesting the arbcom to review my actions. While I await the board's decision, I shall abstain from editing any articles. I'm confining myself to talk pages, as a sort of limited "house arrest" to show good faith. -- Uncle Ed (talk) 18:43, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

wow. I mean, OK! 172 has violated the 3RR, I'll stop defending him now. But de-sysopping, without even an RfC filed? I do think Ed is acting in best faith, and this may indeed set a precedent to considering sysophood as "no big deal" cutting both ways: If complaints come up, let them go through RfA to see if they still have the community's support. But I would still want to hear a few arbcom (and community!) members on this. Would now be the time to export the whole thing from here to WP:RFC? dab (ᛏ) 19:25, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

It's already gone to the arbcom. This was completely out of line of Ed, and in no way a part of the powers vested in him as a beauracrat. Snowspinner 19:29, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm it would appear that blocking an arcom member for a 3RR violation may not have been a good ideaGeni 19:35, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC

Nah, that doesn't seem to have played into it. Snowspinner 19:48, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

It came to my understanding that Ed just unsysoped 4 people on the english wikipedia.

This is not correct. Whatever the reason why he did it (rules for desysoping are not my concern), Ed was not allowed to do it.

First : desysoping should only be done by stewards, and only under strict community approval. In this case, Ed is not steward, so is not allowed to do so.

Second : Ed removed the status with his developer flag, directly in the database. This is again incorrect. Developers should not remove status to editors, unless there is an urgency. And given the names of the people unsysoped, I do not think there was an urgency.

Third : Jamesday indicated me that Ed is not a developer. Him having developer flag is a residue of old times (ah :-)). We try to give developer flag only to developers.

For all these reasons, I asked JamesDay to remove Ed developer flag. Consider it technical cleanup. Ed, I love you very much, you know that do you ? But you are not really a developer, and definitly not a steward. I am sorry Ed.

I also asked JamesDay to restore sysop status to the 4 editors. It is to the community to decide if there is a reason to unsysop them or not. I stay involved here :)

Kisses to all

Anthere 19:56, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)