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Summary
[edit]On 10 June 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation desysopped and banned editor and administrator Fram from the English Wikipedia as an office action for a period of one year. Fram's statement [1] indicates that the ban was solely for on-wiki conduct; as of this writing, the Wikimedia Foundation has not contradicted this assertion. It is the sense of the English Wikipedia community that:
- The desysopping and ban were ostensibly based on the rationale that the WMF must handle issues that the community cannot. Here, the issues were not presented to the community or the Arbitration Committee. Therefore, we reject the statement by the WMF as an explanation of the ban.
- The desysopping and ban, being presumably based upon only on-wiki actions, usurp the authority of the English Wikipedia community to enforce its own rules in regards to behavior on the project.
- The desysopping and ban are, therefore, invalid and must be reversed.
- Regardless of the reasons for this ban, the WMF must refrain from intervention in future on-wiki matters, or off-wiki matters which could be handled by the project's Arbitration Committee, with the exception of matters traditionally handled by WMF such as child protection, threats of violence, threats of suicide, and legal matters.
Timeline of events
[edit]- On 19 February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation changed its Trust & Safety policy to allow itself to issue bans of less than indefinite duration and on specific wikis.[2][3] This change was made without community consultation to determine if such a change was helpful or desired.
- On 10 June 2019 at 17:41, WMFOffice blocked and desysopped editor and administrator Fram.[4]
- On 10 June 2019 at 17:56, a thread was started at the bureaucrats' noticeboard.[5] The proposal was discussed by the community there and later moved to a separate page at Wikipedia:Community response to Wikimedia Foundation's ban of Fram due to the volume of discussion.
- On 10 June 2019 at 20:58, the WMFOffice account, an official Wikimedia Foundation role account, posted a statement on behalf of the Trust & Safety Team to the bureaucrats' noticeboard discussion confirming the ban and desysopping but declining to provide further detail.[6]
- On 11 June 2019 at 08:03, Fram posted a statement to Wikimedia Commons with his understanding of the reasons behind the ban, and giving the WMF permission to post his email communication with them regarding the subject.[1] As of this writing, the WMF has not disputed any portion of this statement.
- On 11 June 2019 at 11:50, administrator Floquenbeam announced that they planned to unblock Fram in defiance of the office ban[7] and at 12:23 decided to wait until 19:00, noon San Francisco time.[8]
- On 11 June 2019 at 13:28, administrator Bishonen announced that they plan to support Floquenbeam and unblock Fram if Floquembeam is desysopped.[9]
- On 11 June 2019 at 18:58, the WMF announced that it would release a second statement, and at 19:11, Floquenbeam wrote that they would wait to see the WMF's statement.[10]
- On 11 June 2019 at 19:27, the WMF posted a second statement to the community discussion.[11]
- On 11 June 2019 at 19:39, Floquenbeam unblocked Fram.[12]
- On 12 June 2019 at 00:32, the WMF desysopped Floquenbeam,[13] allowing resysopping after 30 days in a third statement,[14] and reblocked Fram.[15] No community policy existed at that time to govern resysopping after temporary office desysoppings. At 00:33, the WMF posted a fourth statement.[16]
- On 12 June 2019 at 07:20, Bishonen unblocked Fram.[17]
- On 12 June 2019 at 07:31, Nick asked to be desysopped in protest of the Foundation's actions.[18] At 10:54, bureaucrat Primefac desysopped them.[19]
- On 12 June 2019 at 10:23, Fram made a second statement,[20] and at 19:59, they made a third statement,[21] asking the WMF to send details to mutually trusted editors.
- On 12 June 2019 at 13:33, in apparent defiance of their office desysopping, Floquenbeam requested a resysop at the bureaucrats' noticeboard.[22]
- On 12 June 2019 at 23:35, bureaucrat WJBScribe resysopped Floquenbeam[23] and made a statement in response to Floquenbeam's request.[24] At 00:03 on 13 June, they requested arbitration about their own action.[25]
- On 13 June 2019 at 11:07, administrator TheDJ asked to be desysopped in protest of WJBScribe's resysopping of Floquenbeam.[26] At 11:15, Primefac desysopped them.[27]
- On 21 June 2019 at 22:53, administrator Gadfium asked to be desysopped in protest of the Foundation's actions.[28] At 23:04, bureaucrat 28bytes desysopped them.[29]
- On 22 June 2019 at 17:38, administrator Boing! said Zebedee asked to be desysopped in protest on the Foundation's actions.[30][31] At 17:40, 28bytes desysopped them.[32]
- On 23 June 2019 at 10:52, administrator Kusma asked to be desysopped in protest of the Foundation's actions.[33] At 11:05, bureaucrat Xeno desysopped them.[34]
- On 23 June 2019 at 17:07, administrator Dennis Brown asked to be desysopped in protest of the Foundation's actions.[35][36] At 17:11, 28bytes desysopped them.[37]
- On 25 June 2019 at 05:25, editor Beetstra deactivated their bot XLinkBot in protest.[38]
Other events, not dated
[edit]- Buzzfeed [1]
- Twitter [2]
- DoRD resigned as CU/OS (later admin), don't know why
- 28bytes resigned as crat and admin
- MSGJ resigned as sysop
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steward_requests/Permissions&curid=164533&diff=19176142&oldid=19176141 (note: only sawiki bureaucrat)
- Floquenbeam resigned as sysop
- Ad Orientem
- Jonathunder
- Beeblebrox (also CU-OS)
- Katherine Maher statement [3]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Fram's statement on Wikimedia Commons
- ^ Wikipedia office policy extension
- ^ Meta-wiki office policy extension
- ^ Log entry Fram's first block
- ^ Initial bureaucrats' noticeboard post
- ^ First statement by the Wikimedia Foundation
- ^ Floquenbeam's "Statement of Intent"
- ^ Floquenbeam's delay until noon
- ^ Bishonen's statement
- ^ Floquenbeam's last-minute delay
- ^ Second statement by the Wikimedia Foundation
- ^ Log entry for Floquenbeam's unblock
- ^ Floquenbeam's desysop log entry
- ^ Third statement by the Wikimedia Foundation
- ^ Log entry for Fram's second block
- ^ Fourth statement by the Wikimedia Foundation
- ^ Bishonen's unblock log entry
- ^ Nick's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Log entry for Nick's desysop
- ^ Fram's second statement
- ^ Fram's third statement
- ^ Floquenbeam's resysop request
- ^ Floquenbeam's resysop log entry
- ^ WJBScribe's statement on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ WJBScribe's request for arbitration
- ^ TheDJ's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Log entry for TheDJ's desysop
- ^ Gadfium's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Log entry for Gadfium's desysop
- ^ Boing! said Zebedee's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Boing! said Zebedee's resignation statement
- ^ Log entry for Boing! said Zebedee's desysop
- ^ Kusma's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Log entry for Kusma's desysop
- ^ Dennis Brown's request on the bureaucrats' noticeboard
- ^ Dennis Brown's resignation statement
- ^ Log entry for Dennis Brown's desysop
- ^ Beetstra's edit to XLinkBot's settings page