Case clerks: AGK (Talk) & AlexandrDmitri (Talk) Drafting arbitrator: Kirill Lokshin (Talk)
Wikipedia Arbitration |
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Case Opened on 17:22, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
Case Closed on 12:02, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
Please do not edit this page directly unless you are either 1) an Arbitrator, 2) an Arbitration Clerk, or 3) adding yourself to this case. Statements on this page are original comments provided when the Committee was initially requested to Arbitrate this page (at Requests for arbitration), and serve as opening statements; as such, they should not be altered. Any evidence you wish to provide to the Arbitrators should go on the /Evidence subpage.
Arbitrators, the parties, and other editors may suggest proposed principles, findings, and remedies at /Workshop. That page may also be used for general comments on the evidence. Arbitrators will then vote on a final decision in the case at /Proposed decision.
Once the case is closed, editors may add to the #Log of blocks, bans, and restrictions as needed, but this page should not be edited otherwise. Please raise any questions at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration#Requests for clarification, and report violations of remedies at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Arbitration enforcement.
MickMacNee's tenure at Wikipedia has been characterized by edit warring, incivility, personal attacks, aggression, ultra-deletionist activism such as badgering editors who offer "keep" opinions at AFD, and other disruption. He's been repeatedly blocked for this behavior[1], culminating in Sandstein indefinitely blocking him in October 2010. Scott MacDonald unilaterally reversed several days later, knowing that WP:WHEEL precluded immediate reblocking. Last month, he was blocked for two weeks, but this block was again shortened. Most recently, his behavior at WP:ITN/C has been deplorable. He took action to deliberately provoke anger, and threatened to incite vandalism to an article solely in retaliation for a disagreement with another editor: "the only reason I would be updating it myself to the letter of the law now after the race, is to piss you off, and fuck your weekend up in the way you've fucked mine."[2] "Your damn right, the only way I will bother to update that article now, to the letter of the ITN requirements, is to get it onto the Main Page, and thus have a flood of editors arriving there to make piss poor edits to it and waste your time having to revert them."[3]. The most immediate issue has been discussed at AN/I, without any conclusive resolution. MickMacNee's response to a proposed editing restriction was so hostile and aggressive as to convince the administrator proposing it to block himself for a month[4]. Every attempt to resolve this situation short of arbitration has failed. Chester Markel (talk) 04:31, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Rd232 talk 11:44, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
Apologies for coming late to the party. You'll have to ask Chester Markel why he filed this request at a time when I was sound asleep, and it would have to be today of all days that my keyboard decided to start randomly discarding keys. Having now fixed that and read the detail so far, I've drafted my statement. People can read it at User talk:MickMacNee/Arbitration request response. I shall be updating it accordingly as necessary, so put it on your watchlists if you've commented or intend to comment on this request, I won't be making any further comment on this page. There's no short version or executive summary I'm afraid, except 'wtf?' and 'who is Chester Markel'?. MickMacNee (talk) 17:49, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
I will say one thing here. Given that it was the complete lack of response to his 'proposal' at ANI that has apparently triggered this request, I object in the strongest possible terms to people going along with RD232's subsequent pantomime tantrum and clerking his comments from his talk page to here, because he is 'blocked'. He is not blocked at all. If he truly wants a wikibreak which stops him editting, he should use the wikibreak-enforcer. If he wants to be blocked for his failures as an admin, I'm sure someone else can oblige to make it less of a farce. If he wants the right to comment on me here as a currently active admin who I will be presenting evidence on if the case is accepted, then he can unblock himself and do it himself, like a grown up who has respect for the people he has been making all sorts of attacks on. Nobody even noted here that they had been clerked over FFS. His willfull decision not to participate except in this bizarre manner needs to be recorded here, given the immediate part he played in it. And now that I think of it, I thought there was an actual policy against blocking yourself anyway, because there's no rational reason to ever do it. If not, then this is a pretty good example why there should be. MickMacNee (talk) 18:28, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
In addition, I do not see what there is about this request that means this blocking farce needs to be taken to yet another level, to now be used by RD232 as a way of asking if he can file private evidence against me as regards this request, that I will obviously have no way of commenting on. This is nothing short of outrageous. I want a categorical assurance from all arbs that they have no intention of obliging him in this manner. MickMacNee (talk) 18:48, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
As I was busy and missed the opportunity to write out a full statement when this was initially under request, and I cannot quite figure out where else to put this (I've certainly never involved with Arbcom before), I'm putting this here.
Obviously I've come in at the end of a very long history for MickMacNee, so I have very little to offer in terms of an opinion of his history and behavior on Wikipedia for however long this has been going on. Therefore this statement will likely be the only one I offer for this Arbcom, as there is little need for my involvement.
I will however say that as an outside viewer who has not been personally involved in MickMacNee's past (yes, there was a brief interaction at ITN a year ago, but I certainly did not recall that the user I was talking to in ITN/C this week was the same user of a year ago until MickMacNee mentioned it), I can offer my perspective without all the past drama that many in this case seem to already carry with them.
I find MickMacNee's behavior to be disturbing, but I equally find Wikipedia's handling of such a matter disturbing. At the time of my filing of ANI, I was unaware of the long history of blocks that MickMacNee had accumulated. Although unaware of the specifics of the transgressions but aware that they basically involve edit warring and civility issues, my only question after becoming aware of the block log is: Why is this person still here? This is a user who clearly does not get it. Wikipedia has five pillars, not one. The greater good of Wikipedia as an encyclopedia does not override the fact that this is a community built on consensus, and with volunteer editors who should be given an ounce of respect. MickMacNee honestly does not appear to be aware that such a pillar exists, or that it has equal footing with all other pillars. His responses in ITN/C and ANI and here as well all seem to indicate someone who does not wish to address the topic of civility and instead feels that their offensive stance is justified because he feels he is "right per policy", and that Wikipedia being the way he wants Wikipedia to appear is more important than how he has to handle the users that stand in his way. Certainly everyone has their interpretations of policies on Wikipedia, as evidenced by the discussions over WP:CIVILITY in this Arbcom, but I feel that instances such as "I said that as a non-regular you were wrong in your stated ideas about what the rules are, and once that's been pointed out to you by a regular, then no, you do not have any 'right' to continue to claim your opinion is valid." is clear evidence of a user who has become completely closed minded to the true intent of discussions and consensus, and has placed more importance on his interpretation of policy than on the discussion itself. MickMacNee himself describes how "For it to be valid disagreement that I should be minded to respect rather than be infuriated with as a total farce of a spoiling tactic, it has to be done in a particular manner, with respect for what others say, without lies, nonsense, and other general bullshit posing as valid points, which nobody can be bothered to even defend half the time." It's either a valid response that agrees with him, or it's completely wrong response that is most likely backed by lies and deceit or agendas against proposals or against him personally, and the only way that an opinion can even appear in the gray area in between is if it is "done in a particular manner," clearly in a manner of his choosing. Hell, MickMacNee even questions why Chester Markel chose to start the Arbcom discussion while he was asleep. Are we supposed to be making sure we're all operating on the same time as MickMacNee? All of this makes me question the need for a user such as MickMacNee to remain on Wikipedia. I certainly have no desire to see administrators get trigger happy with editors who have done good things on Wikipedia simply because of their behavior, but at the same time I also believe that there is a point where the user's ever closing mind makes them more detrimental to the project, especially after such repeatedly warnings and discussions over their behavior without any sign of them actually stopping or improving.
That MickMacNee takes much of these disagreements as something personal that he must uphold vehemently makes it even worse. Repeated statements of MickMacNee's "ruined weekend" because of the ITN/C discussion show someone who has clearly taken things far too seriously. He feels wronged and must take time out of his personal plans to ensure that things go the way he wants. Hell, MickMacNee even thinks that myself and others are being "rewarded" because of the lack of consensus in the discussions as if it is a tallied score. This clearly indicates to me why MickMacNee would feel the need to seek revenge against those who he feels have wronged him by failing to agree with his viewpoints. Indeed, "You fucked my weekend, I'm going to fuck yours." And this makes this person's purpose on Wikipedia at this point solely non-Wikipedia related. My statement about the point in which a user's closed minded attitude becomes detrimental to Wikipedia compounded by a user who will seek to take revenge on those who questioned his closed minded attitude makes for a volatile cocktail.
Now, the threat itself. MickMacNee further claims that his sole purpose in making edits to an article is to "piss me off". This is the exact definition of WP:HARASS - "Usually (but not always) the purpose is to make the target feel threatened or intimidated, and the outcome may be to make editing Wikipedia unpleasant for the target, to undermine them, to frighten them, or to discourage them from editing entirely." MickMacNee clearly states his purpose at the time of the previous statement is no longer to edit the Le Mans article for the purposes of ITN, but rather to cause me a headache in dealing with bad edits. This would quite clearly be an attempt to cause unpleasantness, and directed solely at me because of his mistaken belief in my WP:OWNnership of the article.
These three elements in the span of a roughly a day is exactly why I posted on ANI. My view then was that this user clearly had overstepped a bounds on possibly one, most definitely two, and clearly all three elements. Added in this user's history and this is why I ask myself "Why is this user still here?" The only time in the span of that day that MickMacNee did anything that would be generally helpful to Wikipedia is in making his original suggestion to ITN/C. The rest of the day, even though he certainly was well within his right to discuss the oppositions to his suggestion, was completely tarnished by MickMacNee's behavior, and he has spent the days after defending his behavior, or simply not addressing it at all to instead bring up tired old drama from the past because of users who have past involvement (with or without evidence).
And this is what brings me to my feeling that Wikipedia's handling of MickMacNee is disturbing as well. There seems to be a problem of civility issues being raised, but civility issues not being discussed to their end because of the users who may join the discussions, and the discussions diverging into past experiences. I certainly feel the WP:ANI thread was hijacked well before discussion of the civility/harassment issue was resolved, in part because of MickMacNee's decision to attempt to continue the ITN/C discussion in the ANI thread instead of discussing the civility issue. Further, the statements of some that I should "just brush it off" despite a few even claiming that it was indeed a threat, disturbs me most of all. We have quick responses to threats of legal measures against Wikipedia, quick responses to death threats and off-wiki harassment, including in-person harassment. Why then is a bold statement clearly stating an agenda to harass, no matter the means in which that harassment is achieved, brushed off? Certainly any threat on Wikipedia should be dealt with in a preemptive manner, not in a "wait until he actually does something" manner. Let me be clear in this final statement however: As someone who has received in-person harassment and threats and has had them dealt with swiftly by Arbcom in the past, I am very disappointed that other types of threats of harassment, especially from someone who is taking things to a personal and vindictive level, are brushed off and instead bogged down by infighting between parties with past experience. I am in no way attempting to say that MickMacNee's statements were as bad as death threats and the like, but it was still a threat to harass a specific user.
Finally, I would like to state that I have no qualms with cursing when used in a proper fashion. I would hope all involved are able to understand what is and is not a personal attack. Yes, some may not like cursing, but I do not believe it is something that will cause a user to feel discouraged from being involved in a discussion.
I'm sure this statement will receive responses, but I will more than likely not continue to be involved in this Arbcom as, as stated before, I do not have enough knowledge of the whole of MickMacNee's history and therefore this statement should play only a minor role in providing for the overall perspective. Feel free to shoot me any direct questions on my talk page if there is something that is not understood, I'm sure I fucked something up in all of this.
And for the clerks and whomever may know better than me, feel free to deal with my statement here as necessary, including moving it to another page where it would be better suited. The359 (Talk) 07:42, 15 June 2011 (UTC)
All numbering based on /Proposed decision, where vote counts and comments are also available.
1) Wikipedia is a serious educational and scholarly project founded on the principles of collaboration and consensus. All participants are expected to conduct themselves according to the standards of collegiality and professionalism appropriate to such a setting.
The standards of collegiality expected of all contributors to Wikimedia projects are set forth in the Wikimedia Foundation Resolution on Openness, which urges editors to "promote openness and collaboration", "treat new editors with patience, kindness, and respect", "work with colleagues to reduce contention and promote a friendlier, more collaborative culture", and "work with colleagues to [...] discourage disruptive and hostile behavior".
The Wikipedia community has outlined similar standards in the "fourth pillar" of community policy, which asks that editors "interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner", "be polite to [...] fellow Wikipedians, even when you disagree", and "be open and welcoming".
2) Wikipedia's core behavioral policies outline certain minimal standards for acceptable user conduct by explicitly prohibiting a number of disruptive activities, such as personal attacks and edit-warring. The expectation of collegiality among participants goes beyond compliance with these minimal standards. The fact that a particular activity or attitude is not explicitly prohibited does not make it appropriate in a collaborative environment or conducive to maintaining a welcoming atmosphere.
3) Users who have been sanctioned for improper conduct are expected to avoid repeating it should they continue to participate in the project. Failure to do so may lead to the imposition of increasingly severe sanctions.
4) Administrators are trusted members of the community who are expected to follow Wikipedia policies and to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Occasional mistakes are entirely compatible with adminship, as administrators are not expected to be perfect, but consistently or egregiously poor judgment may result in the removal of administrator status.
5) Administrators are expected not to take administrator actions arising from disputes in which they themselves are involved. See Wikipedia:Administrators#Involved admins. As a specific and clear application of this rule, an administrator who is a party to a pending arbitration case may not block another editor who is a party to the same case, particularly when the case arose in large measure from disputes between the two of them.
1) MickMacNee (talk · contribs) has consistently and egregiously violated Wikipedia's standards of collegiality and professionalism by engaging in a variety of disruptive, hostile, and uncollaborative conduct. ([5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12])
2) MickMacNee (talk · contribs) has been repeatedly sanctioned for disruptive conduct by numerous administrators. The sanctions to date have included three indefinite blocks, as well as sixteen other blocks longer than 24 hours in duration. ([13])
3.1) Rd232 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) has used his administrative tools while involved. ([14])
5) Δ (talk · contribs) engaged in conduct that created a hostile and unwelcoming atmosphere and materially contributed to the escalation of disputes within the scope of this case. ([15], [16], [17])
Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.
1) MickMacNee (talk · contribs) is banned from Wikipedia for a period of no less than one year. After this minimum time has elapsed, MickMacNee will remain banned indefinitely, until such time as he demonstrates to the Committee that he is no longer a threat to the collaborative nature of the project.
4) Δ (talk · contribs) is admonished for engaging in hostile and uncollegial conduct, and warned that the Committee may impose additional sanctions by motion if such conduct reoccurs.
0) Should any user subject to a restriction in this case violate that restriction, that user may be blocked, initially for up to one month, and then with blocks increasing in duration to a maximum of one year.
0) Appeals and modifications
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This procedure applies to appeals related to, and modifications of, actions taken by administrators to enforce the Committee's remedies. It does not apply to appeals related to the remedies directly enacted by the Committee.
Appeals may be made only by the editor under sanction and only for a currently active sanction. Requests for modification of page restrictions may be made by any editor. The process has three possible stages (see "Important notes" below). The editor may:
No administrator may modify or remove a sanction placed by another administrator without:
Administrators modifying sanctions out of process may at the discretion of the committee be desysopped. Nothing in this section prevents an administrator from replacing an existing sanction issued by another administrator with a new sanction if fresh misconduct has taken place after the existing sanction was applied. Administrators are free to modify sanctions placed by former administrators – that is, editors who do not have the administrator permission enabled (due to a temporary or permanent relinquishment or desysop) – without regard to the requirements of this section. If an administrator modifies a sanction placed by a former administrator, the administrator who made the modification becomes the "enforcing administrator". If a former administrator regains the tools, the provisions of this section again apply to their unmodified enforcement actions. Important notes:
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Log any block, restriction, ban or extension under any remedy in this decision here. Minimum information includes name of administrator, date and time, what was done and the basis for doing it.