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Case clerk: AlexandrDmitri (Talk)  Drafting arbitrator: TBD

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Case Opened on 18:54, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Case Suspended by motion on 19:00, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Case Closed on 04:59, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Watchlist all case pages: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Case information[edit]

Involved parties

Requests for comment

Preliminary statements[edit]

Statement by Mangoe

The immediate genesis of this case lies in the RfC linked above. I'm not going to repeat everything that is in that case, but will try to point out a few salient points.

There have been complaints for at least a couple of years about SchuminWeb's imperious and idiosyncratic use of his admin powers in closing deletions, particularly with respect to fair-use images. This has come to a head at least twice that I know of. Most recently, he deleted a bunch of TV show screenshots which were used in articles on specific episodes. This came to deletion review as a mass request in which SchuminWeb did not participate. This is not atypical, as in the RfC various people pointed out how he was wont to delete requests to reconsider his decisions by saying "take it to DRV." The DRV upheld his deletions, but it also raised awareness of his behavior a lot. Thus, when the RfC was started, his behavior found lots of additional detractors, and no real defenders, again, not including himself.

But this all had happened before, as reviewed in Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/SchuminWeb#The Wikibreak in December 2011 and what preceded it. Last year he started a campaign against a set of fair-use images from the Denver Public Library and some related images, beginning with a deletion in September 2011 which was overturned. Most of these images were uploaded back in 2005 by users who haven't edited in years, so it was easy to delete a lot of them simply because (a) they weren't being watched anymore, and (b) SchuminWeb often employed tactics which allowed him to delete the image before anyone knew it was marked for deletion. This campaign increasingly ran into opposition. Centpacrr got caught up in this because a lot of his articles were losing images, and he was more vocal in chasing down the FfDs and objecting. In the middle of this SchuminWeb marked a personal picture of Centpacrr for deletion, first because of a logo, but then on the grounds that someone else had been holding the camera. This elicited a lot of complaint, as did a completely unrelated fair-use deletion in which SchuminWeb closed his own deletion nomination (which was overturned). SchuminWeb then largely dropped out of Wikipedia for the next month or two, ostensibly to work on his personal website.

Be that as it may, the consensus of the RfC was that we do not want him coming back after this dies down and resuming his administration work. His complete lack of response to criticism of his behavior, we felt, is unacceptable. I personally would be satisfied if he were barred from the deletion processes, but the expressed consensus was that his administration rights be removed. Mangoe (talk) 17:35, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

On NFCC: It is, perhaps, a tedious job to do these NFCC deletion nominations, but it is a thankless and largely pointless job to bother reviewing them. Right now I've been through the remaining Simpsons screenshots in Wikipedia:Files for deletion/2012 November 18, and while I would agree that a lot of the survivors could be readily deleted, I strongly suspect that the administrator who appears to be running through them now is going to ignore any "keep" messages I left and delete them anyway. Of the 160 Twilight Zone pictures in Wikipedia:Files for deletion/2012 November 19, nobody has the stamina to look through them all, and I assume that the nominator read exactly none of the articles in which they appear, given that he used Twinkle to knock them off in less than an hour.
The big problem is that the subjectivity of NFCC#8 is being ignored. What it should mean is that disputes about whether it is being satisfied need to be addressed in a discussion whose consensus should prevail. What's happening instead is that admins like ShuminWeb have appointed themselves supreme judges and often supervote. In his case (and again, he isn't the only one) he treated challenges to his judgement with contempt, and when confronted with the problems in behaving this way, he turned around and did it again. NFCC may be a chore, but is not a crusade against stupid uploaders, and that's the way it came across. Mangoe (talk) 17:39, 18 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
On the motion to desysop: I object to him retaining his admin rights due to retirement. It's unreasonable that we should have to actively monitor him for returning so we can see whether the issues need to be re-raised. Mangoe (talk) 13:40, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Statement by S Marshall

I do not recall ever being in conflict with SchuminWeb. I am not here to raise a beef with him. My position is simply that the community has expressed concerns about SchuminWeb's use of the admin tools, and admins must answer such concerns when they are raised. They should not be permitted to hide from them. I assume good faith, so I must suppose that SchuminWeb's sudden wikibreak at this time is a coincidence rather than a tactical withdrawal in the face of questions he cannot answer. If so, the appearance of justice is of the essence. A temporary desysop will prevent SchuminWeb from returning to use the tools later without facing the process.

The alternative possibility, that SchuminWeb has been driven away because he is unwilling to face his accusers because he finds questions about his use of the tools stressful, is incompatible with being an admin on Wikipedia. Answering questions about your tool use is not optional, so this too leads to a desysopping.

However, the desysopping should not be understood as a punishment. SchuminWeb is entitled to answer the accusations that have been made against him before we reach any conclusions. Rather than a punishment, the desysopping I propose should be understood as a technical measure designed to prevent any accidental failure to follow the correct process. It follows that in the event that SchuminWeb reappears, he should be resysopped. In this case the Committee will, no doubt, want to assure itself SchuminWeb is genuinely engaging in a community discussion about his tool use.—S Marshall T/C 18:21, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Statement by GiantSnowman

I'll be as brief as I can - partly for time, and partly because there's no need to repeat what's already been said at the RFCU (of which I was a certifier). For me, the issue is two fold - it relates to the inappropriate deletion of images against apparent consensus, and it also relates to SchuminWeb's failure to engage with any subsequent discussions on the matter. There have been disucssions at DRV, AN, his own talk page and finally the RFCU - as far as I can tell he has not appropriately engaged on the matter at any venue. GiantSnowman 18:38, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Statement by Centpacrr

NOTE: At Arb request I have edited down my original Statement to roughly 500 words. The full original text of my statement with greater detail and additional links to be considered when the ArbCom case is formally opened can be found here.

VERSION EDITED FOR SPACE

I fully concur with all the statements supporting desysop above and particularly by the summary posted by Mangoe, the user who filed this case, at Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/SchuminWeb#The Wikibreak in December 2011 and what preceded it. I find this statement to be an accurate summary of just some of the improper misuse by the subject Admin of the tools and powers which have been entrusted to him by the community particularly with regard to the fair use of non-free images (as well as on several images for which I clearly owned the copyright), the Admin's routinely ignoring of community consensus, his disrespectful, and dismissive attitude toward "ordinary" editors with whom he has disagreed. I find particularly unacceptable the subject Admin's use of those tools to impose his own particular "interpretations" of WP's policies and guidelines by unilaterally deleting content clearly against consensus many of which are later reversed on appeal, altering fully protected templates without discussion as noted immediately above, and engaging in practices such as the mass removal of long standing fair use images from from articles (and the rationales from the images' host pages), and then using that as a reason to speedy delete them as "orphaned non-free" files. This Admin has also engaged in a wide variety of other similar such practices in order to "game" or subvert both the spirit and the letter of WP policies and guidelines and done so over a long period of time.

After my interactions with this Admin in the Fall of 2011 over several the fair use Perry railroad images in which some of his deletions and other actions were reversed, in apparent retaliation he then systematically went through all of the images which I had uploaded over time (most of which I had created, otherwise owned the copyright, or were clearly in PD) and challenged most of them on a variety of specious grounds resulting in the necessity to waste large amounts of time to defend them. In the course of this "campaign" against my image file contributions this Admin also gratuitously accused me of "vandalism" on the completely unsupported grounds that I was "uploading disruptive images with no encyclopedic value", a completely meaningless claim. Even if that were true (which is wasn't), that does not in any way constitute "vandalism" (which is defined as "a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia such as by adding irrelevant obscenities and crude humor to a page, illegitimately blanking pages, and inserting obvious nonsense") and is a very serious charge and violation of assuming good faith for any editor to make, and especially so for an Admin.

I found this experience to be both intimidating and a clear case of overt "Wikistalking" by using the powers of an Admin to retaliate against me for successfully challenging his previous administrative actions. I in fact at the time came very close to leaving the project altogether because of the subject Admin's abusive behavior (carried out in conjunction with another Admin who is now retired and has resigned his adminship) toward both me and my contributions to WP.

In my view the only satisfactory outcome to this process is to involuntarily desysop this user with prejudice but permit him to remain as an active "ordinary" editor if he wishes to remain so. Centpacrr (talk) 21:08, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

VERSION EDITED FOR SPACE

ADDITIONAL NOTE RELATING TO PENDING ARBCOM MOTIONS: I fully endorse the statement of KillerChihuahua at 1.1.23 below which is "spot on" on both the real desysopping issue relating to the subject Admin's long term unacceptable behaviors (including ignoring consensus, "gaming" the system, high handed and dismissive treatment of anyone who disagreed with his actions, and refusal to be accountable to the community) in clear violation of the tenants of WP:ADMINACCT, and how he has previously used periodic specious "Wikibreaks" when things got hot to avoid explaining his misuse of the Admin tools ("bits"). KillerChihuahua's statement accurately and succinctly elucidates why the Admin bits need to be immediately and permanently removed with prejudice.

If as in this case a defendant/respondent holds him or herself voluntarily and deliberately in absentia after due notice to respond to process, and there is proof positive that he or she is aware of the RfC or RfA, then such intentional silence (i.e. refusal to participate in the process) on the part of the subject Admin (especially invoking "Retirement" which is prima facie evidence that there is no intention to ever respond) to avoid accountability should be considered an affirmative, irrevocable, and absolute de facto and de jure renunciation by him or her of Adminship and access to its tools. Centpacrr (talk) 20:31, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

@Hammersoft Please note that most of the Statements posted in this RfA have much less to do with NFCC itself, and are much more about the subject Admin's long standing patterns of incivility and intemperate language in dealing with the community, episodes of retaliative Wikistalking against editors with which he had disagreements, ignoring consensus, employing subterfuge and inappropriate techniques to "game" the system, unilaterally and surreptitiously altering protected templates without discussion, failing to respond to process or the questions of others about his administrative actions, and a variety of other violations of the spirit and letter of WP:ADMINACCT. The Statements posted here also came from a wide cross section of WP editors giving accounts of incidents unrelated to each other. Some may have issues of interpretation of NFCC at their origin, but the way that the subject Admin mishandled them is what resulted in the RfC and RfA. Centpacrr (talk) 04:54, 21 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

@Jclemens (In Arb comments) Exactly my point: intentional silence (i.e. refusal to participate in the process) on the part of a subject Admin to avoid accountability (and especially invoking "Retirement" which is prima facie evidence that there is no intention to ever respond) should be considered an affirmative, irrevocable, and absolute de facto and de jure renunciation of Adminship and access to its tools. Centpacrr (talk) 05:57, 21 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Preliminary decision[edit]

Clerk notes

This area is used for notes by the clerks (including clerk recusals).
Green tickY Email sent. Lord Roem (talk) 19:35, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Arbitrators' opinion on hearing this matter (8/0/0/4)

Vote key: (Accept/decline/recuse/other)

Note, I would not support a motion to remove sysop as an emergency measure, as I see no grounds for doing so while SchuminWeb is not editing and has stated publically that he intends to leave the project. I think if he returned to editing without addressing this matter, that would be grounds for an emergency desysop. If he has not returned within six months, then that would be grounds for removing the tools as a security measure. Elen of the Roads (talk) 12:43, 19 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • My vote to accept remains in place, no matter if a motion passes. AGK [•] 21:44, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Temporary injunction

Motion regarding SchuminWeb (3)

The accepted case is hereby suspended pending SchuminWeb's return to editing. SchuminWeb is instructed not to use his administrator tools in any way until the closure of the case; doing so will be grounds for removal of his administrator userrights. Should SchuminWeb decide to resign his administrative tools, the case will be closed and no further action taken. Should SchuminWeb not return to participate in the case within three months of this motion passing, this case will be closed, and the account will be desysopped. If the tools are resigned or removed in either of the circumstances described above, restoration of the tools to SchuminWeb will require a new request for adminship.

Enacted - Alexandr Dmitri (talk) 18:35, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support
  1. A further alternative introducing a shorter (three-month) period than that proposed above. It also extends the prohibition on tool use to all areas; this really is the best interests both of the community and SchuminWeb; any tool use is bound to become a major source of unpleasant drama. Other than that, a few copy edits for (hopefully) clarity.  Roger Davies talk 07:26, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  2. SirFozzie (talk) 07:42, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  3. First preference. PhilKnight (talk) 07:42, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  4. First Second preference. Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:14, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Second preference. Still rewards bad behavior, but not as much as doing nothing would. Jclemens (talk) 19:36, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  6. First choice. Minor copyedit (inserted "either of"). Newyorkbrad (talk) 19:44, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  7. I think this covers things quite well. The instruction not to use the tools on penalty of forced removal is in effect the same as a desysopping. The situation that concerns Courcelles appears to also arise in Motion 4, that we have an injunction that will need to be enforced. Equal first choice with Motion 4, though leaning toward first choice, as the option for SchuminWeb to resign is useful. SilkTork ✔Tea time 07:46, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Equal preference to motion above. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 21:08, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  9. First choice. Hersfold (t/a/c) 22:29, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Kirill [talk] 00:54, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose
  1. Sorry, but I just can't support anything that leaves the tools in place in this circumstance. Who is going to enforce the restriction? Are we giving the crats authority to do so? Are we going to have to make another motion if this one is violated? I despise doing it, but I'm going to be adding a fourth motion. Courcelles 22:49, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Why are we "instructing" SchuminWeb not to use his tools? If we wish him not to use his sysop permissions, then we should revoke them. This sort of "gentlemen's agreement" is rather silly, and I would prefer that anything we do with permission removals be watertight. AGK [•] 21:44, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Other
Arbitrator comments
  • In answer to the opposes.. if we removed them prior to a case, the overwhelming view would be that we would be judging them guilty without a chance to respond, and that they would have the burden of proof upon their return to be given the tools back. Here, they may be technically still an administrator (as no judgement has been made to remove the tools). Considering he was not available to answer the case, we do not want them using the tools without first going through the case to determine whether the mistakes they made warrant removal of administrative tools. Basically, we're not saying that a removal is warranted, nor are we saying it's unwarranted, but solely that there is enough questions whether removal of the tools is warranted we do not wish them to use the tools until first going through with us. And if they don't answer, then we remove them as we cannot leave these cases upon indefinitely. SirFozzie (talk) 12:58, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • @ Davewild: while pending and suspend come originally from the same root, they are not synonyms. As far as the policy provision is concerned, it is sometimes helpful to look at the intention as well as the wording. The objective of the policy provision was to provide continuity during the transition from one year's committee to the next and and to prevent the disruption that would result from half of the committee changing in the middle of the workshop or midway through voting on an intricate proposed decision. Neither of those circumstances apply here ;)  Roger Davies talk 11:47, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Final decision

Log of blocks, bans, and restrictions[edit]

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Notifications

Alexandr Dmitri gave notice of injunction restriction and 3 mos. show cause remedy (desysop), at 19:17, on 27 December 2012 (UTC) see, [1]

Sanctions


Category