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denigrating the contributions of people who don't primarily write articles. Meanwhile, IRC participants become defensive and sometimes dismiss real concerns about activity there, giving them all a bad image on account of misbehavior by a few. UninvitedCompany described the middle ground as a position that IRC "is fundamentally a useful resource" but some steps should be taken to improve it. He encouraged more people to participate in the channel and help discourage inappropriate behavior.
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This summary is good and pretty complete; with all due respect to your past work, I wouldn't have expected nearly as much quality in your report. Nevertheless, it wanders into irrelevant points at times, and seems to be stuck part way in between explaining the whole Giano affair and focusing in-depth
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had given up admin status and other abilities "under controversial circumstances". While this was primarily on account of activity on
Knowledge (XXG), their participation on IRC became a key part of continuing debates, especially as the latter two were still participating in the "admin-only" channel.
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after apparently scrambling his original account password in frustration earlier) for "nasty personal attacks" in
October. On this occasion, as with several subsequent blocks in December, Giano was unblocked by another administrator within an hour or two. Meanwhile, information began circulating that
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Those acquainted with
Jdforrester know him as having a very sardonic wit, and the comments in question appeared to be rather over-the-top and not intended to be taken seriously. UninvitedCompany explained that he declined to credit this, as in his view it was particularly inappropriate for someone in
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After some initial uncertainty about accepting the case, it was rejected after a majority of the
Committee concluded it fell outside their purview. The extent of the Arbitration Committee's jurisdiction and the acceptability of evidence from outside Knowledge (XXG) itself has been a tricky subject in
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is new; as I indicate, the noticeboard is where a lot of the earlier activity was. While there have been past discussions about IRC, they've arisen from other disputes and have not been materially different than the same discussions being held at other times about the mailing lists or any other
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Further elaborating on his statement, UninvitedCompany said that he made his views public partly because he felt that a balanced middle ground wasn't being represented. The debate has at times appeared to put IRC critics in a position of damning all external discussion of
Knowledge (XXG), or
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In view of the controversy, Tony
Sidaway had his access level to the #wikipedia-en-admins channel reduced, at his own request, so that he would no longer have chanop privileges. He had never actually used those privileges in any case, and he does continue to participate in the channel. The
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Although IRC is the current focus of much attention, the dispute is also deep-rooted and has its origins elsewhere, and the emphasis on IRC as the problem is a relatively recent development. Some of the origins trace to discussions that took place primarily on the
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by the
Arbitration Committee that due to cases of "gross incivility" on IRC, they would take IRC behavior into account in arbitration cases "if it results in disruption on Knowledge (XXG)." The #wikipedia-en-admins channel was originally set up at the request of
198:(or chanops) who controls access to the channel, for "making an implicit personal attack" on Giano's allies. (Jdforrester did not participate in the public deliberation of the case and would presumably have been recused had it been accepted.)
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It's not really true that the focus on IRC is new. AFAICT, IRC channels, their relationship with the project, and their abuse has been an issue for at least 4 years. The current conflict is just the latest and the loudest in a long series.
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when support for the action seemed to fall below the usual threshold for approval. Ongoing dissatisfaction with that again boiled over on the administrators' noticeboard, leading also to a
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description of the channel has been clarified to indicate that it is unofficial, used "mainly" by admins but also by others, and that access is at the discretion of the chanops.
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a position of power to joke at the expense of the powerless. Some of the channel's critics gave little sign that they found any humour in the comments.
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The arbitration case resulted in, among other things, a reminder to
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involved a series of blocks and desysoppings of a number of established editors, itself the culmination of earlier disputes over
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indicated that they largely agreed with its contents. Among the points addressed was a criticism of fellow arbitrator
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was one of several users blocked then, and the incident remains a sore spot. The issue flared up again when
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on this specific facet of the dispute, while not completely doing either. Just my views.
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some of these blocks were being discussed in the IRC channel prior to implementation.
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previous situations. Instead, several arbitrators presented their
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480:What do you think of
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384:Features and admins
359:Arbitration and IRC
308:Features and admins
282:Also this week: —
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409:Discuss this story
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57:PDF download
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379:In the news
316:Arbitration
243:bureaucrats
192:Jdforrester
184:Paul August
160:Jimbo Wales
107:X (Twitter)
312:Technology
45:Share this
40:Contribute
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