253:). This case, though, raised questions (commented on on the proposed decision talk page) about whether RfA was focused too heavily on arbitrary statistics and was failing to thoroughly vet candidates for what is a position of great trust—especially in the light of another concern raised during the case, which is the difficulty of removing an administrator, even one whose editing has been fundamentally at odds with Knowledge (XXG)'s mission. Although this case was resolved relatively quickly by modern standards, it still took six weeks from start to finish, while serious questions had been lingering over Wifione's editing since at least the end of 2013, and concerns had been raised in various fora on several occasions from early in Wifione's editing career. A
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that would run concurrently with the siteban (and would continue in the event that the siteban was lifted); Wifione resigned their administrator tools, leading arbitrators to embark on an exercise of dubious usefulness by crafting a new remedy to state that the soon-to-be-banned
Wifione would be ineligible for automatic restoration of admin tools (the tools are normally returned as a matter of course when an admin voluntarily resigns unless they do so "under a cloud" as Wifione did); and the talk page became bogged down in a lengthy discussion of whether
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article. Wifione appears to have begun this campaign shortly after registering their account in 2009; they became an administrator in 2010 after receiving minimal opposition and were able to use their position and their knowledge of
Knowledge (XXG)'s policies to support their campaign by making specious and duplicitous arguments against any edits which did not suit Wifione's preferred narrative.
328:, a proposed decision was almost ready for posting publicly and was expected to be posted shortly after press time, although—in the absence of a workshop for this lightweight review—several editors have been presenting analysis of each other's evidence on the proposed decision talk page. This will also be covered in more detail in a fortnight's time, after the proposed decision has been published.
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GamerGate continues to plague the committee, with two requests at ARCA this week alone. A request for community sanctions (since vacated) against an editor not named in the original case to be noted was opened, but arbitrators are almost unanimous in declining it, and in recommending that the matter
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Of greater concern, Wifione also manipulated the articles of rival institutions and biographies of people associated with them in order to retain damaging content, including coverage of a rescinded arrest warrant against the founder of one rival institution which consumed two thirds of the founder's
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campaign on
Knowledge (XXG), in order to pad search engine results with irrelevant or flattering material with the intention of decreasing the prominence of unfavourable coverage in search engine results. Several editors alleged that this was part of a long-term campaign by the institution to manage
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The proposed decision was posted on 9 February and it quickly became apparent that
Wifione was to be stripped of their administrator status and banned. Nonetheless, implementation of the decision was delayed by a variety of factors: arbitrators struggled to agree on the exact scope of a topic ban
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Makrandjoshi is the retired editor you recently blocked for pointing out over many years that there was a problem with
Wifione's management of the IIPM topic and insisting the topic be presented neutrally, despite being threatened with police action, beatings and death, and repeatedly dragged to
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The most significant item on ArbCom's agenda this fortnight has been the closure of the
Wifione case and subsequent fallout, although the fallout from GamerGate continues to linger. Meanwhile the committee has become deadlocked on all manner of trivial issues, holding up progress on the larger
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in the workshop, that
Wifione was likely a reincarnation of an editor who was blocked for extensive sock-puppetry in 2008, after abusing dozens of accounts to conduct a similar campaign over a period of several years which included threatening editors who persistently challenged the abuse.
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campaign, sanitising the institution's article and the articles of people connected with it by removing unflattering material and using disingenuous policy arguments in order to retain poorly sourced but flattering material, for example calling the institution's founder a "business guru".
277:, which were changed in June 2014. Others suggest that ToU enforcement is a job for foundation staff rather than volunteer editors, that the limits and enforcement mechanisms are undefined, and that proving paid editing would be difficult to do without violating the
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Vejvančický is also responsible for the evidence you cite in your paragraph beginning "Of greater concern...". He repeatedly drew the attention of the community to
Wifione's problematical behaviour, only to resign his adminship in disgust after being consistently
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We've built the nuclear reactor; now what colour should we paint the bikeshed?: The most significant item on ArbCom's agenda this fortnight has been the closure of the
Wifione case and subsequent fallout, although the fallout from GamerGate continues to
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to that extent in the workshop attracted comments from multiple arbitrators and other editors—several of whom observed the failure of these discussions to get to the bottom of the issues and their tendency to produce more heat than light.
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if necessary. The second, referring to the interpretation of the biographies of living persons policy and its application on talk pages, but leading to much discussion about exemptions to GamerGate topic bans, was declined earlier this
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The
Wifione case recovered from a delay during the workshop phase and was finally closed on 13 February with Wifione—formerly an administrator and well-regarded editor—receiving an indefinite ban from the English Knowledge (XXG).
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A clarification request concerning a block, arguably improperly imposed under the Eastern Europe discretionary sanctions, has closed. The committee passed a motion leaving the block in place but removing arbitration enforcement
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What the devil does that headline mean? If I knew, I would try to make it better. I guess it is an inside joke, or maybe something in pop culture. Either way, it is a disservice to the (potential) reader of the story.
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editing. India Against Corruption has submitted 217 pages of complaints to ARBCOM with the evidence. Please correct yourself immediately as IAC has filed a criminal case in India against your rogues.
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Relevant Wifione related links to Wikipediocracy were presented to the eyes of the WP community during the case and a long time before that, on various highly visible WP forums. See for example
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At the time of writing, the workshop phase of this case was set to conclude shortly. Five editors have made proposals for consideration, including—somewhat unusually—the drafting arbitrator,
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is apparently a nobody, because he is banned. This editor did a great service to our project by researching this case and we owe him big thanks for the time and excellent work on it. --
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Just for the record: regarding "Jehochman also presented evidence that Wifione had embarked on a search engine optimisation campaign on Knowledge (XXG)...", Jehochman re-presented
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for a topic-ban violation failed, some arbitrators feeling that the one-month block imposed by an administrator was sufficient and some feeling that the motion was out of process.
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Several editors remarked that it was a matter of deep concern that Wifione was able to fool the community for so long, and questioned the effectiveness of processes like
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will be dedicated to the first in what the author hopes will be a series of interviews with current and former arbitrators, starting with veteran arbitrator
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for the topic area. The proposed decision is due on 25 February, and the arbitration report in a fortnight's time will cover the case in more detail.
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proposed a motion to strike the principle, which at the time of writing is supported by two arbitrators and opposed by four, with one abstention.
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is not to be confused with legitimate critique. Inclusion of links in articles is a matter for sound editorial judgment.
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Arbitrators were sufficiently satisfied by the evidence of sock-puppetry that they passed (by a majority of ten to two)
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stating that Wifione was likely a sock-puppet, and thus that the account was created in violation of a block.
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In addition, extensive evidence was presented during the case, backed up by analysis from
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Wifione only finally left this topic (assuming he/she has) when Wikipediocracy published
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The case was eventually closed on 13 February, shortly after publication of last week's
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Can the author explicitly note what discussions they feel constitute "bikeshedding"?
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We've built the nuclear reactor—now what colour should we paint the bikeshed?
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the number of editors to pass an RfA has been in decline for several years
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The evidence phase in this expedited case to review the restriction on
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who recently retired from the committee after seven years' service.
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Manipulating Knowledge (XXG) to Promote a Bogus Business School
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User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_151#Indian_Fakers_Teach_Wiki_PR
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So in other words, this entire case was a violation of
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also presented evidence that Wifione had embarked on a
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issues, even where arbitrators are in broad agreement.
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Which reminds me, there was also a Newsweek article:
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noticeboards and defamed and humiliated by Wifione.
510:If your comment has not appeared here, you can try
281:of Knowledge (XXG)'s Harassment policy. Arbitrator
623:Knowledge (XXG):No_personal_attacks#External_links
621:is a failed proposal. If you have on your mind
183:The central allegations to the case were that
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755:Explore Knowledge (XXG) history by browsing
732:What do you mean there was no accusation of
625:, then please note this part of the policy:
261:Before the dust from the case could settle,
603:and should have been summarily dismissed.
813:Knowledge (XXG) Signpost archives 2015-02
18:Knowledge (XXG):Knowledge (XXG) Signpost
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673:Those were busy times at WO.
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363:An amendment request against
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385:This column in next week's
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295:Christianity and Sexuality
208:search engine optimisation
577:But I'm a small fish and
255:proposed finding of fact
640:. Just a part of it. --
528:Makrandjoshi's analysis
373:Arbitration Enforcement
306:discretionary sanctions
211:its online reputation.
617:You forgot to log in.
524:Vejvančický's evidence
503:. To follow comments,
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411:"Arbitration report" →
247:requests for adminship
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199:reputation management
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551:on his/her abuse. --
499:from this article's
403:"Arbitration report"
339:Interactions at GGTF
263:an amendment request
490:Discuss this story
475:Arbitration report
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69:Arbitration report
46:← Back to Contents
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579:User:Peter Damian
514:purging the cache
354:Two kinds of pork
225:a finding of fact
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432:18 February 2015
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347:Hell in a Bucket
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371:be taken to
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619:WP:BADSITES
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497:transcluded
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289:Other cases
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