Case clerk: TBD Drafting arbitrator: TBD
Wikipedia Arbitration |
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Any editor may add evidence to this page, irrespective of whether they are involved in the dispute. You must submit evidence in your own section. Editors who change other users' evidence may be blocked without warning; if you have a concern with or objection to another user's evidence, contact the committee by e-mail or on the talk page. The standard limits for all evidence submissions are: 1000 words and 100 diffs for users who are parties to this case; or about 500 words and 50 diffs for other users. Detailed but succinct submissions are more useful to the committee. This page is not designed for the submission of general reflections on the arbitration process, Wikipedia in general, or other irrelevant and broad issues; and if you submit such content to this page, please expect it to be ignored. General discussion of the case may be opened on the talk page. You must focus on the issues that are important to the dispute and submit diffs which illustrate the nature of the dispute or will be useful to the committee in its deliberations.
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Evidence presented by MrX
Edit warring
Dispite six edit warring blocks and two reversion restriction blocks, Collect routinely edit wars:
John Waters | [1] report:[2] |
Michael Grimm | [3] |
Joni Ernst | [4] [5] |
Marco Rubio | [6] warning:[7] [8] [9] warning:[10] response:[11] |
Breitbart | [12] [13] [14] warning:[15] |
False claims
February 26, 2014 | Deletes proposed (sourced) content from a talk page falsely claiming "Your posting below of that material is now redacted as required by WP:BLP ... if it is a violation on one page, it is a violation on every page."[16] |
October 30, 2014 | False claim that "headlines are not part of any reliable source"[17] discussion[18] Similar claim on March 20, 2015 to game the system.[19] |
December 27, 2014 | Removes sourced content as a BLP violation, falsely claiming that "that Huston deliberately wrote an untruth",[20] although there was no such claim made. Took it to BLP/N.[21] Continued to filibuster even after all six other editors in the discussion[22] confirmed that the content was not a BLP violation in any sense. |
December 31, 2014 | Pointedly posted a false edit warring warning[23] which I fully disproved[24] (discussion:[25]). When asked to retract the warning, provide valid evidence, or report me, he deleted my post, suggesting that I needed a rest.[26] |
March 14, 2015 | Knowingly misled an editor to believe that it was partly my idea to create an article that the editor called "marvelously stupid".[27] Failed to notify me. |
March 14, 2015 | Falsely claimed that he was blocked for "standing on this" and alluding to McCarthyism.[28] He was in fact blocked for edit warring on a related, but different article.[29] |
Forum shopping and canvassing
December 12, 2014 | Edit war.[30] Discussion ongoing on the article talk page. Posts at RS/N.[31] The discussion[32] doesn't go his way so he posts at BLP/N.[33] An editor points out the forum shopping.[34] Collect says "Nope. This is about a specific cavil just raised in an edit summary, for which this is the proper and only noticeboard. Cheers."[35] |
January 24, 2015 | Makes two reverts at Marco Rubio[36] and minutes later opens a BLP/N discussion, [37] bypassing the talk page altogether. I open a talk page discussion.[[38] Another editor makes a concrete compromise proposal,[39] resolving the dispute. |
March 2, 2015 | Campaigning[40] |
March 20, 2015 | Inappropriate notification (spamming and campaigning)[41]: "The case against me is vexatious indeed - I shall not contend against those who taste blood. The main complaint even includes my essays - so I wrote one which I hope you will appreciate". |
March 21, 2015 | 38 minutes after I create an article, Collect attempts to rally support on Jimbo's talk page to delete it.[[42] |
Disrupting Wikipedia to make a point
February 6, 2014 | Posts this:[43] to his talk page after an admin told him that Collect's edit warring did not satisfy the criteria for a 3RR BLP exception.[44] |
May 12, 2014 | Posts a lengthy, rambling screed to an Arbcom case evidence talk page[45] I made a critical comment[46] and retracted it about an hour later.[47] Collect then copied my retracted comment to his talk page.[48] |
March 15, 2015 | Links to old version of an article [49] in which he is involved in a content dispute at AfD, BLP/N, Ubikwit's talk page, Jimbo's talk page and the article talk page[50] (also forum shopping). |
March 14, 2015 | Posted huge amounts of article content at BLP/N.[51] |
Gaming the system
April 16, 2014 | Wikilawyering and a false claim that " it is not usual for "place of birth" to be in BLPs".[52] |
April 29, 2014 | Posts non-neutrally-worded RfCs: [53] [54] |
December 31, 2015 | Undermines verifiability by removing a source based on false analogy (no crime was asserted in the source or the article). [55] |
February 2, 2015 | Replaced six occurrences of Heather Bresch's name from an article, replacing her name with "the person".[56] Minutes later scrubs all mention of the MBA controversy [57] from Heather Bresch. Upon being reverted in both cases, opens a BLP/N discussion [58]. Even a Bresch-affiliated paid editor objects to Collect's interpretation of BLP policy.[59] |
February 7, 2015 | Insists on strong sourcing and non-negotiable BLP adherence; makes edits like this.[60] |
February 10, 2015 | Reinserts material, which I had reverted in the previous edit.[61] I added a neutrality disputed tag to the section,[62] and an edit summary with "See my comments on the talk page". Collect starts a discussion at BLP/N.[63] I suggest that it's not an issue for BLP/N and that we should try to resolve it on the talk page. [64] Rather than join the talk page discussion, starts a pointy discussion at NPOV/N.[65] |
March 20, 2015 | Reverts an edit with six sources.[66] I open a talk page discussion, [67] which Collect bypasses and instead posts to BLP/N.[68] After Collect's argument is refuted by MastCell, with a list of sources, [69] Collect falsely claims "Your sources support that employees claim there was an unwritten policy in the DEP, and only in the DEP." [70] which I refute with specific evidence found in MastCell's previous post.[71] (discussion [72]). |
March 2, 2015 February 5, 2015 |
Removes wikilinks for notable people claiming "we do not generally add in extraneous names into any BLP". [73] Violates his own rule.[74] |
Filibustering with strawman, red herring and tu quoque arguments
September 8, 2014 | [75] |
March 23, 2015 | Refutes that he misused BLP policy, claiming that I also removed offending material.[76] When I post evidence that the material I removed had nothing to do with his BLP violation claim and ask him to identify the specific BLP violation,[77] he evades the question instead responding with a complaint about an edit I made in an unrelated article.[78] |
September 8, 2014 |
Ascerbic, dismissive and passive-aggressive comments
January 19, 2014 | "I made the mistake of assuming that people were able to look at the articles so edited without too much trouble. Clearly I was wrong and I apologise for making that assumption."[79] |
February 14, 2014 | "Alas -- what you "believe" is not how Wikipedia articles are edited. It has this horrid rule that articles use WP:RS reliable sources, and that is where your problem appears to lie. Cheers."[80] |
Refusal to cooperate and battleground attitude
August 27, 2014 | [81] |
February 22, 2015 | Editor tries to resolve a content dispute.[82] Collect lectures about BLP policy.[83] The editor protests and requests specifics.[84] Collect continues to lecture, generalizing and evading the request for specifics.[85] |
Evidence presented by Ubikwit
Amalgamated tendentious editing and gaming the system
Collect has cultivated a sophisticated, integral approach to tendentious editing, and is adept at marshaling Wikipedia resources in support or defense. Collect will attempt to dismiss sources he doesn't like (diffs later), failing that he'll pretend not to hear other editors talking about them(diffs later), or to engage the sources, basically refusing to collaborate. He will appeal to policy and make somewhat excessive use of notice boards in an attempt to obstruct the creation of content that he finds objectionable for personal reasons, no matter how high quality the sourcing, and as shown below, he won't abide by consensus if he thinks he has recourse to a wikilawyered interpretation of policy (e.g., "self-identification" in the following illustrative example).
Aside from the notice boards (mostly BLP, but also NPOV), he starts RfCs in the midst of an article talk discussion that has yet to reach a point where one might be called for, effectively cutting of the discussion and diverting effort and focus away from the issues actually at hand. He has also started RfCs at policy pages in relation to content disputes in an attempt to make a point and forestall the discussion or gain an advantage. Taken together this conduct represents a systematic abuse of Wikipedia resources for POV pushing (or obstruction); i.e, gaming the system with a battle of attrition modus operandi.
Illustrative case Joe Klein (and to a lesser extent, the related Neoconservatism)
Collect's initial strategy was to remove the infobox religious affiliation category as well as “Jewish” from the phrase “Jewish neoconservatives”, removing the aspect that makes the religious affiliation per blpcat notable and rendering the entire topic of dual loyalties based on religious affiliation unintelligible.[86] In light of the subsequent RfC and the like, it appears that the assault on categories (Collect adopted a similar approach in the Sam Harris article, which succeeded because of different circumstances) was aimed at precluding content in the main body that referred to the subject as Jewish (the content of the category).
- MrX agrees that sources meet blpcat and notability in terms of relevance.[87]
- Nomoskedasticity agrees that sources meet blpcat.[88]
- Nomoskedasticity indirectly warns Collect against reverting against consensus[89]
- Collect claims that blpcat policy overrides consensus between the three editors commenting on the thread.[90]
- MrX adds sources and queries Collect about collaborative editing.[91]
- MrX asks Collect if he intends to restore categories, etc. removed in this edit, which Collect had initially reverted and after which further sourcing was provided and the above-mentioned consensus reached.
- I repeat blpcat notability and ask him to abide by consensus.[92]
Starts pointy RfCs as diversionary tactic preventing resolution of content disputes, evincing a battlefield mentality
This RfC at BLP talk regarding Joe Klein article was not worded neutrally, and even the closer noted that it was a pointy.
Re: Sam Harris article
- First he started this BLP/N thread targeting BLPCAT, which wasn’t at issue.
- Then he started this RfC on Sayeed’s tribalism quote, which was not a statement that needed an RfC.
- I responded to the Sayeed related accusations during AN/I-2 here.
Canvassing/Campaigning on his user talk page
Several examples of campaigning/canvassing and not notifying editors he's quoting have been presented, and I'll add one more.
This shows Collect canvassing (I'm not sure how else to characterize it) on his Talk page[93] for input regarding a comment I’d made a last ce to here. Capitalismojo responds here and again, referring to “ancient libels”.
Evidence presented by Fyddlestix
My interactions with Collect have been limited to a single article: Project for the New American Century. On this article and related pages, over the past month, I have observed Collect:
Editing to Make a Point
Instead of making a case for removing a source he objected to, Collect repeatedly added lengthy blockquotes (from the source he wanted removed) to an article: [94][95] [96] [97] [98]. He also added categories that had no relationship to the article's actual subject: [99][100][101] [102].
In fairness, note one self-revert here (awareness of edit warring) [103].
Deliberately Misrepresenting Other Editors
In these edits [104][105], Collect made a number of assertions about 4 different editors which he knew to be false:
- Asserting that MR X and I favored creation of an article that neither of us did.
- Charged all four of us with "preferring" this this old version of the article, repeating that charge here, when in reality 3/4 of us had not seen/touched the article at that point, and Collect has thanked me for edits I made improving the article since then.
- Refused to retract or apologize for these mischaracterizations, responding combatively when asked to do so: [106][107].
Campaigning/Support Seeking to an Excessive Degree
Collect has made an excessive number of posts on noticeboard, article talk, and user talk pages to try to drum up support in the dispute: [108], [109], [110], [111], [112], [113], [114], [115], [116], [117], [118], [119], [120] often while discussions were still ongoing elsewhere, and without notifying others who were involved in the dispute.
Refusing to Listen or Explain his Position
Collect frequently cries SYNTH and BLP when the violation is unclear, but refuses to explain or detail his thought process when cornered for specifics. These two diffs: [121][122] for example are exactly a month apart, and the exact same issue is being debated in both of them. In both cases, Collect went silent only to reopen the debate elsewhere, the second time within hours: [123]. Other examples:
- [124] - Collect never replied
- [125] - no reply
- [126] - no reply
- [127] - no reply
- [128] - no reply
- [129][130][131] - Collect's replies were (imo) unintelligible:[132][133]
- [134][135][136][137] - no reply to last.
When he does respond to requests for specifics, Collect's responses are far from helpful: [138] (claiming BBC news is not a RS), [139] ("SYNTH is SYNTH").
Making Personal Attacks
Unwilling or unable to see the difference between discussing and promoting a single individual's opinions, Collect has unjustly accused other editors of promoting conspiracy theories:
- Baselessly comparing another editor to (conspiracy theorist) Alex Jones on PNAC talk: [140] (see edit summary).
- Alleging that an article was "promoting" an alleged conspiracy theorist and treating his views "as fact" by discussing them, implying that editors who were defending use of the source were guilty of same: [141], [142], [143].
- When called on this [144][145][146] Collect either had no response, or doubled down on the assertion that any mention of the source was equal to "promoting" it [147], and accused other editors of "failing to notice" that the source was problematic [148].
Casting Aspersions
Collect has kept up a steady drumbeat of comments and edit summaries which backhandedly imply that his opponents are promoting anti-semitism, conspiracy theories, or McCarthy-style "guilt by association." Some examples: [149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162]. Myself and others have asked him to stop doing this repeatedly [163][164]. He has refused to acknowledge that his insinuations are an issue and has continued to make them.
Ignoring Facts
In this diff, Collect removed the statement that John Bolton was affiliated with PNAC as unsourced. In reality, Bolton was a director of the organization, and Collect had earlier participated in a discussion where specific evidence of this association was produced: [165]. I drew his attention to this fact here, but to date Collect seems uninterested in rectifying this error.
Evidence presented by Jbhunley
Misreprentation
- Editing quote and removing context[166]. No diff. No notice to editor they were being quoted. This is the whole quote Context was removed to make it not look like it was a response to Collect's
Am I obstinate about "guilt by association"
post which he had quoted earlier on the page. (see from line 101) - What was said on page answer editor responds off page answer
Canvassing/Campaigning
- Canvassing Arbcom case
- Canvassing RfArb
- Maybe these -[167] [168] [169].
Failing to notify other editors
- Used
Plain text to avoid sending pings [170] when naming editors under discussion.
Presents a view of reality not fully congruent with facts
- The whole exchange from Line 298
- See 'Canvassing RfArb' above.
- Says about his references to McCarthyism the only salient quote he could find was [171] which is manifestly incorrect. cf. [172], [173], [174], [175], [176], and [177]
- This is the discussion about his 'anecdote', referenced above, and how it was not appropriate. Brings up McCarthyism [178] [179] [180] . All other references he made to McCarthyism were not just to 'show where his opinion came from'.
- "Florida FRINGE" - What is claimed vs Actual context
Makes unacceptable accusations about other editors
- See McCarthyism above
- Accuses me of ad hominem for simply pointing out the source he was complaining about was 1. Not being used 2. Not representative of the other sources. Comment Reply ad hom accusation
- Conspiricy accusation replaces struck text calls my objection a 'personal attack' says comment not about me but PNAC article. Does not seem to understand he is not in a discussion about PNAC article I accepted this until I found
[] where he made the same accusation while naming editors.Struck until I dog up diffJbh (talk) 13:58, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
Will not participate in finding compromise/Does not recognize other viewpoints
- Tendentiously forum shops. Starts a BLPN thread but when asked to explain in detail to a new party (me) what his issue is[181] he disengages. Only to bring the exact same issue up again, and again and again all in a month. That BLPN thread is of particular interest because I had no edits in any politics area and little or no interaction with either Ubikwit or Collect. When asked to support his claims with policies or evidence he never answered.
- Huge diff but it illustrates Collect's style of debate with someone (me) with whom had little prior interaction. It was fun as a discussion but bad if consensus was actually needed. Note his response to this question. Note this discussion was about FRINGE not BLP.
Unable to recognize discussion has progressed
- Still arguing about "Jewish double-loyalty" when that has nothing to do with the current debate. Evidently it did some months ago but not in this iteration of the dispute.
Evidence presented by My very best wishes
Collect is an experienced editor who contributed a lot to the project
There is a fundamental problem with all such proceedings: everyone provides diffs to demonstrate poor judgement and misbehavior by a user, but no one provides any diffs to show good judgement and collaboration by the same user on other, more numerous occasions. It may easily happen that they made mistakes only in a few cases (less than 0.1% of their edits), but they still will be sanctioned. I interacted with Collect on a number of occasions unrelated to US politicians and was always very happy to hear his opinion because it sounded as a voice of reason. So, if any sanctions must be imposed, I think they should be limited to a certain subject area and certain time frame. My very best wishes (talk) 13:54, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
All evidence must be very carefully examined
This section in the Evidence section caught my attention because making "false claims" would be something out of the character for Collect. I looked at the first incriminating diff [182]. Brief discussion shows that Collect was probably right because there was an RfC about it.
Same is here (first series of diffs in evidence by Cwobeel). Should this living person be described in the first phrase as a "conspiracy theorist"? I have no judgement, but things like that are merely a "content dispute". More important, in the edit summary (diff above) Collect mentioned an RfC about it. If there was indeed an RfC with an outcome supporting this edit by Collect, he was doing right thing. My very best wishes (talk) 15:45, 27 March 2015 (UTC)
Evidence presented by Bosstopher
before using the last evidence template, please make a copy for the next person
Pages Collect wishes to be examined by Arbcom
Due to Wikipedia not being a bureaucracy all evidence must be placed on the specific page for Arbcom to read, even if arbcom are aware of the evidence in question and have been told specifically to read it. As such I will link all the things Collect wants read by Arbcom onto this page. Will probably rework this a bit later.
- Collect's talk page on the 26th March 2015 Claims made include:
- Explanation of blocks Collect has received so far
- List of PNAC members was SYNTH
- Accusations of Socking were made in bad faith
- User:Viriditas's comments on Florida and climate change were meant as harassment, and intimidation through outing, so as to drive Collect off of Wikipedia. 5% of Viriditas's last 500 edits have been made to Collect's talk page, and he initially refused to leave when asked. More context can be found here
- Something about User:Fyddlestix and SYNTH which I dont really get.
- User:Ubikwit has a worrying fixation on making sure everyone knows who's Jewish and who isnt.[183]
Collect has asked that all his essays be examined as rebuttal to claims by Mr. X that his essays are combative. [184]
- WP:False consensus
- WP:KNOW
- WP:Advocacy articles
- WP:PIECE
- WP:Defend to the Death
- WP:Midden
- WP:Baby and Bathwater
- WP:Wikifurniture
- WP:Contentious
- WP:Sex, Religion and Politics
- WP:Editorially involved
- WP:Mutual admiration society
- WP:Source pH
- WP:Sledgehammer
- WP:Variable RS
- WP:Wikipedia and shipwrights
- User:Collect/Collect's Law
- User:Collect/z
Evidence presented by Cwobeel
Misuse of WP:BLP to suppress content
When Collect edits politicians and political figures' biographies, he often times raises BLP concerns that are at best tenuous, with a possible intent to suppress content that may reflect poorly on them, disregarding the availability of good quality sources, and in some cases even when the sources describe statements made by the figures themselves in public forums or to the press. He may think that he is doing this in good faith to uphold WP:BLP, but nonetheless it is a misapplication of policy that needs to be dealt with so that WP:NPOV, which is nonnegotiable, can be maintained in BLPs.
Below are some examples about which it could argued are content disputes. They could have been so if they were isolated cases, but in aggregate, it demonstrates a pattern of behavior that needs addressing.
Note that as a fellow BLP/N patroller, I have observed Collect making solid contributions and help uphold WP:BLP, but when it comes to articles of political figures, particularly from the right, the evidence shows that he misuses WP:BLP and WP:BLPREQUESTRESTORE, to suppress what he believes is unflattering content in violation of WP:NPOV. - Cwobeel (talk) 19:18, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
- Alex Jones (radio host) (October 2014)
- [185]- Collect removes viewpoints about Alex Jones as a conspiracy theorist, sourced to a book published by Palgrave Macmillan and to the Southern Poverty Law Center
- [186] - And again.
- [187] - And again, this time removing content from lede sourced to the New York Magazine, where Jones himself states that he is proud of the "conspiracy theorist" label.
- Joni Ernst (September, October 2014)
- [188] - Collect removes content sourced to The Washington Post, The Guardian, and UPI, in which a direct quote by Ernst is described
- [189] - (i) Collect removes content sourced to Politico, and the Sioux City Journal; (ii) Removes content sourced to Yahoo News, again describing a direct quote from Ernst; (iii) Removes content sourced to the Des Moines Register, again describing a direct quote from Ernst
- [190] - Removes content sourced to the Sioux City Journal.
- [191] - (i) Collect removes context sourced to The Hill; (ii) Removes content providing a direct quote from Ernst.
- Chris Christie (March, November, and December 2014)
- Marco Rubio (January 2015)
- Rush Limbaugh (May 2012)
- [197] - Collect removes content sourced to PolitiFact, despite being supported any additional sources.
- Matt Drudge (May 2013 )
- [198] - Collect removes content sourced to The New Republic, NBC News (Miami), and The Miami Herald
Evidence presented by {your user name}
before using the last evidence template, please make a copy for the next person
{Write your assertion here}
Place argument and diffs which support your assertion; for example, your first assertion might be "So-and-so engages in edit warring", which should be the title of this section. Here you would show specific edits to specific articles which show So-and-so engaging in edit warring.
{Write your assertion here}
Place argument and diffs which support the second assertion; for example, your second assertion might be "So-and-so makes personal attacks", which should be the title of this section. Here you would show specific edits where So-and-so made personal attacks.