[WikiEN-l] Abusive editors

Wed Mar 9 14:24:17 UTC 2005

The first thing that is wrong is that I am tempted to click on that link to
see who it is and what you might have done.

Then if I look at your edits and decide they are indeed "fuckwitted" and the
person making the personal attacks is a valuable and popular editor, I might
be tempted to excuse him.

The policy is No personal attacks. That attack and any other attacks you see
on yourself or any other editor may be deleted on sight.

We do not provide for automatic blocking or banning of persons who make
personal attacks. What generally happens is that eventually through the
dispute resolution process they come to arbitration. Generally they are put
on personal attack parole. Then they can be banned for a short period if
they make an attack.

Now I will follow the link:

Searching for "fuckwit", I find User:Adam Carr, a user who is considered to
be a very valuable editor who has a history of making personal attacks but
who has yet to be "brought to justice". He was once banned for one day for
this but complained vociferously. Obviously a slap on the wrist and several
warnings does no more good than a fart in the wind.

I will now examine your contributions to see if you are a "bad" editor:

The controversy seems to be about who is "head of state" of Australia, you
see to be hold a minority view, whatever that is. Adam Carr says: "We have
heard your views on these topics ad nauseam. We have decided that we don't
agree with you. We are now proceeding to edit the article in accordance with
the majority view. That is the way things work here. If you don't like it,
feel free to leave. Is that clear enough for you? Adam 06:48, 9 Mar 2005
(UTC)"

What I question, without looking at the article, or knowing with certainty
what the actual issue is; is why some mechanism using NPOV is not used to
somehow express both views.

Looking at one of the diffs in the editor war on the article page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Government_of_Australia&diff=10723
006&oldid=10720075

I see that both views are set forth in full in both your versions, but that
while Adam Carr says there IS a convention that the Governor General is head
of state of Australia, you say that there IS a contention over the question.

Ah Hah, I might say, a "bad editor arguing over nothing", because your
generalization that there is a contention is smack dab in the middle of an
extended discussion of the different ways one might look at the matter. To
extend that point further, is the question of head of state usually argued
when candidates stand for election?

Anyway, while I find Adam in the right as far as editing is concerned, he is
certainly in the wrong with respect to his abusive language and discourtesy.

Fred

Anyway, please feel free to use Wikipedia's dispute resolution mechanism,
but please don't fall into the sort of behavior we see Adam engaging in
here. Don't make personal attacks and be courteous to other editors

> From: Skyring <skyring at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: Skyring <skyring at gmail.com>, English Wikipedia
> <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 18:51:41 +1100
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at wikipedia.org>
> Subject: [WikiEN-l] Abusive editors
> 
> I've just copped the latest in a long line of personal attacks from
> one particular editor who stands out for his attitude in a community
> where tolerance and restraint is generally the norm. I don't think his
> comments are justified, but even if they were, I would still take
> exception to the language:
> 
> "Well I'm upset (really pissed off actually) by your deliberate
> obfuscation and timewasting, your dishonesty, your malicious
> misrepresentation of other people arguments, your rampant vanity and
> egotism and your general obnoxious fuckwittedness, so get used to it."
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Government_of_Australia#The_real_issue
> 
> To my mind this is no way to conduct any sort of productive debate,
> and as a rather new editor I wonder just how much this sort of thing
> is tolerated.
> 
> -- 
> Peter in Canberra
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