I have unblocked Blair P. Houghton. Re: [WikiEN-l] Unreasonableblock of user Blair P. Houghton by adminCryptoDerk

Wed Mar 16 05:23:32 UTC 2005

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Cecropia" <jcecropia at mail.com>

I will make one addendum to my comments below.

Houghton and GeorgeStepanek alternated three reverts, with Houghton making the last, then Taxman made another revert. Then Houghton reverts that (fourth revert) and is blocked. Then Taxman made another revert, but Houghton is blocked, and that ends that.

Having two people on one side of a disagreement play "tag team" on reverts (consciously or not) is a violation of the spirit, if not exactly the wording, of the 3RR. In effect, Taxman's first and second reverts were really GeorgeStepanek's fourth and fifth. Result: one side in an article can always win AND get the opposition blocked so long as they have one more supporter than the other side.

This 3RR gamesmanship has to end. Ask an admin to protect the article and take it to the talk page.

--Cecropia

To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
Subject: I have unblocked Blair P. Houghton. Re: [WikiEN-l] Unreasonableblock of user Blair P. Houghton by adminCryptoDerk
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 01:09:30 -0400

> 
> I have unblocked Blair P. Houghton so that he can defend himself in 
> the appropriate forums on Wikipedia.
> 
> The 3RR blocking is being extremely abused, IMO. We sometimes give 
> actual anon vandals who trash articles more slack than some 
> logged-in users that have an honest difference of opinion. I am an 
> amateur body builder for 20 years. I am no expert but, like many 
> who enjoy the sport, I've studied a good bit about it. Either the 
> prior version or Houghton's version are accurate, and I believe 
> Houghton's is a bit better written and more reflects the 
> state-of-the-art.
> 
> HOWEVER, I am not taking a position on which version should stand, 
> just indicating that I know Houghton's version is, at least, not 
> vandalism.
> 
> The 3RR, as I've stated elsewhere, is a loose cannon which tends to 
> favor the status-quo. If the there is a content dispute, the better 
> solution is to protect the article for a limited time to get the 
> combatants to hash out the issue in article talk. In the instant 
> case, I notice that GeorgeStepanek, for example, numbered his 
> reverts ("first, second, third") which telegraphs consciousness of 
> the 3RR as a trap, then another editor who disagrees with Houghton 
> picked up on the reverting.
> 
> The 3RR page says that you will not necessarily be blocked for 3RR, 
> it is admin's discretion. CryptoDerk used his discretion to block; 
> I ordinarily will not get in the way of another admin's judgment, 
> but in this case I've used my discretion to unblock.
> 
> I caution Blair P. Houghton to take his arguments about the article 
> to its talk page for now, and to argue about his being blocked in 
> other forums.
> 
> I also must state that, as Houghton infers, neither truth nor 
> accuracy is determined by consensus, and that is NOT a comment 
> specifically on the Weight Training article.
> 
> -Cecropia
> --
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