[WikiEN-l] Zoe's Abuse of Power as a Sysop

Tue Sep 6 11:42:52 UTC 2005

Zoe, a Sysop on Wikipedia, has seriously abused her position of authority and 
responsibility at my expense. I have a technical problem on my computer (see 
User Talk: Moriori) that has caused some minor problems in messages that I 
send. Zoe sent me a message on my user talk (User Talk: Felix Frederick Bruyns) 
to tell me not to edit others' messages. I attempted, through a third party, to 
communicate with Zoe and clarify the situation. That third party (User: 
Dmcdevit), however, failed to communicate my message. I did not send my message to 
Zoe directly because I had already responded to  many complaints about editing 
problems and since one of those complaints came from Dmcdevit, I attempted to 
save time by sending only one message instead of two. In clear violation of 
the "assume good faith" Wikipedia policy, however, Zoe sent me an official 
warning accusing me of deliberate vandalism. I responded by telling her that I 
would seek arbitration if she continued to lodge such accusations against me. 
She, in turn, blocked me from Wikipedia and claimed that my editing problems 
could not possibly have been accidental (Again, See: User Talk: Moriori). Her 
official reasons for blocking me were the vandalism that I never committed and my 
warnings that I would seek arbitration, which she termed "threats". 
Furthermore, finding that I could not reach the administrative noticeboard to plead my 
case and not having an individual e-mail address, I resorted to attempting to 
start new accounts, but I was still blocked, at one point from my own user 
page. In addition, because of my name changes, Zoe accused me of "spamming" and 
blocked me for one year. My specific knowledge of her deliberate abuse of power 
comes most of all, however, from these comments (emphasis mine): "I have a 
very low opinion of spammers. Besides, I'm in the middle of several brush fires 
and am quite irritable right now." (User talk: Dragons flight). This clearly 
indicates that her abusive behavior towards me is unprofessional and 
irresponsible and that she allows her moods to determine her decisions in her very 
important role as a sysop, which I assert to be unacceptable. I understand that you 
typically delete many messages of this type within twelve hours. I would 
request, however, that you take a close look into this particular case, as Zoe's 
behavior is causing me, an innocent user, to be the victim of the subjective 
feelings of a sysop who obviously does not understand or does not respect the 
responsibility of her position. I am not requesting that any punitive measures be 
taken against Zoe, but I would strongly request that I be unblocked and 
allowed to continue normal activities on Wikipedia. As for the editing problems, 
shortly before Zoe initiated her inappropriate actions against me I had decided 
to contact a computer expert within Wikipedia the following day to solve the 
problem. I repeat, Zoe has abused her power as a sysop and used it express her 
personal feelings arbitrarily in a hurtful way towards an innocent Wikipedia 
user, and I trust that you will take appropriate action to stop her from any 
further persecution of me or of any other well-intentioned users. Thank you very 
much. User: Felix Frederick Bruyns