[WikiEN-l] 172 sysop status temporarily revoked

Wed Jul 23 11:14:00 UTC 2003

Because he protected a page in an edit war/heated discussion in which he  
was involved -- see [[Talk:Catholicism]] -- I have temporarily revoked  
172's sysop privileges. I would not have done so if he had followed my  
advice not to do it again, but after I unprotected the page he immediately  
reprotected it, and there is no point in engaging in "protection wars" --  
we should be clear about the guidelines we follow.

Note that I was not substantially involved in the relevant discussion, but  
I am generally on 172's side; the edits were desperately in need of work.  
However, sysops are not editors, and should not use their privileges to  
enforce their own views. If the page should have been protected, it should  
have been done by an independent third party. This is what our protected  
page policy has said for months.

I am also concerned by the definitely non-Wikiquette tone in the above  
discussion.

Unless there are any objections, I will only reinstate 172's sysop status  
if he agrees to follow our protected page guidelines.

Regards,

Erik