User:Russavia/Appeal

←Created page with 'In April 2012, I was blocked on English Wikipedia for 6 months and indefinitely topic banned from Eastern Europe for what appears to be a combination of factors...'
New pageIn April 2012, I was blocked on English Wikipedia for 6 months and indefinitely topic banned from Eastern Europe for what appears to be a combination of factors; those being the posting of a Polandball comic created by another editor on my user page; the creation of the [[Polandball]] article; and the reverting of an edit by an editor with whom there is a mutual interaction ban in place on a DYK nomination created by myself.
I will be addressing each issue separately.
;Polandball Wikipedia comics
The posting of [[:File:Poland can into Wikipedia.jpg|a Polandball comic]] created by another editor on my user page created a brouhaha after the Arbcom was contacted by an “unknown” editor. On my talk page, then-arb Elen of the Roads stated that the comic was disruptive because it stated that Polish editors of being sockpuppets. I said then, and I say now, that this was ridiculous; that comic no more stated that Polish editors are sock puppets, than [[:File:Finland can into Wikipedia.jpg|this comic]] states that Finnish editors are drunken vandals, or [[:File:Russia can into space.jpg|this comic]] states that Russian editors are POV-pushers, or [[:File:Britain can into Wikipedia.jpg|this comic]] states that Russian editors are trolls. At the time I stated that the comics were simply a comical look at Wikipedia, as [[:Commons:Category:Polandball_(Wikipedia_comics)]] clearly demonstrates.
One would never have imagined that one would be sanctioned at AE for the posting of [[:File:Poland can into Wikipedia.jpg]] on ones user page, but not for the posting of [[:File:Russia can into space.jpg]], and whilst ignoring all the other comics which Greyhood created, and which was advised at the time would be created. Even more incredulous, is that after all of this time, the comic which was said to be so disruptive to this project that it warranted my removal from the project for six months, is still to this day prominently displayed on my user page, which calls into question the whole claimed disruptive nature of the comic.
At the end of the day, I am a long-term editor on this project and have the same right to engage in commentary of the workings of the project as any other editor; the difference being I chose to engage in humorous commentary, even if authored by another editor, and the fact of the matter is, those editors who were most vocal against the Polish Polandball comic were those with a history of bad blood with me. In fact, [http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons%3ADeletion_requests%2FFile%3APoland_can_into_Wikipedia.jpg&diff=68870648&oldid=68866005 some Polish editors] without a history with me found them funny. Other than that, one could safely assume that most of the uninvolved community is completely indifferent to the issue, and I know for a fact that many of them find them funny, and have asked for more to done.
There are much worse things said on this project about editors, and groups of editors, and which are said in a serious way, and are left unsanctioned. Examples of this include [[User:Dbachmann/Wikipedia_and_nationalism#See_also|this]], following the same illogical reasoning adopted by Elen of the Roads, and adopted by others, claims that Indian editors are sockpuppets.
;Polandball article
Around the same time, I posted into main space the [[Polandball]] article. Never before on this project, that I am aware of, has an editor been blocked or topic banned because of the good faith creation of an article which was fully referenced. To put it mildly, that this article was partly responsible for me receiving a block and topic ban is an absolute disgrace. The only disruption which occurred on that article was done by others; if one looks at the history, they will see that for themselves. I will let the fact that this article has now been translated into over 60 languages speak for itself. Notably, I will also let the fact that the Polish article was translated by numerous Polish editors, and furthermore the article has [http://pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polandball&action=history been patrolled] by Wpedzich; an active member of the Polish Wikipedia Arbitration Committe, speak for itself. I have not asked a single editor on another project to do anything that is disruptive, and many are aware of the article being deleted here, and me being blocked; and many of them have relayed to me that the episode surrounding the article on this project was disgraceful. And that extends to many editors on this project as well.
FYI, the Polish article has just undergone a deletion discussion, which was closed early by a pl.wp Arb because it was clear no consensus was going to be reached. I participated in this discussion; with the blessing of numerous pl.wp editors and admins. The discussion can be found [http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Poczekalnia/artyku%C5%82y/2013:01:17:Polandball here]. Please note, if you use Google Translate you will get incorrect information for some responses, such as Awersowy’s (an ex-pl.wp arb) comment “Naprawdę szkoda byłoby to usuwać.” which Google translates as “I really wish it would be deleted”, rather than what it actually says, “It would be a shame if this was deleted.” Also note, Pundit’s (an pl.wp crat) comments that the sources which were presented are reliable; a complete opposite view to that presented by the one person at the enwp AfD who has a most combative attitude and history towards myself (see comments on Volunteer Marek below).
Furthermore, the AE request only saw a single admin suggesting that I should be topic banned from Eastern Europe; that being Sandstein; the same admin who closed the AfD and who said that he wasn’t “judging” anyone. There was no consensus for a topic ban, so that sanction should be stricken in its entirety, because sanctions are supposed to be the result of broad consensus, not based upon one admins opinion.
;Reverting of Volunteer Marek
This is the only thing that occurred that may have warranted any sanction, but six months is a gross over-reaction, particularly given previous history of Volunteer Marek with myself. My reverting of Volunteer Marek at the Polandball DYK was done purely to lessen the drama, given that he is under an interaction ban with me, and it would be better than taking it to AE. I discussed with Ed Johnston during the AE request that any future breaches of that interaction ban could be brought to his attention, so that it could be kept away from the AE dramuh boards. He agreed to this.
;WGFinley’s block extension and revocation of talk page access
This is a most unusual, and disgraceful, episode. I was preparing an unblock request on my talk page, and part of that process is showing that the reason for the block was over-blown, which is [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Russavia&oldid=494078684#Polandball_can_into_Wikipedia.3F_Or_can_it.3F_A_timeline what this begins to do]. WGFinley, who was marked as being inactive, returned to Wikipedia purely to [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Russavia&oldid=494078684#May_2012 extend the block to 13 months, and revoke talk page access]. Please read comments by others [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Russavia&oldid=494078684#Block_Extension_Rationale here]; especially interesting is Guerillero’s comments -- at the AE he pushed for the harshest punishment, that being a 12-month block, but after discussing the issues with me, he saw the block/topic ban for what it was -- a gross over-reaction on the part of the community (to begin with), and on the part of WGFinley (with the block extension). I had numerous admins ready to undo these actions by WGFinley, but because it was an AE action, they were scared of losing their tools by way of Arbcom; even though such a move by those admins would have been the “right” thing to do.
;Punitive nature of the block and topic ban
I have always been a prolific editor on Russian/Eastern European topics. [http://toolserver.org/~tparis/pages/index.php?name=Russavia&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&namespace=0&redirects=noredirects This] gives one some indication of just how prolific an editor I have been, and also that I have normally always concentrated on creating new content (that link only lists 100 new articles created by myself, nowhere near the actual number of articles I’ve created). If you refer to my userpage you will see a huge list of articles which I had been working (most of these are now redlinks, as I had them deleted -- there is no place for them on the project so long as I am indefinitely topic banned).
I despise conflict and this is why I generally keep to myself on the project and create new content. When conflict arises, I tend to try and walk away, because I frankly have better things to do with my time and energy. [[Talk:Occupation_of_the_Baltic_states/Archive_13#Suggestion|This]] is one example of how I approach contentious issues (of which I haven’t been involved); I tried to get community involvement in fixing issues, but as soon as a western scholar was derided as a patriotic-nationalist (can have strong negative connotation) as per [[Talk:Occupation_of_the_Baltic_states/Archive_14#Tsygankov|this]] and reading that “getting of a boat does not make one a “western” writer”, I walked away from the discussion entirely. This is only being used as an example of how I have dealt with potential conflict on the project, and not being used to direct attention to others words nor actions. [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive_39#Help_needed This is an example] on Commons where I have helped to mediate a dispute on Nagorno-Karabakh related issues; which we all know are amongst the most contentious on our projects.
Since the block last year, I have spent time doing what I have always done; uploading tens of thousands of photos, videos, etc to Commons for use across our projects. You can see “some” of this media [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_uploaded_by_Russavia here]. I was getting some of the photos placed onto relevant articles on enwp by asking editors, such as Mareklug, on #wikipedia-en, to help with that, and whilst they were adding photos to also include {{commonscat}} tags, and the like. That was until a couple of admins in that channel threatened numerous editors with blocks for proxying on my behalf, even though it was left up to individuals whether they acted or not. At that point, I stopped asking editors to place media, and have instead kept it as an example of how keeping me blocked is not preventing disruption, but rather keeping me from improving the project. If you refer to [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/files this] you will see a small selection of the media that should be in use on enwp, but isn’t, purely because I am blocked. Anything remotely “Eastern European” related will never find its way onto enwp by my actions, because of the indefinite topic ban. In addition to aviation, this includes [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Mikhail_Shcherbakov_Flickr_stream these 3,500+ photos of the Moscow Metro] and other train topics in Russia.
There is no rhyme nor reason to keep me blocked or topic banned, when the effect of this is not limiting of disruption, but the preventing of myself editing in areas which are short of editors with the only goal being to improve the project.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Russavia/Appeal&diff=93388311&oldid=0