Re: [WikiEN-l] [Foundation-l] Indefinite block and desysopping by User:Danny

Greetings: I am the attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation in the US. I work for the Board. Among my responsibilities is keeping the Foundation out of legal trouble and responding to lawsuits, actual and threatened. I have had a long chat with Eric Moeller about the circumstances that resulted in his ban (since reverted by someone Being Bold). I also believe that the misunderstanding, although in good faith, still presented a risk to the Foundation. The issue of blocked articles is a complex one, and in many instances can be the visible result of careful consideration on the part of Foundation board members, staff, and other admins/bureaucrats/sysops who have knowledge of the facts and circumstances. Often the community at large will not have any idea what the facts and underlying considerations are. Not everything that involves Wikipedia is public, nor should it be. The typical user or admin doesn't have all the pieces of the puzzle. Don't let hubris get the better of you. There may be those of you who have yet to experience the American legal system in any fashion, save for a movie or two. Dealing with lawsuits is what I do for a living. Avoiding them is also what I do for a living. My job is to make sure that the Foundation has the best legal advice and best options open to it to keep things running smoothly, and to not land in court unless all other avenues have been exhausted. The WP:OFFICE policy is still in its infancy. People will challenge it through their words and actions. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But I believe everyone who believes in the future success and sustainability of the project must also recognize the need for judicious use of confidentiality at the Foundation level. The Foundation officers and Board members have a fiduciary obligation to the organization, as I do as a lawyer for my client. Certain members of the community (and notably, not Mr. Moeller) have expressed dissatisfaction about WP:OFFICE and its use. There is a healthy debate yet to be had about it. We can have that debate, but I also have to make clear that the Foundation's obligations are greater than loyalty to any one user. Even someone with the history of contributions to Mr. Moeller. -BradPatrick Bradford A. Patrick, Esq. Fowler White Boggs Banker 501 E. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 1700 Tampa, FL 33602-5239 bpatrick(a)fowlerwhite.com -----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces(a)wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Erik Moeller Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 2:57 PM To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List; English Wikipedia; wikipedia-l(a)wikimedia.org Subject: [Foundation-l] Indefinite block and desysopping by User:Danny I have been a Wikipedian since 2001 and a MediaWiki developer since 2002. I was Chief Research Officer of the Foundation from May to August 2005. I initiated two of Wikimedia's projects, Wikinews and the Wikimedia Commons, and have made vital contributions to both. I have made roughly 15,000 edits to the English Wikipedia, and uploaded about 15,000 files to Wikimedia Commons. A list of my overall contributions can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Eloquence and the linked to pages; this does not include my numerous international activities such as conference speeches, as well as my book and articles about Wikipedia. I have never been blocked before, nor have I ever been subject to an Arbitration Committee ruling (in fact, I was one of Jimmy's original suggestions for the first ArbCom, and one of the people who proposed that very committee). I have just been indefinitely blocked from the English Wikipedia, and desysopped, by user Danny, under the new nickname "Dannyisme", as an "Office Action" for alleged "reckless endangerment" which was not specified further. I have called Danny on the phone, but he said that he was not willing to discuss the issue, and that I should instead talk to the Foundation attorney instead. To my knowledge, this is the first time office authority has been used to indefinitely block and desysop a user. What happened? Yesterday, Danny radically shortened and protected two pages, [[Newsmax.com]] and [[Christopher Ruddy]]. The protection summary was "POV qualms" (nothing else), and there was only the following brief comment on Talk:NewsMax.com: "This article has been stubbed and protected pending resolution of POV issues. Danny 19:26, 17 April 2006 (UTC)" There was no mention of WP:OFFICE in the edit summary or on the talk page. Danny did not apply the special Office template, {{office}}, nor did he use the "Dannyisme" account that he created for Foundation purposes, nor did he list the page on WP:OFFICE. Instead, he applied the regular {{protected}} template. Given that Danny has now more explicitly emphasized this distinction between his role as a Foundation employee and a regular wiki user, I assumed he was acting here as a normal sysop and editor, and unprotected the two pages, with a brief reference to the protection policy. I also asked Danny, on [[Talk:NewsMax.com]], to make it explicit whether the protection was under WP:OFFICE. I would not have reprotected, of course, if he had simply said that they were, and left it at that. I apologize if this action was perceived as "reckless", but I must emphasize that I was acting in good faith, and that I would much appreciate it if all office actions would be labeled as such. I was under the impression that this was the case given past actions. In any case, I think that the indefinite block and desysopping is very much an overreaction, and would like to hereby publicly appeal to Danny, the community and the Board (since Danny's authority is above the ArbCom) to restore my editing privileges as well as my sysop status. I pledge to be more careful in these matters in the future. Thanks for reading, Erik _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer under IRS Circular 230: Unless expressly stated otherwise in this transmission, nothing contained in this message is intended or written to be used, nor may it be relied upon or used, (1) by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended and/or (2) by any person to support the promotion or marketing of or to recommend any Federal tax transaction(s) or matter(s) addressed in this message. 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