[WikiEN-l] Defense against personal attacks

[Leif Knutsen]

A content dispute on [[Anti-vaccinationist]] escalated over the last month
or so to a series of unpleasant recriminations. My adversary in this dispute
took to complaining about me to various admins and other places, but rather
than clutter up all these admin's talk pages with defense and continuing
debate, I decided to defend myself on one article in my own namespace, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Leifern/Accusations_by_Midgley

I linked to this page in talk pages where Midgley lodged complaints, but did
not advertise it any other way. Midgley promptly listed the page on MFD,
claiming it was a personal attack against him, part of an ongoing campaign
of such attacks. The MFD was closed with an inconclusive, suggesting
mediation. I'm thinking about my next course of action with respect to the
dispute.

The issue I'm bringing to this group, however, is this:

What is an editor to do when confronted with personal attacks by another
editor? Anyone who will read the page Midgley wanted deleted will see that
it contains not a single attack against Midgley but rather catalogues,
documents, and responds to accusations made by him against me, many of which
most definitely take the form of personal attacks.

There is, of course, the formal dispute resolution channels, but these are
a) an escalation in their own right, b) overworked, and c) pretty imperfect,
given the two other factors. It seems to me that the type of page I created
- provided it doesn't become a vehicle for retribution - is an informal
means for dealing with such problems.

But if it isn't, what works better? It seems unreasonable to deny editors
the right to defend themselves - with facts and logic - against attacks.


--
Leif Knutsen
(also responds to vyerllc at gmail.com and leif at vyer.net)