[WikiEN-l] Missed Opportunities to have avoided the Durova Case

[Durova]

On 11/27/07, Sam Blacketer <sam.blacketer at googlemail.com> wrote:
> . Administrators are individually responsible for each and
> every administrative action they take. But I don't see how that is
> contradicted by what happened here: Durova was responsible for the block
of
> !!, and she has been held to account for it. Precisely no-one appears to
be
> arguing that Durova's responsibility is diminished because she ran it by a
> select group before taking action; even if that group had all supported
the
> proposed action, it would still have been the responsibility of whoever
> performed the block.


It was her responsibility-- but it was their responsibility too.  She
drew upon the authority of others several times in justifying her
block.   The fact that arbiters had endorsed the block was implied if
not outright stated.

If an arbiter advises an admin to take an erroneous action, who made
the error?  Well, everybody involved.

But, we're not saying anybody should be burned at the stake over
this-- but we have some refs who made completely unreasonable calls,
and we need to know who, so that we can help them and us learn how to
prevent this sort of thing from happening again.  THe people who were
involved should be WELCOMING this process, not trying to hide in the
shadows lest people know how badly the blew the call.

Durova here was a great example.  She stood up, she admitted she had
made the call, admitted some of her her error, and decided she needed
to ask the community for their trust again.   Her actions in how she
handled the error have been 100% exemplary.

Unfortunately, her associates haven't yet worked up the courage to
follow her example.  They ought to stand up, say "Yep, I saw the
evidence, and here's what I said about it.  I told her !! deserved
blocking,  I was wrong, and I apologize, and I will try to do better
in the future".

To the people who saw the evidence and endorsed the block, I would say
this. I know it's never easy to come clean when you made a mistake.
It's embarassing, it's frustrating.   I know being honest with the
community will mean taking a reputation hit in the short term-- but
it's the right thing to do for the project.  Ya made a mistake.
Doesn't make you an evil person, doesn't make you a bad person-- ya
just need to own up to it.
Alec
******
Alec, I appreciate that you're giving me some credit for stepping forward to
take the heat for my own mistake.  Nobody else needs to.  The mistake was
mine.

There are several fundamental logical errors happening on the part of the
people who are promoting this argument: you're failing to recognize the
possibility of alternative explanations that place the whole thing in a much
different light.  That was a key mistake I made.  You're making it too.

I said in my evidence statement that the list isn't pertinent.  I have also
said repeatedly that the mistakes I made belong to me.  It's obvious from my
perspective how loudly and fiercely a pack of hounds are barking up the
wrong tree.  The irony here is too complete to ignore.

When I got the !! block wrong I didn't dig in my heels and demand the full
details of why and how the editor had changed accounts.  It was enough for
me to get one confirmable piece of evidence that contradicted my previous
conclusion.  As soon as I had that I did a complete turnaround, with
apologies and my best efforts at atonement, and that's not an easy step to
take.  There's a very human impulse to reach for excuses.

I'm not going to point out exactly where your logical errors are because, no
doubt, that would only lead to further loose cannon speculation.  At least I
had enough rigor in my research to collect more than two dozen diffs and
compare them to an existing hypothesis.  The hypothesis itself was unsound,
but the evidence available to me at the time did match it.  The evidence
already available to you does not match your hypothesis.  All you need to do
is go over existing statements in the site history files and you'll see
several ways that it doesn't match.

Now if you want to know why I'm on that cyberstalking list, there are
several reasons.  Have the decency to suppose that it is what it is, and
leave the good people alone.

I'd be very impressed if people who've pursued that line of reasoning took
the same steps I did: open mouth, remove foot, stand up, apologize.

-Durova