Zoe, a Sysop on Wikipedia, has seriously abused her position of authority and responsibility at my expense. I have a technical problem on my computer (see User Talk: Moriori) that has caused some minor problems in messages that I send. Zoe sent me a message on my user talk (User Talk: Felix Frederick Bruyns) to tell me not to edit others' messages. I attempted, through a third party, to communicate with Zoe and clarify the situation. That third party (User: Dmcdevit), however, failed to communicate my message. I did not send my message to Zoe directly because I had already responded to many complaints about editing problems and since one of those complaints came from Dmcdevit, I attempted to save time by sending only one message instead of two. In clear violation of the "assume good faith" Wikipedia policy, however, Zoe sent me an official warning accusing me of deliberate vandalism. I responded by telling her that I would seek arbitration if she continued to lodge such accusations against me. She, in turn, blocked me from Wikipedia and claimed that my editing problems could not possibly have been accidental (Again, See: User Talk: Moriori). Her official reasons for blocking me were the vandalism that I never committed and my warnings that I would seek arbitration, which she termed "threats". Furthermore, finding that I could not reach the administrative noticeboard to plead my case and not having an individual e-mail address, I resorted to attempting to start new accounts, but I was still blocked, at one point from my own user page. In addition, because of my name changes, Zoe accused me of "spamming" and blocked me for one year. My specific knowledge of her deliberate abuse of power comes most of all, however, from these comments (emphasis mine): "I have a very low opinion of spammers. Besides, I'm in the middle of several brush fires and am quite irritable right now." (User talk: Dragons flight). This clearly indicates that her abusive behavior towards me is unprofessional and irresponsible and that she allows her moods to determine her decisions in her very important role as a sysop, which I assert to be unacceptable. I understand that you typically delete many messages of this type within twelve hours. I would request, however, that you take a close look into this particular case, as Zoe's behavior is causing me, an innocent user, to be the victim of the subjective feelings of a sysop who obviously does not understand or does not respect the responsibility of her position. I am not requesting that any punitive measures be taken against Zoe, but I would strongly request that I be unblocked and allowed to continue normal activities on Wikipedia. As for the editing problems, shortly before Zoe initiated her inappropriate actions against me I had decided to contact a computer expert within Wikipedia the following day to solve the problem. I repeat, Zoe has abused her power as a sysop and used it express her personal feelings arbitrarily in a hurtful way towards an innocent Wikipedia user, and I trust that you will take appropriate action to stop her from any further persecution of me or of any other well-intentioned users. Thank you very much. User: Felix Frederick Bruyns
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Bruynsf@cs.com wrote: [...]
I found your message incredibly hard to read as you didn't use paragraphs. Could you explain what "technical problems" you have? What do you think has happened which led to Zoe's accusations against you?
Chris
- -- Chris Jenkinson chris@starglade.org
[[User:Felix Frederick Bruyns]]:
Ignoring the random line breaks, which you claim to be something wrong with your computer, and yet they don't happen on every edit, just certain ones, let's look at everything else involved in the block.
Your first edit was to [[Wikipedia:Speedy deletions]], in which you state, "Please delete my user page, along with that of "Felix F. Bruyns" (who , needless to say, is also me), since I have decided that I cannot reform Wikipedia of its immorality and that I should not associate with such a vile libertine and libertarian website in any way." You continue on a long tirade that I won't copy on this mailing list, see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Speedy_deletions&dif...
Looking at your other contributions, it's plain to see that Zoe was probably right in blocking you. Since you created an account on September 1st, 152 of your 207 edits have been on User talk pages, and most of the edits were inflammatory in nature. I bring up an edit to Zoe's talk page, in which you state, "I am the wrong man to bully and bluster in this way as you will learn in arbitration. You crossed a line against me on several levels and I will request every possible punitive measure against your libel and threats on the highest level of arbitration." See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Zoe&diff=prev&ol...
You removed a conversation from Raul654's talk page at least four times, including http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Raul654&diff=prev&am... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Raul654&diff=prev&am...
You removed a conversation from a June 2004 archive page, when you were still editing as an IP, because users referred to you as a "troll". (I have since restored this). Which they had a good point about. See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AVillage_pump%2FJune_20...
And, most of all, you're threatening, accusing, and annoying some of the most respected members of the Wikipedia community. That, I cannot accept or ignore.
I had no part in the dispute between Felix and other editors, but it's plain to see that Felix was wrong. All of the above edits were serious violations of Wikipedia guidelines and policies. And I'm sure I've missed others.
Felix
You really need to look at how you address people and address conflict. Your complaint about Moriori was posted, verbatim, in dozens of separate places. Posting the same message in a whole lot of places is considered spamming.
Several people pointed out that your edits were breaking other people's comments. Whatever the cause, it isn't like you were unaware of the problem. You really should check to make sure you didn't do it after posting to a talk page. If you know you are creating a problem you should clean it up, not rely on other people to clean it up for you.
Other users do not constitute "official channels", and it is not the job of admins or mediators to act as intermediaries. You should have communicated with Zoe directly, not asked Dmcdevit to convey you message for you - everyone on this site is a volunteer, there are no paid staff. In addition, you need to talk with people (not at them) and you need to lay off the demands a little. Again, we are all in the same boat here. A little more conversation and a few less "I demand satisfaction or I will see you in court" type exchanges would go a long way. This is a community, not a structured bureacracy. Yelling at people never helps. You say that when you told Zoe that you would "seek arbitration" she called it a "threat". It is a threat.
Creating new accounts to bypass a block is strictly forbidden. What's the point of blocking someone for misconduct if they can just come back under a new name? You have asked that "punitive action" be taken against Zoe, but all she did was enforce the rules. Inserting hard returns into people's comments is considered vandalism. If it was unintentional, as you say, then you should have fixed it when it happened. Sure, admins should not let their mood cloud their decisions, but then, every admin decision can be undone by other admins. If you had come here and pleaded your case, accepted responsibility for what you had done wrong, resolving to behave in a more collegial manner in the future, someone would have unblocked you. Your actions met the definitions of "vandalism" and "spamming", even if you did not intend them to. You have engaged in sockpuppetry. And you have consumed hours of people like Dmcdevit's, Flcelloguy's and Duncharris's time (and those are just the people who's Talk pages I watch), repeating the same complaint over and over. This isn't a business, you don't get and can't demand instant responses.
As for "resuming your normal activities on Wikipedia" - they have mostly consisted of a battle to get apologies from people who have offended you. Leaving the Moriori issue aside (which you both agreed to settle) you still have a long list of people from whom you have "demanded" apologies for perceived slights. And a word to the wise - people who want to get into vendettas should really start with an easier target than Raul/Mark. Other than Jimbo and the Stewards, I dount there is anyone more powerful/influential in En.
Ian
Guettarda wrote:
Felix
(lots of wise things)
Ian
It's funny, I could copy/paste that, change a few words here and there, and it would be the perfect response to Mr Frank as well. And from what I've seen, nearly every other seriously disruptive user. Interesting how they seem to fall in such similar patterns.
On Tue, 6 Sep 2005, Jeff Heikkinen wrote:
Guettarda wrote:
Felix
(lots of wise things)
Ian
It's funny, I could copy/paste that, change a few words here and there, and it would be the perfect response to Mr Frank as well. And from what I've seen, nearly every other seriously disruptive user. Interesting how they seem to fall in such similar patterns.
What I've noticed is that in nearly every case all of them claim to be the victim of an Admin abusing their power; if they were to begin their appeal here with something along the lines of "I think there has been a mistake" or "there has been a misunderstanding", I'd expect that they would receive a far more sympathetic hearing.
I know: preaching to the choir; flies, honey & vinegar.
Geoff
I don't think Zoe's actions were unwarranted; Zoe is a trustworthy administrator and I have only known her to use her administrator powers fairly. However, it seems there has been a misunderstanding. Felix, can you tell us what browser you are using (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera)? Also, what operating system do you use (such as Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS or Linux)? Your edits are inserting phantom new lines, like this following link shows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Moriori&diff=2266623...
To avoid this (on talk pages at least), you could try creating a new section by clicking the "+" tab up the top of the page beside "edit this page". That creates a new section, and you can specify the section title, and it inserts the section title and puts the two equals signs either side for you. That way, you should be able to avoid mucking up other sections on the same page inadvertently.
~Mark Ryan