[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia block dispute

[Kevin Mulligan]

Hi,
I've just received a block from Wikipedia of "indefinite duration" by 
the user Essjay.  I was blocked for trolling on the user Cool Cat's talk 
page[1] by leaving a joke userbox and then making a mildly offensive 
comment as he proceeded to "feed the troll".  In this comment I admitted 
to trolling and user Essjay saw this as grounds enough to ban me 
immediately for an indefinite period.

Essjay left a comment[2] on my talk page stating that he had blocked me 
"in line with the Arbitration Committee's ruling that simple vandals and 
others who engage in overt, easily demonstrable vandalism can be blocked 
immediately."

I accept that I did wrong by trolling on Cool Cat's page but what I did 
was not vandalism but a very minor personal attack, which is, according 
to Wikipedia's policy, to be treated in an entirely different manner.  
In fact, it states clearly under on [[Wikipedia:Vandalism]], under the 
"What vandalism is not" heading that personal attacks are not 
vandalism.  The Wikipedia Blocking Policy itself states that for 
personal attacks should only be considered in "extreme cases" and goes 
on to note that the practice is always controversial. 

The Blocking Policy itself goes on to say:
"Logged-in users that do essentially nothing but vandalism may also be 
blocked for the same time periods. However, user accounts that perform a 
mixture of valid  edits and vandalism should not be blocked in this manner.

Blocks should not be used against isolated incidents of vandalism."

I have had my Wikipeda account since early 2004 and have since made over 
1200 edits[3], and my edits to Cool Cat's talk page are the first which 
can possibly be considered as misconduct.

Considering all of the above I am very disappointed that I have been 
treated this way by Essjay.  It seems to me as though he has acted in 
gross violation of the Wikipedia policies as far as my ban is 
concerned.  I should like it to be revoked or be given a reason why it 
should remain there rather than the alternate avenues of resolution, as 
suggested at WP:NPA, be explored.

Regards,
Kevin Mulligan

[1] 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cool_Cat/Archive/2006/01#New_user_box
[2] 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AKevin_Mulligan&diff=34042009&oldid=34037875
[3] 
http://tools.wikimedia.de/~kate/cgi-bin/count_edits?user=Kevin+Mulligan&dbname=enwiki_p&machread=1


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