[WikiEN-l] Blocking opponent in disputes

[slimvirgin at gmail.com]

On 5/19/06, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:

> Sometimes "blocking in a dispute" occurs when there's no dispute in
> progress.  Suppose that User A repeatedly inserts a copyvio image into
> an article.  Admin B, after giving appropriate warnings, deletes the
> image and blocks the user.  User A then says "but Admin B was edit
> warring over the inclusion of the copyvio image!  It's a dispute!  He's
> not allowed to block!"

Exactly right. I recently noticed that WP:SOCK was being rewritten by
accounts I didn't recognize, and some of the edits changed the policy
in subtle but important ways. I made a few tweaks to undo some of the
editing, then got suspicious that two of the accounts were banned user
Zephram Stark, so I requested a user check, and when it confirmed that
it was Zephram, I reverted the rewrite, protected the page, and
reported the situation on AN/I. But the protection was undone by an
admin who should remain nameless, on the grounds that my few edits to
the page had made me "involved" in the dispute.

Sarah