[Wikimedia-l] OFFICE actions and WMF image tagging

[Theo10011]

Hi

I would like to bring up an issue with office actions that was brought up
elsewhere. There has been an issue on commons with User:Saibo tagging
images from WMF staff. He disagreed with a particular office action taken
by WMF staff. He gives an explanation with relevant diffs here[1]. The
issue is rather complicated, and the specifics of it seem to be in secret.
And that is mostly the problem here. He asked for an explanation is several
places, but so far, the response from Philippe, and the rest of the staff
has been that office actions are not explained - that is the crux of the
entire offered explanation.

Office actions have historically been used to blank or delete pages, the
current listed policy on Meta and commons[3][4] make no mention of Global
bans or blocking a user locally, or even globally. I have not known for
office actions to extend to users and global bans, the last I know was a
discussion going on with Steven on Meta about this. This might be its first
usage. The proposed policy[5] and open RfC[6], have not concluded yet. The
RfC received comments just today. Is that proposed policy already being
used on commons?

Office actions, have been limited to blanking pages, though sometimes
contentious, they have been exercised with caution. It is a different
ball-game when it goes from just blanking a page, to instantly blocking a
user globally, and giving no explanation to community members who have
known that user for years. if it is stretched to banning a 2 year old user
with no explanation beyond, "OFFICE ACTION" it is going to do more than
just raise eyebrows. I understand the specifics of the issue here, but
banning users with absolutely no explanation can not be this widely
accepted.

Regards
Theo

[1]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Saibo/WMF
[2]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Philippe_(WMF)#Why_did_you_block_a_user_without_a_reason.3F
[3]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_actions
[4]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Office_actions
[5]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_bans
[6]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Global_bans