Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Orthogonal

Orthogonal

Please do not edit this page directly if you are not a participant in this case. Comments are very welcome on the Talk page, and will be read, in full. Evidence, no matter who can provide it, is very welcome at /Evidence. Evidence is more useful than comments.

Arbitrators will be working on a proposed decision at /Proposed decision.

Statement of complaint

Orthogonal has engaged in a persistant campaign of harassment against me, beginning with his objection to my arbitration request against Avala, and continuing to the present day. This harassment has largely taken the form of personal attacks against me, many of which can be found on his userpage at User:Orthogonal. Note particularly the section in which he compares me to the Gestapo, his accusations of sysop abuse, and his link at the top about a "farewell" gift, the text of which contains his claim made in IRC that I am a kiddie fascist with training wheels on my jackboots. Less severe, but still troubling, is the entire rest of his page, which is, at this point, mostly about his criticism and dislike of me. Indeed, this seems to summarize his entire Wikipedia interaction these days. Virtually all he does is attack me and make votes on RFA in which he sarcastically remarks that it's so easy to remove sysops, so why not promote people.

Although his userpage indicates that he has departed, this appears to be complete fiction. Less than 24 hours after his announced departure, he resurfaced to argue against my using a bot to automate tedious aspects of managing Wikipedia:Templates for deletion, making claims that are misleading at best, and lies at worst, such as that I have removed votes opposing my own vote. In defending these claims, he called me "incompetent to run a bot -- or to make any other important decisions for Wikipedia."

An RFC has been attempted at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/orthogonal. Mediation was also attempted, but he withdrew from mediation as part of his "departure." To date, despite his accusations of persistent abuse on my part, he has made no efforts whatsoever to settle his dispute with me, and has repeatedly refused suggestions from multiple people that he should start an RfC, or request arbitration if I'm such a systematically abusive sysop. Instead, he directs all attention to his user subpage User:Orthogonal/Snowspinner Time-line, which contains exactly one accusation of abuse, that I blocked User:Robert Brookes for personal attacks. This, apparently, is my pattern of persistant sysop abuse.

Orthogonal's campaign against me has, with his refusal to allow me to run a bot to automate a simple and tedious task, effectively forced me into indefinite wikibreak, simply because I cannot handle this level of abuse. I request action against this user so that I can get back to work on the project. Snowspinner 15:44, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)

Status of Mediation

Note: this case was accepted for mediation, but has been archived after the mediation was inactive due to lack of action by the disputants and the case was listed here. see Wikipedia:Requests_for_mediation/Archive_10#User:Snowspinner_and_User:orthogonal for more information. BCorr, Chair of the Mediation Committee, 16:53, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party

• Given that much of Snowspinner's official actions of that I object to, Snowspinner has justified by quoting Raul654 [1], [2], and given that Snowspinner, after announcing that my "harassment" had caused him to leave Wikipedia [3], may have conferred with Raul654 [4], and given that Raul654 is a member of the Arbitration Committee, I wonder if Raul654 might consider it in the best interests of Wikipedia to avoid any appearance of impropriety (not that I think there is any collusion) by recusing himself from this matter? -- orthogonal 17:39, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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While I do not think I have "harassed" Snowspinner, as a reasonable person could construe my statements at [5] as a personal attack on Snowspinner, and as Wikipedia has a Policy of Wikipedia:No personal attacks, and as I have long argued that Policy should be adhered to without "fear or favor" and without exception, I ask that the Arbitration Committee enforce that Policy by banning me from Wikipedia, along with whatever other sanctions it feels are required to enforce that Policy or any others.

(To be frank, I had intended to leave Wikipedia for reasons unrelated to Wikipedia and having to do entirely with my personal life, so I will not pretend this is a great hardship -- the practical results will be the same --, nor do I see myself or do I wish others to see me as any sort of martyr; but I would be being a hypocrite if advocated rule by Policy and not Personality, without also insisting that Policy should apply to myself as well.)

-- orthogonal 03:16, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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Preliminary decision

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (3/0/2/0)

1. Accept. Previous steps in the dispute process have clearly not resolved the dispute. →Raul654 17:02, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC) - Recuse. I think orgthogonal makes a good point, although I still strongly encourage other members of the arbcom to take the case. →Raul654 20:28, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
2. [Accept.] Fred Bauder 17:24, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
3. Accept. James F. (talk) 18:16, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
4. Recuse, owing to prior attempts to settle the dispute outside my role as arbitrator. Jwrosenzweig 20:09, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
5. Accept. Nohat 20:21, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Motion to close

User:Orthogonal has apparently permanently left Wikipedia. Therefore, subject to reactivation should he return I move we close this case.

1. Fred Bauder 23:38, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)
2. James F. (talk) 08:30, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
3. Martin 14:47, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
4. The Cunctator 21:41, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC) The record here and the related documentation is important to keep around, because it exposes the extraordinary difficulty of community self-policing when members are unable to assume good faith with each other. In such cases, there can be no truly just resolutions.