User:Cheeser1/Backlash

This is a bit of a summary of some of the disputes and dispute resolution activities I've participated in. In addition to providing important context regarding my contributions and my activities at the WQA, this page is intended to give other Wikipedians an understanding (specifically and in general) about incidents related to dispute resolution backlash - one of the things that really keeps Wikipedia from running smoothly. If the DR process ran smoothly, instead of having issues like these, I think we'd have solved every dispute on Wikipedia by now. I realize, of course, that some disputes are legitimately slow-as-molasses, but there are many issues constantly bouncing around WP:X pages that are totally unproductive (if not counterproductive). I'm amazed people (myself included) subject themselves to this kind of frustration and backlash.

Sometimes things are pretty straight-forward. I've learned that sometimes conflicts require a little patience and charity. Other times, though, that's not enough. The remarkable thing is that when patience and civility are given for weeks on end, and yet it still seems that an editor's contributions are not made bona fide, they almost never are:
 * User:Hal Cross
 * User:Daddy Kindsoul
 * User:Tss8071

Every editor who spends a significant amount of time on Wikipedia has a history that is sometimes difficult to understand, when things that happen are not contextualized. To this end, I find it necessary to take account of the users who have retaliated against me, harassed me, or filed frivolous complaints against me, as the result of my participation on the WQA. This information is relevant to understanding and contextualizing my contributions, especially since it's not every longtime WQA-clerk who gets three (arguably four) of his own WQA complaints in the span of a week or so. For another bit of history about a long-term vandal who took the time to also harass me, see here.
 * User:Guido den Broeder - filed frivolous retaliatory complaint against me, due to my responding to several of his WQA complaints, none of which were really very appropriate
 * User:Nraden - filed frivolous retaliatory complaint for my response to a complaint about him, which was for a clearly inappropriate comment wishing harm on another user
 * User:Ahering@cogeco.ca - harassment, including harassment in collision with the Nraden "complaint" about me, in response to my stepping into a dispute where Ahering was being hostile and incivil, and abusing the login/logout function to sockpuppet himself twice as much incivility
 * These last two engaged in lengthy, inappropriate conversations with each other about how much of a burden on Wikipedia I am. Note that they are both SPAs with serious, long-term civility issues.
 * User:Zenwhat - WQA complaint against me for telling him he may need to "escalate" his complaint. Refuses to accept that one could use the term "escalate" without personally attacking him (despite not knowing himself how to use the word).
 * User:Andyvphil - Took an NPA warning as his opportunity to make personal attacks against me based on, of all things, this page
 * User:mrg3105 - Long diatribes about the WQA which included some personal attacks against me (insinuating, of all things, that mathematicians are unintelligent), because his duplicate complaint was closed and redirected to the original.
 * User:Relata refero - Began harassing me and questioning my fitness to judge WQA complaints after I closed a complaint in his favor as "no incivility, referred to WP:3O." When I responded by trying to make him back off, apparently that was more evidence of my horrible incivility.
 * User:Netkinetic - endless stalking after a content dispute gone haywire. If you see him pop into a conversation I'm having with someone else, don't be surprised. He's made a habit of looking to see if I've asked anyone to be civil or AGF, and then jumping in to accuse me of hipocrisy.

This kind of inane BS (and that is what it is, at times) lead me to stop contributing so actively to the WQA and has made me reconsider the value of spending my time here at all. It's sad but unavoidable that people who put so much effort into resolving disputes (especially those related to incivility and personal attacks) wind up the target of much hostility. Fortunately, these users' actions speak for themselves and I'm sure reasonable editors will continue to make this place function in spite of such issues. I'm heartened to see other WQA respondents recently stepping in to help curb this backlash.