User:Shadowmorph/Macedonia Arbitration

A Fool's Guide to ARBMAC2 :)

=General=
 * Requests for comment/Content dispute resolution
 * User:Vassyana/Difficulty
 * Civility of admins: a block by Jimbo and the discussion
 * WikiProject Ireland Collaboration

=Third Parties=
 * User:Proofreader77
 * User:Jack forbes
 * User:Belgian man
 * User:Philip Baird Shearer
 * User:Voice of All
 * User:Ryan Postlethwaite
 * User:Neutrality
 * User:Natalie Erin
 * User:Van helsing

=Bookmarks= Requests_for_arbitration/Macedonia_2/Evidence

tools

 * http://vs.aka-online.de/cgi-bin/wppagehiststat.pl
 * http://stats.grok.se/
 * http://en.wikichecker.com/

=Macedonia Arbitration May-2009=

Discrimination
Honestly, I'm a Macedonian (Greek) and relatively new here. No one's ethnicity should be considered WP:COI and marginalized for any reason.

Bad manners & imposing deadlines

 * Macedonians (Greeks) was blanked by Fut.Perf - during the arbitration - twice &  - against AfD consensus and I was forced into hard work to rescue the article in addition to writing evidence for this page. He abstained only after I've rewritten it under stress.
 * In a Yom Kippur War manner (figuratively), ChrisO did the move before an Orthodox Good Friday (festivities last 4 days). It imposed massive stress on Orthodox editors (Greeks/Bulgarians) that had objections.
 * When objected officially, ChrisO then scandalized us saying (exclamation by him):"so much for the Orthodox Easter, it seems!"4#Macedonia_arbitration_case
 * I was unassisted in learning applied WP:Polices in few days so that my opinion won't to be "lost in time"
 * Additional bad manners by User:Future Perfect at Sunrise
 * Non transparent intimidation of new editors
 * Calling people stupid even inside this very arbitration (I'm not too stupid to know what "Inane", "obtuse" and "clueless" mean when used altogether)

From the above I extrapolate the bad, to say at least, behavior of those parties

Authoritarian actions by ChrisO
Against the five pillars, the involved administrator ChrisO caused chaotic disruption of Wikipedia. His controversial move, later made cross-country news in TV and news-blogs. It was interpreted by both as an endorsement of the name by Wikipedia, braking the NPOV principle. In real life, as ChrisO knew, the Macedonia naming dispute was already in the news and his action only furthered it here. It could be resolved soon; there is no deadline.

He acted without consent, and no recent prior dispute for justification. He lied when timely called to explain the first move. It was a prerequisite to the second so if he hadn't lied, another admin could have moved Macedonia (disambiguation) back to Macedonia thus effectively ruining his plan. Between his two moves, it was me who moved Macedon to Macedonia (ancient kingdom) after discussion and consent. That new WP:Naming conflict should have been discussed, but was ignored.

Subsequently he explained his actions in a "president-of-the-cabal" manner. The very status of the move-protection was to prevent vandalism of the consensus name "Republic of Macedonia" to either "FYROM" or "Macedonia". It was not to endorse or impose the second (even temporarily until ARBCOM) by an involved administrator. In order to not manipulate ARBCOM, he was suggested by uninvolved User:Husond to revert it but he didn't

Vandalizing problems and edit wars are not addressed by the article move, but are rather mathematically sure to worsen if this move is endorsed.


 * The move broke all three of ARBMAC principles related to Macedonia
 * ARBCOM stated area of conflict is the Balkans
 * ChrisO has a history of similar bad conduct, in Kosovo and was warned

On "Ethnic polarization"
The creativity of ChrisO in inventing terms (the title above) to hide racial connotations of his remarks is outstanding. Here is a better analysis of POVs: ChrisO's main argument on "Ethnic polarization" is controversial or even borderline racial. He has accused with Ad hominem arguments the pro-UN (using FYROM long form) pro-WP:CON (using RoM) positions deliberately mixing them with the pro-Greek (using Skopje, or Fyrom but not as an acronym).

Well I'm intimidated to say out loud what authoritarian actions ("I am cutting the Gordian Knot") plus "ethnic polarization" spells out. Yet against odds I can still assume his good faith. Shadowmorph (talk) 02:58, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

English usage of the word Macedonia
ChrisO's rationale is fallaciously affirming the consequent. In English language the word Macedonia has a long history of use to refer to: the ancient kingdom, the region and the Greek part and since 1992 the country. For example Britannica uses "Macedonia" for all of them

Britannica
In Britannica, all four Macedonias have the same title (impossible in Wikipedia) "Macedonia", "Macedonia", "Macedonia" and "Macedonia". Furthermore, Britannica student's edition lists three (no subtitles whatsoever): "Macedonia", "Macedonia" and "Macedonia"

Internet users
With new legitimate tools we can determine context around internet searches. A Google tool lists "Macedonia" search terms in the US, in Australia, in Canada.

See also
 * "Macedonia" places (represented by cities) by Google (zoom in/out,click update)

Books & Wikipedia
Another Google tool digs into archives to find the temporal context, i.e. the time period around various citations the word "Macedonia". They show that the Macedonia in antiquity(a big bulk of the citations) and Pre-Balkan wars Macedonia region (spike in 1912) are common uses of "Macedonia". Therefore the non-country citations are more
 * "Macedonia" timeline, Wikipedia
 * "Macedonia" timeline, Google Books

Official sources

 * Usage by neutral official parties suggest F.Y.R.O.M. term is much more common (verified by Fut.Perf)

Maps

 * Usage in online interactive maps: FYROM (4): Microsoft,Google,Multimap,Mapquest.Macedonia (2): Infoplease, Yahoo


 * Usage in printed maps, however respectable, are inconsistent affected by political decisions
 * University of Texas collection (CIA maps).George Bush 1st term:"F.Y.R.O.M.". George Bush 2nd term:"Macedonia". In printed maps by major US maps publishers (data by User:Taivo).Macedonia (2), National Geographic, Rand McNalley.FYROM (1+2), Hammond, NATO maps, UN maps. All minor publishers use "Macedonia" (after 2003?)

How Wikipedia treats other conflicts
There is no debate on Luxembourg no name is disputed and no regional conflicts. In all other conflict areas except Azerbaijan the main page is never about a country:

Note that Republic of Macedonia is also partially recognized with that name. The above suggest the compromise of making Macedonia (region) main topic at Macedonia and move back Republic of Macedonia to its previous location. Reminder: there is also Macedonia (ancient kingdom)

Response to Taivo's evidence (about Google)
DAB suggest using Google not say it's broken. My links illustrate possible main topics. I assert there is no main topic Since these are new Google tools, arbitrators can refer to Google help pages Google related searches and News archive search help


 * About my top dab link edits: Taivo believes my edits like "for the the kingdom in ancient Greece see Macedonia (ancient kingdom) is nationalistic POV pushing. I think it is NPOV because the accurate time period & cultural heritage of the kingdom is ancient Greece. However failing to distinguish Macedonia and Republic of Macedonia as two different things would be wrong. The top dab link gradually became complex only after ChrisO's move...... before becoming too vague Shadowmorph (talk) 17:57, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Response to PMK1's and Man with one red shoe evidence (about WP:Outing)
What if I said that man with one red shoe is a spy, because of his (movie) nickname? What if I said that PMK1 is in fact a nationalist because of his (irredentist) nickname. With far fetching analysis I could say that ChrisO'Donnel (movie) is a spy(!) He does seem to know a lot about Gazimestan speech and Israel-United States military relations‎ and Quneitra. Jesus, who knows about all that? So let's make a list of CIA editors of Wikipedia. Of course not, all the above are totally absurd!

Conspiracy theories aside, this case should not be decided with Ad hominem arguments. I have been personally very sentimental on the issue, I moved my arguments here. In short: we shouldn't make lists of of editors. Any kind.

Response to chandler's evidence
Hypothetically with no Chinese editors: Republic of China would be moved at China (self identification), or Taiwan (common usage). The word American has universal common usage to refer to US citizens, yet it is still a dab page! The fallacy: Referring to the country, "Macedonia" is common, so when we say "Macedonia" it always refers to the country. When evidently: Macedonia ==> ancient kingdom / country / greater region (at least). Oh, and you said no context, doesn't the "...to hold elections" constitute a modern-country context? News & media context is biased to recent events

About the common use about "Macedonia" in antiquity

Response to Fut.Perf's evidence (about myself)
Apparently Fut.Perf thinks I'm stupid or illiterate (I did have to look "obtuse" in the dictionary). I stand in support of all that I said in the diffs about me. I see this as a personal attack and I moved my personal answer to the talk page.
 * Future Perfect also included me, Shadowmorph, a new user, in a "stable core of a handful of editors". I only made 10 edits of NPOV nature in one article (Macedonian language) in 2008; then I resurfaced only in April's Fool 2009 so I guess I'm a fool. I edited only a mere handful of disambiguation pages when I was caught in the middle of this with ChrisO's moves. ChrisO said in the workshop page: "the only people protesting are all members of a clearly defined ethnic faction". Well since I made the statement of being Macedonian (Greek), I guess he included me just to prove that all Greeks act the same. Of course, I could also be American, Bulgarian ore even Finnish(?). Here is me referring to the Greeks in the third person, here and here. Maybe he is suggesting me to change my nickname and from now on be known in Wikipedia only as Shadowmorph the Greek(!) Maybe User:John Carter should do the same :D "We are all Greeks"; too romantic, like this user. Shadowmorph (talk) 11:26, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Response to Fut.Perf's evidence (about Wikipedia page hits)
I just wanted to point out to the arbitrators where the hits mentioned by Future Perfect come from. Here is a graph from Google; Google is a major source of organic traffic to Wikipedia. The graph is about the demographics of worldwide searches with the keyword "macedonia" and can be seen here. Note the rise of search term "macedonia wiki"/"macedonia wikipedia" and that the country the hits come from is not English speaking. Is shows bias towards the named country. That fact should be reflected upon, regarding Wikipedia page views:


 * Regional interest in the keyword "macedonia"

I don't see any reason that the demographics for Wikipedia hits would be any different. I think that the English Wikipedia should not be customized to conform with the preferences of readers from any single country but to a wider English-speaking audience. Shadowmorph (talk) 19:53, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Response to Heimstern's evidence (about myself, WP:SPA & Google)
No more biting, please. I might be a single purpose for now but I didn't have the time since I was caught in all this. I have a life you know. Besides I tried to conform with the policy: WP:SPA.
 * The California analogy wasn't meant as an emotional appeal, I said so here. It was a good analogy on a relevant issue. I see it as a suitable subject for a discussion, to draw useful insights from analyzing a thought experiment. It was actually NPOV to distance oneself from the actual Balkan dispute and think about the essence of the name policy. Besides Wikipedia editors are no robots.
 * Again, using Google is part of policy: WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. See my response to Taivo. It is found as #3 in a very relevant policy piece that ChrisO also used. Only he used #1 & #2 and ignored #3: Google. Besides, like I said to Taivo, I used pieces of statistical data found through Google tools, not only actual searches. If one admin decided to move the Britney Spears to Prittany Spaers (and move-protect it), I would also point him to this piece of data about common usage, also by Google. Sorry, I don't see the wrongdoing in that. Shadowmorph (talk) 16:59, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

= Macedonia Arbitration Apr-2009=

Discrimination
I am the proverbial new editor. Honestly, I'm a Macedonian (Greek). If one's race is to be considered WP:COI, you can ban me now.
 * Bad manners & imposing deadlines
 * Since ChrisO chose to do the move before an Orthodox Good Friday (a holiday with 4 days of festivities). It imposed massive stress on the Orthodox editors (Greeks or Bulgarians) with objections. I have personally, in a figure of speech said the tactic was similar to the Yom Kippur War
 * After forcing editors to make their objections official during the holy day, ChrisO then mocked their actions using the scandalizing phrase "so much for the Orthodox Easter, it seems!" (exlamation not mine) here
 * I myself was made by Fut.Perf to work (in nightly hours), to rescue the article Macedonians (Greeks) from being blanked against AfD consensus - for a third time &  - before the arbitration. In addition to having to prepare the presentation of evidence to inform this committee. Fut.Perf. abstained only after I was made into writing a whole article in few hours.
 * I also had to learn unassisted dozens of WP:Polices in few days so that I could support my opinion and my contributions that I don't want to be "lost in time"

From the above I extrapolate the bad, to say at least, behavior that characterizes some involved parties. I also repeat that it is wrong to marginalize editors of an ethnic group for any reason; ChrisO fell short of proposing a general ban of Greek IPs.

Authoritarian actions by ChrisO
Against the spirit of WP:5P, the involved administrator ChrisO caused chaotic disruption of Wikipedia. Against consensus, ChrisO made controversial moves, with no recent prior dispute to justify them. He lied in the talk page when timely called to explain. If he hadn't lied about his first move ("just a standard thing") another admin could have moved Macedonia (disambiguation) back to Macedonia thus effectively ruining his plan. Furthermore he still acts as if he never saw that in between his two moves, I myself moved Macedon to Macedonia (ancient kingdom) after discussion and consent. My move fell into WP:Naming conflict with his 2nd move and should have been discussed.

Subsequently he explained his actions in a "president-of-the-cabal" manner. The very status of the move-protection was to prevent vandalism against the consensus name "Republic of Macedonia" to either "FYROM" or "Macedonia". It was not to endorse or impose (even temporarily until ARBCOM) the use of "Macedonia" to meet the personal views of an admin. In order to not manipulate ARBCOM, he was suggested by uninvolved User:Husond to revert it but he chose not to.

Edit wars are mathematically sure to worsen if this move is endorsed. Vandalizing problems are not addressed by the article move but are rather worsened out of scale by that move.

In the time lost waiting for ARBCOM the cross-country issue made it into the country's Television and Greek blogs, and was interpreted by readers as an endorsement of the name by Wikipedia, braking the NPOV principle. In real life, as ChrisO knew, the Macedonia naming dispute was already in the news about possible resolution. So why the WP:DEADLINE?


 * The move broke all three of the principles related to Macedonia, from ARBMAC
 * 1) "furtherance of outside conflicts"
 * 2) "to behave reasonably", "Unseemly conduct", "gaming the system"
 * 3) "Wikipedia works by building consensus, using "dispute resolution process"


 * Area of conflict is the Balkans, reasons stated in (ARBMAC).
 * ChrisO has a history of similar bad conduct in Balkan related articles namely Kosovo
 * 1) engaged in edit war, inappropriate use of the administrative tool ;see Requests_for_arbitration/Kosovo,
 * 2) was warned to to engage in only calm discussion and dispute resolution when in conflict ;see Requests_for_arbitration/Kosovo
 * 3) was suggested to develop the ability and practice of assisting users who are having trouble understanding and applying Wikipedia policies ,see Requests_for_arbitration/Kosovo

On "Ethnic polarization"
The creativity of ChrisO in inventing terms (the title above) to hide racial connotations of his remarks is outstanding. Here is a better analysis: Definitions: ChrisO main argument on "Ethnic polarization" is controversial or even borderline racial. He has accused with Ad hominem arguments the pro-UN pro-WP:CON positions deliberately mixing them with the pro-Greek.
 * pro-UN edits (using the term f.Y.R.O.M. in long form) cannot be described as vandalizing
 * pro-WP:Consensus editors (using "Republic of Macedonia") cannot be described as pro-Greek
 * pro-Greek and nationalistic position is to oppose any non-Greek use of the word Macedonia
 * official Greece use Macedonia but with a geographic qualifier like North, Vardar etc.
 * anti-Greek position is to ignore any use of the word Macedonia that is related to Greece
 * pro-Makedonija nationalistic position is to use only the English word Macedonia with no qualifiers to refer to the country
 * pro-Bulgarian?, ChrisO "forgot" them. The Bulgarians were left out, why? They are involved too,

Well I'm intimidated to say out loud what authoritarian actions ("I am cutting the Gordian Knot") plus "ethnic polarization" spells out. Yet against odds I can still assume his good faith. Shadowmorph (talk) 02:58, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

English usage of the word Macedonia
ChrisO based the move on affirming the consequent fallacy. In English language the word Macedonia has a long history of use to refer to: the ancient kingdom, the country, the region and the Greek part. This are the evidence:

Macedonia (ancient kingdom) and Macedonia (Greece) are both significant uses of the word. In the US (includes Macedonia, Ohio):
 * New ways of determining context
 * Google US search terms popularity related to Macedonia (other English speaking countries give similar results)


 * Important places about Macedonia according to Google(you can zoom in & out and click update results to see more)

Pouring some light on the actual volume of uses of the word to refer to the region and to the ancient kingdom
 * Macedonia uses within Wikipedia by temporal context
 * Macedonia usage by English Books by temporal context


 * Use by official parties suggest fYRoM is more common (verified by opposing party User:Future Perfect at Sunrise). Organizations using term FYROM:FIFA,UN,EU,NATO,European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,International Monetary Fund,WTO,SECI, Francophonie,Red Cross,OPCW,Interpol,WIPO. Organizations using name RoM/Macedonia : CIA,WCO,ATP]


 * Usage in online maps: FYROM (4): Microsoft,Google,Other,.Macedonia (2): Infoplease, Yahoo


 * Use in printed maps, even respectable ones are inconsistent, affected by political decisions
 * University of Texas collection (CIA maps).George Bush 1st term:"F.Y.R.O.M.". George Bush 2nd term:"Macedonia"


 * Use in printed maps by the three major US maps publishers (data by opposing party User:Taivo).Macedonia (2), National Geographic, Rand McNalley.FYROM (1+2), Hammond. All NATO and UN maps All minor publishers use "Macedonia"(by User:Taivo). Published after 2003?

Response to Taivo's evidence (about Google)
DAB suggest to look at Google searches rather than say they are broken for dubious reasons. Besides I haven't focused on Google hits or links but on related searches. I.e: What the word Macedonia refers to in common English usage. In the US.In Australia,In Canada

Clarifications (since these are new Google tools)
 * Related search terms ordered by popularity
 * 1) "map macedonia" ~ Macedonia (region)
 * 2) "ohio macedonia" ~ Macedonia, Ohio
 * 3) "ancient macedonia" ~ Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
 * 4) "greece macedonia" ~ Macedonia (Greece)
 * 5) "skopje macedonia" ~ Republic of Macedonia
 * 6) ("macedonia church")

What do the popular search terms convey if not common everyday usage of relative terms? That illustrates possible main topics. I assert there is no main topic

My other links  are about the temporal context. They show that ancient Macedonia and Pre-Balkan wars Macedonia (region) are common uses of "Macedonia". Arbitrators can refer to Google help pages Google related searches and News archive search help