User talk:Orthogonal/Snowspinner's evidence against Avala

Below is the original version of Snowspinner's "evidence" against Avala. I was in IRC at #wikipedia when Snowspinner announced there that he had compiled this evidence, and invited those of us in IRC to comment on it (my IRC nick is "earHertz"):

[7/28/2004 4:21 PM]  Fennec: You'd better appreciate the length of evidence I'm collecting on Avala for the arbcom. :-P . . . [7/28/2004 6:19 PM]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Snowspinner/Avala_Evidence [7/28/2004 6:19 PM]  Comments? :) . . . [7/28/2004 6:21 PM]  Snowspinner: what's this evidenc eof? [7/28/2004 6:22 PM]  Against Avala [7/28/2004 6:22 PM]  ys, I get that. [7/28/2004 6:22 PM]  ear: It's the supporting evidence for a request for arbitration regarding Avala. [7/28/2004 6:22 PM]  But is it evidence of treason, murder, piracy, what? [7/28/2004 6:23 PM]  For personal attacks, disregard of Wikipedia policy and convention, and excessively provocative edits. . . . [7/28/2004 6:25 PM]  Snowspinner, part of your evidence is that he opposed you nomination and supported somebody else [7/28/2004 6:25 PM]  ear: No. My evidence is that he opposed my nomination for a reason that is obviously out of line with the procedures of RfAs. . . . [7/28/2004 6:27 PM]  Snowspinner: at least expand all those damned TLAs [7/28/2004 6:27 PM] and I'm sorry I wasn't around for the Kucan/Drnovsek thing [7/28/2004 6:27 PM] zocky: if you don't like the arbcom request, don't support/endorse it. stop whining about it here though [7/28/2004 6:27 PM]  Hmm [7/28/2004 6:27 PM]  Snow, perhaps Mediation? [7/28/2004 6:27 PM]  zocky: The offense is refusal to engage in Wikipedia policy and community. As for the grammar, again, that's not the offense. The offense is nominating an article with non-existant grammar for FAC. [7/28/2004 6:28 PM]  ear: TLA? [7/28/2004 6:28 PM] <earHertz> Three Letter Abbreviation [7/28/2004 6:28 PM] <_Kate> Acronym [7/28/2004 6:28 PM] <Snowspinner> ear: They're well enough known. With the possible exception of ASB, all of those are common WP shorthands. [7/28/2004 6:28 PM] <Snowspinner> Well, and NATO, but I think that's beside the point. :) [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] <earHertz> Snowspinner: perhaps to the more politicized wikipedians. For the rest of us, it's so much alaphabet soup. How about doing us a favor? [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] <Snowspinner> blank: Yeah, well, I felt obliged to beat my total for Lir, which was 61. :) [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] <Snowspinner> ear: The evidence page is for the arbcom. They know those abbreviations. [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] Snowspinner, the evidence is for everybody, not just arbcom [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] <earHertz> Snowspinner: you asked us in here to read it for you. [7/28/2004 6:29 PM] arbcom must be judged by ordinary users [7/28/2004 6:30 PM] <Snowspinner> ear: Yes. With the target audience in mind, I'd have hoped. [7/28/2004 6:30 PM] <Snowspinner> zock: All the same... they're common enough acronyms. The point of developing them was to use them.

The portion of the evidence I objected to was (empasis orthogonal's):


 * Avala also regularly demonstrates a lack of understanding of Wikipedia conventions, policy, making spurious listings or votes on ViP, RFA, and FAC. When called on these listings, he responds with the hostility described above.


 * Examples of this include his opposition to User:Snowspinner’s nomination on RFA, which was on the grounds that User:GeneralPatton had supported the nomination. This can be found at [[35] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&diff=4850996&oldid=4850953) with further explanation and comments at [36] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&diff=4873009&oldid=4872960) and [37] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&diff=4852495&oldid=4852132).


 * Similarly, his nomination for User:Nikola Smolenski demonstrated a lack of understanding of what people look for in an administrator. When users pointed to edit wars Nikola had engaged in, he maintained that this should be ignored in the face of Nikola’s edits and promotion of Wikipedia. Although, certainly, these things should be weighed, the seeming disregard for concerns as towards Nikola’s judgment seems further symptomatic the described lack of awareness of normal Wikipedia conventions and procedures. Evidence of this can be found at [38] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&diff=4872340&oldid=4872281), as well as [39] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship&diff=4873104&oldid=4873051) (Which was linked to above).

as given here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User:Snowspinner/Avala_Evidence&oldid=4893810

(Frankly, the sentence "his nomination [...] demonstrated a lack of understanding of what people look for in an administrator" sounds to my ears like something straight out of a Stalinist show trial. Avala's nomination of User:Nikola Smolenski may or may not have been foolish, but how can we sanction anyone at ArbCom for engaging in the political process, such as it is, on wikipedia? What "crime" does Snowspinner hope to sanction here, stupidity or disagreement with Snowspinner 's Party line? How can any of us feel welcome here if nominating a user for an office can be sanctioned if we make the wrong guess about what nominee might be in favor?)