Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-01-24 Surrealism

Mediation Case: 2007-01-24 Surrealism
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Request Information

 * Request made by: TheEvilPanda 03:41, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Where is the issue taking place?
 * The Surrealism article...


 * Who's involved?
 * TheEvilPanda, TextureSavant, Classicjupiter2...


 * What's going on?
 * For the past many months (years?) a handful of users, mainly Classicjupiter2, who I suspect are all sock-puppets of one Keith Wigdor, have hijacked the Surrealism article for their own extreme POV purposes. To wit, their basic aim is to promote Keith Wigdor, the obscure but self-proclaimed "leader of the international surrealist movement," and to suppress links or mentions of existing surrealist groups, such as the Chicago Surrealist Group and the Paris Surrealist Group. He has engaged in revert wars with several editors, including Daniel Boyer who seems to have given up months ago. Right now Classicjupiter2 seems to have conceded to allowing mentions of the Chicago group in the article; nevertheless he is continually deleting the links to surrealist groups, and inserting links to Keith Wigdor's website ("Surrealism Now!") and other commercial sites; recently he even inserted a link to an obscure online article about another artist which happened to mention Keith Wigdor in passing, and labeled the article "Keith Wigdor" without even mentioning the artist that it's actually about! TextureSavant and I are almost 100% certain that Classicjupiter2 is Keith Wigdor himself, along with other names that have appeared such as Surreal-One. You can go through the article's talk page archives yourself and see what they have done. ...


 * ''What would you like to change about that?
 * Ideally, Classicjupiter2 and any sock puppets should be banned somehow. If he can be convinced to desist maybe that won't be necessary, but he's been causing havoc to the article for a very long time. ...


 * Would you prefer we work discreetly? If so, how can we reach you?
 * The time for discreteness is long gone... Wigdor and his cronies must be CRUSHED. I don't know how to crush people on Wikipedia, but I would like someone to do it really soon. My email is avantibarbari@yahoo.com ...

Mediator response
I've taken this case. Seems to be a fair few personal attacks. I've suggested a few compromises below, and am waiting on the new set. We'll see how this pans out. Jem 12:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * A Request for Sockpuppetry investigation has been filed against Classicjupiter2. Active mediation is suspended until the outcome is confirmed. Otehrwise, it appears a temporary consensus has been reached. Jem 18:54, 5 February 2007 (UTC)


 * See Requests for checkuser. --Ideogram 02:54, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Closing. --Ideogram 22:46, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Compromise offers
This section is for listing and discussing compromise offers.


 * All links to other Surrealist movements should be removed from an external links section. If they are included in the article and are relevant they should be allowed to stay. A list of groups is generally unencyclopedic. Accepted
 * If it is felt that the links have genuine and important relevance, they should be added to a new page, entitled along the lines of "International Surrealist Movements." However, in order for this page to remain relevant, each link must have a short description after it explaining its relevance (with NPOV). The top of the page should also have a description about what a Surrealist movement is, and how it affects surrealism. In this way, the links are retained but seperated from the artcle removing any possibility of non-NPOV allegations. The decision on this newly created page is subject then to peer review on its relevance, leaving the surrealism article to remain unaffected. Undecided; open to offers.
 * A link to the above suggested page could be included under the "See Also" section of Surrealism. Undecided
 * Each link that relates to another site that merely details examples of surrealism should be thoroughly reviewed. It is not suitable for links to other pages that merely concern surrealism to be placed here; many users would find these pages easily themselves through google or another search engine. Pages that are referenced from the article or directly back up a point made in the article should remain linked. Evidence for this should be given on this page to allow discussion. Disputed; awaiting compromise
 * Wikipedia's policy on external links states that pages must not be listed for the sole purpose of furthering the reputation of the page. If consensus is that a cetrain link violates this guideline, it should be removed. Disputed; awaiting compromise

Also added at 12:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC) were: Jem 12:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Remove SurrealismNow! from external links as a goodwill offer to match the removal of Surrealist Groups. Awaiting response
 * A link to the DMOZ lisiting for Surrealism to be added to give a verified bank of links. (} Awaiting response
 * Ceasing of all edit warring and personal attacks to prevent bans. Awaiting response

Discussion

 * At the moment, I'm going to try and get all users to feed their points of view and summaries in, so we can reach a better understanding. Until I've had a chance to fully review the links specified, I'm not really in a position to comment on the material. I'd be grateful if any other mediators want to chip in. Jem 21:30, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I apologize if I'm putting my comments in the wrong area on this page, but....

Basically, I agree with TheEvilPanda's assessment of the situation. Wigdor has been at odds with members of the surrealist movement for at least 7 or 8 years now, and he has essentially been rejected by the international surrealist community. So the feud that is between Wigdor and other surrealists has spilled into the wikipedia domain -- namely, within the article about surrealism. Usually Wigdor's approach has been to suppress evidence/existence of other groups, while at the same time promoting himself as a contemporary spokeman of the movement. Often enough, it seems like his motivations are not only self-aggrandizement, but also just for the sake of provocation. His way of doing all this is by using a few "good behavior" wiki usernames like ClassicJupiter2 and SurrealOne to delete other's links and pages, and then to use temporary or anonymous accounts (with only IP addresses) to do some of his dirtywork, like arguing, taunting, etc. on the surrealism talk page.

Up until recently, there was a "surrealist vandal" page created by a wiki editor called "HappyCamper" which was deleted not too long ago. That page was created because Wigdor had been impersonating about a half dozen contemporary surrealists -- creating user accounts based on their names in order to create mischievious edits and provocations.

It seems hard to deal with Wigdor because as soon as one account is blocked, he'll just create another one and pick up where he left off. Incidentally, Wigdor does this kind of behavior on other websites as well, such as the various Indymedia sites where any anonymous user can post whatever they like. He is a troll as has been doing this kind of stuff for years.

But for the sake of the surrealism article, and about other potential articles that could be written about this or that surrealist group and their histories, Wigdor is an obstacle and a bully. As long as Wigdor is around, you can expect him to disrupt input from contemporary surrealists into the development of the surrealism article. A few years ago, he was trying to create a vanity article about himself which ultimately got deleted for being irrelevant and non-noteworthy. As a result, he went on a campaign to delete the articles of other surrealists and surrealist groups. His is truly a case of sour grapes.

If I can later recall any more info that might be helpful, I'll post it here unless you direct me to post it somewhere else. --TextureSavant 22:37, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

All the above allegations are completely false. The above user is Eric W.Bragg who is in some kind of "surrealist feud" with Keith Wigdor, who is the main leader and focal point of contemporary surrealism today, as supported by the numerous surreal artists that already exist on Wigdor's site. Also, let the record show that Keith Wigdor has not been using Wikipedia to promote surrealism, its really Eric W.Bragg and his friends who have been trying to add non-notable groups into the article and who have been attacking nearly everyone in the art world that they claim is not surrealist, and they and their friends have created bogus surrealist groups which all of the articles have been VfD off of Wikipedia by a fair voting process by the Wikipedia community. The allegation and statement that, "As long as Wigdor is around, you can expect him to disrupt input from contemporary surrealists into the development of the surrealism article" is not true because Keith Wigdor does not edit in this article. All those surrealist groups are non-notable and even Protector777 agrees with that fact, as well as the rest of the Wikipedia community. There is a Chicago Surrealist Group that I already agreed to addition into the article, so I don't see what, TextureSavant is getting at, more false allegations. Also the External links section has a SURREALIST ART and RESOURCES section that has been on there for months, and SURREALISM NOW! link was on there. The SURREALISM NOW! website is primarily set up for exactly that purpose, SURREALIST ART and RESOURCES as evident on the site. I really do not see the purpose of arguing Surrealism, and who is and who is not surrealist, in the article here on Wikipedia. The main reason why those other groups were removed by Protector777 is because its spam and they are non-notable, case closed. Until they become notable, I will be more than happy to add them. This anti-Wigdor rant and accusations is really nonsense.Classicjupiter2 00:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Jem- Once again, in the above comment Classicjupiter2 claims that Keith Wigdor "is the main leader and focal point of contemporary surrealism today, as supported by the numerous surreal artists that already exist on Wigdor's site". Need I say more? TheEvilPanda 01:55, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I've read these; from now on I'm directing all discussion to the Surrealism talk page for consistency. Jem 12:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC) http://www.police.uk/