Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2007-10-26 Lake Ontario Waterkeeper

Mediation case opened. StevenBlack 19:04, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Who are the involved parties?

 * , a Wikipedia administrator
 * , an individual with whom Steven Black has had prior but incidental relationship.
 * , an individual with whom Steven Black has had prior but incidental relationship.

What's going on?
User StevenBlack alleges two things:


 * User butseriouslyfolks has been, and continues to be, overly aggressive in his interactions with article Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. Witnessed by
 * User Butseriouslyfolks unilaterally deleted the first version which was less than 24 hours old
 * Unduly aggressive and premature AfD-tagging of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in its very earliest stages in its second version
 * Reverting versions outright, as opposed to leaving improvement suggestions in the Talk page
 * Generally exhibiting evident contempt for the object of discourse.


 * User SarekOfVulcan is evidently stalking user Steven Black despite repeated requests for this to please stop.

It should be noted

 * User StevenBlack has been an occasional wikipedian for many years with a particular interest in articles about Kingston, Ontario, and Lake Ontario. User StevenBlack has created dozens of topics, and participated in dozens of others, without ever having any issues, and zero interactions, with Wikipedia administrators.


 * User StevenBlack has been operating a wide-open and popular public wiki at http://fox.wikis.com since 1999. This wiki was among the first in existence, and remains today one of the largest public wikis with about 6,000 active topics (you call them 'articles').  It is here that user StevenBlack knows user SarekOfVulcan as "Garrett Fitzgerald", who has been a FoxPro wiki user since 1999.  StevenBlack deals with wiki-spam and wiki page-defacers on a daily basis, and knows trolling behaviour patterns when he sees them.


 * User StevenBlack had no prior knowledge of "AfD" template or process. Also user StevenBlack was unaware of "protocol" or "policy" relative to moving AfD notices.  User StevenBlack considered user Butseriouslyfolks was "acting like a troll" and, in fact, user StevenBlack was subsequently served with a 24-hour ban from wikipedia for later discussions where user Butseriouslyfolks was "acting like a troll".  Note that "acting like a troll" is not a personal attack; it's an observation of a pattern of behaviour.  Had user StevenBlack written "is a troll", then yes, that's a personal attack.  Evidently, in Wikipedia, admins stick together.  User StevenBlack is perfectly fine with that, but believes that saying so-and-so is "acting like a troll" is valid and not a personal attack, especially considering the following point:


 * User Butseriouslyfolks has not, even now, ever identified himself to user StevenBlack as a wikipedia administrator, though this eventually became evident to user StevenBlack, especially after a plethora of Wikipedia administrators took a curious interest in this new topic, which was barely 24-48 hours old and is otherwise unremarkable.


 * It's notable that unknowingly moving an evidently heavy-handed and premature AfD is taken, by some admins like Butseriouslyfolks, as carte-blanche to thereafter hound an article, and bring-down a rain of other Wikipedia admins who, evidently, are unable to objectively evaluate a situation when one of their own is being challenged by, in this case, an experienced wiki website operator who knows undue harassment when he sees it. From the very beginning, user StevenBlack was standing up for his right to develop a very young topic (article) in relative peace, without admins defacing the article with garish banners that say, in effect, "this article probably won't be here very long" which, at the early stages of an article's life-cycle, is a killer.


 * At one point in the Talk page, user Butseriouslyfolks writes:

The topic's not nascent; the article is. My position is that you could take a year to write this article and it would still be deletable per WP:N. -- But|seriously|folks 07:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Evidently user butseriously has personal NPOV issues in evaluating the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper article for notability.


 * Also, EVEN AS USER STEVEN BLACK CREATES THIS PAGE, user SarekOfVulcan is creating edit-save conflicts with user StevenBlack's work in process on this page as his pattern of shadowing user StevenBlack continues unabated after several requests for this behaviour to please stop.


 * This may not be important, but it bears remembering: Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is an environmental justice advocacy group.  It's mission is necessarily confrontational.  Its opponents are typically municipalities and corporations operating in the Great Lakes Basin.  I expect that this article, like all articles about adversarial organizations, will be under pressure from those who might not be comfortable with exposure to alleged breeches of environmental laws.  It might be appropriate to politely ask user Butseriouslyfolks to declare that he and everyone that surrounds him have no pecuniary interest at stake in this particular object of discourse.   Please, this is not meant as an insinuation or an accusation of any sort.  Please do not misunderstand.  Stranger things have happened.  So this should be considered a point of clarification.


 * Disclosure by user StevenBlack: I own and operate a waterfront watchdog website at http://K7Waterfront.org which covers the waterfront in the "K7" postal-code prefix region of Ontario -- it's a wiki inside.  I am not a member of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, nor do I have any dealings with them whatsoever beyond "blogging" about an occasional press release, and passing the information onwards to the readers of http://K7Waterfront.org.  I have met Mark Mattson once, at a presentation attended by about 1,200 other people by Dr David Suzuki at Queen's University.  After this Wikipedia article was started, I have been in email contact with the Communications Officer of LOW to ask questions about the location of specific items on the LOW website which I was unable to find.    It was the publication of the "2007 Beach Report" by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper that prompted me, on my own sole initiative, to create this Wikipedia article about Lake Ontario Waterkeeper that user Butseriouslyfolks seems to have curious "issues" with.  StevenBlack 20:33, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

What would you like to change about that?
User StevenBlack respectfully requests two simple things


 * User Butseriouslyfolks is requested to recuse himself from any further dealings with the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper topic until such time as this topic reaches a permanent steady-state. Say thirty days.


 * User SarekOfVulcan is requested to please stop shadowing the work of User StevenBlack on Wikipedia. User StevenBlack has provided user SarekOfVulcan with a safe, anonymous, and rich wiki experience since 1999, and requests that the same courtesy be returned.

User Steven Black also asks the mediator: Given the pattern of behavior of user Butseriouslyfolks, as witnessed here but also by extensive and innumerable complaints on his talk pages and his talk archives, how is Wikipedia fairing as a welcoming and safe environment where knowledgeable users can contribute?

Background
The first part of this background was created by User StevenBlack and shows the first incarnation of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper which StevenBlack alleges was unilaterally and beligerantly deleted by user Butseriouslyfolks.

The second part of this background shows a continued pattern of alleged harassment by Butseriouslyfolks towards Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in general and toward user StevenBlack in particular.

Attempt Number 1
21 October: StevenBlack creates a new Lake Ontario Waterkeeper topic in Wikipedia. It's bare-bones. It's a start.

21 October: Caren bot notifies that a breech of copyright is possible.

Caren bot is incorrect for two reasons
 * Caren bot points to a page from an industry directory.
 * The text in the page from an industry directory is used all over, in many media, as a general description of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

StevenBlack removes the Caren bot notice.

21 October: User Butseriouslyfolks, stating "bot is correct" or some equivalent, reverts.

Deletion number 1
22 October: Steven Back finds no trace of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. There is nothing in history to be found. No notice is given on StevenBlack's talk page. All prior work is, evidently, lost.

Attempt Number 2
For general reference, here is a chronology of the first 24 hours of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, attempt number 2:

It takes about an hour for StevenBlack to re-create what was beligerantly and unilaterally deleted by, as it turns out, user Butseriouslyfolks.

11:38, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (448 bytes) (?Created page with 'Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is a Toronto-based environmental advocacy group founded in 2001, with Lake Ontario, the Great Lakes Basin, and allied waterways at he...') 11:39, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (464 bytes) 11:41, 22 October 2007 MasterXC (741 bytes) (Proposing article for deletion per WP:PROD. using TW) 11:50, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (464 bytes) (Removed bot comment) 11:57, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (559 bytes) (Added a few stubs. This article, like all new articles, is a work in progress) 11:59, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (602 bytes) 12:04, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (650 bytes) (link to Great Lakes Areas of Concern topic) 12:05, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (639 bytes) 12:10, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (941 bytes) 12:11, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (958 bytes) 12:13, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (978 bytes) (Structure, stubs.) 12:14, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,041 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper) 13:16, 22 October 2007 Butseriouslyfolks (1,264 bytes) (Nominated for deletion: see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lake Ontario Waterkeeper) 15:41, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,042 bytes) (Moved notification to Talk page as this is a serious impediment to the development of a topic that is barely just hours old.) 15:45, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,071 bytes) (Bruce Cockburn, musician) 15:47, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,527 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper) 15:48, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,566 bytes) (?References) 15:59, 22 October 2007 Butseriouslyfolks (1,789 bytes) (reinsert Afd template removed by author in violation of policy) 16:10, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,828 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper) 16:11, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,605 bytes) 16:15, 22 October 2007 Butseriouslyfolks m (1,789 bytes) (Reverted edits by StevenBlack to last version by Butseriouslyfolks) 16:21, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,789 bytes) (Moved the arbitrary and heavy-handed notice by user Butseriouslyfolks to the bottom. I expect this bullying to stop immeduately.) 16:32, 22 October 2007 Irishguy m (1,789 bytes) (Reverted edits by StevenBlack to last version by Butseriouslyfolks) 17:39, 22 October 2007 SarekOfVulcan (1,105 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper - list of supporters doesn't seem terribly relevant to an encyclopedia article about a charity) 17:56, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (1,789 bytes) (rv edits by Sarek. The topic Friends Of The Earth is being used as a model here...) 18:33, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,523 bytes) (First infobox) 18:36, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,238 bytes) 18:37, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,240 bytes) 18:39, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,180 bytes) (Logo tba) 18:41, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,215 bytes) 18:44, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,543 bytes) (A note about the AfDM notice,) 18:57, 22 October 2007 Irishguy (2,215 bytes) (removed personal attack) 19:20, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,812 bytes) (?Main campaign Issues) 19:26, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,847 bytes) (?Ongoing) 20:15, 22 October 2007 SarekOfVulcan (2,163 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper - Good point. Pulled it from that article too.) 21:02, 22 October 2007 24.226.38.121 (Talk) (2,812 bytes) (rv removal of material by SarekOfVulcan. Please use the talk page to discuss.) * Note                24.226.38.121 is StevenBlack from an adjacent office computer with no Wikipedia cookie. 23:54, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,908 bytes) (Categories. Any insight into best way to categorize environmental orgs that can fit into apparently redundant categories?) 23:55, 22 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,906 bytes) (?Ongoing - Too many square brackets [-] around a link) 00:49, 23 October 2007 SarekOfVulcan (2,222 bytes) (?Famous People supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper - deleted section as not-terribly-relevant) 00:55, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,906 bytes) (Undid revision 166449549 by SarekOfVulcan I am getting fed-up of the belligerance of Sarek of Vulcan.) 01:14, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,105 bytes) (?Ongoing - Online compendium of water quality and environmental justice issues around Lake Ontario) 01:17, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (2,984 bytes) (Misc, empty stubs moved to the discussion page) 01:24, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,057 bytes) (?Notable people supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper - More refs) 01:26, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,151 bytes) (?See also) 01:26, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,152 bytes) (?External Links) 01:27, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,152 bytes) (?External Links - List of all local Canadian Waterkeeper organizations) 09:57, 23 October 2007 RussBot m (3,169 bytes) (Robot: fix links to disambiguation page (you can help!)) 12:38, 23 October 2007 StevenBlack m (3,366 bytes) (?Notable people supporting Lake Ontario Waterkeeper)

Interference by butseriouslyfolks continues for two days. See Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, its talk page, and its wholly premature and aggressive AfD page.