User:Appeal Draft V2

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This is a request for arbitration on my AE appeal case. I am asking for the one-way i-ban and block to be removed on the basis of procedural irregularities. NeilN said in an email that I am allowed to appeal to ArbCom.

I believe there are procedural grounds for lifting the sanctions that were placed on me in June in response to the topic ban appeal that I filed at AE. Some of the admins seemed to believe that the appeal itself was a topic ban violation, and this almost certainly affected their decision as a group. However, I checked WP:BANEX before filing, and it still lists formal appeals as exceptions to topic bans. Back in December, I asked if I was under any special restrictions. I got an answer, and followed it entirely.

If WP:BANEX or the unblocking admin or other authority had not given me these two green-means-go lights, my appeal would have looked very different.

Details:

1) WP:BANEX says appealing a sanction in an appropriate forum is not a violation. At my appeal, one admin said "...block DF for one month for a Tban vio in her appeal..." and a few others followed his lead.   But WP:BANEX says that an appeal cannot be a Tban vio&mdash;and if it did, I never would have included that text. This is also relevant because NeilN in his reason for the i-ban and block referred to the notice at the head of the page.

Either the admins made a procedural error, or WP:BANEX is out of date and needs to be marked "do not use" right away.

2) But hey, Wikipedia is more than just lists of rules. At the time of my unblocking in December, I asked that any additional restrictions be named in unambiguous terms:

"If there is something that you or the rest of ArbCom feel I must be required to do or should not be allowed to do, order me to do/not to do it. When you say "advise," it looks like you mean that it is up to me and I won't be penalized for choosing my own timeline."

The unblocking admin took me up on it:

"That you do not seek to have the TBAN lifted until six months from now. That you receive no further blocks. That if anyone "baits you" on the matter that you not engage them, referring to this post as the reason."

This struck me as reasonable and it did not occur to me to ask for anything else. Two other AE admins were present. They added no orders of their own.

In June, one admin, Goldenring, was under the impression that I had been ordered to never contest the topic ban. Not so. I had only been order never to do so disruptively&mdash;which I read as appealing the T-ban only at the designated time and place. With this in mind, in my unblock request, I promised to appeal only through official channels, and that promise was accepted. At no point did anyone order me to never present evidence showing that the original accusations are false. I have presented at least some evidence at every topic ban appeal, and this was no different.

For me to say what's going to be different when I return to WT:MoS, for me to say that I've already taken steps to change a toxic relationship with another editor, I have to say that this other editor exists.

3a) The one-way interaction ban with SMcCandlish is unnecessary. Even before the admin's orders, the only things I did with him in years were delete posts he made to my userspace and tell him to leave me alone—which worked. The two of us have had no fights or sparring matches or long interactions of any kind. Diffs upon request.

There's a line I was advised to remove: "I realize Wikipedia admins are not a single monolithic body, but we need to figure out what to do in cases like these when some admins say 'go ahead' and the others respond with 'block.'"

This concludes the procedural matters that I wished to bring up. I've also never engaged in sock puppetry or any other form of block evasion ever in my life on any website. After consulting with friends and Wikipedia admins, it's come to my attention that I did not provide enough information about the work I've done for Project Wiki since 2016. You can read the following passage carefully if you want to, but it's designed to give a general impression by scrolling past.

Contributions to Project Wiki
As requested, I spent the past six months showing that I am a productive editor, working across many different parts of the Project Wiki and the English Wikipedia.

One admin in my June appeal commented that my edit count seemed too low. This is for three reasons: 1) I'd spent a lot of time on Wikinews, and I didn't want to ditch my new colleagues just because I got unblocked on the English Wikipedia. 2) One of the subjects I usually work, Game of Thrones is on hiatus this year. 3) A real life issue came up and cut into my Wiki time.

I have also been involved in several areas of Wikipedia that require tact and diplomacy, such as RSN, 3O, and as an independent editor commenting on two ARCA cases, for which I was awarded a barnstar for diplomacy.


 * work on RSN where I responded to 30 cases. Total of 30 cases, 18 of those with more than 2 responses from me, 8 of those more than 4 and two with more than 10 responses from me.
 * substantial content imported from Wikinews where I am the originating author of over 100 approved news stories. I was one of the main contributors of recent content to Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua which featured on the front page in In the News, in Wikipedia. I also added the relevant fact to Mu-ming Poo which featured in Did You Know. Both of these articles used material Iwrote for the Wikinews article Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai. I contributed significant content to 11 other articles in Wikipedia, and added interwiki links to published Wikinews articles to 15 more.
 * Imported material to 61 articles translated from my own contributions to the Spanish Wikipedia about various organisms (they have an undergraduate degree in biological sciences) - total of 61,301 characters of imported content
 * three 3O cases, an RFC (as a previously uninvolved editor), and commented on two cases at ARCA for one of which Mongo, one of the editors discussed in the case, gave me a barnstar for diplomacy.

For more on any of this click the links below:

WikiNews
One of the admins at my June appeal commented on what she saw as a low postcount. My contributions to Project Wiki only appear small if the English Wikipedia is viewed alone. I spent a lot of my time while blocked working at Wikinews, and I didn't want to ditch my colleagues there just because I got unblocked at Wikipedia, so I divided my time.

I am a productive editor in Wikinews, where I served as the principal drafter (similar to first major contributor) on dozens of articles. Some of my work here in Wikipedia over the last six months has involved importing content that I composed for WikiNews and integrating it into the corresponding Wikipedia articles. Two of the English Wikipedia articles I worked on as a principal contributor were cited on Wikipedia's front page: I was a main contributor to Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua which featured on the front page in In the News and I was the one to add the relevant fact to Mu-ming Poo which featured in Did You Know. In both cases, this was because I'd drafted the corresponding Wikinews articles first: Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai, where I've served as principal drafter (similar to first major contributor) to well over a hundred approved articles.

You can see my contributions record on WikiNews here and this list shows just the pages I created or moved there.

Here are some of the articles on Wikipedia I updated with Wikinews content or tags:

A particular favorite:
 * 1) Bhupathi's purple frog
 * 2) St Wystan's Church, Repton
 * 3) Repton Abbey
 * 4) Great Heathen Army
 * 5) Dyslexia
 * 6) Biological theories of dyslexia
 * 7) Death of Vincent van Gogh
 * 8) KDM4D
 * 9) Surfers Against Sewage
 * 10) Surfers
 * 11) Bump fire
 * 12) effect

I added interwiki links to 15 wikinews articles (search this page for number of occurrences of "(Wikinews article has been approved)")

Importing articles I wrote in the Spanish Wikipedia
One of the ways I made the best of being blocked was by updating the Spanish Wikipedia with en.wiki content. I went on to compose a lot of material for es.Wiki, which, once unblocked, I added to the English Wikipedia.

I took all the updates that I made to the Spanish Wikipedia's Euryarchaeota subcategory while blocked and incorporated them into the English Wikipedia, like so Methanobrevibacter, Methanohalophilus, and dozens of others. Most of the text I translated into English is material I composed for the Spanish Wikipedia myself while I was blocked.

I imported material like this into 61 articles (search my mainspace contributions record for "(translated from Spanish Wikipedia)") with a total of 61,301 characters of imported content.


 * 1) diff diff hist +621 . . Thermoplasmataceae
 * 2) diff diff hist +701 . . Thermoplasma acidophilum
 * 3) diff diff hist +574 . . Thermococcus stetteri
 * 4) diff diff hist +738 . . Thermococcus profundus
 * 5) diff hist +731 . . Thermococcus peptonophilus
 * 6) diff hist +708 . . Thermococcus hydrothermalis
 * 7) diff hist +680 . . Thermococcus chitonophagus
 * 8) diff hist +1,134 . . Thermococcus barophilus
 * 9) diff hist +959 . . Thermococci
 * 10) diff hist +1,210 . . Thermococcales
 * 11) diff hist +635 . . Thermococcaceae
 * 12) diff hist +1,198 . . Pyrococcus abyssi
 * 13) diff hist +912 . . Picrophilaceae
 * 14) diff hist +679 . . Palaeococcus ferrophilus
 * 15) diff hist +915 . . Methylosphaera hansonii
 * 16) diff hist +1,076 . . Methanotorris
 * 17) diff hist +826 . . Methanothrix soehngenii
 * 18) diff hist +670 . . Methanothermus sociabilis
 * 19) diff hist +1,634 . . Methanothermus fervidus
 * 20) diff hist +930 . . Methanothermus
 * 21) diff hist +698 . . Methanothermococcus okinawensis
 * 22) diff hist +782 . . Methanothermobacter marburgensis
 * 23) diff hist +685 . . Methanothermobacter
 * 24) diff hist +772 . . Methanospirillum
 * 25) diff hist +818 . . Methanospirillaceae
 * 26) diff hist +1,370 . . Methanosphaera
 * 27) diff hist +980 . . Methanosarcinales
 * 28) diff hist +1,369 . . Methanosalsum
 * 29) diff hist +641 . . Methanosaetaceae
 * 30) diff diff hist +1,001 . . Methanosaeta
 * 31) diff diff hist +511 . . Methanoregula
 * 32) diff diff hist +1,828 . . Methanopyrales
 * 33) diff diff hist +711 . . Methanopyraceae
 * 34) diff diff hist +689 . . Methanoplanus endosymbiosus
 * 35) diff diff hist +580 . . Methanoplanus
 * 36) diff diff hist +699 . . Methanomicrobium
 * 37) diff diff hist +1,031 . . Methanomethylovorans thermophila
 * 38) diff diff hist +1,037 . . Methanomethylovorans
 * 39) diff diff hist +507 . . Methanolobus profundi
 * 40) diff diff hist +1,387 . . Methanolobus
 * 41) diff diff hist +788 . . Methanolacinia
 * 42) diff diff hist +1,544 . . Methanohalophilus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanohalophilus) ?
 * 43) diff diff hist +1,549 . . Methanohalobium
 * 44) diff diff hist +679 . . Methanogenium marinum [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanogenium_marinum) ?
 * 45) diff diff hist +2,268 . . Methanogenium frigidum
 * 46) diff diff hist +1,264 . . Methanogenium boonei
 * 47) diff diff hist +1,430 . . Methanogenium
 * 48) diff diff hist +675 . . Methanoculleus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanoculleus) ?
 * 49) diff diff hist +1,716 . . Methanocorpusculum
 * 50) diff diff hist +1,797 . . Methanocorpusculaceae
 * 51) diff diff hist +564 . . Methanococcoides methylutens
 * 52) diff diff hist +552 . . Methanococcoides [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanococcoides) ?
 * 53) diff diff hist +686 . . Methanococcaceae
 * 54) diff diff hist +1,175 . . Methanocaldococcus
 * 55) diff diff hist +813 . . Methanocaldococcaceae
 * 56) diff diff hist +889 . . Methanocalculus halotolerans
 * 57) diff diff hist +2,034 . . Methanocalculus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanocalculus) ?
 * 58) diff diff hist +2,692 . . Methanobrevibacter
 * 59) diff diff hist +1,056 . . Methanobacterium
 * 60) diff diff hist +967 . . Methanobacteriales
 * 61) diff diff hist +536 . . Methanimicrococcus

[GIVE A COMPLETE LIST - OR IF THERE ARE TOO MANY, THE FIRST HALF DOZEN OR SO BY NAME, REST AS URLS WITHOUT THE NAME IN []s]

I decided to work on Euryarchaeota because, in 2016, I created the requested article Hadesarchaea and a similar article on a protein while looking for something to do that wasn't punctuation.


 * Hadesarchaea
 * Helicase, POLQ-like

Work on RfC
I made contributions to an RFC that were appreciated by other users.


 * RFC Animal Exercise Section - my contributions:

Work on 3O
I responded to three requests for third opinions as in my contribution here:

Airport station#bus stops - my contributions to the discussion:

The other two cases are here:

Contributions to ARCA as an uninvolved editor
I have also made valuable contributions to ARCA discussions in January for which one of the involved users gave me a barnstar for diplomacy.

Barnstar for diplomacy
I received a barnstar for diplomacy for my contribution to Mongo's topic ban appeal and my thoughts on Arbitration Enforcement on the same page.

My contribution is here:

COMMENT REQUESTED: DOES THE FOLLOWING HELP OR HURT? Note that in that debate, SMcCandlish also concurred with what I said in the debate

I do not mention him in the debate. I have sought absolutely no contact with him.

Contributions to WP:RSN
I made frequent contributions to the Reliable Sources Noticeboard


 * 1) 'Manohar publisher
 * 2) diff  +1,337    Manohar publisher
 * 3) diff  (+307) Manohar publisher
 * 4) diff  +558    Manohar publisher */ So Cambridge Scholars Publishing has not yet established its reputation. How do we feel about relying on the author's credentials per SPS?
 * 5) diff  (+175) It's time to talk about Famous Biographies & TV Shows generally
 * 6) diff  (+134) Manohar publisher
 * 7) diff  +594    Manohar publisher */ what peer review is
 * 8) diff  (+93) Manohar publisher */ peer review
 * 9) diff  +830    Manohar publisher */ the actual question
 * 10) diff  (+359) Manohar publisher
 * 11) diff  (+17) Manohar publisher */ other editor has dealt with this
 * 12) diff  (+90) Manohar publisher
 * 13) diff  +842    Manohar publisher
 * 14) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 15) diff  (+332) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 16) diff  (+402) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 17) diff  (+141) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 18) diff  +621   (*/* Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 19) diff  (+449) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 20) diff  +539   (*/* Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 21) diff  (+69) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 22) diff  (+305) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 23) diff  (+275) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources
 * 24) diff  (+113) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources */ specific part of policy
 * 25) diff  (+381) Sammy Sosa Haitian ancestry sources */ Book is autobiography
 * 26) Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek
 * 27) diff  +653   (*/* Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek */ if you don't want me to participate in this thread, you have to stop saying bad things about me in this thread
 * 28) diff  (+153) Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek */ I think it was just the one
 * 29) diff  +1,787   (*/* Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek */ Not sure where this is coming from. I feel the need to defend myself. Good luck; you seem to have the matter well in hand.
 * 30) diff  (+51) Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek
 * 31) diff  +615   (*/* Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek
 * 32) diff  +996   (*/* Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek
 * 33) diff  +1,573   (*/* Ex Astris Scientia and Star Trek */ Has the author ever been invited to a Star Trek convention as a guest expert?
 * 34) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 35) diff  (+422) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 36) diff  (+380) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 37) diff  (-123) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music */ rm comment on editor not present
 * 38) diff  (+435) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 39) diff  +1,027   (*/* Buelow's A History of Baroque Music */ Reliability does not seem to be the only issue at hand.
 * 40) diff  (+176) Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 41) diff  +717   (*/* Buelow's A History of Baroque Music
 * 42) High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for 
 * 43) diff  +551    High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for
 * 44) diff  (+23) High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for */ Citogenesis!
 * 45) diff  (+107) High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for
 * 46) diff  (+395) High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for
 * 47) diff  +1,096    High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for */ Oh dear. Not again.
 * 48) diff  (+343) High-quality scholarly source appears to contain an error in information we cite it for
 * 49) Does WikiTRIBUNE qualify as WP:RS? 
 * 50) diff  (+309) Does WikiTRIBUNE qualify as WP:RS?
 * 51) diff  (+415) Does WikiTRIBUNE qualify as WP:RS?
 * 52) diff  (+468) Does WikiTRIBUNE qualify as WP:RS?
 * 53) diff  (+282) Does WikiTRIBUNE qualify as WP:RS? */ The precise rule is WP:USERGENERATED
 * 54) Hilgenfeldt, Bitter and Lane Poole 
 * 55) diff  +911    Hilgenfeldt, Bitter and Lane Poole
 * 56) diff  +755    Hilgenfeldt, Bitter and Lane Poole
 * 57) diff  (+301) Hilgenfeldt, Bitter and Lane Poole
 * 58) diff  (+484) Hilgenfeldt, Bitter and Lane Poole */ this appears to be the sole remaining sourcing issue; good luck with the rest of this very complicated dispute
 * 59) Is a government agency a RS for statements attributed to the agency? 
 * 60) diff  +581    Is a government agency a RS for statements attributed to the agency?
 * 61) diff  (+285) Is a government agency a RS for statements attributed to the agency? */ Issue may have been rendered moot by compromise text.
 * 62) diff  +771    Is a government agency a RS for statements attributed to the agency?
 * 63) diff  +849    Is a government agency a RS for statements attributed to the agency?
 * 64) Can this author and his work pass as expert historian and reliable history source? 
 * 65) diff  (+459) Can this author and his work pass as expert historian and reliable history source?
 * 66) diff  (+197) Can this author and his work pass as expert historian and reliable history source?
 * 67) diff  (+227) **AllSides | Balanced news via media bias ratings for an unbiased news perspective*(http://Allsides.com)*
 * 68)  Caleb H. Johnson
 * 69) diff  (+309) Caleb H. Johnson
 * 70) diff  (+398) Caleb H. Johnson
 * 71) diff  +517    Caleb H. Johnson
 * 72) Advanced Aquarium Concepts as a source 
 * 73) diff  (+68) Advanced Aquarium Concepts as a source
 * 74) diff  (+403) Advanced Aquarium Concepts as a source
 * 75) diff  +1,248    Advanced Aquarium Concepts as a source */ WP:SPS would call him an expert
 * 76)  Is the review site TrustPilot a reliable source for a WP article on a company?
 * 77) diff  +545    Is the review site TrustPilot a reliable source for a WP article on a company?
 * 78) diff  +700    Is the review site TrustPilot a reliable source for a WP article on a company?
 * 79) Country Data*(http://country-data.com)* as a source for history and ethnogenesis
 * 80) diff  +681    Country Data as a source for history and ethnogenesis
 * 81) diff  +512    Country Data as a source for history and ethnogenesis
 * 82) Is the source R
 * 83) diff  (+30) Is the source R? */ Let's make it easier for anyone searching the archive to find this conversation
 * 84) diff  +1,350    Is the source R?
 * 85) Alternative history
 * 86) diff  (+453) Alternative history */ caveat
 * 87) diff  +1,168    Alternative history */ Depends on what you mean.
 * 88)  When even Routledge gets it wrong, an academic work using Wikipedia as a source 
 * 89) diff  +887    When even Routledge gets it wrong, an academic work using Wikipedia as a source
 * 90) diff  (+115) When even Routledge gets it wrong, an academic work using Wikipedia as a source
 * 91) FFE Magazine as a source on Philippine History 
 * 92) diff  (+2) FFE Magazine as a source on Philippine History
 * 93) diff  +1,069    FFE Magazine as a source on Philippine History */ It's good enough on its own but if better sources contradict it, go with those.
 * 94) Ratings from a twitter account
 * 95) diff  (+462) Ratings from a twitter account
 * 96) diff  (+13) Ratings from a twitter account
 * 97) diff  (+117) Richard Rohr
 * 98) diff  +816    The Association of Religion Data Archives Moot. There are other dictionaries that include this term.
 * 99) diff  (+118) Are any government data reliable?
 * 100) diff  (+235) My favorite scientific paper abstract */ cheekiness ? unreliability
 * 101) diff  +965    Source doesn't seem to confirm text
 * 102) diff  (+328) Deleted social media posts
 * 103) diff  (+238) Are these sources sufficient for claiming there is a provisional government of Ezidkhan?
 * 104) diff  (+93) Consensus?
 * 105) diff  (+337) Citing a self-published, but peer reviewed, book to back up that a reservation has taken place?
 * 106) diff  +529    Reliability of R.K. Parmu */ review of book by Parmu dated 1969
 * 107) diff  (+150) **AllSides | Balanced news via media bias ratings for an unbiased news perspective*(http://Allsides.com)*
 * 108) diff  +612    Salon Newspaper an Opinion website ?

Total 51,536 chars

Other productive work
I was involved in these areas before the first t-ban so the last six months have been a matter of returning to work I have been familiar with in the past.


 * I have been a regular contributor to WP:RSN since July 2014.
 * I have occasionally contributed to 3O since November 2015.

Since 2016, I have taken part in syle discussions on Wikinews, with 30 contributions.

I am also interested in Wikipedia procedures, and have an essay drafted for conflict resolution technique that I call "Vote With Sources." The idea is that it is set out much like an RfC but instead of editors voting in each section, they just add sources they have found for each section in the RfC. This can help with subsequent discussion and has been used successfully to help resolve a few RfC's. VWS (Vote With Sources) essay draft.

This technique contributed to resolution in this dispute on Game of Thrones Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. One of the reasons I want that topic ban lifted is because the most successful case involved an article title: New York Theater District.

I did a fair bit of work on Game of Thrones e.g.


 * Robb Stark - 26 edits
 * Unbowed Unbent Unbroken 76 edits
 * Mother's Mercy 56 edits
 * The Dance of Dragons 18 edits

I was one of the main contributors to the ENGVAR sections of I also contributed to
 * Quotation Marks in English 127 edits
 * Full stop - 30 edits.

I created these articles


 * MIMIC (immunology)
 * Hadesarchaea
 * Helicase, POLQ-like