Jump to content

Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight/2018 CUOS appointments/OS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RegentsPark (talk | contribs) at 11:45, 27 September 2018 (Comments: cmt). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Oshwah (OS)

Oshwah (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement
I am applying for the CheckUser and Oversight permissions to extend my participation with Wikipedia in order to protect the privacy of users and put a stop to disruption. I'll be available to help with processing requests that I see go unanswered on IRC, as well as help with the backlog at SPI and ACC. I've been an administrator for two years, and have been consistently active and available to help with requests as well as urgent matters on IRC and other communication methods. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask and I'll be happy to answer them.
Standard questions for all candidates
  1. Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
    Patrolling recent changes for vandalism and disruption often leads me to run across instances of attempted outing as well as information posted by minors about themselves. I'm also occasionally emailed by new users who aren't aware of Oversight and who have accidentally edited while logged out and asking me for assistance in this area. Each of the requests I've submitted for suppression to the Oversight team have all resulted in the revisions being suppressed - including revisions I've run into that were missed. I'm active in the IRC -revdel channel for Wikipedia, and I'm available to assist with suppression requests that come in and during the times where the availability of oversighters is very short.
  2. Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
    My current job frequently requires me to handle and process matters and requests that are highly confidential at the corporate level. This includes HR requests and the planning and conducting of employee termination and internal investigations regarding the breach and mishandling of data and terms of use policies by employees, major corporate decisions that are not announced to any employees (such as site closures and the "selling off" of of company assets that affect employees and managers), and the safeguarding and controlling of access to HR and confidential corporate data (electronic employee files, background checks, personal and financial employee and company information, and other classified materials). I take any and all restricted data and its privacy as a top priority as part of my job, and I will reflect the same level of confidentiality and privacy of data on Wikipedia with the same priority.
  3. Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
    I am an active ACC tool administrator. I don't have OTRS permissions, but that of course can change no problem if this is an issue.
Questions for this candidate
Comments
Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-c@lists.wikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

Vanamonde93 (OS)

Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement
My primary purpose on Wikipedia has been and will remain content work. I requested the administrator tool set two years as a means of facilitating content work, occasionally for myself, but primarily for other editors. I am requesting Oversight permission in the same spirit. ARBCOM has asked for more people to fill that role: I believe I would be able to do so, and so I am throwing my hat into the ring. As such, I do not particularly want the role; if the community feels others would fill it better, I am quite content. I do not have special qualifications for this position, but I believe I have demonstrated good judgement and an ability to work collaboratively over the last several years. I have very variable working hours, as a result of which I am frequently on-wiki at times when few others are. I am comfortably beyond the age of majority where I live. I have read the policy on access to non-public information and the confidentiality agreement, and will sign the confidentiality agreement if and when I am appointed and before I receive access. Thanks for your consideration.
Standard questions for all candidates
  1. Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
    I have been an administrator for nearly two years now (my RFA was over two years ago; I took a brief break from adminship for off-wiki reasons). During that time I have made regular use of the revdel tool. I also am frequently active between 0400 and 1200 UTC. Aside from that, I do not have any special qualifications, but I believe I have demonstrated the judgement necessary to fill this role appropriately.
  2. Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
    I worked for three years in a position that required me to deal regularly with private information, including information on personal health, sexual misconduct, and academic performance. My work included making frequent decisions about how and when private information needed to be shared, and how and when it needed to be kept private.
  3. Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
    I do not hold any advanced permissions at this time.
Questions for this candidate
  • Refer to the link of first Oppose comment, please why do you think comments of Wikipedia-documented LTA shouldn't be removed and what's your view of WP:DENY? I know it is an essay but we can't deny that it is viewed favorably by the community. Does that mean you've a higher bar than the community when it comes to what should be removed or redacted? –Ammarpad (talk) 19:17, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Ammarpad: I am firmly in agreement with the basic principles expressed at WP:DENY. In general, socks may be reverted on sight once confirmed to be socking, or if they are so obviously a sock that no other reasonable conclusion is possible.
    The conflict linked to by Capitals00 (and it's a long-running one) is complicated. Capitals00 and several others have been harassed by socks of Wikiexplorer13, and I have largely had no problem with the edits of this sock being removed; I've even reverted and blocked them myself, on occasion. I have, however, disagreed with how Capitals00 (and others) have interpreted WP:DENY in some cases. For instance, I believe that when reverting a sock, editors should leave an edit-summary describing why they are doing what they are doing: Capitals00 has not taken kindly to my requests for them to do so. In the case linked above, a sock filed an ANI report [1] against Capitals00, during which he went around striking the sock's comments, and also removing them at SPI. He was reverted by several editors, including SpacemanSpiff and Sitush. All of which led to this lengthy discussion, involving five admins, the outcome of which I will leave you to judge.
    If that was a bit long, here's the TL:DR version: in general, socks should be reverted and ignored per WP:DENY; however, there are some common sense steps that should be followed (edit-summaries explaining the revert, for instance) and circumstances wherein the reverting is best left to others (such as at SPI, or at an ANI discussion about oneself).
    So, is my bar for oversight higher than that of the community? No, it isn't. Wikiexplorer's edits were disruptive, and some were offensive; none that I am aware of were disclosing non-public personal information, and I certainly would not hesitate to revert, oversight, and block, if such a case comes to my attention. I hope that answers your question; feel free to ask me for clarification. Vanamonde (talk) 21:20, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Anatoliatheo: It was over email, I'm afraid, and that was my understanding of how things stood. Following further conversation, it is now my understanding that the second block, at least, was judged to be incorrect following an appeal: I do not know about the first, except that it was lifted as the result of a successful appeal. Vanamonde (talk) 14:41, 21 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • As Capitals00 has linked to, (in his second comment), you did not revision-delete a certain edit, that quite nicely fitted the RD criterion, in my opinion. Whilst anything sort of WP:OVERSIGHTACCT isn't applicable in this case (you are not under any responsibility for tending to every rev-delable content and neither you have actively refused to rev-delete the content), community expectations dictate (IMHO) that anybody with the mop, coming across such cases, need to be cautious enough to suppress it. Do you classify your actions (or rather the lack of it) as a mere overlook or did it stem from some other reasons (might be that you did not think the content to fit the RD criterion et al)?WBGconverse 12:07, 22 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Winged Blades of Godric: I cannot remember the circumstances of the original edit, but looking back at my contributions during that time, I seem to have come across the IPs edits at the end of an editing session. I reverted and blocked them [2], and then made only a couple of edits in the next 48 hours. It is likely that I intended to revisit those edits, and didn't find the time. As to why I didn't revdel the comment after it was linked here: given that it wasn't a question, wasn't an explicit request, and given the history of conflict between me and Capitals00, I simply didn't click through all of the links provided. I certainly was not expecting a trick question disguised as an oppose comment: I suspect that most requests for oversight will be rather more explicit. I would have revdelled, under RD2, had I seen it. Vanamonde (talk) 15:08, 22 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Comments
Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-c@lists.wikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.
  • Oppose Strong oppose. The duty of an OS is to deal with issues including removal of "defamatory material" from Wikipedia and your performance in dealing therewith has been far from satisfactory. For example, when long term abuser Wikiexplorer13 was harassing multiple editors as a part of his daily routine, you repeatedly claimed that comments of socks are not removed on noticeboards or any talk pages,[3][4] though that is definitely against the established tradition of denying recognition and we are seeing that as recently as today.[5][6] You failed to recognize that all types sock comments can be struck/removed by anybody from anywhere. Later on, Wikiexplorer13 left an offensive note on a user's talk page which was reverted by you,[7] but apparently you were not reverting him elsewhere, including the articles where he carried out BLP vandalism[8]— despite the fact that you were largely aware of this LTA's history and BLP vandalism had to be reverted anyway. Then there is another case involving another serial sockpuppeteer, Kkm010, who left a disparaging note containing misleading accusations of vandalism regarding a rival editor on your talk page,[9] and it was reverted by an admin as per tradition of reverting socks,[10] yet you reverted that admin on your talk page[11] only for telling that sockpuppeteer about the things that he is already aware of.[12] Given these incidents, I am confident that you are going to have a great difficultly in understanding what needs to be removed/suppressed whenever requests for OS would be brought to you. Capitals00 (talk) 08:46, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • I linked a diff above, and attributed it as "offensive note" that had to be already deleted under WP:RD2 criteria. By linking it, I was testing your judgement of WP:REVDEL and you failed. First time you failed to delete the diffs when you had made the revert, and second time you failed delete after I had linked it above. Just now I had requested deletion of the diffs since more than 30 hours elapsed after I had posted here.[13] Given your performance right here, I am more confident with my above comment and have changed the !vote accordingly. Capitals00 (talk) 16:58, 19 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Amorymeltzer (OS)

Amorymeltzer (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement
Hi, I'm Amorymeltzer, and I've put my name forward for Oversight. I have made a number of reports to the Oversight mailing list, all of which have been successfully acted upon, so I figured I should offer to be more useful and help the team out. I use revision delete fairly regularly so I am quite familiar with the tool. In my personal life I have been trusted with handling and reviewing confidential medical and personnel information, so I am experienced in keeping private information private. I have worn a number of different hats here over the years, and I hope my experience and tenure as an editor has shown that I can be trusted to use the tools for the betterment of the project. Thank you for your consideration.
Standard questions for all candidates
  1. Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
    I do a fair number of revision deletions, and am somewhat active at copypatrol, so I am quite familiar with the revdel tool. One thing I regularly do (ideally every week or so) is patrol the page creation log; from what I can tell, I think I'm the only one doing so. I regularly revdel and make Oversight requests when appropriate for anything I come across, and to the best of my knowledge all my requests have been acted on, so I think I have a good sense of when to use the tool. ~ Amory (utc) 14:51, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
    Most relevantly, I am a graduate student studying genetics and immunology, and one part of my current research involves access to confidential data for large numbers of parents and their children. I have also held a few supervisory and committee positions that included handling confidential personnel and budget information and making hiring/firing decisions, including serving on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit. I was also a substitute teacher for fifth through eighth grades for about two years. ~ Amory (utc) 14:51, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
    I am an interface-admin here, granted temporarily during the initial procedure for six stopgap users. I also have sysop and int-admin on the test wiki, for whatever that's worth. As for OTRS, I am not currently a member. From 2009 to 2010, I had -en access stemming from a statistics project run by Cary aka Bastique; I handled some tickets as well. ~ Amory (utc) 14:51, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Questions for this candidate
Comments
Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-c@lists.wikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

TonyBallioni (OS)

TonyBallioni (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement
Hi, I'm Tony, and I'm applying for the oversight permission. Like I mentioned in my CheckUser application, I've been an administrator for around a year, and I also hold the global renamer flag and have access to OTRS. I'm applying for the oversight permission, because I'm generally active late at night in the United States, when many oversighters are not online, and I feel I have a strong grasp of the oversight policy and appreciation for our project and movement's principles regarding privacy and respect for human persons, which is at the core of the oversight policy. I'm one of the most active admins in #wikipedia-en-revdel connect and I frequently have to message oversighters to suppress revisions. I think I would bring additional manpower to the team and that I'm competent enough to handle the tool, so I'm volunteering myself to the community.
Standard questions for all candidates
  1. Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
    One of the main reasons I actually went for RfA was because I came across a lot of private information of minors in the new pages feed that needed oversight and it was staying there for hours at a time because an oversighter wasn't available. That's less of an issue than it was now with ACPERM in place, but I'm broadly familiar with the requirements and discussions as to what qualifies for suppressing private information of a minor. Additionally, as I mentioned above, I'm very active in the revdel IRC channel, and often given second opinions to other administrators on the revision deletion criteria, sometimes even pinging an oversighter when I spot something that was initially missed. I think I have a pretty good grasp of the suppression criteria, and would be able to provide additional resources to the oversight team. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:48, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
    Slightly different from the answer above, but all the roles I have held in real life have involved access to sensitive personal information of some sort: whether it be details about individuals financial status, to private financials, or even personnel files of individuals. I have a strong belief in individual privacy and protecting people's rights to it, and feel that I would be able to maintain this as an oversighter. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:48, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
    I'm a global renamer and also an OTRS member. I'm less active on OTRS than I used to be, but I have access to info-en and several of its subfeeds, including the quality one, as well as the permissions feed. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:48, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Questions for this candidate

Tony, you only succeeded your RfA last year, why did you apply for OS now? Hhkohh (talk) 05:11, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Comments
Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-c@lists.wikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.
Erm, based on what? CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 19:46, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Based on my own observations, not so much on interactions (more on the CU section). Widr (talk) 20:02, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The only interaction I can think of with Widr is this one, where I opposed a block he made of an IP at AIV that I was about to decline as a bad report. TonyBallioni (talk) 19:50, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]