Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Rienzo

Case Opened on January 1, 2005

Case Closed on January 28, 2005

Please do not edit this page directly unless you wish to become a participant in this case; editing this page implicitly authorizes the other participants to enter a complaint against you which may be considered by the Arbitrators as may your behavior. Comments are very welcome on the Talk page, and will be read, in full. Evidence, no matter who can provide it, is very welcome at /Evidence. Evidence is more useful than comments.

Arbitrators will be working on a proposed decision at /Proposed decision.

The parties

Complaint by User:CheeseDreams against User:Rienzo (who also edits as Lady Tara, Piglet/Nasse, Baffinisland and 148.136.141.172)

Statement of complaint

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Rienzo has in the past committed homophobic vandalism to various user's talk pages

• This resulted in an RfC (last July) - A
• Toward the end of the RfC, Rienzo promised to cease such attacks to an admin (as recorded in the RfC)

Rienzo (who claims to be from Sweden) has since created (at least) the following sockpuppets

• Lady Tara (first edit - upload from Swedish wikipedia, minimal edits since then, predominantly personal attacks)
• Piglet/Nasse (claims to be from Sweden)
• Baffinisland (exhibits a Swedish IP)
• 148.136.141.172 (swedish dial up IP)

The following issues then arose

• "Lady" Tara has predominantly engaged in homophobic and religious personal attacks
• Nasse/Piglet has predominantly engaged in childish taunts
• Baffinisland's only edit to date is personal attack vandalism
• Rienzo has attempted to fake evidence at an RfC
• 148.136.141.172 has only edited so as to cause homophobic user talk page vandalism

Connecting these sockpuppets is a consistent phraseology, including the use of the term "cheesycake", and "This is your funeral, ha ha ha, etc...", including consistent choice of victims

I request the arbitration committee deal with this problem user, and enact steps to permanently prevent any continued act of this form CheeseDreams 01:33, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Statement by affected party

Please limit your statement to 500 words

Preliminary decision

Arbitrators' opinions on hearing this matter (4/0/0/0)

• Before I vote (and I'm not sure whether you would consider me an interested party in this dispute -- if you would, I'll recuse), I would like to know what attempts at dispute resolution have already been made. (i.e., have the sockpuppets been confronted, has mediation been requested, etc.?) Jwrosenzweig 22:17, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • Thanks, CheeseDreams -- as far as I am aware, I am no longer an arbitrator (I did not seek reelection, and the results have been announced), but if my vote does still count, consider it a vote for acceptance. Jwrosenzweig 22:16, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
    • You are an arbitrator til the end of your term, December 31, 2004 Fred Bauder 14:58, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
• Accept, it is not clear who the parties are but it might take the arbitrators (with help from the developers) to determine the identity of the alleged sockpuppets Fred Bauder 14:58, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
• Accept ➥the Epopt 16:52, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Accept. Ambi 00:12, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Final decision

All numbering based on /Proposed decision (vote counts are there as well)

Principles

Sockpuppet abuse

1) The use of sockpuppet accounts, while not generally forbidden, is discouraged. Abuse of sockpuppet accounts is strictly forbidden.

Passed 7-0.

No personal attacks

2) No personal attacks.

Passed 7-0.

IP blocks

3) Admins may, at their judgement, block IP addresses that vandalise Wikipedia for up to one month at a time (Wikipedia:Blocking policy)

Passed 6-0.

Findings of fact

Unity of abusive accounts

1.1) While there is no strong technical evidence linking Rienzo, Lady Tara, Baffinisland and Nasse (Piglet) all these accounts show patterns of behaviour (in particular, abusive posts aimed at a particular user with no sign of previous conflict) that suggest they are second accounts.

Passed 6-0.

1.2) 148.136.141.172 is a public computer and is likely to be used by more than one person. Edits indicate various patterns of editing: an apparent test [1] of an offensive phrase removed quickly by the same person; a request for assistance in removing vandalism from the Swedish Wikipedia [2] (etc.); edits regarding "Engalism" and its VfD [3] (etc.); offensive "simple" vandalism [4]; attacks on contributors with the same lack of previous conflict noted in 1.1 above [5]

Passed 6-0.

Personal attacks

2) Rienzo, Lady Tara, Baffinisland, Nasse (Piglet), NahChyps and the user editing from 148.136.141.172 have engaged in personal attacks. See [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11] (particularly bad).

Passed 7-0.

Abusive vandalism

3) 148.136.141.172 has engaged in abusive vandalism, see this edit to homosexuality

Passed 7-0.

NahChyps is a sockpuppet of Rienzo

4) Developer Tim Starling found evidence that NahChyps (who made this diff; see personal attack section above) and user:Rienzo were likely the same person.

Passed 6-0.

Remedies

Ban

1.1) For repeated personal attacks, Rienzo, NahChyps, Lady Tara, Baffinisland and Nasse (Piglet) are banned for three months.

Passed 7-0.

Personal attack parole

2.1) Rienzo, Lady Tara, Baffinisland, Nasse (Piglet) and NahChyps shall be placed on a one year personal attack parole (starting after successful completion of any ban term). If any of these accounts makes edits which are judged by an administrator to be personal attacks, then all of the above accounts shall be shall be temp-banned for a short time, up to one week.

Passed 7-0.

Good behaviour

3) If Rienzo, Lady Tara, Baffinisland, Nasse (Piglet) and/or NahChyps can demonstrate editing behaviour completely free of personal attacks, they may apply to the arbcom to have the above restrictioned lessened or removed.

Passed 6-0.

Ban for abusive vandalism

4.3) 148.136.141.172 should be blocked under the usual blocking policy guidelines on any occasion that pages are vandalised in any way via this public computer. No Arbitration ruling is required for this routine blocking.

Passed 7-0.