UDWiki:Administration/Misconduct

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This page is for the reporting of administrator (sysop) misconduct within the Urban Dead wiki. Sysops are trusted with a considerable number of powers, many of which have the capacity to be abused. In many circumstances, it is possible for a sysop to cause considerable havoc. As such, users are provided this page to report misconduct from the System Operators. For consistency and accountability, sysops also adhere to the guidelines listed here.

Guidelines for System Operator Misconduct Reporting

The charge of Administrative Misconduct is a grave charge indeed. If misconduct occurs, it is important that the rest of the sysop team be able to review the charges as necessary. Any charge of administrative misconduct must be backed up with evidence. The clearest evidence that can be provided for administrative misconduct is a clear discrepancy between the relevant action log (deletion, block, or protection log) and the archives of the relevant administration service page, and this is a minimum standard of evidence admitted in such a tribunal.

Misconduct is primarily related to specific Administrator Services, not standards of behavior. As such, situations including verbal attacks by sysops, while frowned upon, do not constitute misconduct. Sysops on a wiki are in theory supposed to have no more authority than a regular user - they merely have a greater scope of power. Personality conflicts between sysops and regular users should be treated just as a personality conflict between two regular users. If, in the course of such a conflict, a sysop abuses their administrative powers by banning a user, blocking or deleting a page without due process, that is misconduct, and should be reported to this page.

There is, however, an exception to this rule - excessive bullying, or attempts to treat the status of sysop as a badge of authority to force a sysop's wishes on the wiki may also come under misconduct. Any accusations of this should come with just as clear evidence, and for such an action to be declared misconduct, there should be a clear pattern of behavior across a considerable period of time.

All discussion of misconduct should occur on this page, not the talk page - any discussion on the talk page will be merged into this page once discovered. Once a misconduct case has been declared closed, a member of the sysop team other than the sysop named in the case will mete out the punishment (if deemed necessary), and then move the case to the Archive.

Administrative Abilities

For future reference, the following are sysop specific abilities (ie things that sysops can do that regular users cannot):

• Deletion (ie complete removal, as opposed to blanking) of pages (including Images and any other page-like construct on this wiki), through the delete tab on the top of any deletable construct.
• Undeletion (ie returning a page, complete with page history) of pages (including any other page-like construct on this wiki (Images are not included as deletion of an image is not undoable), through the undelete tab on the top of any undeletable construct
• Protection of pages (ie removing the ability of regular users to edit or move a particular page), through the protect tab on the top of any protectable construct.
• Moving of pages (ie changing a page complete with the page's history to a different namespace).
• Warning users reported in Vandal Banning.
• Banning of Users (ie removing the ability of a specific user to edit the wiki), through the Block User page.
• Editing of Protected pages by any means.
• Research IP activity using the CheckUser extension.
• (Bureaucrats Only) Promotion (providing the above abilities) of User to Sysop/Bureaucrat status.

If none of the above abilities were abused and the case doesn't apply for the exception mentioned above, then this is a case for UDWiki:Administration/Arbitration or UDWiki:Administration/Vandal Banning.

Example of Misconduct Proceedings

Sysop seems to have deleted Bad Page, but I can't find it in the Archives of either the Deletion or Speedy Deletion pages. The Logs show a deletion at 18:06, October 24th 2005 by a System Operator, but this does not seem to be backed up by a request for that deletion. I would like to know why this is the case -- Reporter 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

The deletion was asked through my talk page. I give my Talk page as proof of this. -- Sysop 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

It looks like the page that was deleted did not belong to the requesting user, so you were in no position to delete it on sight. -- Reporter 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

You know the rules, Sysop. All deletion requests have to go through the Speedy Delete page. Next time, please inform the user where they should lodge the request. This is a clear violation, will you accept a one-day ban as punishment? -- Sysop2 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

I'm not liking it, but I clearly broke the rules, I'll accept the ban. I'll certainly remember due process next time... Sysop 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

As punishment for failing to follow due process, Sysop has been banned for a period of 24 hours. This will be moved to the Archive shortly. -- Sysop2 13:42, 28 Oct 2005 (BST)

Before Reporting Misconduct

Due to a the growing number of Non-Misconduct cases popping up on this page the Administration Staff has decided to compile a basic summary of what has been viewed as Not Misconduct in the past. Please read over UDWiki:Misconduct and make sure that what you are reporting is in fact misconduct before filing a report here.

Cases made to further personal disputes should never be made here, harassment of any user through administration pages may result in vandal escalations. Despite their unique status this basic protection does still apply to Sysops.

Misconduct Cases Currently Under Consideration

Spiderzed

This is pretty blatantly abuse of the undelete function's ability to see user deleted content in response to a refused undeletion request. Sysop tools don't exist for the purpose of using them to help pick on and humiliate users or to revive pages they requested deleted(on or off the wiki) for those purposes. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 00:14, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Bring it on. I have never been someone to try to weasel out of misconduct charges (in fact, in the past I had put up myself for Misconduct), and I am certain I can live with it should my fellow sys-ops decide to misconduct me.

That being said, my two three cents I think yet need to be added:

1. The page we talk about isn't a big deal. It doesn't contain anything so juicy that it absolutely needs to be hidden from the public eye, like TOS violations or personal dox. It's merely a policy draft, and the community's reaction to it.
2. There's a lot of wild speculation going on about the reasoning behind the page blanking. Singling out "harassment" or "humiliation" as the definitive reason is fishing in muddy water. It might simply be something as innocent as the policy failing to receive any serious backing. We can't even be sure that the user was aware of the fact that scheduled deletions get triggered by blanking user pages. I'd prefer if we could stick with the facts, and just with the facts.
3. Technically I haven't been using any tangible sys-op powers. It is already questionable if this is a Misconduct case at all, or rather a case for A/VB. In the end, this will be up to my fellow ops, but is a point I wish they keep in mind.

That's pretty much all I've got to say, barring direct questions. -- Spiderzed█ 18:07, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Spiderzed specifically said it was out of the cache on his old machine; we have no reason to disbelieve him. Even if it was viewed via Undelete functionality, I'm not inclined to view it as misconduct. The requesting user contributed to those pages and should, in my opinion, have the right to review them on request. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 04:27, 12 September 2012 (BST)

So technical unlikeliness of the fact that his "Cache" has a 2 year old page and wiki formats it your argument is it's not misconduct because he posted harassing comments to the user and thus has ownership rights over deleted page content removed from the wiki because of his and DDR's harassment? I would also like to buy that two foot tall magical unicorn you're selling. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 04:34, 12 September 2012 (BST)

That baby ain't for sale, I bought it for his birthday. 04:38, 12 September 2012 (BST)

If it weren't for that comment he made about the cache, I'd rule a slap on the wrist warning immediately, but because of that comment, I'm inclined to at least hear him out and see if he was kidding or if he actually did recover it from there. So, Spider, which is it: was there actually a cache you grabbed it from, or was that you just playing coy about what you actually did? Of course, I have no way to tell if he's lying or not, but it's his integrity on the line, so there is that, and this is clearly not a serious offense anyway, so there's few disincentives to telling the truth. —Aichon— 04:38, 12 September 2012 (BST)

That remark about browser caches was of course in jest. I had thought the context of the thousand monkeys with thousand typewriters had made that abundantly clear. -- Spiderzed█ 18:07, 12 September 2012 (BST)

I knew you were kidding around, but I didn't know how much was kidding. Anyway, even though you didn't click one of the buttons, so to speak, you did use your sysop powers to access information and release it after a ruling contrary to that had been handed down. So, slap on the wrist Misconduct and a warning to go with it would be my thought. I'd just as soon have not seen this brought here though, since it's such a minor thing, for reasons already stated. —Aichon— 18:26, 12 September 2012 (BST)

this has been done before by request before without any past issue. I'd hate to say it but precedent is more on spiderzed's side than against it. whether the ops disregard an example like this another issue. A ZOMBIE ANT 06:12, 12 September 2012 (BST)

In the above example I requested a goofy spambot page be undeleted. the next day SA used the undeletion function to post the contents of the page, links and all on my talk page. no one cared. A ZOMBIE ANT 06:25, 12 September 2012 (BST)

The spambot has significantly different implications. If UDWiki doesn't have linkbacks disabled(and it's standard disabled in newer versions) it would actually be akin to helping the spambot. Otherwise it's a neutral and irrelevant action when contained in a manner like that example. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 10:07, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Also I just remembered a similar occasion where SA used undelete function again to recreate assylum in his user page. you can find it here. It appears undeletion for personal and (i would hesitantly say) harmless/apolitical reasons hasn't really been an issue at all in the past? A ZOMBIE ANT 06:25, 12 September 2012 (BST)

You mean the page he made the deletion request for? The same request where taking it into a subpage was the proposed solution to what qualified it for deletion in the first place? This is more akin to things like the Umbrella group fights or the Finis Valorum picture but having the added bonus of being down through the use of special privileges. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 10:07, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Sorry, I didn't know that he requested its deletion in the first place. A ZOMBIE ANT 11:10, 12 September 2012 (BST)

This is simply misconduct, imo. Access to deleted pages is a sysops only privilege, even if there was no actual sysops "action", you're still sharing the material without proper consent. While the page in question isn't that important, going beyond established administrative rules for the lolz is still blatant abuse of your powers -- Thadeous Oakley Talk 18:20, 12 September 2012 (BST)

I have no idea which way I should lean. Someone had asked me about the page's contents in IRC when that undeletion request went up. I almost gave it to them. Almost. Instead, I told them it was something incredibly stupid and left it at that. I'm inclined to say misconduct, except that would probably make me a hypocrite since I've thought about doing the same thing. --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 19:16, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Anrael knelt silently on the hot sand. The scorching sun beat down mercilessly against her back, its heat bearing straight through the tattered rags that clothed her fragile flesh to scorch her pale skin to a burning red. She buried her fingers deep into the coarse sand, feeling the heat in the tender flesh of her fingers.

Her head bowed forward she knelt. An abandoned angel; solitary figure of silence and sadness. A lonely soldier left on the plain of a battle unwitnessed. Her mind torn, her body bleeding and burnt, and her wings... oh, her wings...

A low moan hissed forth from her parched lips, more a chocked sob than a tortured cry, as she threw her head back to the heavens. Blue eyes snapped open, tear tracks running fresh down her pale white cheeks. Her bony fingers clenched, clawing deep within the sandy ground as she rocked back and forth on her knees.

The low moan grew in volume and pitch, turning from a low, hoarse cry to a shrieking cackle that echoed across the empty desert - laughter of madness. Laughter of the insane.

As the heat beat down and the wind blew the sand in whirls the wingless angel knelt there, laughing to the empty sky. Blood spattered and scorched, surrounded by the tattered remnants of her once beautiful feathered wings, she knelt. Whilst high above, the wrathful eye of the sun kept silent, judgmental watch on the desert below.

Great watcher in the Eternal Blue. Judge of the Judged. Tormentor of the Fallen.

Silently it watched. Whilst in the centre of the endless desert the laughter went on...

By which I mean, Misconduct for the reason Thad states. --I'm not the Ross UDWiki needs, I'm the Ross it deserves. 20:00, 12 September 2012 (BST)

Misconduct - lame page, btw, not worth even the risk of a slap on the wrist -- boxy 11:44, 13 September 2012 (BST)

Not Misconduct – Spiderzed was responding to a valid Undeletions request. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 12:49, 13 September 2012 (BST)

It's pretty clear that was precisely what he was not doing, since he even states as much in the edit in question when he says that it's technically not an undeletion. I.e. he knows he's skirting the ruling on the request, which he could have just as easily challenged instead. —Aichon— 06:45, 15 September 2012 (BST)

Hmm, given further thought, I'd had to rethink this. Spiderzed was incorrect when he stated that he used no admin powers, as viewing deleted page revisions is an admin ability. That in itself does not constitute misconduct. He was providing the text of the page requested, although not in the manner requested, but sysops are given the power to use their discretion, so that was not necessarily misconduct. However, what I think is misconduct is making the text of the page available on a third-party site, thus violating the implicit license given when it was submitted to the Urban Dead Wiki.
Sorry, SZ. I recommend next time just using “email this user” if it's a page the user has a legitimate interest in but does not merit full undeletion. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 10:33, 15 September 2012 (BST)

Wow, encouraging him to do it behind our backs next time. So much for "trusted" users.-- Thadeous Oakley Talk 15:32, 15 September 2012 (BST)

So, let's try and wrap this up. We have Karek, myself, Ross, and boxy saying Misconduct, with only Rev in disagreement. Are we going for a warning or just an intangible wrist slap? I'm leaning towards a warning just because it was an intentional decision to disregard the ruling. —Aichon— 06:45, 15 September 2012 (BST)

I'd call for a wrist slap if he deletes the pastebins, otherwise throw the book. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 10:33, 15 September 2012 (BST)

It was purposefully set to auto-delete in a few days, but has now been manually deleted anyway. -- Spiderzed█ 14:59, 15 September 2012 (BST)

Good man. Just making sure. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 15:29, 15 September 2012 (BST)

So long as there are no links to the content on the wiki any more I don't think we need to warn him.--Shortround }.{ My Contributions 15:37, 15 September 2012 (BST)

So we "don't warn" for intentional misuse of admin tools now? Every argument that says well clearly this is misconduct, clearly he isn't trying to defend the fact that he used undeletion to pull this page content externally, he also isn't trying to defend the reason he did it(which was to facilitate harassment and mockery of a user) instead he's been reaching to try and justify why the user initially wiping the page after being shit all over by DDR, Spiderzed, etc doesn't matter. Revenant, Aichon, you're both clearly reaching to justify his actions on this but this isn't a small procedural issue so cut the clowning about for his sake. This is harassment with sysop tools. A warning would be the letting it off easy result in a case like this. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 17:09, 15 September 2012 (BST)

Why is Karek of all people the only sysops right here? Sysops have received warnings for less, again even if the page in question is rather silly its still intentional misuse of the sysops position, which should always be warned for. Deleted pages are deleted for a reason, most of them trivial, but some for reasons that are personal or privacy related, and the community puts trust into sysops not to fool around with those pages. I find the lack of a stern reaction troubling really. -- Thadeous Oakley Talk 18:14, 15 September 2012 (BST)

The funny thing is that you dont even *need* to undelete a page to see its contents with sysop powers. This is just spiderzed being dumb while harassing a user, and a warning should be the least and harshest form of pushiment he should endure. --hagnat 17:22, 15 September 2012 (BST)

Concluded Misconduct Cases

Check the Archive for concluded Misconduct cases.