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 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)

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)

Misconduct Cases Currently Under Consideration

User:J3D

Does it get any more obviously biased? --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 17:58, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Bob.... get a life, I made a joke in good faith which may or may not be worth a warning and J3D has made a flippant comment on the resulting A/VB case showing his clear bias and personal opinion. Opinion yes, which arguably means that apparently it should be on the talk page rather than the main... still, show me exactly where he has bolded the words "Not Misconduct" or are you suggesting that an opinion is now a ruling and does not need to be bolded to count as such? --Honestmistake 18:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

"Not Misconduct"? I think you think you really did get a promotion. Your case would be VANDALISM since (as far as I know) you are still a regular user. This case would be misconduct. But if this is misconduct then Hagnat and I would be on here, too. (not that that's anything new).--– Nubis ^NWO 22:56, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I didn't bring this case for the ruling, you self-important twat. I brought it for the "Surely there's some clause that says i can rule based on my opinion of the person that brought the case up?" line that J3D felt he needed to include. --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 02:25, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

So because you didn't like his commentary (that didn't include a ruling by the way) you decided that is enough for a Misconduct case? Have you been taking lessons from Iscariot? I don't particularly like J3D and his clan, but sinking to this is a pathetic low even for you. Expressing his opinion isn't a sysop ability and we're not mods and ...radda radda radda. --– Nubis ^NWO 04:15, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

He pretty clearly was declaring it not vandalism. Just because he didn't bold it doesn't change his intent. --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 05:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Not misconduct, actually, not a case at all. You used to know when people were joking bob. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 18:41, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Coming from anyone else I would have chalked it up as a joke. J3D is a special case as you well know. --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 02:25, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Not misconduct and to avoid a misconduct case of my own I'll leave it at that. _{Happy Now Cheese? ;)} Conndraka^{mod TAZM CFT} 19:49, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Misconduct, the first word makes it a ruling, the rest makes it misconduct for the reason Cyberbob points out._{Placed here because Conn's prophecy was right this tiem, we disagree.}--Karek^maps?! 09:59, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If this goes down as misconduct then I'm dragging Hagnat here for ruling on this case. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:04, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Haha Karek, ok, I await butt-buddy boxys ruling. I wonder what it will be...--CyberRead240 21:22, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

User:Nubis

This case is being brought at the insistence of Nubis himself, we're always being told by the sysops to use talk pages before admin pages, but apparently that doesn't apply to them.

Back when I returned to this wiki I noticed an act of de-escalation that was done incorrectly. Unsure of whether this could be considered vandalism or misconduct, I asked Nubis. He agreed with my original leanings that it was probably misconduct.

Then there was a whole succession of sysop posts on that page over Katthew being de-escalated when there were no records to prove or disprove her contributions. I pointed out that even if it could be proven with a complete edit history that a user had not been correctly de-escalated they would still probably not vote misconduct if the case was brought. In his next edit Nubis ended all further discussion and demanded this be taken to misconduct.

Let us now look at the criteria for de-escalations so that we are all familiar with them. The Administrations Guidelines (a policy document) gives the criteria as: "To encourage users to reform and become good contributors to this Wiki, a single vandal escalation can be struck out for every 250 good-faith edits the warned user makes, provided that one month has passed, since the user's last infraction, with another month for every subsequent striking after the first in the series, restarting in the event of a vandal escalation." Now we have the two criteria for a successful de-escalation, namely:

1. One month must have passed since the edit that was ruled vandalism
2. 250 good faith edits must have been made

Note: that under Vandalism guidelines "good faith" is taken to mean any edit that contributes to the wiki, any edit that is not "bad faith" and therefore vandalism.

Now for some reason on Nubis' talk page, all the sysops (that's our trusted users who are supposed to know and enact the policies we as a community have voted on) could only see a problem with Katthew's de-escalation, even when there was a case with a clear edit history that had been incorrectly de-escalated. They must have just been having brain tumours for breakfast that week....

The de-escalation in question was mine. Although a month had passed, I had not made 250 good faith edits by this point. This is clearly in breach of the policy as I have outlined above.

Now we must determine if indeed it is misconduct. A check of the top of the page gives the check of administrative actions, ones that if abused can be considered misconduct. Clearly on that list is "Editing of Protected pages by any means." Vandal Data is a protected page, and was at the time of Nubis' edit. The case is clearly concerning an administrative action and is therefore subject to misconduct proceedings.

Although mentioned nowhere in policy or guidelines, including the example case above, faith of these edits has been looked at in recent times (the cynical of us stating in hushed whispers that this is a means of self preservation for certain sysops to do this to set precedence in all cases), now we will look at the two possible motives.

1. Incompetence The first motive is incompetence, Nubis made the edits without fully completing his duties as a sysop. As all sysops are expected and required by the guidelines to ensure that a de-escalation is valid before striking the warning, this makes Nubis' edit misconduct if this is taken to be his reasoning.

2. Intentional Intentional? But how can a sysop intentionally subvert the community consensus in the course of his/her duties? There is a small line in the Administration Guidelines policy document that was placed there to protect sysops acting against unforeseen situations in a manner consistent with the protection of the community consensus. This line reads, "System operators, as trusted users of the wiki, are given the right to make judgment calls and use their best discretion on a case-by-case basis. Should the exact wording of the policies run contrary to a system operators' best good-faith judgment and/or the spirit of the policies, the exact wording may be ignored." Unfortunately in recent times this has been used by sysops attempting to moderate this wiki as a blanket authority to act any way they want. Accordingly, we must take it into account. In order to make a judgment (sic) call", a user must be conscious of his decision. Therefore if Nubis acted in accordance with the first motive I have presented then he cannot claim this as a defence. Going further into this line we find contrary to a system operators' best good-faith judgment (sic) and/or the spirit of the policies. The spirit of the policy in this case is clear, to rehabilitate a user who's edits have been considered vandalism by the wiki, as I was not editing the wiki at the time, and had not been for weeks, Nubis cannot show that this spirit of the policy needed to be ignored, I was not in danger of receiving another escalation due to making no edits, so his action could not have been done to protect me from an unwarranted ban. This leaves us with the final possible out for his actions, contrary to a system operators' best good-faith judgment (sic), in order to use this, and thus hide behind this clause, Nubis must demonstrate that he used his best judgement in good faith for his actions. Nubis must therefore answer the following question to the satisfaction of the community: How is it an act of good faith to this wiki community to ignore a policy and de-escalate early a user with the history of Iscariot?

In my opinion it is not possible for him to answer this question sufficiently to satisfy the act of arbitrarily overriding the policy of this community.

Going on the traditional punishments found in the misconduct archives, Nubis has committed misconduct by abusing his abilities and de-escalating a user incorrectly, either through ignorance or intentional subversion of the community. He should therefore receive his next escalation.

-- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 16:24, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

You == Asshole. And that will be my entire contribution to this case. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 17:00, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a tad too much time on your hands. --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 17:19, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ! 2. You are clearly a prolific poster on the wiki. It had been over a month and there was no doubt (although a hope) that you would suddenly go inactive. I was rather confident that you would get the 250 edits (as at that time I loaded 250 edits and the oldest ones were from the day of your warning.) 3. I even admitted "the only de-escalation that was really on the cusp was probably yours. " because you see, unlike you, when I don't like someone I don't seek out ways to "get them". 4. And, How is it an act of good faith to this wiki community to ignore a policy and de-escalate early a user with the history of Iscariot? What history? Someone that runs the recruiting page? Someone that is the patron Saint of Dupes and actually reasonably defends the (few) good points in suggestions? Someone that even though he has a stick up his ass about the stupidest fucking things is still making good edits (alongside the snarky foul ones)? Because to me that's your history. I don't care if I don't personally like you, you contribute a shit load to this wiki and to "harass" you or hound you looking for things to take to VB would asinine. I think you are the biggest fucking douchebag on here, but if you need something moved, deleted, or fixed I'd do it for you because through your contributions you have earned that respect. (then I'd report right here to Misconduct because you hate me). Also, it was just a warning. It's not like I could have left it and then found something to ban you over. Either way that warning was going away and wouldn't matter. --– Nubis ^NWO 18:39, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Misconductification* Nubis should have never deescalated an ass such as yourself.
* _{Actually Not Misconduct for all the various reasons that Nubis listed above.} Conndraka^{mod TAZM CFT} 22:41, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Can I misconduct you for posting annoying double rulings all the time? -- Cheese 22:43, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Short version: Nubis de-descalated Iscariot's warning prematurely at 243 edits, instead of 250. --ZsL 00:53, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, so is 7 edits enough to be misconduct? What is your ruling? --– Nubis ^NWO 10:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, it technically is misconduct, but it's so minor that you should just get a slap on the wrist. *smack* --ZsL 11:13, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and remember to check edits before de-escalating, Nubis. --ZsL 23:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I guess this case raises a big question...should sysops merely follow the exactly word of the law or should they take some sort of personality. Coz like usually i think sysops are fuckers but srsly this shouldn't be bad. I'm gonna say misconduct but lyk i don't want any shit to happen to ma man nubis. Coz he's a good guy. And he meant well. Can we plz recall sysops mods, coz then i wouldn't have a problem with this sort of shit going down. You guys wanted it to be sysops but srsly fuck that shit, we're mods and thats fine. Just accept it...... Love xoxo 03:52, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Misconduct - For Nubis' reason #1. Also, I don't really know why this would be considered something worth punishing unless it was some ridiculous distance from reaching the required, unless I'm missing something you've now exceeded the limit that leads to this case. However, Nubis says it's misconduct I guess I have to agree with the guy.--Karek^maps?! 04:12, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Reason no. 1 was my actual response when I realized he was talking about himself yet let us all discuss Katthew. I bet he was sitting there going Mwhahaha, those fools don't even suspect my real case! and twirling his mustache like some cartoon fiend. And I was only off by 7 edits? Impressive. I would say let this case be a warning to all the sysops, but Iscariot seems to have a hard on for me. --– Nubis ^NWO 10:19, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Do you write your own material? Or do you just steal it from me? -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:23, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I would really hate to think you did this just to your drama template. When you read the summary it doesn't look good for you.--– Nubis ^NWO 10:30, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

shouldn't you wait til boxy rules before making your decision?xoxo 04:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Shouldn't you be trying not to give us reasons to suspect Nallan is on the J3D account? Maybe not say stupid shit that shows you can't actually look through wiki histories like you should already be doing as a sysop, or sign with his name?--Karek^maps?! 04:58, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

quite frankly i'd be glad if you thought nick and jed were the same account. I mean it's so apparent we aren't. If you suspected us i'd be all like "lol what a douche he thinks we're the same person" coz like, who the fuck could be bothered acting like different people for 2 yearss??? that shits stupid....xoxo 05:07, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

1. 03:46, December 17, 2008 J3D got IPs for Nallan on ud_wiki
2. 03:45, December 17, 2008 J3D got IPs for J3D on ud_wiki
3. 03:45, December 17, 2008 J3D got IPs for Boxy on ud_wiki

Interesting. Did boxy give you permission to check his IP? Was he vandalizing or suspected of account sharing/sock puppets? Why would you need to get IP information on yourself and Nallan? --– Nubis ^NWO 23:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a sneaking suspicion i had about those 3...--xoxo 23:19, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Trying to find out where I live again, eh J3D? I hope you're not planning on sharing the big info with your buds -- boxy ^{talk • teh rulz} 00:44 18 December 2008 (BST)

I wish i was that internet capable...--xoxo 04:20, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If you already checked his you'd know that they probably already checked it themselves with his sysop privileges.--Karek^maps?! 10:03, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Obviously you've never heard of miagate and don't know how to check and figure out why it would be a question in the first place.--Karek^maps?! 05:10, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

ROFLMAOPMP@MIAGATE --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 11:07, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

What was Miagate? =/ And Misconduct. Barely. Give him a finger tap on the wrist, that should make up for it. -- Cheese 11:28, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Miagate involved a case of multiple personality disorder which Karek seems to think was faked. --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 12:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

finger, yeah.--xoxo 15:52, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Misconduct because giving Iscariot the benefit of the doubt shakes any trust I had in Nubis's judgement! Seriously though this whole case is actually the first I have ever seen that should be counted as vandalism, there is no possible way it can be regarded as good faith. --Honestmistake 12:18, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

You just nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought for a second that you had been promoted. Thankfully you haven't been, so ruling in the same fashion as a sysop is vandalism. See you on A/VB! --HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS 12:37, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I won't rule on the VB case but this something people have been bitchslapped for in the past. Don't do it.--– Nubis ^NWO 13:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to rule, I won't hold it against you either way... Its not like you can really ban me for a first offense ;) --Honestmistake 18:13, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Not misconduct - well within the spirit of the policy -- boxy ^{talk • teh rulz} 00:40 18 December 2008 (BST)

Did you miss the section where I demonstrated that Nubis could not act within the spirit of the policy, or do you just disagree with me? -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:10, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Going against myself for the second time in this case (if you count my lol' as a contribution), i agree. Not Misconduct --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 04:29, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

"You == Asshole. And that will be my entire contribution to this case. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 17:00, 16 December 2008 (UTC)" - Lying cunt. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I dunno if I am going to get in shit for commenting on this case. Oh well... here goes, anyway. It's pretty clear tom me that this is technically and by-the-letter-of-the-book a misconduct. However, following the spirit of the book, it's probably not misconduct -- because the policies clearly state that the rules aren't cut-and-dry, as long as sysops are acting in good faith and the best interests of the wiki, it's acceptable. It's clear Nubis wasn't acting in bad faith here. But it's pretty borderline, either way, IMO. Because... just follow the fucking rules, already... don't deescalate before a deescalation is due... otherwise, you're looking for trouble. Simple enough, no? --WanYao 04:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

All talk regarding a misconduct page belongs on the main page, you cannot be escalated for commenting. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:10, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Wan, it was off by 7 edits. SEVEN. I don't believe we should make users beg for a deescalation. If we really want to use it as a means of reform (not punishment) we should be on top of it. This is no different than giving someone a break on vandalism because you know they meant well but screwed up. Which we do all the time. I think part of the reason we go easy on vandalism cases is because we don't want to deal with deescalation. IMO, the 250 edits is a retarded amount for a person with just one warning when you look at the VB page and see what people get reported and warned for. So giving someone that actually contributes to the wiki the benefit of the doubt in a deescalation and not just in a VB case is the right thing to do to encourage them to be good contributors. --– Nubis ^NWO 17:26, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Awww, poor baby, is dealing with de-escalations too much for you? Luckily for you, I know somewhere you can go and make all the pain go away. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

This 250 edit limit was established when there were more active users in the wiki, like 10x what we currently have. In that day, 250 edits were just easy to get, and warnings would've been struck soon after the month end it was issued. I'd rather change that value lower now, atleast to remove the first warning a user ever receives. Anyway, punishing you for removing a user's warning 7 edits early is laughable, and i pity anyone voting misconduct in this case. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{talk mod} 18:11, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Of course you pity them, you'd be much happier with the power to make shit up and mod the wiki as you see fit. Still contibuting to the case I see.... -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 21:10, 18 December 2008 (UTC)