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

• Spiderzed (talk | contribs | logs | block | IP Check | vndl data | discuss)

See here. --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 03:46, 7 October 2011 (BST)

All I did was to make a crappy edit a bit less crappy by at least linking an explanation for the main page change. Sure, in hindsight, I should have simply rolled it back. But I don't see how my edit made the page worse, not to speak of bad faith. Even a soft warning would be ridiculous, IMHO. -- Spiderzed█ 12:25, 9 October 2011 (BST)

This one is a little borderline. He's adding info on the reason for the idiocy. Should have just rolled it back -- boxy 06:41, 7 October 2011 (BST)

Not Misconduct - Yes, he should have just rolledback rather than adding the link, but adding the explanation isn't vandalism by itself. I'd still recommend a soft warning of "Be more responsible when editing protected pages".--The General ^{T Sys U! P! F!} 11:12, 11 October 2011 (BST)

Should have immediately rollbacked the edit that was obviously vandalism/misconduct. Instead of doing so he just made an irrelevant alteration, irrelevant as it was going to be reverted regardless. He probably did not want to feel left out on the joke, but that's not a proper sysops action. If you see blatant vandalism like that a sysops should always act when possible, maybe ignoring it if you can't be bothered (though still poor), but certainly not toying with it for kicks. A soft-warning really isn't that ridiculous considering this and should it happen again it should just be a warning altogether.-- Thadeous Oakley Talk 19:05, 12 October 2011 (BST)

Actually, there's a point to be made that it's probably not vandalism but, I could see the argument for misconduct. Assisting inappropriate edits isn't something sysops should be doing, someone vandalizes the main page it should be revert on site. Not link to an explanation of the joke. Oh, and get your soft-warnings out of here, you don't non-punish on A/M unless you're trying to shame someone instead of curtail misuse of privileges(the point of this procedure). --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 22:32, 12 October 2011 (BST)

Maybe for you, but in my opinion soft-warnings can be used to discourage users from making certain actions, nothing more. There's no policy on soft-warnings whatsoever and there's no reason why we couldn't use it on misconduct as well. -- Thadeous Oakley Talk 11:37, 13 October 2011 (BST)

I suppose it could be construed as Technical Misconduct (editing protected page, not reverting silly change, sysop higher responsibility, slap on the wrist don't do it again yadda yadda), although I'm open to being persuaded otherwise.

I'm pretty sure sysops have never been forced to do their job before. If a sysop sees that a spambit has vandalised a page, they don't have to revert and ban the bot. They should, but they don't have to. On that basis, imo, the rulings shouldn't focus on what he should have done, but on the nature of the edit he actually made, and whether or not that was misconduct.--Yonnua Koponen ^{Talk ! Contribs} 14:13, 13 October 2011 (BST)

There is an important distinction between your example and this case. Namely, that if you for whatever reason do not ban a user, you are not using sysop powers, therefore by definition it cannot be misconduct. On the other hand, editing a protected page is a sysop-only power, and Spiderzed's edit played along with the “joke”, thereby implicitly approving of the vandalism (else he would have reverted it), thus Misconduct.

That said, TRWTF was that farce of an Arby's case being allowed to proceed as long as it did. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 22:22, 13 October 2011 (BST)

Btw, it may not be clear from my previous statements, like User:Revenant I believe this to be Misconduct for most of the same reasons. We've punished intentionally ignoring vandalism before. It's more than procedural certainly. --Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 11:57, 14 October 2011 (BST)

Also, I want everyone who uses templates and formatting in section headers to die, please. ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 03:50, 13 October 2011 (BST)

Agreed.--Karek^{maps 2.0?!} 11:57, 14 October 2011 (BST)

Inafire! -- boxy 10:50, 15 October 2011 (BST)

What a fucking stupid case. He looked at it and made the right move. Fuck you axe. annoying 04:00, 13 October 2011 (BST)

What you say?!? He didn't update the wiki news box to announce the change – a heinous crime of the highest calibre. We should throw the book at him! ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 13:52, 13 October 2011 (BST)

.....EXACTLY annoying 05:24, 14 October 2011 (BST)

Hahaha. Never change, wiki admins! --Karloth Vois ^¯\(°_o)/¯ 12:35, 14 October 2011 (BST)

Concluded Misconduct Cases

Check the Archive for concluded Misconduct cases.