Directory:The Wikipedia Point of View/Law

User Law was a Wikipedia editor and administrator who had previously been banned as editor 'The Undertow' by the powerful Arbitration committee in 2008, but who returned to become an administrator. This fact was known to at least three administrators who knew Law's identity, but actively helped Law to become an administrator again, or, as in the case of one Arbitration committee member, kept silent and said nothing even though they knew the truth. This incident caused concern among many members of the community, because of the implication that its administration was a closed circle of friends and enablers, with one law for those in the circle, and another for the outsiders.

Background

The undertow was blocked by Raul654 on 16 June 2008 with an expiry time of 9 months ‎"Per discussion on the arbcom mailing list" [1]

Law was proposed for adminship by 'GlassCobra' in March 2009 after joining Wikipedia in September 2008, making over five thousand edits, nearly half of which were in the mainspace.

Law was created on 4 September 2008. [2]

User Keegan saw that an anon IP had outed Law as the undertow on Law's talk page. The talk-page history shows that two edits were oversighted on August 16, the page protected, and the anon blocked. The implication is that someone used oversight to hide that Law had violated an ArbCom ban and had gained adminship by lying to the community. And that other admins blocked the whistleblower and protected the page against further revelations.

Adminstrator connivance

"He's my best friend. Big deal. I trust him. That's why I supported him. I don't care if he broke a rule on a website. He wanted to get into new areas, I knew his intentions were good (which is more than I can say for most of the RFAs I vote in, where I assume the intentions for people I don't know are good), so I supported him. I'll always have his back no matter what, because we're friends regardless of what's going on with Wikipedia. I would never put a website before a friendship. And I would never not get his back because I'm an admin. If you don't trust me with my tools, recall me, but I won't be admonished for supporting my best friend. Lara 13:29, 30 September 2009 (UTC)" [3]

User GlassCobra admits to knowing Law in real life. " It is quite a mystery to me why this particular instance seems to be generating such a dramastorm. " [4]

Caused concern among other members of the community, because defending friends "No matter what" implies that no matter what policy a friend breaches, the other friend will cover for them and assist them to evade repercussions. and that It is not enough to trust someone without revealing their secret. If the trust was justified, an appeal would have been successful and allowed him to regain adminship honestly, rather than purposefully assisting a friend in regaining adminship with an alternate account.

Links

• Law's Request for administration
• Community ban regarding the undertow
• Administrators aiding a sock puppet
• Arbitration committee noticeboard
• Wikipedia Review