Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight/2021 CUOS appointments/OS

The community consultation phase has closed. Barkeep49 (talk) 00:23, 7 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

GeneralNotability

Nomination statement: Hello! I'm GeneralNotability, and I'm applying for the checkuser and oversight permissions. For checkuser, I have been an SPI clerk since I became an administrator and have a good deal of experience dealing with sockpuppet investigations. I have a good understanding of both the abilities and limitations of the tool. I've also been active in tackling abuse from open proxies, including peer-to-peer proxies. I expect that I would mainly use the checkuser tool at SPI, but I also intend to work on CU-related backlogs, particularly the paid-en queue and requests for IPBE. I also intend to continue training SPI clerks. I would also be interested in developing scripts to streamline the checkuser process. As for oversight, I am active in the revdel request channel on IRC and would be willing and able to help tackle the suppression requests that come through the channel, especially since some revdel requests end up needing suppression. I expect I would also make use of it at SPI from time to time - there have been occasional cases where I had to ask an oversighter for help since some of the material common to two accounts was suppressed.

Standard questions for all candidates (GeneralNotability)

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
I'm active in the IRC revision-deletion channel and request suppression semi-regularly (either because somebody requested normal revision-deletion but I think suppression is necessary, or because I found something suppressible myself). Most of my requests are simple cases of users posting too much personal information, but I also have had to request it for OUTING at the Conflict of Interest Noticeboard or during sockpuppet investigations.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
As mentioned in my CU section, I have worked in jobs dealing with sensitive data, such as data protected by NDA or data with legal/regulatory handling requirements.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have VRT permissions? If so, to which queues?
I do not hold advanced permissions on any other projects. I have access to the info-en VRT queue.

Questions for this candidate (GeneralNotability)

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Recently you said As several oversighters I've argued with (plus current ArbCom, whom I've emailed complaining about this) are well aware, I am unhappy with the current state of affairs in which off-wiki OS consensus apparently includes suppressing threats of harm [1]. Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? --Rs chen 7754 02:58, 27 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Rschen7754, certainly. First, I want to say this up front: I am not opposed to suppressing threats of violence and self-harm. My issue is with transparency in what suppression can be used for.

So: over the past couple of months, I became aware that there was longstanding consensus among oversighters that these sorts of threats of harm should be suppressed. I gave several people, including ArbCom, an earful about this, because I did not think that it clearly met any part of WP:OSPOL. I was also quite unhappy to discover the existence of not-publicly-documented "oversighter consensus" at all. Following the discussion you linked, I have come to agree with TonyBallioni's statement that if someone lacks the capacity to reveal information that would otherwise be suppressed, we will suppress. If someone is making a threat of self-harm on the project, we can safely assume they lack that capacity. However, I do not believe that derivation of OSPOL is immediately obvious to the average editor, and so it should be made clear on-wiki.

I've come to understand that OSPOL is a policy with a lot of flexibility, and that not every situation needs to be spelled out explicitly. However, in a situation like this (longstanding consensus to suppress in a particular situation but the way OSPOL applies is not immediately obvious), I think it's appropriate to publicly document that situation for the benefit of the community. Not everything needs to be documented, of course, since suppression is (by nature) there to protect peoples' privacy. I just want a little more transparency where it's possible to do so without compromising privacy. GeneralNotability (talk) 03:43, 27 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Here's a situation that I encounter relatively often. A minor who's 13-14 years old is disclosing personal information about themselves, such as their name, their birthday, their social media accounts and what school they go to. What, if any, of the previous facts about themselves are eligible for oversight? Do you oversight all of them, none of them, or some of them?
All of those are private information, and they should all be suppressed (well, birthday on its own might not be suppressible on its own, I'd probably check with someone else, but I don't think I've ever seen birthday not accompanied by other PII). The policy reasoning, as I understand it, is that we expect that a minor to not understand the consequences of self-outing like that, and so we suppress as a matter of their safety. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:43, 2 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
As an extension of this, let's say someone has created a draft with large amounts of unsourced/poorly sourced (e.g. sourced to social media accounts) personal information about a minor under the age of 13. It's not possible to tell if the editor actually is the minor in question. Do you oversight? Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 03:51, 2 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I would oversight. I've actually encountered exactly that situation - someone very aggressively promoting a young "aspiring musician" with a lot of unsourced/poorly-sourced biographical details (it's one of the few times I've seen an OversightBlock applied). GeneralNotability (talk) 13:43, 2 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comments (GeneralNotability)

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

I've gone back and forth a few times on reading the answer to my question and it seems I'm running out of time before this thing closes. On one hand transparency is important especially with OS - keeping only what must be private from the community. On the other - precedent and consensus is important especially with a tool like OS. If elected I hope you will take the time to listen to your fellow team members - while challenging the status quo is an important capability there is a right and a wrong way to do it. --Rs chen 7754 06:49, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Rschen7754, no idea if I'm breaking an unspoken rule by replying to your comment, but I entirely understand what you're saying, and I definitely wouldn't be charging ahead and sharing things openly without talking to the rest of the team to get consensus. I have my opinions, but my opinions don't override consensus, especially in one of the project's most sensitive areas. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:37, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The questions I asked weren't really hypotheticals and I believe General notability did a good job of answering them, although I will say I've seen OSes not suppress self disclosed PII about minors over the age of 13, although in those cases they were more in the range of 16-17. There should probably be a clearer standard. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 13:21, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Given GeneralNotability's vast experience at SPI (in addition to being an SPI clerk), their excellent knowledge on the workings of it and their plentiful experience in handling revision-deletion requests, I think they would be a good addition to the Oversight team as well. TheGeneralUser (talk) 23:41, 6 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Girth Summit

Nomination statement: In the time I've spent editing Wikipedia, I've formed the opinion that while admins perform multiple tasks which are vital to the smooth running of the project, the one which is most important to deal with urgently is the protection of our contributors, and of the subjects of our articles about living people, from harm. I've come across numerous cases of harassment, doxxing and threats of violence, and want to do whatever I can to help deal with such situations. I've done what I can with the normal admin toolset, and I became involved in SPI clerking last December in hopes of becoming more effective in this area. I believe that access to the CU and OS privileges would allow me to be more effective in this area, so if the functionaries team believe that I would be able to use them competently and not to abuse them, I would like to be given the opportunity to serve in these roles.

Standard questions for all candidates (Girth Summit)

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
While patrolling recent changes and new pages, or while working SPI cases, there are occasions when I come across material that needs to be suppressed rather than just revdelled. I usually e-mail the OS team for them to take a look, or sometimes reach out on IRC; I believe I'm now at the point where I could deal with such things myself rather than asking for someone else to step in.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
I'm a teacher - I handle personal/sensitive information about minors as part of my day job, and I teach children and teenagers about keeping themselves safe online; this has made me aware of the importance of keeping private information private.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have VRT permissions? If so, to which queues?
No, EnWiki is the only project on which I hold advanced permissions.

I was granted permission to the info-en queue on OTRS in 2019, but I confess that I did very little with it – I found the interface confusing, and was concerned about messing things up in a public-facing role. Another editor kindly offered to talk me through it on a call, but we didn’t manage to pin down a mutually convenient time, and I wandered off into other areas of the project. I would be willing to pick this up again.

Questions for this candidate (Girth Summit)

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments (Girth Summit)

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

I have interacted with Girth Summit extensively over the years, and I have high respect for his judgment and temperament. I do not think I have ever seen Girth Summit lose his cool even in stressful situations. I believe the addition of his levelheadedness to the oversight team can only benefit the project. Mz7 (talk) 05:48, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Girth Summit's answers to questions, their knowledge and experience shows that they are extremely careful when working in areas like these and would be a great addition to the Oversight team. TheGeneralUser (talk) 23:50, 6 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

LuK3

Nomination statement: I am applying for the Oversight permission. Before being an administrator, I was extremely active in requesting both revision deletion and oversight. Since my successful request for adminship last September, I have been active in responding with revision deletion requests. I have also been active in requesting suppression, both via email and on IRC. Through my own edit patrolling and responding to the revision delete requests, I believe I have strong knowledge of Oversight policies and procedures. I have signed the Confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information due to my work over at the Account Creation Interface so privacy is of the utmost importance to me.

Standard questions for all candidates (LuK3)

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
Since my successful request for adminship back in September 2020, I have been active in responding to revision deletion requests. Most of those request happen on IRC or through email. In addition, I am active in requesting suppression both on IRC and through email. This happens via my patrolling at WP:AIV, WP:RFPP, WP:UAA or the edit filter logs.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
My work does involve non-public information (release dates, etc.) for which I have signed non-disclosure agreements. In addition, my previous work did involve personal private information (phone numbers, addresses, etc.) so privacy is very important to me.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have VRT permissions? If so, to which queues?
I do not have any advanced permissions on the English Wikipedia or any other WMF project. I do however have access to the info-en queue on VRT. In addition, I have access to the English Wikipedia Account Creation Interface.

Questions for this candidate (LuK3)

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments (LuK3)

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

LuK3 is active in the areas of the project's maintenance that require him to request oversight frequently, and his judgment is quite sensible. He already had a proficient grasp of the oversight policy to become an oversighter even before he became an administrator. I think he is one of the clearest choices for the oversight team we've ever had. Mz7 (talk) 05:48, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I will only note that I will be incredibly astonished if LuK3 does not join the Oversight team this year. Sdrqaz (talk) 11:15, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I don't often hold strong opinions with regards to the OS team. I do strongly believe that LuK3 would be a net positive in this context. SQL ^{Query Me!} 13:46, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Even though Luk3 has been an admin for just over a year, their answers to questions, experience and judgement clearly shows that they will be a great addition to the Oversight team. TheGeneralUser (talk) 23:11, 6 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Dreamy Jazz

Nomination statement: I am applying for Oversight permissions. As detailed in my statement above in the CheckUser requests section I have been an administrator since December 2019 and I’m also a ArbCom clerk. I’m familiar with RevDel and have made several suppression requests. My requests have included asking for suppression for a user I was supporting through VRT when they made accidental logged out edits on several occasions and requesting oversight for identifying personal information which was self-posted by minors. Although I am not aware that OS has a backlog like SPI, if appointed I would use OS when new page patrolling to hide personally identifying information about minors to skip needing to make an email to request oversight. I’m active on IRC and would respond to requests for oversight made over IRC. As I am already a VRT agent, I would also respond to requests on the oversight email address. If you have questions for me, please feel free to ask them below.

Standard questions for all candidates (Dreamy Jazz)

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
As mentioned in my nomination statement, I am familiar with revision deletion (RevDel) and have used it on many occasions. I have also made several requests to oversight through the oversight email address as mentioned in my nomination statement, so I feel that I have good understanding of when oversight should be applied. As a previous member of the ACC team (leaving due to to inactivity) I have had wiki-related experience in handling private information such as IP addresses. If appointed, I would expect to see requests that include hiding the IP address of accidentally logged out editors. I feel my experience dealing with IP addresses through the ACC tool translates to handling IP addresses when dealing with oversight requests.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
As detailed in standard question 2 in my CU section, I had a CS internship in the public sector which gave me access to information which needed credentials and was not necessarily public. This information included email addresses and phone numbers which were associated to a person and may not have been released publicly outside this particular public sector system.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have VRT permissions? If so, to which queues?
- I do not hold and have never held any of these advanced permissions.
- I am a member of the info-en and info VRT queues.

Questions for this candidate (Dreamy Jazz)

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments (Dreamy Jazz)

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

Given Dreamy Jazz's experience as an admin (especially in handling revision deletion), as a full time SPI clerk for over a year and additional experience in other related areas, I think it would be beneficial to have them on the Oversight team as well. TheGeneralUser (talk) 23:34, 6 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.