Public, on-wiki reports of misconduct - Fram

Lack of decorum

• 3 May 2019 – Restoring uncivil comment of Winged Blades of Godric
• 17 January 2018 – Synthesized sentences made by another editor in this diff, and stated the editor said the synthesized sentences. Synthesis (WP:SYN) is not allowed in Wikipedia, as it changes the meaning.

The following on-wiki reports were collected by the English Wikipedia’s community in noticeboard archives and the WP:Fram discussion archives.

Interviews

• Wikipedia Signpost Special report: Did Fram harass other editors? - 30 June 2019, deleted article
  • Interviews, some anonymous. Hard evidence was not possible to be published, statements to be proven in the ArbCom case.

Administator’s Noticeboard cases

1. ANI case 6 March 2018 - deflected to ArbCom
   • “This has been a long time coming as I and many others believe that Fram has been the biggest bully on English Wikipedia for a time now.”
2. ANI case 21 January 2013 - no action
3. AN case 7 February 2013
   • “If a non-admin used that fuck off edit summary while edit-warring on someone else’s talk page to re-insert a personal attack, they’d find themselves blocked in an instant. But no-one has the guts to deal with Fram because they know very well what would ultimately follow”
4. ANI case 5 September 2014
5. ANI case 6 December 2016 - boomerang
6. ANI case 5 February 2017 - not going to happen
7. AN case 4 October 2017
8. ANI case 31 August 2018
   • “Bad” block: Blocked GorillaWarfare.
   • “Misoginy” is a personal attack now? While “cunt” is a term of endearment in the UK.
9. ANI case 28 January 2019
   • “Excessive length” block. Fram has indicated that they will accept the criticism

ArbCom cases

1. ArbCom case 24 October 2016 - declined (removal)
2. ArbCom case 5 February 2018 - declined (removal)
3. ArbCom case 31 October 2017 - declined (removal)
4. ArbCom case 5 March 2018 - boomerang declined (removal)
   • “Fram has been to subject of many reports to AN, ANI and now ArbCom. I had many interaction with them. They are very unfriendly in their approach. I think we’re unambiguously within WP:ADMINCOND territory.” - Magioladitis
   • “indeed a case about Fram’s behaviour in general and administrative conduct in particular is long overdue and pretty much inevitable. This request though is not the vehicle for that case though, as the dispute at the heart of it is way too fresh and very probably too narrow.” - Thryduulf 15:10, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
   • “a de-sysop for violating WP:ADMINACCT can only be handled here” - power~enwiki 06:50, 6 March 2018 (UTC)
   • “I obviously need to dial things back a few notches and rethink some of my approaches.” - Introspection by Fram
5. ArbCom case of GiantSnowman 10 February 2019
   • Fram is reminded to conduct themselves appropriately when communicating with other editors. - did not pass

Non-home wikis

• 24 hour cooldown block – 5 February 2014 (block log)

Incident list from ANI case on 6 March 2018

On-wiki source

1. Laura Hale retires after being harassed by Fram for many months
2. Fram blocks Mathsci for a week. Mathsci recently suffered from a stroke and was recovering at the time, however Fram does not grasp the concept
3. “Please explain yourself more clearly, as I’m very close to taking this kind of editing to WP:ANI to get you blocked”
4. Cwmhiraeth’s editor review
5. Fram accuses Cwmhiraeth of using personal attacks, tells her to “fuck off”. Fram remains confrontational, but shrugs it off.
6. “I miss my weekly dose of Kumioko-getting-laughed-out-of-the-room”
7. “Fuck off and reread policy, Bgwhite. You are out of line here”. Personal attack was removed for a third time
8. Fram’s proposal to ban Laura Hale from DYK fails. The proposal was considered aggressive
9. Another proposal to topic ban Laura Hale, a year later. (“Fram has a history of hounding me”)
10. User: Fram “Exactly right, Only in death. If a non-admin used that fuck off edit summary while edit-warring on someone else’s talk page to re-insert a personal attack, they’d find themselves blocked in an instant. But no-one has the guts to deal with Fram because they know very well what would ultimately follow”
11. Inappropriate threats made by Fram,[14]
12. “I’m an admin, you are not. You may have your own stupid opinion”. Fram causes Ybmlanter to resign
13. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about how I come across”
14. Week-long block considered excessive, refuses to accept compromises[15][16]
15. Hounding Gatoclass[17][18][19]
16. Fanatical over adding hyphens, 24 hour block
17. Fram delists four of Nvvchar’s GAs without the criteria being mentioned[20][21][22][23]. Per WP:GAR, “The outcome of a reassessment should only depend on whether the article being reassessed meets the good article criteria or not. The goal should not be to delist the article, but to restore it back to its former good article quality, if possible.”
18. Fram proposes DYK ban for LavaBraon. Two months later LavaBraon retires, citing a campaign of personal harassment
19. Rich Farmbrough’s arbcom case - has a witch hunt happened?
20. Misuse of tools by Fram
21. Bullying of Geo Swan
22. Fram blocks Elisa.rolle indefinitely, deletes a dozen articles due to unambiguous copyright infringement without community discussion.[24] Continued to gravedance[25]
23. Fram threatens to block Martinevans for having YouTube links on his user page.[26] Unsurprisingly, he actually does it. The block was seen as vindictive and transferal to ANI for a community discussion was recommended
24. More bullying towards Martinevans
25. Fram accused of being an “attack administrator”
26. Discussions on GA regarding Flat Bastion Road. Fram’s proposal to have it deleted backfires
27. Proposal to topic ban Cwmhiraeth from DYK after Fram rejects Cwmhiraeth’s attempt to make peace
28. “I’m very close to taking this kind of editing to WP:ANI to get you blocked”
29. Strains on ArbCom[27][28]

“Fram has an incredibly long history of harassing other editors, I would be here all year really getting to the bottom of it but virtually everything I came across was Fram taking the commanding position and acting very aggressively or in a hostile fashion towards other editors rather than working with people towards improving articles or improving what he seems to be problem. Given that Wikipedia is supposed to be a collaborative project and administrators are supposed to help rather than hinder the community. His temperament, manipulation and apathy has driven many people off over the years. I think it’s gone on long enough, it’s time to stand up to this bully.” Jaguar 17:31, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Incident list from WP:Fram by Jehochman

On-wiki source

I have received permission by email to post any info that’s public. Here the chain of incidents that appears to be what the WMF ban is based on. They probably have more, but this is some of what we can see:

1. Fram hounds LauraHale to the point that she posts this notice in 2018. It’s still up as of 2019, apparently still an unresolved problem because the notice is still there: [10]
2. Lets look at a few examples of the hounding:
   1. 12 Aug 2016 [11][12] [13]
   2. 16 Oct 2016 [14]
   3. 19 Oct 2016 [15]
   4. 27 Oct 2016 [16][17][18]
3. The user’s wikifriend comes to her defense. Note that Raystorm is Chair of the WMF Board of Trustees: [19]
4. Here’s Ymblanter crossing some red lines in support of Fram’s hounding. At least Ymblanter had the sense to remove his post: [20][21]
5. Here’s Fram continuing to bother LauraHale in 2018: [22] (several diffs rolled in one)
6. LauraHale defends herself in 2018: [23] The fact that this has to happen should have been the point where Fram was de-sysopped. We failed LauraHale as a community. Read the notice again, [24] it provides more context and diffs and mentions SlimVirgin, Victuallers and SkyHarbor. – Jehochman 15:15, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

Jehochman’s summary of the ArbCom case

On-wiki source
Follow-up

1. The beginning I am sure that DYK reviewers will be extra-alert to the possibility of problems with any further articles she nominates
2. The middle This is a budget request for two Wikimedians (Raystorm and LauraHale) to attend the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiiing World Championships at La Molina, Spain.
   • Raystorm was elected chair of the WMF Board on July 19th, 2018. [1]
3. The end You were asked in September 2017 to disengage in admin actions related to me. You were asked in September 2017 to stop commenting on my talk page and you are being asked again in February 2018. …please contact James Alexander, Patrick Earley, Jan Eissfeldt or Sydney Poore, members of the WMF’s Support and Safety team.

Here’s the final straw: [2] That, my friends, is frustration boiling over, not a personal attack. It’s frustration boiling over after an editor feels that they’ve been unfairly persecuted. We experienced editors have seen this happen many times. The target of harassment becomes frustrated and finally explodes.

Worm That Turned’s comments

I’ve made it perfectly clear that I cannot give more information about what is contained in the T&S document, I’ve been as forthcoming as I can be. There is a clear statement about the document which is on the evidence page. I’ve also stated that I understand T&S’s decision to ban, based upon it - whether Arbcom would have made the same decision with the same evidence, I don’t know. – WormTT – 14:23, 20 August 2019 (UTC)

Over a dozen people complained about Fram to T&S. They looked at his behaviour across multiple areas, against editors, against Arbcom and it’s members and against WMF staff. It’s not about one person, not by a long shot. – WormTT – 22:16, 21 August 2019 (UTC)