Case Opened on June 22, 2005
Case Closed on 11:11, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
Please do not edit this page directly unless you wish to become a participant in this request. (All participants are subject to Arbitration Committee decisions, and the ArbCom will consider each participant's role in the dispute.) Comments are very welcome on the Talk page, and will be read, in full. Evidence, no matter who can provide it, is very welcome at /Evidence. Evidence is more useful than comments.
Arbitrators will be working on evidence and suggesting proposed decisions at /Workshop and voting on proposed decisions at /Proposed decision.
Yuber is a vicious POV pusher. He has been constantly warned by administrators and other editors that he is showing bad faith by not cooperating with others. Articles have been locked numerous times because of his tendency to ignore the 3RR rule and start revert wars. [1] [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golan_Heights&action=history] [3] Every chance has been given to Yuber to stop his militant pov pushing. POV pushing was not as much a concern for me and other editors, as for the fact that he fails to cooperate with other editors[4][5]. Evidence of his intrasingence has been recorded on his [page]. Jayjg, SlimVirgin and Humus sapiens can testify to his inability to cooperate.
More evidence.
The discussion entitled "minor changes" [6]. Yuber inserted "sources" which had nothing to do with the subject. He insterted his POV, than tried to cover it up by source spamming. It took us 4 days of close policing of the article before it stood up to NPOV standards.
See discussion. [8]
Dhimmi page locked because of Yuber's editing [10]
Yuber's approach to editing articles is extremely confrontational. Often his very first edit of a controversial article will be a complete or substantial reverts to previous versions of articles, without any prior discussion in Talk:. Here are some examples of that behavior (note, none of these reverts involved simple cases of vandalism):
Yuber edits a narrow range of articles, and he has been involved in a series of revert and edit wars with other editors on many of them, to the point that recently at least 4 articles have had to be protected soon after he began editing them. In fact, it is hard to find a controversial article that he has edited and not been involved in a revert war on. Sometimes the reverting seems particularly pointless; for example, when User:Jayjg made a description more NPOV, by changing the phrase "criticized as an Islamophobe" to "accused of being an Islamophobe" [45], he immediately reverted him without comment or even an indication he was reverting: [46] His subsequent Talk: comment is to just assert that "criticized" is a "more accurate term".[47] He is reverted by another editor, and does not respond to further discussion on the subject in Talk:, but returns two weeks later to revert to his version.[48] A number of editors have expressed extreme frustration with Yuber's propensity to revert.
[52] Yuber inserted quotes from a speech David Ben Gurion made in 1937 to "present balance" for why Israel attacked Lebanon; proceeded to engage in revert war after being told it was irrelevent. Inserted POV terms and irrelevent sources to justify insertation of his opinion. Resulted in an edit war.
More to come later. I urge the committee to take on this case.
Guy Montag 00:20, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
===*Comment from Yuber=== - That's just a list of various reverts that I have done over my past 3 months here, it doesn't prove or show anything. It's not a "narrow" range of articles either. It seems that pro-Israeli editors such as Guy Montag don't want anyone to edit articles. Perhaps it is they who edit a "narrow range of articles".Yuber(talk) 23:40, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Statement by party 1 Many members have tried to cooperate with him, but the leniency editors have been giving to him is over. He has not changed his militant pov pushing, he does not cooperate, he initiates revert wars constantly instead of the talk page, even over single words and after repeated warnings of its POV content. He has shown deliberate disregard to wikipedia rules. It seems that his sole purpose is to turn specific articles relating to his agenda into a giant soapbox for his viewpoint. He should be banned from editing in Middle Eastern related articles, either permanently or for a limited amount of time as a warning. Blocking him for his numerous 3RR violations has had no effect and I am afraid unless he is disciplined for his violations, no amount of reasoning will help in the future.
Guy Montag 07:24, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
This rant by the "pinnacle of NPOV" himself, Guy Montag, does little to demonstrate my so-called refusal to cooperate. His edits show him to be a militant POV-pusher with no regard for important Wikipedia policies. His arrogance is evident when he calls me a "useless editor" and says he wants to "get rid of me"[54]. That doesn't really show him to be someone who wants to cooperate. In actuality, an agreement at the Golan Heights page was finally reached a while ago. Leifern's comment is irrelevant since this edit war over the specific picture was solved by me.Yuber(talk) 14:52, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I urge the ArbCom to take up the case of Yuber. He has been vandalizing my user page repeatedly despite being repeatedly told to stop. He is responsible for the locking of the Dhimmi article on Wikipedia. Numerous editors have run into his POV-pushing and revert-warring; indeed he seems to feel that any article related to Islam is his to "defend" no matter what factual information is brought forth.
From Wikipedia Talk:Kharaj: What, yet another article in which he can continually delete well-sourced information that doesn't agree with his POV, while simultaneously making claims of his own which simply don't match the sources provided? That's an appealing thought. Jayjg (talk) 03:23, 11 May 2005 (UTC) - Jayjg in reference to Yuber.
Yuber is in the middle of starting another revert war right now over at Saudi Arabia.
This cannot be allowed to continue. Though I fear it goes beyond Yuber himself, there are a few other editors (Mustafaa and Mel Etitis come to mind) who regularly act in concert with Yuber, including sending messages to each other to coordinate in revert wars on these articles.Enviroknot 20:03, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)
User:Yuber often engages in bad-faith editing, excessive edit warring, removing sourced material he dislikes (sometimes without even mentioning it in edit summaries or Talk: pages), misquoting his own sources, quoting known hoaxes (even after this being pointed out), claiming false consensus. If opposed, he attempted to poison the well, disrupt Wikipedia to make a point, or make unsourced claims. Here's a sample:
Others have provided details on the edit wars caused by Yuber and I agree with all of them. Until a couple days ago, I had no knowledge of Yuber's viciousness and harmful behavior. And I also had no contact or knowledge of these other editors and their complaints against Yuber. But Yuber's behavior goes far beyond that to the extent that it is seriously harmful to Wiki. Here are additional Yuber practices:
1. Retaliation: If Yuber disagrees with a POV, Yuber goes into all pages edited by an editor and reverts them solely to retaliate.
2. Stalking: Yuber stalks other editors, sometimes ending up in several edit wars at once, solely because Yuber will retaliate to insert a POV.
3. Multiple Edit Wars: Even during the short time of this arbitration, Yuber has launched multiple edit wars. Only today, Yuber has launched at least 3 known edit wars.
4. Recent Sock Puppets: In all of Wiki, only a few editors have supported Yuber, and mostly only for Yuber's POV. Yet, recently, a couple similar anonymous editors have appeared acting exactly like Yuber (the only edit is the revert and solely to insert a POV or assist Yuber). Now well known, Yuber is shedding its skin.
Yuber should be banned.
--Noitall 23:12, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)
Irishpunktom is correct about when I first crashed into Yuber, but in the short time since, Yuber has wrecked versions far and wide with his reversions, including ones that I worked on. I am always amazed at Yuber. Follow what has happened just in the last couple hours.
1. While this very page is being compiled about Yuber, today June 13, SlimVirgin notes "you've been reported again for 3RR violations.
2. Today, June 13, SlimVirgin at [User talk:Yuber] very very nicely gives Yuber sound advice: "Can I suggest you stop editing controversial articles for a period?"
3. Immediately after getting such sound advice, Yuber gets on more controversial pages and gets in revert wars with friendly and sympathetic people, see Talk:Islam. --Noitall 01:09, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
Yuber is often but not always correct regarding the facts, but is always strongly opinionated and combative, and frequently violates WP behavior norms. Part of the problem is that s/he is almost alone in counteracting dedicated POV warriors like Guy Montag, who even states right on his use page that he is here for political purposes. We'd be better off with neither of them. --Zero 16:46, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Most of my interaction with Yuber has been as an admin, not as an editor, so I don't know much about the accuracy of his edits. But there's no question that he's a serial reverter and seems blind to any point of view but his own. I've had to protect several articles because of edit wars he seems to have triggered; he's been blocked three times since May 16 [105], twice by me within three days; I've warned him several times on his talk page; I've given him the chance to revert himself to avoid being blocked; and I've corresponded with him by e-mail to try to persuade him to adopt a different editing style, but nothing seems to make any difference.
On May 17, I unblocked him early after a 3RR violation as a gesture of good faith, because we'd exchanged a few e-mails and I thought I'd managed to get through to him, but he went straight back to reverting, and I had to block him again 24 hours later.
His editing style consists of continuing to add or delete the same disputed passage over a period of days and weeks, even when the edit he's deleting is properly sourced. Example — since May 28, he has deleted the following referenced sentence from Suicide bombing (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) five times, without leaving a single post on Talk:Suicide bombing (edit | [[Talk:Talk:Suicide bombing|talk]] | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views):"Palestinian television has aired a number of music videos and announcements that promote eternal reward for children who seek 'martyrdom.' [106]"
The KaintheScion/ElKabong/Enviroknot sockpuppets haven't helped the situation, as they targeted Yuber, which made his attitude more entrenched and made him look like the victim — which he was, to some extent: being called a "lying Islamist f**k" [107] by ElKabong probably didn't open his heart to the joys of collaborative editing. However, even without the provocation of the sockpuppets, Yuber's willingness to edit-by-revert would still be problematic. SlimVirgin (talk) 08:17, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)
Yuber maintains a page [here] which has only one purpose: a repository to aid him in stalking other users. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.218.64.68 (talk • contribs) 11:16, 13 Jun 2005
Yuber went back to his serial reverting, even attempting to deceptively disguise it, calling it a "minor" edit. Yuber reported: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/3RR. --Noitall 23:59, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)
I am an editor of the Wikipedia article on Jihad. This is the only article I have edited so far, and that is my only source of contact with Yuber.
Evidence:
Summary: Yuber is a major source of distruption and distortion in the Jihad article.
--Zeno of Elea 00:31, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
For some odd reason User:Yuber has avoided tangling with me entirely, however as I come across more and more pages that I contribute to and instances where Yuber's name and tactics crop up at a giddy pace, I cannot help but conclude that User:Yuber is not "Yuber" at all but a smooth super-charged sockpuppet because he is far too experienced and has too much dexterity to be a "new" user of barely three months on Wikipedia. It takes a long time to learn what and where all the "hot buttons" of Wikipedia usage and methodology are buried and how to use them effectively. Sooooo, I must therefore conclude that given User:Yuber's constant Wikipedia:Edit warring as enumerated by others here, I must conclude that more than probably he is none other than two almost identical banned users of the recent past:
Thus, they have both been banned for most of 2005 in the self-same areas that User:Yuber revels in causing chaos. And, importantly, User:Yuber comes on the scene just when those two are censured and banned for their almost identical infringements of policy. (I suspect that User:Yuber may also be an incarnation of one or two other devious current active members of Wikipedia who I prefer not to name at this time; they operate on a far more deceptive level.) So therefore it follows that User:Yuber may very well be none other than User:Alberuni and/or User:HistoryBuffEr (all of whom obviously use English as a first language in spite of their focus on Islam and Arab related articles.) Yuber should, like them, be banned very soon. This is not "rocket science" folks, and deciding what to do with Yuber should not drag on for weeks allowing him to function with an obvious disdain and disregard for everyone and everything at Wikipedia! IZAK 08:36, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I'm requesting that a temporary revert parole be imposed on Yuber while this case is being looked at. His reverting continues unabated, though he knows his case is before the arbitration committee, which suggests he's not going to change his approach. Here's a characteristic example of his editing style. At Jizya, he reverted to this passage (or a close variant of it) 24 times between June 18 and May 15: "The word jizya is taken from Sura 9.29 of the Qur'an, though it is unclear if it is referring to an actual monetary sum. Many commentators disagree on what the definition of jizya is, though some believe it to be mandated ..."
[115] [116] [117] [118] [119] [120] [121] [122] [123] [124] [125] [126] [127] [128] [129] [130] [131] [132] [133] [134] [135] [136] [137] [138]
The frequent reverting is causing trouble on several pages, attracting sockpuppetry, proxy IP reversions, and personal attacks. This isn't to excuse the sockpuppetry and abusive responses, but there's a causal relationship between them and Yuber's editing practices. Currently protected in part because of him are Jihad, Saudi Arabia, Quneitra, Terrorism, Qana, and Suicide bombing. Although others are obviously reverting too, Yuber's presence is the common denominator on the pages experiencing trouble, and based on what I've seen, reverting is all or most of what he does. A temporary revert parole would calm the situation down. SlimVirgin (talk) 08:14, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)
1) User:Yuber, using any account or IP, is prohibited from editing any Wikipedia page other than his talk page and the pages of this arbitration until a final decision is made in this case.
All numbering based on /Proposed decision (vote counts and comments are there as well)
1) With respect to controversial topics Wikipedia:Neutral point of view requires that all significant points of view regarding a topic be fairly presented.
2) Wikipedia uses categories as an aid to the reader. They are not intended to be information in themselves, but are useful in finding information. In the instant case, inclusion of the category "Category:Geography of Israel" in the article Golan Heights is not an endorsement one way or the other of the status of the territory. Thus both "Category:Geography of Syria" and "Category:Geography of Israel" are appropriate and useful to a reader looking for information.
3) Certain subjects are subjects of controversy both outside the context of Wikipedia and within. Editing of articles dealing with these subjects requires extra effort and an appropriate attitude of tolerance and cooperation.
4) Wikipedia editors who are unable to successfully edit controversial articles may be banned from editing them or their manner of editing restricted.
5) Wikipedia is not a platform for advocacy or propaganda, Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not.
6) The work of a Wikipedia editor must be judged in the context of the work of the other Wikipedia editors editing in the same area. If the other editors are editing in a point of view way themselves and engaging in edit wars also, an attempt should be made to devise remedies which address the problem as a whole.
7) Edit warring is harmful to the purpose of Wikipedia and to the morale of its editors.
8) Information which references a reputable reference work should not be removed from Wikipedia without cause.
9) It is inappropriate to characterize the authors and editors of references in an manner calculated to incite prejudice.
10) Any user who has a complaint made against them has the right to make a complaint regarding other users who are involved in the controversy which gave rise to the original complaint and to present evidence regarding his counterclaim. Any others who are able to find evidence, including Arbitrators who discover it in the course of investigating the matter, are entitled to present evidence.
11) If a dispute has come before the Arbitration Committee, the Arbitrators have the duty of investigating the controversy which gave rise to the dispute, and to propose remedies regarding all users who have contributed substantially to the controversy.
1) Yuber (talk · contribs), after establishing an account on March 28, 2005, has made point of view edits to a number of articles which relate to Israel and Arab and Islamic concerns, see, for example, one of his first edits, removing category Geography of Israel from Golan Heights [140], [141], [142]
2) When Yuber (talk · contribs) began editing Golan Heights the article was in a state of conflict with AladdinSE (talk · contribs) and IZAK (talk · contribs) playing major roles, see Talk:Golan_Heights#Geography_of_the_Golan_Heights:_Borders_on_FOUR_countries and succeeding sections.
3) Based on typical edit comments and range of editing, Yuber (talk · contribs) does not appear to be a sockpuppet of either Alberuni (talk · contribs) or HistoryBuffEr (talk · contribs), or at least there is not sufficient evidence to establish it.
4) It is reasonably believed by those who edit in the areas that Yuber edits in and those who are involved in this case that Yuber has continued to edit despite the injunction entered in this case.
5) In addition to participating in the editing of controversial articles, Yuber (talk · contribs) has made useful contributions [143].
6) In addition to his first post removing Category:Geography of Israel from Golan Heights, Yuber (talk · contribs) has added Greater Israel to Names of the Levant [144]; removed material regarding Syria's withdraw from Lebanon in 2005 from Operation Litani [145]; removed Koran quotation and other material from Jizya [146]; restored Palestinian point of view language to Fatah [147]; restored apologetic language in Dhimmi [148]; removed emblems of the major Palestinian orgs from Israeli-Palestinian conflict [149]; removed derogatory point of view material from Muhammad [150]; changed BC to BCE in Phoenicia [151]; added Category:Zionist terrorist organizations to Jewish Defense League [152]; removed the section "Religious Police and Oppression" and references from Saudi Arabia [153]; removed apologetic language from Zionist terrorism [154]; removed derogatory information from Mordechai Vanunu [155]; removed Israeli point of view and inserted Islamist point of view in Suicide bombing [156]; inserted Palestinian point of view in Six-Day War [157]; restored links to photographs of Israeli settlers in Gaza Strip [158]; restored information about Palestinian refugees in Palestinian [159]; removed information regarding Slavery under Islam from slavery [160]; replaced Israeli with Palestinian point of view in Cave of the Patriarchs [161]; replaced Israeli with Islamist point of view in 1982 Lebanon War [162]; added material supportive of conspiracy theories to 9/11 domestic complicity conspiracy theories [163] and added detailed information regarding Baruch Goldstein to Terrorism [164]
7) Detailed analysis at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Yuber/Evidence/Six Day War of Yuber's cited edit [165] to Six Day War and its context show that Yuber after a brief discussion accepted Guy Montag's removal of the edit. However going forward in the page history of the article provocative edits by both Guy Montag [166] and Yuber [167] are found. Neither seems to have persisted when John Z (talk · contribs) proposed a solution.
8) Detailed analysis at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Yuber/Evidence/Cave of the Patriarchs of Yuber's cited edit [168] to Cave of the Patriarchs and its context shows aggressive point of view edit warring by both Yuber (talk · contribs) and Guy Montag (talk · contribs) with minimal talk page discussion until the intervention of Jayjg (talk · contribs) who proposed a compromise and leaned on both parties requesting a resolution.
9) Great emphasis is placed in the evidence on Yuber's edits to Jizya. Detailed analysis of Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Yuber/Evidence/Jizya of Yuber's cited edits [169] and [170] to Jizya and their context show profound problems with Yuber's behavior including edit warring, removal of sourced material, original research and a general inability to edit a controversial article in a civil way.
10) Guy Montag (talk · contribs) states on his user page, "I am primarily here to represent the nationalist right wing in Israel." He has, in pursuit of that goal, engaged in disruptive point of view editing, see a detailed analysis of the editing history of Cave of the Patriarchs at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Yuber/Evidence/Cave of the Patriarchs and the detailed analysis of the editing history of Six Day War at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Yuber/Evidence/Six Day War.
11) Guy Montag (talk · contribs) took the position that use of "Palestinian" as in "a Palestinian city" signified Palestinian sovereignty over the city in question, see Talk:Nablus#Page_protection. He backed up this position by repeatedly reverting the articles Bethlehem and Nablus, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Yuber/Evidence#Evidence_presented_against_Guy_Montag. Eventually, he accepted a compromise which permitted use of the phrase "Palestinian population center" [171].
12) Guy Montag (talk · contribs) has removed evidence (allegedly placed there by a Yuber "clone") from the talk page of this project page [172].
13) Following enactment of Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Yuber/Proposed_decision#Temporary_injunction Yuber continued to edit under a number of accounts. When asked regarding the matter he refused to respond accurately, see Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_arbitration/Yuber/Proposed_decision#What_must_be_done_in_order_to_close_this_case.3F
Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.
1) Yuber (talk · contribs) is placed on Wikipedia:Probation for one year. This means that any administrator, in the exercise of their judgement for reasonable cause, documented in a section of this decision, may ban him from any article which relates to Islam or to the Israeli-Paletinian conflict which he disrupts by inappropriate editing. Yuber must be notified on his talk page of any bans and a note must also placed on WP:AN/I. He may post suggestions on the talk page of any article he is banned from editing. This remedy is crafted to permit Yuber continuing to edit articles in these areas which are not sources of controversy.
2) Yuber (talk · contribs) shall edit under that username and no other. Edits by other accounts or anonymous IPs which due to area of interest, style or manner which can be reasonably ascribed to Yuber shall be considered to be Yuber.
3) Guy Montag (talk · contribs) is placed on Wikipedia:Probation for one year. This means that any administrator, in the exercise of their judgement for reasonable cause, documented in a section of this decision, may ban him from any article which relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which he disrupts by inappropriate editing. Guy Montag must be notified on his talk page of any bans and a note must also placed on WP:AN/I. He may post suggestions on the talk page of any article he is banned from editing. This remedy is crafted to permit Guy Montag continuing to edit articles in these areas which are not sources of controversy.
4) Guy Montag (talk · contribs) is banned for three months from editing articles which concern the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
5) Jayjg (talk · contribs) is reminded that edit-warring is harmful to Wikipedia's mission and is advised to use Wikipedia's dispute resolution procedure in preference to attempting to control content through the use of reverts.
1) Should a Wikipedia administrator feel it necessary that Yuber be banned from an article where he is engaged in edit warring, removal of sourced material, POV reorganizations of the article or any other activity which the user considers disruptive they shall place a template ((Yuber banned)) at the top of the talk page of the article and notify Yuber on his talk page. The template shall include the ending date of the ban (one year from this decision) and a link to Wikipedia:Probation. The template may be removed by Yuber or any other editor at the end of the ban. See Wikipedia:Probation
2) Should a Wikipedia administrator feel it necessary that Guy Montag be banned from an article where he is engaged in edit warring, removal of sourced material, POV reorganizations of the article or any other activity which the user considers disruptive they shall place a template ((Guy Montag banned)) at the top of the talk page of the article and notify Guy Montag on his talk page. The template shall include the ending date of the ban (one year from this decision) and a link to Wikipedia:Probation. The template may be removed by Montag or any other editor at the end of the ban.
3) Should Yuber edit an article he is banned from he may be briefly blocked from editing Wikipedia, up to a week for repeat offenses.
4)) Should Guy Montag edit an article he is banned from he may be briefly blocked from editing Wikipedia, up to a week for repeat offenses.
5) Should Yuber edit under any account other than Yuber (or other than incidental edits as an anonymous ip) he may be briefly banned, up to a week in the case of repeated violations. Edits by suspected sockpuppets of Yuber may be removed by any user without comment.