Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Sri Lanka Reconciliation/general 1

message: I always have been opposed to construing the essay Wikipedia:Don't template the regulars as a policy. However, it makes sense as a recommendation: Templating your opponents doesn’t give you the desired results, at least not when it’s just a plain template without a diff and a description that could convince administrators that the editor really needs to be blocked.  
A case in point was the case that started the section “General problem with user warnings”, which I just archived. In that case, an editor whom I’ll call Reverter kept reverting a page to a version that clearly violated policies. Another editor whom I’ll call Warner kept putting the same warning message again and again on Reverter’s user talk page. Reverter never took the warning seriously and even came here to complain about the repeated warnings. Since the warnings were unspecific, and since Warner did not explain them, we did not know if they were justified. Then, a few days ago, Reverter reverted the page again, and someone posted this as an incident on this page. So I looked into it and realized that the warnings had indeed been appropriate, and I issued a warning and entered Reverter in our table at WP:SLR# Warnings and blocks. Reverter now knows that, if  does it again, ey will be blocked. 
The lessons I am taking from this are:
* On this page, we don't have to worry about accusations of inappropriate warnings on people's user talk pages. Usually, there’s something to them. Researching who is right would take too long and only distract us from our focus on content. I feel we only need to deal with specific, diffed incidents here. If one user is really pestering another, it is a violation of general Wikipedia policies, such as WP:NPA, and requires no knowledge of the SL situation, so we can refer to the other steps of WP:DR instead.
* To anyone who has a concrete complaint about any content related edit, I recommend posting it here (with diff and explanation), since that gets results. — Sebastian 22:46, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Templating regulars 

message: I really think the agreements gets eroded without the blue template on the "Human rights in Sri Lanka" article and would support any move have it there.  Sinhala freedom (talk) 02:23, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It seems this article got merely forgotten in the agreement. Let's give it two days and see if there's any reason why it shouldn't be on the article. I feel we should make a habit of asking that question on the article itself, and I will do so in this case. — Sebastian 07:04, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blue box 

message: I believe that a list of RSs must be made. Since some users tend to remove statements on articles with refs saying that the it is not RS.Nitraven (talk) 04:51, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you have a particular source in mind? If so, we could discuss adding it to our list of sources... Black Falcon (Talk) 18:40, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Creating a list of Reliable Sources

message: Just stopped by to see how you're doing, and I'm happy to see that this project seems to be going strong. Thanks everybody for the collaboration! --Sebastian (talk) 20:42, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah! me too. --♪♫ ĽąĦĩŘǔ ♫♪ walkie-talkie | tool box 15:19, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thanks! 

message: This page hasn't been archived in a long time, and I just received an e-mail from someone asking me if I could do that. The person who asked me didn't feel so comfortable about it because ey was involved in some of the discussions. However, any project member can archive discussions here, as long as the discussion seems resolved. That is clearly the case for the sections which have a "resolved" tag for a week or longer. While I have probably done most of the archiving, I feel this is a community task that shouldn't rest on one person's shoulders. For some time, Lahiru was so kind to follow my request to do it, but he isn't very active now on this project. In addition, I will not be on wiki from Friday to Wednesday. Please, therefore, can some other kind project member archive the old discussions here? 
For this year, I had started by separating the archives into General, Issues and Incidents. You don't have to follow that. You could just create give it an unspecific name, such as "archive 5" and put all together. But in case you want to follow my distinction, here's how I would classify the new sections of chapter 4. A project member could also move the unresolved sections in the appropriate chapter.  
# #LTTE article: Issue 
# #Militia: Issue
# #Lakshman Algama: Issue?
# #Glossary or other guide?: General (Please leave this one open - I'd like to get back to it later.) 
# #1RR violation: Incident
# #Sri Lankan Civil War: Issue?
# #Row erupts over Tamil rebel film: Incident
# #Heavy edit warring and sock puppetry: Incident
# #Creating a list of Reliable Sources: General 
# #Category using citations: Issue? 
# #Thanks!: General 
# #Why we can do without trickery: General
# #Semi protection needed: Incident
# #Content dispute over Sri Lankan conflict articles: Incident?
# #Disruptive edits by user Bermudatriangle: Incident
# #Editors in other projects trying to learn from your example: General (Please leave this one open)
# #An idea worth trying?: General 
# #SLDR extended to Sri Lankan place name etymology: Incident
# #Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism: Incident 
# #How to solve fundamental diagreements: General
# #Templating a regular based on supposed BLP violations: Incident
# #About archiving: General 
This classification is only a suggestion, based on a very cursory glance over the sections. Please don't hesitate to classify otherwise, if you see fit. Sebastian (talk) 16:15, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  About archiving 

message: Because I am busy outside of Wikipedia I have been reducing my Wikipedia activities, while trying to remain active as a mediator/administrator for this project. However, I recently realized that I can not reconcile the very irregular workload here with the constant demand of my paid work. Wikipedia can be addictive, and I feel the only way to solve this problem is for me to go cold turkey and take a leave. 
I will not regularly watch this project or my Wikipedia e-mail anymore. I may still lurk occasionally, but I have to retreat from active participation. This decision does not come easy to me and I have been waiting several days with this announcement. This was partly because I wanted to allow some things some of you discussed with me last week to reach closure; but since I have not seen any movement here, there remains nothing for me to do. This project has matured enough to keep running on its own; there are enough capable hands among our members and dedicated administrators. 
16 months ago, we started with dreams, hopes, and visions. Now, we have essentially achieved the goals we set ourselves. I am immensely grateful to all the people who helped make this a reality. Without the cofounders Lahiru_k and Kanatonian, this project would have never started. Without the concerted effort of the admins of the SLRDA last October, it would have gotten stuck halfway. Without our members’ readiness to write good, well sourced articles, and to discuss issues on our talk page instead of edit warring, we would not have become the role model for the WP:WORKINGGROUP. Despite our limited manpower and a huge number of deep rooted conflicts, we have been able to resolve them more quickly than ArbCom. 
Please make good use of the tools this project provides. Especially the positive tools get easily forgotten. Don’t forget to celebrate successes! Hand out the SL Hope Award and the SL Reconciliation Award! I had planned to hand out the latter to Watchdogb because he has made serious efforts to improve. This was delayed a bit, but if he keeps going on that path, I would be really happy if somebody with whom he had quarrels in the past could reward his efforts with the Award. If I had not received my first barnstar for “mediation skills”, I would never have cofounded this project. — Sebastian 20:08, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think I have been abstinent long enough now to risk occasionally dropping by without getting addicted again. — Sebastian 13:57, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Good to see that you can maintain control over these urges. U are 100% correct in identifying thsi as an addiction Kanatonian (talk) 17:43, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-retirement from WP:SLR