User:Robertinventor/Unblock appeal
This is a draft for an appeal for my indef block in Wikipedia
Unblock request
{{unblock|reason= My main reason for asking for the unblock is to fix errors in Wikipedia. I notice two or three a week[1]. Most of my past work has been of this nature, plus occasionally patrolling proposals for deletion.
Most of the issues were due to the situation where
- I or someone else as sole author spend a long time adding content to Wikipedia, following the guidelines to the best of our ability.
- Another editor suddenly, in a bold edit, removes the content or nominates it for deletion, without priof discussion or editor involvement.
The problems arise when I try to get this content restored or defend it from deletion.
It is rare that I add new articles. My article creation list has only one other in the year before the sanction debate; the rest are redirects [2].
To prevent this in the future I will endeavour to find support of co-editors with diverse views before starting on substantial content. I also recommend this to friends. This will also help with gray area issues of encyclopedic tone, notability, reliable sources and WP:NPOV.
All issues of verbosity were due to talk page responses when another editor boldly reverted or removed my content or another's content. It is not an issue of off topic comments. This is not likely to happen again, because I won't be adding such material without broad support first.
I will continue to work on reducing my word count in talk page conversations.
If I only answer correct charges against me, that is my complete appeal. However sadly there were many mistaken points made. There was no consensus about what I was indef blocked for. The closing admin just wrote: "Closing with a consensus towards an indef block, plus my own admin judgment in that direction."[3]
I will answer the top five charges briefly first
- Adding my own views to Wikipedia, contradicting statements in Life on Mars that Mars is known to be sterile. Before deciding whether these were my views or those of NASA, please watch this one and a half minute video[4]. It is the third video on the overview page of the NASA Office of Planetary Protection[5]. They explain why Mars missions are sterilized to protect future searches for present day Mars organisms from Earth microbes and why Earth has to be protected from Mars organisms in any future returned samples.
- Adding a page about my own software as WP:PROMO. I added this after a review in Sound on Sound, often used as a reliable source in Wikipedia[6]. My software is also referenced in a notable book on microtonality with 554 cites in Google scholar[7] and in 17 other cites in Google Scholar[8]. When I found guidelines on WP:COI, I added a declaration of interest to my talk page and the article talk page. Before the sanction debate it had many editors and no suggestions to delete it.
- Selling Wikipedia content on kindle It was only a few sentences from a deleted section[9]. Editors in the debate were unaware that Wikipedia's license permits commercial use[10]. I released the booklet under the correct license and attributed Wikipedia with a link back following their guidelines[11]
- Adding non free content to Wikipeda Editors were unaware that Wikipedia's license specifically permits dual licensing[12]. As author, I can release my non free content separately under CC by SA for Wikipedia, as an act of generosity on my part.
- Using Wikipedia to promote my blog It was the other way around. I started my blog to host material deleted from Wikipedia. I explain this to readers of my blog[13]. I never linked to my blog from Wikipedia articles.
To answer remaining charges would take this well over the recommended 500 word limit, and it is already slightly over. I have however provided responses in my astrobiology wiki. They also are mistaken.
If you reject this appeal for its length, please give some indication of what I am indef blocked for, so that I can do a shorter appeal in the future.
I will not edit in the Mars astrobiology area unless a major change occurs to permit NASA's views to be presented here. I will not appeal the Buddhism topic ban again. The previous appeal was an attempt to get unblocked to edit in a topic as far removed from Dorje108's deleted content as it is possible to be. I see no future in trying again.
As I see it, you have lost a content creator in those topic areas. At any rate I am not returning to them. My main wish is to fix the many minor and sometimes major errors I find when searching for material in Wikipedia. I also wish to return to the many things that need to be done listed in my Microtonal Project proposalwhich has twelve support votes[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Proposals/Microtonal_Music,_Tuning,_Temperaments_and_Scales#Support.
