User:Robertinventor/tban appeal draft 3

draft 1 - draft 2 - draft 3 - draft 4

Draft for a t-ban on Wikipedia - done here as I can't mention the banned topic on Wikipedia until I submit the appeal. To be submitted at AN.

Request to lift topic ban (Robertinventor)

I wish to get my indef topic ban in the Buddhism topic area lifted. The main reason given for the original topic ban was that my talk page posts were too long and I did too many of them. A secondary reason was that I did too many minor edits of my talk page posts after posting them. Several other points were mentioned but those were given most weight in the discussion. All of these are easily addressed.

First note that I'm an editor in good standing with no other sanctions against me and who is frequently involved in extensive conversations in other topic areas. I sometimes do long comments on talk pages, and though sometimes technical and detailed, they are always to the point, intended to help improve wikipedia, and usually are appreciated by the other editors in the conversation. Often other participants in the discussion do long posts in the topic areas that interest me, and I appreciate their long posts as much as they appreciate mine; this discussion is an example. I have no other sanctions against me and have never been taken to ANI over the length of my posts on any other topic.

However, I agree that my talk page habits did cause a major issue in the Buddhism debates. Occasionally they causes minor issues in other debates. I sometimes have found it hard to adjust to Wikipedia from other platforms because

• If you edit your post after posting it, then this sends alerts to editors watching the talk page and fills talk page histories.
• When reading a discussion then other editors will see the whole of your long post (on other platforms they see only the first few lines until they click more).

But I have a solution!

Sandbox solution

The main change since the t-ban is that I have got into the habit of composing replies in my sandbox if they seem likely to need to be edited after posting. I never thought of this way of using my sandbox until @Softlavender: suggested it during the t-ban appeal discussion (apparently someone mentioned it to me before, but I didn't notice). I have also been using the sandbox for long talk page posts, which gives an opportunity to shorten them using my User:Robertinventor/Work arounds for lengthy talk page comments.

Recently another editor mentioned it on my talk page, User:Robertinventor#Too many edits for a talk page post, and I immediately started using the sandbox for this discussion, which solved the issue raised in that comment.

This completely avoids the issue of minor edits filling talk pages. It helps with length too, as I can edit a post down for length.

As for doing too many posts in a short period of time, if this ever arises again, I can deal with that by either taking wikibreaks, or slowing down the pace of conversation, and giving other editors lots of time to respond before returning to the conversation myself.

I have also added messages to my user space to encourage other editors to please draw my attention to the matter if I do any of these things.

• User:Robertinventor#Over lengthy talk page posts or too many posts
• User:Robertinventor#Too many posts
• User:Robertinventor#Too many edits for a talk page post? Just remind me to use the sandbox - thanks!

I have also just now added a reminder text message to my user page and talk page: REMINDER TO SELF - YOU ARE NOW ON WIKIPEDIA - USE SANDBOX TO COMPOSE YOUR COMMENTS IF THEY ARE LIKELY TO NEED EDITING AFTER POSTING

This should help prevent similar issues arising in the future.

Wikignoming and new editing interests

Although I only did wikignoming in this topic area in the past, I have developed new editing interests since the dispute. As a result I wish to edit some of the Buddhist biographies.

I also have a special interest in the modern movement for reintroduction of the full Bhikkhuni ordination for women to Buddhist traditions that have lost this, and may be able to help improve articles in this topic area.

Most of these edits are likely to require little by way of conversation. At most, I expect a few comments back and forth. I conclude with a couple of examples to show what I can contribute to the project if you lift the t-ban.

Example minor edit for Gautama Buddha article - Include?

A bit complex to explain, maybe leave out

Extended content
This is an example of the type of minor edit I wish to be able to do, if you lift the t-ban, similarly to the work I used to do before the dispute arose: To fix': minor error in the Gautama Buddha article - as it is now it reads: "It was either a small republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain, or oligarch." The cite given for this passage, by Gombrich, actually describes a reconstruction of the Sakya society in which Gautama Buddha lived in some detail and then goes on to say "Some historians call this an oligarchy, some a republic; certainly it was not a brahminical monarchy" So, in this cite, Gombrich was not referring to a difference in view amongst historians about what kind of a system it was. Rather, he just presented a difference in view about what to call it. For such a high profile article, one of the central ones on Buddhism, I'd take this to the talk page. I would suggest that this sentence is edited to say instead According to Richard Gombrich "Some historians call this an oligarchy, some a republic; certainly it was not a brahminical monarchy" Also possibly expanded with a few details from his summary of Sakya society as he reconstructs it. Many of my minor edits would need no discussion. For minor articles with simple clear mistakes I'd use WP:BOLD and just fix them. Either way, it would be good to be able to help with fixing minor errors in the Buddhism topic articles on Wikipedia.

I would also help fix broken links, and add extra cites and so on.

Example improved bio draft for Milarepa

I have a special interest in Buddhist biographies and I can help improve articles such as Milarepa. This is an article on one of the central historical figures in Tibetan Buddhism, which has been flagged as having multiple issues of neutrality and sourcing. This is a draft for a new version of this article. For the purposes of this appeal, I have uploaded it to Meta where I am not topic banned. It expands on the life story, explains also that we know little about the real historical Milarepa, and puts it in context. It is based mainly on the translator's note by Andrew Quintman, which as you see is cited throughout:

• Milarepa draft

If the topic ban is lifted I wish to update the Wikipedia article on Milarepa in this way. As a major rewrite, I will probably do it by posting to the Milarepa talk page first about my new draft, and if there are no objections (I don't anticipate any) then update the article itself.

Background to the dispute - Include??

[Do I include this? - PROBABLY NOT]

Extended content
You might get the impression from the topic ban discussion that I was trying to get new content introduced to wikipedia. However that was not what it was about. If anything I said ever gave that impression it was clumsiness on my part. My only aim, through all the discussions from October 2014, through to my t-ban in May 2017, was to restore the original material from 2014 as produced by other editors. These articles were previously regarded as well sourced by other editors in the topic area, who worked on them collaboratively for many years through to 2014. They were in a stable state at the time of the rewrites. At the time my only contributions to the articles were by way of wikignoming. I recognize that the approach to WP:RS used in these articles up to 2014 is no longer regarded as acceptable in the Wikipedia Buddhism project today. I regard that dispute as concluded with the events leading up to my t-ban and the indef t-ban itself. Unless someone else re-opens the question and requests comments, I don't intend to return to this topic.