Directory:Proabivouac/User:Kirill Lokshin

This is not a biography, but an critical evaluation of a Wikipedia user's performance in office.

Kirill Lokshin, coordinator of Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee.

Kirill Lokshin is the coordinator of Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee.[1] Under Lokshin's watch, the Committee has endured scandal after scandal, from the pseudonymous FT2's zoophilia edits to David Boothroyd's exposure and resignation.[2][3][4][5]

Credentials

Kirill was 22 years old in December 2006, when Jimbo Wales appointed him to Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee.[6][7]

In 2005, Mr. Lokshin stated that he was "shamelessly stealing [a] userbox idea from Essjay," a fraud who was dismissed from all positions of authority after having been caught claiming false credentials to both the Wikipedia editing community and the New Yorker.[8][9][10] Nine hours later, he added that he was "an engineer living in the state of Maryland."[11] Mr. Lokshin was 21-22 years old at this time.

In December 2006's Arbitration Committee elections, Kirill said, "I'm an electrical/computer engineer by profession."[12] Sixteen months later, he made a minor change to his userpage statement: "Professionally, I'm an engineer…" [13] On August 10, 2008, the Washington Post’s Tom Dunkel described him as a "24-year-old software engineer from Rockville" [14][15]

As recently as October 2008, he gave his address as that of his parents.[16]

Predecided cases

According to Wikipedia's written arbitration policy, "The Committee will not hear disputes where they have not been requested to rule."[17]

In one well-known case, documents have surfaced which show that Mr. Lokshin himself solicited this "request to rule" from former Arbitrator Dmcdevit, who has been forced to resign in early 2007 after being caught scheming against volunteer contributors on Wikipedia's administrators' internet chat channel.[18][19] These emails also show Lokshin and his associates deciding both the duration and the outcome of the case before any evidence had been presented.[20]

Response to allegations of sexual harassment

In October of 2008, Mr. Lokshin and his committee were informed of allegations that a senior Wikipedia functionary and Lokshin ally, User:Lar, had made inappropriate sexual advances towards Wikipedia's female volunteers.[21] The Committee chose to keep this complaint a secret from Wikipedia's editing community, and took no action to address the situation. Instead, the female administrator who brought this problem to the attention of the committee was admonished in a decision written primarily by Kirill himself.[22] One month later, Lokshin led the nearly all-male Committee to remove her from her position as Wikipedia administrator over an unrelated dispute, calling it the "proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."[23]

…

Infiltration by political operatives

During Kirill Lokshin's tenure as coordinator, the Arbitration Committee has been infiltrated by at least two political operatives. David Boothroyd, Labour town councillor for London's Westminster city, joined the Committee under the fake name "Sam Blacketer". …[24][25][26]

…

Zoophilia scandals

…[27]…[28]

The association between Kirill Lokshin's Arbitration Committee and advocacy for bestiality became controversial again in May, when his colleague "Coren," Marc-André Pelletier of Montreal, was challenged on Wikipedia Review for publishing and administering a website which hosts stories appearing to advocate this practice, as well as incest between fathers and underaged sons, alongside hardcore gay pornography.[29][30]