Confusion over office actions as veteran contributor briefly blocked
An intervention by the Wikimedia Foundation office over two related articles last week resulted in a flap over miscommunication and the blocking and de-sysoping of developer and long-time contributor Erik Möller. Amid confusion over whether the case fell under the domain of the "Office Actions" policy, and following a chorus of complaints, these actions were reversed, while the affected articles are now semi-protected and conditionally open to editing.
The Office Actions policy was instituted by Jimbo Wales a little over two months ago and has been used a handful of times, sometimes prompting additional controversy (see archived stories). As publicly stated thus far, Wales and Danny Wool, executive assistant for the Wikimedia Foundation, are the primary people authorized to invoke the Office Actions policy. Wool is one of three full-time Foundation employees (developer Tim Starling was recently hired as the third). The Wikimedia Foundation's outside counsel, Brad Patrick, has given help and advice regarding some of these situations.
