Wikipedia:wikipedia Signpost 2009-08-10 Arbitration Report

Arbitration report

The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Requests for arbitration

The request for arbitration regarding the block of Bishonen by Jimbo Wales, which had been open since mid-July, was resolved by a five-part motion which noted, among other findings, that:

The Committee acknowledges (i) Bishonen's recognition that "The way I spoke to [the user] was wrong, especially for an admin" and (ii) Jimbo Wales' permanent abdication of the use of the blocking tool. In light of the foregoing, the committee need take no further action at this time.

Four requests for arbitration were dismissed or withdrawn this week:

Two incomplete requests regarding category naming and various associated issues were filed, and then withdrawn, by William Allen Simpson.
A request concerning edit-warring on the carabinieri article, filed by Bibiki, was declined as a content dispute.
A request filed by Allstarecho requesting review of several administrative sanctions which had been imposed on him was declined as premature.

Following a request for comments concerning 194x144x90x118, Erik9 filed an arbitration request alleging that 194x144x90x118 had engaged in further disruptive conduct on several articles.

Open cases

The Abd-William M. Connolley case has entered its fourth week of deliberations. The case was filed by Abd, who alleged that William M. Connolley had improperly banned him from the cold fusion article; William M. Connolley denied these allegations, and stated that Abd's conduct had been inappropriate.

Evidence in the case has been presented by eighteen editors, and several have made proposals on the case workshop, which have attracted limited comment from the Committee. As yet, no arbitrator has posted proposals to either the workshop or the proposed decision pages for the case. A draft decision, written by arbitrator Stephen Bain, was scheduled to be published on the 8th; this target date will likely be delayed.

Clarifications, amendments, and motions

Following a second request for comment regarding administrator Aitias, the Arbitration Committee passed an open motion removing his administrator status. The terms of the motion permit Aitias to reapply either through a normal request for adminship, or to the Committee directly.

Two separate requests for clarification were filed regarding the Obama articles decision. The first, filed by Bigtimepeace, concerned a set of topic bans and revert restrictions whose wording appeared contradictory to their subjects. The second, filed by Wikidemon, concerned the restrictions prohibiting various editors from interacting which had been imposed by the decision. Most of the Committee has not yet responded to either request.

In response to Everyking's request to amend the Everyking 3 decision to remove the remaining sanctions against him (notably, a restriction on interacting with Phil Sandifer), arbitrator Carcharoth has proposed a set of three mutually exclusive motions, one accepting the request, one rejecting it and limiting further appeals, and one rejecting it but providing for an automatic expiration of the sanctions in two years.

A lengthy series of requests for clarification was filed by Mythdon regarding numerous clauses of the Ryulong decision, to which he was a party. In response, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion which extended the various restrictions imposed on Mythdon by the decision. Mythdon later filed another request regarding two further points in the decision.

Ncmvocalist filed a request for amendment to the Ryulong decision to move the enforcement clauses of the "conduct probation" remedy to the enforcement section. A number of arbitrators have responded that the requested change is a procedural matter, and can be made without a formal motion.

In response to Greg L's earlier request to amend the Date delinking decision to reduce the sanctions imposed on him, arbitrator Newyorkbrad has proposed a motion, applicable to several parties, which would reduce the various editing restrictions related to style and editing guidelines to apply only to topics specifically related to the linking or delinking of dates.